Tensions high for day of anti-Islam film protests

21/09/2012

Security forces in several Muslim countries are gearing up for a day of fresh protests against an anti-Islam film made in the US.

In Pakistan, the government has declared a national holiday to enable people to demonstrate peacefully.

Washington has paid for adverts on Pakistani TV that show President Barack Obama condemning the film.

Widespread unrest over the film, Innocence of Muslims, has already claimed several lives around the world.

Although the US has borne the brunt of protests, anti-Western sentiment has been stoked further by caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad published in a satirical French magazine.

Pakistan has declared Friday a "day of love for the Prophet" and urged people to demonstrate peacefully.

All major political parties and religious organisations have announced protests, along with trade and transport groups, and large crowds are expected following Friday prayers.

Foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar told AP news agency that the national holiday was intended to motivate Pakistan's peaceful majority and not allow extremists to turn the protest into a show of anger against the US."We are very confident this will lessen the violence," she said, but added: "There will always be elements that will try to take advantage of these things."

Correspondents say stores, markets and petrol stations are expected to close and transport is likely to grind to a halt.

Embassies closed

On Thursday, police used tear gas and live rounds to control a mass protest against the film outside the US embassy in Islamabad.

Protesters burned an effigy of President Obama and threw missiles at the police. At least 50 people were reported to have been injured.

Dozens of protests against the film had already been held across Pakistan over the past week - killing at least two people - but Thursday was the first time violence erupted in the capital.

The US state department has issued a warning against any non-essential travel to Pakistan.

France has closed its embassies and other official offices in about 20 countries across the Muslim world on Friday after French magazine Charlie Hebdo published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, including two drawings showing him naked.

French Muslim leaders condemned the magazine and said an appeal for calm would be read in mosques across the country on Friday.In Tunisia - where France is the former colonial power - the government has banned Friday protests.

Calls to protest against the caricatures have turned up in Tunisian social media and Interior Minister Ali Larayedh said it was believed that some groups were planning violent protests after Friday prayers.

Rival protests

There are also fears of violence in the Libyan city of Benghazi after rival groups said they would take to the streets.

One group intends to denounce extremism and urge militias to disband, following an attack on the US consulate in the city on 11 September that killed the US ambassador and another official.

Throughout the week, Benghazi residents have left wreaths and placards condemning the attack outside the US mission.

Meanwhile, Ansar al-Sharia, the jihadist militia blamed by some local people for the attack, called for protests "in defence of the Prophet Mohammed". Both protests are scheduled for the same time.

In the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, protests are planned outside both the French and US embassies on Friday.

In Cairo, where the protests against the film began, Egyptian security forces are patrolling the streets around the US embassy.

Radical Islamists have clashed with security forces there in recent days, although President Mohammed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood has stayed away from the unrest, only condemning the film and calling for peaceful demonstrations.

The low-budget film that sparked the controversy was made in the US and is said to insult the Prophet Muhammad.

Its exact origins are unclear and the alleged producer for the trailer of the film, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, is in hiding.

Anti-US sentiment grew after a trailer for the film dubbed into Arabic was released on YouTube earlier this month.

Pakistani lawyers rallied against anti-Islam film at diplomatic enclave

19/09/2012

ISLAMABAD: Up to 500 Pakistani lawyers managed to break through a gate to Islamabad’s heavily-guarded diplomatic enclave on Wednesday in a fresh protest to denounce an American-made anti-Islam film.

Wearing headbands inscribed with “Lovers of Prophet, Death to the blasphemer, America’s friends are traitors”, the protesters chanted slogans including “We are ready to sacrifice our lives to safeguard honour of the prophet”.

More than 200 riot police armed with batons and shields stood guard as the lawyers broke through the first of two gates leading to the enclave, which contains most Western embassies in the Pakistani capital.

The lawyers halted at the second gate, where their leaders delivered fiery speeches against the US, urging the Pakistan government to expel the American Ambassador and break its “criminal silence” over the “Innocence of Muslims” film.

“The government should stop the policy of appeasing the US,” they said, castigating the country’s rulers for not officially registering their protest with the US.

A US flag was laid on the ground and the protesting lawyers walked over it one by one. Later they burnt the flag before the rally ended peacefully.

More than 30 people have been killed in a week of attacks and violent protests linked to the controversial film, deemed insulting to the Prophet Mohammed.

Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan have all blocked access to YouTube, following the video-sharing website’s failure to take down the film.

Special Troops Disperse Protesters against USA in Cairo

Cairo, Sep 15 (Prensa Latina) The Devil 300 meters, the distance between the U.S. Embassy here and Tahrir Square, the scene of clashes between police and protesters, is calm today after police action.

  However, there are still traces of almost five days of fighting between protesters and riot police and soldiers: debris, rocks and large puddles of water used to contain the protesters, the smell of tear gas.

There is also a solid wall of concrete blocks erected by emergency authorities, blocking the street that leads to the entrance of the U.S. embassy and it appears that is there to stay.

One man was killed and up to 400 people were injured in the clashes, according to differing versions.

As a precautionary measure, Washington withdrew its diplomatic staff, including the ambassador, according to a version released by the daily Al Masry al Youm, which refrains from citing its source.

The crisis began to subside on Friday when The Ajuan Musulmin (Muslim Brotherhood) chose to announce that their protests against "Innocence of Muslims", a 

sacrilegious film to Islam, would be carried away from Tahrir Square.

The decision of the Brotherhood appears to be dictated by reasons of State since Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, left their ranks and in the current circumstances considered advisable to put some distance of facts that present themselves as an aggressive or hostile entity from the Government.

U.S. closes consulate in Indonesia over protests

Sep. 19, 2012 

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Several hundred lawyers protesting an anti-Islam video forced their way into an area in Pakistan's capital that houses the U.S. Embassy and other foreign missions on Wednesday, and the United States temporarily closed its consulate in an Indonesian city because of similar demonstrations.

The lawyers who protested in Islamabad shouted anti-U.S. slogans and burned an American flag after they pushed through a gate, gaining access to the diplomatic enclave before police stopped them. They called for the U.S. ambassador to be expelled from the country, and then peacefully dispersed.

The demonstration followed three days of violent protests against the film in Pakistan in which two people were killed. At least 28 other people have died in violence linked to the film in seven countries, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans killed in a Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

Much of the anger over the film, which denigrates Islam's Prophet Muhammad, has been directed at the U.S. government even though the film was privately produced in the United States and American officials have criticized it.

The U.S. Embassy in Indonesia sent a text message to U.S. citizens saying that the consulate in Medan, the country's third-largest city, has been closed temporarily because of demonstrations over the film, "Innocence of Muslims."

About 300 members of Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia, a pan-Islamic movement, rallied peacefully on Wednesday in front of the consulate in Medan, the capital of North Sumatra province. Later, about 50 Muslim students also protested there. Both groups called on Washington to punish the makers of the film.

It was the third consecutive day of protests in Medan. On Monday, protesters hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails outside the embassy in Jakarta, the capital.

In France, the government has barred a planned protest by people angry over the anti-Islam film, but defended a newspaper's right to publish caricatures of the prophet.

France's foreign minister said security is being stepped up at some French embassies amid tensions in France and elsewhere around the film. French authorities and Muslim leaders urged calm in the country, which has the largest Muslim population in western Europe.

Riot police took up positions outside the Paris offices of a satirical French weekly that published crude caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad on Wednesday that ridicule the film and the furor surrounding it. The provocative weekly, Charlie Hebdo, was firebombed last year after it released a special edition that portrayed the Prophet Muhammad as a "guest editor" and took aim at radical Islam.

The investigation into that attack is still under way.

Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault of France said organizers of a planned demonstration Saturday against the film won't receive police authorization. Ayrault told French radio RTL that "there's no reason for us to let a conflict that doesn't concern France come into our country. We are a republic that has no intention of being intimidated by anyone."

On Tuesday, Islamic militants sought to capitalize on anger over the film, saying a suicide bombing that killed 12 people in Afghanistan was revenge for the video and calling for attacks on U.S. diplomats and facilities in North Africa.

Myanmar religious cleansing tantamount to crime against humanity

Described as the Palestine of Asia by the UN, the Rohingya Muslim community in Myanmar is currently going through an unutterable ordeal at the hands of the Rakhine extremist Buddhists in Arakan who are targeting the Muslim minority with the worst form of religious cleansing.

Ethnic cleansing is rife in Myanmar and is turning into a human tragedy of colossal proportions. A confidential United Nations report dated May 29, 2011 and marked “Not for Public Citation or Distribution”, defines ethnic cleansing as a “purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas.”

What is happening in Myanmar to the Rohingya Muslims violates international laws and is to be categorized as crime against humanity.

Unfortunately, the Myanmar peace prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to the plight of the Rohingya Muslims. Maybe she has forgotten her own words on democracy and human rights that, “The struggle for democracy and human rights in Burma is a struggle for life and dignity.”

Reportedly, the settlement of the Rohingya Muslims in this region dates back to the eighth century. However, in the seventies, the junta embarked on a systematic program of religious cleansing of the Rohingya Muslims who are denied their basic rights, i.e. the right to freedom of movement, marriage, faith, identity, ownership, language, heritage and culture, citizenship, education etc. Deplorable as it is, the Muslims in Myanmar are among the most persecuted minorities in the world according to UN.

According to reports, 650 of nearly one million Rohingya Muslims have been murdered as of June 28. On the other hand, 1,200 others are missing and 90,000 more have been displaced.

US photographer Greg Constantine has recently released a book of black and white photography titled “Exiled to Nowhere: Burma’s Rohingya.” He believes that “One of the things that is lost in the discussions of the issues of statelessness-particularly with the Rohingya-are human stories.”

He relates the story of 20-year-old Kashida who had to “flee to Bangladesh with her husband. The Burmese authorities had denied her permission to get married, but when they discovered she had married in secret and was pregnant they took away all her family’s money and cows and goats. They forced Kashida to have an abortion, telling her: “This is not your country; you don’t have the right to reproduce here.”

The dire humanitarian crisis has already begun to assume tragic proportions and Muslims and non-Muslims alike are beginning to respond with perturbation and fear.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry has called for end to violence in Myanmar.

“It is expected that the Myanmar government will prepare the ground for solidarity, national unity and asserting the rights of Muslims in the country and that it will avert violence and a human catastrophe in this regard,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said on Monday.

Iranian lawmaker Hossein Naqavi-Hosseini has suggested that the Islamic Republic of Iran should call on the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to hold an ad hoc meeting concerning the Muslim massacre in Myanmar.

Also, the president of India’s Jamiat Ulma-i-Hind has voiced concern about the massacre, calling for an end to the humanitarian crisis in the country. Maulana Syed Arshad Madani lashed out at the Myanmar government for being indifferent to the massacre of Muslims by extremist Buddhists. He also criticized the silence of the international community and human rights organizations across the world about this humanitarian tragedy.

The International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS) has strongly condemned the brutal massacre perpetrated against the Rohingya Muslims and has demanded that the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) take necessary and urgent steps to prevent religious cleaning and these crimes against humanity in this region.

The statement reads, “The IUMS is reviewing in all concern what has befallen the Muslims in the Muslim region of Arakan, Burma, of fierce killing, displacement and persecution since a long time, not to mention displacement of them, and demolition of their homes, properties and mosques at the hands of the religious extremists in the Buddhist community. Unfortunately, the Buddhist government acts as a bystander in face of the heinous massacres escalating day after day against the Muslim minorities in the country. The numbers of casualties, in the attacks that are considered the most ferocious in the history of targeting the Muslims in Burma, are countless.”

In view of the ongoing inhumane violations in Myanmar, the US and its western allies, which keep pontificating about human rights in the world, have feigned ignorance about this humanitarian catastrophe. Why? Because they will not be able to reap any benefits of their future efforts in the country as they do in the Middle East and elsewhere. To crown it all, they have kept an agonizingly meaningful silence over the massacre.

It is certainly incumbent upon every person who cares about human dignity to fly in the face of this inhumanity and give a helping hand to the downtrodden Myanmar Muslims.

As the great Persian poet Sa’di says, “Human beings are members of a whole, In creation of one essence and soul. If one member is afflicted with pain, Other members uneasy will remain. If you’ve no sympathy for human pain, The name of human you cannot retain!”

Gujarat genocide: Indian union in trouble

26 July 2008.

Things are not good in Gujarat and its capital of commerce Ahmedabad and Banglore. A few years ago Narendra Modi orchestrated a vile pogrom of bigotry against the Muslims. More than 3000 Muslims were systematically targeted and massacred. More than 400,000 were thrown out the state. They still yearn to return to their villages. Mr. Modi’s henchmen refuse to allow them to return to the homes and property–under threat of death.A few months ago Tehelka.com published a taped conversation for Mr. Modi directing his followers to continue the carnage.The triamphalist India media catering to Indian elite routinely will begin blaming Pakistan for anything wrong with the Indian union–however there are many suspects in the case. Banglore Billet: Indian Muslims And The Media By Nigar AtaullaThe Indian National Congress recently bribed many members of the BJP and about ten of them defected–destroying the chance of Ms. Mayawati from becoming the next prime minister–the first Dlait in the history of mankind to get to that position.The Naxalite are in open revolt against the Indian government and control about 40% of the Indian territory. The Northeastest states are in open rebellion. India has huge issues with the Tamils and in Sri Lanka. The animosity between India and Bangladesh is at fever pitch with India trying to railroad a transit agreement over the wishes of the Bangladeshis. India aslo has problems with Sikkim and Bhutan who do not want to join the Indian Union. There are separatists in Arunchal Pradesh and Tiamil Nadu and Mizoram. Of course the insurrection in Kashmir is ongoing.WIth Indian involvement in Afghanistan India now has new Pasktun enemies that want India to withdraw its 4000 troops in Afghanistan.Posted on July 25, 2008by Moin Ansari | Edit

Banglore Bombs: Blowback from Kabul–Pakhtuns to India: Get out of Afghanistan

| NEW YORK | RUPEE NEWS | July 25th, 2008 | Moin Ansari | The earthquake had already hit the service sector in Madras. The explosions in the heart of India’s $50 Billion IT industry has reverberations beyond the “Computer coolies” who many the Call Centers. While China offers stability and has begun bundling Chinese IT services with its products, the Bangalore is now rocked by real bombs–a result of India’s failed foreign policy that seeks hegemony with all her neighbors. Pakistan, Nepal, China, and Bangaladesh are RAW’s enemiesAHMEDABAD: Close on the heels of Bangalore serial blasts, six blasts rocked Ahmedabad on Saturday evening. (Watch)

All the explosion were low intensity blasts. At least twenty people have been injured in the blasts, they have been taken to Maninagar hospital. The Prime Minister has condemned the Ahmedabad blasts and appealed for calm.

The first explosion took place in Maninagar, which happens to be Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency. The second blast happened in the Sardar Patel Diamond market. The third and fourth blasts took place in Saranpur Bridge and Isanpur. While the first bomb was reportedly planted in a cycle, the other bombs were hidden in tiffin boxes, according to police sources. There were other blasts in Bapu Nagar and Raipur.The Naxalites have a force of approximately 15,000 cadres spread across 160 districts in the states of Orissa, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnataka and West Bengal. They operate primarily in the lawless, dense forested areas of India’s interior, with some estimates saying Naxalites control approximately 10.03 million hectares (about 25 million acres) of forests nationwide. They also have an active campaign to recruit students and other youths to help spread their left-wing extremism into India’s towns and cities. Thus far, however, the Naxalites have not demonstrated the ability to operate in urban areas.

The three major threats to India are listed in all Indian security briefings

Pornywood and India Inc. cannot hide the truth about a failed state

89 insurgencies raging all over “India”

• Kashmir: 100,000 civilians killed
• White Widows: 50, million women ostracized from society and incarcerated in temples

• East Punjab: Brutal suppression of Punjabi insurrection. Thousands killed
• Tamil Nadu and Mizuram are in flames seeking independence
• Tamil insurrection in Sri Lanka led by Tamils Terrorists in India
• Bihar: Major suppression of Biharis and problems with Bangladesh
• West Bengal in Communist hands fueling Naxalites.
• Gujrat: Serious Hindu Muslim riots perpetuated by Mr. Moodi. 3000 burned.
• 200 -300 million Untouchables have little or no rights
• 150 million Muslims are at the lowest rung of the ladder:
  • India the only island of penury in Asia keeps the Subcontinent poor
  • India has had wars with all her neighbors
  • India has lowest per capita GNP in the Subcontinent
  • Indian poor are poorer than Sub Saharan Africa
    More than 200 districts in the hands of the Naxalites

    • Tamil Nadu and Mizuram secessionist movement are live and hot

    INDIA AS A FAILED STATE: India is a failed state for failing to provide food shelter and clothing for her citizens. India has bloody borders. India has had wars with all her neighbors. By harping on the “failed state” mantra the bigoted Indian commentariat wants to surround “Akhand Bharat” with small Balkanized mini-states like Sikkim, Bhutan, Sri Lanka. Any hegemonous power achieves its goal in the region by sabotaging the integrity and sovereignty of the neighbors. India wants to surround itself with a “Warsaw pact” type of string of obsequies and subservient states. Pakistan is big hurdle in India’s hegemonistic policy of Westward expansion. Since the West never faced “India” in combat, they are unaware of the (South) Indian agression that was encountered by Southeast Asia (Laos, Cambodia, and even Indonesia). China and Pakistan working together have arrested the advance of the sepoys of Delhi.
    UNTOUCHABLE DALITS EEK OUT A SUB HUMAN LIVING IN INDIA:Between 150 to 250 million Dalits or Untouchables live in utter sub-human conditions. A population as large as the United States lives in conditions that are below and worse off than that of Sub Saharan Africa. The dalit websites shed some light on the plight of the Dalits.