If Iran has nothing to hide then why did the Guardian Council discuss, let alone approve of, this bill? From the AP: Iran’s hard-line constitutional watchdog approved a bill Saturday blocking international inspections of atomic facilities if the nation is referred to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions, state-run television reported. The ratification by […]
Dissent on campus
Has the dissent in the camp manifested into a dissent on campus? A report from Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Nov. 27 — Several anti-government student protests erupted in the Iranian capital on Sunday in response to an increasingly harsher government crackdown on campus activists. Students at the University of Tehran refused to attend classes in […]
Yemen executes Muslim cleric
From the AFP: A hardline Muslim cleric has been executed by firing squad in Yemen after being convicted of the murder three years ago of an official in the opposition socialist party. Ali Ahmed Jarallah was executed on Sunday in the courtyard of the main Sanaa prison in the presence of his family, judges and […]
Back in the fold
Is this the future of Europe once Turkey is allowed to join the “elite” club? From Iran Focus: London, Nov. 27 — Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki will travel on Wednesday to Turkey, a country that once expelled him for his involvement in terrorism when he was the Islamic Republic’s ambassador to Ankara. Mottaki, 52, […]
Dissent in the camp
According to this report from the AP, all is not going well for Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. TEHRAN, Iran – Critics say the 1980s-style radicalism of ultraconservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is hurting Iran at home and abroad – to the point that even his natural allies in parliament have rejected his three choices to run […]
Empowering Saudi Youth for the World
The chairman of the Saudi International Relations Committee (IRC), Mr. Amr Khashoggi, has asked members to “think of ways of training our youth on how to communicate, appreciate and project our country and culture.” The committee came back with the following plan. From the Arab News: Saudi Arabian Youth Ambassadors Program is dedicated to creating […]
Bangladesh: Bomb panic at city high school
On the heels of a crippling nationwide general strike waged by opposition groups determined to oust the ruling Islamist-allied government comes this high school bomb scare out of Dhaka. From The New Nation: The students and teachers of city”s Khilgaon High School panicked Sunday afternoon at sight of a bomb-like device set under the table […]
France: Extremism on the rise while intertwining with foreign terror groups
While government officials bicker amongst themselves on how to appease blatant rioters, an insidious infiltration is quietly occurring right under the authorities’ noses. From the Los Angeles Times: PARIS “” Employees set up clandestine prayer areas on the grounds of the Euro Disney resort. Workers for a cargo firm at Charles de Gaulle airport praise […]
No accounting of religion
Three weeks of riots has prompted French prime minister Dominique de Villepin and interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy to fall over each other in an attempt help the “disaffected youths”. From Reuters: “Proclaiming equality before the law is no longer enough: henceforth we also need to promote equality by (using) the law,” Sarkozy wrote in an […]
Minister: “In Pakistan there is complete freedom of speech and expression.”
Apparently, the good minister does not consider this nor this nor this to be stark contradictions to his bold statement. But of course! Violations of Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy laws are punishable just as violations of laws are in any other “democratic” nation. From the Online – International News Network: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has underlined […]