Category Archives: human rights

String of Nighttime Fires Hit Predominately Black Churches in Four Southern States | Hatewatch

“From slavery and the days of Jim Crow through the civil rights movement and beyond, white supremacists have targeted the Black church because of its importance as a pillar of the Black community, the center for leadership and institution building, education, social and political development and organizing to fight oppression,” Love wrote.

“Strike at the Black church, and you strike at the heart of Black American life,” the writer added.

The most recent fires occurred early today at the Glover Grover Baptist Church, in Warrenville, S.C., and at the Greater Miracle Apostolic Holiness Church in Tallahassee, Fla.

Federal agents have been brought in to assist local officials in determining the unknown cause of the fire at the Glover Grove Baptist church. In Tallahassee, fire officials say the fire that totally destroyed the Apostolic Holiness Church may have been caused by a tree limb falling on overhead electrical lines.

via String of Nighttime Fires Hit Predominately Black Churches in Four Southern States | Hatewatch.

In Egypt, fearing the worst | World | DW.COM | 23.06.2015 Back to the Future of Dictatorship

When Esraa disappeared without a trace, Duaa Mahfouz El-Taweel said she immediately knew what to do: The next day, she ripped off all the photos decorating her elder sister’s bedroom walls. Three weeks later, Duaa, a softly-spoken 22 year-old student, reached for her mobile phone and scrolled through her pictures. She pointed to a grainy, slightly skewed shot showing several colorful collages of her sister smiling into the camera, laughing and hugging friends. Today, only a few shreds of blue-tack remain stuck to the walls.

Sitting on her sister’s bed in a small flat in a lower class neighborhood in Cairo, the many cuddly toys Esraa loved so much lined up neatly beside her, Duaa shrugged. “Everyone knows you have to do that.”

It was, she said, the normal thing to do once a relative or friend went missing: “We try to hide as much stuff as possible that tells you what kind of a person this really is.” Otherwise, she added matter-of-factly, the intelligence services might decide to abduct anyone else shown in the photos. Three of her close friends and about a dozen of her acquaintances had been detained in recent months and she was taking no risks.

via In Egypt, fearing the worst | World | DW.COM | 23.06.2015.

CENSORED NEWS: Agent Orange: Toxin in Genocide of Indigenous Peoples

Agent Orange latest in toxic genocide of Indigenous Peoples

In Canada, Agent Orange was sprayed in British Columbia during the 1980s. At Kapuskasing, Ontario, Agent Orange was sprayed about 20 kilometers from a First Nations community.

The spraying at Kapuskasing reveals the pattern of the US and Canada of targeting areas with Indian communities. Kapuskasing was not only the site of Agent Orange spraying, but was also the site of a WWI prisoner of war camp and later a power plant.

In a pattern of toxic genocide, areas near and on Indian communities have been used as prisoner of war camps, power plant sites and toxic waste dumps.

In Arizona, the WWII prisoner of war camps included sites on Gila River Indian Community and Colorado River Indian Nations. Coal-fired power plants are now on and around many Indian Nations, including the Navajo Nation. The Western Shoshone in Nevada and Goshute in Utah continue to be targeted with toxic and nuclear waste dumps.

Navajos in New Mexico, Havasupai in Arizona and Lakotas in Nebraska and the Dakotas are targeted with new uranium mining that could contaminate their drinking water. During the Cold War, Navajos, Acomas and Laguna Pueblos worked in uranium mines without protective clothing and many died of cancer and respiratory diseases. Today, radioactive tailings are strewn on the Navajo Nation.

Dene in Canada, like the Dine’ in Arizona, were never told of the dangers of uranium mining during the Cold War, and worked in the uranium mines without protective clothing. In the Pueblos, the radioactive dust blew on their foods as they ate.

In the case of the Goshute in Utah, their neighbor continues to be a biological and chemical warfare testing site, the US military’s Dugway Proving Ground.

via CENSORED NEWS: Agent Orange: Toxin in Genocide of Indigenous Peoples.

ASIA/LEBANON – Maronite and Greek-Melkite Synods have begun. Patriarch Grégoire: 60% of the Lebanese think of emigrating

Beirut – “According to a recent survey, 60% of the Lebanese are considering the idea of emigrating, and 35% of them are actually waiting for a visa”. This was reported yesterday by the Greek-Melkite Patriarch of Antioch, Grégoire III, during the opening speech of the annual assembly of the Synod of the Church. The meeting of the Greek-Melkite Bishops, underway at the patriarchal summer residence in Ain Trez, will discuss the theme of family and emergency situations experienced by communities in Syria. But in one part of his speech, the considerations of Patriarch Grègoire was extended to the chaos that affect all the Middle Eastern region and push the population to flee to other areas of the world.
Presenting the survey data cited, the Primate of the Greek-Melkite Church pointed out that among the potential Lebanese migrants the majority are Christians. “If this is the case for Lebanon – said the Patriarch in his speech, the text of which was sent to Agenzia Fides – what will happen in countries with less stability? It is necessary to operate in every way possible to try to stop this bleeding”.
Also yesterday, the annual assembly of the Synod of the Maronite Church began at the patriarchal see of Bkerke, presided by the Patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites, Boutros Bechara Rai.
The Maronite synodal assembly includes challenging topics such as the status of religious courts and their service regarding marital crisis, theological teaching in ecclesiastical institutions, the work of the missions and the Maronite dioceses out of Lebanese territory, in the Diaspora. But the Patriarch, in his opening speech, also referred to the political paralysis which the nation is facing: “No authentic Lebanese – said the Patriarch among other things – can tolerate the vacancy of the presidential office, which has entered in its second year and increases the malfunction of constitutional institutions, poverty and lawlessness”. The Maronite Bishops prayed to ask “the war to end, through diplomatic channels in Syria, Iraq, Yemen”, and for peace to be re-established and consolidated in Holy Land and in all the Countries of the Middle East.

via ASIA/LEBANON – Maronite and Greek-Melkite Synods have begun. Patriarch Grégoire: 60% of the Lebanese think of emigrating.