Tag: UK
Pam Gellar and Park51 Opponents embrace fascists
There was never any doubt that most of the rabid opponents to the Cordoba House were fueled by racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia, but the lengths they’ve gone to embrace these groups while rationalizing their lapse in judgment/sanity is an exercise in gymnastics only they could pull off. Pam Geller, pictured left, is just one of many Americans who’ve sided with European racists and brought their polemic to the shores of America. It’s strange that such racists are allowed entry onto the shores of America, with their proven record of participating in violence against their own social order, when Muslim activists in the past were denied entry to America for espousing non-violent ideas. That is also a commentary on American government; Bush’s regime was against the ‘free market place of ideas’, whereas Obama’s administration seems to allow them even at the peril of its own existence. This is also an indication at the depths at which American Islamophobes will go to demonize American Muslims and why these demagogues are so dangerous. If 21st century Americans want to identify with the likes of the English Defence League in expressing opposition to religious freedom, it will be a lot easier to know who the terrorists really are.
Foot in mouth award
Shimon Peres is the latest Israeli leader to be awarded. Earlier, while Benjamin Netanyahu in an equally disgusting show of contempt for the people who make it possible for Israel to exist made disparaging remarks against America which didn’t even cause a ripple stateside, Peres’ remarks about British politicians being anti-semitic caused more of a firestorm in England. Americans are so used to being bitch slapped by Israel we just sit back and take the abuse dished out by our scorned lover, but the British who practically gave Palestine to Europe’s Jewish community took umbrage at Peres’ remarks so much so that he had to deny he ever made them.
Peres’ initial remarks that he now denies making, included references to the influence of Muslims on British policy, as if influencing the policy of a government is something Israel would never do to any western ally, but it clearly shows the Israeli government’s attacks on Islam extend far beyond the borders of Gaza and the West Bank. It didn’t help Peres that the Tablet confirmed his remarks and the reasons behind them while he was trying to deny them, the fact is his denial is a lie.
This illustrates two things common in both Netanyahu and Peres’ attitude. First they are extremely manipulative of western governments by asserting Israel is a victim in the ongoing battles with its neighbors in which Israel is always the aggressor and second they are scornful of their state sponsors, who have all but guaranteed their existence at the expense of Israel’s neighbors, by even refusing to acknowledge this support, usually undertaken at great expense to sponsor states but little or no expense to Israel. The recipients of this award for a baffling comment by a public figure goes to both Peres and Netanyahu. Please don’t congratulate them.
More Airport Scanner News
Neocons are sexually repressed individuals who unleash their fetishes on an unsuspecting public; airport scanners are an example of that. They would have you believe they are as sanitary, clinical as regular X-ray machines you might find in doctors’ offices but the reality is they reproduce full nude photographs of the people who go through them AND there is the potential that those photographs become a part of the public record because the unsuspecting traveller has consented to having his “picture” taken.
Don’t believe the scanner reproduces nude pictures? In the UK scanners are banned for people under 18 because they violate Britain’s child pornography laws, which state in effect you cannot take pictures of a naked child. Also don’t buy for a minute the clinician sitting behind the monitor who monitors the images as one who will not take advantage of the gadgetry at hand. Once you pass through the scanner your image is available for all to see; it can detect breast implants as well as the size and shape of one’s genitalia. Just ask this guy! It’s too bad we’ve bought the proposition that in order to be safe we must give up all rights to human decency and respect. The next time you’re asked to step through a scanner, just remember this is what they’ll see. If you don’t mind them seeing it, then I’d prefer you go to the airport without any clothes; I prefer to keep mine on.
Another One Bites the Dust
The British Ambassador to Lebanon has been forced to remove, from her website and which we linked to here at Miscellany101, the remarks she made about Lebanese cleric Mohammad Fadlallah; this after the heavy handed Israeli government complained to the British government about Guy’s remarks. No doubt similar arrogant and illicit entreaties were made by the Israeli government to CNN as well; the similarities of both cases can only lead to the regrettable conclusion that either Guys’ resignation or firing is next.
What I find interesting however is that secular women from both east and west, Nasr and Guy expressed regret over Fadlallah’s death and even a passing interest in this Lebanese cleric would reveal why. Taking a very strong stand against honor killings, female genital mutilation and violence against women in general along with being a nationalist and not an expansionist/imperialist endears one with such positions more easily than most but because of his opposition to the heavy handedness of Israel and especially vis-a-vis his own country, Fadlallah must be an anathema to all who expect to keep their jobs or careers. Towing the line is something Israel expects everyone to do even if it’s not in their best interest.
Dissecting an Assassination
Dubai has given the international community a lesson in how the rule of law is supposed to be upheld when the sovereignty of a country is violated. Reacting to the murder of a Palestinian figure last month, the chief of police for the Emirate of Dubai put on a text-book show of how you gather and present evidence to make your case to the world in calling for justice. Without calling names but merely showing the facts, forged or fake passports and incontrovertible CCTV evidence from all over Dubai, Khalfan Tamim laid out all of the details surrounding the assassination/murder of Mahmoud al Mabhouh and in so doing gave the international community a methodical lesson in the rule of law. It remains to be seen whether the international community will respond in the same measured and civilized manner that the UAE did in making the case for the arrest of the 11 individuals. Releasing the names, photographs and nationalities of all they say are responsible for Mabhouh’s death has forced the hands of those countries named, Ireland, Germany and the UK to admit their passport bearers were using phony passports, while France admitted it was “not able to confirm the nationality” of the one suspect said to have used a French passport. Those admissions alone are enough to lead to the conclusion as Tamim correctly has that the UAE is on the right track of the killers. While Tamim did not accuse Israel of the murder others even some in Israeli media have certainly come to that conclusion and it’s a reasonable conclusion to make. Israel has said repeatedly it will violate any and all international law and state sovereignty to kill its opponents, political or military, and it has been able to act on that threat with impunity. Below are three parts of the case made by Dubai/UAE authorities. It’s fascinating to watch and reveals the underbelly of an assassination that was this time ‘caught on tape.’
Islamic Law in the UK
The Islamophobes were up in arms when this issue began to receive the press it has, but here’s what they didn’t tell you.
Increasing numbers of non-Muslims are turning to Sharia courts to resolve commercial disputes and other civil matters, The Times has learnt.
The Muslim Arbitration Tribunal (MAT) said that 5 per cent of its cases involved non-Muslims who were using the courts because they were less cumbersome and more informal than the English legal system.
Freed Chedie, a spokesman for Sheikh Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siqqiqi, a barrister who set up the tribunal, said: “We put weight on oral agreements, whereas the British courts do not.”
In a case last month a non-Muslim Briton took his Muslim business partner to the tribunal to sort out a dispute over the profits in their car fleet company. “The non-Muslim claimed that there had been an oral agreement between the pair,” said Mr Chedie. “The tribunal found that because of certain things the Muslim man did, that agreement had existed. The non-Muslim was awarded £48,000.”
Imagine that, a non Muslim going before a Muslim court system in the UK and actually winning!?!? We don’t know the percentage of cases where non Muslims prevailed against Muslims in Sharia court and is it really important to know? What counts is it’s a voluntary process that is similar to other tribunals at work in the UK judicial system and it’s only binding if both parties agree and sign BEFORE their case is heard. So what’s so extraordinary about this development in the UK? Nothing at all.
Waterboarding in the news again!
I saw Jesse Ventura on one of the talk shows ask the rhetorical question, ‘if waterboarding isn’t torture, why don’t the police waterboard criminal suspects to get information from them’, or words to that effect. Of course at the time I thought to myself, ‘score one for Ventura’. After reading this bit of shocking news, I wish Jesse hadn’t gone there!
The Independent Police Complaints commission is investigating claims that Metropolitan police officers mishandled prisoners and submerged the head of one man in a bucket of water during the course of a raid. The allegation was made by Metropolitan Police employee, thought to be a serving officer.
There was alarm at the allegations at Scotland Yard, which has faced several crises over the actions of its officers in past months, including the death of a man at the G20 protests.
The officers under investigation were among 10 based in Enfield, north London, who were suspended in February in one of the worst allegations of corruption to hit the Metropolitan police in recent years.
And there’s this
A group of Scotland Yard officers were suspended after “serious allegations” about their behavior during the arrests of five suspects last year, police said Tuesday.London’s police force did not go into detail, but Sky News television, the Daily Mail and The Times of London newspapers reported that six officers were accused of “waterboarding” drug suspects.
The papers gave varying accounts of the exact technique used by police, with the Times saying that officers poured water on a cloth and placed it over a suspect’s face to simulate the experience of drowning. The Daily Mail said police officers repeatedly dunked the suspects’ heads in buckets of water.
At first glance this shouldn’t be so disturbing, because British police have shot at and in one case shot and killed an innocent man, lied about why and how he was shot with nothing happening to the offending officer(s). On a more visceral level is the terrible thought that criminal behavior is now commonly employed by police the world over plunging the world into chaos. We’ve written about police brutality here in the States and now waterboarding or some variation thereof used in the UK seems to suggest an attitude of ‘anything goes’ in government’s reaction with its citizenry. Whereas possession of marijuana used to be viewed as an offense which merely got a person a ticket, and large amounts a court date and maybe a few years in jail, now law officers see nothing wrong with waterboarding suspects. Whereas failure to yield to a police or emergency vehicle would get one a ticket, now one is liable to be arrested and brutalized by law enforcement officers! So I wish Jesse hadn’t mentioned that the reason the law doesn’t waterboard suspects is because it’s illegal, because now it appears they don’t it’s illegal and a necessary part of the trade! As an aside, I wonder if any of the officers in the UK charged with this served in Iraq either in the regular British army or as mercenaries……..make that contractors. Finally, I’m glad to see that it was someone on the force who turned these thugs in. The only way this problem of criminal behavior on the part of the police is going to get solved is when good cops turn in the bad ones who then get prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. I love good, faithful, law abiding police and appreciate their service to the society; the bad ones are the reasons we should cherish and internalize the 2nd amendment.
No comment
They are not supposed to shake hands, but the two couldn’t resist the historic moment. The black royal cop never imagined in his wildest dream that he would usher a black American president into the British corridors of power
Out with the old!
. What is painfully obvious is that the Lobby has gone far beyond asserting Israel’s right to exist, which like every other sovereign country it has, instead it now declares it has the right to decide for other countries what is in their (Israel’s) interests exclusively.
I’m NOT a big fan of the UK these days, what with their obsequious adoption of US foreign policy measures, which included their security forces’ gunning down innocent residents merely on suspicion, their rendering of suspects and their abandonment of their residents to US rendition. Neither do I think that this latest news is really their turning over a new leaf although that’s exactly what it should signify.
Britain says it is re-establishing contacts with the political wing of the Lebanese movement Hezbollah. The move follows “positive political developments” in Lebanon, officials from the UK Foreign Office said. It comes about 10 months after Hezbollah signed a unity accord in Lebanon and joined the government.
Of course it took no time for the Lobby via the American government to respond negatively to the news, and at this stage in America’s political development that’s entirely expected. The American government has become a political arm of the Israeli war machine, spouting all the necessary rhetoric to keep the government of Israel at the top, for now, of the Middle East’s hierarchy. The Obama administration even uses the same tactics as the Lobby, lies and deceit, claiming that it wasn’t given a proper advanced warning of this political development, as if such a warning was essential to the interests of either America, the UK, Lebanon or Hezbollah. Rather, it appears as a veiled threat that for the moment at least Britain has no right to decide for itself what is in its best interests with other countries. What is painfully obvious is that the Lobby has gone far beyond asserting Israel’s right to exist, which like every other sovereign country it has, instead it now declares it has the right to decide for other countries what is in their (Israel’s) interests exclusively. This all or nothing, zero sum game signified by the one way flow of information, material, good will all in Israel’s direction is necessary for the establishment of the Israeli empire. It ignores the admission of its foes that the right to exist belongs to all communities and peace should come from both sides, because Empire is established only on the corpses of opponents, not through peace treaties. So it should come as no surprise that news Hamas wants peace with Israel and wants to stop attacks from its soil against Israel doesn’t get mentioned in political discussions taking place around the world because such news means Israel must cease its aggressive policy against Palestinians, something it is not willing, nor able given the current political climate in Israel, to do. Syria’s announcement that it can live peacefully alongside its Israeli neighbor was met with Israeli invasion of Syrian airspace on a suspect nuclear weapons site, still shrouded in doubt and mystery.
None of these movements, political or military pose even the slightest existential threat to Israel, yet they are all met with the same heavy handedness that only a leadership steeped in the oppression of its past adversaries can bring to bear on a defenseless population. Part of that defenseless population includes those living in America who see oppression and brutality emanating from the Israeli side and call it just that. Charles Freeman is one of the latest casualties of the Israeli blitzkreig. If America’s political leadership is able to muster the backbone necessary to fight the Lobby war, and free itself of its indulgence to that Lobby, only then will there be peace in the Middle East and the survival of all parties there will be a possibility. Until then, we are destined for more conflict, death, destruction and political casualties of decent, honest civil servants and civilians at the hands of the Lobby and its military wing the Israeli government.
Yellow journalism at its finest from a Murdoch “rag”
The Sun newspaper in England ran a story with a photo given to it by one of the local British rednecks/islamophobes of a British bus driver praying in the bus he drove. The article stated quite clearly the driver had forced everyone off his bus and inconvenienced them so that he could pray. Turns out it was all a lie and it seems The Sun newspaper makes a hobby of lying and inciting public passions against Muslim residents of the UK.
Here is more evidence of the Sun paper doing the same thing, entirely making up a story of supposed Muslim excess when there wasn’t anything to it. By the time the smoke clears what’s left is a public that is misinformed, angry and mistrustful of one another and an industry that has profited from lies and deception.
I wish Mr. Raulynaitis had received a lot more than the paltry sum of 30,000 pounds for the Sun’s lies. The Sun is owned by K. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp which had revenues of 25 billion USD in 2006. I would have suggested to Mr. Raulynaitis that would be a great figure from which to start bargaining in settling his lawsuit against the Sun.
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