“Two Sikhs who were kidnapped for ransom were found beheaded by the Pakistani Taliban in Pakistan’s restive tribal belt in yet another brutal act by the militants.”
“Some more members of the minority community are still in the custody of the rebels. The body of Jaspal Singh was found in the Khyber tribal region, located a short distance from the provincial capital of Peshawar, while the body of Mahal Singh was found in the Aurakzai Agency, sources told PTI on Satrurday night.”
“There was some confusion about the total number of Sikhs who were kidnapped for ransom from the Bara area of Khyber Agency by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.”
“A source said four Sikhs were abducted while another report said the total number of kidnapped persons was six. The Sikhs were kidnapped 34 days ago and the Taliban had demanded Rs 30 million as ransom for their release.”
“Two of the kidnapped Sikhs were beheaded after the expiry of the deadline for the payment of the ransom, sources said.”
Thailand: Buddhist Teacher shot dead, torched by Muslim insurgents in Pattani
— Thailand’s The Nation reports:
— “A Buddhist teacher was shot dead and his body was torched by Muslim insurgents in this southern border province Monday afternoon.”
— “Police said Samrit Phandej, 52, was shot dead on the Karubi-Plong Hoi Road in Buanaera village in Tambon Plong Hoi of Kapho district at 4:30 pm.”
— “Samrit taught at the Ban Bango Yimeng School. He came from Yala’s Muang district to teach at the school.”
— “Police said Samrit was riding his motorcycle from the school to return home all alone and was shot by a pillion rider, using an AK-47 assault rifle.”
The two insurgents then poured petrol over the teacher’s body and set fire before fleeing the scene.
More reports of the supremacist hate and violence from the Taliban in Pakistan reported from Associated Press today.
— AP reports: “The tribal elder who provided the footage said the man was being punished for allegedly “working against the Taliban” by speaking out against the militants. The second victim appears to be a teenage boy, who the tribal elder said was being blamed for not growing a beard. The third victim was said to be punished for not praying.”
— “A crowd of men and boys watched the beatings, mostly in silence.”
Pakistan: Clip from Video of Taliban Beating Child (Photo: MSNBC)
— AP also reports: “The video was shot on a mobile phone on Feb. 3 and passed to a local journalist who occasionally provides video to Associated Press Television News. The man who provided the clip said it was taken in the Mamozai area of the Orakzai tribal region, though there was no way of verifying that because travel there is dangerous for outsiders. The tribal elder requested anonymity out of fear for his life.”
— “The Taliban are known to beat people in areas they control if they are suspected of criminal acts, spying or violating the militants’ ultra-strict interpretation of Islamic law. People accused of serious crimes are often reportedly killed.”
— “Egyptian activists have protested in front of parliament and called for legislation giving Christians equal rights as Muslims to build houses of worship.”
— “The demonstrators, both Muslim and Christian, were also protesting Wednesday against the sectarian strains in the country, particularly in light of a Christmas Eve slaying of six Copts and a Muslim guard outside a church in southern Egypt.”
— “The government has maintained that sectarian harmony reigns in Egypt and said the Jan. 6 attack had no religious dimension.”
— “Muslims need a municipal permit to build mosques. But Copts must get their papers signed by the president.”
Turkmenistan: Worship without state registration “illegal”
— Forum 18 reports: “Turkmenistan continues to raid Protestants meeting for worship in different parts of the country, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. One such raid was led by Turkmenistan’s former Chief Mufti, Rovshen Allaberdiev, who is now imam of Dashoguz Region as well as being the senior regional Gengeshi (Council) for Religious Affairs official. Allaberdiev and accompanying officials confiscated Christian books during the raid, including personal Bibles. All 22 people present were taken to a local government building, questioned and pressured to sign statements not to attend the church in future.”
— “Forum 18 has also learnt that a Protestant church in another town faced pressure from the local imam (and state Gengeshi official) in late December 2009 about the same time as the Path of Faith congregation in Dashoguz.”
Indonesia: Two Churches Forced to Close in Indonesia
— Compass News reports: “Local governments have ordered the closure of two churches on Indonesia’s Java island.:
— “Under pressure from Islamist groups, authorities ordered Christian Baptist Church in Sepatan, Tangerang district, Banten Province to cease services. In Pondok Timur, near Bekasi in West Java, officials abruptly closed the Huria Christian Protestant Batak Church (HKBP) after delaying a building permit for four years.”
— “Tangerang district authorities issued a decree on Jan. 21 ordering all worship activities to cease at the Baptist church. At a meeting in the district offices, officials pressured church officials to sign a statement that they would stop all worship activities, but they refused.”
Many years ago as a small boy on vacation with my parents I saw a sign in Virginia Beach that I couldn’t understand. So I asked my parents what it meant. It was a sign in front of a hotel that read “white clientele only.” I didn’t get it. Why would a business turn away others simply because of their race?
When it was explained to me, that was when I first realized that I had to find a way to fight against supremacism. Only I didn’t know it as “supremacism” back then, I just knew it as “hate,” and I knew it was wrong. It is funny how children have a knack at being able to see the world clearly.
I have tried to struggle against supremacism in many ways over the years in various political campaigns, social activism campaigns, and now with my organization Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.). For me, the struggle against supremacism is a struggle against ideologies of hate; too often such ideologies are organized, structured, and institutionalized against others simply because of their identity. Such a struggle against ideologies of hate starts first in our own hearts and in our own mirrors. But when it comes to rejecting ideologies of hate, our personal accountability does not just end with ourselves, our friends, and our families.
When it comes to ideologies of hate, it extends beyond ourselves and our associates to our communities, our cities, our states, our nation, and our world.
Ideologies of supremacist hate are a contagious virus. They don’t stop at our lips, at our doorstep, or at our computer keyboards. The virus of such hate has a destructive life of its own. All it ever needs to spread is the gentlest push. It really doesn’t matter if that push is a supremacist view towards others because of their race or their religion. Supremacism is supremacism, and hate is hate.
Long before 9/11, I was struggling against the hate ideologies of supremacism. But like many Americans, the 2001 attacks provided a wake-up call for me on other forms of hate ideologies. But even then, I wasn’t just addressing extremist hate against others, but I wasalso addressing the threat of racial supremacist hate.
In my view, such ideologies of hate have a lot in common. In June 2008, reportedly with Nidal Hasan in attendance, I made that case at the George Washington University, and have addressed the same parallels in conferences around the nation. Such supremacist ideologies share the same hate, and share the same lie that belittles people of other identities by those who view themselves as inherently superior human beings over others and who view that they have superior human rights. I believe “these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” Without such fundamental human rights of equality, America has proven in its own history, that we cannot have liberty. We cannot have universal human rights, if some have “superior” human rights over others by virtue of their race, religion, gender, or national origin. That is why we must be consistently responsible for both equality and liberty.
A year later, in July 2009, I led a protest against the anti-democracy, anti-liberty, and anti-equality organization Hizb ut-Tahrir in Chicago, which held a national conference at the Hilton Hotel in Oak Lawn, Illinois. As they stated in their own conference, Hizb ut-Tahrir seeks to impose a global “supremacy of Islam” and seeks to develop a global “caliphate” that could impose its will upon those who have different faiths and different beliefs. Hizb ut-Tahrir passed out brochures calling for the “death penalty” for those “traitors” who left Islam. I led the protest there for the same reason I have led every protest against other supremacist groups and ideologies – to reject hate, and to promote our universal human rights of equality and liberty for all people of every religion, every race, every gender, and every national origin.
We cannot be responsible for equality and liberty, and only reject just those supremacist ideologies that are convenient for us. Consistency matters when rejecting the hate of supremacist ideologies, regardless of their source. At our July 2009 Chicago protest, we made a specific point of this with a sign that read “extremism is no different than racial supremacism.”
Of course, if we accept that, then the reverse of this is also true and “racial supremacism is no different than extremism.”
I am aware that too many seem to find this obvious fact to be too inconvenient for their liking, their associations, and even for their politics. But you can’t have it both ways. You can’t agree to one, and drag your feet on the other. That is what “no different” means. If we can’t stand for equality among our racial identities, then who are we to lecture others on other forms of supremacism? Equality starts with ourselves. We are responsible for setting an example to others that defy our universal human rights of equality and liberty.
You can’t be willing to support equality… just sometimes. Equality is not about “sometimes.” Equality is about “all the time.” That is the point of equality. “Partial equality” is no equality.
So when I and other supporters of Responsible for Equality And Liberty havechallenged the upcoming American Renaissance“white nationalist”conference planned for the DC area in February 2010, we are not doing anything different than we did in Chicago in July 2009. Our motivations are the same. Our agenda is the same. Our actions are the same. Our consistent commitment to equality and liberty is the same.
You may not know much about the American Renaissance. It is led by Jared Taylor, who calls himself a “white nationalist,” and whose goal is “a white America,” and whose organization campaigns for “the United States [to] remain majority-white.” The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) lists it as a “white nationalist hate group.” The Anti Defamation League (ADL) describes its views as “white supremacist.” The American Renaissance hosts articles belittling the intelligence of black Americans, makes racial comments about “genetic interests,” rails against “racial heresies,” promotes books on “why race matters,” and blames black Americans for the “color of crime.” This group has a biannual conference, this year scheduled for February 2010 in the Washington DC area. The conference draws various white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and others. Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke has previously appeared, and Nazi white supremacist Stormfront leader Don Black regularly appears. Don Black claims to have known Jared Taylor for over 20 years. In addition, British National Party leader Nick Griffin is a featured speaker at this year’s conference; Griffin has previously called the Holocaust – “the Holohoax.”
Just like we contacted the Hilton Hotel about Hizb ut-Tahrir’s Chicago conference, we also contacted the Dulles Marriott and then the Dulles Westin about the American Renaissance conference scheduled for February 2010 in the Washington DC area. The only difference is that this time someone listened to us. American Renaissance has a long, well-publicized, and well-documented history of racial supremacist statements derogatory towards black Americans. But it uses a 501c3 organization called the New Century Foundation in setting up such events that few realize is the same as the American Renaissance group. Once the Dulles Marriott and the Dulles Westin hotels learned this, however, even in this difficult economy, both hotels canceled the American Renaissance conferences. Jared Taylor claims to be planning to reschedule his event at another location.
Not unlike Hizb ut-Tahrir, law enforcement agencies monitor the American Renaissance group as well. At a minimum, hotels deserve to know what type of security issues that they are getting into when they host either a Hizb ut-Tahrir or an American Renaissance supremacist conference.
Stormfront Member Criticizes R.E.A.L.'s Protest of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Chicago
Those who promote supremacist hate – of any kind – are not on the side of equality and liberty in any instance.
The American Renaissance conference in DC is also promoted by “white nationalist”Jared Taylor prominently on the VDARE website, where Taylor brags that he will use the conference to laugh at the value of human diversity. Some claim that the VDARE organization is focused on issues of illegal immigration, and this allows them to rationalize the racial supremacist hatred on VDARE by those who also mock the intelligence of black Americans, and who promote “white nationalism.”
I have heard from some that believe that their political views allow them to rationalize linking to VDARE contributors and authors. I have heard from some that claim to be against jihad that believe they can justify defending VDARE’s promotion of “white nationalists.” I have heard from some that believe that we must “look the other way” when some who challenge jihad are willing to attend events sponsored by groups linked to “white nationalists.”
But in every case, they have missed the point. The generational war of ideas that we face against supremacism will not be won by a few conferences, by military surges, by body scans, by profiling, by alerts, by trials, and by either our law enforcement or our military. The generational struggle for our consistent, unqualified universal human rights will not be successful by only being willing to condemn some forms of ideological hate, and giving others a free pass.
We won’t begin this struggle until we conclude that we must be consistently responsible for equality and liberty. That is where the war of ideas begins – not with attacks on human diversity or seeking to defend only a “western culture” – but by setting an example of what we believe in – not just for us, but for all human beings around the world. That is what it means to be Responsible for Equality And Liberty.
It is easy to recognize the near-term activist resource limitations that we have. But our struggle is not just for the near-term, but for the long-term. Our most vital priority is consistency. Our most precious resource is credibility. We cannot win this struggle by merely being a “special interest group,” hoping to win a few battles here and there. We need to tap into the larger consensus within America that holds “these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” We need to work with the global consensus of our fellow human beings who accept our universal human rights for all.
To do so, we need to set an example to the world.
Our February 19, 2010 protest against white supremacism in Washington DC is no less important than our July 19, 2009 protest in Chicago against extremism. If you are committed to being responsible for equality and liberty, this is your fight too, and this is an opportunity for you to demonstrate the courage of your convictions.
In regards to challenging the DC white supremacist conference, some will say that they are too busy. Others will say that this is not their fight. Still others are simply afraid. We need to be consistent in our courage – if we have the convictions to challenge extremists, then we must have the same convictions to challenge racial supremacists as well.
We need to fear no evil.
Such evil can surely be found in the virus of supremacist hatred that counts on the lie that some have superior human rights over others — a dark lie that cannot countenance the truth of human equality and liberty in the broad daylight of human reason and love for our fellow human beings.
No matter what your race, your religion, your national origin, or your gender is – we share a common cause – our shared universal human rights.
