Ya' Allah Protect Us From Muslim Men Like This One

How do they sleep at night? 

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A Pakistani lawmaker defended a decision by southwestern tribesmen to bury five women alive because they wanted to choose their own husbands, telling stunned members of Parliament this week to spare him their outrage.

"These are centuries-old traditions and I will continue to defend them," Israr Ullah Zehri, who represents Baluchistan province, said Saturday. "Only those who indulge in immoral acts should be afraid."

The women, three of whom were teenagers, were first shot and then thrown into a ditch. They were still breathing as their bodies were covered with rocks and mud, according media reports and human rights activists, who said their only "crime" was that they wished to marry men of their own choosing.

Full Story: MSNBC

Top Commanders & Officials ...

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A senior Taliban commander was wounded and arrested by Pakistani forces as he tried to slip across the Afghan border into Pakistan with a small band of men, the Pakistani military spokesman’s office said Monday.

The commander, Mansoor Dadullah, is the brother of one of the Taliban’s most prominent and brutal operational leaders, Mullah Dadullah, who was killed last year. Mansoor Dadullah is not of the same stature within the Taliban.

Full Story: NY Times

Here's what I'm trying to figure out: we've been at this war on terror business for 6+ years now. Every few months (sometimes more often) we get news about another top or key official from a terror organization being captured. Who are these men? And how many key officials did Al Qaeda and the Taliban have? Isn't everybody stuck at Guantanamo a key Al Qaeda official? And have you seen how small Afghanistan is? Given it's relative size and the fact that they did not have power over all of Afghanistan, how many top leaders did they need?

This is getting ridiculous. It's bad enough our money is being spent on an imaginary War on Terror. The US and their allies conducting this imaginary war in an inefficient manner, simply adds insult to injury.

Blogging

I've been really bad at this blogging thing, but I'm going to start up again insha'Allah.

BTW if you want to take a trip to Pakistan to view the madness first hand, let me know. There is a delegation heading there next week; I'll forward you the 411.

SABA Condemns the "State of Emergency" in Pakistan

San Francisco, November 8, 2007 -- The South Asian Bar Association of Northern California (SABA) condemns the "state of emergency" declared in Pakistan on November 3rd, 2007 by President General Pervez Musharraf, his suspension of civil rights, and the ensuing state violence against the Pakistani judiciary, bar, pro-democracy activists, human rights organizations and independent media.

In recent days, the Pakistani military state has beaten and jailed a staggering number of lawyers and judges for supporting an independent judiciary and for opposing military dictatorship. Victims include Muneer Malik, past President of the Pakistan Supreme Court Bar Association, whom SABA recently honored at a joint event with the Bay Area Association of Muslim Lawyers. In fact, a majority of the Supreme Court justices and their families have been put under house arrest for refusing to give their imprimatur to President Musharraf's overthrow of constitutional governance.

We stand in solidarity with fellow lawyers who are fending off bayonets, batons and bullets in the streets of Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and other Pakistani cities to defend the rule of law. This military crackdown violates international law and threatens the freedom and liberty of all Pakistanis.

SABA calls on President Musharraf immediately to end the "state of emergency," to restore the judiciary, and to release all lawyers imprisoned for opposing the military state. As South Asian attorneys, we add our voices to the chorus of: "Qanoon ki baladasti, zindabad! Long live the rule of law!" We call on all lawyers to support the sacrifice of our colleagues in Pakistan and work towards their immediate release.

Media Contact: Supriya Sundarrajan

Return of Benazir Bhutto

The Kleptocrat in an Hermes Headscarf

Counter Punch
October 22, 2007
By JEMIMA KHAN

She's back. Hurrah! She's a woman. She's brave. She's a moderate. She speaks good English. She's Oxford-educated, no less. And she's not bad looking either.

I admit I'm biased. I don't like Benazir Bhutto. She called me names during her election campaign in 1996 and it left a bitter taste. Petty personal grievances aside, I still find jubilant reports of her return to Pakistan depressing. Let's be clear about this before she's turned into a martyr.

This is no Aung San Suu Kyi, despite her repeated insistence that she's "fighting for democracy", or even more incredibly, "fighting for Pakistan's poor".

This is the woman who was twice dismissed on corruption charges. She went into self-imposed exile while investigations continued into millions she had allegedly stashed away into Swiss bank accounts ($1.5 billion by the reckoning of Musharraf's own "National Accountability Bureau").

She has only been able to return because Musharraf, that megalomaniac, knows that his future depends on the grassroots diehard supporters inherited from her father's party, the PPP.

As a result, Musharraf, who in his first months in power declared it his express intention to wipe out corruption, has dropped all charges against her and granted her immunity from prosecution. Forever.

Notably, he did not do the same for his other political rival, Nawaz Sharif, who was recently deported after attempting his own spectacular return to Pakistan.

But the difference is that Benazir is a pro at playing to the West. And that's what counts. She talks about women and extremism and the West applauds. And then conspires.

The Americans and the British are acutely aware that their strategy in the region is failing and that Musharraf's hold on power is ever more tenuous. They have pressed hard for Benazir and the General to cut a deal that would allow them to share power for the next five years in a "liberal forces government".

It's all totally bogus. Benazir may speak the language of liberalism and look good on Larry King's sofa, but both her terms in office were marked by incompetence, extra-judicial killings and brazen looting of the treasury, with the help of her husband--famously known in Pakistan as Mr 10 Per Cent.

In a country that tops the international corruption league, she was its most self-enriching leader.

Benazir has always cynically used her gender to manipulate: I loved her answer to David Frost when he asked her how many millions she had in her Swiss bank accounts. "David, I think that's a very sexist question."

A non sequitur (does loot have a gender?) but one that brought the uncomfortable line of questioning to a swift end.

Of all Pakistan's elected leaders she conspicuously did the least to help the cause of women. She never, for example, repealed the Hudood Ordinances, Pakistan's controversial laws that made no distinction between rape and adultery.

She preferred instead to kowtow to the mullahs in order to cling to power, forming an expedient alliance with Pakistan's Religious Coalition Party and leaving Pakistan's women as powerless as she found them.

The problem is that the West never seems to learn; playing favourites in a complicated nation's politics always backfires. Imposing Benazir on Pakistan is the opposite of democratic and doubtless will cause more chaos in an already unstable country.

Make no mistake, Benazir may look the part, but she's as ruthless and conniving as they come--a kleptocrat in a Hermes headscarf.

Jemima Khan is an ambassador to Unicef.

(Hijab tip: Huda Shaka)

Pakistan Battles HIV/Aids Taboo

Nearly 4,000 people with HIV/Aids have reported at treatment centres around Pakistan, government and World Health Organisation (WHO) officials say.

The figure is a fraction of the total number of Pakistanis with the virus.

A UNAids report last year said that between 80,000 and 140,000 people were infected - and the rate could spiral because of under-reporting of cases.

The WHO has been funding a three-year, $4.5m anti-retroviral programme in Pakistan since late 2005.
. . .
Pakistani officials say a low detection rate and stigma associated with the disease were hampering the treatment of HIV/Aids patients.

The problem is further compounded by a lack of awareness about the infection.

"People think it is exclusively caused by adultery, and are therefore reluctant to approach health services," says Quaid Saeed, WHO's national medical officer for HIV/Aids in Pakistan

More at: BBC News

Yes, I'm Procrastinating!

Activist a 'Pirate,' Not Eco-terrorist
MELBOURNE, Australia -- Paul Watson flies the Jolly Roger from his ship and boasts of ramming more boats than any living seafarer, part of an anti-whaling crusade that even Greenpeace calls too radical.
. . .
But Watson dismisses Greenpeace - an organization he helped found in 1971 before a falling out - and other mainstream conservation groups as "feel good corporations." He also insists the U.N. World Charter for Nature gives him legal authority to save whales by sinking or disabling whaling vessels.

More at: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/


Colorado to Use Inmates to Fill Migrant Shortage
DENVER — Ever since passing what its Legislature promoted as the nation's toughest laws against illegal immigration last summer, Colorado has struggled with a labor shortage as migrants fled the state. This week, officials announced a novel solution: Use convicts as farmworkers.
. . .
Prisoners who are a low security risk may choose to work in the fields, earning 60 cents a day. They also are eligible for small bonuses.

More at: http://www.latimes.com


'Sold' Pakistani Girl in Appeal
Nooran Bibi said her late husband had promised her daughter, Rasheeda, to one Lal Haider in lieu of a poker game debt amounting to 10,000 rupees ($164).
. . .
The use of women to settle blood feuds and debts in tribal society in Pakistan by promising them in marriage remains widespread despite recent reforms.

More at: http://www.bbc.com


Illegal West Bank Homes for US Jews
Al Jazeera's David Chater reports on how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict came to Teaneck, New Jersey this week.
At an orthodox synagogue they were selling the message "invest in Israel's future - strengthen the settlements".
The project is aimed at getting American Jews to fill the financial gap left after the Israeli government decided to eliminate subsidies for building on the West Bank by encouraging them to purchase second homes in one of the many existing illegal settlements.
. . .
Investors are assured that according to Israeli law there is no possibility of their ownership rights being violated. No mention is made of the fact that all of the settlements are illegal under international law.
The settlements breach the Geneva Conventions and Security Council resolutions 446, 465 and 471, which require the dismantlement of settlements.
They also breach UN resolutions which demand that Israel withdraw to the pre-June 1967 borders and give back all of the occupied lands.

More at: http://english.aljazeera.net

Indonesia / Palestine / Pakistan

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-bush21nov21,1,173944.story?coll=la-headlines-world

Indonesia: About 2,000 protesters from Muslim, student, and labor groups showed up to protest U.S. policies in Iraq and Afghanistan, saying it was Bush who was spreading terror.

Indonesia, where Islam is firmly rooted and democracy is still emerging, is a religious and political laboratory for the policies Bush says are the answer to Islamic-based terrorist movements.

Nearly 90% of Indonesia's 238 million people are Muslims. That amounts to approximately one-sixth of the Muslim world. After four decades of authoritarian rule, the nation's first democratic elections were held seven years ago; Yudhoyono was elected in 2004.

It is a base of the terrorist organization Jemaah Islamiah and has increasingly cooperated with the U.S. in counter-terrorism efforts, particularly in the wake of bombings in 2002 and 2003.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1120-03.htm

Palestine: In the first incident of its kind, hundreds of neighbours surrounded the home of Mohammed Baroud and climbed on its roof after he received a call from the Israeli army informing him he had 30 minutes to vacate his home before it was destroyed by missiles.

The Israeli air force called off its strike because of the risk of killing a large number of civilians.

Nizar Rayan, a Hamas member who led the Jabalya protest, said Palestinians would continue to rush into every house to be threatened by bombardment. "We will pay with our lives to protect the houses of the fighters so they can resist the enemy assured that their homes are being protected," he said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6157518.stm

Pakistan: The Pakistani government has submitted another bill in parliament to protect women's rights, officials say.

The bill seeks to make forced marriage a crime and safeguard women's right to property and inheritance.

It seeks to outlaw some local customs that prevent women from marrying and hence bearing children who may claim her share in ancestral property.

It also criminalises forced marriages, including those in which young girls are given away in marriage to settle murder feuds, he said.

Pakistan Moves Toward Altering Rape Law

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/16/world/asia/16pakistan.html?ex=1164430800&en=18d2c06bd585a64b&ei=5070&emc=eta1

Under the Hudood ordinance . . . A woman who reports that she has been raped must produce four male witnesses to prove it. If she fails to do so, she can be prosecuted for adultery. Thousands of women have been punished under the law, often on the flimsiest evidence. That risk has kept many women from trying to bring their attackers to justice.

The new legislation allows forensic and circumstantial evidence to be used as a basis for convictions, as with other crimes.

The amendment also introduces the concept of statutory rape, outlawing sex with girls under 16. The Islamic code had merely banned sex with girls before puberty.

...include cases in which local authorities have permitted rapes as a way of compensating someone judged to have been wronged by the woman's male relatives.

Pakistani officials have taken pains to convince the public that amending the laws would not violate Islamic precepts, and General Musharraf repeated that theme in his remarks. "I assure the entire nation that no Pakistani can ever think of enacting law that is repugnant to the Holy Koran and the Sunnah," the recorded teachings and actions of the Prophet Muhammad, he said.