World Challenges for the XXIst century

Or, well, I should have said lack of press freedom, specially after the last events. Not only there is a new worrying Press Law. 55% de country’s radios can be shut during next weeks.

Much more commercial radios are in danger of being closed than previously thought. 360, of a total number of 656, can be punished and shut by the new Hugo Chávez’s law.

Also, leaders from the opposition, who normally have gone into exile, opposition bloggers and Twitter (specially the hashtag #FreeMediaVe, which is a result, according to the “Bolivarian News Agency”, of the “media campaign from the far-right extremists” to “create terror” , although the Government has lost the battle in this social network, mainly because of the international audience it has) are being targeted. Alexis Marrero is being prosecuted by “inciting to kill Hugo Chávez, war propaganda and being against the presidency”, because (it’s widely supposed as they haven’t pointed out the real reasons for this prosecution) of his anti-Chávez blog (written in Spanish) and being a neighbourhood’s leader who has repeatedly demonstrated against Chávez.

I would like people like Tim Robbins, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Naomi Campbell and others who have endorsed Chávez in the past, to speak about these measures. It’s interesting to note that Lee Barnes, head of English racist and xenophobe BNP party, has already said that “Chávez is on target here”, as English MSM are not favourable to their slanders (specially those about “Zionist propaganda” (you can just read his blog…). Just to underline where freedom and liberty stand for some people: you’re free as long as you say the same things I want you to say.

By the way, Alexis Marrero was arrested by Chávez’s thugs some weeks ago.

From Mother Jones:

The Cybersecurity Act of 2009 (PDF) gives the president the ability to “declare a cybersecurity emergency” and shut down or limit Internet traffic in any “critical” information network “in the interest of national security.” The bill does not define a critical information network or a cybersecurity emergency. That definition would be left to the president.

The bill does not only add to the power of the president. It also grants the Secretary of Commerce “access to all relevant data concerning [critical] networks without regard to any provision of law, regulation, rule, or policy restricting such access.” This means he or she can monitor or access any data on private or public networks without regard to privacy laws.

Now, only a project, it has been presented by the Senators Rockefeller (Dem) and Stowe (Rep).

Hope and Change?

For all of you who are not soccer fans, Seydou Keita is a soccer player from the Barcelona FC which will play the final of the Champions’ League against Chelsea. Here is an excerpt from an interview:

Q: Does your family advise you?
A: They are always behind me. They really educated me that we have to suffer to make a living. We are Muslims and for us, everything is decided by Allah.
Q: So, has Allah already decided the result of the final in Rome?
A: Yes, sure, Allah has already decided it, it’s already written, but we have to do everything in our power to win, as we don’t know which one is going to be the champion.

It’s a pity Allah has not told him… and the rest of the people… so we can just rest so people can use that time to other tasks.

NOTE: Even if you are not a soccer fan, we are in peril of dying after the amount of time they spend on TV or on the radio explaining the preliminaries of the final. 

You can read these news in The News International and Nasdaq.com:

Far-right Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders lost a legal bid Wednesday to stop his pending trial for inciting hatred and discrimination against Muslims.

“The attorney general is of the opinion that there are no grounds” for a further appeal, the Dutch Supreme Court said in a statement.

Lawyers for Wilders had sought to overturn a ruling by the Amsterdam Court of Appeals in January that he should be prosecuted for a series of public anti- Muslim statements, particularly for comparing Islam to Nazism.

Well, this is nothing that we can consider as surprising. But anyway it something truly interesting that they want this to go to trial. Mr. Wilders has stated:

“I am being prosecuted for saying about Islam what millions of Dutch think. Freedom of expression is at risk of being offered at the altar of Islam.”

The real reason (at least for me) of this trial is that he considers Islam as equal to Nazism. Whatever our special ideas on the subject, this process is judging the personal idea of someone about an ideology/religion. Of course, I count with a just trial (consider me an optimist), in which he can express his own reasons about this. But I don’t know if, being realistic, we can count with that just trial. I fear he is going to be fried.

Just notice that he is labelled as “far-right” everywhere you read about him. Even if he has no link with Nazi parties, with actual far-right parties, etc etc.

NOTE: I really can’t blog often now. I am truly busy, I am sorry for this but life is like it is. Thanks to you all for your interest.

The UN’s human-rights body approved a proposal by Muslims nations Thursday urging passage of laws around the world to protect religion from criticism.

The proposal put forward by Pakistan on behalf of Islamic countries – with the backing of Belarus and Venezuela – had drawn strong criticism from free-speech campaigners and liberal democracies.

A simple majority of 23 members of the 47-nation Human Rights Council voted in favor of the resolution. Eleven nations, mostly Western, opposed the resolution, and 13 countries abstained.

The resolution urges states to provide “protection against acts of hatred, discrimination, intimidation and coercion resulting from defamation of religions and incitement to religious hatred in general.”

“Defamation of religions is the cause that leads to incitement to hatred, discrimination and violence toward their followers,” Pakistan’s ambassador Zamir Akram said. (Heyyy, Zamir, so what about discrimination against non-Muslims in Islamic countries? Are they going to be protected against discrimination? No, right?)

“It is important to deal with the cause, rather than with the effects alone,” he said.

via UN approves religious criticism proposal | International | Jerusalem Post. tx to O Insurgente.

I had written before about this really worrying (at least for me) subject. It’s curious though: there are NO Spanish MSM which have published something about this, that I know of.

But you know what’s curious too? That the Organization for the Security and the Cooperation in Europe has alerted of the discrimination that Christians are suffering in Europe:

Last March 4th, for the 1st time in its history, the office of the Organization for the Security and the Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), for the Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), organised a debate in Vienna specially focused in the risks the right to religious liberty regarding Christians, experiment in Europe.

The intervention of Mario Mauro, VicePresident of the European Parliament, was the most interesting of all. He is also the personal representative of the OSCE Presidency against racism, xenophobia and discrimination. the MEP explained that the “examples show that that discriminations against Christians do not only exist in the countries where the Christians are a minority but also in those in which they are a majority of the population, not considering the persecutions that strike these communities outside the OSCE’s area”.

(…) But, why does the Organization for the Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) worry now about the  abused rights of Christians? The answer was pointed out in the same debate, remembering that  hate and intolerance do not only affect the people’s security but also to country’s stability. That’s why the Organization has decided lately to intensify the efforts to counter these discriminative cases more efficiently in the future.

It seems that Christians are mainly discriminated even in Christian countries. Something which is really worrying…

NOTE that they are NOT worried about the discrimination considerated as an unlawful and unethical fact, but because it can affect country’s stability. Specially in this economic crisis…

Anyway where are the riots? Where the enraged statements made by Governments about Christian persecution? Where the Pope’s statements calling for the murder of those insulting Catholicism/Orthodox/etc.? Where the cartoonists are obliged to live in hiding because they draw a cartoon mocking Jesus Christ or the Church (whatever Church it is)? So, now tell me who did all these things and what religion the belong to now, in this very same moment. Just in case someone begins speaking about “Christian extremism” or something like that…

If we read the statement made by the secretary general of the Moroccan Community Abroad Council (a consultive bureau created by Moroccan King Mohammed VIth), Abdellah Boussouff, we can really consider that as a reality. He  nearly goes as far as considering Moroccan as equal as Spanish Muslim.

(He) stated to the Spanish news agency Europa Press during a meeting about Islam in Europe which took place in Fez, that Moroccan nationals living in Spain “need a strong organization that defends the fulfillment of the religious freedom” in the country and for the “full practice of their rights”.

(…) (He also) added that some of the points that were included in the cooperation aggreement between Spain and the Islamic Commission in 1992 “are not fully applied”, pointing to the need of a “really representative and democratic organism because a lot of Muslims do not feel represented by the Islamic Commission” (name which are not fully applied and why a lot of Muslims do not feel represented by the Islamic Commission. I am not saying the latter is “moderate”, I’m saying that it would be interesting to know what is the future Morocco wants for Spanish Muslims, as pointing out what Spain lacks of in this respect would underline what they like Spanish Islam to be).

He maintains that they are “optimistic with Moroccan community’s progress in Spain”, because “all processes need time” and “both Spain and Morocco have a lot  of things in common” (name a few… because except the Spanish-Moroccan war of late XIXth century and early XXth century and the Strait of Gibraltar, I just can’t really see what more).

As a special measure, Boussouff considers that the Islamic Council must create a census of Muslims in Spain that could chose their representatives directly, as it’s already done in France and Belgium (countries where there is NO radicalization of Muslims, is there? Ironically speaking, that is...).

But it’s not me the only one who thinks this is meddling in other State’s affairs:

These statements have been regarded by the Spanish Islamic Communities’ Union as a Moroccan meddling in Islam’s management inside Spanish territory.

The president of this Union, Riay Tatary, stated that the “Moroccan Government is not the indicated entity to speak about the management of the Muslim community inside Spain and how their leaders should be elected” (so, Tatary, are you feeling your chair moving under you?).

Anyway, this must be the first time I agree with Tatary in something, although of course, not for the same reasons: I am not the president of any Muslim organization There is something to consider,though: the growing number of Moroccan nationals in Spain (after Hispanic-American, they are the main immigrant group in Spain) makes this reaaaaaaaaally interesting for Morocco, who already wants Ceuta, Melilla and the Canary Islands in a expansionist policy, seen always not very disgustedly by France, a traditional Moroccan ally, and by UK, because of Gibraltar (of course, Spain does not have one thousand million Chinese menacing Hong Kong, does it? In that case, the results would have been truly different ).

Meddling in other State’s affairs does not make a country trustworthy. Trying to meddle over an entire community to use it as an assault weapon to break into the fortress is even more untrustworthy. But considering the degree of Zapatero’s alliance with Morocco, this meddling is not completelly unexpected.

(I’m sorry for not posting, but the spring, the flowers and me are not the best of friends ).

The five detainees at the U.S. Guantanamo Bay prison camp charged with plotting the September 11 attacks have filed a document expressing pride at their accomplishment and accepting responsibility for the deaths of nearly 3,000 people, The New York Times reported on Monday.

The five detainees at the U.S. Guantanamo Bay prison camp charged with plotting the September 11 attacks have filed a document expressing pride at their accomplishment and accepting responsibility for the deaths of nearly 3,000 people, The New York Times reported on Monday.

The document, which the newspaper said may be released publicly on Tuesday, describes the five men as the “9/11 Shura Council,” and says their actions were an offering to God, according to excerpts of the document read to a reporter by an unidentified government official, the report said.

“‘To us,’ the official read, ‘they are not accusations. To us they are a badge of honor, which we carry with honor,’” the paper said.

The document is titled “The Islamic Response to the Government’s Nine Accusations,” the military judge at the U.S. Naval base said in a separate filing, obtained by the Times, that described the detainees’ document.

via Guantanamo detainees say they planned September 11: report | Reuters.

Christopher has posted more about this:

“Your intelligence apparatus, with all its abilities … failed to discover our military attack plans before the blessed 11 September operation … Why then should you blame us, holding us accountable and putting us on trial?”

They criticize the U.S. for fighting “from behind roadblocks, trenches and warplanes” rather than face-to-face and describe Islam as “a religion of fear” for Jews, Christians and pagans.

“We are terrorists to the bone. So, many thanks to God,” they write.

Gee, so, the culprit of an attack is not the terrorist but the policemen who didn’t prevent it. 

Islam = religion of fear for Jews, Christians and pagans. WOW!!! Even Wilders wouldn’t have said something soooo striking. Are they also going to punish them for “Islamophobia”?? You know, for hating Islam, presenting it as something different from the mantra-logo-slogan “Islam is Peace, Islam is the Religion of Peace”.

So, what is going to do Obama now? I don’t think these guys want to have a normal civilian life and I really don’t believe want to be a part of US society. Sooo?

This is an update on this story.

El-Gohary was not present at the hearing, as attendance would put him at extreme personal risk. He had planned to obtain papers authorizing attorney Nabil Ghobreyal to act as his proxy representation in court, but staff members at the registry office swore at and beat him, lawyers said.

Judge Hamdy Yasin was forced to adjourn the case until March 28 because El-Gohary did not obtain the necessary proxy representation documents.

“I am now in a position where I can’t do anything else,” El-Gohary, who has been in hiding, told Compass. “I have to go [to court] despite the danger. I believe God will protect me. It’s a very hard decision, but I have to go.”

Copts and Christian converts have to face such systemic prejudice daily in the battle for their rights, he said.

“Our rights in Egypt, as Christians or converts, are less than the rights of animals,” El-Gohary said. “We are deprived of social and civil rights, deprived of our inheritance and left to the fundamentalists to be killed. Nobody bothers to investigate or care about us.”

El-Gohary, 56, has been attacked in the street, spat at and knocked down in his effort to win the right to officially convert. He said he and his 14-year-old daughter continue to receive death threats by text message and phone call.

But he also has received text messages, he said, of encouragement from other Muslim-born converts too fearful to take a similar stand.

“Everyday I get calls from people who have converted but are secret,” said El-Gohary. “They ask me every day about what is happening, because it affects their future.”

via Compass Direct News : EGYPT – ISLAMIC LAWYERS URGE DEATH SENTENCE FOR CONVERT.

BosNewsLife adds:

“His legal challenge is motivated by concerns for his daughter. About one year from now, at age 16, she will be issued her national Identity Card and the religious registration will follow that of her father,” advocacy group Middle East Concern told BosNewsLife.

“At present she must attend Islamic classes at school despite having been raised as a Christian. Also, [El-Gohary] does not want her to be subject to Islamic family law, which would include denying her the right to marry a Christian,” MEC said.

El-Gohary was reportedly in hiding after receiving death threats from Muslim extremists. Another Muslim-born Christian, Mohammed Hegazy, who also tried to have his new religion registered, was also forced to flee to safety, rights activists said.

More:

El-Gohary also has charged that his nephew was denied a position in state security agencies because of his uncle’s religious “double life.”

(…) Hegazy, who filed his case on Aug. 2, 2007, was denied the right to officially convert in a Jan. 29 court ruling that declared it was against Islamic law for a Muslim to leave Islam.

The judge based his decision on Article II of the Egyptian constitution, which enshrines Islamic law, or sharia, as the source of Egyptian law. The judge said that, according to sharia, Islam is the final and most complete religion and therefore Muslims already practice full freedom of religion and cannot return to an older belief (Christianity or Judaism).

This type of reasoning has also been used again El Gohary:

“[El-Din] started to talk about the Quran being in a higher position than the Bible,” one of El-Gohary’s lawyers, Said Fayez, told Compass. “[El-Din said] people can move to a higher religion but not down, so people cannot move away from Islam because it is highest in rank.”

Memos submitted by opposing lawyers asserted that cases such as El-Gohary’s form part of a U.S. Zionist attack on Islam in Egypt, that Christianity is an inferior religion to Islam and that Copts protect and defend converts from Islam at their own peril.

Related links: BBC, European News, Berean Christian, Religion News Blog.

1. Egyptian mother will appeal court’s decision: Madre egipcia apelará la decisión del tribunal: the woman lost custody of her twin sons on September 24 last year, after the Appeals Court in the coastal town of Alexandria issued a final decision “granting custody over them to their father who had converted from Christianity to Islam.”
2. Apostasy in Islam: Wikipedia.
3. Apostasy: current issues in Iran and in Egypt.
4. Political Islam: Bulletin of Christian Persecution.