₦airaland Forum

Quds Day shootings: Sheikh Zakzaky speaks to the press

https://islamicmovement.org/images/stories/zkpr.jpg

Following the shooting of peaceful protesters on Quds Day commemoration in Zaria, Nigeria, Leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria Sheikh Ibraheem Yaqoub Zakzaky speaks to the press on the situation. The following is the transcribed version of the Press Conference:

WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED
“Gentlemen of the press, SalamualaikumwarahmatullahiTa’alawabarakatuhu.
The celebration of International Qud’s day is an event which has been observed in the world as a whole for the last 35 years. In Nigeria, and Zaria to be precise, yesterday’s event was the 32nd(in the series). For the last 32 years continuously every year we have been observing the Qud’s Day celebration. It is marked as a solidarity with the Palestinian people. It was set aside by Imam Khomaini in the 80’s, last Friday of Ramadan. And ever since that time people have been observing it all over the world, in major cities of the world including Washington, New York, London, and Paris. If one watched Press TV yesterday he world have seen the demonstration from all over the world.

In Nigeria we have been observing it in different cities, at least in about 22 cities, including principally Kaduna, Zaria, Kano, Jos, Bauchi, Katsina, Sokoto, Maiduguri, Yola, Lagos, Illorin and Port Harcourt among others. This year the event wentsmoothly as it has always been done. The procession started after Juma’at prayers from Central Mosque of Sabon Gari and ended in KofarDoka roundabout. As you can see from the pictures, the closing prayers were even said.

However all of a sudden there was sporadic shooting from the soldiers. They just appeared from nowhere and started shooting at people coming back from the procession. They continued shooting for sometime in the fall of the night. They hid in the sugarcane farms of Kubanni area, where there were no houses. They were sure that they were shooting at the protesters. As the shooting came after the procession, the target could be anyone passing by.

During the shooting they have killed and wounded a lot of people, including children and women. It was during that shooting that one of my sons, Mahmud, a student of Almustapha International University in Beirut, was shot. He came home for holiday at the beginning of this Ramadan. He was shot at his abdomen. He was brought here bleeding, they wanted to take him to the hospital, but the soldiers had blocked the way. He therefore bled to death on the road (to the hospital).

Among those arested were three of my children- Ahmad, Hameed and Ali. They were taken alive and in good condition. But later on, after we made contact with some people, specifically the police, they helped us to locate their whereabout. They were taken to a Military Hospital in Basawa. When we demanded that they should hand them over to us, they refused, but insisted on taking them to Shika Hospital (themselves); that we should collect them there. Later on we came to know that, they have already killed Ahmad and Hamid, while Ali was wounded on his leg. He has compound fracture. I don’t think it was bullet wound, they broke his leg. Up to now he could not be brought back because they have blocked the road.

Ahmad and Hameed also came for the holiday, they were both students. Ahmad was studying Chemical Engineering in Xhenyang University of technology. Hamid was studying Aeronautical Engineering in Xian another city in China. Ahmad was about to graduate next April in Chemical Engineering. Hamid came only last Saturday,his plane landed in Lagos on Friday and took local flight to Kaduna on Saturday. So it was six days after he came back. I believe these two were murdered in cold blood, because they were taken alive. We believed that they killed them here, because someone has identified Ahmad alive at the Military Hospital, but wounded on his leg. They shot him before they took him to the hospital.

The casualty figure is still going up, as I’m speaking to you now. Yesterday we had a total of 16 corpses, while the soldiers took 9 corpses with them to the Teaching Hospital apart from my two children, eleven all in all. This morning as they were passing by in front of Husainiyyah, they decided to shoot, and killed 3 more people and wounded many. We also learnt that they have taken with them two more corpses this morning. This means, today there is additional five corpses, total of 35 people. We presently have a total of 19 corpses with us, the remaining are with them.

We had wanted to have a mass funeral today, but because they have set a road block, and it was not possible to collect the rest of the corpses from the University Teaching Hospital, we cannot. The police, who have been helping us yesterday night, were ordered to steer clear. In fact the police commissioner phoned me and said it would be advisable if we leave the corpses until today, when the soldiers are not on ground.
Yesterday when we sent an ambulance and met the DPO of Sabon Gari to escort us to the hospital, the soldiers arrested the ambulance, the driver and one person with him. We don’t know what they did to them, they are in their custody. We don’t know whether one of the corpses they took today was that of one of the people in the ambulance. We wanted the police to escort us to the hospital, and went to the Area Commander and he told them he has been warned to take off his hand from this matter. Meaning that there can be no police escort to the hospital for us.
This demonstration took place in various cities in Nigeria; they just decided to attack that of Zaria in particular. Even in Kaduna, police and soldiers attended and offered escort and protection, as they did last year.

We learnt that the soldiers that did the shooting yesterday came from Abuja. They were brought from Abuja specifically for this purpose. They just opened fire and killed people, arrested some and cold murdered others in cold blood.
I don’t know why some section of the media when reporting event decided to call it a clash. In a headline they said “Shiites, soldiers clash”. Let me disabuse your minds about this idea of “Shiites”. This has nothing to do with belief, it is to do with people. You don’t have to be a “Shiite” to show solidarity with the Palestinians; you don’t even have to be a Muslim. If you check the internet you will see some Jews who participated in this Qud’s procession in London and New York. Several Christians participated, including some Heads of state. Hugo Chaves had always participated in Qud’s day procession.

Expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people can never come at a better time than this; when today for 19 days consecutively Gaza has been under siege with shelling from the air with missiles by the Israelis. The death toll is more than 900 now, getting to one thousand. And there has been demonstration all over the world not, only yesterday, ever since they started the attack there had been demonstrations, particularly in European countries. I don’t know why they decided to attack that of Zaria in particular. Why Nigeria, and why Zaria? Even in the city of Quds, Jerusalem, there was demonstration yesterday, and no single person was killed. I don’t know why soldiers were brought to open fire on us. What clash then, when you have armless people shouting slogans on one side and some people on the other side with guns shooting at them? You call thisclash?

Of course we noticed that this people well prepared for this operation. They have large number of their people in civilian clothes, who also joined the demonstration. We noticed that at times they were uncontrollable, when they see soldiers they start shouting; that gave them away. They have been doing this to us for sometime in some demonstrations. If actually you are part of us, and you are told to do something you will obey; if you are told not to, you will not. But these people would never listen to anybody. One typical example, is soldiers in civilian dress; they changed the uniform once in the barrack and joined us. It was our people who chased them out. And even when they came to Husainiyyah this morning, it was their people who were shouting, but they killed innocent people. Perhaps if there was any clash, it was between themselves. As far as we know, it was soldiers opening fire on people passing by in a peaceful demonstration.

Up to now we cannot say everything is okay, because right now they have blocked the way to Shika Hospital, and we are not able to recover our injured and the corpses. I have not seen the corpses of my children, apart from that of Mahmud. We have not seen the rest. Similarly we have seen Ali, who has compound fracture. There is no way we could get there because of the blockage”.

Q: There is rumour going on that apart from your three sons killed, there are three of your daughters were also arrested. How true is this?

A: we are not aware of this, but there is a nine-year-old female and a four-year-old boy among those killed.

Q: Is there any legal action the Movement is likely to take over this issue?
A: We are presently preoccupied with retrieving our dead and the injured and bury them. Later on we will decide what to do. They are now circulating rumour that, we are going to stage a demonstration today. The demonstration took place yesterday; if only they will allow us we will conduct funeral prayer for the people they have killed.

Q: We will like Malam to tell us the ages of his children killed.
A: Ahmad was born in October 1990; Hameed was born in January 1992; and Mahmoud was born in 1995.

Q: The talk gong round town is that, the problem started when a high rank military officer wanted to pass through and he was blocked. How true is this?
A: This is part of the rumour they are spreading. One rumour I also heard was that the governor asked us not to conduct the procession, and we disobeyed. Reason with this, Kaduna and Zaria are all part of the state, the processing was held in Kaduna the capital city, why then did they shoot people in Zaria? They always wanted to justify their atrocities. It is true that a certain military officer was refused exit, did that gave the license to shoot? For instance, we conducted the Maulud of Sayyedah Zahra in Zaria the same day the governor was given a traditional title, they pleaded that we should ensure smooth running of the two programmes simultaneously, as we shared the same passage. We decided to pave way for them to use the city, while we conducted our programme outside the city. They thanked us. As they were going out after their programmes, some of their (aggrieved) members started throwing stones at them; they then felt safe with us and decided to pass through our congregation of event safely. At one time also, the Vice President had passed safely through our congregation of event. This means what you heard was not right. It has not happened.

Q: This rally had been conducted peacefully over the years. What do you think made them to always pick on that of Zaria in particular as a target for offensive for whatever you do, when it had always been peaceful in other places?

Q: The one in Zaria was also peaceful. What we can say is that, they came and committed brutal murder; that is just it. The rally was peacefully concluded, and they came with full intention of committing murder, and murder they committed. They know better why they focused more on our activities here. In 209, they conducted similar episode, they laid siege in Kofar Doka nad opened fire. They also arrested one of my boys, not biological son, but he lived with me. His name is Abdur-Rahman Isa who hailed from Saki in Oyo state. His parents are still alive. They captured him alive in their vehicle, and later killed him. This was also the case with one Muhammad Isa from Jaji five years ago, whom they shot (in cold blood). Then this became their tradition. In 2000 after our release, after the Quds Day rally and people were dispersing, they suddenly emerged and shot dead a sister, A’isha from Yawuri. They are in the position to answer to the question, why the always come here to commit murder.

Q: A s the event was unfolding and to the present situation, was there any attempt to get in touch with some government officials, or the military spokesman?

A: Yes, we had contact with them through a link. From my understanding all of them, even their commandants and GOC are not aware of this military operation, and who gave the order for the operation. I have not spoken directly with the GOC, but from our link we realized that he was not in charge; the governor was not in the picture, nor was the police commissioner was aware of who gave the order. None of them was aware of what is going on. They even gave (contrary) orders that were not obeyed. We understand that, the order was from above; from Abuja came the order. It was that order from above the led to what happened. Yes, we had contact with them through a link.

Q: As tension is rising high now, what message odes Malam has for the Brothers and the people in general?
A: People should keep calm, what happened has clearly shown us that we turned into Gazzans. What is happening is happening to the people of Palestine is now happening to us. People of Palestine are killed at will and residences were targeted for destruction. There was an offensive which claimed lives of 24 people of the same family.In some cases, only one or two family members in a household were left alive, and you can find an entire family wiped out. They are still at it, and for 19 consecutive days, the people of Gaza were bombarded on daily basis, deliberately targeting people. From this you can see that, we here we are showing solidarity with the Palestinians and condemning Israeli atrocities, we are faced with the same fate as that of the people of Palestine. The government here on its part, has shown us that it is on its part expressing solidarity with Israel, and decided to do with us what Israel is doing with the people of Palestine. We have this message for the; on our part we staged a procession in support of people of Palestinian. We challenge them; let them also stage a procession in support of Israel. They have every right to do it, and we cannot oppose it. This is what they should have done, to show that Israel has supporters too. They should have done this, rather than using gun to kill those who oppose Israel.

Q: From the time this incident happened, was there any government intervention, particularly Kaduna state government?
A: Well, as I said earlier, there seemed to be a superior power somewhere behind what happened, somehow we have been in communication with the Governor and the Commissioner of Police who expressed his sympathy and said they would do all they could. Somehow these people who came from Abuja, I don’t know exactly who speaks from Abuja, have the upper hand. It is a direct order from Abuja.

Q: The sad incidents happening are targeting Islamic scholars and their children. What are you doing as leaders of the Muslim Ummah, to curtail the situation?
A: This issue affects the whole society, and the people are also duty bound to do something about it, not just to be onlookers. We are now witnessing killings in Nigeria, with Muslims as the prime targets. From what happened here yesterday, we can see who are behind the constant killings in Nigeria now, being it either in North-East, in Zamfara or Birnin Gwari forest and other forests, has clearly show who are behind it. It has always been incessant killings and bombings, but here they came in broad daylight in their vehicle and military uniform. We saw them, and they cannot deceive us into believing that it was the handiwork of “unknown gunmen”, as they always made people to believe. They even mingled with us in mufti during the event, we saw them. We know that, there is a Commanderin-Chief of the Armed Forces in the country, then he should be held responsible for these events happening. It is a wonder in what they called democratically elected government that things are happening, and no one is n control and who gives orders. Well, this is a challenge to the whole Ummah to see what it can do to salvage the society.
Thank you.

Thank you also for your time.

By Ibrahim Usman

http://islamicmovement.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1193:quds-day-shootings-sheikh-zakzaky-speaks-to-the-press&catid=41:frontpage

Israel calls Brazil a ‘diplomatic dwarf’ – and then brings up World Cup humiliation

By Adam Taylor July 25

In a statement on Wednesday, Brazil condemned what it said was a "disproportionate use of force" by Israel in its Gaza Strip offensive by pulling out its ambassador from Tel Aviv for "consultation." The country is the second country to recall its ambassador from Israel; Ecuador did so earlier in the week.

At first, the official reaction from Israel appeared sanguine. "Brazil is a friend, but we think its position is not balanced," Israel's general consul in São Paulo, Yoel Barnea, said according to the Wall Street Journal, adding that Israel should have a right to defend itself from the thousands of missiles being fired at it by Hamas and other Palestinian groups.

Things soon took a turn for the worse. “This is an unfortunate demonstration of why Brazil, an economic and cultural giant, remains a diplomatic dwarf,” Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said on Thursday, the Jerusalem Post reports. “The moral relativism behind this move makes Brazil an irrelevant diplomatic partner, one who creates problems rather than contributes to solutions.”

That insult wasn't the worst that Israel had reserved for Brazil, however. In an interview with the Brazilian media, Palmor brought up the most humiliating moment in recent Brazilian history – this summer's stunning World Cup semifinal loss to Germany.

"Israel's response is perfectly proportioned in accordance with international law," Palmor said in an interview with the Jornal Nacional TV show late Thursday. "This is not football. In football, when a game ends in a draw, you think it is proportional, but when it finishes 7-1 it's disproportionate. Sorry to say, but not so in real life and under international law."

Brazil's foreign minister, Luiz Alberto Figueiredo, hit back at the "dwarf" insult. "We are one of 11 countries worldwide that have diplomatic relations with all UN members, and have a history of cooperation for peace and international actions for peace," Figueiredo said in an interview with CBN radio. "If there are any diplomatic dwarfs, Brazil is not one of them."

There doesn't appear to have been a comment on the 7-1 jibe yet.

Brazil, which has a relatively large Jewish population, has historically had good relationships with Israel. However, its 2010 decision to recognize a Palestinian state hurt relations between the two nations. Brazil was one of 29 countries to vote for a UN' Human Rights Council proposal for an investigation into allegations of Israeli human rights violations during the current conflict in the Gaza Strip. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the vote "a travesty" and said it "should be rejected by decent people everywhere."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/07/25/israel-brings-up-brazils-world-cup-humiliation-and-calls-the-country-a-diplomatic-dwarf/?tid=sm_fb

By Dana Sanchez

Published: July 22, 2014, 06:10pm

South Africa will donate $1 million in humanitarian aid to Gaza residents and send a delegation to Israel over concerns of mounting loss of civilian life, according to the SA Government News Agency.

In a media briefing, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, sent condolences to the Palestinian people who had lost loved ones during the recent escalation of violence, and called for the Israeli military to withdraw, AllAfrica reports. She described Israel’s actions as an invasion, as illegal and inhumane.

“The senseless killings of women and children must stop now,” Nkoana-Mashabane said. “We must silence the guns. In this respect, President Zuma will be dispatching a team, led by our former Deputy Minister Mr Aziz Pahad, to Israel and Palestine to convey our growing concern with the escalation of violence there, including the endless wanton killing of Palestinian civilians and the destruction of homes in Gaza.

“We will also be contributing $1-million for human assistance to Palestinian women and children through U.N. agencies in the nearest future.”

Zuma plans on inviting Palestinian President Mahmood Abbas for a working visit to South Africa, according to SAnews.gov.za.

Nkoana-Mashabane tabled her department’s budget vote in Parliament to make the announcement, according to the SAnews.gov.za report.

The announcement comes amid what the South African government agency said are growing calls for the U.N. Security Council to act within the bounds of international law to prevent the violent attacks on the Palestinian people, which have left many civilians dead.

- See more at: http://afkinsider.com/65797/zuma-send-emissary-israel-gaza-invasion/#sthash.bDa063Gi.dpuf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPX0F-UqF-k

Obama humiliates Muslims at Ramadan iftar: Analyst

Thu Jul 17, 2014 11:10AM GMT


On Monday, President Barack Obama invited American Muslim leaders to an iftar (fast-breaking dinner) at the White House.

The invitation was a trap.

Obama ambushed the Muslim invitees by unleashing Israel’s viciously racist ambassador, Ron Dermer, as the first speaker at the event. Dermer has famously said that Arabs and Muslims have “a cultural tendency towards belligerency” that is “deeply imbedded in the culture of the Arab world and its foremost religion.” He even celebrated “the refusal of commuters on a Minneapolis flight to fly until three Arab passengers were removed from the plane” merely because they were Arab.

Imagine a 1980s-era South African ambassador saying that blacks have “a cultural tendency towards belligerency” and celebrating racist whites who refused to fly on the same plane as blacks. Such a demented bigot would have been put on the next plane back to South Africa – even by the right-wing Reagan Administration.

But instead of expelling the racist psychopath Dermer, the reputedly liberal Obama invited him to the White House – to be opening speaker at the President’s biggest annual event supposedly honoring Muslims! What’s worse, at the same time Dermer was speaking to the appalled captive audience of VIP Muslims at the White House, Israel was slaughtering children in Gaza. Mental images of the photos of children with their heads blasted off or their entrails hanging out would be enough to ruin the appetite even of someone who has been fasting all day. And those are the images that come to the mind of every even slightly aware Muslim on earth when faced with the likes of such Zionist war criminals as Ron Dermer.

When Netanyahu appointed Dermer ambassador to the US, even many Israelis were horrified. They correctly saw that the appointment signaled that Netanyahu had closed the door to even the slightest chance at peace.

Israel’s leading newspaper Haaretz reported on Dermer’s appointment under the headline: “Israel’s next U.S. envoy: Right-wing neo-con with close ties to Bush family.” According to Haaretz, “Dermer’s positions on policy are far more extreme than Netanyahu’s. European and American officials have expressed shock by his positions on the settlement issue, on peace talks with the Palestinians, and on the principle of an independent Palestinian state.”

So when the Muslim guests at the White House Ramadan iftar saw who Obama had invited as keynote speaker, they must have felt like vomiting up their first meal in 24 hours.

Then it got worse.

Obama followed Dermer by standing before the nauseated guests and doing his best to justify Israel’s ongoing genocidal slaughter of the children, women, and men of Gaza. Israel, according to Obama, has “the right to defend itself.”

By uttering that genocidal lie, Obama condemned himself as a war criminal. The truth is that Israel is not defending itself. It is committing aggression, and has been trying to eliminate Palestine and the Palestinians for more than six decades. Ever since the Zionists invaded Palestine, they have been the aggressors, and their aggression has been in service to genocide. It is the Palestinians who have the right to defend themselves against genocide.

Lying about the most basic fact about the occupation of Palestine – that the Zionists are the aggressors, and the Palestinians are defending themselves, their homes, their land, their children, and their honor – is a war crime. That crime is called “propaganda for genocide.” It is the crime of Dr. Goebbels, the Nazi propagandist who, like Obama, tried to justify an ethnic cleansing by lying about who was doing what to whom and why.

Though I am one of America’s better-known Muslims, I did not receive an invitation to the White House iftar... which is probably just as well. Had I been present, I would have attempted a citizen’s arrest of both Dermer and Obama for complicity in genocide. Being wrestled to the ground by the Secret Service, and locked up for who-knows-how-long, would have put a damper on my career as TruthJihad.com’s White House correspondent.

Seriously, the President’s decision to invite the lunatic racist war criminal Dermer to speak at the White House iftar was a colossal, monumental blunder. Such ham-handed, shoot-yourself-in-the-foot politics is uncharacteristic of Obama. In the past, the US President has made several gestures aimed at trying to normalize US-Muslim relations, which were nearly destroyed by the Zionist false flag operation of September 11th, 2001. (Polls show that roughly 80% of the world’s Muslims know that the official narrative of 9/11 is a big lie, yet despite the work of groups like Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, most non-Muslim Americans still give at least some credence to the ludicrous and now-fully-falsified official story.)

But since Monday’s botched, genocidal Ramadan iftar, Obama has forfeited what little good will he previously earned by pretending to strike a different pose from that of Zionist-driven 9/11 criminals Bush and Cheney. After this, Muslims all over the world are going to see not just Obama, but America, as a 100%-Zionist-controlled existential enemy.

What can Obama have been thinking? After all, the President is known to loathe Netanyahu and Dermer. (Dermer was Netanyahu’s man in Washington, DC who with the help of Zionist gangsters like Sheldon Adelson, and an army of black-box-voting-machine hackers, tried unsuccessfully to throw the 2012 election to Mitt Romney.)

Maybe Obama was hoping that one of the Muslim guests would throw a shoe at Dermer... or worse.

I would have been more than happy to do so.

So Obama, if you want to see some fireworks at the White House, invite me... and put the genocidal criminal and 9/11 suspect Ron Dermer in the same room.

KB/HSN

Dr. Kevin Barrett, a Ph.D. Arabist-Islamologist, is one of America's best-known critics of the War on Terror. Dr. Barrett has appeared many times on Fox, CNN, PBS and other broadcast outlets, and has inspired feature stories and op-eds in the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, the Chicago Tribune, and other leading publications. Dr. Barrett has taught at colleges and universities in San Francisco, Paris, and Wisconsin, where he ran for Congress in 2008. He is the co-founder of the Muslim-Christian-Jewish Alliance, and author of the books Truth Jihad: My Epic Struggle Against the 9/11 Big Lie (2007) and Questioning the War on Terror: A Primer for Obama Voters (2009). His website is www.truthjihad.com. More articles by Dr. Barrett

http://www.presstv.com/detail/2014/07/17/371661/obama-has-humiliated-muslims/

U.S. Muslims fuming over Dermer's White House Iftar tweet

Israeli ambassador to Washington rouses ire over tweet lauding Obama for saying Israel has right to defend itself.

By Haaretz | Jul. 17, 2014 | 10:44 PM

Israel's ambassador to Washington Ron Dermer seems to have very bad luck when it comes to Twitter.

On Monday, days before his #AskDermer Twitter Q&A unleashed a barrage of tough questions from pro-Palestinian Twitter users, the Israeli envoy managed to anger U.S. Muslims with a tweet from the sixth annual White House Iftar dinner.

During Ramadan, Iftar is the meal that breaks the day of fasting, when Muslim families and communities eat together after sunset. This year's dinner was intended to celebrate "Muslim Americans working tirelessly to fight income inequality and creating opportunities for all," according to a White House statement.

Dermer tweeted, "@WhiteHouse for iftar dinner. Appreciate strong statement there by President Obama about Israel's right to defend itself."

During his address, U.S. President Barack Obama said, "No country can accept rockets fired indiscriminately at citizens," Obama said. "And so we've been very clear that Israel has the right to defend itself against what I consider to be inexcusable attacks from Hamas." He added that "the death and injury of Palestinians is a tragedy, which is why we've emphasized the need to protect civilians." Obama also described the pictures coming out of Gaza and Israel as "heart wrenching"

Dermer's tweet created an angry backlash on social media, Al Arabiya reported. "We knew it was all bad when we saw this tweet surface a few minutes into the iftar by none other than Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer," one website, The Thrival Room, wrote.

Meanwhile, scholar Tariq Ramadan published a statement describing this year's dinner as "political instrumentalisation of (voluntarily) trapped Muslim leaders listening to President Obama justify the massacre of hundreds of Palestinians, declaring Israel has the right to defend itself. One wonders what is the relationship between the Iftar celebration and Israel? What is the U.S. administration’s implicit-explicit intention in putting the Muslim leaders in such an embarrassing situation? To test their loyalty or rather their capacity to compromise or betray? They obviously remained silent."

In fact, Dermer's very presence at the dinner got some people's backs up.

Ramadan wrote, "The Israeli ambassador, Mr. Ron Dermer, also invited (why?), was actually the first to speak," adding that Dermer was "invited to celebrate Iftar with the Muslims meanwhile his Government is destroying Gaza.”

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.605774

Update: Why court freed Amigo Supermarket owner, jailed fellow Lebanese for life

Premium Times

Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Friday sentenced Talal Roda, a Lebanese, to life in prison for illegal possession of firearms.
Mr. Ademola, who gave the verdict in his judgment, held that Mr. Roda was guilty of conspiracy to transport, import, sell and hoard large unlicensed firearms stored at No.3 Gaya Road, Kano.
Mr. Roda, also accused of being a member of the Lebanese group, Hezbollah, along with two of his compatriots, Mustapha Fawaz and Abdallah Thahini, were charged with criminal conspiracy and unlawful importation of prohibited firearms.
They were arrested in May in connection with a large cache of arms found at the Gaya Road residence in Kano. Mr. Fawaz is a co-owner of Abuja’s Amigo Supermarket and Wonderland Amusement Park.
The judge, however, said the prosecution failed to prove the allegation of illegal possession against Messrs Fawaz and Thahini.
“It is clear from the evidence adduced by both the prosecution and Roda that he (Roda) is guilty on count four and nine of the charge.”
“He did not only reside at No.3 Gaya Road, Kano, he was in charge of the arm cache, allegedly managed by Abdulhassan Tahir, now at large.”
“In this circumstance, Roda is found guilty of illegal possession which carries life sentence, while the first and the second accused persons are freed from this,’’ he said.
Similarly, the judge dismissed the declaration sought by the prosecution, urging the court to hold that Hezbollah was an International Terrorist Organisation.
Hezbollah is considered by the U.S. and recently by the EU as a terrorist organisation. The Lebanese organisation has both a political arm, which has representatives in government, and a military wing.
Justice Ademola said that aspect of the allegation linking the three accused persons to a terrorist organisation could not be proved by the prosecution.
“The Terrorism Protection Act (TPA) underscores the elements that must be fulfilled by a group to be declared as a terrorism organisation.”
“The court is not convinced by the allegation that Hezbollah is an international terrorist organisation.”
“This is because Nigeria is signatory to about 12 international laws on terrorism and Hezbollah has not been captured in these statutes as a terrorist organisation.”
“If such law declaring Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation exists elsewhere, it is yet to be domesticated and published in a Federal gazette in Nigeria.”
“I hold that the allegation is baseless and stand dismissed against the three accused persons,” he said.
On the allegation that Roda, Fawaz and Thahini converted Amigo Supermarket and Wonderland Amusement Park to meeting points to plan terrorists’ attacks, the judge said no evidence was adduced by the prosecution to prove the charge.
Ademola further held that Fawaz, the owner of the two business outfits located in Abuja, did not convert his two premises to terrorists’ haven.
“Fawaz, Amigo Supermarket and the Wonderland Amusement park are hereby absolved of all the allegations and are therefore freed,’’ he said.
On the charge of money laundering instituted against the second accused person, Thahini, over non-declaration of 61,170 dollars at the Aminu Kano Airport, Kano, Mr. Ademola said the prosecution could not prove the allegation.
“I tend to believe the confessional statement made by Thahini that he was at the point of declaring the money before he was arrested.”
“The security operatives that accosted Thahini did not do so because of the money he carried, they only discovered the cash during his search,’’ he held.
In his consequential order, Mr. Ademola said that the management of the Prison Service should immediately release the first and the second accused persons to enable them return to their homes.
He further held that Amigo Supermarket and Wonderland Amusement Park must be immediately vacated and opened by the State Security Service or other agents of government in charge.
Also, Mr. Ademola directed that the sum of 61,170 dollars sized from Mr. Thahini should be returned to him.
According to him, the impounded firearms should be forfeited to the Federal Government.
Earlier, Ahmed Raji, counsel to the accused persons, pleaded with the court to use its discretion in sentencing Mr. Roda.
Mr. Raji said the plea was predicated on the fact that Mr. Roda was a first offender and had assisted the security operatives during their investigations.
He further said the convict has a wife, children and grandchildren to watch over.
However, the judge said that Section 131(1) of the Terrorism Protection Act under which the convict was charged, prescribed life sentence.
“This section of the Act has barred me from using any discretion in sentencing the convict,’’ he said.
(NAN)

http://premiumtimesng.com/news/150582-update-court-freed-amigo-supermarket-owner-jailed-fellow-lebanese-life.html

SSS ignores court judgment ordering opening of Amigo Supermarket, Wonderland Park

The co-owner of the two businesses was found not guilty of terrorism on Friday
Despite a court judgement on Friday ordering Nigerian security agencies, particularly the Department of State Security Service, SSS, to unlock two businesses in Abuja, the security service has refused to abide by the judgement.
Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Friday freed Mustapha Fawaz, the owner of Amigo Supermarket and Wonderland Amusement Park, of terrorism charges and ordered that the two businesses, locked up by the SSS, be reopened.
Amigo is one of Abuja’s busiest supermarkets while Wonderland is the Nigerian capital’s largest amusement park.
The businesses were shut in May when Mr. Fawaz and two other Lebanese, Tahal Roda and Abdullah Thani, were arrested after a large cache of arms was found by security officers in a residence in Kano. The men were subsequently detained and tried for illegal arms importation and terrorism.
In his ruling on Friday, Justice Adeniyi found Mr. Roda guilty of the charges and sentenced him to life imprisonment. He, however, freed the other two Lebanese, saying the state could not prove the charges against them. Mr. Roda had admitted being a resident of the compound in Kano where the arms were discovered. He also confessed that he was drafted to service the arms on the instruction of the owner of the building, Abdulhassan Tahir, who is at large.
When PREMIUM TIMES visited Amigo Supermarket in Wuse 2 area of Abuja on Monday afternoon, the building was still locked up with SSS operatives still on guard. One of the operatives, who refused to disclose his name, simply said he was obeying orders by being there.
The Wonderland Amusement Park was also still locked up although there were no visible security officials there.
Efforts to the reach the SSS spokesperson, Marilyn Ogar, on why the agency was yet to obey the court judgement were unsuccessful.
Ms. Ogar did not answer or return calls to her telephone. She also did not respond to a text message enquiry.
 
http://premiumtimesng.com/news/150776-sss-ignores-court-judgment-ordering-opening-of-amigo-supermarket-wonderland-park.html

edo is not in the "far south" and it has a sizeable indigenous muslim population.the governor himself is from a muslim background.i think he adopted Christianity because of his late wife who is Christian.auchi in edo,where is the governor is from, is largely muslim.

there are Christians too who go on tv and send veiled messages against Islamic beliefs and theology.what you need to do is to follow your own and let others follow theirs.

intolerance would not make islam disappear and it will not make Christians to stop worshipping Jesus.intolerance will only breed hatred and give space for more ignorant people to spread nonsense.

3 Suspected Hizbullah Members Cleared of Nigeria Terror Charges

Three Lebanese nationals suspected of being Hizbullah members were cleared of terrorism charges in Nigeria on Friday but one of the accused was convicted of a weapons offence and jailed for life.

Mustapha Fawaz, Abdallah Thahini and Talal Ahmad Roda were arrested in May after the discovery of an arms cache in a residence in the northern Nigerian city of Kano.

They were accused of plotting attacks against Western and Israeli targets in Nigeria but denied the accusations.

Federal High Court Judge Adeniyi Adetokunbo Ademola said Hizbullah "is not an international terrorist organization in Nigeria" and therefore membership is not criminal.

He said there was "no evidence" that the group was planning an attack or had received "terrorism training" as the prosecution alleged.

All three men were also acquitted of money laundering charges.

But Roda was found guilty of conspiracy to import weapons into the country and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Defense lawyer for all three men Ahmed Raji told reporters after the hearing: "We are happy and slightly not comfortable with respect to the third accused (Roda).

"The most important thing is that the grave aspect of the charges, that is terrorism, was knocked out. We are happy about that."

Raji said he would consult with Roda about a possible appeal against his conviction and sentence and added: "Speaking for myself, I think an appeal is worthwhile."

The trial featured several unexpected twists, including a testimony from Roda that an extremist cell in Nigeria had plotted to assassinate the Saudi ambassador.

In August, Fawaz testified that he had been harshly interrogated by Israeli security agents after his arrest.

He said the grilling was carried out by "six Israeli Mossad agents and one masked white man" who were primarily concerned with his contacts in Lebanon and demanded details of where weapons were stored in his home country.

Thahini testified that he collapsed after being denied sleep for five days in a similar interrogation by purported Israeli agents.

Israel raised concerns over alleged efforts by Hizbullah members to plan attacks in west Africa after the group was arrested.

Fawaz owns a popular amusement park in the capital Abuja called Wonderland, which the court ordered should be re-opened after the ruling.

He and Thahini were immediately released while Roda was escorted away in handcuffs, an Agence France Presse reporter in the court said.

Nigerian intelligence agents escorted journalists to a property in Kano on May 30 and showed them a bunker where a massive haul of weapons had been stored.

The spy chief in Kano, Bassey Etang, described the room as a "Hizbullah armory" -- a statement that raised eyebrows among some analysts.

He said investigations were needed to uncover potential links between the "Hizbullah cell" and Boko Haram, the extremist Islamist group that has killed thousands in northern Nigeria since 2009.

There had previously never been any discussion of a connection between the party and the Nigerian insurgents and experts voiced strong doubts that such ties existed.

The court verdict is a fresh blow to Nigeria's main intelligence branch, the Department of State Services, which in September claimed that Boko Haram attacked troops outside a government building in Abuja.

Subsequent evidence, however, suggested the clash involved security officers and a group of squatters.

http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/107794-3-suspected-hizbullah-members-cleared-of-nigeria-terror-charges

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6qMCb14K3s&feature=player_embedded

Obiagelli: Where the UN

which UN? does Israel care about UN? Israel is not answerable to anyone.it is an outlaw regime.how many UN security council resolutions have Israel violated? how many more resolutions against israel have the US government,which is controlled by AIPAC (Israel lobby group in the US), vetoed?

During testimony on charges of plotting attacks against Western, Israeli targets in Nigeria, two Lebanese defendants recount abuse by Israeli agents

AFP , Monday 5 Aug 2013

Two Lebanese suspects alleged to be members of Hezbollah and on trial in Nigeria on terrorism charges told a court Monday they were harshly interrogated by Israeli agents after their arrests.



Mustapha Fawaz, Abdallah Thahini and Talal Ahmad Roda were arrested in May after the discovery of an arms cache in a residence in the northern Nigerian city of Kano.

They have been accused of plotting attacks against Western and Israeli targets in Nigeria and have denied the charges.

An Israeli embassy spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Fawaz testified on Monday that, after his arrest in Abuja, a security official told him "some European friends" wanted to ask him questions.

"I was taken to an interrogation room where I met three Israeli Mossad agents," Fawaz told the court in response to questions by his lawyer.

Fawaz said one of the interrogators identified himself as a Mossad agent. He said they were "crude and nasty."

"They handcuffed my hands behind my back for days. I lost count because they did not allow me to sleep for several days," Fawaz said, denying membership in Hezbollah.

"They asked if I have any weapon in Abuja ... They asked if I have been asked to do any operation in Nigeria or anywhere else in the world," Fawaz said.

He said further: "During the 14 days of interrogation, I was interrogated by six Israeli Mossad agents and one masked white man.

"I was interrogated in Arabic. I asked to be interrogated in English, but they refused. Most of them are weak in English. They are not Europeans, but Israelis."

Fawaz said no Nigerian official was present during the sessions.

"They asked me about my link with Hezbollah, but they concentrated more on Lebanon – whether I knew if there are weapons stored in the south of Lebanon or the identities of people who have been trained by Hezbollah," said Fawaz.

Thahini, who told the court he was no longer a member of Hezbollah, gave a similar account during his testimony.

He claimed to have collapsed after being denied sleep for five days by the foreign interrogators.

Thahini said it was easy for him to identify them as Israelis by their accents "because we are neighbours."

Both Fawaz and Thahini denied any knowledge of the arms cache discovered in Kano.

Justice Adeniyi Adetokunbo Ademola adjourned the case to 30 September after both the prosecutors and the defence closed their cases.

The three suspects are believed to own a supermarket and an amusement park in Abuja, but the businesses have been shuttered since the arrests.

A fourth suspect is said to be on the run.

Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, is home to a sizeable Lebanese population, including in the mainly Muslim north.

Israel has raised concerns over alleged efforts by Hezbollah members to plan attacks in west Africa.

^

Bunch of insecured hypocrites.the spread of Shia Islam in Egypt is "iranian expansion",but they complain when non-muslims say the spread of Islam-Sunni or Shia-in africa and europe is "arab expansion".why not just allow people choose what to believe?

Published time: October 25, 2010 12:31
Edited time: October 30, 2010 18:49

A high-ranking Israeli official on Sunday slammed a statement from Catholic bishops, who called for international organizations to lead the cause of Palestinian statehood.

Greek-Melchite Archbishop Cyrille Bustros sparked an interreligious firestorm when he suggested that Israel was “using Scripture” to continue its occupation of Palestinian territory.

"The Holy Scriptures cannot be used to justify the return of Jews to Israel and the displacement of the Palestinians,” Bustros said at the close of a two-week conference in Rome, Italy, “to justify the occupation by Israel of Palestinian lands.”




The Archbishop then questioned the biblical idea of a “promised land” set aside by a specific group of people.

"We Christians cannot speak of the promised land as an exclusive right for a privileged Jewish people,” Bustros continued. "This promise was nullified by Christ. There is no longer a chosen people – all men and women of all countries have become the chosen people."

Bustros led the group that drafted the synod's concluding statement on Israel and the Palestinians.

The controversial comments came at the conclusion of a two-week Vatican conference assembled to discuss the plight of Christians in the Middle East.

Pope Benedict XVI was in attendance at the synod and celebrated Mass in St. Peter's Cathedral on Sunday with the bishops.

Israel responds

On Sunday, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon criticized the concluding statement of the conference, saying the forum has been “hijacked by an anti-Israeli majority."

"We express our disappointment that this important synod has become a forum for political attacks on Israel in the best history of Arab propaganda," Ayalon said in a statement. "The synod was hijacked by an anti-Israel majority."

Ayalon then called on the Vatican to distance itself from the comments, which the Israeli official said amounted to “libel.”

"We call on the Vatican to distance themselves from Archbishop Bustros' comments which are a libel against the Jewish People and the State of Israel and should not be construed as the Vatican's official position," the foreign minister said in his statement. "These outrageous comments should not cast a shadow over the important relationship between the Vatican, the state of Israel and the Jewish people."

The Palestinian Authority, however, praised Bustros’ comments.

"Israel cannot use the biblical concept of a promised land or chosen people to justify new settlements in Jerusalem or Israeli territorial claims," Saeb Erakat, a spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, said in a statement released Sunday.

Erakat said the synod sent "a clear a message to the government of Israel that it may not claim that Jerusalem is an exclusively Israeli city."

"The Palestinian people will thus have an independent and sovereign homeland where they can live with dignity and security," the statement continued optimistically. "The State of Israel will be able to enjoy peace and security within their internationally recognized borders."

"The Holy City of Jerusalem will be able to acquire its proper status, which respects its particular character, its holiness and the religious patrimony of the three religions: Jewish, Christian and Muslim," it said. "We hope that the two-state-solution might become a reality and not a dream only."

Pope Benedict XVI first called for a two-state solution to the Middle East crisis during a visit to the region in May 2009 when he voiced the Vatican's support of a sovereign Palestinian homeland. At the time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was opposed to a two-state solution.

The Vatican, however, eager to boost its sagging popularity worldwide, noted during the synod that only 2.1 per cent of those living in Israel are Christian, who continue to be outnumbered by high Jewish and Muslim birthrates.

The Catholic Church also mentioned conflict, religious discrimination and economic woes as the cause of its shrinking influence in the Middle East.

No sign of apology

The Vatican in January blamed Israel not only for the exodus of Christians from Palestinian-controlled territories, but for the plight of Christians across the entire Middle East.

The statement, which served as the basis for the latest Vatican synod, was also authored by Arab bishops from the Middle East, who argued that Israel’s "occupation" of Arab-claimed lands is the root cause of most of the oppression suffered by Christians in the region.

They suggested that in the absence of an "occupation," radical Islamic forces across the Middle East would lose their support base, and stop causing problems for Christians.

The Vatican said they were not trying to take sides in the issue, but that the Arab bishops “know the situation well.”

This is not the first time of late that religious tensions have boiled over between the adherents of Judaism and Christianity.

Earlier this year, the Catholic Church became suddenly embroiled in a string of pedophile cases, some of them dating back many years. Some inside of the Catholic Church saw a “Jewish conspiracy” behind the reports.

Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Meridiaga, the archbishop of Honduras, said there was something curious about the media’s timing of the revelations, coming as they did as the conflict in the Middle East was heating up.

"It certainly makes me think that in a moment in which all the attention of the mass media was focused on the Middle East, all the many injustices done against the Palestinian people, the print media and the TV in the United States became obsessed with sexual scandals that happened 40 years ago, 30 years ago…"

L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's daily newspaper, criticized what it said was a "clear and despicable intention" by the media to strike at Benedict "at any cost."

American lawyer Alan Dershowitz, a well known defender of Israeli interests, called the Cardinal’s assertions a “cockamamie theory” and “blood libels,” while arguing that much of the criticism (concerning the pedophile cases) “comes from disappointed Catholics.”

Strange how two religions that emerged from the same seed are so committed to dragging each other down at every opportunity.

Robert Bridge, RT

http://rt.com/politics/vatican-israel-palestinians-catholic/

May be na ritual

As cardinals gather to elect Pope, Catholic officials break into a sweat over news that priests share €23m building with huge gay sauna

By MICHAEL DAY
Monday 11 March 2013
A day ahead of the papal conclave, faces at the scandal-struck Vatican were even redder than usual after it emerged that the Holy See had purchased a €23 million (£21 million) share of a Rome apartment block that houses Europe’s biggest gay sauna.
The senior Vatican figure sweating the most due to the unlikely proximity of the gay Europa Multiclub is probably Cardinal Ivan Dias, the head of the Congregation for Evangelisation of Peoples, who is due to participate in tomorrow’s election at the Sistine Chapel.
This 76-year-old “prince of the church” enjoys a 12-room apartment on the first-floor of the imposing palazzo, at 2 Via Carducci, just yards from the ground floor entrance to the steamy flesh pot. There are 18 other Vatican apartments in the block, many of which house priests.
The Holy See is still reeling from allegations that the previous pontiff, Benedict XVI, had quit in reaction to the presence of a gay cabal in the curia.
And with disgraced Scottish cardinal Keith O’Brien lending new weight to charges of hypocrisy against the Church’s stance on homosexuality, La Repubblica newspaper noted that the presence of “Italy’s best known gay sauna in the premises is an embarrassment”.
Cardinal Dias, who is seen as a social conservative even by the current standards of the church hierarchy, is no doubt horrified to learn of the activities taking place a floor below.
It is not known, however, if the former archbishop of Bombay has popped downstairs to give spitiual guidances to the clients of the Europa Multiclub, given his belief that gays and lesbians can be cured of their “unnatural tendencies” through the “sacrement of penance”.
The sauna’s website promotes one of its special “bear nights”, with a video in which a rotund, hairy man strips down before changing into a priest’s outfit. It says Bruno, “a hairy, overweight pastor of souls, is free to the music of his clergyman, remaining in a thong, because he wants to expose body and soul”.
There was further embarrassment for the Holy See when the press observed that thanks to generous tax breaks it received from the last Berlusconi government,  the church will have avoided hefty payments to the Italian state. The properties are recognised as part of the Holy City.
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Pope Emeritus Benedict’s widely disliked right-hand man, who held the Vatican’s purse strings during the last pontificate, was said to have been the brains behind the purchase of 2 Via Carduccio in 2008.
Readers on Italian gay websites were quick to make jokes at the cardinals’ expense. One on the Gay.it site quipped: “’Oops, I took the wrong door, I thought it was the chapel.'…If you can’t go to the gay sauna for fear of being seen what do you do if you have millions of Euros stolen from Italians? You buy the apartment block with the sauna inside.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/as-cardinals-gather-to-elect-pope-catholic-officials-break-into-a-sweat-over-news-that-priests-share-23m-building-with-huge-gay-sauna-8529670.html

[quote author=Rafidi ][b]Please Nigerians should be able to tell when a story sounds like comedy.firstly I have been informed by a reliable source who is a friend in Ilorin that one of the so called "suspect" arrested is an A-C-N chieftain in the state,and he is a Shia Muslim.he is facing a power struggle with other A-C-N members,and being a Shia,some dumb people want to make him an "Iranian spy".there is an estimated 10-15 million Shia Muslims in Nigeria,and that is not enough to make one "an Iranian spy".and what would this Yoruba man be spying for Iran in Kwara of all places? This is dirty Yoruba politics,and it is really unfortunate the SSS is been dragged into it to claim unwarranted glory.moreover,our cheap media like Vanguard who the israeli ambassador have visited their office,is quick to pick up the story and publish it because the word "Iran" is found there.secondly,Shia Muslims are different from the Sunni extremists known as Salafists or Wahhabi.the Shia themselves are victims of Wahhabi terrorism around the world.boko haram and alqaeda follow the Wahhabi or Salafist ideology.lastly,what is the evidence for such a dramatic story? I hope the Iranian embassy would sue the newspaper that paraded this story and whoever made it up and disseminated it,for dragging Iran's image into the mud.last time it was containers of weapons in transit that were arrested in Lagos.the iranian weapons were bought by either senegal or gambia.internationally,it is against UN resolutions to either buy or sell weapons to iran.obviously the west african country was too scared to admit it bought iranian made weapons from iran.israel quickly led the propaganda campaign,and nigeria newspapers like the vanguard and guardian were publishing exactly as israeli newspapers on the siezed weapons.first we were told the weapons were for gaza.imagine where nigeria is and where gaza is.later,apparently the US in the UN influenced the Nigerian decision to report Iran to the security council.perhaps this story today is meant to coincide with the coming of Bill Clinton.it is called "eye service".the question is why are we the ones now looking for trouble with iran? Must iran be our enemy because the US is a rival of iran? [/b][/quote]The media is the source of all evil and crap.

Why are some people looking for trouble with a foreign country (Iran) ? Iran is looking for ways to make friends around the world after the West attempt to isolate it.

very educative documentary by the bbc.

i vote Logicboy

A death in Ireland shows religious extremism survives in the West

By Naomi Wolf | December 11, 2012 12:46 AM

The case of Savita Halappanavar, a 31-year-old dentist from India who had moved, with her husband, to Ireland, continues to reverberate around the world. Halappanavar, an expectant mother, died after her doctors, who cited Ireland’s legal prohibition of abortion, refused to remove her 17-week-old fetus, despite allegedly acknowledging that the fetus was not viable and placing Halappanavar in an intensive-care unit as her condition deteriorated.

Indian activists are outraged. “While there is no single law specific to men that states when, where, or how medical care should be provided, governments enact laws that prescribe, confuse and curtail a woman’s access to safe abortion services,” Anjali Sen, the South Asia director of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, pointed out. “Right and necessary care could have saved her life. It is inexcusable that doctors, instead of undertaking efforts to save her, watched her die,” she affirmed.

Halappanavar suffered extreme pain on Oct. 21. She was miscarrying, and, according to her husband, Halappanavar repeatedly asked for a termination after being told that the fetus would not survive. But Halappanavar and her husband were then informed that Ireland was a Catholic country; the fetus still had a heartbeat, so performing the procedure was simply out of the question. Halappanavar died from septicemia, which her family is certain would not have developed if the termination had been carried out.

Protests in Ireland have put Prime Minister Edna Kenny on the spot, with activists there, like those in India, arguing that Halappanavar died because of a theocratic approach to health care. Irish abortion-rights activists point out that, legally, the life of the fetus does not take precedence over the life of the mother in their country; however, it does take precedence over the health of the mother – a distinction that American abortion opponents have long sought to replicate in the United States.

The Halappanavar case thus reverses the Western stereotype of Eastern societies as preserves of superstition and religious extremism. Halappanavar’s death resulted from the fanatical, atavistic behavior of a Western theocracy, while Indian protesters and lawmakers have upheld the scientific, rationalist ethos that we associate with the Enlightenment. We in the West are so used to “our” religious fanatics that we rarely view them as we do the East’s religious fanatics.

But Halappanavar’s death leaves us with no choice. A non-Catholic, slowly being poisoned by a fetus that was no longer viable, was asked to accept that care would be withheld from her because the pope, acting on the orders of St. Paul, was staying the hand of her doctors. One can imagine the furor if a Western, non-Muslim woman had died because an imam had refused her medical care for religious reasons.

The fact that the uproar has extended to India illuminates the many ways in which one can view abortion – even from a religious perspective. As I noted almost 20 years ago, the Western Christian-Catholic view of abortion is not the only religious interpretation of the issue.

In Hinduism, abortion is considered bad karma; but that is not the same as the Manichean view defended by fundamentalist Christians and the Catholic Church. Hindu medical ethics calls for ahimsa, or “non-harming”; that is, a doctor’s duty is to do the least harm possible in the situation. So a Hindu perspective on the Halappanavar case would have dictated saving the mother’s life if the fetus were endangering it. In this respect, Hinduism resembles Judaism, even Orthodox Judaism, in which “the mother’s life is more important than that of the fetus.”

Abortion, while seen in a negative light, is not illegal in India, probably because it is viewed as an issue of personal morality – one’s karma shouldering the burden of what people in the West would call “choice.” (Indeed, the abortion problem in India lies at the other end of the spectrum: pervasive termination of female fetuses, owing to a cultural preference for having sons, a situation that I would argue inflicts violence against mothers as well.)

The cultural battle over Halappanavar’s death is far from settled. Irish women are certainly right to wonder anew if next time it will be they who are endangered by a religious viewpoint that has nothing to do with their medical needs. But it is the outcry in India, where protesters are demanding that abortion in Ireland be treated as a private medical decision between a woman and her health care providers, that may point the way ahead – to a global dialogue about the universal right of women to reproductive health and freedom.

Such a global dialogue initiated in “the East” would not be unique. The growing international demand for the rule of law and human rights was on display recently when Afghan lawmakers tried – futilely, but honorably – to explain the principles of the United States Constitution to occupying Americans, who had sought to establish a system of detention that was not accompanied by due process.

It is healthy when the West is asked to live up to its own self-image as the bastion of reason and human liberty. Facing up to its own lapses into fanaticism or barbarity would be a good place to start.

Naomi Wolf is a political activist and social critic whose most recent book is “Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries.” THE DAILY STAR publishes this commentary in collaboration with Project Syndicate © (www.project-syndicate.org).

http://dailystar.com.lb/Opinion/Commentary/2012/Dec-11/198003-a-death-in-ireland-shows-religious-extremism-survives-in-the-west.ashx

Sweetnecta

LagosShia-the slayer of wahhabism!

^
No it was Sunnis during world war II that committed the holocaust against the Jews.the Sunni Ottoman caliphate was allied with Hitler. may be that is why Israel keep pounding the Sunni azzes of the Palestinians.

obadiah777: THE QUESTION IS ARE YOU GETTING WITH THE LORD OR NOT ? THATS ALL I WANT TO KNOW. KILL ALL THAT OTHER NOISE YOU ARE MAKING. ARE YOU DOWN WITH THE PROGRAM OR NOT ?

No sir!
Coercion isn't going to work when you cannot explain the most important thing you believe in.what is the need of your god killing himself or his son because a bunch of good men known as 'elect' already saved from damnation by their good works are to join him in a heavenly government? Does that make any sense or have any meaning to you? Those who even believe Jesus died for everyone to make heaven in a magical way are sincerely smarter than you're in this your web-like ideas of yours you can't explain and ended up entangled in.

Would Jonathan kill himself or his son or even resign so that a bunch of 'good men' who have minor mistakes can rule nigeria with him? What's the rationale behind such action?

I'm still waiting to understand what the below statement mean after you stated the 'elect' became 'elect' not through atonement:

' the sacrifice sealed their elect status'

How did ' the sacrifice sealed their elect status'?

If they were already 'elect' through being good and were free from damnation then what's the use for your crucifixion doctrine?

And I can see one thing you've totally brushed aside that christians hold on to is the belief in 'original sin',which is the catalyst christians use to brainwash themselves to believe in the necessity of human sacrifice of Jesus.

obadiah777: LEVITICUS 17 VS 11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.

MATTHEW 15 VS 24 "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel."

You've just contradicted yourself.you stated that the 'elect' gained salvation and became 'elect' not through sacrifice but good works/obedience of the law.

I can see you're in total confusion and fighting hard to even convince yourself.

If I may add the sacrifice mentioned in leviticus is animal,not human sacrifice.also that is offered by a sinner as symbol of repentance and not by God on behalf of sinners.also the sinner makes the sacrifice to God and not God making a 'sacrifing' to himself,of himself for the sinner regardless of repentance.