Category Archives: Human Rights

Karadzic will not be troubling the hangman

By Faisal | Published: October 28, 2009

As the UN war crimes tribunal of Radovan Karadzic gets underway, we are already getting a taste of the grandstanding and manoeuvring that he is famous for. The judges have already accused Karadzic of trying to obstruct the course of justice.

Sniff the noose

Sniff the noose

This “poet, psychiatrist to Sarajevo football club, confidante of presidents and all-around statesman” is on trial for some very serious crimes, not least of which is playing his part in Europe’s worst genocide since the Nazi Holocaust. Karadzic stands accused of two counts of genocide, one relating to the massacre of more than 7,000 men and boys by Bosnian Serb forces at Srebrenica in July 1995, and nine further charges of war crimes in relation to the murderous ethnic war in Bosnia during 1992-95. These include:

  • Five counts of crimes against humanity (Article 5 of the Statute – extermination, murder, persecutions on political, racial and religious grounds, persecutions, inhumane acts (forcible transfer));
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Also posted in Anti Fascism, Anti Muslim bigotry | 3 Comments

enter sandmonkey – again!

By bananabrain | Published: October 14, 2009

i don’t know about the rest of you, but i was an avid reader of the sandmonkey blog written in cairo and was extremely upset when he got hounded out of the country by the security forces – but hurrah! it seems that it didn’t take much time for him to get back on the camel (as it were) and continue to rile people all over the middle east with his witty, incisive and often mordant observations.

good luck to him, i say – he deserves our support. unfortunately, i believe the whereabouts of the courageous and farsighted iranian blogger hossein derakhshan still remain unknown. i wonder if we’ll ever see the guy again?

Also posted in Activism, Blogosphere, Democracy, Freedom of Expression, Politics | 1 Comment

Nothing to do with me, I’m British!

By Faisal | Published: October 8, 2009

What would be the outcome of this exchange were it to take place between Inayat Bungalwala and a neutral interviewer:

Interviewer: Mr Bunglawala, as a prominent member of the Muslim community, what is your take on the Israel/Palestine situation? Do you actively seek bringing justice to Muslims in Palestine?

Bunglawala: I was born in the UK and am not Palestinian, so to be honest, I very rarely think about Palestine. I reckon it is of much more import to those of Palestininan/Arab backgrounds than to me.

I do nothing whatsoever to bring justice to Muslims in Palestine. I have enough on my plate here in the UK.

I am Bunglawala Not Bangladeshi

I am Bunglawala Not Bangladeshi

So why is the same comment, but this time transposed to Bengali Muslim victims of the genocide in 1971, acceptable when he makes it on the Guardian website?

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Posted in Human Rights | 46 Comments

Amnesty UK’s Blind Spot

By Faisal | Published: October 4, 2009

We at the Spittoon are opposed to detention without due process and we firmly believe that the need to put an end to it is non-negotiable and opposition to it is imperative within any free society. It makes no difference whether the extra-judicial detainment happens to take place in Sudan, Iran, Pakistan or Guantanamo.

So we support, in principle, initiatives like the Guantanamo Bay Rally held yesterday, organised by Amnesty UK. It boasted quite a high-profile line up of speakers and backing organisations.

Speakers;
Louise Christian from Christian Khan Solicitors
Imran Khan from Imran Khan Solicitors
Kevin Laue from Redress
Amnesty Representative
Sunny Hundal from Pickled Politics
Representative from Reprieve
Helen Bamber from Helen Bamber Foundation
Andy Worthington journalist and author of ‘The Guantanamo Files’

Organisations in support include;
Redress
London Guantanamo Campaign
Cage prisoners
Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers

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Also posted in Islamism | Tagged | 22 Comments

Death of an old friend

By Faisal | Published: August 27, 2009

Here in Bangladesh, Ted Kennedy’s death from brain cancer at the age of 77 has caused an outpouring of grief amongst Bangladeshis. Kennedy consistently occupied the centre stage in American politics for most of his career but for Bangaldeshis he represents one of its heroes who condemned the genocide and repression in East Bengal and his stance for the cause of the independent state of Bangladesh.

Senator Edward Kennedy visiting a refugee camp in India in 1971

Senator Edward Kennedy visiting a refugee camp in Calcutta in 1971

In 1971 US Senator Edward Moore Kennedy spoke out against the US government’s oppostion to Bangladesh’s claim for independence and the Nixon administration’s tacit support of the genocide commited by Pakistan during the Liberation War of Bangladesh.

From the Daily Star:

The Pakistan military administration under General Yahya Khan tried to suppress information regarding the genocide in Bangladesh after its launching on the night of March 25, 1971.

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Posted in Human Rights | 22 Comments

An Appeal To The World’s Conscience

By Houriya | Published: August 4, 2009

From the Egyptian writer and academic researcher of Islamic Affairs, Dr. Sayed Mahmoud El Qemany, who is being exposed to incitements to assassinate him.

In the context of my academic research and practical work I have been able to provide an important set of motion in the stagnant Egyptian situation. I have attempted to make reforms from the inside and worked on the disarmament of those who exploit Islam politically and make it a source of livelihood at the expense of the simple, good people of Egypt. I have therefore created a secular movement that has imposed its presence, although still at a formative stage.

In a free ballot of Egyptian thinkers, I was granted the State Award for Social
Sciences, on June 25th 2009. The hard-line radical militant groups considered that the state has adopted this intellectual secular trend officially, infuriating the mentioned group which called on the State to withdraw the prize with the declaration of my defection from Islam and excommunication which means in our country, I could be slain; any citizen is allowed to kill me and be awarded by God in Paradise.

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Also posted in Feature, Freedom of Expression, Islamism | Leave a comment

The Story of Malalai Joya

By Houriya | Published: July 30, 2009

Malalai Joya, a 30 year old women’s rights activist in Afghanistan, has been recently interviewed by Johann Hari. Though below is actually a condensed version of her story, it is long but worth reading!

Joya was four days old when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. On that day, her father dropped out of his studies to fight the invading Communist army, and vanished into the mountains. She says: “Since then, all we have known is war.”

Her earliest memory is of clinging to her mother’s legs while policemen ransacked their house looking for evidence of where her father was hiding. Her illiterate mother tried to keep her family of 10 children alive as best she could. When the police became too aggressive, she took her kids to refugee camps across the border in Iran. In these filthy tent-cities lying on the old Silk Road, Afghans huddled together and were treated as second-class citizens by the Iranian regime. At night, wild animals could wander into the tents and attack children. There, word reached the family that Joya’s father had been blown up by a landmine – but he was alive, after losing a leg.

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Also posted in International Affairs, Review | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

In Nigeria, the Inevitable Has Begun

By Guest | Published: July 29, 2009

This is a guest post by Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens from the new Hitchens-Maher ‘Focus on Islamism‘ blog

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This week, the focus on Islamic extremism has briefly shifted to Nigeria and a group called Boko Haram. The group have gone on a killing spree in northern Nigeria, leading to the deaths of at least 150 people.

The Boko Haram, who also reportedly call themselves ‘Taliban’, are led by a Mohammed Yusuf and their name translates from Hausa as ‘western education is forbidden’.  They certainly seem to practice what they preach, and Yusuf has been quoted as saying that he rejects claims regarding the spherical nature of planet earth.

What Boko are in fact forbidding is any teachings that they deem as un-Islamic, and they intend to force this anti-education agenda on the rest of the country.  The group seems to have tried to take control of certain cities in the north of the country, including Maidiguri, and their attacks are mainly focused on the police and other government institutions.

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Also posted in Islamism | 14 Comments

Our selective moral outrage is shameful

By Guest | Published: July 27, 2009

This is a guest-post by Ibn Khaldun

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Muslims living in Britain and around the world are often outraged when Muslims are killed or Muslim holy sites attacked. This is a normal and often admirable reaction. However, I am increasingly frustrated that this moral outrage is often highly selective and is only ignited when it is non-Muslims who are doing the killing and attacking.

In the mid-90s, I remember the outrage amongst Muslims in Britain when the Bosnia tragedy was unfolding. There were street protests, leaflet campaigns, conferences and a great deal of activism and mobilisation against the war. Muslims were equally vocal about the war in Chechnya and yet there was total silence about the simultaneous events in East Timor. Here we had Indonesia – the world’s most populous Muslim country – organising and arming militias to conduct an armed campaign which left 1400 dead and made 300,000 into refugees. This followed a 24 year occupation by Indonesia in which an estimated 102,800 died. Did the fact that this time it was Muslims doing the killing make a difference?

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Also posted in Antisemitism, Identity Politics, Moral relativism, Your View | 4 Comments

The British-Saudi Arabian Asylum Cover-up

By Faisal | Published: July 24, 2009

The Independent reports that the British government has granted asylum to a Saudi princess after she had an illegitimate child with an unnamed British man. The young woman, who has been granted anonymity, told the courts that she faced execution if her husband, an elderly Saudi prince, found out about her adultery if she was forced to return to Saudi Arabia.

This woman is one of the lucky few. She will not have to return to Saudi Arabia and she and her unborn child will be free to live in safety here in the UK. Of course we will never know the true numbers of women who face violence and abuse in Saudi Arabia because official statistics are not released. Others have not been so lucky:

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Posted in Human Rights | 10 Comments

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