Thanks to Barry Rubin, C. Cantoni, Henrik, Insubria, JEH, KGS, Steen, TB, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Details are below the fold.
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September 11 Suspect Calls U.S. Trial “Inquisition”
GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) — The suspected planner of the September 11 attacks denounced the Guantanamo war crimes court as an “inquisition” and failed to persuade the U.S. military judge on Wednesday to disqualify himself as biased against Muslims.
“We are your enemy,” Khalid Sheikh Mohammed told the judge, Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann. “You are an officer in the United States armed forces … Myself and my brothers will be judged by the same armed forces that are killing our people.”
Mohammed spoke in English as he outlined objections at a pretrial hearing to Kohlmann on behalf of himself and four accused September 11 co-conspirators, who face a potential death sentence if convicted.
Mohammed accused Kohlmann of disrespecting Islam. He said the judge lacked capital-case experience and that his service from 1995 to 1997 under the officer who is now the chief prosecutor at Guantanamo means he could not give the suspects an unbiased hearing.
Mohammed also said Kohlmann’s plans to retire on April 1 could lead him to unfairly rush the case.
“I would never believe that you are capable of presiding over this case,” said Mohammed, who was acting as his own attorney. “In your eyes I am Islamic extremist.”
“We are part of an inquisition rather than a civil or military case,” he said.
Kohlmann denied the disqualification request on all grounds and said four times the defense accusations were “completely wrong.”
Summing it up, he said, “I find that I am qualified to serve as the military judge in this military commission.”
The challenge to Kohlmann came after a round of defense questioning on Tuesday that is a unique feature of military courts and the tribunals established to try terrorism suspects at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba.
| — Hat tip: JEH | [Return to headlines] |
Ayaan Hirsi Ali Files Lawsuit Over Security Costs
Ayaan Hirsi Ali wants to force the Netherlands to continue paying for her security. The Hague stopped providing payments for the former MP because she moved to the United States. However, she insists that the Dutch government promised to continue paying. The former politician has been receiving death threats for years because of her continual criticism of Islam.
In order to try and prove that the Netherlands did make promises on her security, Ms Hirsi Ali has asked a court in The Hague to hear a number of witnesses. The first, a former political assistant of hers, will be heard this week.
Her political patron, former minister Gerrit Zalm, and the former National Coordinator for Counter-Terrorism will be questioned later.
After these preliminary hearings, Ms Hirsi Ali and her lawyer will decide whether there is sufficient evidence to initiate proceedings against the Dutch state.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Climate: EU Efforts Useless if Southern Coast Doubles CO2
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, SEPTEMBER 22 — The European strategy to achieve the objectives set by the Kyoto Protocol will be useless if the southern Mediterranean coast fails to join the efforts in reducing the greenhouse gas emissions. According to a study by the European Investment bank (EIB), while the North will cut by 20% the emissions by 2020, in the same period the South will double its emissions. Thus the EIB warns that the investments in the sectors which produce the most CO2 such as industry, transport and construction must be reviewed immediately. Since March 2007, the European Union has been pursuing the goal of reducing the greenhouse gas emissions: 20% less CO2 emissions compared to 1990 by 2020 and at the same time 20% more energy produced from renewable sources compared to 2005. All this while the southern Mediterranean would increase its gas emissions by 50% by 2020, the EIB study shows. Such increase will hardly be a surprise because it is in line with the process in the past: from 1990 to 2004 the countries from the southern coast produced 58% more carbon dioxide or 20% above the average on global scale. The emissions in the North have grown by only 18% in the same period. The biggest increase was registered in the emissions linked to the use of energy. Starting from 1990, electricity and heating are the major culprits for the increase of CO2 in the southern Mediterranean (38% of all emissions), while the transport, which is linked to the level of wellbeing, makes more damage in the North where it represents the main cause for the increase in greenhouse gas emissions in the last decades (29% of all emissions). However the South is catching up in this sector too. According to the EIB report, the increase in the emissions is one of the main causes for the warming of the planet of which the Mediterranean will pay the highest price. According to UN data quoted by the EIB, in 2080 the temperature will increase by 2.2 to 5.1 degrees compared to today, while the rainfall will decrease by between 4% and 27% (while in northern Europe it will increase by 16%). The periods of drought will multiply and will be accompanied by frequent heat waves and violent floods more dangerous due to the sea level, which will rise by 35 centimetres by the end of the century. In order to make the fight against climate change more efficient, the EIB believes that it is necessary to involve the countries from the South reviewing the investments in development in the light of the new needs against pollution. ‘‘With the rapidly growing population and economy, if the investments and development strategies continue in the same rhythm as in the last 30 years, the southern Mediterranean will face a particularly high rise of the emissions,’’ the EIB report reads. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Cologne’s Speech-Killing Politico’s Reek of ‘Fascism’
by Diana West
Readers of my blog (dianawest.net) know that over this past week, as a maelstrom of buffeting economic crises has sucked the air out of the news atmosphere, I have been all-but-transfixed by events unfolding in the German city of Cologne. With the unabashed fascination of the rubbernecker, I have watched in horror, combing online foreign press reports and a few favorite blogs (Brussels Journal, Gates of Vienna, Atlas Shrugs), as local authorities yielded their charge of freedom of speech and freedom of assembly — indeed, yielded civic space and civic peace — to a lawless band of violent leftists, who, in their weekend stint of mob rule, successfully prevented a political rally against the Islamization of Europe from taking place.
What’s more, these same authorities, including the mayor of this fourth-largest German city (about 1 million people), yielded to the mob happily and with much self-congratulation. Indeed, Cologne Mayor Fritz Schramma called the episode “a victory for the city of Cologne and a victory by the democratic forces of the city.”
Schramma may well count squelching peaceful political discourse with a violent mob as a victory for his city, but there is nothing “democratic” about it, or about the “forces” responsible. This twisting, weasel-use of language, however, is only one example of the campaign of disinformation waged against reality in Cologne this past weekend.
In brief, elected officials from several different countries (Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy), politicians who campaign and win elections on the politically incorrect issue of resistance to the spread of Islamic law (Sharia), were invited to speak in Cologne.
Why Cologne? After a long and contentious battle, the city council last month narrowly approved the construction of a giant mosque complex funded by a group called the Turkish-Islamic Union to serve some portion of the city’s 120,000 Muslims. While the American take on any house of worship going up is generally one of approval based on a straightforward belief in freedom of religion, in Europe, given the heavy influx of Islamic populations, there is a political and legal dimension to such mosque construction that we just don’t recognize here. For example, Germany’s Muslim population is largely Turkish; and it is Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan who is infamous for having said in 1998, “The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers.” Such a declaration of, well, religious war from someone who is now a head of state adds the threat of conquest to any serious mosque debate.
And that’s not all. Earlier this year in Cologne, Erdogan declared before 20,000 cheering Turkish expatriates that “assimilation is a crime against humanity.” On that same trip to Germany, the Turkish leader also proposed the German formation of Turkish-language schools. What’s going on here? If Turkish assimilation is out, is Turkish colonization in? Isn’t it the duty of politicians to debate these and other transformational questions within the political process? As a crossroads of Islam and Europe, as a frontline in the colonization of Europe, Cologne becomes the logical meeting-place for such a debate.
But it wasn’t to be, not in “democratic” Cologne. As some 1,500 Europeans prepared to assemble to listen to the political opponents of Islamization make speeches last weekend, many more thousands of counter-demonstrators converged on the city specifically to deny rally supporters their right to assemble, and the politicians’ right to speak. And yes, by whatever means necessary…
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
EU Mission Supports Palestinian Police
Two years ago Brussels set aside 150 million euros to build up the Palestinian police force -a complicated and difficult process considering the circumstances on the West Bank. Around eight months ago something strange happened at an Israeli checkpoint outside the city of Beit El on the West Bank.
A Palestinian man jumped out of a car in a long queue of vehicles. He screamed at the Israeli soldiers and ran towards them. Fearing a suicide attack the Israelis opened fire. The man was killed instantly. Later it emerged that he was being transported to prison by Palestinian police. In the queue for the checkpoint, he managed to escape.
The incident is typical of the problem faced by the Palestinian police force. Israel does not allow Palestinian police officers to cross their checkpoints in uniform or carrying weapons. The arrestee was not wearing handcuffs, because there are only 70 pairs of handcuffs available to 7,000 Palestinian police officers.
Chaos
With insufficient equipment and poorly trained staff, the Palestinian police are trying to maintain law and order in the chaos of the West Bank. The police are only allowed to operate in certain parts of the region, and when it comes down to it the Israeli army is ultimately the boss. Naturally, this undermines the authority of the police among the Palestinian people.
This is the police force which is supposed to take over, should Israel ever decide to withdraw from the Palestinian territories. To help it prepare, the European Union has set aside around 150 million euros to build up the Palestinian police force. The money has been used to set up the mission EU Pol Copps (EU Police Co-ordinating Office for Palestinian Police Support). More than 50 police officers from 18 different countries have been given the task of preparing the Palestinian police to stand on their own two feet.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Islam: Communities Live Silent Revolution, Tariq Ramadan
(ANSAmed) — ROME, SEPTEMBER 24 — “I decisively affirm that the Muslim communities are still living a silent revolution (intellectual, psychological and social) which can be touched with hand.” Tariq Ramadan, in an article on Riformista with which he begins his collaboration with the newspaper edited by Antonio Polito, anticipates the topics of his latest book ‘Islam and Freedom’ which is being released these days in Italy by Einaudi. “There are already millions who are European citizens (also American, Australian, etc,): they speak the language of the country, they respect its laws and are loyal to their nation (although they could be critical on the front of political choices as any citizen could be)… the new visibility of the Muslims is not a sign of community isolation but a sign of an ever more effective integration,” he writes. “I defend the idea we have now to pass, on a religious and cultural plan, to the stage of ‘post-integration’: the success of integration consists in stop speaking about integration,” Ramadan continues. “And this is not the road taken by the politicians: involved in media and populist escalation, they, both on the right wing and on the left wing, left themselves being dragged by the passion of controversies and by the use of news which would prove that the Muslims are ‘not able to integrate’, as it was said at the time of the Italians of Switzerland or of the Poles in France in the 1960s.” (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Teachers Report Sexism Common in Swedish Schools
A new survey shows that 73 percent of Sweden’s teachers feel they’ve experienced disturbing examples of sexism while on the job.
In addition, 58 percent of the teachers surveyed said that they hadn’t received adequate training or preparation in questions related to basic values.
Every fourth teacher also reports that they witnessed situations at school relating to racism, xenophobia, sexism and/or homophobia.
The results come from a study carried out by the Sifo polling firm on behalf of the National Union of Teachers (Lärarnas riksförbund) and published in an article by union chair Metta Fjelkner and Eva Swartz, head of the Natur & Kultur foundation, in the Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper.
Sifo conducted in-depth interviews with 500 elementary and high school teachers about their views on how schools deal with issues related to basic values.
Nearly 90 percent believe their own schools aren’t especially active and nearly one in three say the leadership at their schools aren’t actively engaged in questions of basic values.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
UK Demands That EU Closes ‘Bogus Marriages’ Immigration Loophole
Britain has demanded that the European Union moves “quickly” to shut a legal loophole that gives residence rights to illegal immigrants who have entered into bogus marriages.
Liam Byrne, the Immigration Minister, teamed up with the Irish and Danish on Thursday to express “extremely strong views” on a landmark European Court of Justice ruling that boosts the rights of non-Europeans married to EU citizens to move and freely reside within Europe.
“We are crystal clear that there is a risk of injustice that flows from this judgment and that is something we are not prepared to see,” he said.
“The European Commission has to clarify, quickly, how the spirit of this Directive is to be implemented.”
July’s “Metock” judgment used a 2004 Freedom of Movement Directive to overrule an Irish law which did not allow spouses of EU citizens who are not Europeans to live in Ireland if they had not previously lived in another European country.
Officials are concerned that the ruling will open the door to illegal immigrants that enter into “sham” marriages of convenience to get the right to live in Britain.
Dermot Ahern, Irish justice minister, has identified “significant misuse” of the EU rules with “marriage patterns that are so statistically abnormal that they cannot have occurred by chance”.
“It is clear that we now have a strong incentive for marriages of convenience, opportunism or coercion as a method of cleaning the slate for an illegal migrant or failed asylum seeker,” he said.
Jacques Barrot, European Justice Commissioner, has admitted that that the EU court ruling has created a loophole for illegal immigrants.
“What we need to do is understand how serious a problem sham marriages are and then to see if we need new guidelines,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Henrik | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnia: Muslim Leader’s UN Speech Sparks Controversy
New York, 24 Sept. (AKI) — A Muslim member of Bosnia’s rotating presidency has provoked a controversy after demanding the abolition of the Serb entity, Republika Srpska, and correcting what he called ‘war errors’, during his speech before the United Nations.
Haris Silajdzic, who currently chairs Bosnia’s three-man rotating state presidency, told the General Assembly on Tuesday that the RS was “created by genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina”.
Silajdzic also added that the “UN should correct the errors made during the war in Bosnia and send a clear message that the genocide will not be rewarded”.
The statement provoked immediate condemnation by Bosnian Serb leaders who called for an emergency meeting of the RS Parliament to take a position on Silajdzic’s speech.
The session was set for 7 October, but RS opposition parties said it was an intolerably late date.
According to the Dayton peace accords which ended the 1992-1995 civil war, Bosnia was divided into two entities, the RS and a Muslim-Croat Federation with most state prerogatives.
But majority Muslims and the international community have been pushing for the abolition of entities and the creation of a strong central government.
RS Prime Minister Milorad Dodik said Silajdzic’s speech represented his own views, and not those of the presidency, comprising Muslim, Serb and Croat representatives.
Dodik accused Silajdzic of “trying to devalue any attempts of a consensus in Bosnia-Herzegovina”, saying Muslim political parties have started “an orchestrated campaign to destroy the Dayton agreement and the RS”.
Silajdzic has spearheaded the campaign since the International Court of Justice ruled last year that Bosnian Serb forces committed genocide in the eastern town of Srebrenica in July 1995, when up to 8,000 Muslims were killed.
Dodik responded that Bosnian Serbs would not accept the abolition of the RS or revision of the Dayton accords, but would sooner resort to a referendum on independence.
Silajdzic, on the other hand, said that the present situation amounted to “ethnic apartheid in Bosnia-Herzegovina” and was intolerable.
The high representative of the international community in Bosnia, Miroslav Lajcak, criticised Bosnian political leaders of tending only to their parties’ interests, instead of those of the state.
“I have seen only twice in my life the atmosphere like the one between Sarajevo and Banja Luka (RS’s capital),” said the Slovak diplomat.
“The first time it was in relations between Bratislava and Prague, and the second between Belgrade and Podgorica,” Lajcak said, referring to the separation of the Czech Republic and Slovakia and Serbia and Montenegro.
“We all know how it ended,” Lajcak concluded.
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
Clashes End Bosnia’s First-Ever Gay Festival
Dozens of Muslim protesters attacked participants of Bosnia’s first-ever gay rights festival in Sarajevo on Wednesday, injuring at least two journalists and one police officer.
The scuffle broke out at the end of the opening ceremony of the four-day festival in front of the Academy of Fine Arts in downtown Sarajevo.
Police said at least eight people were injured when attackers dragged some people from vehicles and beat others in the street. A policeman was also injured.
Sarajevo hospital said six people were admitted with head wounds and that a Danish visitor was the most seriously hurt.
“When I was getting out of the academy, I was suddenly struck in the back,” Pedja Kojovic, a local journalist, told reporters. “Three other people then came running and beat me up.”
Emir Imamovic, a journalist who tried to help Kojovic, was severely beaten, police said.
A heavy police deployment prevented more violence from spoiling the event, with a security cordon keeping protestors shouting “kill the gays” and “Allahu Akbar” (a Muslim expression meaning God is Greatest) at bay.
About 50 people participated in the opening day of the festival, which had already prompted fears of violence.
Islamic media campaigned this month against the organization of the festival during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and anonymous death threats were made against its organizers and media that supported it.
Organizers said the timing of the indoor festival of art, film and workshops about sexual minorities was coincidental.
Many, including members of various ethnic political parties, have declared homosexuality an illness and labeled the behavior deviant.
Sarajevo, known for centuries for the peaceful coexistence of its Muslims, Christians and Jews, became a majority Muslim city after the 1992-95 war.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
EU-Serbia: Ready for Unilateral Application of ASA, Dacic
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, SEPTEMBER 24 — Serbia is ready to apply unilaterally the first points of the Agreement of Association and Stabilisation (ASA) signed with the European Union in April, but still frozen due to the veto of the Netherlands within the Council. The announcement was made today by the Serbian Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Ivica Dacic, after the meeting with the Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn. “Serbia has considered the hypothesis of applying what envisaged by ASA and this is what we talked about today with the Commissioner”, Dacic said. Now a technical evaluation is needed, the Minister explained, to verify the real possibility to proceed unilaterally. Rehn assured that if Serbia took such a step, “it would do a useful thing for its citizens and the EU would take into account these efforts”. The EU, Rehn explained, is working to make progress on the liberalisation of visas, which will allow the Serbian citizens to move freely in the 27 member countries. “The Interior Ministers are focusing on reaching an agreement on the visas, but Serbia must adopt as soon as possible biometric passports”, Rehn specified. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Slovenia: Elections, Pahor’s New Left Wins
(ANSAmed) — LJUBLJANA, SEPTEMBER 22 — The new left wing led by Borut Pahor, has won yesterday’s elections in Slovenia, although by a slight margin, defeating the centre-right formation of outgoing Prime Minister Janez Jansa. The outcome of yesterday’s vote was the most uncertain in the history of Slovenia since its independence was proclaimed in 1991, and now a period of uncertainty is expected, although the centre-left wing has a political advantage due to the bigger possibility to build a coalition capable of obtaining the confidence of the new parliament in Ljubljana. The formation of the Social Democrat Borut Pahor, member of the European Parliament, won 30.49 percent of the votes, obtaining 29 seats in the 90-member chamber, with 99 percent of votes counted. Outgoing Prime Minister Janez Jansa, leader of the centre-right wing, won 29.32 percent, or 28 seats in Sloveniàs parliament. “This is the result of our moderate programme,” Pahor said, thanking Slovenians “for tripling the results of the party compared to four years ago”. In fact, Pahor’s Social Democrats (SD) always was the second or third party in the centre-left coalitions which, led by the Liberal Democrats (LDS) of the “fathers of Slovenian independence”, Milan Kucan and Janez Drnovsek, dominated the political scene in Ljubljana between 1990 and 2004. Now the roles seem to have changed and, in case there are no stage tricks, there will be a new left wing, moderate and social democratic, patiently built by Pahor, in which the old Liberals will be the minority partners. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Young Men Attack Gay Festival in Bosnia
SARAJEVO, Sept 24 (Reuters) — Bosnian police clashed on Wednesday with young men attacking the country’s first gay festival in Sarajevo.
Police said at least eight people were injured when attackers dragged some people from vehicles and beat others in the street. A policeman was also injured.
Sarajevo hospital said six people were admitted with head wounds and that a Danish visitor was the most seriously hurt.
Officers pushed dozens of young men away from the Academy of Fine Arts where about the same number of visitors attended the opening of the four-day Queer Festival.
Islamic media campaigned this month against the organisation of the festival during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and anonymous death threats were made against its organisers and media that supported it.
Organisers said the timing of the indoor festival of art, film and workshops about sexual minorities was coincidental.
In Bosnia, as in most countries in the Balkans, there is zero tolerance for homosexuals.
The young men, with hoods hiding their faces and some with long beards, yelled offensive words and also Allahu akbar (God is Greatest). Police said one attacker was detained.
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria: US Report, Religious Freedom Guaranteed, Minister
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, SEPTEMBER 23 — In Algeria “there is no restriction, the freedom of religion is guaranteed”, Algeria’s Minister for Religious Affairs, Bouabdellah Ghlamallah, said, commenting on a report published several days ago by the U.S. Department of State, regarding the waning religious freedom in Algeria, China, Jordan and Egypt. “These are lies aimed at damaging Algeriàs image,” Ghlamallah said at the opening ceremony of the 5th International competition for Koran chanting and interpretation, attended by representatives of more than 40 countries. “Algeria has always accepted and will always accept non Muslims who live in peace and without discriminations,” the minister added. “I assure Christians, both foreigners and Algerian nationals, that their religious freedom is guaranteed,” he said. The U.S. report refers in particular to the law against proselytising adopted in February which envisages between two and five years of prison and fines of up to 10,000 euro for those who “try to convert a Muslim to another religion by forcing them or using other means”. Numerous converts, especially Evangelists, have been tried in the past year on accusations of proselytising. “The USA refuses to let Islamic preachers enter its territory. How can we tolerate the evangelisation of Algerians when Evangelists belong to sects and even Catholics and Protestants distance themselves from them?,” Ghlamallah said. (ANSAmed).
2008-09-23 13:26
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: After Killer Landslide, Survivors Rage Explodes
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, SEPTEMBER 24 — Two weeks after the huge landslide which hit the district of Doweiga, in the suburbs of Cairo, the government decision to suspend the search for missing people triggered the explosion of the survivors’ rage. Amidst the tumbledown dusty streets of the shanty town of Manshiyet Nasser (under the administration of Doweiga) — hit on September 6 by at least eight huge stones, some of which up to 30 m long — it is impossible to walk, while the smell of badly decomposed bodies makes it difficult to breathe. According to Egyptian weekly Al-Ahram Hebdo, the established victims of the tragedy are reportedly 101, while tens of bodies are still buried under the rubble. Healthcare Minister Hatem Al-Gabali warned of the high risk of epidemics, particularly cholera, and disinfectants have reportedly been sprayed on the whole area. Despite the decision of the authorities to evacuate the area, many refused to abandon their loved ones under the rubble. “We want to bury with dignity our loved ones”, a woman, who has lost the entire family, shouted, while the representatives of the local administration visiting the area of the tragedy were met only by stones and insults to the government, accused of negligence and corruption. Negligence, many are saying, because the residents of the district had been informing the authorities for the past year about the continuous fall of stones. The few bulldozers supplied by the government are trying in vain to move the stones which fell from the mountain of Moqattam, which towers over the shanty town. “These stones weigh thousands of tons and it is difficult to move them without sophisticated equipment which the government should provide. Without adequate tools, it might take up to two months to clear the area, while the risk of new landslides is constantly growing”, Abdallah Abdel-Ghani, governor of the municipality of Manshiyet Nasser, explained. In order to establish the exact number of victims and shanty towns crushed by the landslide the government has asked to the Higher Education Ministry to request the images of the U.S. satellite Iconos. The municipality of Doweiga, in fact, is not able to specify the number of destroyed houses, since a real census of the houses does not exist; the houses were built in the district which grew chaotically after the defeat in the Arab-Israeli war of 1967, when many craftsmen left the capital. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Muslim Women’s Body Stranded in Christan Cemetery
Tunis, 25 Sept. (AKI) — A court has refused to consider a request from the family of a Muslim woman buried in a Christian cemetery in Sfax to move her body to a Muslim cemetery.
The court ruled that the request was beyond its jurisdiction, according to unnamed sources quoted by local media on Thursday.
The family applied to the court after the local council in the coastal city rejected their request.
The woman had a foreign surname, her parents were Christian, and there was no evidence she had converted to Islam, the local council argued.
The woman, whose first name was Assia was baptised a Christian but in 1955 converted to Islam when she married a Muslim, her family’s lawyer said.
Assia’s marriage certificate states her new religion but the Sfax City Council said this did not have the legal value of the certificate that Tunisian muftis (Islamic scholars) issue to Muslims.
The case breaks new legal and religious ground and is likely to spark an increasingly heated debate in Tunisia, according to observers.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Israel: Government to Create New ‘Anti-Jihad’ Authority
Jerusalem, 25 Sept. (AKI) — The Israeli government has decided to set up a new authority to tackle the threat to national security posed by Islamist terror groups, Israel Radio reports.
The authority will be headed by the Israeli Defence Ministry’s anti-terrorism chief. Its members will include the chiefs of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency and its domestic spy service Shin Bet, as well as its security forces.
The authority’s purpose is to provide assistance and coordination between the various agencies. It will meet when required and at least twice a month.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
The Evolution of Israeli Media
Eytan Gilboa
This article surveys and analyzes recent revolutionary and evolutionary transformations in the Israeli media. It examines trends both in the traditional media—newspapers, television, and radio—and the new media—internet. The article provides data and analysis on media history, type, political and ideological orientation, ownership, regulation, funding, and popularity. It explores developments in the national and the local print media and in public and commercial television and radio networks. Special attention is given to the exponential growth in penetration and utilization of the internet. The article also examines past and current distribution of advertising revenues among the various media. The concluding section presents a balanced assessment of achievements and weaknesses in the Israeli media.
INTRODUCTION
Since the late 1980s, Israeli media has undergone a complete transformation. Most of the political and ideological party newspapers disappeared, and the single public television channel has lost substantial audiences to new commercial television channels and to cable and satellite services. New media has stormed the country, and the ratio of Israeli households connected to the internet is one of the highest in the world. The media in Israel predated the official establishment of the state in 1948. Hebrew newspapers were an integral part of the Jewish revival in the land of Israel, beginning in the mid—nineteenth century. The first Hebrew newspapers were established in Jerusalem in 1863. Ha’aretz (The Land), one of the leading existing daily newspapers, was founded in 1918. The most popular daily today, Yediot Aharonot (Latest News), was established in 1939. Radio service in Hebrew began in 1936.[1]
, the Israeli media includes four general daily newspapers, three daily financial newspapers, hundreds of local papers and magazines, three national television channels, popular cable and satellite services, two public radio networks, 14 regional radio stations, and thousands of websites and portals. This diversified media world, especially in broadcasting and new media, has emerged only since the late 1980s, due to technological, economic, and political changes. Until the early 1990s, there was only one public television channel and two public radio networks. The political establishment resisted efforts to open up the electronic media market, because it exercised some political control and influence over the institutions regulating and operating television and radio broadcasts.[2] The revolution in communications technologies, the ability to broadcast—often live—from almost every place in the world to almost any other place, and the internet created global news networks, consumers, and economic interests. Accompanied by unprecedented prosperity in the Israeli economy, the communications revolution created enormous pressure on the government to expand the electronic media through privately owned commercial networks.
This article provides basic information on the Israeli media and traces fundamental transformations both in the traditional and new media. It first examines turning points in the print media, and then presents and analyzes changes in the electronic media, including television and radio. Data on exposure to newspapers and ratings of television programs and radio networks is also provided. The following section summarizes major trends in the new media. Most media channels rely on advertising revenues; the next section presents significant recent changes in the distribution of allocations. The last section includes a balanced assessment of achievements and weaknesses in the Israeli media…
| — Hat tip: Barry Rubin | [Return to headlines] |
Dubai Beach Sex Trial Reflects Cultural Divide
A recent beach sex trial in Dubai has exposed a growing cultural divide between native Muslims and Western residents seeking fun in the sun.
The story of a British pair facing possible jail terms on charges of having drunken sex on the beach made headlines around the world, but in Dubai, reports are frequent of hapless foreigners falling foul of local laws that strictly control drinking and ban homosexuality or kissing in public.
The British couple arrested on the beach had met at one of the many champagne brunches held in Dubai’s top hotels. They now face possible jail terms when they return to court for the next hearing on Oct. 7.
Dubai’s foreign population has expanded rapidly in recent years, dwarfing the native population, as the Gulf Arab trade and tourism hub tries to put itself on the international map with a promise of tax-free earnings and year-round sunshine.
But balancing its Muslim identity in a deeply conservative Gulf Arab region with the lifestyles of expatriates who comprise over 90 percent of its population is no mean feat.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Iran: ‘Barbie’ Doll Beats Islamic ‘Sara’
Tehran, 25 Sept. (AKI) — Iranian children seem to prefer the popular western dolls, Barbie and Ken, rather than the Islamic Dara and Sara dolls, that were created to instill Islamic values.
“This data is a clear sign of a failed policy adopted by the government with the aim of stopping the western cultural invasion,” said website ‘Tabnak’, which is close to Mohsen Rezaii, former commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
The Dara and Sara dolls are modestly dressed and wear Islamic garments, but have failed to make a name for themselves unlike their ‘western’ counterparts, Barbie and Ken, which can be found in one out of every two Iranian children’s rucksacks and notebooks, claimed Tabnak.
Dara and Sara were marketed by the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults, a government agency with links to the Ministry of Education.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Jordan Receives First Shipment of Iraqi Oil
(ANSAmed) — AMMAN, SEPTEMBER 23 — Jordan has received the first shipment of Iraqi oil since the start of the 2003 war after it was transported by land from the war torn country, an official said on Tuesday. Nearly 18,500 barrels have arrived at the land borders between Jordan and Itaq, Khaldoun Quteishat, minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, was quoted by the official news agency, Petra. Jordan used to heavily rely on fuel from Iraq, receiving half of its needs for free and the other half at discount rates. Observers, however say the arrival of the shipment is symbolic as Baghdad attempts to publicise badly needed notion that the country is secure after five years of war. Diplomats say the oil is being sent to Jordan as a reward for a recent visit by King Abdullah to Baghdad last month, the first for an Arab leader since Saddam Hussein regime collapsed. Earlier this month, Jordan announced it will appoint an ambassador in Baghdad, almost four years after a suicide attack on its embassy in Mansour by al Qaedah, in which tens were killed and injured. Jordan is eager to improve its ties with Iraq on hope improving economic ties with the giant oil producers. (ANSAmed).
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Transsexual Turkish Singer Takes on the Army
A popular Turkish transsexual singer who infuriated the country’s powerful armed forces by questioning a military campaign against Kurdish separatists told a court on Wednesday she would rather die than be silent.
Bulent Ersoy is on trial on charges of “turning the people against military service” in a case that has raised concerns about free speech in the European Union candidate, where criticizing the armed forces is taboo.
Ersoy, one of Turkey’s most famous singers, caused a stir in February by saying that were she able to give birth to a son she would not allow him to fight in neighboring Iraq, where the military had launched operations against Kurdish rebels.
Dressed in white flowing linen, golden gem-studded sandals and matching accessories, the flamboyant Ersoy struck a defiant tone at the court in Istanbul.
“I spoke completely on behalf of humanity. I will continue to speak and say the same things even if they execute me,” she was quoted as telling the judge by state-run Anatolian news agency.
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Turkey: Mediz Campaigns to End Media Gender Discrimination
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, SEPTEMBER 22 — The Women’s Media Watch Group (MEDIZ), which is fighting to end sexism in the Turkish media, has published a book suggesting an organized struggle for the protection and enhancing of women’s rights in the Turkish media. MEDIZ, which was established in 2003 by 23 women’s organizations and has the sponsorship of the EU, has gathered its experiences, campaigns, conference papers and research in its book, titled “End to Sexism in Media,” which is available in both in English and Turkish. The book, as Today’s Zaman reports, points out that violence and discrimination toward women and the way these subjects are treated in the media are not only the issue of women but of society. MEDIZ suggests that media institutions and those working in the field should treat the violation of women’s rights as a social issue and engage in responsible reporting in order to prevent such violations. According to MEDIZ, the media are violating women’s rights in a variety of ways, such as using sexist language, invading women’s personal lives, revealing the identities of women who have been assaulted in sexual or violent crimes, making sexist judgments, questioning the morality and lifestyle of women assaulted in sex crimes, portraying women only as sex symbols and giving little time to stories on women. (ANSAmed).
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Despite Curfew a Hundred Homes and Two Churches Set on Fire Overnight in Orissa
Christians are scared of night-time attacks. Radical Hindus attack police, guilty in their eyes of jailing some of their fellow co-religionists involved in violence in past days. Christians forced to reconvert are also forced to burn churches and homes of other Christians. Terrorism sponsored by the state of Orissa comes in for harsh criticism.
Bhubaneshwar (AsiaNews) — About a hundred homes and some churches have been damaged and burnt last night in the district of Kandhamal (Orissa), where a wave of anti-Christian violence is into its second month with no end in sight. Despite police deployment and the arrival of special forces the rampage of radical Hindus bent on destroying all Christian institutions and riding the state of all its Christians has continued unabated. Even the curfew that was imposed on nine areas in the district has not stopped Hindu fundamentalists from destroying 30 homes and a church in the Sikacheta village; 20 homes in Telenga; and 55 homes and another church in Beheragaon.
Radical Hindu groups are demanding the release of some of their members jailed for their role in recent violence. And in order to get what they want they have attacked some police stations and blocked roads with trees to hamper police operations.
Under the circumstances Christians are truly scared that their isolation could facilitate further attacks.
Hindu fundamentalists claim that they are acting to stop conversions to Christianity by fraudulent means, including bribery.
Out in the villages they have threatened Christian converts with death and the destruction of their homes if they do not re-convert to Hinduism.
A source in Kandhamal district told AsiaNews that in one village all but six Christian families “surrendered,” i.e. reconverted, and were forced, as a token of their surrender, to torch the chapels and homes of other Christians.
Abraham Mathai, deputy chairman of the Maharashtra Minorities Commission, has called for the state of Orissa to be placed under direct presidential rule.
“The violence in Kandhamal has continued for 45 days now, unabated and unhindered by the state machinery,” he said in a statement released today. “Should we proclaim this State complicit with or a sponsor of mob terror?”
In his view “with an increase [in] anarchy and an impotent and dysfunctional State Government, the only way to contain this situation is to invoke Article 356 and dismiss the Orissa Government and hand over the administration to the army . . . . The inaction of the Orissa State Government to contain the violence thus far has only emboldened these communal forces to carry out similar attacks in other states viz. Karnataka, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, etc.”
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Hindu Radicals Set Fire to Jabalpur Cathedral, Threaten New Attacks in Madhya Pradesh
Dharm Raksha Sena groups dare parish priest to stop their action. More destruction is planned. Violence is tied to BJP election campaign. Gathering is to take place tomorrow, bringing Christians, Muslims, Sikhs and moderate Hindus together in Vijayawada (Andhra Pradesh).
Bhopal (AsiaNews) — A group of Hindu extremists have set fire to Jabalpur’s Sts Peter and Paul Cathedral. Mgr Gerald Almeida, bishop of the diocese of Jabalpur, said he received threats announcing more attacks.
The attack against the cathedral occurred yesterday around 8.15 pm. Eyewitnesses said they saw three people fleeing the church area on motorbikes at high speed. After that they eventually realised that the building was burning. The fire destroyed the altar, the statues of Sts Peter and Paul, a Bible, missals, crosses and other precious holy items.
This is the third time in two weeks that a church has been set on fire in Madhya Pradesh. The other incidents took place in Ratlam and Indore district. A few days ago a convent of Carmelite nuns was attacked in Banduha.
In these cases police blamed Christians for the attacks even though all the evidence suggests that they are part of a wider anti-Christian campaign led by Hindu extremists that began in Orissa and that is now spreading to other Indian states.
For Fr Davis George, principal of the St. Aloysius College, the Hindu fundamentalist origin of these attacks is confirmed by the fact that “in all these cases members of the Dharm Raksha Sena were involved. Led by Yogesh Agrwal, the members of this group introduced themselves yesterday morning to Father Rocky, the cathedral’s parish priest, and threatened to burn to church, daring him to stop them, if he could.”
As soon as news of the fire spread, at least 3,000 faithful gathered in and around the church, demanding justice, blocking downtown streets.
According to Marko Anthony, joint secretary of the Madhya Pradesh Joint Christian Forum (Madhya Pradesh Isai Mahasang), the “police knows the culprits, but is protecting them. We shall not allow all this.”
Some faithful said that members of the youth wing of this Hindu extremist group came to the cathedral on 31 August to burn the Pope in effigy. Following this incident the local government deployed police agents around churches and convents.
Jabalpur’s bishop, Mgr Gerald Almeida, said he received threats yesterday morning in which extremists vowed to attack other churches. Hence the diocese has decided to close all its institutions.
Some Christians have pointed out that the cathedral attack occurred on the eve of the visit to Jabalpur by Madhya Pradesh’s Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan who has just started his election campaign (Janashirvad Yatra). Shivraj is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the main party of Hindu extremism.
For the Madhya Pradesh Joint Christian Forum the ongoing violence is designed to reunify all nationalist-leaning (Hindutva) groups who want to rid India of every non Hindu minority, Christians and Muslims included.
Prof Joseph D’Souza, president of the All Indian Christian Council, wrote to the president of India as well as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, demanding that Sangh Parivar groups behind the violence like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Rashtriya Swayam Sangh and Bajrang Dal be declared “terrorist.”
Tomorrow some 25,000 people are expected to meet in Vijayawada (Andhra Pradesh) in protest against the violence.
In addition to Catholics and Protestants, Muslims, Sikh, moderate Hindus and Buddhists are expected to take part.
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India: Fresh Attacks Reported on Churches in South
Bangalore, 19 Sept. (AKI) — Two more churches were damaged in Karnataka on Friday, as the government put the state on alert after 20 such attacks since last Sunday.
In the coastal city of Mangalore, police said unidentified persons smashed a glass pane surrounding a statue of the Infant Jesus outside the compound of a church before escaping aboard a motorbike, the Press Trust of India news agency claimed ..
Mangalore has been the epicentre of the attacks against churches and clergymen in Karnataka, where Hindu radicals have gone on the rampage, claiming that their brethren are being illegally converted to Christianity in the area
Outside the state capital, Bangalore, a church was on Friday pelted with stones and some of its window panes were broken in the attack, the PTI reported.
The state government has ordered an “impartial enquiry” into the attacks on churches, which is expected to be completed in around two months.
The past few weeks have seen anti-Christian violence in the eastern state of Orissa, where 20 people, mainly Christians, were killed by mobs after a local Hindu religious leader was shot dead.
An anti-Christian attack also occurred late on Thursday in Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh state, Indian bishop John Barwa told Adnkronos Interational (AKI).
“The Secretary of the local Catholic Diocese said that intruders broke into the Cathedral and set fire to parts of the church,” Barwa said.
The attack sparked a protest by 3,000 local Christians, he said.
India is officially secular but most of its one billion-plus citizens are Hindu. Christians make up about 2.5 percent of the population and Muslims, 13.4 percent.
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Immigration: Spain; TV Campaign Restores Image of Romanians
(By Paola Del Vecchio) (ANSAmed) — MADRID, SEPTEMBER 24 — How to clean up the image of the Romanian immigrants from the negative cliches attributed to them? The Romanian government has thought about it and decided, through its embassy to Madrid, to launch in Spain an advertising campaign with spots on the national and local television channels in primetime, and on the pages of the major daily newspapers showing the good face of the Romanians, who are presented as perfectly integrated workers. Under the slogan “Hola, soy rumeno” (“Hi, I’m a Rumanian”), the main figures of the campaign are Rumanian farmer, nurse and hotel owner, who work side by side with Spaniards and with an attitude of absolute reliability and closeness they say: “Together we make a great team”. The advertisement spots, developed by Saatchi&Saatchi, have the task of cleaning the collective image from the negative prejudices characteristic for the Eastern European community whose members are often associated with criminal activities or begging. The Romanians are the largest foreign community in Spain with 700,000 people out of the total 2.2 million foreigners living in Spain. “We want to show their true image and correct the stereotypes that have nothing to do with reality,” Romanian ambassador to Madrid, Maria Ligor, said while presenting the initiative to the media. The campaign director from Saachi&Saachi, Felipe San Juan, admitted that in Spain “there is a certain atmosphere of economic uncertainty that makes so the first ones to be put up for discussion are the immigrants mostly through violent messages by the media of which yet another proof is the latest news coming from Italy”. “We have two trusted people who have worked with us for ten years,” a Spanish farmer says in one of the spots. “Liliana and George know our farm better than we do.” “Hi, my name is Germana and I have worked for years with Anna Mazo in an emergency unit, together we are a great team,” assures a Spanish nurse, while her Romanian colleague gives first aid to a traffic accident victim in the ambulance. And also: “Florin Iancu is the one who welcomes you in Spain,” says a voice in the background while images of a Romanian hotel director are shown on the screen. Film director and actor Carlos Iglesias, who has shot a documentary on the campaign, explains that he wanted to show that “the Romanians living in Spain have needs and ambitions similar to those of the Spanish emigrants forced to move to Germany, France and Switzerland in the past century”. In fact the spots’ messages insist on the cultural similarities, the closeness and the existing links between the two cultures. But will the campaign be enough in eradicating the mistrust surrounding in general the Eastern European community? It is the desire of the Romanian government, given the fact that especially in a period of economic crisis the decision whether to revoke or not the two-year moratorium imposed by the Spanish government on Romanians and Bulgarians banning them from working in the country without a residence permit, partially depends on the campaign too. The moratorium expires on January 1, 2009. (ANSAmed).
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Immigration: French Ship Rescues Barge South of Lampedusa
(ANSAmed) — LAMPEDUSA (AGRIGENTO), SEPTEMBER 24 — A barge with 65 immigrants aboard, including 13 women, was rescued during the night 40 miles south of Lampedusa by a French military ship carrying out a Mediterranean patrol operation within the European Union’s Frontex operation. The non-EU citizens, who arrived at the port around 0430 local time, have already been transferred to the island’s centre for first reception. For some days in Lampedusa landings of migrants had not been registered, also due to the bad weather conditions which were hindering the crossings. (ANSAmed).
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Monty Python’s Life of Brian Can Finally be Shown in Torbay
Officials at Torbay Council in Devon gave the controversial Monty Python’s Flying Circus movie an X-rating when it was released in 1980.
The X-rated certificate effectively banned the film from all the cinemas in its villages and towns including Torquay, Paignton and Brixham.
The filmed prompted outrage from religious groups across the country who accused it of blasphemy and it was banned by 39 local authorities.
But Torbay Council has now lifted X rating 28 years later — after residents in the area voted it the ‘funniest film of all time’ in an on-line poll.
The film will now be shown at the English Riviera International Comedy Film Festival after the council sought legal advice to make the ruling void.
It will be screened at The Spanish Barn cinema — a former tithe barn which lies in the grounds of Torre Abbey, a converted monastery in Torquay.
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Human Rights: Turkey Sentenced in Strasbourg
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, SEPTEMBER 24 — The Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights ruled — with six votes to one — that Turkey has violated the freedom of expression by illegally sentencing Turkish journalist Sakine Aktan over an article criticising the Turkish state and ordered Turkey to pay the journalist 1,500 euro in moral damages. According to the court, the article did not promote neither the use of violence, nor armed resistance, nor hatred, as the Istanbul Security Court ruled sentencing Aktan twice (in 2001 and in 2004) to one year and eight months of imprisonment, and to a fine. After the enforcement of the new penal code, the case was reopened and the journalist was acquitted in August 2007, but the procedure is still underway because the prosecution appealed the acquittal. (ANSAmed).
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‘Messenger of Allah Unites US’ Campaign Forms ‘International Legal Committee’ to Defend Islam
AMMAN- The ‘Messenger of Allah Unites Us’ campaign announced that it has formed an ‘International Legal Committee’ with the aim of activating and developing the legal means for criminalizing the slandering of Islam and Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).
The decision to form the committee was made during a meeting of the campaign’s Central Committee held last Sunday at Fact International’s (FI) Head Office.
During the meeting, which was attended by representatives of the faculties of law from the Jordanian government and private universities, the Central Committee completed the administrative framework to form the ‘International Legal Committee’ and identified its objectives and its future action plan.
The Committee’s efforts will center on discussing the most effective legal methods, at Arab and international levels, to criminalize those who derogate Islam and Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).
Legal expert, Dr. Ghassan Al Jundi from the University of Jordan, will head the Committee. The Committee includes, in its membership, Dr. Mohammad Al Mosa from Al Zaytunah University, Dr. Sabri Theyabat from Philadelphia University, Dr. Ahmed Al Zu’bi from the Amman Private University, Dr. Yasser Yusuf Al Khalaileh and Dr. Ahmed Khaldun Al Dhaher from the Amman Arabic University for Higher Studies.
Members of the campaign’s Central Committee, lawyers Tareq Hawamdeh and Osama Al Bitar, were appointed assistants to the President of the International Legal Committee.
Dr. Zakaria Al Sheikh, President of the ‘Messenger of Allah Unites Us’ campaign, said the formation of the committee “comes within the context of the campaign’s strategic objective which was announced since the launch of the campaign and seeks to enact an international convention that criminalizes the slandering of the Islamic religion and Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).”
“Every possible effort will be exerted to activate this convention at Arab and International levels,” Sheikh said in remarks to FI.
He added that the international committee is still in its ‘preparatory stage.’
“It will include in its membership several legal experts from around the world to establish, at a later stage, an international legal umbrella to fend off all crimes of the vilification of Islam and Prophet Mohammad (PBUH),” he said.
Sheikh paid tribute to the faculties of law at Jordanian universities for their cooperation and solidarity with the campaign.
“Defending Islam and Prophet Mohammad is a collective responsibility. It is the duty of every Muslim,” he said.
The ‘Messenger of Allah Unites Us’ campaign has already submitted a lawsuit to the Jordanian court against the extremist Dutch parliament member Geert Wilders, the producer of the ‘Fitnah’ film which depicts Islam as a faith of violence and terrorism and calls for the tearing up of pages from the Holy Qura’an. The campaign also filed a similar lawsuit against the Danish cartoonist, Kurt Westergaard, and Danish newspapers for publishing drawings demeaning Islam and Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).
The lawsuits are now being studied by Amman’s Prosecutor General, Dr. Hassan Al Abdallat, who has already subpoenaed the cartoonist and other Danish editors involved in this issue.
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Siné: ‘Satire Has to be Iconoclastic’
Siné, born Maurice Sinet in 1928, is a French cartoonist and caricaturist, who worked for national satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, which was already in the news for having published the infamous cartoons of the prophet Mohammed from the Danish daily Jylladen-Posten. The eighty-year-old helped the paper hit the headlines again on 5 July when he caricutarised Jean Sarkozy after he married Jewish heiress Jessica Sebaoun Darty; would the catholic son of the French president Nicolas be converting to Judaism? Anti-semitism complaints flooded in, and editor Philippe Val sacked Siné. On 10 September he created his own weekly, Siné Hebdo, in a suburb of Paris.
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Syria: EU Concerned With the Human Rights Situation
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, SEPTEMBER 22 — The EU has expressed its concern with the situation regarding human rights and fundamental freedoms in Syria, in a written statement released by the French EU Council Presidency. The EU condemns “the arbitrary arrests carried out recently”, it says it is “deeply troubled by the restrictions on freedom of expression” and calls on Damascus to “unconditionally release the persons detained arbitrarily”. The EU also reiterates its wish for the right of all defendants to a fair trial to be safeguarded, in accordance with international human rights standards and principles. The European Union is also deeply troubled by the restrictions on freedom of expression, and in particular the closing down of a large number of internet sites.(ANSAmed).
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