Author Archives: Guest

Sign the Petition: Restoring the Integrity of Human Rights

By Guest | Published: February 16, 2010

Human Rights For All have set up the Global Petition to Amnesty International: Restoring the Integrity of Human Rights.

The petition has been drafted and initiated by:

Dr. Amrita Chhachhi, Women, Gender and Development Program, Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, member Kartini Asia Network of Women/Gender Studies
Sara Hossain, Advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh
Sunila Abeysekera, INFORM Human Rights Documentation Centre, Sri Lanka

Please take the time to sign it. It’s an easy two step process which needs confirmation from your email.

As organisations and individuals who stand for and support the universality of human rights, we have noted with concern the suspension of Gita Sahgal, Head of the Gender Unit at the International Secretariat of Amnesty International in London, for questioning Amnesty International’s partnership with individuals whose politics towards the Taliban are ambiguous.

Posted in Human Rights | 7 Comments

Intellectual giants of Islamism

By Guest | Published: February 14, 2010

This is a cross-post of an article by Edmund Standing

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The Taliban, AKA ‘the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’, currently have a channel on the infidel YouTube, featuring videos of their ‘operations’ against coalition troops in Afghanistan. This is in clear violation of YouTube’s TOS, which state:

Graphic or gratuitous violence is not allowed. If your video shows someone getting hurt, attacked or humiliated, don’t post it.

If you have time, please flag their videos. Thanks to the vigilance of online anti-jihadists, the Taliban’s official website is down yet again. American hosting services need to be aware of the fact that they are enabling the spreading of enemy propaganda.

But that is not the main point of my post. While the Taliban freely disseminating their propaganda on YouTube is objectionable, the crimes against the English language exhibited by their Western supporters are appalling too. Amongst their supporters, we find a number of fans who appear to be the jihadist equivalent of Ali G. Messages of support include:

Posted in Islamism | 2 Comments

Another Face of Moazzam Begg

By Guest | Published: February 11, 2010

This is a cross-post of an article by habibi from Harry’s Place

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Who is the woman on Moazzam Begg’s Facebook page?

beggsiddiqui1

It’s Aafia Siddiqui, who has been convicted of attempted murder in the United States.

Not before identifying her real persecutors in courtroom outbursts during jury selection, of course:

On questioning during jury selection: “The next question is going to be on anti-Semitism, and all I said was Israel was behind 9/11, and that’s not anti-Semitism!”

On potential jurors: “If they have a Zionist or Israeli background . . . they are all mad at me. I have a feeling everyone here is them [sic] – subject to genetic testing. They should be excluded if you want to be fair.”

Convicted, she said:

“This is a verdict coming from Israel, not America. Your anger should be directed where it belongs. I can testify to this and I have proof.”

Posted in Islamism | 6 Comments

Letter to Amnesty from Denis MacShane MP

By Guest | Published: February 10, 2010

Denis MacShane, the Labour MP for Rotherham and staunch defender of free speech and human rights, has sent a letter to Amnesty International’s UK Director, Kate Allen, regarding the organisation’s decision to suspend Gita Sahgal. It is reproduced below in full:

Kate Allen
Director
Amnesty UK
17-25 New Inn Yard
London
EC2A 3EA 10 Feb. 10

Dear Kate,

I was very concerned to hear on Today this morning that Amnesty International has suspended Gita Saghal because she quite rightly raised questions about whether Amnesty should be promoting someone whose views run contrary to everything Amnesty stands for.

I know she works for the International Secretariat but Amnesty UK is involved as it has been promoting the man in question. Given your own admired and respected role in raising women’s right issues as part of Amnesty’s work I do think some reflection is required before the International Secretariat victimises one of its most respected researchers because she rightly called into question Amnesty’s endorsement of Mozzam Begg whose views on the Taliban and on Islamist jihad stand in total contradiction of everything Amnesty has fought for.

Posted in Islamism, Moral relativism, UK Politics | 23 Comments

Mixed Messages from CagePrisoners

By Guest | Published: February 8, 2010

This is a cross-post of an article by Alexander-Meleagrou Hitchens

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In yesterday’s Sunday Times, CagePrisoners (CP) was criticised for promoting al-Qaeda preacher Anwar al-Awlaki on their site. The group’s head, Moazzam Begg, responded by saying that ‘I don’t consider anybody a terrorist until they have been charged and convicted of terrorism.’ The only problem with this is that his organisation’s website is replete with profiles and sympathetic interviews with convicted terrorists. Rightly, Begg follows the ‘innocent until proven guilty’ line, but when they are convicted, CP seem to give the terrorists a lot of sympathy.

CP’s website, for example, reproduces and publishes letters and poems written by people who have been convicted on terrorism charges in the UK. What is the justification for this? Begg has never addressed this issue, and it is about time that he did. I have already covered the materials on the CP site in previous blogs.

Posted in Islamism, Terrorism | Tagged Cageprisoners, Moazzam Begg | Leave a comment

Statement by Gita Sahgal on Amnesty, CagePrisoners and Begg

By Guest | Published: February 8, 2010

This is Gita Sahgal’s statement following her suspension by her employers Amnesty International (originally posted at Stroppyblog):

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Amnesty International and Cageprisoners

Statement by Gita Sahgal

7 February 2010

This morning the Sunday Times published an article about Amnesty International’s association with groups that support the Taliban and promote Islamic Right ideas. In that article, I was quoted as raising concerns about Amnesty’s very high profile associations with Guantanamo-detainee Moazzam Begg. I felt that Amnesty International was risking its reputation by associating itself with Begg, who heads an organization, Cageprisoners, that actively promotes Islamic Right ideas and individuals.

Within a few hours of the article being published, Amnesty had suspended me from my job.

Posted in Human Rights | Leave a comment

Mohammad Mosaddeq: Some Myths Dispelled

By Guest | Published: February 6, 2010

This is a cross-post of an article by Michael Ezra on Harry’s Place

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Dr. Mohammad Mosaddeq was a popular Iranian politician. An Iranian nationalist, who hailed from a wealthy and prominent family he served as Prime Minister of Iran from 1951 – 1953.[1] According to one of his own cousins, as well as being “Distinguished,” he was “highly emotional.” He would gesture “wildly” in “theatrical” speeches. When he was nervous or in a rage, tears “sprung unbidden from his eyes” that he would wipe away with his hand.[2] His major political achievement was to nationalise the British controlled Anglo-Iranian Oil Company[3] (abrogating an agreement that would have expired in 1993).[4] Mosaddeq’s time as Prime Minister ended abruptly in August 1953 after a CIA sponsored coup that replaced him with a retired army major general, Fazlollah Zahedi.[5]

Myth 1: Mosaddeq was a Democrat.

Posted in History | 5 Comments

Mohammed Atif Siddique and ‘racism’

By Guest | Published: February 6, 2010

This is a cross-post of an article by Robin Simcox.

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In September 2007, Mohammed Atif Siddique was jailed for eight years for various terror offences. The most serious of these charges – possession of an article for a purpose connected to terrorism – was quashed last week. The appeals judge, Lord Osborne, called the original verdict a ‘miscarriage of justice’, which is inevitably the headline that most of the press ran on. The impression given was that the British state was once again unfairly demonising its Muslim population.

What was missed in most of the reporting was that Lord Osborne was only referring to the main charge as a miscarriage of justice. Siddique’s convictions for providing instruction for the purposes of terrorism, circulating a terrorist publication and breach of the peace still stood. Looking through the court documents, it is clear that Siddique is an unapologetic admirer of al-Qaeda and its ideology. He amassed huge stocks of jihadist material and would regularly discuss his desire to become a suicide bomber. That he could be used as an example of how ‘discriminatory’ the British state is somewhat rankles, to say the least.

Posted in Islamism, Moral relativism | 25 Comments

BREAKING NEWS: Awlaki directed attack on Delta airlines

By Guest | Published: February 5, 2010

This is a guest post by Shiraz Maher from Standpoint Magazine.

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CBS News is breaking an exclusive story over in the United States. It seems that Anwar al-Awlaki did indeed direct the abortive Christmas day attack by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. Here’s what CBS are reporting:

The suspect in a failed Christmas Day airliner bombing attempt told federal investigators that radical Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki directed him to carry out the attack, CBS News has learned.

[...]

The source said Abdulmutallab told investigators he was guided by al-Awalki to detonate the bomb over U.S. soil, unlike the failed British bomber plot in 2006 when the bombers were instructed to detonate bombs on airliners over the ocean on the way to the U.S. so that there would be no evidence left behind.

Posted in Islamism, Terrorism, Your View | Leave a comment

Hi Kids! Remember, Annihilate Those Who Insult Islam

By Guest | Published: February 5, 2010

This is a cross-post from Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens

Both on this blog and Harry’s Place, Moazzam Begg’s CagePrisoners (CP) group has featured fairly regularly – especially since one of their favourite ‘Sheikhs’, Anwar al-Awlaki, turned out to be an al-Qaeda supporter.

Although CP claims to campaign for raising ‘awareness of the plight of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and other detainees held as part of the War on Terror’, much of its website is dedicated to individuals convicted of terrorism offences in the UK. These people are not ‘detainees’ who are ‘held’, they are prisoners who are guilty of either trying to kill civilians, or encouraging others to do so.

In the website’s ‘From Behind Bars’ section, there are pages of letters from convicted Islamist terrorists, and in the case of Mohamed Hamid (aka Osama bin London), some stratospherically awful poetry.