Month: August 2009

Hamas “Spiritual Leader” calls Holocaust “a lie”

AP reports:
— “Hamas spiritual leader Younis al-Astal lashed out after hearing that the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, the main U.N. body aiding Palestinian refugees, planned to introduce lessons about the Holocaust to Gaza students.”
— “Adding the Holocaust to the curriculum would amount to ‘marketing a lie and spreading it,’ al-Astal wrote in a statement.:”
— “‘I do not exaggerate when I say this issue is a war crime, because of how it serves the Zionist colonizers and deals with their hypocrisy and lies,’ he wrote.”
— “Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri also objected to including what he referred to as the ‘so-called Holocaust’ in the lesson plan. ‘We think it’s more important to teach Palestinians the crimes of the Israeli occupation,’ he said.”

Afghanistan: Taliban disfigure Muslims who dare to vote

AP reports:
— “In an example of the extreme threats that voters faced, an Afghan man said Monday that Taliban militants cut off his nose and both ears as he tried to vote.”
— “‘I was on my way to a polling station when Taliban stopped me and searched me. They found my voter registration card,’ Lal Mohammad said from a hospital bed in Kabul. He said they cut off his nose and ears before beating him unconscious with a weapon.”
— “‘I regret that I went to vote,’ Mohammad said, crying and trying to hide his disfigured face. ‘What is the benefit of voting to me?'”

Communist China: “Organ trafficking flourishes. The government tries to regulate it.”

Communist China: “Organ trafficking flourishes. The government tries to regulate it.”
— Asia News reports:
— “The issue of organ transplants in China has two major problems. First of all organs transplanted are mostly taken from people condemned to death, often without their consent or without that of family members. Secondly, very often the transplants are carried out to supply foreigners who can pay handsomely for the organ and the operation, but penalizing the local people in need of a transplant. Until two years ago, the cost for a kidney transplant was 62 thousand dollars, for the heart it was 140 thousand U.S. dollars.”

“Bangladesh: Muslims threaten Catholic women of Dewtola village”

“Bangladesh: Muslims threaten Catholic women of Dewtola village”
— Asia News reports: “Catholic women of the village of Dewtola can no longer go to mass because of continual threats from local Muslims. For the past several weeks tensions have been mounting around the parish of St. Francis Xavier in Golla, Nawabgonj district.”

Communist Chinese Regime Blacklists 247 Dissidents

Communist Chinese Regime Blacklists 247 Dissidents
— NDTV reports:
— “Zan Aizong is a well-known Chinese blogger who’s sometimes critical of the Communist Party. In 2006, he was arrested and fired from his job as the Zhejiang bureau chief of the Chinese Ocean News for writing an article that exposed the forced demolition of a Christian church building.”
— “Well now the regime has labeled him a dissident—adding him to a secret media blacklist and shutting down his blog.”
— “The blacklist was created by China’s Propaganda Ministry. It contains the names of 247 so-called dissidents that Chinese media are now forbidden to interview or write about.”
— “Chinese news service Boxun.net reports that the media have been ordered to copy the blacklist by hand—making sure there’s no electronic record.”

U.S.: Reconsideration of Asylum Petition Granted in Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Case

(U.S.) Reconsideration of Asylum Petition Granted in Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Case
— fears that younger daughter will be mutilated in Indonesia
— Feminist News reports:
— “The decision (see PDF) reversed the Bureau of Immigration Appeal’s (BIA) decision that found the FGM performed on the family’s eldest daughter did not constitute past persecution and that the mutilation did not result in serious harm. The appeals court ruling stated, ‘the BIA’s attempt to parse the distinction between differing forms of female genital mutilation is not only a threat to the rights of women in a civilized society, but also runs counter to [established] precedent.'”

— San Francisco Chronicle: Genital mutilation grounds for asylum bid
— “The court returned the case to the immigration board to decide whether the younger daughter faced a likelihood of genital mutilation in Indonesia. If so, the board must decide whether the entire family is eligible for asylum or whether the parents and their daughters might instead be sent to Venezuela, the mother’s native country. The younger daughter was born there.”
— “Robert Ryan, an attorney in San Francisco who represents the family, said the court had corrected a series of legal errors by the immigration judges, including their downplaying of the older daughter’s trauma. ‘There’s no such thing as mild female genital mutilation,’ he said.”

Saudi Child Bride Turned Back Over to 80-Year-Old Husband

Saudi Child Bride Turned Back Over to 80-Year-Old Husband
— “A Saudi Arabian father forced his 10-year-old daughter to return to her 80-year-old husband Sunday, after she was found hiding at the home of her aunt for 10 days, Arab News reported.”
— “The young girl’s husband, who denies he is 80 despite family claims, accused the aunt of violating the terms of his marriage, allowed by Sharia Law.”
— “”My marriage is not against Sharia. It included the elements of acceptance and response by the father of the bride,” he told a local newspaper.”

(Saudi Arabia) 10 year old child bride in Saudi Arabia