— COMPASS News reports: “Muslim Extremists Attack Worship Service in Uganda” — “Church member taking photos beaten, building damaged.”
— “About 40 Muslim extremists with machetes and clubs tried to break into a Sunday worship service outside Uganda’s capital city of Kampala on Nov. 1, leaving a member of the congregation with several injuries and damaging the church building.”
— “Eyewitnesses said the extremist mob tried to storm into World Possessor’s Church International in Namasuba at 11 a.m. as the church worshipped.”
Christians examine damage to their church outside of Kampala, Uganda. (COMPASS Direct News)
Experts on China’s One Child Policy to Testify in Congressional Hearing
November 8, 2009
WASHINGTON, D.C.–As President Obama prepares to visit China this week, concerned organizations will raise their voices against China’s One Child per Couple Policy this Tuesday, November 10, 2009:
What: An Evaluation of 30-Years of the One-Child Policy in China
“The Chinese Communist Party states that it has “prevented 400 million births” through its One Child Policy–greater than the entire population of the United States. The Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission hearing this Tuesday will present new evidence that many of these births have been “prevented” through forced abortion, involuntary sterilization, and infanticide.
Because of the traditional preference for boys, sex selective abortion is practiced. Indeed, in some areas of China, 130 boys are born for every 100 girls. Because of this “gendercide, ” there are now an estimated 37 million Chinese men who will never marry, because there aren’t enough women. This gender imbalance is a powerful, driving force behind human trafficking and sexual slavery in China and the surrounding countries.
On April 22, 2009, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated that coercive family planning in China is “absolutely unacceptable.” Whether pro-life or pro-choice, no one supports forced abortion–because it is negates the power of choice. Rather, the One Child Policy causes more violence toward women and girls than any other official policy on earth.”
–Reggie Littlejohn, Womens Rights Without Frontiers.
Join Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, ChinaAid, and the following concerned expert panelists for this pivotal hearing hosted by the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission. See the Official Hearing Announcement issued November 6, 2009.
* Toy Reid, Congressional-Executive Commission on China
* Reggie Littlejohn, Women’s Rights Without Frontiers
* Annie Jing Zhang, Women’s Rights in China
* Nicholas Eberstadt, American Enterprise Institute
* Rebiya Kadeer, Uyghur-American Association
* Harry Wu, Laogai Research Foundation
* Jiang Tianyong, Beijing Global Law Firm
If you have any questions, please contact Elizabeth Hoffman at (202) 225-3599.
MEDIA OPPORTUNITY: PRESS CONFERENCE AT 12:15 PM
Meet the speakers and take advantage of photo opportunities at the Press Conference, to be held at 12:15 PM, in Room 2318, Rayburn House office building. Both events are open to the public.
In Arizona, a week ago today, 20 year old woman Noor Almaleki died.
Some have reported that her murder by her father was another instance of unfortunate domestic violence. But the fact is that her murder was another instance of an ideological violence against women that we must challenge as a threat to our universal human rights here and around the world.
20 Year Old Noor Almaleki – Died on November 2, 2009 – A Victim of An Ideological Violence Against Women
Such acts of violence against women based on an ideology are more than “isolated incidents.” Such ideological violence is a human rights challenge that defies our universal human rights. Many seek to dismiss an ideological femicide to oppress women by explaining away such violence based on ignorance, cultural backwardness, or “tribal traditions.” Moreover, others point to the fact that “honor killings” are also performed by other identity groups around the world, which is absolutely true.
But in the case of the murder of Noor Almaleki on November 2, the family repeatedly told members of the Arizona press that the reason why her father murdered her had to do with his religious extremist views on what they called “traditional Muslim values.” This was the reason explained for her father’s willingness to murder her.
We ask CNN to review this story and report all of the facts so that the public can be informed, and so that others can challenge the Almaleki family’s allegations that “traditional Muslim values” prohibit freedom for women, including Noor Almaleki.
Extremist-rationalized “honor killings” are different than other domestic violence and violence against women, and until the basis for such ideological violence against women is recognized and discussed, we cannot prevent such violence from continuing and spreading. We must call for the mainstream media to start connecting the dots and doing the research on the ideological basis behind such violence and report this to the American people.
There is a distinct and global misogynist extremist challenge to women that we repeatedly see from those who rationalize such misogyny with an extremist ideology towards human rights. We cannot continue to ignore the ideological basis behind such extremist violence. Over and over, the perpetrators and those involved with such violence make reference specifically to extremist views towards human rights.
Such ideological “honor killings” are not crimes of passion or crimes of tribal tradition. They are acts of ideological violence intended to remind women of their position of servitude and submission to those extremists who believe they are women’s “masters.” As we call for the improvement for human rights for all women around the world, as Americans we must also demand that the truth be told about those who seek to promote ideological hate and oppression against women in our country today. We must continue to demand that our media report on this issue to inform our citizens and to put pressure on our government to take action – to demand that such ideological violence against women ends.
When we see other ideological violence intended to provoke fear and intimidate others, we have a name for it: “terrorism.” We won’t see such ideological violence and oppression against women addressed by counterterrorism organizations – that focus on who, what, where, and when – but have decided to leave the issue of why regarding ideological violence occurs… to someone else.
That someone else is us. That is our challenge in being Responsible for Equality And Liberty – to speak for those who can’t speak any more and to speak for the oppressed who live in fear to speak out for their universal human rights — including those in America today. Noor Almaleki’s friends feared speaking to reporters for fear of what would happen to them. That is the terrorism against women – too common around the world – that continues to find its way to America. This is the same terrorism against women that our news media refuses to effectively report on. The is the same terrorism against women that our government refuses to act on. We must demand that our media recognize such terrorism against women for what it is and to recognize and defy those extremist ideologies that seek our silence.
— Jakarta Post: “Aceh Shariah Police Chase the ‘Immoral'”
— Jakarta Post reports: “The young couple is totally busted. They sit at a beach-side park, near signs forbidding teens from sitting too close. He has his arm around her shoulder. She isn’t wearing her jilbab , the traditional Islamic head scarf.”
— “Just like that, the morality cops are in their face.”
— ” ‘You two aren’t married, right?’ asks Syafruddin, the rail-thin leader of the six-man patrol, standing stiffly, one hand behind his back. ‘So you shouldn’t sit next to one another.’ ”
— “He separates the two and confiscates their IDs. Later, he says the team will open an investigation of the couple, especially given that the young man lied, at first insisting the girl was his sister.”
— ” ‘We want to see how far this relationship has progressed,’ Syafruddin says. ‘What they were doing could have led to something sexual.’ ”
— “The team is known as ‘the vice and virtue patrol,’ on the beat in Aceh, the only province in Indonesia to employ Islamic law for its criminal code. The laws were introduced in 2002 after the Indonesian region was granted autonomy as part of efforts to end a decades-long guerrilla war.”
— “The Shariah police consider themselves the community’s public conscience. And on their weekly patrol, they take seriously their role of enforcing the religious strictures.”
— “Now their mission may become more deadly serious.”
— “In September, Aceh’s provincial legislature passed a law saying married people who commit adultery can be sentenced to death by stoning. It also toughened public caning laws, adding more lashes for gays, pedophiles and gamblers.”
— “The new law, which still requires the approval of the provincial governor, has outraged human rights groups, who say the code unfairly targets women and violates international treaties. Under the guidelines, the Shariah police can even raid hotel rooms in search of violators. They develop informants and work undercover.”
— “Norma Manalu wistfully runs her colorful purple silk jilbab through her fingers. She has a love-hate relationship with the elegant garment.”
— ” ‘It’s hot. It’s not appropriate for the climate,’ the 35-year-old director of Aceh’s Human Rights Coalition says. ‘It’s something I choose because it’s beautiful, not because a man tells me to do so.’ ”
— “Manalu is a rebel. Often, to make a point about women’s rights she walks in public wearing jeans, her head uncovered, ignoring the taunts and ridicule. She is sickened at the sight of men and women being publicly caned by a tormentor in a mask.”
— “Manalu contends that women get the worst of the bargain. Many are treated as outcasts after their punishment, while men are welcomed back into society.”
— ” ‘It amazes me that in a modern world with sophisticated law and order, we even consider doing this,’ she says. ‘It’s barbaric.’ ”
— “She dismisses the Shariah police, who she believes enjoy harassing young women.
— ” ‘“Men make these rules based on some misguided image of how women should look,’ she says. ‘Here in Aceh, women must accept it or suffer harassment.’ ”
— “A mile away, at religious police headquarters, Abdullah dismisses the uproar over the stoning law. And he says the harsher caning laws also have been overblown. Since 2003, he says, only nine people have been caned in Aceh.”
— ” ‘Men take their lashes like the women,’ he says. ‘They’re equal.’ ”
— “Abdullah is angered each time he sees couples holding hands or a woman without her veil. He favors a proposed ordinance in one Aceh area that would ban women from wearing pants, including jeans.”
LA Times: "The Sharia police stop three veiled teenage girls at a beach in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, a city where Islamic religious codes of public behavior are strictly enforced. The girls' crime: wearing tights. They were told to go home immediately and change into proper attire."
— “The morality cops are on the move. They crouch in military formation, closing in on their prey.”
— “Beneath a row of gracefully bending palms, they’ve spotted several shady characters at a lonely beachside youth hangout. They could be unmarried young men cavorting with girls not wearing a proper jilbab. They could be holding hands, kissing or, well, who knows what.”
— “Waves breaking at their feet, the officers round a rocky promontory. They confront six baffled men casting nets into the water.”
— ” ‘They were just fishing,’ says a disappointed Syafruddin.”
— “And so it goes. All afternoon, they chase down suspects, like the college girls caught without their jilbabs.”
— “As Syafruddin launches into his lecture, a woman wearing a black T-shirt reading ‘Lucky Girl’ examines her shoes.”
— ” ‘For women,’ the officer says, ‘wearing a veil is like a motorcycle rider wearing a helmet. It’s for your own protection.’ ”
— “When the police move on, the woman shrugs. ‘I wear a veil at work,’ she says. ‘I didn’t think it mattered here. It’s the beach.’ ”
— “Within moments, the team stops three girls on a motorcycle, all wearing veils. This time, Syafruddin has another problem. Their leggings are too tight, too revealing, he says. They should go home and change them at once.”
— Kansas City Star: Man charged with statutory rape in ‘marriage’ to 14-year-old girl
— Kansas City Star reports: — “The stepfather, Mosby and the teen had several ‘sit downs’ before the stepfather arranged for a religious ceremony on Aug. 4 at her home, not far from the stepfather’s mosque.”
— “Two members of the mosque attended, but the bride ‘was not allowed to be present,’ court records said. She waited in her room upstairs. Her stepfather allegedly came upstairs after the ceremony, which consisted of prayers and a contract signing, to announce that she was married.”
— “Police say they have the ‘marriage contract’ with the signatures of Mosby, the girl and the stepfather.”
— “In Islam, boys and girls are considered adults based on when they hit puberty, and people in some parts of the world do marry young, said Mahnaz Shabbir of Stilwell, a past president of the Heartland Muslim Council.”
Noor Faleh Almaleki just wanted to be a normal American woman
The striking 20-year-old from Iraq, who’d lived in the Valley since she was a young girl, wanted her hair and makeup to be perfect, her clothes to be fashionable. She wanted a job, a degree and a husband of her choosing.
On her Facebook page, Noor posted photos of herself and wrote: “I am spectacular,” punctuated with a smiley face emoticon. But Noor’s father had a much different ideal for his daughter: a life in strict line with traditional Iraqi culture.
He made her quit her fast-food restaurant job and arranged for her to marry a man in Iraq she didn’t know, according to friends and family.
Finally, police say, 48-year-old Faleh Hassan Almaleki put an end to what he perceived to be his daughter’s rebellious life. Using his Jeep as a weapon, he allegedly ran her down in a parking lot Oct. 20 in what prosecutors are calling an “honor killing” to cleanse what he considered were indiscretions to the family’s honor.
Noor underwent spinal surgery and was in a coma until her death on Monday. Another woman struck by the Jeep, the mother of Noor’s boyfriend, was expected to survive. Marcella Andregg, a friend for seven years, described Noor as independent, but far from rebellious and always respectful of her parents. She said Noor just wanted to live her own life, but that her father wouldn’t let her.
“His whole persona was very controlling, very strong-minded in the ways he wanted it for her,” Andregg said. “He talked down to her very much, made sure she knew she wasn’t good enough and brought a lot of dishonor to the family.”
Meanwhile, she said, Noor “just wanted to be a normal teenager,” and later, wanted to finish college, marry the man she loved, and have children.
Almaleki, who fled after the attack, was stopped at London’s airport and sent back to the U.S. on Oct. 29. He was on suicide watch in a Phoenix jail and has declined requests for comment. It’s unclear whether he yet has a lawyer.
Noor and her family moved to the U.S. in the mid-1990s and lived in Glendale.
In 2008, friends say Almaleki took Noor to Iraq under the guise of visiting family. Actually, he had picked out a husband for her and told her she couldn’t return to Arizona unless she married him. Noor married the man and returned, and friends say he was in the process of trying to move here, too.
But Noor fell in love with another man, friends say, and was living in his home with his mother when she was killed.
About 50 friends and family attended a candlelight vigil Thursday night for Noor in the parking lot where she was run down. Her mother and several others wept as they stood in a circle holding candles, hugging each other and remembering the young woman.
“This was the last place that Noor was herself,” said Andregg, who helped organize the vigil. “It’s a hard place to be, especially for her mom, I know. I just think it was appropriate to be here instead of at a park or a cemetery.”
Despite all her family troubles, Andregg and several other friends say Noor rarely if ever spoke about them.
“She always had a smile on her face,” said Niki Nia, 18, of Scottsdale. “When people weren’t getting along, she would always try to bring peace between them, and I think a lot of that had to do with what was happening at home. She wanted her social life to be peaceful.” Nia said Noor might be in a better place now. “She never would have been able to escape,” she said.
Jim Heinrich, who was Noor’s yearbook teacher at Dysart High School, said Noor affected many students’ lives.
“One of them told me, We had everything we wanted and she had a lot of difficulties and she never complained.’ She always knew her life would be OK,” Heinrich said. “She was one of those people — it’s like her spirit was bigger than her body. You were just very aware that she was there in a good way.”
Phillip Pimentel, another friend of Noor’s living in Japan, wrote in an e-mail that Noor never spoke to him about her troubles at home.
“What I’ll remember and miss most about her is that she seemed happy,” wrote Pimentel, 21. “Worry-free, full of hopes and dreams of the future. Such a shame that such a good person with so much going for herself was taken at such an early age.”
Noor now has a second Facebook page, started by the people who are mourning her death. More than 1,600 had joined as of Friday.
On the page, underneath a photo of Noor shown with a soft smile and her hair blowing, is a message that reads:
“May Noor Almaleki and all other victims of senseless honor killings rest in peace. And may God be the guardian of others who are in danger of sharing that fate. And may we all do something to end honor killings once and for all.”
Phoenix, Arizona: “Neo-Nazi group to protest immigration in Phoenix march”
— ABC 15 reports:
— “On Saturday afternoon, Neo-nazi members will take a stand in Arizona.”
— “The members, with the National Socialist Movement (NSM), will be marching to the Arizona State Capitol to protest.”
— ” ‘It’s an American first rally,’ said NSM member Steven Boswell. ‘It’s a demand for our politicians to put Americans first.’ ”
— “Organizers say the protest will focus on immigration.”
— ” ‘We’ve got completely wide open borders and politicians who will bend over backwards for Mexicans or anyone else who is not American,’ Boswell said.”
— “But civil rights leaders say the group is using immigration as a front.”
— ” ‘(They are) injecting their vile agenda into what is a legitimate mainstream issue,’ said Bill Straus with the Arizona chapter of the Anti-Defamation League.”
— “Straus says it’s common for hate groups to take political issues and twist them to gain support.”
— ” ‘They are about their philosophy: That caucasians are superior to other people and this country would be better without people of any color — period,’ Straus said.”
— “The NSM calls itself America’s ‘largest white civil rights organization.’ ”
— “It is also holding similar protests this weekend across the country.”
National Socialist Movement (NSM) Nazis -- (ABC 15 Arizona)
Germany: Berlin bans fast-growing neo-Nazi group
— AFP reports: — “Berlin authorities outlawed a rapidly-expanding neo-Nazi group on Thursday, with police staging dawn raids at the homes of its leading members, according to the city’s interior minister Ehrhart Koerting.”
— “The group, named ‘Frontbann 24’ after a forerunner of Hitler’s ‘storm troops,’ is ‘the fastest-growing neo-Nazi organisation in Berlin,’ according to Koerting.”
