The 'ISIS Widows' and the myth of the innocent jihadi spouses.

Source picture here

The 'ISIS Widows' and the myth of the innocent jihadi spouses. (JPost).

One woman recalled being raped by an Islamic State fighter. First the fighter’s wife would come in and put makeup on her. Then the wife would force her to dress up. Then, when his wife was done “preparing” her, the husband would come and rape her. According to an account published this year, the survivor remembers the rapist calling her “kuffar,” the Islamist word for sub-human or “unbeliever.”

Today the ISIS “widows” are the center of sympathy.

The thousands of Yazidi slaves that ISIS captured in August 2014 tell a different story of the ISIS women.

One told a reporter from Alternet that some of the jihadists’ wives were “worse” than the men. A Yazidi woman named Seeham said that the ISIS women would shout abuse at her.

One of the women forced her to shave her body and “brought sexy clothes to wear for her husband and helped him rape me by tying me to the bed.” It got worse. Seeham had a little daughter. Read the full story here.

The role of women in jihadism should not be underestimated. Women are just as dedicated to the jihadist ideal as men. The most recent publication of the AIVD is available in English now: 'Jihadist women, a threat not to be underestimated'. https://t.co/2UZScEU7HM

— AIVD (@AIVD) December 18, 2017

Saudi Arabia - How the House of Saud inflicted 500,000 cholera cases — as policy.

Saudi Arabia - How the House of Saud inflicted 500,000 cholera cases — as policy. HT: Crof.

The Tyee has published my article How the House of Saud Inflicted 500,000 Cholera Cases — As Policy. Excerpt:

The proxy war is a career move by Mohammed bin Salman, the 31-year-old son of the present 81-year-old Saudi king. His ascent has been rapid, culminating in June when he became crown prince. Before that he had been appointed defence minister for the kingdom. In that capacity he organized a coalition of Gulf States to intervene in Yemen via air strikes and a naval blockade. The intervention began in March 2015 — with notable silence from Saudi Arabia’s American, Canadian and European allies. 

A grinding war of attrition 

If the crown prince had won a quick victory over the Houthis, he would now be covered in glory. Instead, the Yemen war has been a grinding, brutal war of attrition — especially against Yemen’s infrastructure. 

The Saudi coalition has prevented most medical supplies from getting into the country, while Saudi coalition jets systematically bombard civilian areas. As Médecins Sans Frontières said in a July update on its activities, “Hundreds of health facilities across the country have stopped functioning due to airstrikes and shelling, and a lack of supplies, funding and staff.”  

The Saudis have clearly been emulating the strategy of other combatants in the Middle East who attack health-care facilities. This has become so widespread that the World Health Organization has actually had to organize a campaign, #NotATarget, to try to protect health-care workers in combat zones.  

This is a late and feeble response to Syrian, Saudi and American attacks on hospitals from Aleppo to Afghanistan to Yemen. They are ipso facto war crimes under Article 14 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Since the UN Security Council is dominated by permanent-member governments that have violated Article 14, we can’t do much about it. 

The Saudi coalition has also attacked Yemen’s water infrastructure, which is now in ruins. After a cholera outbreak in late 2016, the problem seemed under control until late April when a new outbreak swept the country. 

Though cholera is an easily curable disease, in poor countries and those under naval blockade it can be deadly. To their credit, the Yemenis have kept their fatality rate down to fewer than one in 100 cases. 

But since April 27, more than half a million Yemenis have been sickened by cholera. In June, children were falling ill with it at the rate of one every 35 seconds. While the peak of the outbreak seems to have passed, close to 5,000 people a day are still contracting the disease. 

According to WHO’s Aug. 22 epidemiological update, 23 per cent of cholera cases are in children under the age of five, and 53 per cent are in children under 18. Early in August, Save the Children warned that a million malnourished children are trapped in cholera hot zones. Their immune systems are weakened, and cholera and other diarrheic diseases aggravate their malnutrition. 

While non-governmental organizations like Save the Children and MSF are doing what they can, the UN is reduced to wringing its collective hands and calling it a “deplorable, man-made catastrophe.”

New Islamist Members Of European Fatwa Council Show Growing influence Of Turkish Muslim Brotherhood in EU.

New Islamist Turkish Members Of European Fatwa Council Show Growing influence Of Global Muslim Brotherhood in EU. (globalmbwatch).

Dutch journalist Carel Brendel has published an article analyzing some of the recent membership changes at the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR). According to his report, two of the newly appointed Turkish members representing a strengthening of the alliance between the Global Muslim Brotherhood and the Turkish regime of Recep Tayyip Erdogan:

Ekrem Keles is a senior member of Diyanet, the Turkish Presidency of Religious Affairs that supervises mosques and abroad. According to Turkish media, he is chairman of the Supreme Council for Religious Affairs. The English site of the pro-Erdogan Tukse Daily newspaper Sabah said Keles is “deputy head” of Diyanet.

It appears from the list on the ECFR website Keles is now an official member of the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR). In a 2010 list of ECFR members, there was no Turkish membership. The appointment of Keles means two things- the collaboration between the Erdogan regime and the Muslim Brotherhood has again become a little more intense. And more importantly, the long arm of Ankara interferes with the affairs of all Muslims in Europe.

In 2010 Mustafa Mullaoglu was already on the list, but as a German representative. He has a Turkish background. The German TV channel SWR called him in 2007, “a top official responsible for religious issues of Milli Gorus,” the Turkish version of the Muslim Brotherhood. At a meeting in Hamm, North Rhine-Westphalia, Mullaoglu praised the Ottoman Empire as the ideal form of government.


Meanwhile Mullaoglu moved to Austria where he is a Mufti for the the national umbrella Islamic group, the Islamische Glaubensgemeinschaft in Österreich (IGGIÖ). Earlier this year Mollaoglu received criticism because he ruled that the wearing of  the headscarf hHijab) for women is a religious commandment. 

Austrian State Minister Muna Duzdar called this position “an attack on freedom and the empowerment of women”. The IGGiÖ was often accused in the past of ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, but always put off the accusation as “conspiracy theories” . Yet critics always place the IGGÏO “in the atmosphere of the Muslim Brotherhood.” Curiously, the Austrian media have very little written about the IGGiÖ  mufti as a member of Qaradawi’s fatwa council. Read the full story here.

For more in depth info on the Global Muslim brotherhood working follow GlobalMBwatch.

Video - Kadyrov: "Homosexuals must be eliminated in order to purify the blood of the Chechen people."

Kadyrov: «Les homosexuels doivent être supprimés afin de purifier le sang du peuple tchétchène» https://t.co/QVqp3XrnQP @RealSportsHBO pic.twitter.com/hhqICoRXvD

— L'important (@Limportant_fr) July 15, 2017

EGYPT - Scholars of Al Azhar presents a bill against those who use religion to justify violence and hate campaigns.

EGYPT - Scholars of Al Azhar presents a bill against those who use religion to justify violence and hate campaigns. (FIDES).

Cairo (Agenzia Fides) - The scholars of the University of al Azhar, the main theological-academic center of Sunni Islam, submitted the text of a bill to the offices of the Presidency of the Egyptian Republic to counter violence and sectarian hate propaganda justified in the name of religion.

This is what Sheikh Ahmed al Tayyib, the Great Imam of Azhar reported, specifying that the bill aims to reaffirm the total incompatibility between the violence justified by religious arguments and Islamic law.

The bill, endorsed by al Azhar scholars, and then presented last week to the collaborators of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al Sisi, aims to reduce hate speech and intolerance promoted by extremist groups and to re-propose the principle of citizenship as the basis of peaceful and fruitful coexistence among fellow countrymen belonging to different religious components.

The Committee that worked on the draft bill, led by Mohamed Abdel Salam - legal adviser of the Great Imam of al Azhar - had been composed on May 13, and was made up of five scholars, specialized in various legal sectors.

In the drafting of the bill, members of the Committee took into account universal reference texts such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights*, as well as the Egyptian Constitution and the provisions of criminal law in force in Egypt.

The bill avoids entering in the details of the individual penalties to be imposed on those responsible for instigating religious hatred and crimes related to it, which will be specified by the judicial authority.

The initiative has the obvious goal of expressing a clear distance from al Azhar over theories and propaganda that in the Islamic community justify hate and violence by citing the Koran and using religious topics. (GV) (Agenzia Fides, 26/6/2017)

MFS: * Hmmm....did they use the Islamic human rights? (Cairo declaration). 

Agenzia Fides - Palazzo “de Propaganda Fide” - 00120 - Città del Vaticano Tel. +39-06-69880115 - Fax +39-06-69880107
The contents of the site are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Video - Inside The Chechnya Prison Where Gay Men claim They Were Tortured.

As international attention narrows on the alleged persecution, torture and killing of homosexual men in Chechnya, VICE News Tonight reports from the conservative Muslim republic - meeting Kheda Saratova, a human rights advisor to the Kadyrov regime, and touring the prison allegedly used to detain and abuse the accused.More here.

Video - Egypt - Father asks daughter to perform sexual acts with him, TV Cleric tells daughter to respect father.

Girl phones a religious expert concerned her father wants her to recreate acts he is watching in pornographic films. The expert tells her she needs to respect her father

Palestinian Writer Warns: 'There Is An ISIS-Like Culture Among Us That Excludes Christians And Is Intolerant Towards Them'.

Palestinian Writer Warns: 'There Is An ISIS-Like Culture Among Us That Excludes Christians And Is Intolerant Towards Them'. (Memri).

In an article he published April 17, 2017 in the Palestinian paper Al-Hadath, Nihad Abu Ghosh, a member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) and the director of the PLO's diaspora affairs department, described the dire situation of the Christians living in the Palestinian Authority (PA) territories and the drastic decline in their numbers over the years. 

He wrote that this situation results not only from the occupation but also from an ISIS-like culture that has infiltrated Palestinian society. 

As an example, he noted that preachers at Al-Aqsa call to impose a poll-tax on the Christians and forbid Muslims to greet them on their holidays.

He warned that this treatment of the Christians, which drives them to emigrate, could tarnish the pluralistic image of Palestinian society, and called to place this issue on the public agenda and act to find ways to protect the Christians.

The following are excerpts from his article:[1]

"From time to time we hear warnings about the dangers facing the Christian presence in the [Middle] East region. These warnings are justified, considering what has happened to Christians in Iraq and Syria and the [recent] series of bombings of Egyptian churches.[2] Prior to and during these incidents, there was a discourse of division, of accusing the other of heresy, and of continuing to treat Christians as ahl al-dhimma[3] and as second-rate citizens. 

All the Arab countries, without exception, have failed to establish a civic state with full equality of rights and duties among all citizens regardless of religion, origin, ethnicity or gender.

"It should be noted that in Turkey, our close neighbor, the number of Christians fell from 30% to less than 1% in the second decade of the 20^th century alone. This was due to the massacre of the Armenians, the Syrians and the Assyrians, the ethnic cleansing and population transfer campaigns that also included the Greeks…

"And what of Palestine, the cradle of Jesus? Is a danger hovering over the Christian presence in our country [as well]? In answering this question, there is usually a tendency to fall into the trap of fine and emotional words about national unity, and to mention a few pioneers of the [Palestinian] national movement, [as well as] intellectuals, artists and politicians, who are Christians, or to blame the occupation for the steady decline in the number of Christians among the Palestinians who remain in their homeland. But this is not enough to explain or justify [the fact that] the Christian [population] of Palestine declined from 20% before the nakba to less than 2% in the lands that were conquered in 1967, and their proportion in all the territory conquered since 1948 is [currently] 10% of the Arab Palestinians and about 2% of the entire population of the State of Israel.

"Undoubtedly, the occupation bears most of the blame for the tragic predicament of all Palestinians, Christians and Muslims alike, [a predicament] that leads entire sectors to consider emigration. It is also possible that cultural and demographic factors make the option of emigrating and integrating in the host societies easier for Christians than for Muslims, as evident from the fact that the Palestinian communities in South America, and particularly in Chile, are overwhelmingly Christian.

"The warnings and dangers, then, are serious and genuine. [But] they are not connected solely to ISIS and its crimes, but to an ISIS-like culture and the existence of an environment that excludes the Palestinian Christians and is unsympathetic towards them. 

To this very day we hear of [a preacher] at Al-Aqsa Mosque who gives lessons and advocates imposing a poll tax (jizya) on Christians, while ignoring the occupiers and the settlers. We also hear of someone issuing a fatwa that bans congratulating Christians on their holidays, or who claims that too many positions are reserved for them in the municipalities and the Legislative Council.

"This bleeding wound [represented by the plight of] the Christians does not only pose a danger to the issue of rights and duties and to the tolerant culture we aspire [to create]; it can also damage the Palestinian national identity. This identity, since its inception, is pluralistic and encompasses all components of Palestinian society, all its hues and all its communities – and is the very opposite of the monolithic exclusionary and racist identity embodied by the Zionist program. Our Palestinian identity resembles the brightly embroidered Palestinian national dress, or our four-colored flag, rather than the ISIS flag or the chador [a black robe that covers a woman's body from head to toe] worn by the Taliban. Read the full story here.

Blasphemy Conviction for Christian Governor Could Be Sign of Deteriorating Religious Freedom in Indonesia

Blasphemy Conviction for Christian Governor Could Be Sign of Deteriorating Religious Freedom in Indonesia. (Heritage).

Jakarta’s Chinese Christian governor, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, more popularly known as Ahok, was found guilty of blasphemy by a panel of five judges in Indonesia and sentenced to two years in prison.
This latest application of blasphemy laws calls into question the commitment to religious freedom in a country often held up as an example of tolerance.

Blasphemy charges against Ahok originally were brought during the contentious re-election cycle when he suggested that Muslims were deceived if they believed that al-Maidah 51, a chapter and verse in the Quran, said that  Muslims could not vote for or be governed by a non-Muslim leader.


As a result of Ahok’s statement in a viral video—which are often doctored or misrepresented—and massive protests it provoked, he received a two-year prison term.

The very existence of blasphemy laws in Indonesia is concerning. As a general matter, such laws are usually applied against minorities and poor people, but the high-profile nature of Ahok’s case has the potential to spark a broader controversy regarding the merit of these laws.

According to a report by Amnesty International, blasphemy laws in Indonesia address two different acts: deviation from the six official religions and defamation of these religions. A presidential decree created the blasphemy laws. Article 1 states:

Every individual is prohibited in public from intentionally conveying, endorsing, or attempting to gain public support in the interpretation of a certain religion embraced by the people of Indonesia or undertaking religious-based activities that resemble the religious activities of the religion in question, where such interpretation and activities are in deviation of the basic teachings of the religion.

According to Amnesty International, between 2005 and 2014 at least 106 people were prosecuted and convicted on blasphemy charges. Hmmm.........Islamic human rights don't allow any criticism of Islam. Read the full story here.

Millions of Pakistanis receive blasphemy warning texts on their devices.

Millions of Pakistanis receive blasphemy warning texts on their devices. (ET).

ISLAMABAD: 

Millions of Pakistanis have been receiving text messages from the government warning them against sharing “blasphemous” content online.


“Uploading & sharing of blasphemous content on Internet is a punishable offense under the law. Such content should be reported on info@pta.gov.pk for legal action,” read the SMS sent by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to all mobile phone subscribers.


A similar note was posted on the agency’s website in Urdu. A PTA spokesperson said the agency was acting on a court order.

Blasphemy is a sensitive issue in the country, with allegations leading to dozens of mob attacks or murders.

Last week a 10-year old boy was killed and five others were wounded when a mob attacked a police station in an attempt to lynch a Hindu man charged with blasphemy for allegedly posting an incendiary image on social media.

Islamist Turkey - 107 women murdered in first 100 days of 2017.

Islamist Turkey - 2017 balance: 107 women slaughtered in 100 days. HT: washingtonhatti.

94 women had lost their lives to male violence in the previous year, Turkish press reported. This year, the number has gone up to 107 in the same period.

According to the media research conducted by Ajans Press, there were 4 thousand 90 news stories in the media about violence towards and the murder of women in the first hundred days of 2016. 

In the first hundred days of 2017, the number of news stories was determined to be 2 thousand 44.

The low number of news stories compared to last year despite the rise in murders has raised some questions. 

Some interesting details surfaced in the stories that did make it to the news. Five of the murdered women lost their lives even though there was a protection order for them. 

When province-based statistics were computed, it became apparent that Istanbul was the lead in the murders of women. 

According to the “We Will Stop Women Murders Platform” (“Kadın Cinayetlerini Durduracağız Platformu”); there were 18 murders in Istanbul, followed by Izmir (11), Bursa (9), Antalya (8) and Balıkesir (6). Read the full story here.

As a certain Islamist party grew so did the number of women murders.

Related:

COUNTING DIGITAL MONUMENT FOR WOMEN WHO DIED because of violence in 'Islamist' Turkey.

Domestic violence in Turkey on the rise, over 80,000 reported cases in 2011, representing a 70 % increase.

Video - Where Are the Moderate Muslims?

Transcript:

After every new Jihadist attack against the West, politicians reassure us that the atrocity does not represent the true nature of mainstream Islam. Of the 1.6 billion Muslims in the world, they constantly reassure us, the overwhelming majority are as law abiding as any members of any other monotheistic faith. Only a tiny fraction engage in terror. And Islam is a religion of peace. Furthermore, we are told, the great majority of Muslims hold moderate views.

But what does that mean? How moderate are moderate Muslims? Given the threat of radical Islam, it would seem to be a fair question. Let me start to answer it by telling you something of my own story.

I was raised in a middle class Muslim home in Cairo, Egypt. Growing up, I was told, among many other things, the following:

That every day that passes on the Islamic nation without a caliphate is a sin. That the failures and miseries of the Muslim world started the moment we Muslims gave up conquests and wars against the infidels. That our prosperity depended on conquering new lands and converting new believers. That anyone who leaves the faith must die. And I also remember how my teachers and my mosque imams reacted to the news of 9/11 when it happened: joy.

My experience was typical, and there is data to prove it:

According to the Pew Research Center, 88% of Muslims in Egypt, 62% in Pakistan, 86% in Jordan and 51% in Nigeria believe that any Muslim who choses to leave Islam should be put to death. Similar, if not identical, numbers are in favor of stoning people who commit adultery, severely punishing those who criticize Muhammad or Islam, and chopping off hands for theft.

All of these practices are a part of the penal code of Islamic law, which is known as Sharia. And 84% of Muslims in South Asia, 77% in Southeast Asia, 74% in the Middle East and North Africa and 64% in Sub-Saharan Africa support Sharia as the law of the land. Less drastic, yet significant, percentages are to be found even among Muslim communities in the West.

So, too, most of the world's Muslims believe that any acts of violence against Israel, including suicide bombers in buses and restaurants, are justified. Now, does any of this sound moderate to you? Yet if anyone raises these inconvenient truths here in the West, he is sure to be called an Islamophobe, a hater of Islam. Again, my own story is instructive.

In February of 2015, I was yelled at, cursed at, and successfully prevented from speaking at Swarthmore College by students and others who did not agree to what I was saying. 

Some of them were Muslim women who fit the image of the unveiled, perfect English-speaking, moderate Muslim young woman. Other seeming “moderates” tried and failed to do the same during my speech at Temple University the next day. Some of them, sadly, were students of journalism.

For the complete script, visit https://www.prageru.com/courses/polit...

TWELVE! Twelve year old girl forced to withdraw from chess tournament because her dress was too 'seductive'.

TWELVE! Twelve year old girl forced to withdraw from chess tournament because her dress was too 'seductive'.(ET).

A 12-year-old girl in Malaysia was forced to withdraw from a chess tournament because officials thought her dress was too ‘seductive’.

“In the middle of Round 2, without stopping the clocks, the chief arbiter informed my student that the dress she wore was improper,” Kaushal wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday night.

The event’s chief arbiter told the girl and her mother that the dress was a “temptation from a certain angle far, far away.”

The director informed them that they needed to go to the mall to buy a pair of trousers for the next round. The shops in the area were closed and would not be open in time for the next round which resumed at 9 am.

The 12-year-old’s mother tried calling the tournament director who told her that he would call her back after discussing the incident with the arbiter. This did not happen, however.

“He wouldn’t answer or return any calls from my student’s mother. This situation led to the inevitable decision to withdraw her from the tournament altogether,” said Kaushal.

“This incident has resulted in loss of time and money which was invested before, during and after the tournament on coaching, registration fees, travelling, accommodation and other incurred costs,” he added.

Kaushal described the girl as a “bright young girl” who shows “tremendous potential in chess”.

“My daughter was shocked after her game was interrupted by the chief arbiter,” Chin Wai Lings, the girl’s mother. told The Star Online. “From that point onwards, all she [her daughter] could think of was whether anyone was peeping [at her] throughout the game,” she added.

 Many people also took to Twitter to express outrage over how a 12-year-old’s dress could be considered ‘seductive’. Read the full story here.

The girl’s coach Kaushal Khandhar detailed on Facebook the “disturbing incident”, stating that his student felt “harassed and humiliated by the actions of the Tournament Director and Chief Arbiter”.

DEAR MALAYSIAN CHESS COMMUNITY,

I heard the most disturbing incident from one of my student’s mother.

At the National Scholastic Chess Championship 2017, in Putrajaya, one of my student, who is a 12-YEAR-OLD GIRL felt harassed and humiliated by the actions of Tournament Director and Chief Arbiter.

In the middle of Round 2, (without stopping the clocks) Chief Arbiter informs my student that the dress she wore was improper and have violated the dress code of the tournament.

It was later informed (by Chief Arbiter) to my student and her mother, that the Tournament Director deemed my student’s dress to be “seductive” and a “temptation from a certain angle far, far away”.
We found this statement completely out of line!

Please see attached photo of what she was wearing! (Picture above)Completely ridiculous!

After some discussion, Chief Arbiter had conceded and apologised to my student, personally assuring her that there was nothing wrong with her attire, but due to Tournament Director’s decision, he could not allow this dress to be worn by my student in the tournament. This discussion happened at around 10pm and Chief Arbiter gave them a choice to go to the mall nearby to buy a long slack for the next day 9.00am round.

Due to the timing of this incident, it was impossible to get another attire in time for the 9.00am round next day, as all shops were already closed and wouldn’t be open in time.

Before the morning round next day, my student’s mother called Tournament Director regarding this matter, initially he had replied that he was not aware of the situation but after a brief discussion, it was realized that he knew all the details on this incident prior to this phone call. He promised to return the call upon discussion with Chief Arbiter, but this did not happen. He would further not answer or return any calls of my student’s mother.

This situation had led to the inevitable decision of withdrawal from the tournament all together.
We are absolutely DIGUSTED by the treatment of Tournament Director to a 12-year-old girl and her mother. This incident has resulted in loss of time and money which was invested before, during and after the tournament on coaching, registration fees, travelling, accommodation and other incurred cost.

This bright young girl was recently the champion of her district in MSS Kuala Lumpur and has shown tremendous potential in Chess. This incident has left her extremely disturbed, and embarrassed.

I have been playing chess in Malaysia for almost 2 decades and I have never heard this type of issue ever in any tournaments in Malaysia. This should be the first and last time this kind of issue ever appears, I or anyone of us should never accept this in our Chess Community.

We demand a public apology from Tournament Director of National Scholastic Chess Championship 2017. In the event, we do not receive a public apology in the next 5 days, we shall have no choice but to resort to legal proceedings.

Regards,
Kaushal Khandhar
A Malaysian Chess Player & Coach.

Hmmmm....Bunch of peeping Toms, A disgrace to humanity.

E-mails reveal: 'Belgium made sure Saudis knew it voted regime onto U.N. women’s rights commission'

Belgian Foreign Min Reynders on the right

Leaked e-mails: Belgium made sure Saudis knew it voted regime onto U.N. women’s rights commission. (UN Watch).

Scandal: internal emails reveal that Belgium instructed its diplomats to vote Saudi Arabia onto the U.N. women’s rights commission — and to make sure the fundamentalist regime knew of Belgium’s support.

New elements calling Belgian FM Reynders into question.

April 28, 2017 – At least nine hours passed between the time when the cabinet of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was informed of the request of a vote at the United Nations Commission for Women’s Rights and the time when it was answered, as confirmed Friday by the Ecologists’ party, based on internal emails.

According to the Green Party, the Belgian delegation to the United Nations in New York informed the cabinet of Didier Reynders on April 9 at 12:33 a.m. of the request for a vote from the United Stations about the entry of Saudi Arabia into the commission. The response was sent at 3:34 p.m. Uncertainty remains about the way the time delay should be considered, but at the very least, nine hours had passed.

“This gives a false image of the foreign office”

According to these documents, the cabinet’s reply, written in the first person, mentions the following elements. The “clean slate” procedures should be followed and Belgium should therefore provide its support to the candidates for the various positions during the secret vote. Furthermore, the delegation was requested to inform the various candidates, including Saudi Arabia, of this support if possible.

According to the minutes from a meeting that took place at the foreign office yesterday (see the tweet from Kristof Calvo below), the administration complained about the communication about this affair and implied that Reynders was indeed aware of it. “Some press information insinuates that our Permanent Mission in New York may have acted on its own initiative, and that the Ministry may have not been aware of it. This give a false image of the foreign office as a completely uncontrolled organization.” Read the full story here.

Update :  

Belgian FM @dreynders: We voted Saudis onto UN women's rights commission to try and make them into better feminists.https://t.co/WDMB3HDHcQ pic.twitter.com/Pu1h4A7YtP

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) May 1, 2017

                          Hmmm.......Didier Reynders met Saudi Prince sought by Interpol

Who's Who at the UN........See below

Amnesty, HRW, PEN, Article 19 urge Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe to re-open monitoring of Turkey.

Amnesty, HRW, PEN, Article 19 urge Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe to re-open monitoring of Turkey.  (HRW).

Re: Addressing the serious deterioration of human rights in Turkey

Dear Assembly Member,

We are writing, ahead of the spring session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), to call on you to support the recommendation included in the report of the Committee on the Honouring of Obligations and Commitments by Member States of the Council of Europe (Monitoring Committee) to reopen the monitoring procedure on the situation in Turkey until the grave concerns raised by the Rapporteurs are duly addressed by the Government of Turkey.

We believe that a decision by PACE to reopen the monitoring procedure would send a strong message to Turkey and indicate a commitment to holding the government and president accountable for their repeated failure to respect their obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights and as a member of the Council of Europe.

Only a decision to reopen full monitoring of the situation in Turkey would acknowledge the grave human rights violations documented in the country in recent years, including the severe restrictions on freedom of expression, association and assembly, the practice of torture and ill-treatment in detention, arbitrary detentions, prosecutions, dismissals, confiscation of passports and property, and continued violence and serious abuses in South East Turkey. It would allow for greater scrutiny by members of the Parliamentary Assembly and create a more appropriate forum to debate the actions the Turkish authorities should take to address the Assembly’s concerns. It would provide a recognition by the Assembly of the rapid deterioration since July 2016 of the functioning of democratic institutions and backsliding on human rights and the rule of law in the country.

Turkey is under a state of emergency imposed after a failed coup last July, allowing President Erdoğan to head the cabinet and rule the country by decree, with weakened parliamentary and judicial oversight.

Independent mainstream media in Turkey have been all but silenced, with over 160 media outlets and publishing houses closed down since July 2016, and around 150 journalists and media workers currently jailed pending trial. Over 100,000 civil servants have been summarily dismissed or suspended without due process and over 47,000 people have been jailed pending trial. They face charges of involvement in the coup plot and of association either with the Fethullah Gülen movement, branded a terrorist organization by the government, or with Kurdish political activism that the government considers is linked to the armed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Among those jailed are the two leaders of the opposition Peoples’ Democracy Party (HDP) and 12 other members of parliament from the party.

Read the full story here.

Britain’s deputy foreign secretary:"Kadyrov wants the LGBT community eliminated by the start of Ramadan."

Britain’s deputy foreign secretary:"Kadyrov wants the LGBT community eliminated by the start of Ramadan."(Pinknews).

Britain’s deputy foreign secretary revealed the terrifying threat from the Chechen leader while taking an urgent question on the situation in parliament.

Gay men have spoken of horrific beatings and torture in ‘concentration camp’ style prisons.

Sir Alan Duncan, Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, told parliament: “Human rights groups report that these anti-gay campaigns and killings are orchestrated by the head of the Chechen republic, Ramzan Kadyrov.

“He has carried out other violent campaigns in the past, and this time he is directing his efforts at the LGBT community. “Sources have said that he wants the [LGBT] community eliminated by the start of Ramadan.”

The minister added: “Such comments, attitudes and actions are absolutely beyond contemptible.”

PinkNews has spoken to the Foreign Office, who verified that President Kadyrov had made the threat in local Russian language media, seen by the UK government.

Ramadan starts on May 26 this year, and is widely celebrated in Chechnya, which is a predominantly Muslim area.

These allegations have been supported by human rights groups, and led to the United Nations’ High Commissioner for Human Rights, UK and US governments to call for the Kremlin to investigate.

Foreign secretary Boris Johnson’s deputy, who is gay himself, labelled the reported abuses of gay men as “utterly barbaric” and “despicable” in a strongly worded statement to the Commons.

Mr Duncan revealed that he spoke directly to his counterpart, Russia’s deputy foreign secretary Vladimir Titov, to challenge the Russian Federation on human rights abuses against LGBT people.

Hmmm.....The same people who refuse LGTB Chechnians entry to their countries. See related.

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Russian LGBT Network:"At present, we receive a stable number of 4-5 appeals for help per day from Chechnya".

Russian LGBT Network:"At present, we receive a stable number of 4-5 appeals for help per day from Chechnya".(CaucasianKnot).

"35 homosexuals from Chechnya get help under programme of "Russian LGBT Network"

In Northern Caucasus, already 75 members of the LGBT community appealed for help to the "Russian LGBT Network". The assistance was provided to 35 of them, so far only to those people who lived in Chechnya. This was reported to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by the "Russian LGBT Network".

In total, while the hotline of the organization was active, it has got 75 requests. This was reported by Igor Kochetkov, the chairman of the "Russian LGBT Network".

According to the "Russian LGBT Network", in Europe, not only in Sweden and Finland, but also in other countries people raise money to help victims of persecution.

The dynamics of appeals filed by members of the gay community of Chechnya proves that the acute phase of pressure on people has not been passed yet, believe members of the "Russian LGBT Network". They also point out to the difficulties with arrangement of visa corridors.

"At present, we receive a stable number of 4-5 appeals per day, and the main problem is that we cannot so far reach agreements with countries of Western Europe, the United States, and Canada for permissions to enter those countries. 

The difficulty is in the fact that if a person comes to an embassy of the above countries and they understand that he wants to stay in a country and he needs a refuge, then they do not issue a visa for him," explained the leader of the "Russian LGBT Network".

Igor Kochetkov has also added that the organization' hotline receives reports not only from Chechnya, but also from other North-Caucasian republics.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.

See earlier reports: Five persons leave Chechnya under programme of "Russian LGBT-network", Fifteen LGBTs ask evacuation from Chechnya, In Chechnya, religious figures condemn publications about persecution of gays.

Source: CK correspondent

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Source here.

The number of jailed journalists in Turkey has reached to 235, more than combined numbers for the rest of the world.

The number of jailed journalists in Turkey has reached to 235, more than combined numbers for the rest of the world. (Stockholmcf).