Category Archives: Fascism

Evicted under the World Bank’s Watch

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Forcible demolition of 34 Watta homes when court case was ongoing, September 2014. Photograph by Selvaraj Rajasegar.

“We were removed from our homes by force. The Army officers told us that they will bulldoze our houses whether we move out or not. They told us that we can either take these apartments or live on the street”.

via Evicted under the World Bank’s Watch.

Muslim Frenchwomen Struggle With Discrimination as Bans on Veils Expand – NYTimes.com

So far, France has passed two laws, one in 2004 banning veils in public elementary and secondary schools, and another, enacted in 2011, banning full face veils, which are worn by only a tiny portion of the population.

But observant Muslim women in France, whose head coverings can vary from head scarves tied loosely under the chin to tightly fitted caps and wimple-like scarves that hide every strand of hair, say the constant talk of new laws has made them targets of abuse, from being spat at to having their veils pulled or being pushed when they walk on the streets.

In some towns, mothers wearing head scarves have been prevented from picking up their children from school or from chaperoning class outings. One major discount store has been accused of routinely searching veiled customers.

Some women have even been violently attacked. In Toulouse recently, a pregnant mother wearing a head scarf had to be hospitalized after being beaten on the street by a young man who called her a “dirty Muslim.”

Statistics collected by the National Observatory Against Islamophobia, a watchdog group, show that in the last two years 80 percent of the anti-Muslim acts involving violence and assault were directed at women, most of them veiled.

via Muslim Frenchwomen Struggle With Discrimination as Bans on Veils Expand – NYTimes.com.

Controversial (fascist) population control bill becomes law in Myanmar

Myanmar’s president has signed off on a law that says couples must space their children 36 months apart. This is the first of four “race and religious protection” laws proposed by Buddhist nationalists.

“Takes lots of gall for these folks to claim to be Buddhists.”

via Controversial population control bill becomes law in Myanmar.

A Teachers’ Day Protest in Mexico City Brings an Army of Police into the Streets

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It’s Teachers’ Day. And in Mexico the teachers have been some of the most militant and vocal forces against privatization, government corruption, police repression and the failed drug war.

via A Teachers’ Day Protest in Mexico City Brings an Army of Police into the Streets.

League of the South Chieftain Talks ‘Race War’ | Hatewatch

“We Southern nationalists do not want a race war (or any sort of war). But if one is forced on us, we’ll participate,” wrote Hill on the LOS website. “Southern whites are geared up and armed to the teeth.”

Such statements may come as a shock, given the fact that the LOS has spent much of the last two years attempting to promote its message to “regular” southerners through the use of mainstream, conservative messaging on issues such as “traditional marriage” and the “demographic displacement of southerners.” Of course, that was never a very honest presentation. After all, Hill is the same man who at a Georgia LOS meeting in 2011 urged his constituents to begin stocking up on AK-47s, hollow-point bullets, and, most remarkably, tools to derail trains.

via League of the South Chieftain Talks ‘Race War’ | Hatewatch.

Ukip candidate suspended for threatening to ‘put a bullet in’ Tory rival | Politics | The Guardian

In the footage, Blay is heard to express his frustration with suggestions that Jayawardena has a bright political career ahead of him and especially at the possibility that he could rise to be Britain’s first prime minister of Asian descent.

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“If he is, I will personally put a bullet between his eyes,” says Blay. “If this lad turns up to be our prime minister, I will personally put a bullet in him. That’s how strong I feel about it.

via Ukip candidate suspended for threatening to ‘put a bullet in’ Tory rival | Politics | The Guardian.

Settlers Raise Israeli Flag over Hebron’s Al-Ibrahimi Mosque

Israeli settlers raised the Israeli flag on the walls and over the rooftop of al-Ibrahimi Mosque, also known as Cave of the Patriarchs, today in Hebron.

The reconstruction committee in Hebron condemned, in a press statement, this measure and considered it a continuation of ongoing Israeli attempts to alter the character  of the mosque and annex  it to the list of Jewish heritage sites.

The committee slammed this Israeli measure as a provocative act and an assault against Muslims in general and Palestinians in particular.

It called on all relevant human rights and humanitarian organizations to take the necessary actions to protect the mosque.

Al-Ibrahimi Mosque is located in the old city of Hebron, few hundred meters away from the part of the city illegally occupied by around 400 extremist settlers, who are protected by about 1,500 Israeli soldiers.

Since 1967, al-Ibrahimi Mosque, like all other Muslim holy sites in Palestine, became a target for the Israeli occupying forces and Zionist settlers, reported the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee.

In 1994, Israel divided al-Ibrahimi Mosque between Muslims and Jews, after an Israeli settler gunned down 30 Palestinians during dawn prayer.

via Settlers Raise Israeli Flag over Hebron’s Al-Ibrahimi Mosque.

Katie Hopkins calling migrants vermin recalls the darkest events of history | Zoe Williams | Comment is free | The Guardian

It is no joke when people start talking like this. We are not “giving her what she wants” when we make manifest our disgust. It is not a free speech issue. I’m not saying gag her: I’m saying fight her. Articulate the fellowship, the human empathy, that makes these deaths important. Stop talking about how many children were among the dead, as though only children matter. Start talking about everybody’s life as cherishable, irrespective of anything they might produce.

via Katie Hopkins calling migrants vermin recalls the darkest events of history | Zoe Williams | Comment is free | The Guardian.

Germans deny signing GOP letter on Iran – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

Reps. Doug Lamborn, R-Col., and Randy Weber, R-Tx., circulated a letter to world leaders last month that they claimed had been signed by four European lawmakers. Since then, two of the alleged supporters, German parliamentarians Johann Wadephul and Roderich Kiesewetter, have informed Al-Monitor that they were not involved.

“This letter never came to the attention of Dr. Wadephul nor Mr. Kiesewetter and therefore has not been signed by them,” a Wadephul spokeswoman told Al-Monitor via email. The parliamentarian followed up with a formal letter stating he had “at no time signed nor agreed to support” the letter.

via Germans deny signing GOP letter on Iran – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East.

{Haters in} House Judiciary Committee Signs Off on Comprehensive Mass Deportation Plan : Immigration Impact

Almost no one seems to think that deporting 11 million people is a viable strategy. Policy makers from President Obama to Texas Governor Rick Perry have recognized this. A group estimated the costs as $400 to $600 billion, let alone the human costs. As Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) said yesterday, “The country has considered and rejected mass deportation or self-deportation… So how can it make any more sense to imprison all of those people?”

At some point, Congress will have to deal with the realities that we can’t and shouldn’t deport 11 million people, and that criminalizing undocumented immigrants will not make us safer. Hopefully that time will come sooner rather than later.

via House Judiciary Committee Signs Off on Comprehensive Mass Deportation Plan : Immigration Impact.