R.E.A.L. – Page 151 – Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)

American Copts Protest in NYC and LA on Anti-Christian Sectarian Violence in Egypt

ICC reports: “American Copts Protest Anti-Christian Sectarian Violence in Egypt”

“Washington, DC (December 14, 2009) – International Christian Concern (ICC) announces the commencement of three Coptic rallies to be held in several U.S. cities.”

“American Coptic Christians have coordinated demonstrations to voice their concerns over the vast increase of sectarian violence toward Christian minorities in Egypt. The rallies will be held in New York and Chicago on December 14th, and Los Angeles on December 27th.”

“Anti-Christian clashes have hit a boiling point in upper Egypt and in villages throughout the country. The Egyptian government has refused to intervene, leaving Copts defenseless at the hands of Muslim mobs. Egypt’s government has committed grave violations of human rights by failing to protect the Coptic minority and forcing the deportation of Copts from villages where anti-Christian attacks have occurred. The government has also ignored the abduction and incarceration of Coptic women by Muslim men, an overt abuse on women which directly corresponds with the UN’s definition of human trafficking.”

“Aidan Clay, ICC Regional Manager for the Middle East, said ‘These rallies will bring awareness to the flagrant rise of persecution against the Coptic Christian minority under Islamic-based coercion. ICC backs the American Coptic community in condemning the Egyptian government for deliberately allowing human rights abuses toward Christians to continue without penalty. We encourage Christians in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles to join the rallies in support of fellow Christians who are suffering in Egypt.’ ”

Please visit Free Copts online for more information. (http://freecopts.net/english/)

— Christian Post: “U.S. Coptic Christians to Rally Against Persecution in Egypt”

AINA: "A video posted by Free Copts shows the Abou Shusha fires."

Egypt: “Muslim Mob” of 3,000 — Mob Attacks Christian Businesses, Individuals — Rioting Spreads in Upper Egypt
Other R.E.A.L. Reports on Copts

Connecticut: Masked Nazis disrupt Hanukkah ceremony with Nazi flags, obscenities

Connecticut: Masked men disrupt Hanukkah ceremony with Nazi flags, obscenities
— Connecticut Post reports: “Pouring rain failed to dampen the spirts of a small group of families huddled on the Sherman Green gazebo to light a menorah on the third night of Hanukkah Sunday.”
— “Neither did three masked men, who carrying Nazi flags and shouting obscenities, tried to disrupt the ceremony until they fled when police arrived.
— “The men, dressed in black, showed up just as the ceremony was beginning, stayed on the sidewalk about 20 yards from the gazebo. Each carried a flag held in outstretched arms. One flag bore a swastika, another an iron cross.”
— Rabbi Shlame Landa to Connecticut Post: “I told my wife, Miriam, on the way home, if (the masked men) came out in the rain, how much more does it say that we have to be there,” he added. “We really had to be there tonight. If not, they would have won half the battle.”

— NBC: Masked Men With Nazi Flags Protest at Menorah Lighting

Rabbi Shlame Landa of Chabad of Fairfield prepares to light the candle on a 9 foot Menorah at Sherman Green in Fairfield. Sun. Dec. 13, 2009. (Connecticut Post/ Phil Noel/ Staff photographer)

Sudan/Egypt: Sudanese Convert to Christian Fears Islamist Extremists Who Hunt for Her, Son

Compass Daily News (CDN) reports:

“Muslim Relatives of Sudanese Christian Woman Pursue Her, Son”

“Native of Khartoum lives in seclusion in Egypt as brother, ex-husband hunt for her”

“A Sudanese woman who fled to Egypt after converting from Islam to Christianity is living in secluded isolation as her angry family members try to track her down.”

“Howida Ali’s Muslim brother and her ex-husband began searching for her in Cairo earlier this year after a relative there reported her whereabouts to them. While there, her brother and ex-husband tried to seize her 10-year-old son from school.”

” ‘I’m afraid of my brother finding us,’ said the 38-year-old Ali, who has moved to another area. ‘Their aim is to take us back to Sudan, and there they will force us to return to the Islamic faith or sentence us to death according to Islamic law.’ ”

“Ali said she divorced her husband, Esam El deen Ali, because of his drug addiction in 2001, before she converted to Christianity. She was living with her parents in Khartoum when she began seeing visions of Christ, she said.”

“Fearing that relatives might discover she was a Christian, in 2007 she escaped with her then-8-year-old son. Previously the family had tried to stop her from leaving on grounds that she should not travel unescorted by an adult male relative, and because they disapproved of her divorce.”

” ‘They destroyed my passport, but through the assistance of a Christian friend, I acquired a new passport and secretly left,’ she told Compass by e-mail.”

“Her peace in Egypt was short-lived; earlier this year, while Ali secretly attended church as she stayed with a Muslim relative in Cairo, the relative found out about her conversion to Christianity and notified her brother and ex-husband in Sudan.”

“They arrived in Cairo in July. She had found lodging at All Saints’ Cathedral, an Episcopal church in Cairo that houses a refugee ministry, but as it became clear that her brother and ex-husband were searching for her, refugee ministry officials moved her and her son to an apartment.”

“Ali said her brother and ex-husband sought to kill her for apostasy, or leaving Islam – with the support of relatives back in Sudan and others in the community, members of the Shaingia tribe who practice a strict form of Islam.”

” ‘Life became very difficult for me,’ she said.”

“The Rev. Emmanuel S. Bennsion of All Saints’ Cathedral confirmed that Ali’s ex-husband and brother were acting on a tip from one of Ali’s relatives when they came searching for her in Cairo. They went to her son’s school to take him back to Sudan. It was a Christian school, and the director refused to hand the boy over to them, Bennsion said.”

” ‘Since that time, she has started hiding and become afraid,’ Bennsion told Compass.”

“Ali had received financial support from family in Sudan through the relative in Cairo who notified her family of her conversion; that support has since vanished.”

“Fearing forcible repatriation to Sudan, Ali tried to go to Israel; Egyptian authorities arrested her at the border and jailed her for two months. During that time, she said, her son was put in an Islamic children’s home. A Muslim family had adopted him, but she was able to win back custody after leaving jail in October.”

” ‘We have stopped going out of the apartment or even going to church,’ she said. ‘My son can no longer go to school daily as before. We cannot live our lives as before. I cannot now participate in the Bible study or fellowships – I’m now depending only on myself for growing spiritually, and for prayer and Bible study.’ ”

“She said her only hope for living her faith openly in Christian community is to secure asylum to another country that guarantees religious freedom.”

Somali Christian Flees Refugee Camp Under Death Threat

CDN reports:
“Somali Christian Mohamud Muridi Saidi last month fled a refugee camp near Kenya’s border with Sudan after Muslims threatened to kill him.”

“For Saidi, a father of four, the recent relocation of 13,000 refugees from the Dadaab refugee camp near the Somali border to the Kakuma camp, where he had lived since 2002, brought its own nightmare: the arrival of Muslims from Somalia’s Lower Juba region who knew of his father’s Christian activities in his home village.”

“After Somalis four times threw stones at Saidi’s iron sheet home in the Kakuma refugee camp – once in mid-October, and again on Nov. 17, 21 and 22 – word spread that they intended to kill him. Case workers for a Lutheran World Federation (LWF) service group confirmed the death threat.”

” ‘I know the attackers are the Muslims who forced us to leave Somalia in 2002,’ Saidi told Compass in Nairobi, adding that he was unable to bring his family with him when he fled on Nov. 23. ‘They are not safe, and that is why we should be out of Kakuma as soon as possible.’ ”

“Saidi has reported the attacks to the LWF service group as well as to police in Kakuma. Case workers for the LWF service group confirmed that the stoning of his home had escalated to the threat of him being assassinated.”

Austria: Rabbi Attacked, Finger Mutilated in Vienna Hanukkah Ceremony

Vienna: Rabbi attacked during Chanukah ceremony
— Palestinian attacker bites off half of Rabbi’s finger
— Original German Report Kurier

— Translated German Report into English:
— “Palestinians Rabbi finger biting off part”
— “‘There was so much hatred in his eyes,’ said Rabbi Dov Gruzman. Der Täter, ein radikaler Palästinenser, sitzt vorläufig in U-Haft. The perpetrator, a radical Palestinians, sitting temporarily in custody”
— “The Jewish community is now calling on the government to take action ‘against radical Muslims, Terroristensympathisanten and neo-Nazi provocateurs’ resolute.”
— Arrested individual is Muhammad Sch.

Austria: Rabbi Dov Gruzman, attacked and finger mutilated during Hanukkah ceremony (Kurier)

Uganda: Christian Pastor Survives Assassination Attempts “by Muslim extremists”

Uganda: The Pastor From Uganda Who ‘Cannot Be Killed’, Has Reconstructive Surgery in Texas After Several Assassination Attempts
— ANS reports: “They call him “The Ghost” — the preacher who started 400 churches in Uganda — and cannot be killed.”
— “Pastor Zachariah and his wife have 12 children, he oversees 400 churches, and his home church has 2,000 members.
— “Pastor Zachariah Sserwadda has survived three assassination attempts on his life, the latest of which was March 4, 2000. Local radio reported that he was dead, according to Christi Myers reporting for TV station KTRK in Houston, TX.
— “Myers says that nine years ago the African pastor was left severely injured in a terrorist attack that killed an American missionary in Uganda. Since then, the pastor has suffered continuing pain.
— “She states that Pastor Zacariah’s car was hit intentionally in a head-on crash with a truck driven by Muslim extremists. He and a front seat passenger were seriously injured, but American missionary Anita Liebl was lying dead in the back seat. Liebl was on a visit to help in his ministry to Muslims.”

UK: British School Linked to Hizb ut-Tahrir Funding Restored

UK: ‘No evidence’ of extremism at Tottenham school — Islamic Shakhsiyah Foundation
— December 14, 2009 report by Haringey Independent: “It was alleged the school’s curriculum contained elements of Hizb ut-Tahrir’s version of Islam which calls for a union of all Muslim states into one global empire — the caliphate. It also rejects democracy as well as assimilation into Western culture.”
— “Haringey Council will continue funding the Islamic Shaksiyah Foundation in St Ann’s Road, Tottenham”

— Harry’s Place Blog: “The Government Has Completely Dropped The Ball on Hizb ut Tahrir”
— Daily Telegraph View

— December 14, 2009 – Daily Telegraph reports: “Extremist schools: New evidence as Minister for Hizb ut Tahrir boobs again”
Andrew Gilligan in Daily Telegraph states:
— “In last week’s Spectator, I reported in her own words from a Hizb ut Tahrir pamphlet, the disgusting views of Farah Ahmed, the head of one of these schools and trustee of them both. You can see that at the end of my previous post on this blog. In a letter to this week’s magazine, Mr Balls has responded. ‘The pamphlet Mr Gilligan quoted from was written… six years ago,’ he says. “This is not evidence of extremist views actually being taught in the classroom.'”

“Leave aside that what should be ‘taught in the classroom’ was, in fact, the exact topic of the pamphlet. Leave aside that Mrs Ahmed has never repudiated her views. Leave aside even the absurdity of Mr Balls’ position (if supporters of the BNP — Hizb’s white equivalent – were running schools at public expense, I think we would be able to cut its funding without needing to prove that the children sing the Horst Wessel Song in class.)”

“Yet even without any of that, there is separate, and very compelling, evidence, of what is being taught at these schools – evidence which even the Minister for Hizb ut Tahrir might accept. It is the school’s curriculum (also, by the way, written by Farah Ahmed.) It’s been obtained and analysed by the think-tank, the Centre for Social Cohesion. And as their analysis shows, there are stiking parallels between what Hizb teaches its recruits – and Mrs Ahmed teaches her pupils.”

— Andrew Gilligan for The Spectator reports that:
— “The main evidence that Mr Balls has made a massive blunder is a chapter in a Hizb ut Tahrir pamphlet, ‘Education and Identity’, written by one Farah Ahmed. Mrs Ahmed is the head teacher of one of the two schools, and also a trustee of the Islamic Shakhsiyah Foundation (ISF), which runs them both. If I were a Muslim parent, I would not let my child within 20 miles of her.”
— “In her chapter ‘The Western Education System and the British National Curriculum’, Mrs Ahmed attacks the religious studies elements of the national curriculum for ‘primarily push[ing] …the idea of ‘religious tolerance’.’’This, she says, ‘’further aids distancing the Muslim child from the concept of Islam being the only reference point.’ ”
— “In another chapter, co-authored with Hizb ut Tahrir’s women’s spokesman, Dr Nazreen Nawaz, Mrs Ahmed goes into great detail about how the education system would work in Hizb ‘caliphate’, the global Islamic superstate that is the party’s ultimate goal. (By extraordinary coincidence, some of the same themes are found in the ISF schools’ own curriculum document.)”
— “But it is Hizb ut Tahrir which is the avowed enemy of multiculturalism — and is just as loathed by most British Muslims as the far right is loathed by most white people.”

Chicago: Anti-Democracy Hizb ut-Tahrir Group Event in Lombard, IL on December 20

Once again, another village in the Chicago suburbs will be the target of a public event by the anti-democracy, religious extremist organization Hizb ut-Tahrir on Sunday, December 20 – this time using a government-managed community center in Lombard, Illinois.

Hizb ut-Tahrir is an extreme group that is opposed to democracy and religious freedom, has called for the killing of Jews, recently called for whipping of homosexuals and stonings to combat AIDS, has reportedly called for the murder of a university official in Bangladesh, and in July distributed pamphlets in Chicago’s Oak Lawn suburb calling for the “death penalty” for those who leave Islam. Hizb ut-Tahrir is an international organization that according to a former member Ed Husain, Hizb ut-Tahrir calls for an “expansionist, violent, totalitarian Islamist state.” According to BBC and the Daily Telegraph, Hizb ut-Tahrir has been linked to calls for killing Jews and Hindus, radicalizing individuals to become suicide bombers, and according to the New Statesman has been linked to high-level terrorists.

Hizb ut-Tahrir's Banner: The Flag of the Extremist "Caliphate" — Hizb ut-Tahrir's Banner:

Hizb ut-Tahrir America is holding its latest group event in the Chicago suburban village of Lombard, Illinois on the subject “Crisis in Pakistan – Current Events & Future Direction.” Hizb ut-Tahrir America opposes the Pakistan government’s military efforts against the Taliban terrorists in Waziristan, which is a primary haven for both the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

Image from Hizb ut-Tahrir America's Web Site Promoting a Chicago Suburb Event on Pakistan on December 20

In July, the London Times reported on British members of Hizb ut-Tahrir that had been incited to go to Pakistan to seek to influence Pakistan military members and others to instigate a “coup” against the current Pakistan government. The London Times report described how Hizb ut-Tahrir members’ “aim was to subject Muslim and western countries to Islamic rule under sharia law, ‘by force’ if necessary”… where ” ‘every woman would have to cover up’ and stoning to death for adultery and the chopping off of thieves’ hands would be the law, he said.” The London Times report added that Hizb ut-Tahrir aims of “Islamic rule would be spread through ‘indoctrination’ and by ‘military means’ if non-Muslim countries refused to bow to it. ‘Waging war’ would be part of the caliphate’s foreign policy.”

Those seeking to be involved in violent Violent Extemism have been drawn to Pakistan, with five Americans from the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington DC arrested in Pakistan last week; according to CBS News, they sought to promote “jihad.” Hizb ut-Tahrir Pakistan’s manifesto calls for all male children at age 15 to get military “Violent Extemism training” (page 37).

From Page 37 of Hizb ut-Tahrir Pakistan's Manifesto - Calling for "Violent Extemism" Training for all male children 15 years of age

While the village of Lombard is promoting “Peace,” Hizb ut-Tahrir America seeks to use Lombard community facilities to incite Americans in Chicago with its perspective of events in Pakistan. Unlike July 2009, when Hizb ut-Tahrir America rented a private facility (Holiday Inn in Oak Lawn, IL), this time Hizb ut-Tahrir will be renting space from a public building from the Village of Lombard Parks District (similar to Hizb ut-Tahrir Canada’s approach in Mississauga, Canada in July 2009.)

Hizb ut-Tahrir America has rented the Lombard Community Building at 433 East St. Charles Road for their December 20, 2009 event from 5:00 to 6:30 PM Central Time. We are certain that the Village of Lombard Parks District and Lombard Government has no idea who and what Hizb ut-Tahrir is, nor would they even think to inquire. We urge readers to contact the Lombard government and media to make them aware of this.

Lombard Park, IL Govt-Managed Community Center -- where Hizb ut-Tahrir plans to meet on December 20 — Chicago suburb - Lombard, IL Govt-Managed Community Center -- where Hizb ut-Tahrir plans to meet on December 20

Like Hizb ut-Tahrir Canada’s use of a government facility for their event in July, Hizb ut-Tahrir America is counting on use of such government facilities to spread anti-democratic views and opposition to religious freedom by using smaller cities’ parks and recreation facilities, anticipating that there will be limited scrutiny to their applications for use of government facilities.

In recent weeks, a major United Kingdom university stopped the Hizb ut-Tahrir from using public university facilities for a debate. On December 10, BBC reported that attempts by the Hizb ut-Tahrir to hold a public event at Queen Mary College was canceled once the media reported about them. In their report BBC stated about Hizb ut-Tahrir that “A leaflet displayed on its website once urged Muslims to ‘kill [Jews] wherever you find them’.” A spokesman for Student Rights told BBC that “Hizb ut-Tahrir speakers have been known to condone suicide bombings and support Islamist movements which undertake terrorist acts such as Islamic Violent Extemism.”

In July 2009, Hizb ut-Tahrir America held an event at a Chicago suburban Oak Lawn Illinois Holiday Inn attacking democracy, promoting supremacism, and distributing pamphlets calling for the “death penalty” for those who commit the “treason” of leaving Islam (pamphlet pages 62 and 67). [This pamphlet “‘Islamic Reformation’ – Exposing the battle for hearts and minds” continues to be distributed by Hizb ut-Tahrir, through its “official” web site Khilafah.com, linked to Hizb ut-Tahrir America’s website promoting the December 20 event in Lombard, Illinois.]

Local Chicago media reported on the July 2009 Hizb ut-Tahrir event, as did national media such as FOX News, interviewing Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)‘s Jeffrey Imm on the subject on July 19 and July 20. R.E.A.L.’s Jeffrey Imm led an all-day, pro-democracy protest to Hizb ut-Tahrir’s Oak Lawn event, which drew between 30 and 50 attendees.Muslims such as Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD), reject the anti-democratic message of Hizb ut-Tahrir as a “Violent Extremist indoctrination group.” In AIFD’s comments regarding Hizb ut-Tahrir America’s July 2009 event in the Chicago Oak Lawn suburb, AIFD stated that:

“Hizb ut-Tahrir is an Islamist network that is committed to creating an Islamic Caliphate that spans the globe. The organization is banned in Germany and Russia as well as several Arab countries and targets Muslim children between the ages of 9 and 18. Many compare their efforts to organizations like the Hitler Youth. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, is counted among their alumnus.”

Dr. Jasser stated that “Hizb ut-Tahrir preaches an ideology that calls for the destruction of the principles that America is founded on.”

Others reported on the July 2009 Chicago Hizb ut-Tahrir event including the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT), led by former CNN analyst Steven Emerson, with reports stating “Anti-Semitic, Anti-Christian Propaganda on Display at Caliphate Conference,” and “Hizb Ut-Tahrir: Shariah Takes Precedence over U.S. Constitution.”

BBC television broadcast on its Panorama television show on the Hizb ut-Tahrir, interviewing a British “influential Muslim figure” who stated about Hizb ut-Tahrir to BBC: “I believe that if Hizb ut-Tahrir are not stopped at this stage and we continue to let them to politicize and pollute the youngsters’ minds and other gullible peoples minds, that what will happen in effect is that these terrorism acts and these suicide bombings that we hear going on around us in foreign countries, we will actually start seeing these incidents happening right outside our doorsteps.”

Clip from BBC Panorama TV Show on Hizb ut-Tahrir

Another Clip from BBC Panorama TV Show on Hizb ut-Tahrir

We support our unqualified, universal human rights for all. We urge Hizb ut-Tahrir supporters to drop the burden of the hate of supremacism from their hearts, and to rejoin the family of humanity in support of our universal human rights.

Resources for Additional Action and Research:

R.E.A.L.'s Jeffrey Imm Leads Protestors to Challenge Hizb ut-Tahrir

R.E.A.L. Postings referencing Hizb ut-Tahrir

World AIDS Day: Hizb ut-Tahrir Calls for Stonings, Whippings, Islamic Caliphate

National Post Describes Anti-Jewish Hizb ut-Tahrir’s Growth on College Campuses

Bangladesh: Anti-Freedom Group Hizb ut-Tahrir Threatens to Murder University Official

UK: Hizb ut-Tahrir Anti-Democracy Group Schools Receive Government Funding

White House Adviser Joins UK Interview with Anti-Democratic Hizb ut-Tahrir Group

Extremist Hizb ut-Tahrir Event Promoted with Beheaded Statue of Liberty

UK: Press Reports of “Furious Residents” over Extremist Hizb ut-Tahrir Conference

Canada: Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) Group to Meet in Govt-Managed Community Center

UK: Hizb ut-Tahrir Group Claims Thousands Attend London Conference, Plans August 2 Birmingham Conference

Chicago’s Moment of Freedom: Chicagoans Stand Up for Freedom Challenging Hizb ut-Tahrir

July 19 – Chicago: R.E.A.L. Pro-Freedom Protest to Challenge Hizb ut-Tahrir America Conference

Lombard Govt and Media Contacts

Village of Lombard, Illinois Government
— Email: info@villageoflombard.org
— List of Lombard Contacts

Lombard Park District
— Telephone Number: 630-620-7322
— Email: info@lombardparks.com
— Contacts

Lombard Media:

The Lombardian, which publishes Wednesday, 1-630-627-7010 , Email: lombardian@sbcglobal.net
E.A.MacKay Enterprises, 116 S. Main Street, Lombard, IL 60148, Speak Out!: 1-630-629-TALK

Lombard Spectator, 1101 W. 31st St., Suite 100 Lombard, IL 60148
— Submit News to Lombard Spectator
— SuburbanLife Twitter

Black Flag of Caliphate

Background:

Hizb ut-Tahrir Pamphlet distributed in America events calling for the “death penalty” for those who leave Islam – page 62 and 67 – “‘Islamic Reformation’ – Exposing the battle for hearts and minds”

Hizb ut-Tahrir Manifesto at Hizb ut-Tahrir web site “Universal Islam” — alternate link

Hizb ut-Tahrir’s “The System of Islam (Nidham ul Islam)” by HT Founder Taqiuddin an-Nabahani

Hizb ut-Tahrir’s Pakistan Manifesto (page 37 calls for every male child aged 15 to have “Violent Extemism” training)

Responsible for Equality And Liberty: “Why We Challenge Hizb ut Tahrir”

Hizb ut-Tahrir Logo

Related Articles on Hizb-ut-Tahrir

— July 4, 2009 – London Times: “British Islamists plot against Pakistan”
— Hizb ut-Tahrir calls for “the creation of the caliphate in which strict Islamic laws would be rigorously enforced”
— “Tayyib Muqeem, an English teacher from Stoke-on-Trent, said he had moved to Lahore to convert Pakistanis to the movement.”
— “At Lahore’s Superior College, where Muqeem has set up a Hizb ut-Tahrir student group, he said the organisation’s aim was to subject Muslim and western countries to Islamic rule under sharia law, ‘by force’ if necessary”
— “In a caliphate, ‘every woman would have to cover up’ and stoning to death for adultery and the chopping off of thieves’ hands would be the law, he said”
— “He added that Islamic rule would be spread through ‘indoctrination’ and by ‘military means’ if non-Muslim countries refused to bow to it. ‘Waging war’ would be part of the caliphate’s foreign policy.”

— June 18, 2009: Hizb ut-Tahrir America Enters Public Stage – by Madeleine Gruen

— Hizb ut-Tahrir: Islam’s Political Insurgency, by Zeyno Baran

— Hizb-ut-Tahrir’s Activities in the United States — by Madeleine Gruen
—- “Its membership has swelled, putting on track its objective of persuading the global ummah that the establishment of a caliphate”

— Hizb ut-Tahrir in North America – by Andrew Cochran

— “Hizb-ut-Tahrir wants worldwide Sharia law”

— Hizb ut Tahrir London meeting: an eyewitness report

— At massive rally, Hizb ut-Tahrir calls for a global Muslim state

— Thousands call for Caliphate at Indonesian meet

— Islamists launch PR ‘war’ against Western values — Hizb ut-Tahrir

— “I know how these terrorists are inspired” — about Hizb ut-Tahrir

— BBC: Hizb ut Tahrir
— “Hizb Ut Tahrir or HT is an Islamic splinter group, which is banned in many countries around the world. It operates freely in Britain.”
— “But Newsnight has discovered that its website promotes racism and anti-Semitic hatred, calls suicide bombers martyrs, and urges Muslims to kill Jewish people.”
— “The party has expressed support of suicide bombings in Israel. It denounces Western governments and what it sees as their lackey regimes in the Middle East.”
— “In Denmark, HT’s spokesman has been found guilty of distributing racist propaganda.”

— BBC Video Report on Hizb ut-Tahrir

— April 2008 – Daily Telegraph: “Islamists ‘urge young Muslims to use violence'”
— “Hizb ut Tahrir, which wants to overthrow democracy and establish a worldwide Islamic theocracy, distributed leaflets to young Muslims inciting them to resist the occupation of Islamic lands, according to a TV documentary by a former group member.”
— “One leaflet read: ‘Your forefathers destroyed the first crusader campaigns. Should you not proceed like them and destroy the new crusaders?'”
— “‘Let the armies move to help the Muslims in Iraq, for they seek your help.’ Another leaflet, handed out last August, pours scorn on the UN and tells followers to embark on a Violent Extemism, or ‘holy war’.”
— “The Panorama documentary contains the first testimony indicating it has advocated the use of force. The group has been accused of fuelling terrorism in the past, but has always denied involvement in any form of violent activity.”
— “Omar Shariff, the first UK suicide bomber, who blew himself up in a Tel Aviv bar in 2003, is alleged to have been radicalised by Hizb ut Tahrir.”
— “Panorama has also uncovered a speech made in August last year by Ata Abu-Rishta, the global leader of Hizb ut Tahrir, when he called for the “destruction” of Hindus living in Kashmir, Russians in Chechnya and Jews in Israel.”
— “‘The Caliphate (global Islamic government) will liberate the countries and the people from the influence of the Kafer (non-believer) and its allies and the tyranny of its men and followers,’ he said.”
— “Rishta also spoke recently at its annual conference in Jakarta, Indonesia, where, as video footage in the Panorama expose shows, he whipped the 100,000-strong crowd into a frenzy by calling for a war on Jews. Saleem Atchia, a senior member of Hizb ut Tahrir UK, later made a firebrand speech from the same platform.”
— “Maher, a former friend of the bombers who tried to blow up Glasgow Airport in June and the organisation’s north-east ‘director’ until he left in 2005, claims its aims are the same the world over.”
— “He says its British disciples believe they will eventually fight on these shores.”
— “‘Hizb ut Tahrir despises democracy and believes Shariah law must be imposed over the whole world, by force if necessary,’ he said.”
— “‘I think unless we challenge this we are sleepwalking into a very dangerous future.'”

— Wikipedia on Hizb ut-Tahrir’s Position on Terrorism

— UK Guardian: “leaflets handed out by Hizb ut-Tahrir supporters in Copenhagen which claimed suicide bombings in Israel were ‘legitimate’ acts of ‘martyrdom'”

— U.S. Government position on Hizb ut-Tahrir

— Australian Herald Sun: “Aussies called to jihad”

Hizb ut-Tahrir promotion for Caliphate conference shows "beheaded" Statue of Liberty and "burning" NYC

December 10: Human Rights Day Videos

Online videos of National Press Club addresses on Human Rights Day, December 10, 2009:

Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) – Jeffrey Imm
— Jeffrey Imm – Online Video – Part 1 – Our Universal Human Rights
— Jeffrey Imm – Online Video – Part 2 – Our Responsibility for Equality And Liberty
— Jeffrey Imm – Online Video – Part 3 – The Supremacist Challenge to Human Rights
— Jeffrey Imm – Online Video – Part 4 – Why Love is The Answer to All Supremacist Hate

Pakistan Christian Congress – Dr. Nazir Bhatti
— Dr. Nazir Bhatti – Online Video – Part 1
— Dr. Nazir Bhatti – Online Video – Part 2

Falun Gong – Lisa Tao and Pang Jin

— Lisa Tao and Pang Jin – Online Video – Part 1
— Lisa Tao and Pang Jin – Online Video – Part 2
— Lisa Tao and Pang Jin – Online Video – Part 3

Epoch Times: “International Human Rights Day – Comments Made At National Press Club”

Epoch Times: “International Human Rights Day – Comments Made At National Press Club”

The Epoch Times
December 12, 2009
By Gary Feuerberg
Epoch Times Staff
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/26390/

Jeffrey Imm, from Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.), said nations and individuals should uphold the principles of equality and liberty. (Lisa Fan/Epoch Times)

WASHINGTON — International Human Rights Day, December 10, received scant world attention this year, apart from a handful of people and cities around the globe. In the nation’s capital, a few people spoke at a forum at the National Press Club, using this occasion to call attention to what they said were particularly egregious violations of human rights.

Sixty-one years ago, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was adopted and proclaimed by the General Assembly of the United Nations, following the horrors and human tragedies associated with World War II and the Holocaust.

“Universal human rights” has become an accepted concept that encompasses all nations, religions and elasticities. Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, said last year that the UDHR acknowledged the “inherent dignity and equality of all human beings.”

On Dec 10, we not only remember to support universal human rights, “but also we remember those who have denied them, including totalitarian and supremacist nations and ideologies of the world…,” said Jeffrey Imm, representing “Responsible for Equality and Liberty (R.E.A.L.),” which sponsored the event held at the National Press Club.

R.E.A.L., consisting of all volunteers from the U.S. Canada, UK, and Europe, is a new organization that started this year. R.E.A.L. also sponsored a public meeting acknowledging human rights day in Nuremberg, Germany as well as private meetings in Chicago and Los Angeles. [edit: note I stated New York, not Chicago].

Many Islamic countries in violation of universal human rights

Individuals and nations violate universal human rights when they don’t make “equality and liberty” their number one priority, according to Imm. This is a high standard to meet in today’s world. This forum focused on two major violators of universal human rights: the governments of Moslem majority countries enforcing religious or Sharia law, and totalitarian communist China.

Two countries mentioned most frequently in this event, Pakistan and China, were declared by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), as Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) — a list of 13 nations that are the worst offenders of religious freedom. Egypt, also mentioned often, is on the Commission’s “Watch List.”

The use of blasphemy laws against Christians in Pakistan beginning in the 1980s has damaged the harmony among religious communities, according to Nazir Bhatti, President of Pakistan Christian Congress. Bhatti cited more than 7000 cases of these laws that occurred from 1984 to 2009. “Thirty-two [persons] accused of blasphemy were murdered in jails, police lockups or in streets by hands of radical Islamic elements,” said Bhatti.

Pakistan was declared an Islamic Republic in 1973, and their constitution and legislation proclaimed Pakistan to be home to Muslims only, according to Bhatti. The USCIRF states that Pakistan’s blasphemy laws “commonly involve false accusations and result in the lengthy detention of and violence against Ahmadis, Christians, Hindus, and Muslims on account of their religious beliefs.”

In the 1980s, amendments were added to the blasphemy laws that imposed capital punishment, said Bhatti. Apparently, the law may influence public opinion. Imm cited a Pew Global Research poll conducted in Pakistan last Aug, which found that 78 percent believe in the death penalty for those who made the choice to leave Islam.

“The blasphemy law was used by the Muslim majority in Pakistan to settle personal disputes and business rivalries against Christians…after 1986, said Bhatti. Christian villages “were attacked by Muslim mobs and hundreds of homes set on fire.” He cited 10 towns where the churches were attacked and worshippers gunned down. The Holy Bibles were desecrated, pastors were gunned down and moreover children and women were burnt alive,” said Bhatti. He would like to see the rppeal of the blasphemy laws and the Sharia law on the 20 million Pakistani Christians.

No less incensed by the imposition of Sharia law was Ashraf Ramelah, President of Voice of the Copts, and an Egyptian. He spoke on behalf of Christians of Egypt (known as Copts). “We demand an end to kidnapping minor Christian girls, forcing them to convert to Islam. Those girls are often raped and tortured using inhuman techniques by Muslim extremists.”

Ramelah said: “Any crime committed against a Coptic woman[in Egypt] is treated without morality, conscience and legal deterrence….In examining what happened only in [Egyptian President Hosni] Mubarak’s era, it’s effortless to point out no single kidnapper was brought to justice, in spite of the gravity of the crime and its frequency.”

Ramelah charged that the reason that nothing is done and why there is no official count of the number of girls harmed is due to the complicity on the part of Egyptian law enforcement and the kidnappers.

Imm expressed his strong disapproval of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) — an organization of 57 nations with mostly Moslem majorities — when in 1990, it created the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam (CDHRI). Imm said the CDHRI is an attack on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Bhatti said the adoption of the CDHRI was expressing “no confidence in UDHR” and the supremacy of Sharia law.

“[The OIC] made a conscious decision to deny our unqualified universal human rights, other than those rights allowed by interpretations of Islamic Sharia law,” said Imm.

Recently, the OIC has attempted to pass at the UN a “defamation of religion” resolution, which Leonard A. Leo, chair of USCIRF, called an attempt to “create a global blasphemy law.” Leo said on Oct. 24 that this resolution really “promotes intolerance” and would be used to empowered repressive governments and religious extremists to suppress and punish members of minority religions and sects.

Many of the OIC nations were signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), which is a document that applies UDHR principles to children. These OIC countries are on record expressing “reservations” on those rights, according to Imm.

“We have seen a growing problem of child marriages, arranged marriages, and ‘honor killing’ violence in many of these nations that claim to be advocates of children’s rights. …Somalia is a nation where a 13-year-old girl has been publicly stoned to death as punishment by an Islamic Sharia so-called court for being the victim of gang rape. But an epidemic of violence against children is also found in many other OIC countries,” said Imm.

Falun Gong practitioners share experiences of Chinese Communist torture

A local Falun Dafa practitioner, Lisa Tao, discussed some of the ordeals she and other practitioners suffered when they lived in Communist China. Ms. Tao grew up in China and lived through the Great Cultural Revolution, when her father and four other members of her family were killed.

“I was also frequently beaten and many times I was close to being beaten to death,” said Tao. Tao was “guilty” of being born into a wealthy family which the communist regime targeted for special humiliations and punishments.

Lisa Tao (l) and Jin Pang (r) spoke about torture and deaths by the Chinese Communist Party. (Jenny Jing/Epoch Times)

After immigrating to the United States, Ms. Tao became a practitioner of Falun Gong, which China has persecuted since 1999. Tao has become involved in daily protests at the Chinese Embassy in Washington.

Tao brought with her to the conference evidence in the form of real people who suffered under the current Chinese regime or are relatives of such persons. Tao introduced Ms. Quiying Wang, who was sent to a labor camp for practicing Falun Gong.

“One day in June 2000 at the Tuanhe Deployment Center in Beijing, police ordered her to take off all her clothes and squat in the sun, from 10 a.m. in the morning until 11. p.m. In the days that followed, she was also forced to stand still from 5 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., 17 hours everyday, for nine days,” said Tao.

Tao introduced Jin Pang, who said that her mother and aunt were sentenced in October 2008 to 10 and 9 years, respectively, for practicing Falun Gong. Ms. Pang described the interrogation when her mother was arrested in August 2008 during the Beijing Olympics. Over10,000 Falun Gong practitioners were arrested before and during the Olympics, according to the Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group, not because the regime was concerned about practitioners interfering with the Olympics, but so it could use the Olympics as a pretext to intensify its persecution of Falun Gong.

Pang said her mother’s interrogation in the Weifang detention center lasted five days. “Six people took turns to interrogate her. During these 100 plus hours, she was not allowed to close her eyes even for a second, and if she did, they would pour cold or hot water on her. They also forced her to continually sit on an iron chair. She was tortured so badly that she lost control of her bowels,” said Pang. They stopped for a day and then resumed the torture for another three nights.

“The Chinese Communist regime is a devil,” said Tao. “Its destructive nature can never change. As long as it exists, it will not stop killing. This persecution can be stopped only if the [Communist] Party dissolves.”
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Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)
https://www.realcourage.org

In Washington DC, R.E.A.L. held a press conference at the National Press Club, which included speakers:

* Jeffrey Imm, Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.), on women’s and children’s rights, the dual challenge of religious extremism and freedom, the challenges to human liberty by totalitarian ideologies, and growing challenges to racial equality by supremacists
— Jeffrey Imm Human Rights Day Remarks: Adobe Acobat format, Microsoft Word format

* Dr. Nazir Bhatti, Pakistan Christian Congress, on Pakistan’s blasphemy law, threats, attacks, and killings of Christian religious minorities in Pakistan
— Dr. Nazir S. Bhatti remarks: “US administration urged to condition Pakistan Aid with Repeal of Blasphemy Law”

* Ashraf Ramelah, The Voice of the Copts, on the suppression of Christian religious minorities in Egypt, including kidnapping and forced conversion of Coptic Christian women and girls
— Ashraf Ramelah Remarks: “Suppression of Christian religious minorities in Egypt”

* Lisa Tao, Falun Dafa (Falun Gong), on human rights atrocities against the Falun Gong over the past 10 years in Communist China (in Chinese with English Interpreter).
— Lisa Tao Human Rights Day Remarks: Microsoft Word format (English), Microsoft Word format (Chinese)