generalspeaking

Crime and Punishment / Punishment as Crime

"On the night of July 18, 2017, at about 2am I was sleeping with my children in my house when [...] my 16-year-old daughter was taken away [by three men]."
"We implored the culprits to leave my daughter alone, but [they] threatened us that if anyone came forward they would be killed."
 Mother, second victim: police report

"(The second victim)'s two elder sisters were initially called, but the elders decided that (17-year-old) Victim B would be the one to take the punishment."

"Her mothers and sisters all protested this but the elders brought out their guns and threatened to kill them."

Muzaffarabad Station House report

The distraught young victim sat on the bed says she was subjected to a revenge rape at the orders of the village council -- Daily Mail

"Pancayats have no standing and the courts have stated the same."
"If they act outside of law, then the panchayat and its members should be prosecuted according to law."
Asma Jahangir, human rights lawyer, Pakistan

Panchayats are village elders who come together as a village council to decide on matters of tribal law. They sit to consider a situation that has developed that is disturbing to the community, and commune to come to a decision on how the issue should be addressed. It has not been uncommon on countries like Pakistan and India that such councils will instruct their community members to act in a way that is meant to exact justice, but succeeds instead in furthering injustice.

Particularly when it applies to women being punished for the misdeeds of men resulting in women and girls becoming doubly victimized. Pakistan is ranked, with good reason, as the world's third most dangerous place to be a woman, according to a 2011 Thomson Reuters Foundation survey. "Honour killings" destroy the lives of over one thousand women and girls annually, according to Pakistan's Human Rights Commission. Long-overdue laws have been passed to outlaw "honour killings", criminalizing this violence against women, but tribal customs are difficult to dislodge.

As happened in 2002 with a woman by the name of Mukhtar Mai who was dragged into a house, gang-raped and thrown back out naked while 200 tribal leaders witnessed the punishment meted out to her family because her brother had been accused of conducting an affair with an older woman. Her trauma and humiliation through the violence and shame she suffered saw her do the unthinkable; file a police report, insist on an investigation and see that a court case resulted where most of the 14 men who had gang-raped her were acquitted by the presiding judges.

More recently, another case has surfaced of an extended family clan living within fairly close confines in a small village in Punjab province, Pakistan. A daughter of the family at 12 years of age, cutting grass in fields nearby the village on July 16 was raped by a 16-year-old relative. The elders of the family gathered to discuss the incident and decide what should follow to restore the family's honour. It is the honour of the family, the girl's parents and the extended family clan's honour that is focused on, not the crime committed against the girl.

In their wisdom it was decided by the elders in their "panchayat" deliberations that the brother of the young girl, himself 16, rape the teenage sister of the original rapist as punishment for his crime. One girl was raped, another girl was to be raped as punishment for the rape of the first girl. This is the kind of logic seen as justice through vengeance that satisfies the tribal code of brutally ignorant people who entirely disregard the harm done the girls. Not only will they have suffered dreadful violence and psychological trauma, but in the eyes of the village they will no longer have any currency as marriage partners.

"They're victims and accused at the same time" stated Ahsan Younis, head of the Multan city police. "It's barbaric". The first assailant's father happened to be the brother of the second assailant's grandfather. The "honour crimes" that these reprehensible rapes represent were reported to the Violence Against Women Centre in Multan, leaving authorities to have little option but to arrest the two men involved, but as police realized dozens of other family members were involved, the arrests of 29 people, members of the extended family were authorized.

The mother of the first accused man had in desperation offered either of her two married daughters to see the 'score' settled on the condition that the first victim's family agree it would not take legal action against her son. This did not suit the purposes of the elders who instead demanded that she order her unmarried teenage daughter be taken by the men who intended to see to her punishment through rape. Police head Ahsan Younis observed that the two men who stand accused of the rapes could face the death penalty, but "that is up to the court".

Thoroughly Medieval in the extent of their brutality; the tribal customs and the type of justice reflected in both society at large and the country's system of justice. 

Labels: Female Subjugation, Pakistan, Patriarchy, Punishment, Rape, Tribalism

posted by Pieface @ Monday, July 31, 2017

This is Your Commander-in-Chief

"I want to extend my sincere apologies to those in our Scouting family who were offended by the political rhetoric that was inserted into the jamboree. That was never our intent ... We sincerely regret that politics were inserted into the Scouting program."
"It is in no way an endorsement of any person, party or policies. For years, people have called upon us to take a position on political issues, and we have steadfastly remained non-partisan and refused to comment on political matters."
Scouts have continued to trade patches, climb rock walls, and share stories about the day's adventures. But for our Scouting family at home not able to see these real moments of Scouting, we know the past few days have been over-shadowed by the remarks offered by the President of the United States."
Michael Surbaugh, chief Scout Executive, Boy Scouts of America

Still from video

Full transcript of Trump's words below. TRUMP: Thank you, everybody. Thank you very much. I am thrilled to be here. Thrilled.
(APPLAUSE)
And if you think that was an easy trip, you're wrong. But I am thrilled.
(LAUGHTER)
19th Boy Scout Jamboree, wow, and to address such a tremendous group. Boy, you have a lot of people here. The press will say it's about 200 people.
(LAUGHTER)
It looks like about 45,000 people. You set a record today.
(APPLAUSE)
You set a record. That's a great honor, believe me.
Tonight we put aside all of the policy fights in Washington, D.C. you've been hearing about with the fake news and all of that. We're going to put that...
(APPLAUSE)
We're going to put that aside. And instead we're going to talk about success, about how all of you amazing young Scouts can achieve your dreams, what to think of, what I've been thinking about. You want to achieve your dreams, I said, who the hell wants to speak about politics when I'm in front of the Boy Scouts? Right?
(APPLAUSE)
There are many great honors that come with the job of being president of the United States. But looking out at this incredible gathering of mostly young patriots. Mostly young. I'm especially proud to speak to you as the honorary president of the Boy Scouts of America.
(APPLAUSE)
CROWD: USA! USA! USA!
TRUMP: You are the young people of character, integrity who will serve as leaders of our communities and uphold the sacred values of our nation.
I want to thank Boy Scouts President Randall Stephenson, chief Scout executive Michael Surbaugh, Jamboree Chairman Ralph de la Vega and the thousands of volunteers who made this a life-changing experience for all of you. And when they asked me to be here, I said absolutely yes.
(APPLAUSE)
Finally -- and we can't forgot these people -- I especially want to salute the moms and the dads and troop leaders who are here tonight.
(APPLAUSE) Thank you for making scouting possible. Thank you, mom and dad, troop leaders.
When you volunteer for the Boy Scouts you are not only shaping young lives, you are shaping the future of America.
(APPLAUSE)
The United States has no better citizens than its Boy Scouts.
(APPLAUSE)
No better.
(APPLAUSE)
The values, traditions and skills you learn here will serve you throughout your lives. And just as importantly, they will serve your families, your cities, and in the future and in the present will serve your country.
(APPLAUSE)
The Scouts believe in putting America first.
(APPLAUSE)
You know, I go to Washington and I see all these politicians, and I see the swamp, and it's not a good place. In fact, today, I said we ought to change it from the word "swamp" to the word "cesspool" or perhaps to the word "sewer."
(APPLAUSE)
But it's not good. Not good. And I see what's going on. And believe me, I'd much rather be with you, that I can tell you.
(APPLAUSE)
I'll tell you the reason that I love this, and the reason that I really wanted to be here, is because as president, I rely on former Boy Scouts every single day. And so do the American people.
It's amazing how many Boy Scouts we have at the highest level of our great government. Many of my top advisers in the White House were Scouts. Ten members of my cabinet were Scouts. Can you believe that? Ten.
(APPLAUSE)
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is not only a Boy Scout, he is your former national president.
(APPLAUSE)
The vice president of the United States, Mike Pence -- a good guy -- was a Scout, and it meant so much to him.
(APPLAUSE)
Some of you here tonight might even have camped out in this yard when Mike was the governor of Indiana, but the scouting was very, very important.
And by the way, where are our Indiana scouts tonight?
(APPLAUSE)
I wonder if the television cameras will follow you? They don't doing that when they see these massive crowds. They don't like doing that.
Hi, folks.
(APPLAUSE)
There's a lot of love in this big, beautiful place. A lot of love. And a lot of love for our country. And a lot of love for our country.
Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke is here tonight.
Come here, Ryan.
(APPLAUSE)
Ryan is an Eagle Scout from Big Sky Country in Montana.
(APPLAUSE)

The audience of 40,000 -- oops, scratch that -- oh it was only 40,000, not 400,000? Well, according to the Trump type of reckoning you've got to include the wider audience watching on closed circuit television beamed out to the proud homes of Scouters everywhere. So maybe we should put that figure at four million? In any event, from the transcript of the event everything that came out of U.S. President Trump's mouth quite obviously sounded like pure gold to his audience.

Isn't that what APPLAUSE is indicative of? Mind, the Boy Scouts had warned adult staff members to caution the audience that political chanting of any measure was to be discouraged in no uncertain terms. In no uncertain terms the audience appeared to echo back their chief patron's words of wisdom. The grand disregard for custom, integrity and neutral politics it seems, was trashed, not only by The Man Himself but by those in attendance whose position there it was to regulate proceedings.

West Virginia, perhaps is Trump country? West Virginia, where the Scouting jamboree took place hugely approves of the suave, cosmopolitan intellectual approach that their President brings to the office he holds, influencing, charming and astonishing the world at large with the level of his deep understanding of international affairs and his so very obvious willingness to work collaboratively with his nation's traditional allies. He has wowed them with his genius, and the Scouts have reason to be proud.

Evidently many in the audience found Mr. Trump's predecessor wanting. Demonstrating their respect for the office and the man who held it with two majority elections by booing on cue at the disparaging comments of this new president of unimpeachable integrity. "I saw nothing but roughly 40 - 45,000 boy scouts cheering the president on throughout his remarks. And I think they were pretty excited that he was there and happy to hear him speak to them", chided White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee in reaction to Mr. Surbaugh's apology.

Hear, hear. The man has demonstratively uparalleled skills at making friends and influencing people, preparing the new generation to take their place as proud Americans, using this estimable man's character as the benchmark for all future presidential position holders. God bless America and while he's at it, perhaps he could also protect it from itself....?

Labels: Boy Scouts, Trump, United States

posted by Pieface @ Saturday, July 29, 2017

There Is Method To Their Madness

"The [PA] president in a meeting of the [PA] leadership: As long as the situation in Jerusalem does not return to being as it was before July 14, [2017], there will be no changes whatsoever; to the residents of Jerusalem: We are with you in all that you have done and are still doing, as you are causing us pride and you are taking care of your Al-Aqsa Mosque, your land, your dignity, your people, your religion, and your holy sites"

"At the beginning of a meeting of the [PA] leadership yesterday evening [July 25, 2017], [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas said that as long as the situation in Jerusalem does not return to being as it was before July 14, [2017], there will be no changes whatsoever (refers to Israeli security measures at the Temple Mount following a terror attack there that were later removed; see note below -Ed.).

The president added: 'All of the new Israeli steps on the ground from that date until today need to stop, and then the situation in Jerusalem will return to normal. Afterwards we will continue our work on everything regarding the relations between us and them.'

The president said: 'Since Israel tried to change the situation, the [Palestinian] residents of Jerusalem have risen as one (they launched violent riots -Ed.) You have objected to all of the [Israeli] steps, and we have supported you in what you have done and what you are doing. We are with you in everything that you have done and are still doing, as you are causing us pride, and you are taking care of your Al-Aqsa Mosque, your land, your dignity, your people, your religion, and your holy sites. This is the response to everyone who wants to harm our holy sites. Jerusalem is ours. It is our capital and it is [under] our sovereignty, and therefore what you [Palestinians] are doing is right.'

President Abbas noted that the meeting was supposed to take place today (Wednesday) [July 26, 2017], and said: 'We made it earlier because there were developments (refers to Israel deciding to remove security measures from the Temple Mount on July 24, 2017 -Ed.). We must examine them in order to say our piece and say where we are headed.'

He added: 'What we have decided is to freeze the security coordination [with Israel] - and this is happening, and to defend the holy sites - and this is happening [too]. We want to examine what has happened from that day until today in order to see what we will do.'"

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 26, 2017/Palestinian Media Watch

Palestinian rioters in eastern Jerusalem, near the Old City, protest Israel’s new Temple Mount metal detectors following Friday prayers on July 21, 2017. Photo: Yonatan Sindel / Flash90.

First the provocation, then the accusations, followed up by the threats, and then comes the violence.
It is a tried-and-true methodology perfected by Fatah's Palestinian Authority, never to be divulged to the world-at-large which prefers the impression promoted by the everlastingly victimized Palestinians that Israel is involved in 'genocide', manipulating events to discredit Palestinian claims  to the territory they covet and unequivocally announce is theirs.

It is as though the international community simply prefers to assess and cling to the charade used by the Palestinian Authority to shield its agenda of turning world opinion to its support as the oppressed people living in an agony of intimidation and impecuniousity forced upon it by the brutal military action of an occupying power whose purpose is to deny Palestinian their basic human rights.

There is no wish to acknowledge let alone recognize that the issue has been turned inside out; the PA's published map of its 'territory' is absent Israel, their school curricula teaches each generation that Israel's presence is illegal and it is the duty of every Palestinian to 'resist', to aspire to martyrdom, to return all the land on which Israel sits to Palestinian rule and domination.

Which is why the father of the Palestinian man who murdered three Israeli Jews in their home contends that his son is blameless; he was simply reacting to the unimaginable atrocities committed by Israel against Palestinians. In this particular case it was the reaction of Israeli security authorities in closing down access temporarily to the al-Aqsa mosque complex to search for more weapons being cached there, like the ones that enabled three Israeli Palestinians to shoot to death two Israeli police maintaining security on the complex.

Father of terrorist murderer Omar Al-Abd: "The occupation is the reason for this operation (i.e., terror attack, 3 murdered), because my son is an honorable and educated man, not a man who carries out operations. He is a very calm man, and the members of the village testify to his personality. He is a very moderate man and does not talk about things like this. Rather this happened because of the occupation and what it has inflicted on the Al-Aqsa Mosque."

[Official PA TV News, July 22, 2017] -- Palestinian Media Watch

The head Jerusalem Mufti and the President of the PA, Mahmoud Abbas, were outraged that the murder of the two policemen resulted in a temporary closing of the plaza holding the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa mosque while security personnel searched for evidence and other weapons. Or they said they were outraged with this purported overreach of Israeli authority at the sacred precincts of Islam's third holiest site.

The weapons used by the three assassins had been cached within the mosque; sacred to what? The outstanding precept of Islam: violent jihad.

When Israeli authorities did no more than what would follow anywhere else in the world after such terrorism by installing metal detectors for the protection of all, it presented Palestinian authority figures with the ideal opportunity to incite Palestinians to riot, and riot they did. First, praying on Jerusalem streets outside the gates leading to the mosque, refusing to enter through the metal detectors.

When Saudi Arabia, Jordan, international leaders, Christian organizations and the news media weighed in to support the removal of the security cameras and metal detectors as demanded by the Palestinians, Israel sighed and removed them.

An euphoric victory for Islam was proclaimed. The Palestinian authorities advised Palestinians they were now permitted to enter the compound in the absence of the cameras and detectors. And the riots that had begun before their removal continued, day and night, with Palestinians throwing rocks and other objects at Israeli police and the police  using tear gas and rubber bullets in an effort to halt the rioting.

All cause for Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah to proclaim both a triumph and the usual slanders and incitements in the claim that Israel was planning to remove custody of the mosque and Noble Sanctuary from Jordan's waqf authority in an agreement that disallows Jewish entry to the Temple Mount to pray at Judaism's most sacred site.

Fatah: "At your service, O Jerusalem At your service, O Al-Aqsa Mosque"

Labels: Conflict, Fanatical Islam, Heritage, Israel, Palestinians, Security, Victimhood

posted by Pieface @ Friday, July 28, 2017

Twisting Knots for Profit

"In the past, for reasons I try to explain, I've often felt I had to be careful in public, like I was up on a wire without a net."
"Now I'm letting my guard down."
Hillary Rodham Clinton

"Now free from the constraints of running [?sic], Hillary takes you inside the intense personal experience of becoming the first woman nominated for president by a major party in an election marked by rage, sexism, exhilarating highs and infuriating lows, stranger-than-fiction twists, Russian interference, and an opponent who broke all the rules."
"In these pages [forthcoming book, 'What Happened'], she describes what it was like to run against Donald Trump, the mistakes she made, how she has coped with a shocking and devastating loss, and how she found the strength to pick herself back up afterwards."
Simon & Schuster publishing bumph

"Hillary Rodham Clinton has written a new book. Except maybe she hasn’t. It all depends on what the definition of 'written' is."
"The former first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state had some help on her new memoir, 'Hard Choices.' Clinton employed a phalanx of aides and associates in producing the volume, which is being released Tuesday."
"But don’t expect to hear much about Clinton’s 'book team', as she calls those who helped her write the book, which carries her name alone on its cover."
"Clinton’s acknowledgment of her three-man team — Dan Schwerin, a former Senate and State Department aide to Clinton; Ethan Gelber, another State Department aide; and Ted Widmer, a Clinton adviser and Brown University historian — appears in just a few sentences on Page 597 of the 635-page book. Their exact contributions, however, aren’t spelled out."
"Such is the lot of the ghostwriter."
Paul Farhi, The Washington Post, June 9, 2014

HiIlary Rodham Clinton listens before signing a copy of her book, "Hard Choices" at Barnes and Noble bookstore in New York. (Bebeto Matthews/AP)

On Thursday the announcement of this latest work of fiction from Hillary Clinton was made public.
Instant sensation. The title of her new book leaped forward from its position number 3,350 to 17 on Amazon.com. It is now the 'must-have' tell-all of the month, presumably. Ever hopeful, people who plan to read the exculpatory tome written by someone, certainly not Hillary Clinton, though viewed through her personal lens, will be treated to a version of events that put this woman in high dudgeon until she managed to recover, consoling herself with the assurance that it wasn't her fault.

That Ms. Clinton, the infamously famous woman who imagined herself entitled through a long apprenticeship to sit in the White House, not as a 'first lady' but a First Lady, wrote yet another book is a risible absurdity, and an insult to those who actually labour at the task of writing books. Her name is always front and center as the author of the books in her name, while sometimes the actual name of the person who wrote the book, like the writer of 'It Takes a Village', Barbara Feinman Todd, Georgetown University lecturer and writer who spent 7 months writing it, went unnamed.

These incidental oversights appear to be endemic to Hillary Clinton. She has a casual approach to so many vitally important nods to responsibility and honest revelations, with a penchant toward portraying herself as misunderstood and under-appreciated. Clearly she was misunderstood when she spoke of the type of wretched American voters to whom Trump appealed as presidential material. Just as she was massively under-appreciated when so many of the U.S. voting public felt her past performance revealed too much about her personal style that was unappealing to them as presidential potential.

And perhaps it somewhat stuck in the craw of the ordinary American who struggles to make ends meet living in a society that favours the enterprising and the wealthy -- a nation that prides itself on its exceptionality as a democratic republic that views all its citizens with equanimity in an equal light of opportunity, however disadvantaged a large demographic is when seeking health care, unable to afford what they need to remain healthy and able to maintain employment -- that this woman never missed an opportunity to enrich herself.

And good gracious, here she is, doing it again. Letting her guard down in a mission to explain her lapses in judgement, not those lapses that painted her as unlikely presidential material, but those in failing to understand and connect to the needs of those not as privileged as she. To whom her adversary did appeal and connect with, an issue that in the larger scheme of things, made all the difference. Her defeat at the polls, a 'stunning blow' to someone who expected to breeze into the Oval Office was definitely not her fault. Cue the Russian card. And then-FBI director James Comey; both scuppered her, undeniably.

She talked a good line in excusing herself, from her email server to her State Department response on Benghazi, and her embroideries about being under fire in a field of combat. The field of combat that really mattered to her might have seen a lot of people souring when word of her use of State Department contacts to embellish the charitable enterprise of her husband certainly did her no good. She has a certain way of evincing indignation at suspicions of her self-interested motivation; there we go again, misunderstood.

A flawed candidate in capital letters. In capital letters though she would not have enhanced the status of president while basking in the euphoria of representing the first American woman to hold that position, surely her win at the polls that fateful election day would have been preferable to the election of that uncouth, ignorant, vengeful, egotistical habitual liar whose lack of knowledge and certainty of his personal wisdom is destroying whatever is left of the dignity of political office in Washington.

Labels: Clinton, Controversy, Crisis Management, Politics, Trump, United States

posted by Pieface @ Friday, July 28, 2017

Shielding Inhumane Punishment From Western Notice

"We will minimalize press coverage and conduct it [caning, whipping] inside prisons. Right now it's in front of the mosque, right after Friday prayers."
"I think the national government is right that we have to do something [to prevent bad international press coverage]."
Vice Governor Nova Iriansyah, Aceh, Indonesia

A Muslim woman is caned in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, on October 17, after she was found guilty of breaking sharia law - pertaining to bans on intimacy between unmarried people

Six couples in Aceh province, Indonesia, which practices Islamic Sharia law, were found guilty of not observing the law that unmarried couples must not touch one another, kiss, hug, hold hands, even appear together in public standing in close proximity. On the occasion of this woman's caning she screamed repeatedly expressing the pain she felt at her discipline in a public spectacle of shame and punishment for failing to respect Sharia law.

She was flogged 23 times and each fresh application of the cane caused her physical anguish and psychological trauma. She collapsed on the stage where this took place and was  taken to hospital.

This was a public spectacle. People were invited to come along and witness this woman's shame. One might think it doubtful that anyone cheered on the proceedings. It did represent an opportunity for the leading mullahs to demonstrate to the public that such unforgivable sins will not be tolerated. That there is no compassion to be extended toward those who assault public morality and disregard the dictates of Koranic culture. And because it was a public spectacle it was witnessed by foreigners. Who took photographs and wrote of what they witnessed.

Those stories were widely reported in the Western press. And while in Indonesia it may be perfectly normal for such discipline to take place, its Medieval cruelty is not admired in the West. So it created a sensation of disbelief and disgust among Western readers of reports of Islamic brutality against citizen Muslims in the world's most populous Muslim nation. This is clearly not the kind of public relations coup that Indonesia's leaders appreciate. And so, although the punishment will continue, it will no longer be approved as a public spectacle. That spectacle took place in 2016.

And there was a repeat, for another crime perpetrated by Indonesians against Islam that has come to wider public attention, in 2017. This time it was two Indonesian men whose forbidden sexual encounter with one another aroused the rage of the religious leaders in that most Islamicly conservative province, Aceh. Accused in May of having sex with each other, they were each sentenced to 85 lashes to take place in public. Muslim homosexuals exercise enough caution not to be caught out. Evidently not on this occasion.

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia – Two men in Indonesia’s Aceh province were publicly caned dozens of times Tuesday for consensual gay sex, a punishment that intensifies an anti-gay backlash in the world’s most populous Muslim country and which rights advocates denounced as “medieval torture.” Still from video

Aceh, one of the poorest in the country, is a semiautonomous province located on the island of Sumatra. It had been granted the right to establish Sharia law and imposed a fundamentalist version of Islam's legal code. It also has a new governor who is concerned with the province's economic future. Aceh has some of Indonesia's largest oil reserves and there are concerns that their reputation will suffer because of these public floggings, putting off those who might invest in the province.

On caning days huge crowds gather as convicts are publicly beaten. After the caning of the two young gays, the governor is considering privatizing such events, to aid investment. Not that 'illicit' sex is the only crime for which public whipping is decreed. In Aceh punishment for gambling, drinking alcohol, punishment women who wear tight clothing and men who skip Friday prayers also rank high on the punishment index. Such offences are not to be lightly overlooked. Society must be protected from such perpetrators.


And, in fact, the crowd did react in a manner surprising to civilized minds, by shouting out insults and cheering as the men, aged 20 and 23, were whipped, wincing with obvious pain. Within the throngs of spectators many took delight in filming the event with their cellphones. A team of five robed, hooded enforcers took turns meting out the punishment, relieving one another after every 20 strokes for one of the men and 40 for the second.

"What they have done is like a virus that can harm people's morals. This kind of public punishment is an attempt to stop the spread of the virus to other communities in Aceh", piously commented Sarojini Mutia Irfan, a female university student witnessing the caning, satisfied that it represented a necessary deterrent to unacceptable public behaviour, evidently not believing that what is done in private has little to do with the public.  


But now, a movement is afoot, in the interests of persuading investors that Aceh is not as backward as they may feel, given the mode of criminal punishment imposed upon those who fall afoul of Islamic custom and its social contract. At the same time, in neighbouring Malaysia, another Muslim nation, a law was passed permitting the holding of public canings for the edification and entertainment of Malaysian faithful. This will alter the current practise of caning conducted in private, often in prison yards, away from crowds.

Labels: Crimes, Indonesia, Justice, Punishment, Sharia

posted by Pieface @ Friday, July 28, 2017

Muslim Sanctimony

"All of the new Israeli steps on the ground from that date [July 14, when the attack took place] until today need to stop, and then the situation in Jerusalem will return to normal. Afterwards we will continue our work on everything regarding the relations between us and them."
"Since Israel tried to change the situation, the residents of Jerusalem have risen as one. You have objected to all of the steps, and we have supported you in what you have done and what you are doing. We are with you in everything that you have done and are still doing, as you are causing us pride, and you are taking care of your Al-Aqsa Mosque, your land, your dignity, your people, your religion and your holy sites. This is the response to everyone who wants to harm our holy sites. Jerusalem is ours. It is our capital and it is [under] our sovereignty, and therefore what you are doing is right."
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas

Explosives detectors are to be installed at the entrances to the Holy Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Photograph: Mustafa Ozer/AFP/Getty Images  From The Guardian, 15 August 2011

Cleverly attributing the mass reaction of Palestinians to a perceived change in the status of their revered Noble Sanctuary and the al-Aqsa mosque compound in violently opposing the Government of Israel's decision to install security cameras and metal detectors for the safety and security of all who access the area -- when it is the incitement of the imams and the Palestinian Authority president himself urging Palestinians not to accede to approaching the complex through the metal detectors that is responsible for the violence -- is typical of Palestinian leadership.

"We reject all the measures that Israel is taking, and we warn against any harm to Al-Aqsa", declared the chief mufti of Jerusalem, Mohammad Hussein. Palestinians were forbidden from entering the mosque compound through the metal detectors. They were instructed to pray, in their thousands, in a show of defiance, outside on the streets in front of the gates with the metal detectors, rejecting their presence, as they were instructed to do. From that ongoing series of events to violent protests urged on by their leaders matters escalated. 

Israeli security police, aided by videos that captured details of the terrorism that took the lives of two Israeli police stationed at the mosque complex validate that the weapons used had been stored at the mosque complex. The three Palestinian assassins had attacked the Israeli police from the rear. The police were facing away from the mosque, toward the entrance to the mall, anticipating that if problems arose it would be from without, not within. But the assassins approached from within. The Israeli police were shot in the back, to deadly effect.

Clearly this points to the necessity of ensuring that deadly weapons do not, in the future, make their way into the complex to enable Palestinian terrorists to wreak havoc and murder. The deaths of Israelis, whether Jews or Druze, is celebrated as a victory against the oppressive 'occupiers', there to ensure that Israeli citizens remain safe in a volatile hotbed of malignant hatred and deadly violence perpetrated on them by Palestinians infused with the ardour of martyrdom, incited by the PA.

Israeli Border Police stand guard as Palestinian worshipers pray next to the Lions gate of the old city of Jerusalem EPA

Instead of the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian religious leaders responsibly condemning the violence, the perpetrators of those violent deaths, themselves killed by security forces responding to their ongoing violent intentions, have been lionized, their families assured that they will be well compensated financially for their sacrifice. Typically, the families of those who kill Israelis, like the mother of the teenage Palestinian who stabbed to death three members of a Jewish family, express pride in their offspring's valour in killing innocent people.

Jordan, whose waqf administers the Noble Sanctuary complex urged Israel to "reopen Al-Aqsa mosque and the Haram al-Sharif (compound) immediately.” The Jordanian government "opposes any harm against Muslims in carrying out their religious worship in their holy places, freely and with no obstacles", warning any attempt "to alter the legal and historical status quo in Jerusalem" would not be countenanced. Jordan’s Minister of Waqf and Islamic Affairs, Wael Arabiyat, blamed Israel for the violence, warning of "continued unprecedented harm to the sanctity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque…under the pretense of stopping violence."

Israeli police officers dismantle metal detectors outside the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City, July 25, 2017.  AP

That act of capitulation is, needless to say, viewed as a victory in the Arab and Muslim world order. Empowering and validating. Encouraging further demands. Viewing Israel as weak and fearful. The democracy that is Israel, giving equality to all its citizens results in Arab Israelis elected to the Israeli Knesset agitating endlessly against the very state that has given them citizenship and equality rights.

"It is far more than breaching the status quo. The Israeli government is defiling the mosques. They took advantage of the situation to impose a complete control over the compound... This move is fanning the flames and I see Israel as only the responsible cause of this situation" claimed MK (Israeli parliamentarian) Taleb Abu Arar of the Joint List. "This is our mosque and when we enter it we want to feel that. The Jews have no rights whatsoever to this mosque – it is for Muslims only. We will not accept being checked every time we want to get inside. We are asking to go back to normal and enter freely, as it was three day ago"

As though the murders had not occurred, leading to the need to secure the area. Entirely negating that the area incorporates the Temple Mount, the most sacred site in Judaism. Assaulting the Jewish presence on the Temple Mount where Jews are forbidden from praying lest they outrage Muslim worshippers. Characterizing the Jewish presence on the complex representing Judaism's most sacred religious site as a 'defiling' presence.

This sanctimony and slander is typical of Muslims. In Mecca in Saudi Arabia, there are over 700 cameras installed to track the faithful (and only the faithful may enter Mecca) for possible theft, pickpocketing and other criminal or immoral activity. Has anyone protested there? Lieutenant Colonel Fawaz al-Sahafi, who heads the security team at the mosque, informed the Saudi Gazette on an earlier occasion of plans to fit "sophisticated metal and explosive detectors" at the multiple gates at Islam's holiest of holies were under way.

Israeli police officers walk outside the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City, July 25, 2017.

Labels: Al-Aqsa, Conflict, Israel, Palestinians, Temple Mount, Terrorism

posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, July 26, 2017

The Living Legend and the Live Reality

"Her story give[s] us hope, that's why we, too, want to go to school and become something in life."
"We have to bear all pains like hunger to go to school. We barely eat once a day here. We have not eaten since morning because government people no longer bring us food for about two months now."
"I want to become a soldier so that I could help my community to fight and kill Boko Haram, because they are not good people."
Fatima Ali, schoolgirl, 15, Maiduguri, Nigeria

"This is part of my girl power trip, visiting many parts of the world. I am here now because of the Nigerian girls. Fighting for them and speaking up for them."
"They have lived in the period of extremism."
"[I hope they will] live with their family, live a normal life. And the government must unite so that they should make sure that these girls are released [those schoolgirls remaining in Boko Haram captivity]."
"Boko Haram themselves should learn that in Islam, such things are unacceptable. This is against humanity, this is against Islam."
Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani Nobel Peace laureate

Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai seen in a group discussion with some of the students of Yerwa Girls school in Maiduguri, Nigeria Reuters/Afolabi Sotunde

The young woman whose experience of being shot in the head by Taliban tribesmen intending to silence her and make an example of a young girl whose outspoken criticism of their violence and their misbegotten Islamist determination to keep girls and women out of sight, wearing dark burqas and niqabs to cover their faces, keeping them in their homes, disallowing music and celebration, destroying their schools and killing their teachers became a symbol of heroic resistance in her struggle, championed by the West.

She has since as she grows into adulthood, become a spokesperson for the need to see that girls and women in the world of Islam and where poverty and ignorance resides, receive an education. She recently toured internally displaced camps in and around the Nigerian city of Maiduguri, sheltering thousands from the violence that Boko Haram strikes in the country. Their abduction of hundreds of young schoolgirls from Chibok made world headlines.

Some of those girls in their mid-teens were 'married' to Boko Haram militants and bore their children. Some, managing to free themselves and appearing with their children in their villages, have been spurned and isolated and threatened, spurring them to find haven in the refugee camps. Boko Haram had used some of the schoolgirls as suicide bombers, leading their former neighbours and family members to view them all with suspicion and abhorrence.

Malala Yousafzai is no longer the defiant schoolgirl of 15 who had to undergo emergency surgery to save her life. She is now a advocate for educating girls and women, herself now a celebrated young woman of 20. She is intelligent and forward-looking, courageous and determined. Yet she fails to recognize that the Taliban who tried to murder her and Boko Haram which has tormented poor villagers, torching their homes, slaughtering the men, abducting the women and girls are indeed symbolic in their actions of Islamic values.

Meeting with over a hundred girls who were rescued and must remain for their own safety in the capital in internment camps, she informed the media she was unhappy the girls have not been permitted to fully reunite with their families. Their families no longer trust them, their families are shamed that their village neighbours consider them to be Boko Haram converts, and have defiled tribal and religious dictates that girls remain virgin until marriage.

The normal life that Malala Yousafzai envisions for these girls has been destroyed by Islamic heritage, culture and values; they are outcasts. And the government which administers Africa's largest, most populous country, with an abundance of natural petroleum resources has failed its population, both Christian and Muslim whose futures have been darkened by Boko Haram predation.

Nigeria's northeast is home to three million children where 1,400 schools have been destroyed by the Boko Haram insurgency. Over 2,295 teachers in the region were slaughtered by Boko Haram since 2009, according to the United Nations children's agency.

All the grievous ills, the mass slaughter, the rapes, the dislocation and the crisis in food scarcity and refugees represent the handiwork of Islamofascists loyal to the core to Islam, the Koran and the Hadiths. And the governments, like that of Nigeria, whose response is insipid to the threat of their people are in effect, colluding with the terrorists by default.

Labels: Atrocities, Boko Haram, Malala Yousafzai, Nigeria, Schoolgirls

posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Islam's Divine Pursuit of Conquest : Take Your Pick, Shiite or Sunni

"Still under ISIL control are the cities of Tal Afar, an hour west of Mosul by car or tank, Al Qaim, which is to the south of Tal Afar, and Hawija, where the jihadis, totally surrounded and 100 kilometres from the front lines, somehow manage to hang on."
"Yet these are surely the last gasps of ISIL in Iraq. After an unbelievably cruel three-year run, it is finished as a fighting force there."
"The problem for  Washington as well as for the Sunni-dominated Arab countries grouped around Iraq is not much different than it was when marines with whom I was embedded closed in on Baghdad during the Second Gulf War in 2003. There, beside a highway on the eastern outskirts of the capital, [was] a group of smiling, immaculately groomed Shia clerics eager to greet the marines and let them know they had patiently outlasted Saddam Hussein."
Matthew Fisher, Journalist, Postmedia

Members of the Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) take a selfie in front of the ruins of Grand al-Nuri Mosque in the Old City, July 20, 2017. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani

First Iraq, then Syria, and throw in Yemen for good measure. Lebanon was long ago lost to Hezbollah, the Islamic Republic of Iran's proxy militia that effectively took over that bifurcated country as its own. Iran has achieved one of its major goals. To become the effective dominant force in the Middle East. Sunni Islam may vastly outnumber their Shiite counterpart in population numbers and governed states, but it seems they are political naifs compared to the conniving ayatollahs whose command of the art of intrigue has gained them the upper hand.

Islamic State terrorists who meted out barbaric medieval torture and murders of the utmost atrocity, delighting in the horror they invoked in the delicate-minded humanist West, hugely augmenting their reputation for brutality and in the process gaining greater numbers eager to follow-the-leader whose ambition had established a caliphate, a shining hill of commanding presence in the name of pure Islam based on the most fundamentalist of Sharia law interpretations, met their match when the Iran-linked Shiite militias began throwing the ISIL members they caught over cliffs.

The ruined Grand al-Nuri Mosque is seen in the Old City of Mosul, Iraq, taken on July 20

In the annals of summary dispatch this was as gruesomely efficient and briefly agonizing a manner of destroying one's enemies as any, a spur-of-the-moment, hugely satisfying exercise for Shiites eager to demonstrate their own mettle as warriors of Islam. And while Iraq smothers itself with satisfied gratification that it has succeeded in (almost) wrenching Mosul back from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, it is not Iraq that benefits to the greatest degree, but Iran.

The former Sunni-Iraq-majority population of Mosul will now see itself being replaced and outnumbered by Shiites determined to take possession of Iraq's second-largest city; that is, what is left of it. It has become, like Aleppo and parts of  Damascus, a pitiable ruin. Ancient cities that withstood other, earlier invasions and battles did not in the past, face the sheer destructive power of the bombing events visited upon them in this era of human development featuring civilization's advancement.

When the government of Iraq proudly announced the liberation of Mosul and the destruction of Islamic State, Syria fell next in line for the attainment of geographic strategic advantage. The possession of Raqqa is next on the agenda. Despite the presence of U.S. troops and American air strikes meant to aid in destroying Islamic State, they have been outfoxed, with Tehran leisurely approaching the realization of its ambitions of a Shiite corridor of power from Iran Across Iraq and Syria.

Russian backing for Bashar Assad's Alawite Shiites has contributed nicely to Iran's plans, just as Hezbollah has itself has been more than willing to deliver Lebanon to the control of the Republic of Iran. The hundreds of ISIL fighters remaining in Mosul, still prepared to fight to the end, will find their end there, thanks to airstrikes finding their target. Those ISIL fighters not yet prepared to die as martyrs have taken to disguising themselves as women, applying makeup, wearing women's robes, only their facial hair betraying their identities.

So much for Washington's investment in Iraq in both treasury and manpower sacrificed to remove one tyrant, and eventually see the installation of a malign Shiite power with Iran's Grand Ayatollah pulling all the strings after leaving the Obama administration with the misconceived impression that it had hobbled Iran's nuclear ambitions. As in all agreements with Iran, its surreptitious plans for advanced ICBMs and nuclear warheads have simply gone underground in undisclosed areas as sacred as ancient mosques.

The expenditure of $1-trillion U.S. and the deaths of 4,200 American military personnel all in a good cause, as far as the Islamic Republic of Iran in its revolutionary zeal to alter the status of the Middle East power platform and eventual outreach to the world at large is concerned, leaving it as the major beneficiary, its subtle and brilliant manoeuvring of the American political and military zeal in protecting the world order in its democratic image trumped handily.

But while American naivete has helped Iran to launch and complete its mission of control and conquest to elevate Shia Islam, the simmering resentment of the Sunni power elite has also been launched. This volatile region of the world for which mayhem and murder on a grand scale reflects its tribal, ethnic, clan and sectarian dystopia, has drawn into its circle the ambitions, oblivious to consequences, of the United States and Russia.

Should a standoff between all those powers suddenly erupt, the explosive results will roil the world in an immense series of cataclysmic paroxysms. Who better to take advantage of the chaos to follow than an resurgent Islamic State owing nothing to any ideology save its very own Islamofascism, and whose fervent admirers in Europe and North America are only too eager to join, abroad or in situ.

From Mosul to a site near you. Wait for it.

A member of Iraqi security forces holds an Islamic State flag on top of a building destroyed from clashes in the Old City of Mosul, Iraq July 10, 2017. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani

Labels: Conflict, Iran, Iraq, Islamic State, Russia, Shiite, Sunni, Syria, Terrorism, United States

posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Latin America and Unrestrained Murder

"Not long ago we visited Fortaleza, the city with the highest rate of child and adolescent homicide victims in Brazil. In 203, the murder ate was 268 per 100,000 inhabitants between the ages of 16 and 17, but the map of lethal violence was an almost perfect arc that covered an area far from the tourist zone, where some neighbourhoods had gone a whole year without a single homicide."
"When we visited these areas and asked young people how many murders they knew of, they sometimes had to use two hands to count."
Alejandra Sanchez Inzunza and Jose Luis Pardo Veiras, authors "Narco America"

Children take part in the Traditional Ceremony of Via Crucis dedicated to children murdered in Brazil at Sé Cathedral in April in Sao Paulo, Brazil. (Cris Faga/LatinContent/Getty Images)

Mexico's drug war represents a vicious, volatile, murderous phenomenon on an appallingly grand scale, one that the government at all levels has been spectacularly incapable of apprehending. It is a war centred on drug trafficking that is by its nature one of the deadliest conflicts the world knows. Second-ups are the gang-related violence in Guatemala, in El Salvador and Honduras; together the three represent the world homicide capital.

Overall, in Latin America, bodies are delivered daily to morgues whose total averages 400 murders a day. This reflects a homicide rate that comes in at four people murdered every 15 minutes. While Latin America can boast slightly over 8 percent of the world population, a full one-third of homicides world-wide take place in Latin America. Over the 16 year period between 2000 and 2016, 2.6 million people died violent, precipitous deaths.

While some municipalities do make an effort to deal with the murder rate and the impunity that runs rife through society, through the development of social programs in hopes of reducing violence, the effort barely budges the soaring murder rate. The seven most violent Latin American countries; Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico represent a living horror show; a culture of violence, corruption and impunity.

The list of Latin American countries where impunity and elusive justice reign, according to the Global Impunity Index out of Mexico's Center for Studies on Impunity and Justice, list Mexico in the number two position on the list with the Philippines taking the lead on this dishonour role. Worse, the figures represent the reported crimes; and it is well enough known that many such crimes go unreported for fear of repercussions or simply disinterest.

But the top two countries on that Impunity List give them an impunity rate of 99 percent. There are no penalties to be faced, in other words, for the murder of other human beings, so the act itself becomes commonplace and unremarkable. Three types of murders have been established through the United Nations' Global Study on Homicide: criminal, interpersonal and sociopolitical and all three categories are represented in Latin America.

Most of the murders take place in marginalized neighbourhoods, home to the poor and vulnerable, usually people with dark skin. A 2016 reported revealed, unsurprisingly, that 50 percent of homicides occur on 1.6 percent of the streets in Latin America. Organized crime or gang activity link to 30 percent of these homicides. Those nations with the most murderous reputations struggle with common problems exacerbated with specific issues.

Drugs in Mexico, conflict in Colombia, societal and economic meltdown in Venezuela, and territorial conflict in Brazil. Several months ago, 30 civil organizations initiated the Instinto de Vida (Instinct for Life) campaign in Latin America's seven most violent countries, revolving around the reduction of homicides by 50 percent over the next decade through conflict mediation; gun, alcohol and drug regulations; recidivism prevention; guarantee of access to justice and due process; and strengthening relations between police and communities.

Labels: Crime, Latin America, Violence

posted by Pieface @ Sunday, July 23, 2017

Back to Basics of "Resisting The Occupation"

Photo credits: Flash 90, Jonathan Sindel and Hadas Partosh.

"The decision of Jerusalem Police District Commander Yoram Halevy to place these metal detectors near the Temple Mount is a brave decision because this time last week we had two policemen killed. He is taking responsibility that things like this will not happen again."

"[Israel should not be intimidated by threats and should not reward terrorism by backing down]: I welcome the police on their courageous decisions and cabinet for backing them up."
"This is not a political issue, but a security related. No one is trying the change the status quo on Temple Mount, and I call on all Muslim residents to calm the spirits, avoid violence and listen to the police."

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat 

Palestinians pray on a street near a road block outside Jerusalem's Old City July 21, 2017.. (photo credit:REUTERS/AMMAR AWAD)

Labels: Conflict, Heritage, Israel, Palestinians, Temple Mount

posted by Pieface @ Sunday, July 23, 2017

Saturday, July 22, 2017

Back to Basics of "Resisting The Occupation"

Photo credits: Flash 90, Jonathan Sindel and Hadas Partosh.

"The decision of Jerusalem Police District Commander Yoram Halevy to place these metal detectors near the Temple Mount is a brave decision because this time last week we had two policemen killed. He is taking responsibility that things like this will not happen again."

"[Israel should not be intimidated by threats and should not reward terrorism by backing down]: I welcome the police on their courageous decisions and cabinet for backing them up."
"This is not a political issue, but a security related. No one is trying the change the status quo on Temple Mount, and I call on all Muslim residents to calm the spirits, avoid violence and listen to the police."

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat

Palestinians pray on a street near a road block outside Jerusalem's Old City July 21, 2017.. (photo credit:REUTERS/AMMAR AWAD)

Labels: Israel, Palestinian Terrorism, Temple Mount

posted by Pieface @ Saturday, July 22, 2017