MFS - The Other News

                    Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation Philipines 5.0 !More info here.

• Live blogging russian protests - "What's Next?" At least 50,000 police and riot troops have been deployed in Moscow ahead of Saturday's protests.Read the full story here.More here.

• Video - The 12 Days Of Obama A Christmas inspired oversight of the Obama years so far : here at Always On Watch.

• House Republicans look to 'strip' TSA screeners of their 'officer' title.(TheHill).More than two dozen House Republicans introduced legislation on Thursday that would prevent the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) from calling airport screeners "officer" unless they have gone through federal law enforcement training or are otherwise eligible for federal law enforcement benefits.Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), the lead sponsor of the Stop TSA's Reach in Policy (STRIP) Act, said that TSA has essentially allowed its airport screeners to play dress-up by giving them metal badges and police-like uniforms in recent years. But she said many airport screeners have no "officer" qualifications, and should have this title removed.She also said giving airport screeners police-like uniforms has led to problems. She said in New Jersey, a screener was arrested for impersonating an officer, and a Virginia woman was raped by a screener after he approached her showing his TSA badge."It is outrageous that in a post-9/11 world ... the American people should have to live in fear of those whose job it is to keep us safe," Blackburn said. "Congress has sat idly by as the TSA strip-searches 85-year-old grandmothers in New York, pats down 3-year-olds in Chattanooga and checks colostomy bags for explosives in Orlando."Enough is enough!" she added. "The least we can do is end this impersonation, which is an insult to real cops."The bill, H.R. 3608, has 25 Republican co-sponsors, including House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.).Read the full story here.

• Hollywood Shooter Repeatedly Shouted "Allahu Akbar" During Rampage?(TT).2.40 mark a Chinese man says he heard the man yell allahu Akbar, then at the very end the journalist ponders the question of who the man was and why he did it. Most noticeably the LA Times article never even mentions the allah akbar at all. KGS.Hollywood shootout: Gunman calmly targeted drivers, pedestrians.A gunman pointed his weapon at more than a dozen people Friday as he randomly opened fire on drivers and pedestrians in Hollywood before being fatally shot by Los Angeles Police Department officers.Video shows the gunman calmly pointing his handgun and opening fire on passing cars near Vine Street and Sunset Boulevard near the ArcLight Cinema.A man driving a Mercedes was shot in the jaw and taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he was in critical condition. He is expected to survive.Video: Witness captures dramatic footage of shooting.The scene resembled a fast-moving Hollywood production, said some witnesses, leaving them with the sensation that they’d witnessed something surreal.“When I heard it, I didn’t react to it being real,” said Greg Watkins, a student at the nearby Los Angeles Recording School who was walking on the street and had just taken off his headphones to take a call from his girlfriend when the shooting began.“This is Hollywood, and they do film stuff all the time,” he said, standing near the ArcLight Cinemas. “I honestly thought they were filming something.”Serge Durand, who said he was visiting from Atlanta, filmed the attacks from a friend’s apartment above the intersection. In the video, a gray car swerves to avoid the shooter as he points what appears to be a weapon at the car.“Is this the end?” Durand said he heard the shooter exclaim.Read and see the full story here.

• Canadian Court to decide if woman can testify wearing niqab in sexual assault case.(CreepingSharia).The Supreme Court of Canada will attempt to balance Islamic beliefs against the bedrock elements of a fair trial on Thursday in major clash of constitutional rights.At the centre of the case is a sexual assault complainant known as N.S., who does not want to testify against two men accused of raping her unless her face is obscured by a religious veil, or niqab.The defendants assert that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees them the right to confront their accuser and observe her facial nuances as she testifies.However, lawyers for N.S. say facial expressions are frequently misleading and that Islamic rape victims will be reluctant to go to police if they may later be ritually “stripped” in a courtroom.The court case will be decided by just seven of the court’s nine judges because Mr. Justice Michael Moldaver sat on an Ontario Court of Appeal panel that heard the N.S. case earlier this year. (To prevent a tie vote, the court has to drop a second judge from the panel.)“The niqab case is a perfect storm of issues,” said University of Ottawa law professor Carissima Mathen. “Demeanour has been used in destructive ways against sexual assault complainants. … The difficulty is compounded when a witness observes different cultural cues – avoiding eye contact for example.”Ms. Mathen said that the notion that an individual’s facial expressions can determine his or her credibility is deeply entrenched in popular belief and legal practice, and will not be easily uprooted.The Ontario Court of Appeal in a ruling earlier this year proposed a compromise in which a trial judge must inquire into the sincerity of the witness’s religious beliefs, the importance of her testimony and whether the witness has made exceptions in the past to her religious convictions.Ms. Mathen said that the Supreme Court must avoid determining the case based on interpretations of Islam.Her lawyers basically want separate rules for Muslims – but they probably don’t want the rape case tried under sharia – where she’d need four witnesses and could likely be the one convicted of a crime. Hmmmm.....The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, head of Al-Azhar, the highest seat of learning in the Sunni world.“The niqab is a tradition and has nothing to do with Islam,” said Sheikh Tantawi, vowing to ban it in Al-Azhar schools.After the girl complied he insisted she should not wear it any more.“I tell you again that the niqab has nothing to do with Islam and it is only a mere custom. I understand the religion better than you and your parents.” The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar imam vowed to issue a ban against the face-veil in all schools linked to Al-Azhar.“Source Read the full story here.

• Pakistani Taliban confirm peace talks with Islamabad.(AlArabiya).The deputy commander of the Pakistan Taliban, who have been waging a four-year war against the government in Islamabad, confirmed the two sides were in peace talks, a move that could further fray the U.S.-Pakistan relationship. “Our talks are going in the right direction,” Maulvi Faqir Mohammad, the commander of the Pakistani Taliban in the Bajaur tribal agency and the No. 2 commander overall, told Reuters.“If negotiations succeed and we are able to sign a peace agreement in Bajaur, then the government and the Taliban of other areas such as Swat, Mohmand, Orakzai and South Waziristan tribal region will sign an agreement. Bajaur will be a role model for other areas.”At the end of September, Pakistan’s government pledged to “give peace a chance” and talk with its homegrown militants.There was no immediate comment from the administration on whether talks were actually taking place with the militants.Mohammad said Pakistan had released 145 members of the group as a gesture of goodwill, and the militants had pledged a cease-fire. He heads the TTP faction based in Bajaur, at the northeast end of the Pashtun belt along the border. He is known to be close to al-Qaeda. His men focused on attacking into Afghanistan until U.S. drones, hunting for al-Qaeda deputy Ayman al Zawahiri, began strikes in his area in early 2006.Mohammad was believed to have been behind several attacks on Pakistani security forces. The army launched an offensive in Bajaur in August last year and largely cleared the region after months of at times heavy fighting.In late November, the Taliban denied it had declared a cease-fire or entered into peace talks with the government, as it claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on a police station in the northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan.Pakistan's army and interior minister also denied reports of any negotiations.The United States, the source of billions of dollars of aid vital for Pakistan’s military and feeble economy, is unlikely to look kindly on peace talks with the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which it has labeled a terrorist group.Past peace pacts with the TTP have failed to bring stability, and merely gave the umbrella group time and space to consolidate, launch fresh attacks and impose their austere version of Islam on segments of the population.Read the full story here.

• Hamas joins Global Muslim Brotherhood.(YNet).Political move ahead of PA elections? A senior Hamas source told the London-based Arabic-language al-Hayat newspaper on Saturday that the Palestinian organization has joined the global movement of the Muslim Brotherhood. According to the source, the move took place as early as two months ago. The expression "a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood – Palestine" has been added to Hamas' official name – "The Islamic Resistance Movement." The source added that the move had nothing to do with recent changes in the Middle East following the Arab Spring. "Following thorough discussions, which lasted more than a year and a half, we saw the need to take this step as the movement is growing and there was a need to lead it to independence instead of being dependent on the Muslim Brotherhood organization in Jordan. "Hamas no longer belongs to any organization, but has become completely independent," he said, adding that the group was now part of the global Muslim Brotherhood organization and was officially represented there. Despite its official admission into the global organization, the source noted that Hamas would continue carrying the flag of armed resistance. "We'll continue to be different due to the presence of the Israeli occupation in Palestine, and the problem will remain as long as there are occupation forces," he said. He explained that the movement's treaty says Hamas is the jihadi wing of the Muslim Brotherhood movement in Palestine, and that joining the global organization won't solve this dilemma. The newspaper reported Friday that Arab and Western elements advised Hamas to rebuild the Muslim Brotherhood wing in Palestine in order to attain international recognition following the Muslim Brotherhood's growth in Arab countries as a result of the Arab Spring. Some of the movement's leaders objected, however, claiming that turning the movement from a resistance organization into a political group would weaken it. One of the proposals looked into was to establish a new political movement called "Freedom and Justice", similar to the Egyptian party affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, which won the majority of votes in the first round of the Egyptian elections, in preparation of the elections expected to take place in the West Bank and Gaza next year once the reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas is completed. Hmmmm..... One 'happy family' of Obama 'negociating partners' funded by American taxpayers.Read the full story here.

• Iran Conducting Anti-U.S. Operations from Latin America.(Heritage).By Israel Ortega.Iran is conducting anti-U.S. operations from Latin America, including military training camps in Venezuela, and expanding its reach across the border from the U.S. in Mexico, according to footage unveiled late Thursday by the largest Spanish-language network in the United States, Univision.The documentary showed a former Iran senior official accepting a plan to launch from Mexico a cyber war on the United States, one that would cripple U.S. computer systems, including the White House, the FBI, the CIA and several nuclear plants. The official, former Iranian Ambassador to Mexico Mohammad Hassan Ghadiri, was shown accepting the offer from undercover Mexican university students. The documentary also showed the undercover Mexican students presenting plans for the cyber attack to Venezuelan officials in Mexico. The Venezuelan official was very receptive to the plot, saying that she was close to Venezuela’s hard-leftist President Hugo Chavez and that she would love to share the information with him as soon as possible. The same happened with Cuban officials in Mexico, who were equally interested in a plot against the United States.The students in the documentary appeared to have conducted a sting operation similar to the reports carried out by the American journalist James O’Keefe in the U.S.The documentary, called “The Iranian Threat,” said that undercover journalists were also able to infiltrate Iranian military training camps working from mosques in Venezuela, though it showed no actual footage of the camps. Univision alleged there were links between the alleged camps and a radical Muslim implicated in the 1994 Buenos Aires bombing of a Synagogue that killed 85 and wounded hundreds. The Iranian lives in Argentina, a country which also has strong ties to Chavez.Ties between the hard line Islamist government in Tehran and the anti-American government of President Hugo Chavez have been growing for years, including a weekly secretive Cairo-Tehran flight that is of grave concerns to U.S. officials.Undercover journalists also confirmed Iranian-backed money-laundry and drug-trafficking cartels that are used to back Islamist networks and training camps in Venezuela and elsewhere, which exist to attack U.S. interests and undermine the U.S. in Latin America.Univision said in press release that it had “dozens of hours of secret recordings, conducted extensive interviews with people who participated in the meetings, including a former Iranian ambassador, and examined documents ranging from hand-written notes to internal federal reports and obtained unpublished video of a failed bomb attack against New York’s JFK airport. In Mexico, Univision, uncovered covert recordings of the alleged Iranian plan to cripple the computer systems of the White House, the FBI, the CIA and several nuclear power plants.”The severity of this threat cannot be ignored. The Obama’s Administration has shown its policies in the Middle East have failed. This documentary raises some serious issues that need to be further investigated. We also need a serious commitment to stem the growing presence of terrorist elements in this Hemisphere. Instead, this Administration has stood silently as civil liberties and democratic institutions deteriorate in Latin America inviting Iran and other rabid anti-American forces to fester.In 2009, President Obama said his Administration was willing to talk to Iran “without preconditions” and would work towards the abolition of nuclear weapons. As this documentary clearly reveals, the Obama Administration’s soft-diplomacy approach has failed.Read the full story here.

• Educational Website About Armenian Genocide Launched in Australia.(Aina).The Armenian Genocide Education website, designed to assist Australian history studies teachers and their students to respectively teach and learn about the Armenian Genocide, was launched at the ANC Australia Annual Banquet on November 25, reports armenia.com.au, website of Australian Armenians.The website provides more than 280,000 NSW students from years 9, 10 and HSC students with the resources to learn about this historic event, its relevance to Australia and its present day implications, within the extent of the history syllabus of the NSW Board of Studies Curriculum.Sourced primarily from Australian archives, background information regarding the Armenian Genocide and related topics such as the Greek Genocide, the Assyrian Genocide, Anzac Eyewitnesses, Australia's Response to the Armenian Genocide, Genocide Denial and Recognition and Just Resolution can be found on the website.The information is supplemented with video, images, maps, reading lists and student exercises to provide NSW history teachers and students with the necessary academic tools for teaching about and studying this tragic event in the history of the world.Hmmm......“Whosoever saves a single life, saves an entire universe"  ~ (Mishnah, Sanhedrin 4:5) Read the full story here.

• Cucumber sheikh “far from the truth,” says Egypt Islamic leader.(BikyaMasr).CAIRO: The “cucumber” conterversy continues as the opinions of a sheikh residing in eroupe on how women should avoid certain foods due to their sexual resemblence has sparked massive outcries.An Islamic scholar and chairman at Egypt’s Religious Endowments Ministry said this sheikh could not be more “far from the truth.”Sheikh Gaber Taye’ Youssef knows a lot about preaching and the process in which scholars are selected to be assigned to a job aborad. He expressed serious doubts that the sheikh sourced is even qualified for his position.“Nonsense and wrong, such talk is empty of any logic or sense and has no roots or relations with Islam or its belief system,” said Youssef when Bikyamasr.com interviewd him over the phone early on Saturday.“I dont think any resonable scholar or sheikh who was educated at al-Azhar or any other grand and respected institution would think of such a thing and voice it as a fatwa for people,” he said.The issue at hand refers to a “fatwa” reported by al-Sawsana news website that said an unnamed sheikh based in Europe had called on women to avoid cucumbers and other vegetables that resemble the male organ. The statements have sparked massive anger across the world over the sentiments.“God says in the Holy Qur’an ‘eat and drink from what we have garnted you’ and these opinions have no source in Islam or in our way of thinking,” Youssef continued.“Everyone is responsable for his or her words in front of God first, then people, and this person is accountable for what he says,” he added.Across the region, when the news was first reported in Arabic, a number of commentators and activists called the “cucumber” sheikh out on his statements, branding him an “unintelligent” person who was “seeking fame.”“The sheikhs who travel to work at mosques abroad are selected very carefully in Egypt and al-Azhar and the ministry spares no effort in making sure that they are sending the right people to represent them and do an honorable job, but I have no idea how this person was chosen or even got a chance to talk to people,” Youssef argued.Sheikh Youssef himself lived in Canada and Spain previously for work, and he cites how the image is completely diffrent as the people working there “honor Islam and would never think of voicing such extreme and bizzare opnions.”The sheikh added that the “cucumber” sheikh might have been selected and chosen from the “street,” joking about the apparent lack of qualifications.About how such speech distracts people from real pressing women’s issues in the region, Youssef said that the Prophet Mohamed honored women and said about them “women are the counterparts of men,” and Islam “granted them rights and oblidged them with duties, so no one could belittle women, especially in Egypt,” he said, “where women are running for the parlimanet and even the presidency.”Read the full story here.

• Obama Gives a Preview of How He'll Campaign on Foreign Policy.(DocsTalk).By Barry Rubin.As his rare December 8 press conference, President Barack Obama took two questions on the Middle East. His answers give a sense of how he’s going to campaign on the issue. Both answers are deeply flawed but one wonders how many people will understand that.To paraphrase the song, Obama will say: I shot ben-Ladin, and I also wounded Iran.The way his election rivals should put it is:  You--or more accurately courageous U.S. soldiers--may have shot the sheriff but you have been helping turn over several countries with tens of millions of people to the far more dangerous deputy. He and his men are terrorizing the townspeople who you keep criticizing them for trying to defend themselves. Or, let me put it boldly: Think about this: In the year 2012 the overwhelming majority of Muslims in the Middle East will be governed by radical Islamist regimes that believe in waging jihad on Israel and America, wiping Israel off the map, suppressing Christians, reducing the status of women even more than it is now, and their right as true interpreters of God’s will to govern as dictators. (Egypt, Gaza Strip, Iran, Lebanon, Libya, Tunisia, and Turkey)Now compare that to a few thousand al-Qaida guys running around and staging occasional terror attacks.Back to the press conference. A reporter asked Obama: “Republican candidates have taken aim at your approach to foreign policy, particularly the Middle East and Israel, and accused you of appeasement. I wanted to get your reaction to that.”I think that the concept of “appeasement” is not so useful here and is easy for Obama and his supporters to dismiss. Appeasement is to try to make a strong force that you fear leave you alone and not hurt you by making concessions to them.What the Obama Administration has done goes far beyond that.

1. First, it is based on believing that no real problem exists at all.
2. Second, the administration believes that the United States should actively promote revolutionary Islamist movements because they are deemed not so dangerous in the first place and letting them have power is a way of moderating them. The administration talking point is that the United States is at war with al-Qaida, not with “Islam.” The response is that no one said the United States is at war with “Islam” but only with Islamists. Nope,nothing with the letters “I-S-L-A-M’ is acceptable. And by that token one cannot say Jihadists or Salafists. Perhaps the French “integralists” (fundamentalists) would do?But beyond words, how do you respond to this, President Obama:“Waging jihad against [the United States] is a commandment of Allah that cannot be disregarded. Governments have no right to stop their people from fighting the United States….All Muslims are required by their religion to fight.”Who said that? Answer: Muhammad al-Badi, leader of the group that received the most votes in the Egyptian election. And the party that comes in second also agrees with that statement.
3. Third, the administration does not support the intended victims of revolutionary Islamism. These include most obviously Israel but also Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the democratic opposition movements in Iran, Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey. And soon it will include Christians, women, and political moderates in Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia.To use an analogy, appeasement was the British and French giving Nazi Germany part of Czechoslovakia. Obama Administration policy is the equivalent of cheering Hitler’s taking power because the president’s main advisor on the issue, Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini (that is, Turkey’s Islamist Prime Minister Recep Erdogan) told him that it was a great idea and everyone knows that getting into power (running schools, fixing roads, collecting garbage) moderates people.This isn’t appeasement, it is social engineering or what one might call Islamist nation-building.And note the entire answer of the president on this issue:“Ask Osama bin Laden and the 22-out-of-30 top al Qaeda leaders who’ve been taken off the field whether I engage in appeasement. Or whoever is left out there, ask them about that.”But that Obama thinks that way is not the solution, that’s a central part of the problem. No one thinks Obama has been appeasing al-Qaida! Obama does think al-Qaida is evil. The problem is that he doesn’t think that about the Muslim Brotherhood, Hizballah, and (basically and certainly until a few weeks ago when the decision was unavoidable) the Syrian dictatorship. It isn’t even clear as to whether he thinks that about the Taliban.So the strategy of getting al-Qaida but viewing other revolutionary Islamists as allies in the war on al-Qaida is a big reason why the administration is pro-Islamist.It’s a two-track policy: kill al-Qaida; make friends with all of the other Islamists. And remember the Brotherhood is far more dangerous than al-Qaida because it takes over entire countries.Here’s the man who I think is just about the best political analyst in the Arab world, Abd al-Rahman al-Rashid on this topic:“The Islamist party leaders hastened to embellish their image for the Western countries….Of course, these speeches are public relations acts, and could only be believed by someone ignorant about the region or by the logic of the religious parties. [At most, these claims of moderation] expresses the opinion of few leaders only, because the majority of leaders and cadres of these groups consider cleansing the society as their first duty, and it would not be long before they topple the tolerant leaders.”Imagine the Islamist version of Patrick Henry: “I know not course what others might take, but as for me, give me Sharia law and give you death.”The other answer was about Iran: “I think it’s very important to remember, particularly given some of the political noise out there, that this administration has systematically imposed the toughest sanctions on Iraq — on Iran ever.“When we came into office, the world was divided, Iran was unified and moving aggressively on its own agenda. Today, Iran is isolated, and the world is unified in applying the toughest sanctions that Iran has ever experienced. And it’s having an impact inside of Iran. And that’s as a consequence of the extraordinary work that’s been done by our national security team.“Now, Iran understands that they have a choice: They can break that isolation by acting responsibly and foreswearing the development of nuclear weapons, which would still allow them to pursue peaceful nuclear power, like every other country that’s a member of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, or they can continue to operate in a fashion that isolates them from the entire world. And if they are pursuing nuclear weapons, then I have said very clearly, that is contrary to the national security interests of the United States; it’s contrary to the national security interests of our allies, including Israel; and we are going to work with the world community to prevent that.Again, though, we are offered a solution that is far less than it appears. First, of course, the administration wasted two years in a useless engagement policy with Iran.But was the world so divided and now is so united? Not really. The problem in 2009 was that China, Russia, and Turkey opposed stronger sanctions. What Obama achieved? He got through greater sanctions by giving these countries exemptions. At any rate the choice Iran is being offered is pretty much the same choice that prevailed in 2009.And of course the main problem with the policy is that it isn’t affecting Iran’s effort to get nuclear weapon. In other words, he’s saying: I have a great policy. Of course, it doesn’t work but isn’t it a great policy? Ironically, at the moment Obama makes brags about his sanctions record he is trying to stop Congress from making the sanctions more effective.Finally, and shockingly, he slips in something that everyone is likely to miss. He claims credit for political divisions in Iran! Before, Iran was “unified” but now sanctions are “having an impact inside of Iran.” And this is because of the “extraordinary work” of his administration.Such illusions are dangerous.In 2009 Iran was not unified. Indeed, it was far less unified than it is today. There was a mass opposition movement that Obama didn’t support! That was the best chance to have “an impact.” Obama stood by while the opposition was crushed, even praising the Iranian regime for the stolen election!And is Iran divided today? Well, there are always factional fights but neither of the present factions want to give up the pursuit of nuclear weapons. It’s a battle between the supreme guide and his faction, which wants to maintain current policy, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which wants an even more aggressive policy!Moreover, Obama has never had the slightest understanding of Iran’s non-nuclear strategy of expanding its influence. Tehran’s influence has grown in Iraq (though many exaggerate this) and Lebanon. By demoralizing America’s Gulf Arab allies, Obama has undercut their resistance to Iran.I think Obama genuinely believes what he’s saying on the issues of the Islamists and of Iran. I don’t believe there’s the slightest chance he will change his mind. It isn’t just incompetence and it isn’t just ignorance. It is this president’s stubbornly holding to a set of views that have little or nothing to do with reality.Read the full story here.

• Today 10 December is Human rights day - Let all Egyptians reject any limitation on their human rights under the pretext of religion.(OCN).TODAY, 10 December, is the Human Rights Day. The Coptic nationalists celebrate this day which marks a great event in the history of the progress of humanity towards freedom and justice for all men and women, regardless of nationality, ethnic origin, colour, religion, etc. On this day, back in 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which you can access here: http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml (English)  -   http://www.un.org/ar/documents/udhr/ (Arabic)

The first article of the UDHR stipulates that “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” This is what we aspire to; this is what the Coptic nationalists, together with all human beings who love peace, freedom and justice, fight for.The Copts, estimated at possibly 17 million, are a tiny part of humanity, constituting 0.24% of its 7 billion. However, every single Copt, man or woman, is as important as any other human being, and their human rights must be protected and guaranteed. This is important particularly these days when, paradoxically, as a nascent democracy is believed to be establishing a foothold for itself in Egypt, Coptic human rights are witnessing remarkable regression. Two parties can be blamed for this – the Islamists of Egypt who are resurging and the coward military rulers of Egypt who prefer to appease the aggressive Islamists rather than side with freedom and justice.On this day let us remember our Egyptian co-patriots whose human rights are also abused. We particularly point to the women of Egypt and the Nubians, but almost all Egyptians suffer under a government that treats them as subjects rather than citizens. We remember all. But the specific abuse which Copts receive in addition must not be denied – an abuse which is compounded by the sheer fact that the Copts are different in religion.Let us remember also on this day that human rights are universal and inalienable – all nations and states must adhere to their high standards as stated in the UDHR and relevant documents. Human rights cannot be restricted by any religion. As there can be no democracy or secularism with an “Islamic reference مرجعية إسلامية”, so there can be no human rights with Islamic reference. All such talk is only meant to restrict the application of the UDHR and all other related documents. Let us on this day condemn what is called the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam,[i] which was adopted in 1990 by the Organisation of the Islamic Conference. The UDHR is irreplaceable and cannot have a parallel defective standard to be applied to Muslim-dominated countries. There must be no exceptions. This is more relevant today than any time before in Egypt – the Muslim Brotherhood, who are expected to win in the current parliamentary elections, have stated very clearly their intentions[ii] to restrict men’s, women’s and children’s human rights and reject certain international conventions that had been ratified by Egypt in the past, such as the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and the 1990 Convention on the Rights of the Child. They want to restrict women and children rights because their Islamic religion, as they interpret it, clashes with the rights included in these important UN documents.The Copts’ fight for their fundamental freedoms and human rights cannot be separated from the fight of all Egyptians, men and women, for the same. They fight for these against oppressive military regimes and a regressive Islamist ideology; and their ultimate goal is to establish a democratic, secular democracy which treats all with dignity and respect.It is for this that the Coptic nationalists consider today, the Human Rights Day, as a day for all Egyptians, regardless of nationality, ethnicity, colour, sex or religion, to join hands and reject any restriction on their human rights under any pretext, particularly the religious one.Hmmm.....Art 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights :"Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance".Read the full story here.