Saudi Arabia reiterated its call to Criminalize vilification of religious symbols at UNESCO organized meeting.

Saudi Arabia reiterated its call to Criminalize vilification of religious symbols at UNESCO organized meeting. (SaudiGazette).

LILLE, France — Saudi Arabia has reiterated its call on the international community to criminalize any act vilifying religious beliefs and symbols of faith as well as all kinds of discrimination based on religion.

Addressing an international symposium on media coverage of religious symbols based on international law, which started in this French city on Saturday, a senior Saudi official said the Kingdom emphasized years ago that the international community must act urgently to confront ethnic, religious and cultural intolerance, which has become widespread in all communities and peoples of the world.

"We have made it clear that freedom of expression without limits or restrictions would lead to violation and abuse of religious and ideological rights," said Abdulmajeed Al-Omari, director for external relations at the Ministry of Islamic Affairs.

"This requires everyone to intensify efforts to criminalize insulting heavenly religions, prophets, holy books, religious symbols and places of worship," he added.

Al-Omari pointed out that such abuses bred intolerance, extremism and human rights violations and contributed to the growing phenomenon of defamation of religions.

The Kingdom is participating in the forum, with representatives from 16 European countries, a number of international organizations led by UNESCO, Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Association of Islamic Universities.

Al-Omari said the Saudi participation in the symposium falls in line with its efforts to support the principles of justice, humanity, promotion of values and the principles of tolerance in the world as well as to emphasize the importance of respecting religions and religious symbols.  Hmmm.....It might turn out to be only concerning 'defamation of Islam'.

Former head of the OIC Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu was elected to the Turkish parliament.

Former head of the OIC Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu was elected to the Parliament of Turkey.(Taz).

The former head of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu was elected to the Turkish parliament.

Ihsanoglu ran from the opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).

According to preliminary data Turkey's ruling party won 40.95% of the vote.

Republican People's Party (CHP) won 25.1%, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) - 16.8%, and the Democratic People's Party (HDP) - 11.7% of the vote.

Other political parties as a whole gained 4.5% of votes.



During the parliamentary election held in Turkey in 2011, the ruling Justice and Development Party gained 46.66 percent of the vote. Some 20.85 percent of the votes went to the Republican People’s Party (CHP), and 14.29 percent of the votes were gathered by the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).

Meet the honor brigade, an organized campaign to silence debate on Islam

Asra Q. Nomani, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, is the author of “Standing Alone: An American Woman’s Struggle for the Soul of Islam.”

Meet the honor brigade, an organized campaign to silence debate on Islam. (CJR).
By Asra Q. Nomani January 16 .

“You have shamed the community,” a fellow Muslim in Morgantown, W.Va., said to me as we sat in a Panera Bread in 2004. “Stop writing.”

Then 38, I had just written an essay for The Washington Post’s Outlook section arguing that women should be allowed to pray in the main halls of mosques, rather than in segregated spaces, as most mosques in America are arranged. An American Muslim born in India, I grew up in a tolerant but conservative family. In my hometown mosque, I had disobeyed the rules and prayed in the men’s area, about 20 feet behind the men gathered for Ramadan prayers.

Later, an all-male tribunal tried to ban me. An elder suggested having men surround me at the mosque so that I would be “scared off.” Now the man across the table was telling me to shut up.

“I won’t stop writing,” I said.

It was the first time a fellow Muslim had pressed me to refrain from criticizing the way our faith was practiced. But in the past decade, such attempts at censorship have become more common. This is largely because of the rising power and influence of the “ghairat brigade,” an honor corps that tries to silence debate on extremist ideology in order to protect the image of Islam. It meets even sound critiques with hideous, disproportionate responses.

The campaign began, at least in its modern form, 10 years ago in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, when the Organization of Islamic Cooperation — a mini-United Nations comprising the world’s 56 countries with large Muslim populations, plus the Palestinian Authority — tasked then-Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu with combating Islamophobia and projecting the “true values of Islam.” 

During the past decade, a loose honor brigade has sprung up, in part funded and supported by the OIC through annual conferences, reports and communiques. It’s made up of politicians, diplomats, writers, academics, bloggers and activists.

In 2007, as part of this playbook, the OIC launched the Islamophobia Observatory, a watchdog group based in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, with the goal of documenting slights against the faith. Its first report, released the following year, complained that the artists and publishers of controversial Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad were defiling “sacred symbols of Islam . . . in an insulting, offensive and contemptuous manner.” The honor brigade began calling out academics, writers and others, including former New York police commissioner Ray Kelly and administrators at a Catholic school in Britain that turned away a mother who wouldn’t remove her face veil.

“The OIC invented the anti-‘Islamophobia’ movement,” says Zuhdi Jasser, president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy and a frequent target of the honor brigade. “These countries . . . think they own the Muslim community and all interpretations of Islam.”

Alongside the honor brigade’s official channel, a community of self-styled blasphemy police — from anonymous blogs such as LoonWatch.com andIkhras.com to a large and disparate cast of social-media activists — arose and began trying to control the debate on Islam. This wider corps throws the label of “Islamophobe” on pundits, journalists and others who dare to talk about extremist ideology in the religion. Their targets are as large as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and as small as me.

The official and unofficial channels work in tandem, harassing, threatening and battling introspective Muslims and non-Muslims everywhere. They bank on an important truth: Islam, as practiced from Malaysia to Morocco, is a shame-based, patriarchal culture that values honor and face-saving from the family to the public square. Which is why the bullying often works to silence critics of Islamic extremism.

“Honor brigades are wound collectors. They are couch jihadis,” Joe Navarro, a former supervisory special agent in the FBI’s behavioral analysis unit, tells me. “They sit around and collect the wounds and injustices inflicted against them to justify what they are doing. Tragedy unites for the moment, but hatred unites for longer.”

In an e-mail exchange, the OIC’s ambassador to the United Nations denied that the organization tries to silence discussion of problems in Muslim communities.

The attacks are everywhere. Soon after the Islamophobia Observatory took shape, Sheik Sabah Ahmed al-Sabah, the emir of Kuwait, grumbled about “defamatory caricatures of our Master and Prophet Muhammad” and films that smear Islam, according to the OIC’s first Islamophobia report.

The OIC helped give birth to a culture of victimization. In speeches, blogs, articles and interviews widely broadcast in the Muslim press, its honor brigade has targeted pundits, political leaders and writers — from TV host Bill Maher to atheist author Richard Dawkins — for insulting Islam. Writer Glenn Greenwald has supported the campaign to brand writers and thinkers, such as neuroscientist and atheist Sam Harris, as having “anti-Muslim animus” just for criticizing Islam.

“These fellow travelers have made it increasingly unpleasant — and even dangerous — to discuss the link between Muslim violence and specific religious ideas, like jihad, martyrdom and blasphemy,” Harris tells me.

Noticing the beginnings of this trend in December 2007, a U.S. diplomat in Istanbul dispatched a cable to the National Security Council, the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency and various State Department offices. The cable said the OIC’s chief called supporters of the Danish cartoons of Muhammad “extremists of freedom of expression” and equated them with al-Qaeda.

Most of the criticism takes place online, with anonymous bloggers targeting supposed Islamophobes. Not long after the cable, a network of bloggers launched LoonWatch, which goes after Christians, Jews, Hindus, atheists and other Muslims.

The bloggers have labeled Somali author Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a born Muslim but now an atheist opponent of Islamic extremism, an “anti-Muslim crusader.” Robert Spencer, a critic of extremist Islam, has been called a “vicious hate preacher” and an “Internet sociopath.” The insults may look similar to Internet trolling and vitriolic comments you can find on any blog or news site. But they’re more coordinated, frightening and persistent. Read more at Washington Post

Video - Algerian Imam Justifies Paris Attacks: Violence Begets Counter-Violence

Saudi OIC Muslim leader organizing 'legal action against Charlie Hebdo' over Mohamed cartoons.

Saudi OIC Muslim leader organizing 'legal action against Charlie Hebdo' over Mohamed cartoons.(Independent).

The Saudi Arabia-based Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is planning to sue the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo following its publication of a front cover depicting the Prophet Mohamed.

It comes as demonstrations against the controversial image on last week’s “survivor” issue turned violent in Niger, Pakistan and Algeria, while the Iranian authorities banned a daily newspaper for a front-page headline allegedly offering Charlie Hebdo its support.

In Saudi Arabia, the former culture minister and now head of the Jeddah-based OIC condemned the new edition of Charlie Hebdo as “an idiotic step that requires necessary legal measures”.

Iyad Madani told a Saudi newspaper: “OIC is studying Europe and French laws and other available procedures to be able to take legal action against Charlie Hebdo.

“If French laws allow us to take legal procedures against Charlie Hebdo, OIC will not hesitate to prosecute the French magazine.”

On his personal Twitter feed, Madani added: “These cartoons have hurt the sentiments of Muslims across the world.

“Freedom of speech must not become a hate speech and must not offend others. No sane person, irrespective of doctrine, religion or faith, accepts his beliefs being ridiculed,” he said.

In Gaza, Muslims scrawled graffiti on the walls of the French Cultural Centre. In addition to statements praising Mohamed and declaring him off-limits for ridicule or satire, the vandals also wrote: “To hell, to a miserable destiny, French journalists.”

Palestinians burning French flag at the Temple mount

Saudi Arabian Prince Saud: Israel has no right to self-defense.

Saudi Arabian Prince Saud: Israel has no right to self-defense. (Gulfnews).

Saudi Arabia has said that the actions of the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas, cannot be equated with Israel’s mass killings.

Addressing a press conference after chairing an extraordinary meeting of the foreign ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Jeddah on Tuesday, Prince Saud Al-Faisal slammed Israel for committing crimes against humanity.

“You cannot equate the actions of Hamas and Israel, either in scale or in substance,” he said in response to a question on whether Hamas had taken adequate steps to seek a peaceful resolution of the current conflict. “It is not fair, there is no way you can put the two together.”

“How can you say that Israel has a right to defend itself when it is the occupier and you do not give the same right to Hamas?” he said.

“When Hamas fires rockets, it is considered a terrorist while Israel, which thinks it has the moral right to kill hundreds and thousands of Palestinians in response to one soldier, is not? Where is the justice?”

Prince Saud said Israel was an occupying force that had stolen the territory of the Palestinians.

“Israel wants to destroy and kill an entire population so that it can steal more land,” he said. “Israel does not have the right to self defense as an occupier. There is no law, there is no international law, that says an occupier has a right to self defense.”

He said Israel must reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians if it is to survive as a nation.

“Israel has to realize that peace is the only solution for its survival,” he said.

Quoting a Qur’anic verse, Prince Saud said God would not change the destiny of a community unless and until it takes the lead itself.

“This meeting should not be seen as the continuation of previous meetings. This is not a condolence meeting. Now is the time to act as one Ummah,” he said.

He said the Muslim world was like one body. “If one part is affected, the whole body is in pain,” he said. “We need to stand united in confronting Israel. The enemy is taking advantage of our division. When Muslims shed the blood of Muslims, this makes us weak. When one country tries to expand at the expense of other, this creates division, dissension.”Read the full 'story' here.

Turkish FM slams former OIC head for 'Neutrality' statement on Arab-Israeli conflict.

Turkish FM slams former OIC head for 'Neutrality' statement on Arab-Israeli conflict.(Taz).

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu criticized the statement made by the former head of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the candidate for the presidency, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Turkish "Sabah" newspaper wrote.

Davutoglu noted that Ihsanoglu 'forgot about the purpose of his earlier organization, the purpose of which is to solve the Palestinian problem'.

The Turkish FM also noted that those who are calling on Turkey to maintain neutrality in the issue of the Arab-Israeli conflict, unwittingly support the occupation of Palestinian lands.

Earlier, Ihsanoglu urged Ankara to be neutral on the Arab-Israeli conflict issue.

He said Turkey needs to be a neutral party in the Arab-Israeli conflict, particularly on the Palestine issue.

"There are Arab countries that, despite the conflict in Palestine, have good relations with Israel," Ihsanoglu said.

He added that Turkey should continue mediation in the settlement of the Palestinian crisis.

Relations between Israel and Turkey sharply deteriorated after an Israeli special mission unit seized the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, which was included into the so-called Freedom Flotilla moving into the blockaded Gaza Strip.

Hamas warns it will retaliate against any offensive on Gaza.

Hamas warns it will retaliate against any offensive on Gaza. (IMRA).

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Hamas on Wednesday warned that it planned to retaliate against any Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, after almost two weeks of nightly air strikes against the besieged coastal enclave.

The deputy head of the Palestinian Legislative Council Ahmad Bahr said in a rally in Gaza City on Wednesday afternoon that the messages sent by Netanyahu through the raids and threats reflected "confusion" among the Israeli leadership.

"Even though no party has announced responsibility for the disappearance of the three settlers," he said, "we say that we support and bless it, because it is the right of our people to do it for the country, the prisoners, and Jerusalem," he added.

Israel has blamed Hamas for the "kidnapping" of three Israeli youths from a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, and vowed to "crush" the movement.

Hamas, however, has denied any responsibility, although in the past it has supported the kidnapping of Israelis as a way to gain leverage for prisoner exchanges to free some of the more then 5,000 Palestinians prisoners in Israeli jails.

Bahr said in his speech during the rally that Palestinian resistance is "legitimate," adding that security coordination by the Palestinian Authority with the Israeli occupation is "treason" and in violation of the reconciliation agreement signed in Cairo in 2011.

The Hamas leader predicted that the events occurring in the West Bank were the beginning of the launch of a "third Intifada."

Bahr's comments come 12 days after three Jewish settlers disappeared near Bethlehem, setting off a furious Israeli search campaign that has led to the detention of more than 500 Palestinians and the raiding of more than 1,200 homes and offices across the West Bank.

Six Palestinians have been shot dead by Israeli forces during the campaign, and more than 120 have been injured.

Operation has 'deepened deterrence'

The Israeli military's Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee on Wednesday, meanwhile, acknowledged that the operation had hurt Palestinians who have nothing to do with the disappearance, but said that the Israeli army had succeeded in "deepening deterrence" and conveying a message that a "heavy toll will be paid for abduction of Israelis."

He also told Ma'an that Israel had no plans to curb the campaign during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins at the end of this week.

He said that the campaign would begin moving in a "different pattern" in the coming days, relying on information revealed through ongoing investigations and acting through sudden operations ground operations.

Adraee admitted that Hamas could potentially succeed in negotiating some sort of prisoner swap deal in exchange for the three, but the "toll will be re-imprisonment of those who were freed as part of the Shalit deal."

In addition, he said, Hamas would sustain "painful" strikes as its organizations and institutions in the West Bank will be shut down and its leaders will be detained.

With regards to the possibility of acquiring permits to allow Palestinians into Israel during Ramadan, Adraee said the Israeli military leaders would submit suggestions Wednesday to the Israeli cabinet. "There could be permits given from which Hebron area may be excluded."

He added, "Ramadan in 2014 seems to be different from that of 2013 when hundreds of thousands of worshipers from the West Bank were able to pray in Al-Aqsa Mosque every Friday," he added.

Full 'Assault on Jerusalem' - OIC has named Jerusalem as the capital of Islamic tourism for 2016.

Full 'Assault on Jerusalem' - OIC has named Jerusalem as the capital of Islamic tourism for 2016. HT: TheBlaze.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation has named Jerusalem as the capital of Islamic tourism for 2016, a senior Palestinian official has said.

The independent Palestinian news agency Ma’an reported that the Palestinian Authority Minister of Religious Affairs Mahmoud Habbash called the designation a step towards breaking Israel’s “siege” of holy sites in Jerusalem.

Israel captured east Jerusalem from Jordan during the 1967 War after having been attacked by surrounding Arab countries. The holiest site in Judaism, the Second Temple and its remaining Western Wall, are located in the eastern part of the city.

The Temple Mount, where the First and Second Temples sat, is considered the third holiest site in Islam and is known in Arabic as the Haram al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary.

Israel maintains the entire city of Jerusalem as its capital and says it will never divide the city. The Palestinians hope east Jerusalem will be the capital of a future state.

The Palestinian minister accused Israel of trying to hide the Arab and Islamic identity of Jerusalem. “Jerusalem is the religious and political capital of Palestine,” Habbash said on Thursday, adding that he hopes the Islamic designation will encourage Muslim officials to visit Jerusalem in greater numbers. More here at The Blaze

'Moderate' Rouhani: OIC must stop anti-Islam violence and spare no effort to liberate the occupied Palestinian lands.

'Moderate' Rouhani: OIC must stop anti-Islam violence and spare no effort to liberate the occupied Palestinian lands.(pressTv).

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has says the prevention of atrocities and massacre of Muslims worldwide is the main duty of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

In a meeting with the OIC Secretary General Iyad Ameen Madani in Tehran on Wednesday, Rouhani stated that promotion of all-out ties with Muslim nations, particularly neighboring countries, is among the foreign policy priorities of the incumbent Iranian administration.

“The Muslim world holds great expectations from the OIC. We should join hands and make efforts to satisfy such expectations,” he pointed out.

The Iranian president further pointed to the role that the OIC secretariat can play in facilitating further interaction among influential members of the organization, stating that all OIC member states should actively contribute to decisions being made by the Jeddah-based world body.

Rouhani also made reference to Islamophobia and the extremist moves which serve the interests of the enemies of Islam, calling on the OIC to confront such attempts and present the real image of Islam to the world.

He added that the Organization of Islamic Cooperation must seek to make the voice of Muslims heard, stop insults to the religious beliefs held by Muslim nations and spare no effort to liberate the occupied Palestinian lands.

Madani, for his part, stressed Iran’s significant role in the settlement of the Muslim world disputes.
He added that the OIC needs the backing of all Muslim nations, and it appreciates the Islamic Republic of Iran’s generous support.Madani arrived in Tehran on Tuesday evening.Hmmmm....I guess 'Death to Israel' is still in fashion?

International “Islamophobia Conference” Promotes Sharia Agenda.

International “Islamophobia Conference” Promotes Sharia Agenda.HT: Breitbart.by ANDREW E. HARROD AND SAM NUNBERG:

Objective observers should be rightfully concerned by the “International Conference on Islamophobia: Law & Media” held by the Turkish government’s Directorate General of Press and Information (DGPI or BYGEM in Turkish) and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) this past September 12-13 in Istanbul’s Grand Tarabya Hotel. Conference participants substantiated all too many threats emanating from various Muslims and their allies, calling into question their respect for free speech and freedom of expression.

The conference website defined “Islamophobia” according to the Greek suffix phobia as a “groundless fear and intolerance of Islam and Muslims.” By “culminating in hate speech and attitudes towards Muslims,” this phobia is “detrimental to international peace.” There should be “recognition of Islamophobia as a hate crime and Islamophobic attitudes as human rights violations.”

In Istanbul, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan reiterated his well-known meme (see here and here) that “Islamophobia” as a “kind of racism” is a “crime against humanity.” “No monotheistic religion,” Erdoğan elaborated, “adopts, supports, permits or leads terror.”

“If Christianity and Judaism cannot be mentioned with terrorism,” Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arinç seconded in his remarks, “then our noble religion Islam cannot be defamed this way either.” Arinç discerned the main cause of “Islamophobia” in the belief that “Islam and democracy are not compatible,” yet “Muslims are democrats in essence.”

Representing the OIC’s 57 Muslim-majority states (including “Palestine”), a fellow Turk, OIC Secretary General Dr. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, reprised themes from the OIC’s longstanding attempts to restrict criticism of Islam. Ihsanoglu decried the “exploitation….of freedom of speech.”

The conference’s first session featured internationally renowned Islam scholar and regular Islamist apologist John Esposito. Esposito cited “irrational fear” being behind “anti-Sharia legislations” in the United States. Turning toward Egypt, Esposito criticized those who “think it is legitimate to overthrow a democratically elected government.”Hmmm........and don't you now feel like a silly, bigoted Islamophobe?Read the full story here.

Related: ICLA believes that the undefined nature of the term "Islamophobia" stereotypes and demonises any and all people who voice concerns about sharia law

" I believe that many of the sheikhs would agree with us that democracy and Islam are incompatible"
"Democracy Stipulates that Man Is Above Allah – Which Is Blatant Heresy." Source.

Erdogan - International Olympic Committee (IOC) bloc is turning its back on the Muslim world.

Erdogan - International Olympic Committee (IOC) bloc is turning its back on the Muslim world. (AA).

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying on Monday that the choice of Tokyo instead of Istanbul to host the 2020 Olympic Games was unfair.

Erdogan said the choice made by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) meant the bloc was turning its back on the Muslim world.

“Both Tokyo and Madrid have hosted the games before; Istanbul hasn’t. It hasn’t been fair,” Erdogan was quoted as saying in Turkish media, according to Reuters news agency.

“In a way, they are cutting ties with the 1.5-billion-people Muslim world.”

Tokyo beat Istanbul by 60 votes to 36 in a head-to-head vote by IOC members in Buenos Aires on Saturday, giving the Japanese capital the Games for the second time. Madrid had been eliminated in a first round of voting.
Recent anti-government unrest in Turkey, as well as the deadly conflict in neighboring Syria is believed to have played are seen to have been the main reasons for the IOC’s decision to overlook Istanbul.
The Turkish city also failed in bids to land the 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Games.

Tokyo, which hosted the 1964 Games, had an estimated non-Games budget of around $4.4 billion for 2020 plus $3.4 billion for the actual event, according to Reuters.

Hmmm....Strange i had thought it would be another 'Zionist plot'?

'Eurabia' urgently reviewing relationship with Egypt.

'Eurabia' urgently reviewing relationship with Egypt.(RT).

President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy and President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso in a rare joint statement Sunday strongly criticized the military-backed Egyptian government for failing to curb the week’s violence.“We regret deeply that international efforts and proposals for building bridges and establishing an inclusive political process, to which the EU contributed actively, were set aside and a course of confrontation was pursued instead,” the statement read.

The EU leaders called for an immediate halt to violence in Egypt, for the resumption of political dialogue and a return to democratic rule, stressing that it was the interim government’s job to ensure an end to violence. 
“While all should exert maximum restraint, we underline the particular responsibility of the interim authorities and of the army in bringing clashes to a halt. The violence and the killings of these last days cannot be justified nor condoned. Human rights must be respected and upheld. Political prisoners should be released,” the statement reads.
The statement came after the Egyptian government sought to justify the military’s violent crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood supporters as an anti-terrorist operation, pointing to the group’s alleged links with Al-Qaeda.
The EU’s call for an urgent review of its relations with Egypt stood in contrast to the much milder reaction from the US, where President Barack Obama earlier in the week canceled a planned joint military exercise with the Egyptian military, but left Washington’s $1.3 billion in military aid to Cairo unchanged.

In his statement, Obama also put the blame less clearly on the Egyptian military, and mentioned specifically violence against Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority.
“We call on those who are protesting to do so peacefully and condemn the attacks that we’ve seen by protesters, including on churches,” Obama said. 
The US has also refrained from describing Morsi’s ousting by the army in early July as a military coup.
Germany, meanwhile, immediately froze its aid to Egypt. The EU is going to hold an urgent meeting in Brussels next week to discuss suspending of 1 billion euro in aid to Cairo. 
Several rulers in the Arab world, particularly the Gulf monarchies such as Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Jordan, expressed their strong support for the security crackdown on the Egyptian opposition. 
Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah called for “honest people and intellectuals” to “stand firmly against all those who try to shake the stability of a country that has always led the Arab and Islamic worlds," AP reported him as saying.
The only Gulf monarchy to express an opposing opinion was Qatar, which is supporting the Muslim Brotherhood. 
“There is an excessive use of force and that concerns us,” Mohammad Al Attiyah, Qatar’s Foreign Minister, told reporters in Berlin on Saturday. “In this case, we condemn violence against protesters and also the destruction of public buildings. We urge those in power in Egypt to end the violence.”

Another majority Muslim country to condemn the army’s crackdown on the pro-Morsi sit-ins was Turkey. President Abdullah Gul described the violence in Egypt as “a shame for Islam and the Arab world." Late Thursday, as relations between the two countries worsened, Turkey and Egypt recalled their ambassadors for consultations.
Hmmm.....I'm sure Turkey and the OIC have been heating up the phonelines of the 'Eurabian leadership'.Read the full story here.

UN’s World Health Org adopted a resolution demanding urgent action on “inhuman Israeli practices” that target “the health of Syrian citizens.”

UN’s World Health Org adopted a resolution demanding urgent action on “inhuman Israeli practices” that target “the health of Syrian citizens.”HT: UNWatch.

GENEVA, May 22 – The annual assembly of the UN’s World Health Organization adopted a resolution (pages 2-4 — see full vote count below) and held a special debate today criticizing Israel — the only specific country on the organization’s agenda — with Syria demanding urgent action on “inhuman Israeli practices” that target “the health of Syrian citizens.” Click here for links to relevant WHO documents.

Observers of the world body in Geneva said the annual hypocrisy reached a new low this year.

“To see the Assad regime point the finger at Israel out of professed concern for the health of Syrians is, frankly, a sick joke,” said Hillel Neuer, exectuive director of the Geneva-based UN Watch, a non-governmental monitoring group accredited to the UN.

“They’ve slaughtered 80,000 of their own people, and are now busy destroying the lives of millions more. The real question is this: Why is the UN allowing mass murderers to deflect attention from their crimes by scapegoating democracies?”

“A world health assembly should be about Hippocrates, not hypocrisy,” said Neuer.

Syria’s report expressed concern that “the health conditions of the Syrian population in the occupied Golan continue to deteriorate, as a result of the suppressive practices of the Israeli occupation.”

Neuer noted that “out of 25 agenda items on the WHO’s conference agenda, all but one address global themes.”

“The exception, today’s Item No. 20, turned a spotlight on one specific country: Israel. No other country in the world — not Mexico, Russia, Syria, or anywhere else — is treated this way.”

“Despite what’s being said at the UN, the Palestinians’ own health minister recently acknowledged Israel’s extensive medical care for Palestinian children and its training of Palestinians doctors.”

“The UN debate also failed to mention that only last week, an Israeli hospital saved the life of a four-year-old Syrian girl, in a successful operation for a deadly heart condition. What we heard at the UN today was pure political fiction, and contrary to the simple facts.”Read the full story here.

Video - At the top of the human rights hierarchy - Islam has trumped homosexuality when it comes to the human rights pecking order.

Ezra Levant and Menzoid discuss U.N. 'human rights'.HT: SunNewsNetwork.

'The UN Has Inverted Right and Wrong', Says Expert.

'The UN Has Inverted Right and Wrong', Says Expert.(INN).

It's time to re-think the United Nations, which turns Israel into a villain, says human rights scholar Anne Bayefsky.

The United Nations has been a “major disappointment” in the 21st Century and has “inverted right and wrong,” human rights scholar and activist Anne Bayefsky.

The UN “was founded in the middle of the 20th Century to offer a new world order based on peace and security and protection of human rights, and it has inverted right and wrong so that Israel becomes the villain and the victims become those who are some of the most intolerant people in the region,” said Bayefsky.

She said that a “re-thinking” about the organization is in order, adding, “I think there is some mistaken belief on the part of democracies that the UN is some kind of harmless talking shop and that the kind of anti-Semitic, anti-Zionist, anti-Americanism that goes on at the United Nations won’t have its effects. But it does.”

Two weeks ago, noted Bayefsky, “the major committee that’s been tasked with drafting a comprehensive convention on terrorism for the first time in history ended once again - as it has done year after year - in disarray, because they can’t agree to define terrorism. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation believes that there should be an exception clause for so-called ‘legitimate struggle.’”

She mentioned the remarks this week of Richard Falk, the United Nations Human Rights Council-appointed “Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.” Falk implied that the Boston terror attack was a justified response to U.S. policies in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq.

“This isn’t harmless talking,” stressed Bayefsky. “When people don’t understand the difference between right and wrong it encourages terrorism to the detriment of both Israel and the United States.”

OIC to meet on April 14 to Halt Deadly Violence Against Myanmar Muslims, "ready to take all necessary measures and actions to deal with it".

OIC to meet on April 14 to Halt Deadly Violence Against Myanmar Muslims, "ready to take all necessary measures and actions to deal with it".(IW).

The head of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation said on Saturday that ministers from OIC states will meet on April 14 in Saudi Arabia to discuss deadly violence against Muslims in Myanmar.

Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said in a statement that a contact committee of OIC foreign ministers would gather in the Red Sea port of Jeddah.

State media in Myanmar reported on Saturday that the death toll from communal violence in the center of the country over the past 10 days has risen to 43 with more than 1,300 homes and other buildings destroyed.

An OIC statement said Ihsanoglu addressed a contact group meeting on violence against Myanmar Muslims known as Rohingya on Saturday and said the organization was "ready to take all necessary measures and actions to deal with it".

Ihsanoglu also pressed the government of Myanmar to "put an end to the Buddhist extremists and hate campaigns, as well as ethnic cleansing that they had launched against Muslims in the country".

On Friday, Myanmar strongly rejected comments by the UN's special rapporteur on Myanmar human rights, Tomas Ojea Quintana, the previous day that he had "received reports of state involvement in some of the acts of violence".

Buddhist mobs have marauded through several towns in central Myanmar since religious violence erupted on March 20, prompting the government to impose emergency rule and curfews in some areas.

It is the worst sectarian strife since violence between Buddhists and Muslims in the western state of Rakhine last year left at least 180 people dead and more than 110,000 displaced.

Myanmar's Muslims -- largely of Indian, Chinese and Bangladeshi descent -- account for an estimated four percent of the population of roughly 60 million.Hmmmm......a pity they're silent when Christians are being murdered all over the middle East.

Video - Pat Condell : "Pigs Will Fly."

Obama's BFF Turkey’s Erdogan Calls Zionism A “Crime Against Humanity” at UN Conference

Obama's BFF Turkey’s Erdogan Calls Zionism A “Crime Against Humanity” at UN Conference.HT: IsraelMatzav.(UNWatch).GENEVA, February 28, 2013 – UN Watch expressed shock over anti-Jewish remarks delivered by Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan at a UN summit for tolerance, and urged UN chief Ban Ki-moon — who was present on the stage yet stayed silent — to speak out and condemn the speech. The Geneva-based human rights group also called on Erdogan to apologize, and hoped US President Obama would press him to do so. Speaking yesterday before a Vienna forum of the Alliance of Civilizations, a UN framework for West-Islam dialogue, Erodgan called Zionism, the movement founded in 1897 for Jewish self-determination, a “crime against humanity,” likening it with anti-Semitism, fascism, and Islamophobia. click here for Turkish news report.

“We remind secretary-general Ban Ki-moon that his predecessor Kofi Annan recognized that the UN’s 1975 Zionism-is-racism resolution was an expression of anti-Semitism, and he welcomed its repeal.”

UN Watch urged all members of the Alliance’s High Level Group, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, “to denounce remarks that fundamentally contradict the very purpose of a forum supposedly dedicated to mutual tolerance.”

“Erdogan’s misuse of this global podium to incite hatred, and his resort to Ahmandinejad-style pronouncements appealing to the lowest common denominator in the Muslim world, will only strengthen the belief that his government is hewing to a confrontational stance, and fundamentally unwilling to end its four-year-old feud with Israel.”

US Secretary of State John FN Kerry is due to meet with Erdogan in Ankara on Friday. Does anyone believe these remarks will even be a topic of conversation? Surprise me.... Please....

Hmmmm.....The 'man' Obama calls his 'personal friend'.Read the full story here.

                                                Erdogan: 'Those that hate 'them' we must love'.

Iran urges Obama's new BFF Egypt for united front against international enemies of humanity in region.

Iran urges Obama's new BFF Egypt for united front against international enemies of humanity in region.(TI).Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for a strong alliance between Iran and Egypt in the region to counter enemy threats, Press TV reported.
"If Iran and Egypt closed ranks, international enemies of humanity could not inflict any harm upon our nations," Ahmadinejad said in a meeting with Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi on the sidelines of the 12th summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Cairo on Tuesday.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to increase relations with Egypt in all sectors without any restrictions. The Iranian nation opens up its arms and the way for the development and progress of the Egyptian nation," he added.
"From a historical standpoint, in case Iran and Egypt stay together, both will emerge winners and that would benefit not only the two nations, but also the entire region," said Ahmadinejad.
The Iranian president noted that Iran and Egypt need to coordinate their positions and settle the ongoing crisis in Syria.
He also stated that Tehran and Cairo would be able to contribute to finding a resolution to the Palestinian issue.
Morsi, for his part, underscored the need for broader cooperation between Iran and Egypt, saying Tehran-Cairo relations are significant and influential both in the region and in the world.
He called for cooperation between Iran and Egypt to find a solution to the spiraling crisis in Syria.
"I believe that the Syrian problem could not be resolved without Iran and Iran's efforts in this regard are prioritized," Morsi added.
"...We have no doubt that Iran is sincerely endeavoring to resolve the problems in Syria and other nations. Hence, we stress cooperation with Iran in this field," he added.
Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011.
"Iran and Egypt can expand their cooperation in different sectors and the world will definitely witness a new form of Iran-Egypt cooperation. Iran and Egypt have always sought peace, progress and security because we believe that our nations are entitled to progress," the Egyptian leader said.
Egypt and Iran have taken opposite courses since the late 1970s. Egypt, under Mubarak's predecessor Anwar Sadat, concluded a peace treaty with Israel in 1979 and became a close ally of the United States and Europe.
Iran from 1979 turned into a center of opposition to Western influence in the Middle East.Hmmmm.......Ahmadinejad.....Morsi......Obama.Read the full story here.