Category Archives: Global Politics

Off-Duty Muslim NYPD Officer Told To ‘Go Back To Your Country’ In Bay Ridge: Gothamist

A Brooklyn man allegedly yelled xenophobic insults at an off-duty Muslim NYPD officer and her teenage son, police sources said.An NYPD spokesperson told Gothamist that the officer was dropping off her 16-year-old son on Ridge Boulevard and 67th Street in Bay Ridge on Saturday around 6 p.m. After the officer parked her car, she saw a man shoving her son. Police said the man was in his 30s.She approached the man—but did not identify herself as a police officer—who told her “ISIS [expletive], I will cut your throat, go back to your country!” The suspect fled the scene, and the NYPD Hate Crimes Unit is investigating the incident as a bias crime.

Source: Off-Duty Muslim NYPD Officer Told To ‘Go Back To Your Country’ In Bay Ridge: Gothamist

Photos: Jewish Group Leads Several Hundred On Anti-Bannon March To Breitbart HQ: LAist

Approximately three hundred members and allies of IfNotNow marched through the Mid-Wilshire area Sunday morning to protest former Breitbart executive Stephen Bannon’s appointment as chief strategist for President-elect Donald Trump’s administration.”Los Angeles has one of the largest Jewish communities in the entire country, and has yet to say anything denouncing the kind of hate speech that Bannon represents,” organizer Max Daniel told KPCC of the march.The march began at 10 a.m. at La Cienega Park and the group continued on to Breitbart’s headquarters on Wilshire Boulevard. Breitbart is headquartered in Los Angeles. IfNotNow LA is the local branch of a national Jewish group dedicated to opposing anti-Semitism and Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories.

Source: Photos: Jewish Group Leads Several Hundred On Anti-Bannon March To Breitbart HQ: LAist

Muslim Woman Attacked By Men Screaming ‘Donald Trump’ Says No One Intervened: Gothamist

“I was harassed on the subway last night and it was just so dehumanizing I can’t speak about it without getting emotional,” 18-year-old Yasmin Seweid wrote on Facebook. “It breaks my heart that so many individuals chose to be bystanders while watching me get harassed verbally and physically by these disgusting pigs.”According to police, the incident occurred around 10 p.m. on Wednesday while Seweid was waiting for an uptown-bound 6th train at the 23rd Street station. Three men, believed to be around 21 years old, approached her and started screaming Trump’s name at her. The three men also followed her on to the train, where they began to scream xenophobic insults at her.The men allegedly called her a “fucking terrorist” and told her to “get the hell out of the country.” Police say they ripped her purse off her shoulder, breaking the strap, and tried to remove her hijab from her head.

Source: Muslim Woman Attacked By Men Screaming ‘Donald Trump’ Says No One Intervened: Gothamist

Twitter Says It Would Consider Banning Donald Trump’s Account: SFist – Facebook’s Zuckerberg would have not said no to Hitler? You bet he would not have…

“Our real goal is to reflect what our community wants,” he explained in a tech conference interview. “That kind of content, we would have thought previously that would make a lot of people feel uncomfortable, and people wouldn’t want that. But at the point where the person who’s elected president of the United States is expressing that opinion and has 60 million people who are followers, then the question is, OK, I think that that is mainstream political discourse that I think we need to be pretty careful about saying that that’s not a reasonable [inaudible].”

Source: Twitter Says It Would Consider Banning Donald Trump’s Account: SFist

Dutch lawmakers endorse limited burqa ban | NRS-Import | DW.COM | Shame does not count any more for Dutch?

Almost as shameful and ironic as possible where leaders once wore Star of David to give support to Jews hated by Germans. Now, they join those who want to brand all Muslims as people to be feared, hated and distrusted.

The House of Representatives in the Netherlands has voted in favor of prohibiting the face-covering burqa and niqab in some public places. The government has insisted the move is soley for security purposes.

Source: Dutch lawmakers endorse limited burqa ban | NRS-Import | DW.COM | 29.11.2016

From Putin’s Hands: A Russian Passport for Steven Seagal – The New York Times

“I still love my country, I still love my family, and I am still an honorable man,” he says in a Southern drawl in a scene from the movie trailer. “If I am the bad guy, what does that make you?” {Not a turncoat or a traitor!”}

Source: From Putin’s Hands: A Russian Passport for Steven Seagal – The New York Times

Who Are the Millions of ‘Bad Hombres’ Slated for US Deportation? Mostly imaginary people and scapegoats. Next will be whomever opposes Trump – you!

The time for Latin America to resist bigotry and racism has thus arrived. In this task, we must not resort to nationalist discourses that merely mirror, from the other side of the looking glass, the stereotype of evil gringos who hate bad hombres.Rather, Latin American responses to racism should draw both from humanism and an accurate knowledge of the past, as well as of human rights and international law.Two positive steps we could take are addressing the countries’ own crime problems while respecting rights and due process, and treating with dignity the approximately 500,000 Central American immigrants who cross into Mexico each year.Like it or not, history and geography have now made Mexicans the vanguard of resistance, and the world will be watching.

Source: Who Are the Millions of ‘Bad Hombres’ Slated for US Deportation?

Germany supporting ethnic cleansing in Kurdish Iraq – www.german-foreign-policy.com

BERLIN/ERBIL/BAGHDAD (Own report) – In the wake of the war against IS (Daesh), the Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq, which is supported by Berlin, is forcibly displacing the Arabic-speaking inhabitants, aimed at a consolidation of the Kurdish dominated territory, as was reported by Human Rights Watch (HRW). According to HRW’s investigation, the Kurdish Peshmerga has deliberately destroyed the homes of Arabic-speaking Sunnis in at least 21 villages and towns in northern Iraq, while leaving intact the Kurdish-owned houses. The Kurdistan Regional Government under President Masoud Barzani is striving to incorporate as many areas as possible – particularly the oil rich region Kirkuk – into the Kurdish autonomous region before seceding from Iraq. For decades, Barzani and his clan have been cooperating closely with politicians from the Federal Republic of Germany. Berlin was also promised access to the large oil reserves in the autonomous region. In return, Germany, above all, has been supporting the Peshmerga in its war against Daesh, while refusing similar aid to the Baghdad government. The German government is also ignoring the eviction of the Arabic-speaking inhabitants of the predominantly Kurdish region.

Source: www.german-foreign-policy.com

Lebanon builds wall around Palestinian refugee camp | Middle East | DW.COM | 22.11.2016

“The Lebanese authorities are building an apartheid wall surrounding the Ain al-Helweh camp in Sidon,” tweeted an account called Yarmouk News. Commentators on social media have used the term apartheid to describe the wall, claiming that it isolates and separates the Palestinians in the camp from the rest of Lebanese society.After the war of Arab-Israeli war of 1948, many displaced Palestinians were forced to flee to Lebanon. The majority of these Palestinians remain stateless refugees even today. The United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) provides food, medicine, education and other necessities to the Palestinian population in Lebanon. The Lebanese government bars Palestinians from taking white-collar jobs such as in the law and engineering fields. Palestinian refugees in Jordan, on the other hand, are eligible for Jordanian citizenship.

Source: Lebanon builds wall around Palestinian refugee camp | Middle East | DW.COM | 22.11.2016

The Arizona Tribe That Knows How to Stop a Trump Wall – Intercontinental Cry – Not Really but they hope so.

President-elect Donald Trump says that he will build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. It will stop undocumented immigrants from entering the country. It will stop drugs from entering the country. It will be 50 feet tall. It will be nearly a thousand miles long. And it will cut the traditional lands of the […]

Source: The Arizona Tribe That Knows How to Stop a Trump Wall – Intercontinental Cry

In the short term, when it comes to securing the border, there are no easy answers or solutions. But when it comes to working with tribal nations on the issue, in the eyes of the Tohono O’odham, Trump’s proposed wall represents either gross ignorance or blatant disregard for tribal sovereignty. And if construction begins, it could signal the winding back of clocks on U.S.-tribal relations on the border.

“I can’t even imagine how far it would set us back,” says Tatum. “More than a hundred years.”

{I cannot imagine that Mr. Trump could care a whit about tribal law, or the wishes of the Tohono O’odham – he cares about Trump and that is about as far as his caring goes.}