Pakistan’s acid attack victims pin hope on new laws
— Daily Telegraph: “Pakistan is a conservative Muslim country, where women – especially in poor, rural areas – can be treated like commodities with little protection provided by the police and under pressure not to disgrace their families.”
— “Farhat was just 13 years old when a man threw acid in her face in 2003 because her parents refused to let him marry her.”
— “The attacker was sentenced to 12 years in prison and ordered to pay 1.2 million rupees (£8,882) in damages, but on appeal a high court reduced the damages and said the man could go free once the money was paid.”
— “Enraged, Farhat and ASF went to the supreme court – the first acid attack case to be taken to the highest court – where judges overturned the high court ruling within minutes.”
— “Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry took a personal interest in the case, and recommended that the government pass new legislation to control the sale of acid and increase punishment for acid attacks.”
Pakistan: “Mob in Pakistan Wounds Christian Family”
— Compass reports: “Assailants threaten to charge mentally ill son with ‘blasphemy’ if victims pursue justice”
— “Infuriated by an alleged anti-Islamic comment by a mentally ill man, more than a dozen Muslims attacked his Christian family here last week, beating his 20-year-old sister unconscious and breaking her leg.”
— “The woman’s father, Aleem Mansoor, said his daughter Elishba Aleem went unconscious after being struck in the head with an iron rod in the Dec. 28 attack. Mansoor said a Muslim known as Mogal beat him and his daughter with the rod on the street in front of their apartment home after falsely accusing his 32-year old son, who suffers from schizophrenia, of blasphemy.”
— Voice of America reports: “Taliban militants are taking credit for separate attacks that killed eight Americans and one Afghan inside a U.S. base in eastern Afghanistan, as well as four Canadian soldiers and a journalist in the south.”
— “The Taliban said the suicide attack in eastern Khost province Wednesday was carried out by a man wearing an Afghan national army officer’s uniform. He was able to detonate an explosive vest near the base’s gym.”
— New York Daily News reports: “The attack marks the worst loss of life for the U.S. in Afghanistan since October.”
— “The Taliban also took responsibility for a roadside bomb that left four Canadian soldiers and a journalist in their unit dead. Both attacks occurred Wednesday.”
— “Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the attacker at the CIA base in Khost Province was a ‘well-dressed’ officer in the Afghan army.”
— ” ‘This deadly attack was carried out by a valorous Afghan army member when the (CIA staff) were busy gaining information about the mujahedin,’ he said, using the Arabic word for a military force of warriors engaged in a jihad.”
— BBC: Afghanistan: CIA workers killed by ‘Afghan soldier’
— FOX News reports: “It was unclear how the bomber at U.S. Forward Operating Base Chapman at the edge of Khost city was able to circumvent security. Khost is the capital of Khost province, which borders Pakistan and is a Taliban stronghold.”
— “But an Afghan official in Khost said the U.S. has hired about 200 Afghans to help with security at the base. They are usually deployed on the outer ring of its walls, although some work inside, the official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.”
Voice of America reports:
“A top Pakistani Taliban commander is claiming responsibility for Monday’s attack on a Shi’ite religious procession that killed 43 people and sparked fires that burned for days.”
“Asmatullah Shaheen said Wednesday his group sent the bomber who wreaked havoc on the Ashura ritual in the southern city of Karachi. He told Reuters news agency that the Taliban ‘will carry out more such attacks within ten days.’ ”
“Sunni Muslim extremists, including the Taliban, regard Shi’ites as heretics. Shi’ites make up one-fifth of Pakistan’s population, while Sunnis account for about 70 percent.”
“Monday’s bomb attack in Karachi was the third in as many days targeting Ashura observances by Pakistani Shi’ites.”
Image from Hizb ut-Tahrir America's Web Site Promoting a Chicago Suburb Event on Pakistan on December 20
Three days before the HTA Lombard event, Hizb ut-Tahrir published an “open letter to the Ulema of Pakistan” calling for the Pakistan people to overthrow their government, and “uprooting the agent government,” and stating “the Ulema should issue a Fatwa for the expulsion of America from the region.” In this December 17 press release, Hizb ut-Tahrir further claimed that “America has planned to shift the blame of her crimes towards the Muslims…”
This message was conveyed to new American recruits in the Chicago area by Hizb ut-Tahrir America in a “lecture given by Abu Baseer.” Baseer spoke to a group of approximately 40 individuals, with women once again segregated in the back of the Lombard community building facility.
Anti-Democracy Hizb ut-Tahrir America December 20, 2009 Meeting at Govt-Managed Facility in Lombard, Illinois -- Women Segregated and Only Permitted to Sit in the Back of the Room
In the Lombard government-managed facility, Abu Baseer told new Hizb ut-Tahrir America recruits not to trust Christians and Jews as “allies,” stating that it was against Allah’s will. Abu Baseer also denounced “the Kafir” (“infidel”) stating that the “sanctity of Muslim blood is greater… than the sanctity of the Kafir.” (The next day, December 21, Hizb ut-Tahrir America posted an article stating that schools for other religions, such as Jews, would only be permitted for “Dhimmis” accepting a state of servitude.)
Hizb ut-Tahrir America December 20, 2009 Speakers in Lombard - Abu Baseer Denounces Kafirs and Denounces Pakistan Government as un-Islamic
Hizb ut-Tahrir America’s Abu Baseer described the circumstances in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan as one where that nation has suffered from a Pakistan government that is “bombing Muslims and burning innocent females and children alive.” He used this as the emotional centerpiece of his argument as to why extremism was necessary to end the “corruption” in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
Nor did Abu Baseer tell new Hizb ut-America recruits that it was in fact a Lal Masjid Violent Extremist who spilled “Muslim blood” as reported in the London Times that “transformed from a seat of religious learning to an inferno by the suicide bomber who detonated his charge as the Pakistani commandos stormed the Red Mosque compound.” All the new American recruits for the extremist Hizb ut-Tahrir were told is that it was the Pakistan government “burning innocent females and children alive,” inciting hatred against the Pakistan government as “un-Islamic.”
Hizb ut-Tahrir America's Graphic Images of Suffering - Blamed on America at Chicago Suburban Meeting
Hizb ut-Tahrir America’s Abu Baseer used a showman’s countdown of a litany of “symptoms” of Pakistan’s problems, war, violence, poverty, describing “the Pakistani government bombing Muslims,” claims that Pakistani people were “bombed indiscriminately from the air,” describing the “Pakistan economy in shackles,” stating that “to get billions of dollars of aid, Pakistan has to agree to draconian measures… to increase poverty in the country,” Abu Baseer kept stating that all these were merely “symptoms,” not the “cause” of Pakistan’s problems. Abu Baseer got at least one audible “wow” from his audience when describing the suffering of the Pakistan people, which he blamed on the Pakistan government not being sufficiently “Islamic,” and described myriad imagined “plots” by America to take over Pakistan, including blaming President Barack Obama.
Abu Baseer claimed that “America wants to invade and occupy Pakistan for itself,” imagining a U.S. plot “to control the gateway to Southeast Asia” and “immense energy resources” and an imagined U.S. plot to create a “major front against America’s competitors like China and Russia,” viewing the “war on terror” as a “proxy war” intended to “partition Pakistan.” Never criticizing the Taliban, Abu Baseer claimed that the violence in Pakistan was not the result of terrorists, but was coordinated by the Pakistan government and U.S. contractor Blackwater. Abu Baseer claimed that U.S. contractor Blackwater is planning activities for inside Pakistan to “destabilize the country,” with Blackwater agents working to “make others look bad” using the “same devious practices used to create chaos in Iraq.” Abu Baseer claimed that “Pakistan rulers are providing all support to U.S. in this bloodbath” and that “the government is declaring every bomb blast a suicide blast to exonerate the [Pakistan] secret service and secret agencies like Blackwater…”
Abu Baseer continued to attack democracy at the Lombard event as well, claiming that democracy was part of “British colonial law” designed to subjugate the Pakistan Muslim population, and stating that democracy is something “other than what Allah” demands, which will result in continued “injustices towards the people.” Abu Baseer denounced the current “system of ruling” in Pakistan, stating that “a fair system can only come from Allah” – and that “system of Islam… an Islamic state” is required. Regarding democracy in Pakistan, Abu Baseer stated that Muslims must “replace [such] systems altogether” and that with its population and nuclear weapons that Pakistan would be more powerful if it became a true “Islamic state.”
Abu Baseer stated that there would be “great punishment” against the Pakistan army, and claimed that the rulers of Pakistan “have violated the command of Allah.” Their greatest crime, in Hizb ut-Tahrir America’s views, was Abu Baseer’s view on “security alliances.” Abu Baseer told the Lombard event audience “all you who believe, do not take the Jews and Christians for your allies, they are but allies to one another, and whoever allies themselves with them becomes one of them” and that “Allah does not prize such evil doers.”
The crowd concluded the event with a chant of “Allahu Akbar.”
Concluding Hizb ut-Tahrir America's Calls for Extremism in Pakistan and the World
The anti-democracy international Hizb ut-Tahrir organization has a long history of making death threats both in the U.S. and aroundthe world. In Bangladesh in November 2009, Hizb ut-Tahrir was reported as having threatened to murder a university vice chancellor who sought to prevent professors who promoted hate at a Bangladesh university. At the beginning of December 2009, Hizb ut-Tahrir Indonesia called for stonings and whippings as the answer to addressing the AIDS disease.
“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.”
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.”
We support our unqualified, universal human rights for all. We urge Hizb ut-Tahrir supporters to drop the burden of the hate of extremism from their hearts, and to rejoin the family of humanity in support of our universal human rights.
— “No Christmas decorations brighten the tent camp sheltering Christians left homeless by the worst violence against minorities in Pakistan this year. Instead, there is a pervasive sense of fear.”
— “The Christians have received cell phone text messages warning them to expect a ‘special Christmas present,’ they say, and are terrified of their tents being torched or their church services being bombed.”
— ” ‘Last year I celebrated Christmas full of joy,’ said Irfan Masih, cradling his young son among the canvas shelters and open ditches of the camp. But now ‘the fear that we may again be attacked is in our hearts.’ ”
— ” ‘They are threatening us, (saying) ‘We will again attack you and will not let you out of homes, we will burn you inside this time,’ he said.”
— “It was the fires that most traumatized Gojra’s Christian Colony, a neighborhood in the heart of this Punjabi city about 220 miles (354 kilometers) southwest of Islamabad. In early August, hundreds of Muslims rampaged through the dirt streets, looting and torching homes as panicked residents tried to flee and thick black smoke rose into the air.”
— “Eight Christians died — seven of them from one family trapped in a burning home.”
— ” ‘We are going to celebrate Christmas in sorrow because the whole family is hurt by this,’ said Almas Hameed, whose father was shot dead during the riots. His wife, two of his children and members of his brother’s family all burned to death.”
UCAN reports on Pakistan mob attack: "A Christian house set ablaze by Muslims"
— Times of India: “Pakistan court orders a nose for a nose”
— ” ‘The court ordered that the nose and ears of Sher Mohammad and Ammanat Ali be chopped off as part of an Islamic punishment of a nose for a nose and ears for ears,’ court official Azhar Ameen said.”
— “The men were found guilty of kidnapping a woman who had refused to marry one of them, then hacking off her nose and ears.”
After repeated threats by the extremist Taliban against the Peshawar Press Club, on December 22, 2009, a suicide bomber attacked the media site in Peshawar, Pakistan, killing several individuals.
DAWN reported on the threats by the Taliban against the Peshawar Press Club, and the increased security measures that made no difference in preventing the suicide bomber attack: “Taliban militants, who are powerful in northwest Pakistan, threatened media in Peshawar, said the president of the press club, Shamim Shahid. ‘We beefed up security after the threats and people coming to the club were properly checked,’ he said.”
Just slightly over a week earlier, other reports had shown how the Peshawar Press Club had become site for those arguing about “conspiracies” of the U.S. against Pakistan, and arguing that Pakistan should support the Afghanistan Taliban’s “nationalistic” goal. On December 16, 2009, Dawn reported that “On Monday, the Peshawar Press Club was the venue of a seminar entitled ‘Conspiracies of US and India against Pakistan’ at which the speakers advocated talks with the Taliban on the grounds that the fight in Afghanistan is a ‘nationalist struggle’ and the violence in Pakistan is the direct result of the American presence in the region.”
Anti-democracy, extremist organization Hizb ut-Tahrir has also repeatedlyappeared at the Peshawar Press Club. On December 20, 2009 in Chicago, Hizb ut-Tahrir America hosted an event calling for an end to military activities against the Taliban. Hizb ut-Tahrir recently provided an “open letter to the Ulema of Pakistan” in which it states that “America is an open, hostile, kafir enemy of Muslims.”
Press agency Sify reports that the suicide bomber was a teenager: “An eyewitness said the suicide bomber appeared to be 17 or 18 years old.”
Journalists assist a man who was injured in a suicide bomb attack at the site at the gate of the Press club in Peshawar, located in NWFP on December 22, 2009. (Reuters )
Pew Global Poll Results – Worst Nations for Religious Freedom
Pew Poll – Very High
Top 5% of scores Saudi Arabia – OIC Nation
Iran – OIC Nation
Uzbekistan – OIC Nation
China – Communist
Egypt – OIC Nation
Burma (Myanmar)
Maldives – OIC Nation
Eritrea
Malaysia – OIC Nation
Brunei – OIC Nation
Pew Poll – High
Next 15% of scores Indonesia – OIC Nation
Mauritania – OIC Nation
Pakistan – OIC Nation
Turkey – OIC Nation
Vietnam – Communist Nation
Algeria – OIC Nation
Belarus
Russia
Turkmenistan – OIC Nation
Libya – OIC Nation
Sudan – OIC Nation
Tajikistan – OIC Nation
Jordan – OIC Nation
Afghanistan – OIC Nation
Morocco – OIC Nation
Laos – Communist
Syria – OIC Nation
India
Tunisia – OIC Nation
Azerbaijan – OIC Nation
Kuwait – OIC Nation
Kazakhstan – OIC Nation
Yemen – OIC Nation
Iraq – OIC Nation
Western Sahara
Bulgaria
Singapore
Moldova
Greece
Israel
Cuba – Communist Nation
Oman – OIC Nation
Somalia* – OIC Nation
Out of 43 Nations Ranked “Very High” and “High” in Terms of Deny Religious Freedom – 30 were OIC nations — 70 percent of the Very High and High Nations Ranked is denying religious freedom – being OIC nations
