Category Archives: Fundamentalist terror

Humans of New York

“I have professors at Columbia who view me as a terrorist for fighting in Iraq. But I believe that America is an example to be emulated, and I went over there to provide those people with basic human freedoms. But when you get over there you realize that you’re fighting kids. Everyone was kids. You see it when they’re dead. These weren’t the guys who were flying into towers. These were kids who grew up poor, stepped into the wrong madrasa, and were manipulated by people with a shit load of money into executing somebody else’s worldview. None of them came out of the womb hating. None of them came out of the womb thinking anything else but holy shit this is a bright beautiful world.”

Source: Humans of New York

Official from Christian charity tortured by Israel, lawyer says | The Electronic Intifada

Israel detained Mohammad El Halabi in June, interrogated him for more than 50 days and then charged him with diverting up to $50 million to the military wing of Hamas.There are also new indications that Israel’s Shin Bet secret police tortured Halabi to extract the confessions it is relying on.On Monday, Kevin Jenkins, president and CEO of World Vision International, said his organization is “seeking to understand the truth behind the allegations laid against Mohammad El Halabi,” and had suspended operations in Gaza pending investigations.Jenkins added that “we still have not seen any of the evidence.”“World Vision’s cumulative operating budget in Gaza for the past ten years was approximately $22.5 million, which makes the alleged amount of up to $50 million being diverted hard to reconcile,” Jenkins said. He also noted Halabi’s signing authority to spend funds was limited to to just $15,000.“He was afraid they would kill him”Faced with these figures – which severely undermine the credibility of the Israeli accusations – an Israeli government official told Australia’s ABC network that the numbers were irrelevant.“It’s like when you catch a serial killer, the question of whether he killed 50 people or 25 people is not really relevant is it?” Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson Emmanuel Nahshon said.This kind of reckless statement is adding to concerns among observers.“That’s an absolutely ridiculous statement from Emmanuel Nahshon,” Jacob Burns, a researcher at Amnesty International, tweeted. “Serious charges require serious (and fair) trial.”

Source: Official from Christian charity tortured by Israel, lawyer says | The Electronic Intifada

Wolf Blitzer just nailed Trump to the wall!

Unfortunately, Blitzer wasn’t buying it, and set out to demolish Hunter. And he did it beautifully. He started out by reading the statement intact; “If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the second amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know. Then m’man Wolf went for the jugular, using simple common sense. He told Hunter that when Trump spoke of Clinton appointing judges, that was an obvious admission that she had already won the freakin’ election! If she was selecting judges, she was the President, mobilizing 2nd amendment right voters to the polls would be useless, the election was over. What else could he possibly be talking about but assassinating either Clinton or Federal Justices? Hunter had no out. He retreated to the mantra that Trump was not a natural politician, his semantics were not always going to be well polished and perfected, especially when speaking off of the cuff, but all of the air had been sucked out of him Well done Wolf! See what you can do every once in a while if you use your brain for something more than just reading the words off of the teleprompter or script?

Source: Wolf Blitzer just nailed Trump to the wall!

India’s Cow Vigilantes by Shashi Tharoor – Project Syndicate – “fundamentalism kills, and kills, and kills in the name not of God but in the name of people who put themselves above God in their search for power and meaning.”

In the past, cow-protection laws have been weakly enforced, if at all; the police have better things to do than to check people’s kitchens, after all. But since the victory of the Hindu-chauvinist BJP in the 2014 general election, a wave of religious triumphalism has swept India, bringing with it not just new cow-protection laws, but also vociferous demands for their strict enforcement. Gau Rakshak Samitis, or “cow protection societies,” have been revived, and their members sometimes take it upon themselves to ensure that cows are not slaughtered or eaten.Making matters worse, the cause of cow protection has now been linked to another persistent and destructive custom in Indian society: violence against Muslims and Dalits (formerly called “untouchables”). Indeed, the Cow Belt, where cow vigilantism is most rampant, is also a hub of atrocities against Dalits, 63% of which occur in just four states: Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan. It is no coincidence that these are also the states where the BJP fared best in 2014.The link between cows and Dalits is well known. Cows may be considered holy, but they are not immortal, and when they die (ideally of natural causes), someone must dispose of their carcasses. For centuries, that job has fallen to Dalits, who collect the carcasses, skin them and sell their hides to tanners and leather-makers, deliver the meat to Muslim butchers (where it is legal), and bury or cremate what remains. It is a livelihood for a group with few economic opportunities – one that benefits the many Hindus who would not want to perform such an unpleasant task.But several recent incidents have shaken the foundations of this arrangement. In the state of Gujarat, four Dalit youths caught skinning a cow were stripped, tied, and beaten with iron rods by cow vigilantes who accused them of killing the animal (they had not). In BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh, two Dalit women were assaulted for supposedly carrying illegal cow meat (it was legal buffalo meat). In Punjab, two young Dalits were beaten and urinated upon for the same “crime.” A 16-year-old Kashmiri Muslim boy was murdered for having hitched a ride on a truck that was transporting cattle.

Source: India’s Cow Vigilantes by Shashi Tharoor – Project Syndicate

Flatmates of gay Syrian refugee beheaded in Turkey fear they will be next | World news | The Guardian

Three flatmates of a gay Syrian refugee beheaded in a homophobic attack in Turkey last week fear they face a similar fate, after receiving death threats in the days since his murder.Wisam Sankari, a hospital cleaner, went missing on 25 July after going to meet another gay man in Istanbul. His body was found two days later in a nearby area of Istanbul, his head severed and his battered body only identifiable to his friends by his clothing.A week on, three of his flatmates say they fear being murdered in the same fashion after receiving warnings that the man Sankari met on 25 July wants to kill them too.“There have been people in the street and people on the phone, who said: ‘He will get you next,’” said one of Sankari’s friends, a chef who, like his flatmates, asked to remain anonymous for safety reasons. “There was also a voice message on Facebook.”In an interview with the Guardian in Sankari’s former room, a cramped lodging he shared with five other people, his friends said he had been in fear during the last months of his life after Turkish officials, UN diplomats and charity workers had proved unable to protect him following a series of homophobic attacks.A Greek appeals board said in June that it considers Turkey safe enough for gay Syrians to be deported to as part of the controversial EU-Turkey migration deal. But Sankari’s friends say his experiences show how dangerous the country is for gay refugees, and unstable for refugees in general.They alleged that in the months before his death, Sankari had:Been kidnapped and raped in two separate homophobic attacks.Been mocked and ignored by police officers after he reported one of the incidents.Eventually initiated legal proceedings against his unknown kidnappers after a local NGO helped him find a lawyer.Recorded a video in which he expressed fears that he might soon be killed in a homophobic attack.Briefly moved to another Turkish city in an unsuccessful attempt to find a safer place to live.Been fired from a factory job because of his sexuality.“Do you call this safe?” summarised a second of Sankari’s flatmates, as they listened to their friend’s favourite song and watched a video made in his honour. “We don’t have an organisation to protect us. We want everyone in Europe to understand our situation here for Syrians, especially gays. We’re suffering.”

Source: Flatmates of gay Syrian refugee beheaded in Turkey fear they will be next | World news | The Guardian

Meet Jess Rizkallah: The Lebanese-American Whose Poem On Being Torn Between Being Arab & American Will Blow You Away | A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares

 

I’ve been into slam poetry for more than two years now and Button Poetry is one of my favorite YouTube channels. I love it so much that it’s the only YouTube channel for which I’ve enabled notifications.Late last night, Lebanon-time, I get a notification that a new poem by Jess Rizkallah has been uploaded. Intrigued by the name, I open the YouTube video to find one of the most enriching, gut-wrenching poems I’ve listened to on that website in months.In three short minutes, Jess Rizkallah was able to convey the struggles that she, a Lebanese-Arab-American woman in the United States goes through trying to juggle her Arab side with her American side, in a culture that is increasingly putting both of her components at odds. I mean just look at a creature like Donald Trump existing and at people, many of whom are Lebanese unfortunately, applauding him.

Source: Meet Jess Rizkallah: The Lebanese-American Whose Poem On Being Torn Between Being Arab & American Will Blow You Away | A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares

Mother of service member booed over Khan question at Pence rally – POLITICO

Barbara Weisenthal, 56, said she was among those booing and that Khizr Khan did not have the “right” to say what he did about Trump at the DNC. His speech “was almost like slander,” she said.Of the woman who asked the question, Weisenthal said it was “probably not the best place to do that.”Jack Christenson, himself a veteran, said the questioner may have had the right to ask her question of Pence, but not “to violate everyone else’s rights,” which he said she did by speaking out at the event.“She was claiming that Trump was somehow insulting the veterans,” said Roen Horn, 29. He called that idea “a bunch of crap.”“She was politicizing the veterans,” she said. “She had an agenda.”

Source: Mother of service member booed over Khan question at Pence rally – POLITICO

Pope Francis says it is ‘not right’ to identify Islam with violence | World news | The Guardian

Pope Francis has said it was wrong to identify Islam with violence and that social injustice and idolatry of money were among the prime causes of terrorism.“I think it is not right to identity Islam with violence,” he told reporters aboard the plane taking him back to Rome after a five-day trip to Poland. “This is not right and this is not true.”

The pope was responding to a question about the killing on 26 July of an 85-year-old Roman Catholic priest during a church service in western France. The attackers forced the priest to his knees and slit his throat. The killing was claimed by Islamic State.“I think that in nearly all religions there is a always a small fundamentalist group,” he said, adding “We have them,” referring to Catholicism.“I don’t like to talk about Islamic violence because every day when I look at the papers I see violence here in Italy – someone killing his girlfriend, someone killing his mother-in-law. These are baptised Catholics,” he said.“If I speak of Islamic violence, I have to speak of Catholic violence. Not all Muslims are violent,” he said.He said there were various causes of terrorism.“I know it dangerous to say this but terrorism grows when there is no other option and when money is made a god and it, instead of the person, is put at the centre of the world economy,” he said.“That is the first form of terrorism. That is a basic terrorism against all humanity. Let’s talk about that,” he said.

Source: Pope Francis says it is ‘not right’ to identify Islam with violence | World news | The Guardian

Trump invites Russia to meddle in the U.S. presidential race with Clinton’s emails – The Washington Post

The candidate and several of his top advisers have business connections to Russia. Campaign chairman Paul Manafort has made millions of dollars in business deals with pro-Russia oligarchs as well as advised the Putin-aligned president of Ukraine whose 2014 ouster triggered Russia’s intervention there.

Source: Trump invites Russia to meddle in the U.S. presidential race with Clinton’s emails – The Washington Post

British police report over 6,000 hate crimes in month since Brexit vote | News | DW.COM | 22.07.2016

The National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) said it had recorded 6,193 incidents of hate crime from mid-June to mid-July, figures obtained from police forces in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.The most commonly reported crimes were harassment, assault and other violence such as verbal abuse or spitting. The second and third most prevalent incidents were public order offences, followed by criminal damage.Since the EU referendum result was declared on June 24, Muslims and Eastern Europeans have said they have been particularly targeted.

Source: British police report over 6,000 hate crimes in month since Brexit vote | News | DW.COM | 22.07.2016