MFS - The Other News

                         Afternoon Posting.

• DOJ Defending DOMA in Legal Briefing.President Obama seemed to have mended his difficult relationship with his the gay rights movement by getting the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” done, but this evening brings another flare-up.Gay groups are furious with a Justice Department brief defending — though in quite narrow terms — the Defense of Marriage Act, which Candidate Obama, unlike even his Democratic rivals, had pledged to repeal in full.Read the full story here.

• New Imam Named for NYC Islamic Center.The organization planning to build an Islamic community center near the World Trade Center said the imam who has been the public face of the project, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, will be playing a reduced role in the facility.The nonprofit group Park51 announced Friday that it had named a new imam to help lead religious programing so that Rauf could focus on other initiatives.Rauf announced late this fall that he would be starting a global movement that would fight extremism and promote better relations between people of different faiths and cultures. He is set to start a national speaking tour Saturday in Detroit.Rauf will remain on the Islamic center's board, Park51 said in a statement, but the group needed someone who could be more focused on the day-to-day business of building a local congregation.The group named another New York City imam, Abdullah Adhami, as its senior adviser.Adhami was born in Washington, D.C., and earned an architecture degree from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. He has already performed guest lectures at the site of the planned center, and has had a presence in lower Manhattan since the early 1990s.Hmmmm....Replacing a "Moderate" with a descendant of the noble lineage of the family of the Prophet Muhammad and Sharia" expert??Shaykh Abdullah Adhami was born in Georgetown, Washington, DC, of the noble lineage of the family of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. He began his studies of shari’ah at the age of eight, and heard his first scholarly narrative in 1975. He earned scholarly licenses from many eminent scholars from Damascus, Egypt and Morocco, and is honored with the unique and rare distinction of being a certified narrator of hadith.His works center on exploring the legal, ethical and spiritual dimensions of the linguistic implications of shari’ah texts. His works also strive to relate the eternal relevance of the essence of shari’ah laws as a vehicle to enhance modern lived experience.Last known residence Damascus, Syria, with his wife and son.Hmmm....Introducing Sharia in America?Read the full story here.

• Report: Tunisian president flees amid riots.Prime minister takes over after rioters throng capital decrying unemployment, corrupt leadership.Tunisia's president declared a state of emergency Friday and announced that he would fire his government as thousands of protesters mobbed the capital to demand his ouster. Gunfire rang out across Tunis, clouds of tear gas filled the streets and police beat any protesters they could grab.Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi said in a live address later that he had taken over from President Zine al-Abedine Ben Ali on an interim basis. "Since the president is temporarily unable to exercise his duties, it has been decided that the prime minister will exercise temporarily the (presidential) duties," Ghannouchi said on state television.Unconfirmed news reports, citing unidentified government sources in Tunisia, said Ben Ali had left the country.Ben Ali was facing his toughest challenge yet in 23 years of repressive rule after weeks of anti-government riots across the North African nation.Many shouted "Ben Ali, out!" and "Ben Ali, assassin!" Another poster read "We won't forget," a reference to the rioters killed, many by police bullets.In response, Ben Ali dissolved the government and also promised that early legislative elections would take place within six months, the official TAP news agency reported. He made no reference to any resignation of his own.Read the full story here.

• HT:Memri.Fight 'The Decisive Battle Against the Jews and Crusaders'.In New Audio Message, AQIM Leader Hails 'Uprising' in Tunisia and Algeria, Calls on Tunisians to Send Their Sons to Train with Al Qaida in Order to Fight 'The Decisive Battle Against the Jews and Crusaders'.On January 13, 2011, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) leader Abu Mus'ab 'Abd Al-Wadud released two audio clips, produced by AQIM's media wing Al-Andalus and disseminated on various jihadi forums, in which he called on the Tunisians and Algerians, respectively, to escalate riots against their governments.Read the full story here.

• HT:RossRightAngle.Islamonazi FPI Say Ahmadiyah Minority has ‘NO RIGHT TO LIVE’ in Indonesia!The Islamonazi gangsters who calls themselves Defenders of Islam (FPI) have now declared that the Ahmadiyah minority creed has ‘no right to live’ in Indonesia.(please note, there are two verbs in Indonesian for ‘to live’ – one is ‘tinggal’ which means ‘to live’ as in ‘to reside. to dwell,’ while the other is ‘hidup’which means ‘to live’ as in ‘to be alive’ or ‘to exist.‘FPI menganggap Ahamdiyah adalah penista agama yang tidak berhak hidup di bumi Indonesia.’ detik.com.The press report quoted the FPI leader as using the latter!According to detik.com 13/1, the presence of representatives of the Ahmadi religious minority at the inter-faith meeting of the Forum Discussion Group at Hotel Inna Simpang, Surabaya on Thursday was their excuse for disrupting it.The fanatics’ Surabaya gauleiter, Sasmito, justified his goon-squads’ intimidation of the pro-tolerance gathering thus.”Actually we do not object to this meeting but went to break it up because Ahmadiyah was invited."In a chilling warning of more thuggery to come, Sasmito asserted that while the Ahmadi elements exist in the forum, then the FPI will be present to prevent and dissolve discussions. Sasmito added if Ahamdiyah are the cause of unrest, it must be dissolved. “We did not bring many, but hundreds of our members are ready to move from Al-Akbar Mosque.”The success of the hooligans was actually due to police action. Local cops ordered the meeting, less than twenty people in a hotel coffee shop, to cease because of’ security concerns over a pending visit to the city by President SBY.Coming so soon after the incident in Bandung, reported on RRA (see our post on 7th January) involving the same pro-tolerance organisations and the same primitives hoodlum group (this time using the title of Warrior Defenders of Islam) bodes ill for religious liberty in Indonesia.Obviously the network of brutal bigots is using the same tactics, and getting back-up by those meant to enforce law and order, across the archipelago.Hmmmm....."Obama"Indonesia is an example of religious tolerance".Read the full story here.

• HT:PrisonPlanet.FBI Targets Critics Of Government With Home Visits After Arizona Shootings.Another victim of the Tucson tragedy – the right to criticize your Congressperson without getting a knock on the door from the feds.We can add another victim to the Tucson tragedy – the right to criticize government without fear of getting a knock on your door from the feds. Despite the fact that shooter Jared Loughner was not politically motivated, the FBI is now compiling a list of Americans deemed a potential threat because they criticized their representative – and targeting them with home visits.An Ozark man who ran a blog last year critical of Republican Congressman Billy Long was shocked to see an FBI agent turn up on his doorstep asking questions. The agent was accompanied by Green County Sheriff Jim Arnott, who had stepped outside of his jurisdiction to become involved in this act of political repression directed against Clay Bowler, a resident of Christian County.The FBI agent wanted to know if Bowler was a threat to Long because he had used an Internet blog to highlight claims of cronyism and corruption involving the Congressman before the southwest Missouri election in November, in which Long defeated Democrat Scott Eckersley to replace outgoing Rep. Roy Blunt.Green County Sheriff Jim Arnott’s justification that it’s best to “err on the side of caution” in targeting critics of government with home visits has no place in a free country. Perhaps Arnott would feel more at home in the former East Germany or the Soviet Union.“Arnott confirmed to KSPR News that Bowler isn’t the only local person who’s been scrutinized in the wake of last weekend’s shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Gifford (D-AZ) during a meet-and-greet with constituents in Tucson, Ariz,” states the report, affirming that the authorities are compiling new lists of Americans who are now considered to be potentially violent threats for the crime of asking their own public servants uncomfortable questions. Separately it was reported that the FBI was preparing to visit other bloggers in the area.Targeting anyone who exercises their First Amendment right to redress their grievances against local representatives who are paid to serve them with home visits accompanied by FBI agents only has one outcome – it chills free speech and discourages other Americans from speaking out against the government. These tactics also have the impact of making asking questions of elected officials, the lifeblood of a free society, seem somehow abnormal or suspicious.Once again, vultures are still busy circling around last weekend’s tragedy, using it as a vehicle through which to advance their own authoritarian and anti-American agendas of political repression.Hmmm...."The test of democracy is freedom of criticism."  ~David Ben-Gurion.Read the full story here.

• Theme of “Together We Thrive” T-shirt came from Obama’s Organizing for America.The “Together We Thrive” T-shirts that starred at Wednesday’s Arizona `Memorial’ originated from Organizing for America (here), a sad fact unearthed by The Drumbeat of Liberty and the Preservation of Freedom editor and Canada Free Press (CFP) columnist Robert Rohlfing.In the controversy of the pep rally/rock concert style Memorial for those who lost their lives in Saturday’s Arizona tragedy, the mainstream media reported that the “Together We Thrive: Tucson & America” T-shirt given to mourners as they entered McKate Center was the idea of University of Arizona brass, not the Obama administration.Yet the “Together We Thrive” slogan dates back to a post to Obama’s own Organizing for America in a Feb. 11, 2008 post by self-described “globalist” John Berry IV.More than passing strange that the Obama campaign message of civility was the same on Feb. 11, 2008 as it was in his Wednesday Memorial speech, and the same one, too carried by the mainstream media in coverage of the Memorial.University of Arizona brass did not originate the “Together We Thrive” T-shirt. They merely recycled it for Obama—and recycled it in time for what should have been a dignified Memorial for the dead.If you were a mourner who took home a “Together We Thrive” T-shirt have a look at the bottom of your shirt. “Rocking America and Rocking the Vote” is a common theme of the DNC, and it’s right there on your Memorial T-shirt memento.Welcome to the era of Obama, where cheering and standing ovations, for the first time in history, became part of the Requiem for the Dead.Hmmmmm......Read the full story here.




• "Life in Iran's prisons"Two Kurdish Political Prisoners on Death Row: “We Were Threatened with Sexual Torture”.According to the CDPP website, the two prisoners declared that the self-incriminating confessions they made regarding their armed activities and the murder of the son of the Friday Prayer Imam in the city of Marivan were extracted under torture and they played no role in the act [of homicide].Loghman Moradi told CDPP, “We ask human rights defenders for help, because we really had no role in the assassination of the son of the Marivan Friday Prayer Imam. However, due to the extensive torture and threats of “sexual torture” and “the detention of our families” [had we not confessed], we were forced to make [false] confessions. No evidence was ever presented that would indicate we had a role in this act.Read the full story here.

• "Life in Iran's prisons".Mother of Nazanin Khosravani Says Daughter Forced to Sleep in Cold Cell with No Warm Clothes.The website Kaleme reports that the family members of incarcerated journalist Nazanin Khosravani were finally allowed to meet with her today. In an interview with Kaleme, Azam Afsharian, Khosravani’s mother said, “Although Nazanin was in good spirits, she complained about the extremely cold conditions in Evin prison’s ward 209.” According to Mrs. Afsharian, despite the sharp drop in temperature over the past few days, the Ministry of Intelligence officials in eard 209 have failed to provide Khosravani with warm clothes. Mrs. Afsharian added, “Nazanin informed us that the cell is so cold that at night it feels like you are sleeping on ice. I don’t understand why prison officials refuse to give my daughter warm clothes.”There are no beds in the the prison cells in the Ministry of Intelligence’s ward 209. Consequently, prisoners are forced to sleep on the floor. Despite the extreme cold weather, prisoners have not be provided with warm clothes or extra blankets.Nazanin Khosravani’s mother said, “During our visit Nazanin was very surprised about the fact that they intended to hold a trial without informing her lawyer and her family.”When Khosravani was taken to the Revolutionary Court to attend her trial on Wednesday, she accidentally bumped into her lawyer in the court house. As a result, her lawyer was able to speak to the Judge presiding over the branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court in order to postpone her trial. According to Khosravani’s mother, a date has not yet been set for her new trial, however, Mrs. Gheyrat, Khorsravani’s lawyer announced that her trial will take place soon.Read the full story here.

• Indonesia slams Saudi maid abuse sentence.Indonesia said Wednesday a three-year jail sentence given to a Saudi woman for brutally torturing her Indonesian maid was "too light", and promised to back an appeal in the Saudi courts.A court in the Saudi city of Medina sentenced the woman to three years in prison for stabbing, beating and burning the Sumiati Binti Salan Mustapa, 23, with an iron.Her sentence was lighter than the maximum penalty of 15 years, Foreign Ministry spokesman Michael Tene told AFP."The judge there had found the employer guilty of abuse but her three-year sentence didn't fulfil a sense of justice," he said."Prosecutors there, with support from Sumiati's lawyer provided by the Indonesian government, have lodged an appeal."The Saudi woman slashed Sumiati's face with scissors, scalded her with a hot iron and beat her so severely she broke the young woman's bones and caused internal bleeding.Read the full story here.

• Berlusconi facing extortion and underage prostitution probe over consorting with underage Moroccan belly dancer 'Ruby Heartbreak'.Controversial Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was under fire again today as it emerged he is being investigated for extortion and underage prostitution.The probe on Mr Berlusconi, 74, centres on his relationship with a belly dancer called Karima el Mahroug, then 17, who was a guest at a party he hosted at his home last year.The extortion accusation centres on the pressure he put on Milan police to release the exotic dancer - nicknamed Ruby Rubacuori (Ruby The Heartstealer) - after she'd been arrested on suspicion of theft.Berlusconi's current term in office has been dogged by continual allegations involving women - but somehow he has managed to cling on to office even surviving a double no confidence vote in Parliament which greeted by riots in the street.His lawyers confirmed he is under investigation in a prostitution case which they call 'absurd and groundless'.Two months ago it emerged that the media tycoon turned politician had called police and asked them to release Moroccan-born Miss El Mahroug after she had been arrested on suspicion of theft.He is said to have wrongly told officers that the girl, who at the time was 17, was the grand daughter of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and to avoid diplomatic embarrassment she should be released.Hmmm...."You people married to Italian men, you know what it's like." Geraldine Ferraro.Read the full story here.

• HT:TheDailyCaller.How the mental health system failed Jared Loughner, despite Arizona’s lenient commitment standard.As Americans grapple with the implications of Saturday’s shooting in Tucson, which killed six, injured 13, and left authorities alleging that it was an assassination attempt on Arizona Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, many are wondering how such a tragedy could have been avoided.Reportedly most who came into contact with perpetrator Jared Loughner felt he was mentally disturbed, if not violent, yet he remained unknown to local mental health providers. Nobody — not his peers, not his professors, not his community college and not his parents — ever reported or sought help from any metal health services.“To the best of our knowledge, he was never and is currently not enrolled in our system,” Neal Cash, president of the Community Partnership of Southern Arizona, the public mental health services provider for Tucson and Pima County, told the Washington Post, adding that the system would have data on anybody diagnosed with a mental ailment.U.S. mental health law varies state to state, and although involuntary civil commitment fell out of favor long ago, Arizona has some of the most lenient commitment laws to require treatment. While many states require the plaintiff to prove an individual presents imminent danger to himself or others, Arizona’s standard is just based on a person’s “need for treatment.” Further, anybody can petition the courts to have an individual compelled to receive treatment or be institutionalized.Had Loughner been on record as mentally unstable he might have been prevented from purchasing a gun as the he would have been flagged as ill by the National Instant Background Check System (NICS) and unable to purchase a gun under the Gun Control Act of 1968, which prohibits the possession of firearms by the mentally defective.Read the full story here.

• HT:Macleans.Defending her Holocaust education is racist thesis.Peto says she was attacked for being a 'pro-Palestinian activist'Jenny Peto has broken her silence on her controversial master’s thesis in which she attempts to prove that Holocaust education is used as a subversive method of indoctrination to justify Israeli apartheid.Peto’s paper, “The Victimhood of the Powerful: White Jews, Zionism and the Racism of Hegemonic Holocaust Education,” has garnered international attention for claiming that two Holocaust remembrance programs are essentially instruments of Zionist propaganda. Major news outlets picked up on the story and Peto’s paper was even debated in provincial legislature last month. Many slammed “The Victimhood of the Powerful” for supposedly spreading hateful messages, and others, including myself, decried the sorry state of academic affairs at U of T’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) for awarding a master’s degree to a polemic riddled with unsubstantiated claims and wild extrapolations.Read the full story here,more here.

• HT:Elliott Abrams: Pressure Points.Freedom in the World 2011.Freedom in the world is declining. Given Hillary Clinton’s remarks yesterday about change in the Arab world and with the Obama Administration’s half-time in office coming next Friday, it’s a good moment for an assessment of Obama human rights policy.That freedom is declining is the stark conclusion of Freedom in the World 2011, the annual survey published by Freedom House. Their assessment:The increasing truculence of the world’s most powerful authoritarian regimes has coincided with a growing inability or unwillingness on the part of the world’s democracies to meet the authoritarian challenge, with important consequences for the state of global freedom. According to Freedom in the World 2011, the latest edition of Freedom House’s annual survey of global political rights and civil liberties, conditions worsened for the fifth consecutive year in 2010. While the decline for the year was less extensive than in some years past, the multiyear spate of backsliding is the longest of its kind since Freedom in the World was first published in 1972….As Freedom House points out, two of the most striking offenders are Russia and China. A famous old quip holds that hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue, and for much of the past two decades dictators often claimed that they were moving toward democracy—slowly, carefully, in keeping with the local political culture, they would say—but they would claim to be moving. They recognized democracy as the only legitimate and accepted goal. Today, that’s not what Hu or Putin are saying, and “truculent” is a good description of their rejection of freedom and respect for human rights. Putin’s treatment of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Hu’s of the Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo are the best examples.The blame for violations of human rights and democracy lies squarely with the rulers who commit them, of course, but it is fair to ask about the efficacy of U.S. human rights and democracy promotion policy. Could we be doing better? Andrew Albertson, who until recently headed the Project on Middle East Democracy, has written a powerful assessment of the failings of the Obama Administration’s approach.Despite a few noteworthy gains, primarily Indonesia’s embrace of democracy and civil rights, Muslim-majority countries have failed to make significant progress over the past decade. Only two are ranked as Free, with 19 Partly Free and 26 Not Free. While practically no improvements were registered in the Middle East and North Africa, some gains were recorded in Muslim-majority countries outside the region. Hmmmm......Obama."Islam is a great religion".Read the full story here.