[ARABNEWS] If I were a betting woman I'd say the future looks pretty grim for Moslems. I'm no pessimist, but the evidence is a bit overwhelming. In the western world we are witnessing the progressive institutionalization of religious and cultural discrimination against Moslems, and swept along way are other faiths in which individuals that happen to practice their religion by wearing certain clothing and jewelry.
We are not helping ourselves by continuing to kill each other in Iraq and Syria in an effort by some alleged Moslems who seem to think that murder is a righteous path to establishing a caliphate. Many of us living in Moslem countries and in the West sit idle because we mistakenly believe that wanton mass murder has nothing to do with us.
Western societies react to this barbarism in typical knee-jerk fashion. For all of their hyperventilating love to rescue the Moslem woman from the clutches of evil men, Moslemahs (women) are usually the first targets of discrimination. La Belle France, a country I once loved for its love of culture, language and beauty, but now I fear, set the tone some years ago by banning the hijab in schools and government buildings and then the niqab on French streets. It implements draconian hate speech laws that target the Moslem community, and ignores hate crimes committed by others.
La Belle France started another creative way to practice its discrimination when a schoolmaster sent a teenage Moslem girl home because she was wearing a long dress. Just recently, a Belgium school followed suit by sending 30 Moslem girls home for wearing long dresses. Really, Europe, in what world do we live in which wearing a long dress constitutes the outward display of religious symbols? It boggles the mind. When will Belgium and La Belle France turn their attention to Hasidic Jews? Another incident of Islamophobia ...the irrational fear that Moslems will act the way they usually do... occurred just this week when an airline attendant denied a Moslem woman an unopened can of soda pop on a commuter flight in the United States because it could be used as a weapon. The attendant gave her non-Moslem seatmate an unopened can of beer without comment. When woman complained another passenger used profanity to tell her to shut up.
The irony is that the woman, Tahera Ahmad, a Moslem chaplain at Northwestern University, was traveling to speak at a conference in Washington D.C. to promote dialogue between Paleostinian and Israeli youth. Ahmad filed a formal complaint with United Airlines, the carrier, and a front man for one of the airlines' subsidiaries, which operated the flight, acknowledged there was no policy prohibiting flight attendants from giving passengers an unopened soft drink container. Ahmad called the incident "systemic injustice." Governments and corporations routinely deny religious, cultural and ethnic minorities equal rights either by subverting existing laws or implementing new laws that strip away our civil liberties.
Many Moslems see religious discrimination for what it is: Fear and punishment. We fear what we don't understand, although we often don't take the time to understand another religion or culture. We punish for the same reasons. We lack understanding about specific events occurring worldwide, so governments implement laws to punish the many for the crimes of the few. Daesh or the so-called Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (IS) and Al-Qaeda accomplished what western governments promised its people it would not do: Capitulate to fear by eroding the rights of its citizens and waging a campaign to marginalize the already marginalized minorities in their communities. The Ummah, and I mean all of us, are paying for crimes committed by a minority.
There is a smidgeon of hope. The US Supreme Court recently ruled that an employment discrimination lawsuit filed by a Moslem woman against the clothing store Abercrombie & Fitch might proceed. The woman, Samantha Elauf, was denied employment because she wore the hijab and didn't fit the company's dress code. The Supreme Court ruled that Elauf was protected under law that gives individuals reasonable accommodations to practice their religion. Here we have one example of a dispassionate government recognizing existing laws to protect minorities rather than one that passes new laws to disenfranchise a specific segment of society. This is a true democracy, a lesson apparently lost on La Belle France.
Another positive sign is the United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... Human Rights Council Resolution 16/18, which was adopted by the UN in 2011 and reaffirmed annually. The resolution commits the UN to addressing religious discrimination without restricting free expression. It emphasizes education, outreach and interfaith efforts as well as enforcing laws against violence and discrimination. Governments, however, still must adopt the resolution and make it law. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is hosting an annual meeting this week in Jeddah to discuss the progress of the resolution and work toward strengthening it. One battle the OIC still must overcome is the perception among westerners that the resolution focuses only on Islam and not other faiths.
This continues to be a problem among Moslem organizations in which there is little time and energy spent on promoting the protection of all faiths. We truly have a perception problem and have done little to wage a public campaign to correct the myths surrounding Moslems and Islam.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
It turns out apparently, that the soft drink story is a phony. The attendant gave the woman a can of a soft drink slightly different from the one she ordered, because she said, the plane was short of the ordered beverage. The woman demanded the drink she ordered. The attendant then brought her some but said she could not have a full unopened can because there was not enough left to satisfy those who wanted it. The woman then made up the story of being discriminated against. Naturally, the press being hungry for evidence of anti-islamic discrimination sent her false claims, without checking them, throughout the world, as newsweek did with the false claims of desecrating a Koran at Guantanamo. Luckily we have not yet heard of rioting and murder as a result of this supposed outrage.
#3
Jvalentour, you see, it's not Muslims who are killing the Christians in the Middle East. It's ... um ... somebody else.
Every condemnation of Muslims killing Christians that I hear from Muslims is immediately followed by "We're the real victims here"
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
06/12/2015 9:10 Comments ||
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#4
...reminds me of another 'community' in the US who kills each other at well above alarming numbers but prefers to focus on relatively isolated occurrences so they too can say 'we're the victim here'.
#5
Maybe if we send her Cigarette money she can buy some of those Christian Sex Slaves which ISIS sells out and ask them why they are oppressing Western Muslims so harsly.
#7
How about Muslims changing their perceptions of Westerners? I guess that will be when pigs fly. Why is it that we always must change our perceptions or values? Where is that written?
#2
He's right. Nothing will be done. The Contractors will get big fat bonuses and, fat, additional contracts they can F-kup. Congress will hold hearings to relieve any pressure on Washington (but in the end do nothing but produce a mealy-mouth report nobody will read) the President (President ladyparts) will be sure to bow even lower the next time he comes into contact with the Chinese president. Nobody will get fired or reprimanded or even spoken harshly to. No Jailtime for anyone (might be partytime tho!). There might be an investigation but nothing will be done (See Edward Snowden) and nothing will change.
Heck the media probably will never mention it again - except perhaps to blame it on Bush.
#6
I have to eat crow on this one. It turns out that Champ was right when he said this was going to be the most transparent administration in American history.
Posted by: Matt ||
06/12/2015 14:59 Comments ||
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[DAWN] ON Wednesday, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan ...Currently the Interior Minister of Pakistain. He is the senior leader of the Pak Moslem League (N) and a close aide to Nawaz Uncle Fester Sharif. He is noted for his vocal anti-American railing in the National Assembly. However (comma) Khan told the U.S. ambassador that he was in fact pro-American but he and the PML-N would have to be critical of US actions in order to remain publicly credible. Khan cited his wife and children's US citizenship as proof, which means he's lying to one side or the other and probably both. He wears a wig, but you probably guessed that. since hair doesn't grow naturally in that shape or texture... came up with a rejoinder to an Indian minister's war threat. In the process, he added to the latest spurt of statements that needed to be a little contained. The interior minister had to come up with a strong reaction to the Indian provocation. That he needed to remind the people of his country that its defence was in safe hands cannot be disputed. What he was not required to do was to compare his country with any other in relation to India.
Chaudhry Nisar reminded the provocateurs in an increasingly in-the-face New Delhi to not confuse Pakistain with Myanmar. This was an unnecessary jibe at Myanmar; that too, at a time when the whole world can find other genuine reasons to criticise severely those calling the shots in the erstwhile Burma.
The Pak discourse sets a condition for those wanting to condemn the attacks on the Rohingyas. An aspirant is told, often in an intimidating tone, to first condemn all forms of persecution and genocides happening against the religious minorities at home to qualify for a comment on the state of the Rohingyas, known to be a group under assault at a distance. Strange as the logic may sound, it says that a statement about a minority in Myanmar would be one too many if it is not backed by an expression of categorical views on issues that Pakistain is faced with.
To be honest, the conditions placed on speaking for and about the Rohingyas are not the subject of what you would call the mainstream media. They are confined to the parallel media while the mainstream channels and papers go about collecting their usual fill of unwanted sayings. Like the outburst by the redoubtable minister of state for power that enabled Hyderabad to hog the headlines this week -- and not because of what the city owed to Wapda.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2015 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] One of the "conditions" to defeat hard boyz in Iraq is to arm Sunni tribes in the western province of Anbar, Iraqi Finance Minister Hoshyar Zebari told Al Arabiya News Channel in an exclusive interview aired Thursday.
Zebari, who was the former foreign minister, described the fall of Anbar to the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group as a "setback.
"The fall of Anbar was a setback we are trying to remedy," he said. "The government, al-Hashid [Popular Mobilization units] and the international coalition are exerting great efforts to recapture Ramadi."
Ramadi, which is the capital of Anbar, fell to ISIS on May 17 after the army deserted the city.
Meanwhile, ...back at the pie fight, Bella opened her mouth at precisely the wrong moment... Zebari said Iraqi forces alongside with the Shiite volunteers, known as Popular Mobilization units, were "advancing in multiple axis" to regain Ramadi.
He also said the "international coalition has increased the pace of armament and air strikes, and we have clear commitment from them to increase the arming and training of Sunni tribes in Anbar and this is one of the conditions to defeat ISIS."
Sunnis in Iraq have long criticized the government, especially that of former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party. Maliki imposed order on Basra wen the Shiites were going nuts, but has proven incapable of dealing with al-Qaeda's Sunni insurgency. Reelected to his third term in 2014... , of stripping them of arms, in a move they say makes them vulnerable to bully boys.
Zebari's comments came after the White House on Wednesday said the United States will send up to 450 more troops to Iraq to boost the training of local forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Sheesh, Iraq is starting to resemble Columbia during "La Violencia"
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
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Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Currently the Interior Minister of Pakistain. He is the senior leader of the Pak Moslem League (N) and a close aide to Nawaz 
Nouri al-Maliki
