Category Archives: International Affairs

Twitters from Iran

By Shikwa | Published: June 15, 2009

The news coming out from Iran after this weekend’s heavily disputed election is being massively censored. The BBC is just one agency who’s satellites are being jammed by Tehran, prompting the World Service editor Peter Horrocks to conclude:

[This] seems to be part of a pattern of behaviour by the Iranian authorities to limit the reporting of the aftermath of the disputed election. In Tehran, John Simpson and his cameraman were briefly arrested after they had filmed the material for this piece. And at least one news agency in Tehran has come under pressure not to distribute internationally any pictures it might have of demonstrations on the streets in Iran.

The people of Iran are resisting attempts to rob them of their election. Here is a list of twitter feeds coming directly out of Iran – a tweet on history, if you will. Follow them, encourage them. Reproduce this list on your own blog. (List courtesy of H3X).

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Also posted in Democracy, Freedom of Expression, Human Rights, Politics | 1 Comment

Iranian authorities bans protests and orders an “Inquiry”

By Faisal | Published: June 15, 2009

Iran‘s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has ordered an investigation into claims of vote-rigging and fraud in last week’s presidential election, Iranian state TV reported today.

The report said Khamenei had told the guardian council, the clerical body that oversees elections, to examine the pro-reform candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi’s claims of widespread rigging in Friday’s poll.

The government declared the incumbent president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to have won in a landslide victory.

Today’s news represents a surprising turnaround for Khamenei, who had previously welcomed the results.

Mousavi has cancelled a rally planned for later today after being warned that militias responsible for policing it would be equipped with live ammunition.

The rally had earlier been banned by Iran’s interior ministry, but it remained unclear whether protesters would take to the streets or not because many may be unaware that the demonstration had been cancelled.
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Stealing the Iranian Election

By Faisal | Published: June 14, 2009

Iran’s Interior Ministry has declared President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner of yesterday’s election. This has been rejected by all the three opponents of Mr. Ahmadinejad, Messrs Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mahdi Karroubi, and Mohsen Rezaaee.

The second day of protests have flared up in Iran in retaliation against the re-election of incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It is now an accepted fact that the Iranian election results have been rigged against the opposition candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi.

“When the leader did not respond to Rafsanjani’s protest letter,” said another man standing by, “I knew the game was over. We should have never voted in the first place.” He was referring to Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the head of Iran’s Expediency Council, who had written a letter to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei last week, sharply criticizing Ahmadinejad’s accusations against him and his family in a TV debate, and asking that the leader ensure fair elections.

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Posted in International Affairs | Tagged | 2 Comments

Reverend Wright: “Them Jews” Won’t Let Obama Give Me A Call

By Retired | Published: June 12, 2009

Last year, Obama’s ex-pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, caused him quite some embarassment with his inflammatory remarks about 9/11 and racism directed against the Clintons. Now he’s back in an interview with the Daily Press in Newport News, Virginia.

You know what Jeremiah, I don’t think it was “them Jews” who stopped Obama giving you a call. It was you, with silly comments like this.

Also posted in Antisemitism, Politics | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Why Islamism will not succeed in Bangladesh

By Guest | Published: June 10, 2009

This is a guest post by Raziq
****

Many Islamist groups exist in Bangladesh today. Among them are: Islamic Oikye Jote, Hizb-ut-Tahrir and (the largest one) Jamaat e Islami. The Islamist goal in Bangladesh is to create an Islamic state which will impose its version of Shariah on the land. The next step would be to unite with other Muslim countries and create an Islamic super state which will eventually take over the world. The call for Muslim unity however does not resonate well with the Bangladeshi people. After all Bangladesh was created after a bitter struggle with what was then West Pakistan. The Muslim on Muslim violence that followed left any hopes of Muslim unity in tatters. These events however have not deterred them and they are still working towards their goal.

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Also posted in Islamism | Tagged | 17 Comments

Malaysian Islamists Against Women

By Retired | Published: June 7, 2009

Malaysian opposition party, the PAS (Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party), has requested that the National Fatwa Council declare the Islamic women’s rights group Sisters In Islam (SIS) haram “if its activities activities is (sic) found to be contrary to the Islamic teachings and principles”; a clear call for them to be banned.

The call was made in a motion that was tabled by Shah Alam division at the party’s 55th general assembly here yesterday.

The motion which was adopted without debate also called on the fatwa council to investigate in full the activities of carried out by the organisation.

The division in its motion said the SIS’ activities were dangerous as they could cause confusion among the Muslims.

“We are aware that their approach can easily be accepted by the Muslims and this is dangerous as it can twist their aqidah, especially the young and those who went through the secular education,” it said.

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Also posted in Freedom of Expression, Human Rights, Islamism, Secularism | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Obama: A new beginning

By Zorro | Published: June 5, 2009

Obama has completed the third and final leg of his “Islamic World” ‘Odyssey’.  In his speech from Turkey he stated that America was not at war with Islam. He visited Saudi Arabia, the ‘birth place of Islam’, for advice from his majesty, King Abdullah, on how to address the “Islamic World” on issues including but not restricted to, Democracy, Womens rights and tolerence.

He ended his tour, in Cairo, where extreme security measures were undertaken, where students were pre-emptively arrested, detained and huge security measures enforced in the City leaving the city with one of the most densely populated cities in the World, with empty streets.

Whilst many commentators have welcomed his open approach, his olive branch to Iran on Nayruz, to the Arabs and Muslim majority countries calling for mutual interests and murual respect to be reknewed, his shift from militant rhetoric, his recognition of Muslim contributions to America and the World at large, and his  assertion  that he will close  down  Guantanomo bay  etc, other commentators have rasied legitimate concerns.

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Also posted in Democracy, Human Rights, Identity Politics, Islamism, Politics | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Murder in the name of life

By Retired | Published: May 31, 2009

Shocking news from America.

A doctor who was one of the few in the US to continue carrying out late-term abortions was shot dead in a church today.

George Tiller, 67, who had been picketed, bombed and shot in the arms in previous incidents, was killed at his church in Kansas, according to police sources.

His was one of only three clinics in the United States to carry out late-term abortions, which are legal in Kansas if two independent doctors agree that the mother would be irreparably harmed should the pregnancy be allowed to continue.

Tiller was a controversial man, whose clinic has been the site of protests for two decades. He was shot and wounded by a protester in 1993 and someone placed a bomb on the roof of the clinic in 1986, seriously damaging the building.

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Also posted in Terrorism | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Iranophobia

By Retired | Published: May 23, 2009

Press TV is trying to promote a new -phobia.

The Syrian Foreign Minister urges certain Arab countries not to be deceived by Israeli media hype which tries to spread Iranophobia in the Middle East.

Too right, there are absolutely no rational reasons why Arab countries might be worried by Iran. None at all. It must be Iranophobia.

Posted in International Affairs | Tagged | 5 Comments

Iran and the US “retreat”

By Faisal | Published: May 22, 2009

Persian Night by the Iranian author and journalist Amir Taheri is an eye-opening work of journalism. In his book, Taheri draws out the rich and beautiful tapestry of pre-Islamic Iranian cultural history and it’s influence on the flowering of Islamic civilisation, arts, architecture and literature in Iran. This was a different Persia, before it was blighted by the brutal Shah dynasty of the Pahlavi’s and latterly, the Islamic Revolution of Ayatollah Khomeini and the present regime, on which he is ruthlessly clear-sighted.

Taheri’s recent article in the WSJ on Iran’s designs of expansionism in the face of Obama’s “perceived” retreat from the Middle East is insightful. Covering the dynamics of Iran’s engagement and real-politik with six of its immediate neighbours, Egypt, Lebanon, Bahrain, Morocco, Kuwait and Jordan.

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Posted in International Affairs | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

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