Forsvar Danmarks frihed og befri Iran - Defend liberties in Denmark and set Iran free

Islamic madrassas and the majority of Islamic organizations should be banned as racist, discriminatory, child-abusing law-breakers. 2000 Islamic Schools more likely than not represent 2000 times betrayal of child protection, civilization, humanism and our countries. Denmark should suspend all Islamic projects, grand mosques and madrassas. Let us defeat Islamic Imperialists at home and abroad, the sooner, the better!

2011-02-12T17:34:00.001-08:00

Secular Liberal Minority Report:

Islamic madrassas and the majority of Islamic organizations should be banned as racist, discriminatory, child-abusing law-breakers. 2000 Islamic Schools more likely than not represent 2000 times betrayal of child protection, civilization, humanism and our countries. Denmark should suspend all Islamic projects, grand mosques and madrassas. Let us defeat Islamic Imperialists at home and abroad, the sooner, the better!

Also, on a positive note, look at exile-Iranian-Swedish actor/director/writer Susan Taslimi's self-portrait at BBC Persian. http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/tv/2011/01/110128_taslimi_tamasha.shtml How can Iranians choose Islam and its expressions, and drive women and artists like her out? Is Islam really so dear to Iranians? If so, they deserve not having her in Iran, and good for Sweden to have her. If the answer was no, I had expected Iranians to wake up tomorrow, tell their boss and their neighbours, that they are done with Islam and free, whatever the costs. No cost would be higher than what Iran and the rest of the world is paying for the submission and addiction to the repulsive doctrine and violence of Islam.

Arm the secular women of the Middle East and Iran and let them be the leaders of motivated national armies to beat the sheit out of Islamic dictators who are violating children, women and men alike! Try it in Afghanistan and see how fast Taliban would be deafeted, and let the Afghan Women's Liberation Army be a role model. The Islamic women will turn around, when their master men are subdued, and then those same women could enjoy new found freedom. Just take a look at just a few among hundreds of thousans to millions of Iranian women, who were leading before 1979 or still are leading outside Iran, at the attached portraits.

Also watch the 2003 film on enlightened Afghan youth trapped in Islamic vicious circle of events. A film inspired by the Spanish anti-fascist poet Frederico Garcia Lorca's poem At Five in the Afternoon, by Samira Makhmalbaf. Forget about Karzai and Taliban, empower and arm the secular youth, especially women leaders!

Fritiran Secular Liberal Minority Report takes a recess, to focus on work and studies. Will be back in March, unless World events gives urgent reason to communicate to members and friends of Fritiran's secular, liberal minority.

Sincerely

Pedram Kazemi-Esfarjani
Fritiran Secular Liberal Minority member elect of the board.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1356361/Hidden-camera-shows-beatings-religious-segregation-inside-Muslim-faith-schools.html
Secret filming at Muslim schools in Birmingham and Yorkshire shows pupils being beaten and 'taught Hindus drink cow p***'
By Tazeen Ahmad
Last updated at 11:07 PM on 12th February 2011
It is an assembly hall of the sort found in any ordinary school. Boys aged 11 and upwards sit cross-legged on the floor in straight rows. They face the front of the room and listen carefully. But this is no ordinary assembly. Holding the children’s attention is a man in Islamic dress wearing a skullcap and stroking his long dark beard as he talks.

‘You’re not like the non-Muslims out there,’ the teacher says, gesturing towards the window. ‘All that evil you see in the streets, people not wearing the hijab properly, people smoking . . . you should hate it, you should hate walking down that street.’
He refers to the ‘non-Muslims’ as the ‘Kuffar’, an often derogatory term that means disbeliever or infidel.

Welcome to one of Britain’s most influential Islamic faith schools, one of at least 2,000 such schools in Britain, some full-time, others part-time. They represent a growing, parallel education system.

Grabbed: Secretly filmed footage from the Markazi Jamia mosque shows a teacher pulling a pupil towards him and striking him on the back
The school is the Darul Uloom Islamic High School in Birmingham, an oversubscribed independent secondary school. Darul Ulooms are world-renowned Islamic institutions and their aim is to produce the next generation of Muslim leaders. In fact, these schools have been described as the ‘Etons of Islam’.
This school is required by its inspectors to teach tolerance and respect for other faiths. But the Channel 4 current affairs programme Dispatches filmed secretly inside it – and instead discovered that Muslim children are being taught religious apartheid and social segregation.

Warning: Reporter Tazeen Ahmad says Muslim schools need closer scrutiny
We recorded a number of speakers giving deeply disturbing talks about Jews, Christians and atheists.
We found children as young as 11 learning that Hindus have ‘no intellect’ and that they ‘drink cow p***’.
And we came across pupils being told that the ‘disbelievers’ are ‘the worst creatures’ and that Muslims who adopt supposedly non-Muslim ways, such as shaving, dancing, listening to music and – in the case of women – removing their headscarves, would be tortured with a forked iron rod in the afterlife.
In 2009 this school was praised by Government-approved inspection teams for its interfaith teachings. The report said that ‘pupils learn about the beliefs and practices of other faiths and are taught to show respect to other world religions’.
It seems that the inspectors were unaware of the teaching methods revealed by our undercover reporter, Osman. He was taken on as a volunteer at the Darul Uloom school in Birmingham in April 2009 and was allowed to sit in on some lessons – but not their Islamic classes.
So, in July last year, he went into one of the rooms where we’d heard they taught Islamic studies and left a secret camera to record the lessons.
Filming intermittently over a period of four months, the camera recorded children being taught a hardline, intolerant and highly anti-social version of Islam.
During the same period our reporter also attended the Markazi Jamia mosque in Keighley, West Yorkshire, after hearing of serious allegations that children were being hit at its madrassa.

Slapped: A child receives a sharp blow on the back of the head from the same teacher. The impact of the blow can be heard on the film
Madrassas in the UK are part-time after-school or weekend classes, often held in mosques, where children are taught to read the Koran. In Keighley it is not what they are being taught that is the problem, but how.
Again, Osman went into the mosque and left the camera in the room where classes took place.

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The film shows children as young as six sitting on the floor of a large room in the mosque, one of the biggest in the country. The boys are hunched over wooden benches, rocking backwards and forwards as they rote-learn the Koran in Arabic. A man with a long white beard dressed in a traditional shalwar kameez – tunic and trousers – sits at the head of the class.
'He slaps one boy, strikes another and kicks a third'
Periodically he gets up and walks behind the boys. As he passes, the children appear to cower and watch him nervously. It soon becomes clear why.
He unexpectedly raises his hand and slaps a young boy hard on the head. Moments later he strikes another. And then he kicks a third child.
In just two days of filming in December 2010, the camera recorded the teacher hitting children as young as six or seven at least ten times, in less than three hours of lessons.
From what we could see, every ¬single blow was pretty much unprovoked. We soon realised that the beatings were routine. The behaviour of the boys, the way they flinched and backed away when he approached, indicated that they were long-accustomed to being hit and kicked as they studied.
In another incident an older boy, left in charge of a class while a teacher is out at prayer, picks up a bench and threatens to hit a younger boy with it.

Threatened: An older pupil holds down a boy while another pupil - put in charge during the teacher's absence - aims a bench at him
During the making of this Dispatches film I have often counted my blessings. I received my Islamic education at home. My mum would read the Koran with me and most of my knowledge of Islam came from within the family. Others have not been so lucky.
Osman was subjected to beatings at four separate madrassas in the East Midlands as a child. He says that for the nine years he spent going to after-school Koran classes, he was hit regularly, at least a couple of timesa week.
‘It destroyed my confidence,’ he says, ‘and the worst bit was never knowing when it was going to happen. I had a horrible teacher who would use his fists, a stick, a shoe, anything he could find. He’d just get angry and lash out.’
Osman’s young cousins go to the same madrassas he attended and told him the beatings were still continuing. This persuaded Osman to try to reveal the truth behind the private world of faith schools. Over a period of two years he bravely placed cameras in both schools and collected highly sensitive material for us. His experience of madrassas is not uncommon. But persuading people to go on camera about this has been difficult. One family who were willing to talk were too frightened to do so openly.
'The law must change to protect these children.'

‘Salma’ and ‘Ayesha’ are a mother and daughter whose identities we are protecting. Ayesha is now sitting her A-levels but when she was seven she was beaten at her Koran classes. She says: ‘The teacher would sit there, tell me what to read, pronounce it to me – then if I said it wrong he would hit me on the hands with a ruler.’
Her younger brother, only five at the time, would be hit on his feet with a stick. They dreaded going to those classes but did not tell their mother. Salma eventually withdrew her children from attending madrassas for a completely different reason: she learned that they were being taught an intolerant version of Islam. ‘They were using terms like “Kaffir” just because somebody isn’t of the same religion,’ she says, ‘and I’m teaching my children to integrate and not be racist so I pulled my children out.’
Academic and theologian Dr Taj Hargey invited me to visit his part-time Islamic school in Oxford where children are taught in mixed-gender classes.
Here I witnessed a modern and refreshing method of teaching. Pupils were told to respect other faiths, ask questions about their religion and recite from the Koran in English as well as Arabic.
Dr Hargey told me he set up this school because of claims that Muslim parents had made to him about beatings in other madrassas. ‘It’s an outdated, archaic concept,’ he says, ‘and if we inflict this violence we will sow the seeds of violence in them.’

Punished: One of the madrassa students is grabbed by the wrist, pulled towards the teacher in charge of the class and struck on the back
Sir Roger Singleton, former Government chief adviser on the safety of children, and Ann Cryer, former MP for Keighley, want the law to change to ban physical punishment in supplementary classes, as it does in full-time schools. ‘It just isn’t acceptable,’ says Cryer. ‘We wouldn’t allow this to happen to white kids going to Sunday schools.’
We approached the Darul Uloom Islamic High School in Birmingham with the findings of our film. It claimed that the senior student who gave the speech about Hindus was later reported by other students, and has been expelled, and that no teachers were present ‘during the incident’.
The school said that a speaker who made comments about Jews was ‘visiting’ and his views did not represent school policy. It denied that its religious instruction was hardline or extremist and said it did not tolerate hatred towards any faith group.
In a statement, the school said: ‘Our ethos is for students to be full and active participants of British society.’ It also said that it would study our evidence and take ‘disciplinary measures’ if required.
Regarding the Keighley madrassa, we were told that the Jamia Mosque committee was firm in its resolve to take whatever action was necessary to protect children being taught at the mosque and that it would give its full co-operation to any enquiries resulting from our film.
If the law on physical punishment does change, that would be one way to protect the very young that attend these classes. But these part-time and full-time Muslim schools also need closer scrutiny – the regulatory system needs to be tightened up.
However, we have a Government that, on the one hand, gives grand speeches about tackling the causes of extremism, as David Cameron did last week, while, on the other, encouraging local communities to set up their own schools – including faith schools. It’s time to stop these mixed messages.
And Muslims can no longer sweep this under the carpet – they need to face up to what is happening behind closed doors. Many warn that if we don’t all tackle this toxic mix of hatred and violence head on, we will reap the whirlwind in years to come.
* Dispatches: Lessons In Hatred And Violence is on Channel 4 tomorrow at 8pm.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1356361/Hidden-camera-shows-beatings-religious-segregation-inside-Muslim-faith-schools.html#ixzz1DnG2bHuZ

Fritiran Secular Liberal Minority Report: The Dictator State Saudi Arabia funds the Grand Mosque in Guthenburg, Sweden, 100%. While Muslim Brotherhood try to coup Egypt, their Islamic brothers in arms occupy Sweden.

2011-02-07T07:17:00.000-08:00

The award-winning investigative reporting programme on Swedish National Television, SVT, reports...too late! The Swedish journalists' British colleagues at Channel Four Dispatchers and Hardcash Productions, had warned against Saudi mosques already in documentaries broadcast in 2007 and 2009, both with extensive, months long undercover recordings and filming. Despite my recommendations and some positive response, no Danish TV channel has yet released the Undercover Mosque, nor Undercover Mosque - the Return, although TV2 had considered to purchase the documentary. Most probably, everybody waits till the mosques are built, the Islamic Imperialism occupation of our territories completed, and then they would proclaim that they be afraid of Islamic militants, therefore censore the documentaries or even cancel the purchase?

The Scandinavian public service television, funded by Danish public, are grossly neglecting their obligations here.

The Islamic Imperialism new military-recruitment and military intelligence base is completed by May 2011. This happens, while Norway blocked the Saudi Arabian aggressors to build mosques in Norway, while Denmark allows Saudi axis members of the Organization of Islamic Conference, Iran, the Emirates, Turkey and others expand their operations in Denmark frantically.

Looks like Norwegians are once again alone in the fight against totalitarian aggression and occupation of Scandinavia...and once again, it seems, that Great Britain is the main force in defence of secularism, liberal-democracy against totalitarianism. Please read your WW II history once again, get active to communicate with your countries' decision makers, including your neighbours, the people, and stop the Saudi grand base in Guthenburg and the Danish mosques to open, suspend the projects till Islamic Imperialism is defeated and an unconditional surrender is declared by Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, Libya, et al, the Organization of Islamic Conference has to be brought to its knees before any more state financed and state run mosques be allowed in our territories.

Here follows my unofficial amateurish translation of the article at Uppdrag Granskning website with the link and the Swedish text bellow.

Sincerely

Pedram Kazemi-Esfarajni, member elect of board for the secular, liberal minority in Fritiran, a danish grass root group,

The Dictator State Saudi Arabia pays Guthenburg's new mosque
Published 2 februari 2011 - 15:00

The building of the mosque proceeds for full at Hisingen in Guthenburg. On 25 May 2011 the new mosque will be completed - financed 100% by the dictator state Saudi Arabia.

Do you know more?
Email you reports!

Mosque building in Guthenburg

2/2 Chat on the Guthenburg Mosque
2/2 Norway government says no thanks to Saudi money
2/2 School headmaster: real Muslims not homosexuals
Hising resident Susan Saberi believes that Swedish Muslims should much more clearly distance themselves from the authoritarian regimes' oppression of women and consequently say no to these regimes' money.
- One should always question such intentions, why do they wish to come here and build a mosque?
She herself is grown up in Iran - a priest theocracy like the one ruling Saudiarabien. In he opinion many delay openly to question the Saudi financing of the project.
- They do not wish to speak against it as they think: "if I say anything against it, maybe I would be siding with the party Sverigedemokraterna". And they don't want to be percieved as such. However, one could be against Sverigedomokraterna, and one should, and at the same time realise that political Islam would restrict human rights. They will restric the freedom of expression. Even here in Sweden.

67 million Swedish Kroner is the cost of the pompous mosque that is taking form between major trafficways and the old ättestupan which ends the Keillers park. And it is in fact the Saudi Arrabian state paying it. Not one Swedish tax Kroner goes into the bill. However, the only precondition has needed to go ahead with the project has been that the Swedish government accept the moeny from the Saudies.
It is not by chance that it is exactly Saudi Arabia, which is behind the many million Kroners gift. Saudi businessmen and authorities have financed many mosques and other Islamic projects around the world.
One person who has helped funnelling Saudi Arabian money gifts to Muslims in Scandinavia is the Örebro residentsom Hussein Aldaoudi, who works for Al-Risalah Foundation, and also is leader of the religious freeschool Al-Salam i Örebro.
He sees no problem with the fact that another country pays for a religious building in Sweden.
- It is charity work. It is not a mission. Mission means that I come here to convert non-Muslims to Muslims. This is in fact about Muslims should have a place to exercise their faith, he says.
Saudi Arabia is a dictatorship with a fundamentalist understanding of Islam. Wahhabism, the state religion, allows no new interpretations of the Quran. Women have no voting rights, are not allowed to drive a car, are forbidden meeting men outside the family and their court witness accounts wieghs half of that of a man. Homosexuality is forbidden and an people leaving the religion are punishable by death.
The people responsible for the mosque at Hisingen, Guthenburg, reject to participate in the programme Uppdrag granskning. However, they have earlier stated that the Saudiies had not demanded any religious obediance in return for the funding.
- It is completely unconditional, they have not asked any questions at all, but the mosque is to be run according to Swedish law, said Bachar Ghanoum from Sweden's Muslim Foundation to the news programme Västnytt.
The founder of the Islamic centre in Malmö, Bejzat Becirov, tells another story on when Saudies wanted to give him almost six million Dollar as gift:
- They wanted in return to run it alltogether. I should only stand as a front figure. I became very angry and sad, it was not any terms and conditions we could accept.
Even the mosque at Citizens Place in Stockholm received an offer by rich Saudies. However, when the financiers demanded majority vote in the board of directors and the right to appoint the Imam, the group said - precisely as in Malmö - no, thanks.
Uppdrag Granskning has repeatedly contacted the Saudi Arabien Embassy in Stockholm to get a comment and ask questions, but has not received any reply.

Sincerely

Pedram Kazemi-Esfarajni, member elect of board for the secular, liberal minority in Fritiran, a danish grass root group,

http://svt.se/2.151263/1.2314234/diktaturstaten_saudiarabien_betalar_goteborgs_nya_moske?lid=puff_2314626&lpos=rubrik

Diktaturstaten Saudiarabien betalar Göteborgs nya moské
Publicerad 2 februari 2011 - 15:00

Bygget pågår för fullt på Hisingen i Göteborg. Den 25 maj står den nya moskén färdig - till 100 procent finansierad av diktaturen Saudiarabien.
Vet du mer?

Mejla reportrarna!
Moskébygget i Göteborg

2/2 Chatt om Göteborgsmoskén
2/2 Norska regeringen säger nej tack till saudiska pengar
2/2 Skolchefen: Riktiga muslimer inte homosexuella
Hisingsbon Susan Saberi tycker att svenska muslimer mycket tydligare borde ta avstånd från de auktoritära regimernas kvinnoförtryck och därmed också tacka nej till deras pengar.
- Man ska alltid ifrågasätta sådana avsikter, varför vill de komma hit och bygga en moské?
Hon är själv uppvuxen i Iran - ett prästvälde likt det som styr i Saudiarabien. Enligt henne är det många som drar sig för att öppet ifrågasätta den saudiska finansieringen.
- Man vill inte säga emot och tänker att: "om jag säger emot kanske jag står bredvid Sverigedemokraterna". Och det vill man inte. Men man kan vara emot Sverigedomokraterna, och det ska man vara, och samtidigt emot politisk islam som vill begränsa mänskliga rättigheter. De vill begränsa yttrandefrihet. Till och med här i Sverige.

Susan Saberi.
67 miljoner kronor kostar den pampiga moskén som just nu tar form mellan trafiklederna och den gamla ättestupan som avslutar Keillers park. Och det är alltså den Saudiarabiska staten som betalar. Inte enda svensk skattekrona bidrar till notan. Det enda som krävdes för att sätta igång med bygget var att den svenska staten accepterade pengarna från saudierna.
Det är ingen slump att det är just Saudiarabien som står bakom mångmiljongåvan. Saudiska affärsmän och myndigheter har finansierat många moskéer och andra islamiska projekt runtom i världen.
En person som har hjälpt till att förmedla saudiarabiska pengagåvor till muslimer i Norden är örebroaren Hussein Aldaoudi som jobbar för Al-Risalahstiftelsen, också chef för den religiösa friskolan Al-Salam i Örebro.
Han ser inga problem med att ett annat land betalar för en religiös byggnad i Sverige.
- Det är välgörenhetsarbete. Det är inte mission. Mission betyder att jag kommer för att göra andra som är ickemuslimer till muslimer. Det här handlar om att muslimerna ska ha en plats för att dyrka, säger han.
Saudiarabien är en diktatur med en fundamentalistisk hållning till islam. Wahhabismen, som statsreligionen kallas, tillåter inga nytolkningar av koranen. Kvinnor har inte rösträtt, får inte köra bil, är förbjudna att umgås med män utanför familjen och deras vittnesmål väger hälften så tungt som en mans. Homosexualitet är förbjudet och den som överger religionen kan straffas med döden.
De ansvariga för moskén på Hisingen avböjer att vara med i Uppdrag granskning. Men de har tidigare sagt att saudierna inte har ställt några religiösa motkrav.
- Det är helt villkorslöst, de har inte ställt något krav alls utan moskén ska styras av svenska lagar, sade Bachar Ghanoum från Sveriges muslimska stiftelse till Västnytt.
Grundaren av Islamic center i Malmö, Bejzat Becirov, berättar en annan historia om när saudier ville ge honom nästan sex miljoner dollar i gåva:
- De skulle sköta det helt och hållet. Jag skulle bara stå som en figur. Jag blev mycket arg och ledsen, det var inga villkor som var något för oss.
Även moskén på Medborgarplatsen i Stockholm fick erbjudanden från rika saudier. Men när finansiärerna krävde majoritet i styrelsen och rätten att tillsätta Imam så sa församlingen - precis som den i Malmö - nej tack.
Uppdrag granskning har gång på gång tagit kontakt med Saudiarabiens ambassad i Stockholm för att få kommentarer och ställa frågor, men har inte fått några svar.

Secular Liberal Minority Report: Mulsim Brotherhood spokesman, speaking from London (!) has just declared war against Israel! Atta, a Muslim Brotherhood's man, was the leader of the Hamburg cell. Never forget 9/11-2001, resist and isolate Islamic jihadism and Muslim Brotherhood

2011-02-04T11:03:00.000-08:00

Secular Liberal Minority Report: Mulsim Brotherhood spokesman, speaking from London (!) has just declared war against Israel! Atta, a Muslim Brotherhood's man, was the leader of the Hamburg cell, one of the increasing number of mosque-based European and American Islamic mobile military units, in this case attacking New York City, Washington, and Pennsylvania, on 11. September 2001. Egyptian Islamization have to be defeated actively! In fact a process of deislamization as the denazification in Germany and reforms in Japan and Italy after the WW II would do the Middle East, Europe and elsewhere a lot of good for all people and free us from totalitarian brutalities of Islam and its allies including neo-Nazis. Do not forget that Islamists and Neo-Nazis and Ku-Klux-Klan have had and still have many common platforms like totalitarianism, violence, anti-Israeli and anti-American semtiment, and supremacy megalomania. The Iranian Foregin Policy Agency IPIS is their official common platform to delete the collective historic memory of the Holocaust, and plan a new extinction plan, and attacks on liberal democracies of the World and ultimately slavery for all but brutal Islamo-Nazists. Of course, their dream is our nightmare, and therefore, we, the humanists, the seculars, liberals, and other democratic forces of the society will defeat them, "we shall never surrender"!

Mulsim Broderhood's interview is available at the Middle East Media Research Institute, a Washington D.C. based thinktank with a broad political leadership incl. past participation by the now deceased Ambassador Richard Holbrook. Notice minute 3:27 for the open declaration of war against Israel by the Muslim Brotherhood, London branch! http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/2787.htm.

I would advise Denmark and Denmark's allies to be even more clear voicing their concern and warning to the Egyptian people: dear Egyptian people, if you should choose Islam instead of freedom and liberal democracy, thereby open up for Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Qaida’s general Al Zawahiri and other global jihadists in the leadership, hence create the grounds for even more aggression and Islamic military attacks on Denmark, USA, Great Britain, Israel and our other allies, then you would need to face us and our active resistance, civilian writers, newspaper reporters and cartoonists, artists and the people here, and our brave soldiers at the frontlines! We shall not accept any exapnsion of Islamic Imperialism, Isalmic paedofilia and , sharia-law, Islamic military attacks and other forms of Jihadisme, nor do we tolerate an increasingly aggressive Jihadist and neo-Nazi military alliance and subversive infitration within our borders.

Everbody, who calles Muslim Brotherhood "moderate Islamists" - as in the article in the online political magazine RAESON.dk - is urged kindly to remember the fallen civilians, firefighters, police and coast guard and other victims of September 11, 2001 attack by the Muslim Brotherhood-Al Qaida jihad operatives.

"Mohamed Mohamed el-Amir Awad el-Sayed Atta (Arabic: محمد محمد الأمير عوض السيد عطا‎, Muḥammad Muḥammad al-Āmir ‘Awaḍ as-Sayyid ‘Aṭṭa) (September 1, 1968 – September 11, 2001) was one of the masterminds and the ringleader of the September 11 attacks who served as the hijacker-pilot of American Airlines Flight 11, crashing the plane into the North Tower of the World Trade Center as part of the coordinated attacks.[1][2][3][4]...Born in 1968 in a small town in Egypt's Nile Delta, Atta moved with his family to the Abdeen section of Cairo at the age of 10. Atta studied architecture at Cairo University, graduating in 1990...Atta graduated with a degree in architecture,[14] and joined the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Engineers Syndicate organization....and continued his studies in Hamburg, Germany at the Technical University of Hamburg. In Hamburg, Atta became involved with the al-Quds Mosque, where he met Marwan al-Shehhi, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, and Ziad Jarrah, together forming the Hamburg cell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Atta)...and the rest is very relevant history.

People of Egypt, Denmark and elsewhere. We cannot have Egypt become yet another large safe haven for Atta's jihad-borthers!

Also read Firouzeh's blog with a letter in English from an Iranian to the Egyptians, reminding them of lessons learned from the Islamic takeover of Iran 1979: http://blogs.jp.dk/firoozeh/2011/02/02/lad-ikke-politisk-islam-komme-til-magten-i-egypten/comment-page-2/#comment-2728

Sincerely
Pedram Kazemi-Esfarjani, secular, liberal activist - member elect of the board of the grassroot movement Fritiran, Denmark, representing the secular, liberal minority

Deltag i det Konservative Folkepartis hoering om Egypten og oplys Danmark mod den globale Islamisk politiske, paedofilisk seksuelle, og militaere sharia-jihad mod Danmark, Egypt, mod det Iranske sekulaere mindretal, der er ved at blive udryddet, naermest etnisk udrenset ved masse-henrettelser, mod resten af Verden!

2011-02-04T10:42:00.001-08:00

Fritiran Secular Liberal Minority Report:

Deltag i det Konservative Folkepartis hoering om Egypten og oplys Danmark mod den globale Islamisk politiske, paedofilisk seksuelle, og militaere sharia-jihad mod Danmark, Egypt, mod det Iranske sekulaere mindretal, der er ved at blive udryddet, naermest etnisk udrenset ved masse-henrettelser, mod resten af Verden! Danmark, isaer regeringspartierne skal prioritere isolering af Muslimsk Broderskab og advarsel til det Egyptiske folk mod at underkaste sig Islamisk Imperialisme, og beskrive de forudsigelige konsekvenser af en saadan Islamisk underkastelse, bl.a. en konfrontation med Verdens demokratier, fra nabolandet Israel til EU, USA og de allierede. Jeg har foelgende henstillinger til det Konservative Folkeparti.
Jeg kan desvaerre selv ikke deltage, men vil opfordre alle liberale, liberal-konservative og andre demokratiske sekulaere medlemmer af Fritiran og Danakere i al almindelighed til at deltage og tale imod Islam, Muslimsk Broderskab og Islamofil diplomati, der kun bringer os storkrige og for Egypterne villle det bringe samme ulykke som Islam har bragt for Iran og Nazismen bragte Tyskland i 1930-1945. Islamisk magtovertagelse vil bringe vaerre undertrykkelse end Egypterne kunne forestille sig. Mubaraks brutale diktatur blegner i sammenligning med Islamiske stater som Saudi-Arabien, Iran, Golf-staterne, de facto Pakistan og desvaerre snart de facto Trykiet, der begge er ved at blive undergravet aktivt af Isalmister, og Forenede Stater, der snart kunne underkastes Organization of Islamic Conferences vold og intimidering, om ikke vores diplomater og Udenrigsministre retter ryggen og holder hovedet oppe og stopped med at bukke og neje!
Mubaraks diktatur skal reformeres til sekulaer demokratisering med aktiv isolering af Muslimsk Broderskab og ved behov efter en program af deislamisering, som processerne af denazifikation og reformer af Hirohitos Japan. Dengang skete det efter WW II og ubetinget kapitulation fra Tysklands, Italiens og Japans axis. Nu skal det ske med haandfast diplomati med en sund portion militaer realisme bag, saa jihadisterne i Muslimsk Broderskab isoleres, deres sympatisoerer vaekket til 21. aarhundredes realisme, og hvis ikke saettes paa plads med militaer magt, men ikke Mubaraks semi-Islamistiske stat, men med vores egne styrker. Vi har saadan set ikke andet valg, hvis Egypterne vaelger jihadisterne i Muslimsk Broderskab. Iranske raketter, Egyptiske blokader af Suez Canal, atombomber fra Pakistan og Iran, de mange hundreder mobile militaere Islamiske enheder, kan ellers foele, at jihad er gratis for dem! Nej, det skal koste dyrt!
Se blot paa billederne fra Tahrir Square: en dukke med en David Stjerne haenger fra en kran, midt i pladsen og masser af skaeggede maend og deres hijab og endda niqab og burka-klaedte koner i billedet, maendende i masse raaben Allah-u-Akbar...det er jo en Muslimsk Broderskab rally, og ikke noget pro-demokrati bevaegelse vi ser. De dominerer billedet allerede med vold, og de vil haenge mennesker ned fra kranerne i fremtiden og stener kvinder, hvad de Islamiske stater elsker at goere. Hvis Folketinget og regeringen give nogen som helst legitimitet til Muslimsk Broderskab, tager Folketinget og regeringen medansvar for deres forudsigelige sharia-forbrydelser mod menneskeheden paa forhaand.

Realtistisk set kan Danmark og Danmarks demokratiske allierede ikke baere den massive militaere aggression fra Islamiske Imperialisme uden at det kunne ende i en storkrig, som alle folk og familier helst vil undgaa. De har angrebet den Amerikanske ambassade og taget personale gidsel i 444 dage i 1979, angrebet USA i 1995, foerste angreb paa WTC i NYC, pga. accept af Islam, angreb de igen i 2001, bragt Twin Towers ned til aske, kunne have draebt 12-15000 civile, pga. massiv selv-opofrelse fra bl.a. over 300 professionelle og frivillige brandfolk endte drabstallet med over 3000 civile, brandfolk, politi og coast guard folk. De har angrebet og braendt den Danske Ambassade i Beirut, Damaskus, Tehran og Islam-abad (meget beskrivende navn denne by har Isalmisk trivende stad!). Nu er de ved at goere det, som Vatikanet har gjort i mange hundreder af aar, give sig paa vores mindreaarige, naar de ikke kan tortere os voksne endnu, begaa paedofili og ulovlige aegteskaber med ignorante, naive umyndige unge, derigennem terrorisere ikke bare disse unge, men ogsaa deres foraeldre og omgangskred og nationen som saadan. Det er kontrol og magt, de er efter, og de bruger alle midler, totalitaere som de er, lige fra seksuelt misbrug iflg. Islamisk sharia til mobile militaere angreb, som I andre kalder terrorisme, men egentlig er velplanlagte militaere operationer som oftest, og de angriber vores styrker med organiserede haere som de goer i Iraq og Afghanistan og Iran-Hizbullah-Hamas-Muslimsk Broderskab gjorde og planlaegger at goere igen mod vores naermeste allierede i Mellmoesten, Israel...naa, jeg glemte, at vi har saa mange anti-Israelske og endda en del joede-hadere blandt vores elite...men selv en antisemitisk Dansker maa goere sig klar, at efter Israel kommer turen til Danmark og andre, hvis Islamisk Imperialisme inkl. den krigs-erklaerende, jihadist organisation Muslimsk Broderskab, anerkendes og gives rum til at ekspandere.

Vores love bliver daglig undergravet med shariadomstole allerede, og at anerkende Muslimsk Broderskab som en "pro-demokrati" gruppering er direkte usand og forkastelig, ja graensende til kriminel neglekt af oplysningspligt og vaerre kriminalitet mod det Danske folk og vores allierede. Hvis det Egyptiske folk vaelger Muslimsk Broderskab, ja, saa er de fjender af Danmark, og har allerede via deres talsmand i London erklaeret embargo af Suez Canal og krig mod vores allierede, Israel og os alle.

Folketinget og regeringen skal istedet for at bilde folk ind, at der findes "moderate Islamister", starte at udforme en ambitioes og klarsproget handlingsplan for at haandtere forskellige scenarier i Egypt, og annoncere overfor det Egyptiske folk og vores allierede USA og Storbritannien osv. at Muslimsk Broderskab og andre teokrater og totalitaere styrker skal isoleres og fordoemmes. Hvis Egypten ikke har nogen sekulaere, demokratiske styrker til at erstatte diktaturet, skal man goere klar og annoncere, at den eneste vej udenom en storkrig regionalt og internationalt er, at Egyptens sekulaere tager sig sammen og organiserer sig under det internationale samfunds beskyttelse og overvaagning, og uddannes paa vores universiteter og deres egne til at forstaa liberal demokrati og anti-korruption-indstilling til governance, og det skal tage den tid, det tager, og saa skal militaerdiktaturet kun goere det, de burde, beskytte landets territoriale graenser og organisere ny, mere human politi-styrke, der skaber ro og orden i gader og straeder.

Selvom Egyptere bander og svovler over USA og Israel, og Europa, kigger de meget noeje paa hvad vores ledere siger og goer, og vil meget sandsynligt acceptere en mere fredelig og en sekulaer retning i reformer, i stedet for en Islamiske ledt revolution, hvis bare vores ledere her i de demokratiske lande melder klart imod Muslimsk Broderskab. De ville Iranere ogsaa have gjort i 1979, hvis ikke BBC og andre Vestlige medier og hvis ikke Frankrig og Jimmy Carters USA ikke saa hurtigt havde bakket den tossede Islamiske revolte, og i stedet havde isoleret Khomeini og sendt ham tilbage til Najaf istedet for at give ham en international platform i Paris af alle ultra-sekulaere storbyer!! Istedet kunne folk som Bakhtiar, en sekulaer national-liberal og andre sekulaere styrker vaeret de eneste man talte med og stoettede. Realtistisk set ville resultatet bestemt vaere blevet bedre, og i vaerste fald ville det have medfoert samme helvede, som Islam alliegevel vil bringe med sig. Jeres bejlen til Muslimsk Broderskab vil ikke mildne deres totalitaere, jihadistiske strategi og taktikker. Jeres offentlige modstand mod Muslimsk Broderskab og stormoske-byggerier i Danmark og andre lande, kunne til gengaeld give de sekulaere kraefter mere moralsk og offentlig stoette. De skulaere, isaer de liberale sekulaere og liberal-konservative sekulaere, har opbakning blandt mange i Mellemoesten, men Jeres omklamrign af Muslimsk Broderskab og disses aggressivitet og intimidering, ja kran-galger og sten, intimiderer dem til tavshed og passivitet.

Med venlig hilsen

Pedram Kazemi-Esfarjani, valgt bestyrelsesmedlem, Fritirans sekulaere, liberale mindretal

http://www.konservative.dk/nytogdebat/Nyheder/Februar/Sider/hoering.aspx

Pressemeddelelse 4. februar 2011
Høring om udviklingen i Mellemøsten"Der er behov for at genoverveje de gamle præmisser for dansk, europæisk og amerikansk udenrigspolitik over for de arabiske lande.” Mellemøsten – hvad nu?

Konservatives udenrigsordfører Naser Khader afholder i samarbejde med Institut for Menneskerettigheder høring om udviklingen i Mellemøsten. Høringen finder sted onsdag d. 9. februar 2011 kl. 13.30 – 15.30 i Fællessalen på Christiansborg.
De seneste ugers massive sociale protester i de arabiske lande har givet nye og ukendte kræfter til de demokratiske bevægelser, som i mange år har været succesfuldt undertrykt af de autoritære regeringer.

”Situationen i Mellemøsten er ved at ændre sig radikalt i disse dage. De massive protester viser, at der er stærke civile og sekulære kræfter, der vil demokratiet. Derfor er der behov for at genoverveje de gamle præmisser for dansk, europæisk og amerikansk udenrigspolitik over for de arabiske lande,” siger Naser Khader og indkalder til høring om situationen i Mellemøsten.

Formålet med høringen er at diskutere situationen i de arabiske lande - hvilke prioriteter skal vi lægge til grund for dansk udenrigspolitik over for de arabiske lande? Og skal man støtte demokrati og risikere ustabilitet, eller skal man fortsat bakke om status quo, som har vist sig mere ustabil end forventet?

Charlotte Flindt Pedersen fra Institut for Menneskerettigheder understreger at de folkelige, sociale protester i Tunesien har formået at bane vej for en demokratisk udvikling.

” Vi har en enestående mulighed for at præge udviklingen, hvis dansk udenrigspolitik støtter aktivt om menneskerettigheder og demokrati i de arabiske lande ,” siger Charlotte Flindt Pedersen.

Program

13.30 Åbning ved Naser Khader, MF (K)

13.45 Udenrigsminister Lene Espersen

13.55 Charlotte Flindt Petersen, direktør, Institut for Menneskerettigheder

14.05 Panel diskussion: Skal man støtte de demokratiske bevægelser?

Mogens Lykketoft, MF (S), Naser Khader, MF (K), Jakob Skovgård-Petersen, dr. Phil, KU Helle Malmvig, seniorforsker, Ph.D. (DIIS) samt Hanna Ziadeh, stud.Ph.D. (Institut for Menneskerettigheder)

15.05 Åben diskussion

15.30 Afrunding

Tilmelding til konferencen skal ske til Nina Berg Behnke på mailadressen kfnibb@ft.dk senest den 8. februar. Alternativt kan du kontakte Nina på telefon 33 37 43 11

Save Sakine, Sajjad, Houtan and all the others - Demonstration in Copenhagen: Loerdag/Saturday 06.11.2010, kl.14-16/2-4pm, krydset/street roundabout at Vibevej-Glentevej: Find tid, civil courage og motivation til demonstration og folkeoplysning mod Islamiske sharia-forbrydelser mod Sakineh, Sakineh's soen Sajjad og Sakineh's forsvarsadvokat Houtan ved stedet for et af Koebenhavns Borgerrepraesentations tilsyneladende favorit-projekter, et af flere Islamofile vaernemageri projekter i Danmark, stormoskeen ved Vibevej.

2010-11-02T16:29:00.000-07:00

Polititilladelse og kommunetilladelse er bekraeftet.

Genre: Demonstration, Folkeoplysning

Beskrivelse: Omdeling af loebesedler og samtale med interesserede borgere, og en megafon-loes, frederlig protest mod planlagt henrettelse af Sakineh Ashtiani og paagaaende faengsling og tortur af Sakineh's soen samt Sakineh's forsvars-advokat, der blev arresteret pga. deres oplysnings- og jurdiske kampagne for at redde Sakineh fra stening, tortur og henrettelse. Desvaerre vil det Iranske regime henrette Sakineh d.03.11.2010 iflg. rapporter fra Iranske dissidenter i exil: stopstoningnow.org. Loerdag er en mere realsitisk og praktisk dag for demonstration og folkeoplysning om Islamiske Sharia-love om stening, tortur og henrettelser, der kan faa endnu et offer, nemlig fru Sakineh Ashtiani.

Forventet antal deltagere: 10-100.

Posters og loebesedler, der udleveres og fremvises interesserede borgere

Alle fredelige Danskere fra forskellig politisk observans, venstre, centrum, hoejre og uafhaengige som mig selv er velkommen, saalaenge de overholde Dansk lov og almindelig orden.

Fat mod eller tab frihed og lighed til Islamisk Imperialisme! Lad vaere med at goere som flertallet af den Iranske befolkning plejer at goere, nemlig at sidde hjemme og graede alene over Islams forbrydelser mod enkeltindivider som Neda og nu muligvis ogsaa Sakineh, hendes soen og hendes forsvarsadvokat - ellers ender Danmark som Iran, som er underkastet Islam siden 1979.

Loerdag 06.11.2010, kl.14-16, Vibevej-Glentevej: Find tid, civil courage og motivation til demonstration og folkeoplysning mod Islamisk sharia-forbrydelser mod Sakineh, Sakineh's soen Sajjad og Sakineh's forsvarsadvokat Houtan ved stedet for et af Koebenhavns Borgerrepraesentations tilsyneladende favorit-projekter, et af flere Islamofile vaernemageri projekter i Danmark, stormoskeen ved Vibevej.

Med venlig hilsen, Pedram Kazemi-Esfarjani, Fritirans seculaere liberale mindretal

Dear readers and activists,

Sakineh Ashtiani's execution imminent! Please act now to save Sakineh, his son and lawyer, but also to wake up our leaders of the governments and parliaments here in Denmark and Scandinavia as well as the rest of Europe, USA, Australasia and remaining liberal democracies of the World to intervene at all levels to stop the Iranian Islamic Imperialist state´s demolition of the remains of civilization in Iran and prevent Iranian and other Islamic Imperialist states´grand mosque and sharia centre expansion in Denmark and elsewhere to spread the kind of torture and crimes against humnanity that Sakineh and his son and even his lawyer are subjected to.

Sincerely

Pedram Kazemi-Esfarjani, member elect of Fritiran, secular liberal minority
On Tue, Nov 2, 2010 at 12:00 AM, Iran Solidarity UK wrote:

The Islamic regime of Iran plans to execute Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani on 3 November

ACT NOW

According to news received by the International Committee against Stoning and International Committee against Execution on 1 November 2010, the authorities in Tehran have given the go ahead to Tabriz prison for the execution of Iran stoning case Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. It has been reported that she is to be executed this Wednesday 3 November.

We had previously reported that the casefile regarding the murder case of Ms Ashtiani’s husband had been seized from her lawyer’s office, Houtan Kian, and found missing from the prosecutor’s Oskoo branch office so as to stitch Ms Ashtiani up with trumped up murder charges. [Another man has already served a prison sentence and is now free for her husband’s murder.] Ms Ashtiani’s son, Sajjad Ghaderzadeh, and her lawyer, Houtan Kian, have warned of the regime’s plan to do so on many occasions. With the arrest of Ms Ashtiani’s son and lawyer on 10 October and her not having had any visitation rights since 11 August and after fabricating a new case against her, the “Human Rights Commission” of the regime has announced that: ‘according to the existing evidence, her guilt has been confirmed.’ In fact, the regime has created a new scenario in order to expedite her execution.

In other news, Sajjad Ghaderzadeh and Houtan Kian have been severely tortured in order to obtain confessions against Sakineh and themselves since their arrests on 10 October along with two German journalists. The initial interrogations by the Ministry of Intelligence have now been completed and the casefile sent to the National Prosecutor General and Judiciary Spokesperson, Mohsen-Ejehi, in Tehran rather than being handled in Tabriz. Their families are concerned for their wellbeing. When attempting to secure lawyers for the two, authorities have said that the two men did not need legal representation.

Sajjad and Houtan Kian’s only ‘crime’ has been to defend Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani and proclaim her innocence with facts and evidence. That their contact with Mina Ahadi is considered a crime is absurd given that Ahadi has been contacted by death row prisoners and their families and lawyers for many years now, including directly from prison. This is because of her many years of work against stoning and executions.

The International Committees against Stoning and Execution call on international bodies and the people of the world to come out in full force against the state-sponsored murder of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. Ms Ashtiani, Sajjad Ghaderzadeh, Houtan Kian and the two German journalists must be immediately and unconditionally released.

ACT NOW!

1. Contact government officials, MPs, MEPs, and the UN asking them to intervene urgently. Governments must immediately summon the Islamic Republic of Iran’s ambassadors and demand that Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani’s execution be stopped and that she along with her son, Sajjad Ghaderzadeh, and lawyer, Houtan Kian, and the two German journalists be immediately released.

2. Send letters of condemnation to the Islamic regime of Iran right away:

Head of the Judiciary

Sadeqh Larijani

Howzeh Riyasat-e Qoveh Qazaiyeh (Office of the Head of the Judiciary)

Pasteur St., Vali Asr Ave., south of Serah-e Jomhouri

Tehran 1316814737, Iran

Email: info@dadiran.ir or via website: http://www.dadiran.ir/tabid/75/Default.aspx

First starred box: your given name; second starred box: your family name; third: your email address

Head of the Judiciary in East Azerbaijan Province

Malek-Ashtar Sharifi

Office of the Head of the Judiciary in Tabriz

East Azerbaijan, Iran

Ali Khamenei

The Office of the Supreme Leader

Islamic Republic Street - Shahid Keshvar Doust Street

Tehran, Iran

Email: via website: http://www.leader.ir/langs/en/index.php?p=letter (English)

http://www.leader.ir/langs/fa/index.php?p=letter (Persian)

Secretary General, High Council for Human Rights

Mohammad Javad Larijani

Howzeh Riassat-e Ghoveh Ghazaiyeh

Pasteur St, Vali Asr Ave., south of Serah-e Jomhuri

Tehran 1316814737, Iran

Fax: +98 21 3390 4986

Email: bia.judi@yahoo.com

For more information, contact:

Mina Ahadi, International Committee against Execution and International Committee against Stoning: minaahadi@aol.com; Tel: +49 (0) 1775692413, http://stopstonningnow.com, http://notonemoreexecution.org

Maryam Namazie, Iran Solidarity, iransolidaritynow@gmail.com, +44 7719166731, www.iransolidarity.org.uk, iransolidarity.blogspot.com

In addition I suggest that we try to have as much of a permanent presence in front of Islamic regime's embassies, noisy protests if must. The numbers are not important but our presence is.

Sig Nej til 5500 m2 Islamisk Imperialisme base paa Amager - Send høringssvar til Kbh, Kommune om forslag til lokalplan "Faste Batteri II" online: http://www.blivhoert.kk.dk/hoering/faste-batteri-ii

2010-09-29T16:21:00.001-07:00

Sagsnummer: 2010-25365 SvarID: 2054

1 of 1

Indsendt af: Pedram Kazemi-Esfarjani , www.fritdanmark-fritiran.blogspot.com Sekulaer liberalt mindretal i Fritiran (2100)
Dato: 30.09.10
Som 78% af Danskere, jvf. Danmarks Radios sms-afstemning April 2010, og 70% af New Yorkere, CNN, August 2010, vil jeg fraraade udvidelse af Islamisk Imperialismes infra-struktur i Danmark, der vil blive brugt til at udbrede Islamisk sharia og Islamiske netvaerk. Sharia inkluderer lovliggoerelse af inhumane praksis som paedofili mod 9 aarige piger, stening af kvinder, drab paa ex-Muslimer, drab paa hvem som helst, der ikke underkaster sig Islamisk Imperialismes totalitaere inhumane undertrykkelse. Se ogsaa de to Britiske Channel Four Television dokumentarfilme "Undercover Mosque" fra 2007 og "Undercover Mosque - the Return" fra 2009, programmet Dispatchers, hvor modige og dygtige gravende journalister gik undercover med kamera og optog hvad der foregik i lignende stormoskeer som dem, man er ved at overrande Danmark med: ulovligheder og opfordring til vold, var hvad der foregik paa ordre fra stater som den Saudiske. Danmark skal ikke underkaste sig endnu en ydmygende Besaettelsestid under totalitaere, voldelige Imperialister - med estimeret 40000 kvadratmeter Islamiske Imperialistiske stormoskeer, 5500 kvadratmeter paa Amager, vil jeg erklaere Danmark de facto besat af Islamiske Imperialisters "haer", jvf. hvad Tyrkiets Islamiske leder sagde og stadig siger: Many seem to think like Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In words spoken in 1997, Erdogan made mosque construction seem like part of a strategy of Islamization: "The minarets are our lances, the domes our helmets, the believers our army." http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,565146,00.html
Med venlig hilsen, Pedram Kazemi-Esfarjani, Fritiran, seklaert, liberalt mindretal

Fritiran Secular Liberal Minority Report: Nyt om Sakineh; 48% for, 38% imod Muhammed-tegningers trykning, uaendret siden 2006; Flemming Roses pressemoede og Lene Espersens moede med OIC ambassadoerer

2010-09-29T06:43:00.001-07:00

Kaere laeser,

Foerst bringer jeg seneste presse-meddelelse om Sakineh og om Irans Stalin i USA.

Som bestyrelsesmedlem af Fritiran, det sekulaert liberale mindretal, siger jeg bravo til Flemming Rose, Kurt Westergaard og andre ytringsfrihedens forsvarere og bringer her en raekke aktuelle artikler med links. Jeg haaber, at Danmarks diplomatiske kontakter med Organization of Islamic Conference, ytringsfrihedens fjende nummer 1 i FN, og til de Islamske Imperialistiske stat Saudi-Arabien, ikke er med bukket nakke, nejen, og andre former for underkastelses-gestus, men derimod med trods, ophoejet hovede og national stolthed over, at Danske avisfolk, tegnere og forfattere og det danske folks flertal vil til enhver til forsvare deres ret til ytringsfrihed, religionskritik og sekularisme.

Efter denne artikel-serie, vil Du kunne finde en raekke spaendende Speigel artikler om den Islamiske fente kolonne i Tyskland og Bin Laden- og Saudi-familiens financiering og logistiske stoette til den Islamiske Imeprialistiske haer ledet af Osama Bin Laden.

Det kunne vaere skaebnens ironi, hvis Danmark endnu engang skulle blive angrebet fra Tysk side, denne gang fra Islamisk Imperialismes militaere styrker udstationeret i Tyskland! Vi skal goere tidlig modstand mod Islamisk Imperialisme, saa det skal forebygges.

Til dem, der kunne foele angst for Islamisk Imperialistisk militaere operationer mod Danmark vil jeg tilraade at laere at afvise angsten som London-boerne og mange andre gjorde efter 7 Juli 2005: www.werenotafraid.com

Med venlig hilsen

Pedram Kazemi-Esfarjani, sekulaer, liberal aktivist

www.werenotafraid.com

a permanent reminder of the terrorist attacks here in London in 2005, and the incredible response from around the world here at We're Not Afraid.com

The Islamic Judiciary power of Iran 27 Sept. 2010: Sakineh Ashtiani sentenced to stoning as well as execution!

Press Release 75: The Danger of Execution Is Still Hanging Over Sakineh’s Head
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PR 75
September 27, 2010

The Danger of Execution Is Still Hanging Over Sakineh’s Head

Mohsen Ejaei, spokesperson of the Judiciary power of the Islamic Republic of Iran, announced today, September 27, 2010, that Sakineh was sentenced to stoning as well as execution [for the fabricated murder charge invented by the regime], and that the punishment for murder [execution, most likely by hanging] takes priority over the punishment for adultery [stoning].

It is necessary to recall that on their recent trip to New York, Ahmadinejad and Mashaai, his Vice-President, had announced that a stoning sentence has never been handed down in Sakineh’s case.

We have previously published documents regarding Sakineh’s case in Tabriz court that clearly show there was never a trial in which Sakineh was accused of murder. After the pressure created by the international campaign against Sakineh’s stoning, the Islamic Republic’s judiciary officials stole all relevant documents and case files [regarding the murder of Sakineh's husband] in order to be able to announce that Sakineh has been sentenced to execution [on the fabricated murder charge].

Every time they reiterate Sakineh’s punishment, it puts a devastating psychological pressure on Sakineh’s children, and consumes them with worry. Sajjad, in a new call to the whole world, has asked for his mother to be saved. We once again emphasize the necessity of a powerful continuation of the international effort to save Sakineh.

The International Committee against Stoning

September 27, 2010

Letter to EU from Sajjad Ghaderzadeh, son of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani

To 27 European Countries:

Greetings to all officials in European countries,

Perhaps I am not in a position to write a letter to 27 European and Western countries, but what can I do? I have no other hope but you, dear ones. I have no more tears to shed. The only thing I have left is a lump in my throat. I only hope that God helps me in writing this letter. I have lost my father, and now this government wants to take our mother from me and my sister for a crime that she has not committed.

You all know that my mother is innocent and has spent five years languishing in a cold black pit. For a moment, I put myself in my mother’s place and I imagine myself behind those prison bars, living the nightmare of waiting for death by stones. Imagine it for yourself. Wouldn’t life be a horror if, each time you shut your eyes to sleep, you were jolted awake with the slightest sound, fearful of hearing the words: “It is time to dig the hole for Sakineh to be stoned”? Isn’t it horrendous that for five years, my sister and I haven’t had a peaceful night’s rest? The Islamic Republic has taken our breath, and before I lose it, I wanted to write this letter to you, to ask for your help.

I don’t care about myself, but I do care for my sister and my mother. I want them to live and be happy. And I sincerely tell the Islamic Republic: if you have some need for retribution, bring it down on me! Arrest me, and free my mother so that she can hold my sister to her bosom. The truth is that I have not lost all my hope yet, as long as you politicians, you the mass media, you the humanitarians, you all the people of the world, and our lawyer, Mr. Houtan Kian, are still behind us. Yet I fear the day when the telephone rings only to hear a voice telling us, “Your mother has been executed.” From that moment, the lives of my sister and I would never be the same.

At that moment, I will again put on the same black shirt that I wore when my father died, this time for my mother. I tell you these words from the bottom of our hearts: I want the whole world to rush to our help. I want the 27 European countries to respond to this letter before the Islamic Republic has executed the sentence against our mother. I humbly thank you all.

Sajjad Ghaderzadeh,
Son of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704654004575517780400514218.html?KEYWORDS=ahmadinejad

Bret Stephens's "Breakfast With Ahmadinejad" (op-ed, Sept. 23) with its description of the lox and bagels breakfast hosted by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for a group of about 30 journalists is uncomfortably similar to Amity Shlaes's recap in her book "The Forgotten Man" of a tea and cookies gathering of American journalists academics and others hosted by Joseph Stalin in 1927. Mr. Stephens observes a charming Ahmadinejad giving a masterful performance, mixing lies and half-truths with clever deflections. His granting of access to a select group in a private forum stroked journalist egos, while their earnest reactions to his words fed his narcissism and his desire to be perceived as leader of the Islamic world.

Stalin's tea and cookies meeting in 1927 (expected to last an hour but extended to more than six hours by a generous Uncle Joe) had much the same purposes as Ahmadinejad's meeting. Attendees were struck by Stalin's charm and his flattering degree of attentiveness. When asked how he knew that the Soviet people supported him, he pointed out that all the heads of unions in the USSR were Communists, reflecting his grassroots support. An absurd answer, but attendees believed he believed it. Yes, he was officially antireligion, but with the ringing of a nearby church bell, Stalin could smile and show that the government unofficially tolerated worship. As with Ahmadinejad, there was a menacing side to Stalin that also served its purpose. One writer observed after the meeting that if the U.S. was not friendlier to the USSR, Britain might succeed in driving an isolated Soviet Union to war.

Journalists having breakfast with Ahmadinejad know they're interviewing an unhinged tyrant with messianic delusions who condones barbaric punishments, has opponents jailed and tortured, makes a mockery of democratic elections, thinks the U.S. masterminded the 9/11 attacks, wants to wipe Israel off the face of the earth and is determined to have nuclear weapons.

For those who were granted access to Stalin, the reward was proximity to a superstar of the left and to the events that were shaking the world order. An audience with the Iranian egomaniac offers similar psychic rewards and career benefits, with everyone pretending that Ahmadinejad is a man of reason as the price paid for a mutually beneficial relationship.

Rob A. Jones

http://nyhederne.tv2.dk/article/33892016/#writeArticleComment
Rose fortryder ikke tegningerne
Tirsdag d. 28. sep. 2010; kl. 22:11 af David Buch for TV 2 Nyhederne (opd. d. 28/9 2010; 23:51
I morgen præsenterer Jyllands-Postens kulturredaktør Flemming Rose sin nye bog om tegningerne, der har gjort Danmark til et terrormål og som har forandret hans liv. Titlen på bogen er 'Tavshedens Tyranni'.

Flemming Rose, der oprindeligt var den redaktør, der bestilte de 12 Muhammed-tegninger, fortryder i dag intet. Han har ikke ændret sit syn på tegningerne på trods af terrortruslerne og indskrænkningen af hans personlige bevægelsesfrihed.

"Jeg fortryder ikke noget, selv om jeg selvfølgelig ikke mener, at en eneste avistegning er menneskeliv værd," siger Flemming Rose i et interview med TV 2 | NYHEDERNE her til aften.

"Vi må ikke bøje os for trusler"
Meget er blevet hemmeligt i Flemming Roses liv efter tegningerne blev trykt for snart fem år siden. Hans kontor på Jyllands-Posten har intet navneskilt og han mandsopdækkes konstant af folk fra PET. I kampen for ytringsfriheden kan man godt føle sig en smule alene i verden, mener Rose.

"Der er i hvert fald nogen, der er blevet tavse. Og det som titlen spiller på med 'Tavshedens Tyranni' er, at det er det, vi risikerer at havne i, hvis folk bøjer sig for trusler og intimidering," fastslår Flemming Rose.

Muhammed-tegningerne er ikke at finde på forsiden af Roses nye bog, men optræder inde i bogen sammen med andre eksempler på tegninger, der har udløst stor vrede. En af tegningerne er af Muhammed-tegneren Kurt Westergaard og forestiller en palæstinenser i en meget Israel-kritisk tegning.

"For mig vil et vigtigt skillepunkt være den dag, at man i en dansk skoleklasse stille og roligt kan sidde og diskutere den slags tegninger. For og imod og hvordan de kan forstås, når der både sidder en Muhammed og Jens," slutter Flemming Rose.

http://www.tv2fyn.dk/article/254540?autoplay=1

I disse dage er det fem år siden, at Jyllands-Posten bragte 12 kontroversielle tegninger af profeten Muhammad. Den fynske tegner Franz Füchsel lavede ind af dem. Hør hvordan Muhammedkrisen har påvirket hans liv.

http://www.sappho.dk/muhammedtegningerne-fem-ar-efter.htm
Muhammedtegningerne fem år efter
29. September 2010 - Rachel Adelberg Johansen

Politibevogtning og respekt for islam

Der var politifolk i auditoriet, da Syddansk Universitet holdt konference om Muhammedtegningerne. Og der var en repræsentant fra udenrigsministeriet, der helt objektivt kunne fortælle, at Geert Wilders er ”xenofob”. Men først og fremmest var der unge tilhørere, der krævede respekt for islam og ikke mente, Westergaard var truet.

Politibevogtet auditorium

”Se jer omkring. Her er politi med øresnegle i forbindelse med en diskussion om Muhammedkrisen på et dansk universitet anno 2010”. Ordene er kulturredaktør ved Jyllands-Posten, Flemming Roses, og faldt i anledning af en konference d. 24. september under titlen Muhammed-krisen 5 år efter – Hvad har vi lært?, arrangeret af Center for Mellemøststudier ved Syddansk Universitet.

Sikkerhedsforanstaltningerne var åbenlyse med skarp politibevogtning af auditoriets to indgange og metaldetektorer. Der var PET-folk til at passe på to af panelets oplægsholdere, Flemming Rose og Naser Khader (K). Politibeskyttelse er virkeligheden for disse to fremtrædende islamismekritikere i dagens Danmark.

En ikke adækvat reaktion fra regeringen

Lektor Helle Lykke Nielsen, arrangør af konferencen, lagde ud med at fortælle, at Islamisk Trossamfund var blevet indbudt til panelet, men havde takket nej med den begrundelse, at trossamfundets ”interesser ikke ville blive varetaget”. Nielsen redegjorde ved hjælp af en såkaldt ”fasemodel for kriser” for, hvorledes hun opfattede, at Muhammedkrisen var begyndt med en konflikt i efteråret 2005 efter offentliggørelsen af tegningerne for derefter at gå over i en regulær krise primo 2006 med boycot af danske varer, afbrændinger af danske ambassader og adskillige dræbte. Krisen blev ”Mellemøstliggjort” og regeringen leverede ikke en ”adækvat reaktion” men ”undervurderede eskalationsrisikoen”, som hun formulerede det.

Herefter tog endnu en kritiker af Muhammedtegningene, chefredaktør ved Kristeligt Dagblad, Erik Bjerager, over. Han mente, at vi kan drage tre forbundne konklusioner af Muhammedkrisen. 1. At vi lært, at vi lever i en globaliseret verden. 2. Pressen har lært at tænke sig om. 3. Ytringsfriheden er ikke ubegrænset.

Bjerager mente, at Muhammedtegningerne var ”en dårlig sag at gå i kamp for ytringsfriheden på”, og at bomben i turbanen er blevet et ”hadsymbol” for mange muslimer. Bjerager appellerede til, at der ”trædes med omtanke”, og at vi ikke ”mister viljen til at vise hensyn”.

Udenrigsministeriets ambassadør for offentlighedsdiplomati, Klavs Holm, fortalte om, hvordan udenrigsministeriet nærmest ”samler på kriser” og nu kalder Muhammedkrisen for ”Muhammedsagen”. Holm betonede, hvordan flere sager løses med fænomenet ”public diplomacy” og i forbifarten fik repræsentanten fra udenrigsministeren lige udnævnt Geert Wilders til at være ”xenofob”.

Lektor Torben Rugberg Rasmussen stillede spørgsmål som: Findes der lykkelige muslimer? Han bad tilhørerne være opmærksom på de forskellige grader af ”civilitet” under krisen og talte om ”nej'ets og ja'ets islam” med henvisning til den fransk-tunesiske filosof, Abdel Wahid Medeb.

Lektor Mehmet Ümit Necef gjorde i sit lidt besynderlige oplæg racisme og anti-racisme til hovedsagen og citerede flittigt fra bl.a. Herviks og Mustafa Hussains (RUC) anti-racisme forskning.

Professor ved Aarhus Universitet, Frederik Stjernfelt, der er tilhænger af Muhammedtegningerne, viste med forskellige karikaturtegninger, hvorledes det er ”et almindeligt retorisk greb at anbringe våben som tegn på aggression” – som også i Kurt Westergaards ”bomben i turbanen”.

Den efterfølgende debat var præget af mange kritiske reaktioner til Naser Khader og Flemming Rose. Adskillige af de mange tildækkede kvinder i salen argumenterede for, at man skal vise respekt for islam, og at man ikke må såre religiøse følelser ved at karikere Muhammed. Desuden pågik en diskussion om det islamiske forbud mod afbildning af Muhammed, hvor Rose redegjorde for, at dette er en myte. Rose opfordrede ligeledes til at ”reetablere skellet mellem ord og handling”.

Westergaard ”er ikke truet”

Asmaa Abdol-Hamid (Ø), som efter offentliggørelsen af Muhammedtegningerne var talsmand for elleve muslimske organisationer i sagsanlæget mod Jyllands-Posten, ytrede, at man skal undlade at ”mobbe muslimer” med tegninger af deres elskede profet, ligesom man heller ikke driller klassens tykke pige. Én af tilhørerne bekendtgjorde sågar, at hun var lidt ligeglad med Kurt Westergaard, for ”han er ikke truet” i modsætning til den øvrige befolkning, som må leve med frygten for et evt. terrorangreb mod Hovedbanegården.

Det overordnede indtryk man fik af debatten var, at en betydelig del af tilhørerne slet ikke har forstået, at de befinder sig i et moderne, liberalt demokrati, hvor enhver må finde sig i hån, spot og latterliggørelse. Og hvor man ikke kan påberåbe sig særlig hensyntagen til den religion, man bekender sig til. Derudover synes det ikke som om, at man har forstået, at Muhammedtegningerne blev offentliggjort for at efterprøve den oplevede selvcensur, når det kommer til kritik af islam og at afbilde Muhammed.

Se TV2-Fyn interview med Muhammedtegneren Franz Füchsel i anledning af femårsdagen for offentliggørelsen af Muhammedtegningerne her

2010/9/29 Pedram Kazemi-Esfarjani

Danskerne bakker op om Muhammedtegninger

- Onsdag den 29. september 2010, 13:12 | Opdateret: 13:15
Del
Danskerne støtter i høj grad offentliggørelsen af Muhammedtegningerne, selvom de seneste fem år har budt på flere angreb mod Danmark.

Danmark er kommet i fokus i ekstremistiske islamiske kredse og blevet et terrormål siden offentliggørelsen af karikaturtegningerne af profeten Muhammed for fem år siden.

Alligevel støtter danskerne i høj grad, at Jyllands-Posten for fem år siden valgte at trykke tegningerne. Det viser en undersøgelse, som Voxmeter har lavet for Ritzau i forbindelse med femårsdagen for offentliggørelsen torsdag.
Annonce

48 procent af danskerne mener, at det var rigtigt af Jyllands-Posten at bringe tegningerne af profeten Muhammed. Dermed er opbakning næsten uændret i forhold til et-årsdagen for tegningerne, hvor 47 procent af danskerne bakkede op.

Det på trods af at der siden sidste meningsmåling i 2006 blandt andet har været en bombesprængning mod den danske ambassade i Pakistan og flere mislykkede terrorplaner mod Danmark og mod Jyllands-Posten.

Undersøgelsen viser også, at 38 procent er imod, at tegningerne blev trykt. Det er det samme antal som i 2006.

/ritzau/

TEMA: Muhammed-tegninger

Flemming Rose. Foto. Torben Stroyer.

Redaktør: Slut med at diskutere tegninger

Offentliggjort 29.09.10 kl. 07:33

Nu gider jeg ikke diskutere Muhammedsagen mere, nu vil jeg henvise til min bog, siger Flemming Rose.
Tema
Muhammed-tegninger
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Rose: Tegningerne er ikke et liv værd
Spørg Flemming Rose
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Han er træt af, at være manden med Muhammedtegningerne. Men har også erkendt, at sådan er det.

Siden Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten offentliggjorde de 12 karikaturtegninger af profeten Muhammed for fem år siden, har emnet og debatten taget det meste af avisens kultur- og opinionsredaktør Flemming Roses tid.

- Folk har dannet sig en mening om tegningerne, hvad enten de er for eller imod, og det er meget svært at flytte noget. Derfor gider jeg ikke at diskutere det særligt meget mere, for jeg tror ikke, vi kommer videre, siger han.
Afslutter en fase

Torsdag er det præcis fem år siden, at tegningerne blev trykt, og samtidig udkommer Flemming Roses bog "Tavshedens Tyranni", hvor han kommer med sit syn på sagen og forsøger at løfte debatten om ytringsfrihedens grænser op på et principielt plan.

- Bogen afslutter den fase for mig, som handler om Muhammedtegningerne. Jeg folder hele min argumentation ud, så efter det her gider jeg ikke at diskutere Muhammedtegningerne, men vil i stedet henvise til min bog, siger Flemming Rose.
Ikke et menneskeliv værd

Tegningerne blev offentliggjort den 30. september 2005, og det har ændret omverdenens syn på Danmark og gjort Jyllands-Posten til et terrormål.

Og det vil være Flemming Roses "værste mareridt", hvis et terrorangreb en dag lykkes.

- Den risiko har jeg og den øvrige ledelse på Jyllands-Posten en del af ansvaret for, og det står vi ved. Men tegningerne legitimerer ikke vold, og sagen er ikke et eneste menneskeliv værd, siger han.

Flemming Rose erkender dog, at andre mennesker er villige til at ofre menneskeliv for sagen, og at der en gruppe ekstremister, som er uden for pædagogisk rækkevidde.

- Alligevel er diskussionen vigtig og når vi taler islam, så er der en stor mellemgruppe af muslimer, som kan nås ved at diskutere tolerance og ytringsfrihed, siger han.

- Men omvendt vil jeg sige, at det også er træls for mig, at være manden med Muhammedtegningerne, for jeg interesserer mig for mange andre ting, og kunne godt tænke mig, at beskæftige mig med andre ting, siger Flemming Rose.

Ritzau

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Rose: Tegningerne er ikke et liv værd

Af SARAH KOTT|KAARE SØRENSEN

Offentliggjort 29.09.10 kl. 13:38 - opdateret kl. 13:44

"Bogen er mit ydmyge forsøg på at forklare mig selv," lød det fra Rose på dagens pressemøde.
Relaterede artikler
Spørg Flemming Rose
Redaktør: Slut med at diskutere tegninger
Hastemøde om årsdag for Muhammed-tegninger
Se alle >>

Kulturredaktøren på Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten havde indkaldt til pressemøde i JP/Politikens Hus for at tale om bogen "Tavshedens Tyranni".

Og fra starten blev det slået fast, at Flemming Rose var der som forfatter, og at man ikke ville svare på spørgsmål om terror.

Foruden Flemming Rose var redaktør for JP/Politikens Forlag, Kim Hundevadt, til stede ved pressemødet, hvor sikkerhedsforanstaltningerne ikke var til at tage fejl af.
Ville tale terror

Flemming Roses bog udkommer torsdag på femårsdagen for offentliggørelsen af Muhammed-tegningerne.

Bogen beskriver foruden Flemming Roses oplevelse af Muhammed-krisen ytringsfrihedens historie, men dele af den fremmødte presse forsøgte ikke overraskende at tale om Muhammed-tegningerne og terrortruslerne mod Jyllands-Posten.

Avissiden med tegningerne er blevet genoptrykt i "Tavshedens Tyranni".
Trykt som dokumentation

Men Flemming Rose understregede, at det var sket som dokumentation for hans analyse af tegningerne.

"Det er samme logik, som når man offentliggør en analyse af Manet eller Picasso: Man viser billedet, så man kan sammenligne tekst og billede."

Samtidig forklarede han, at der er et afsnit i bogen, der handler om stødende billeder gennem historien.

"Det er ikke den eneste illustration, der er mange andre illustrationer, som folk på visse tidspunkter i historien har fundet fornærmende. Jeg vil også sige til muslimerne, at ved at genoptrykke denne side ønsker jeg ikke at fornærme eller støde nogen. Tegningerne er en del af historien."
Jeg er ikke en provokatør

En journalist spurgte til hans overvejelser af konsekvenserne af offentliggørelsen af tegningerne.

"Som jeg sagde, vil jeg ikke komme ind på de aktuelle sager. Læs i bogen. Jeg har intet at tilføje," lød svaret.

"Jeg er ikke en provokatør, men jeg må også acceptere, at folk ser mig som en ballademager, så min bog er et svar på det paradoks. Bogen er mit ydmyge forsøg på at forklare mig selv. Jeg forsøger ikke at insistere på, at jeg har ret, og andre tager fejl. Jeg er klar over, at karikaturkrisen kan forstås på mange måder," tilføjede han.

"Fortryder du noget," spurgte en anden.

"Jeg forrtryder ikke, at jeg var redaktør for tegningerne. Men tegningerne er ikke et liv værd. Jeg tager ansvar for tegningerne, men ikke for, at det fører til vold. Det er som om, at der er bliver sat lighedstegn mellem tegningerne og vold. Medierne har undladt mellerregningerne."

Udenrigsminister Lene Espersen (K) har indkaldt til møde om Muhammedtegningerne. Arkivfoto: Christian Klindt Sølbeck

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Hastemøde om årsdag for Muhammed-tegninger

Offentliggjort 29.09.10 kl. 06:35

Folketingets Udenrigspolitiske Nævn er hasteindkaldt forud for årsdag for Muhammed-tegningerne.
Tema
Muhammed-tegninger
TV-indslag
JP-chef: Nye anklager tages med ro
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Rose: Tegningerne er ikke et liv værd
Lene E.: Muhammedkrise kan blusse op igen
Lene E. mødte muslimske ambassadører
Se alle >>
Fakta

Læs dommen om frifindelse fra Vestre Landsret (pdf)

Udenrigsminister Lene Espersen (K) har indkaldt Folketingets Udenrigspolitiske Nævn til et ekstraordinært møde onsdag formiddag.

Berlingske Tidende erfarer, at eneste punkt på dagsordenen er femårsdagen torsdag for de 12 omstridte Muhammed-tegninger.

Det står ifølge avisen ikke helt klart, hvorfor Udenrigsministeriet finder det nødvendigt at indkalde nævnet, der også mødtes i sidste uge.

Men i den seneste tid har Udenrigsministeriet og Danmarks ambassader rundt omkring i den muslimske verden været ekstra årvågne.
Bog fra Rose

Det hænger især sammen med, at femårsdagen for karikaturerne kommer efter striden om koranafbrændingen i USA og nyheden om, at Jyllands-Postens kulturredaktør, Flemming Rose, genoptrykker profettegningerne i en ny bog om ytringsfrihed, der udkommer på årsdagen, skriver Berlingske Tidende.

Lene Espersen og hendes embedsfolk har dog ifølge avisen indtil videre ikke bemærket, at årsdagen og Flemming Roses bog har givet synderlig stor genlyd i de muslimske lande.
Lene Espersen mødtes med muslimske ambassadører
29. sep. 2010 11.56 Politik

- Det var et godt og konstruktivt møde.

Sådan lød beskeden fra udenrigsminister Lene Espersen, som i morges mødtes med 17 muslimske ambassadører fra Organisationen af den Islamiske Konference (OIC) i Eigtveds pakhus i København.

I morgen er det fem år siden, at Muhammedtegningerne første gang blev offentliggjort og i den anledning, udgiver Jyllands-Postens kulturredaktør Flemming Rose en bog, hvori sagen beskrives og tegningerne genoptrykkes.

- Det er helt afgørende at være proaktiv, så situationen ikke gentager sig, som for fem år siden. At række hånden ud er afgørende for at konstruktive muslimer hører os, siger Lene Espersen.

Stå vagt om ytringsfriheden
Lene Espersen har orienteret Folketingets Udenrigspolitiske Nævn om, arbejdet med at forhindre en genopblusning af sagen.

Hun tilføjer, at hun på mødet med ambassadørene stod vagt om ytringsfriheden, og ikke gik ind i en diskussion om, hvad udgivere gør.

Afbrændinger
I sin tid affødte Muhammedtegningerne blandt andet afbrænding af flere danske ambassader og konsulater i Mellemøsten, samt voldsomme demonstrationer med afbrænding af Dannebrog og fotografier af daværende statsminister Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

Han afviste dengang at mødes med ambassadører fra flere muslimske lande, hvilket affødte kritik fra dem samt flere politiske partier i Danmark.
Lene E. mødtes med muslimske ambassadører
Lene E. mødtes med muslimske ambassadører

Udenrigsminister Lene Espersen udtaler sig efter møde i Udenrigspolitisk Nævn. Foto: Nils Meilvang

For at forebygge en ny Muhammed-krise mødtes udenrigsminister Lene Espersen i dag med ambassadører fra 17 muslimske lande.

Onsdag den 29. september 2010, 12:15

Den danske udenrigsminister Lene Espersen holdt onsdag formiddag et timelangt møde med ambassadører fra muslimske lande for at forhindre en ny Muhammed-krise i forbindelse med femårsdagen for de omstridte Muhammedtegninger.

Ambassadører fra 17 lande, der alle er medlemmer af Organisationen for den Islamiske Konference (OIC), dukkede klokken 9:00 op til mødet i udenrigsministeriets lokaler i Eigtveds Pakhus i København.

- Det var et godt og konstruktivt møde, lød det fra Lene Espersen, da hun kom ud fra mødet. Udenrigsministeren hastede straks videre til et hastemøde i Udenrigspolitisk Nævn om årsdagen for Muhammed-tegningerne.

Ifølge B.T.s oplysninger er Flemming Roses nye bog, der udkommer i morgen, "Tavshedens tyranni", anledningen til det markante skridt. De 12 omstridte tegninger fra Jyllands-Posten, der i sin tid medvirkede til den største udenrigspolitiske krise i nyere tid, er genoptrykt i bogen.

B.T. erfarer, at der blandt andet fra repræsentanter fra OICs side har været rejst ønske om, at bogen helt forbydes. Anders Fogh Rasmussen blev under den oprindelige Muhammed-krise som statsminister kritiseret for ikke at ville tage et møde med ambassadører fra de muslimske lande.
Nu vil regeringen godt mødes med ambassadører
Nu vil regeringen godt mødes med ambassadører

Foto: KELD NAVNTOFT

Det Anders Fogh Rasmussen nægtede - at mødes med muslimske ambassadører - vil Lene Espersen gerne. Ny Muhammed-krise skal afværges.

Af Helle Ib, bt.dk
Onsdag den 29. september 2010, 09:02

Regeringen vil afværge en mulig ny Muhammedkrise ved at mødes med samtlige ambassadører fra de muslimske lande. Samtidig er Udenrigspolitisk Nævn indkaldt til ekstraordinært møde her til morgen.

Det er ifølge B.T.s oplysninger Flemming Roses nye bog, der udkommer i morgen, "Tavshedens tyranni", som har givet anledning til det markante skridt.

B.T. erfarer, at der blandt andet fra repræsentanter fra OICs side har været rejst ønske om, at bogen helt forbydes. OIC er Organisationen for den Islamiske Konference.

Kulturredaktør Flemming Roses bog udkommer på fem-års-dagen for de omstridte tegninger i Jyllands-Posten, der i sin tid medvirkede til den største udenrigspolitiske krise i nyere tid. De tolv tegninger genoptrykkes i bogen.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen blev dengang som statsminister kritiseret for ikke at ville tage et møde med ambassadører fra de muslimske lande. Udenrigsminister Lene Espersen har nu taget initiativ til mødet for at forhindre, at sagen udvikler sig dramatisk.

udenrigsminister Lene Espersen

Udenrigsminister Lene Espersen har nu taget initiativ til mødet for at forhindre, at sagen udvikler sig dramatisk. (Foto: Keld Navntoft)
Regeringen vil forhindre ny Muhammed-krise
Lene E. holder krisemøde

HELLE IB - Onsdag den 29. september 2010, 08:43 | Opdateret: 08:46
8Del
Regeringen vil afværge en mulig ny Muhammedkrise ved at mødes med samtlige ambassadører fra de muslimske lande. Udenrigsminister Lene Espersen vil personligt deltage i mødet. Samtidig er Udenrigspolitisk Nævn indkaldt til ekstraordinært møde her til morgen.

Det er ifølge B.T.s oplysninger Flemming Roses nye bog, der udkommer i morgen, "Tavshedens tyranni", som har givet anledning til det markante skridt.

B.T. erfarer, at der blandt andet fra repræsentanter fra OICs side har været rejst ønske om, at bogen helt forbydes. OIC er Organisationen for den Islamiske Konference.
Annonce

Læs også: Hastemøde om årsdag for Muhammed-tegninger

OIC har tidligere - forgæves - op til Durban 2 konferencen i 2009 i Geneve forsøgt at få FN-landene til at forbyde kritik af religioner.

Kulturredaktør Flemming Roses bog udkommer på 5-års-dagen for de omstridte tegninger i Jyllands-Posten, der i sin tid medvirkede til den største udenrigspolitiske krise i nyere tid. De tolv tegninger genoptrykkes i bogen.

Læs også: Mystik og forvirring om Muhammed-undskyldning

Anders Fogh Rasmussen blev dengang som statsminister kritiseret for ikke at ville tage et møde med ambassadører fra de muslimske lande. Udenrigsminister Lene Espersen har nu taget initiativ til mødet for at forhindre, at sagen udvikler sig dramatisk, og hun deltager selv.

Læs også:
Fogh i Tyrkiet: Jeg ville aldrig selv have lavet Muhammed-tegningerne
Lene E. advarer om ny Muhammed-sag

- Onsdag den 29. september 2010, 13:05 | Opdateret: 13:09
Del
Udenrigsminister Lene Espersen mødes med ambassadører fra 17 muslimske lande for at forebygge en ny Muhammed-krise mod Danmark.

Udenrigsminister Lene Espersen (K) advarer om, at bevægelser i de arabiske lande vil "forsøge at eskalere" sagen om udgivelsen af Jyllands-Postens kulturredaktør Flemming Roses bog"Tavshedens tyranni".

Bogen udkommer torsdag på femårsdagen for de 12 omstridte Muhammed-tegninger.
Annonce

- Vi ser desværre mange tegn på, kritikken er ved blusse op igen, siger Lene Espersen efter, at hun onsdag morgen havde et møde med 17 muslimske ambassadører fra Organisationen af den Islamiske

Konference (OIC).

Et møde som skal hjælpe med til at forhindre, at udgivelsen af Flemming Roses bog medfører en "genopblusning" af tegningssagen.

- Vi kan forstå, at der er forskellige bevægelser i gang i retning af at forsøge at eskalere den sag, siger Lene Espersen, som har orienteret Folketingets Udenrigspolitiske Nævn om mødet.

Danmark forfølger således en såkaldt proaktiv linje, som - ud over mødet med de muslimske ambassadører - blandt andet betyder, at udenrigsministeren har haft møde med Jordan og Marokkos udenrigsministre.

Morgenavisen Jyllands-Postens publicering af de 12 tegninger udløste i januar-februar 2006 den største udenrigspolitiske krise for Danmark siden den 2. verdenskrig.

Selv om daværende statsminister Anders Fogh Rasmussen (V) dengang netop afviste at mødes med ambassadører fra flere muslimske lande, så afviser Lene Espersen i dag, at det var en fejl.

- Vi har jo lært det fra tegningssagen fra fem år siden, at jo mere proaktiv man er - og jo hurtigere vi kommer i gang - jo større chance er der for, at vi får de moderate kræfter over på vores side, siger udenrigsministeren.

Socialdemokraternes udenrigsordfører, Mogens Lykketoft, roser Lene Espersen for at have taget mødet med de muslimske landes ambassadører:

- Det vigtige er, at hverken den danske regering eller det store flertal af den danske befolkning og Folketing har noget ønske om at forhåne den fjerdedel af menneskeheden, som har muslimsk tro.

/ritzau/

Avis: Muhammedbog giver protester
Mandag d. 27. sep. 2010; kl. 09:00 af trfi / ritzau

På fredag udkommer bogen "Tavshedens tyranni", der er skrevet af Jyllands-Postens kulturredaktør, Flemming Rose, og den genoptrykker de kontroversielle tegninger af profeten Muhammed, som tidligere har udløst spændinger mellem Danmark og den muslimske verden.

Derfor frygter mange, at bogen vil skabe samme voldsomme reaktioner, som da tegningerne blev genoptrykt for to år siden. I Indonesien opfordrer myndighederne befolkningen til at forholde sig i ro, skriver avisen Jakarta Post.

Bør ikke ty til anarki
"Indonesiske muslimer bør ikke ty til anarki som reaktion på nyheden om den planlagte udgivelse af bogen," siger minister for offentligt velfærd, Agung Laksono.

Han understreger, at bogen er propaganda, som har til formål at splitte og provokere muslimer i hele verden.

"Udgivelsen af bogen vil udløse internationale protester. Men i Indonesien bør protesterne ikke være i strid med loven," lyder opfordringen fra ministeren.
http://nyhederne.tv2.dk/article/33726538/
Saudisk nej til aftale om profettegninger
Tirsdag d. 21. sep. 2010; kl. 15:18 af ritzau

Shura-rådet i Saudi-Arabien, som har stor indflydelse på religiøse og politiske anliggender, har afvist en bilateral aftale med Danmark om Muhammed-tegningerne.

Et vigtigt religiøst råd i Saudi-Arabien har afvist en bilateral aftale med Danmark, som skulle bilægge en strid om Jyllands-Postens Muhammed-tegninger, skriver flere saudiske aviser.

Aftalen blev afvist af medlemmerne af Shura-rådet med 62 stemmer mod 56, efter at flere medlemmer havde udtrykt deres vrede over de danske tegninger af profeten Muhammed, fremgår det af aviserne Okaz og Shams.

Aftalen er et såkaldt "memorandum of understanding" om bilaterale konsultationer mellem Danmark og Saudi-Arabien, som ifølge den saudiske ambassade i København er indgået mellem udenrigsministerierne i de to lande.

På ambassaden afvises det imidlertid, at aftalen skulle have noget som helst med Muhammed-tegningerne at gøre.

- Det har vi ikke hørt noget om. Vi afventer nyt fra Riyad, siger en ansat ved ambassaden.

De saudiske aviser beskriver, hvordan medlemmerne af Shura-rådet klappede og hujede, da aftalen blev afvist. Men det fremgår ikke klart, hvad det er for en aftale, der henvises til.

Det religiøse råd rådgiver den saudiske regering og har til opgave at vurdere lovgivning, politiske initiativer og internationale aftaler.

De oprindelige Muhammed-tegninger blev bragt i Jyllands-Posten i 2005, og det medførte voldsomme protester i en lang række muslimske lande.

/ritzau/AFP

http://nyhederne-dyn.tv2.dk/article/33732200/
Ministerium afviser saudisk profetaftale
Tirsdag d. 21. sep. 2010; kl. 18:08 af ritzau

Udenrigsministeriet afviser, at en dansk-saudisk aftale skulle dreje sig om Muhammed-tegningerne. Det er en almindelig samarbejdsaftale, oplyser ministeriet.

En dansk-saudisk aftale, som skabte mystik i medierne tirsdag, er blot en almindelig samarbejdsaftale indgået af det danske udenrigsministerium og Saudi-Arabien i februar.

Det oplyser Udenrigsministeriet, som blankt afviser, at aftalen skulle berøre spørgsmål om Jyllands-Postens Muhammedtegninger.

- Det har intet med Muhammedtegningerne at gøre. Det er en standardaftale, som er indgået for at intensivere samarbejdet mellem Danmark og Saudi-Arabien, siger Klaus Holm, ambassadør i Udenrigsministeriet.

Mystikken opstod, da lokale medier rapporterede, at det religiøse råd Shura i Saudi-Arabien havde afvist en bilateral aftale, der skulle omhandle profettegningerne, med Danmark.

Aftalen blev stemt ned i Shura-rådet med 62 stemmer mod 56.

Ifølge Udenrigsministeriet er samarbejdsaftalen med Saudi-Arabien imidlertid allerede indgået 15. februar i år, og den fortsætter de næste fem år.

- Der er intet hemmeligt over denne aftale. Det er en helt normal samarbejdsaftale, siger Klaus Holm.

Aftalen skal intensivere forbindelserne mellem de to lande i forhold til økonomi, handel og internationale spørgsmål, deriblandt FN.

Om rådets afvisning vil få nogen indflydelse på samarbejdet, vides endnu ikke.

/ritzau/

www.werenotafraid.com

a permanent reminder of the terrorist attacks here in London in 2005, and the incredible response from around the world here at We're Not Afraid.com

http://nyhederne.tv2.dk/article/33869826/
Danmark er terrormål i mange år
Tirsdag d. 28. sep. 2010; kl. 06:24 af trfi / ritzau

1. Frygter du terrorangreb i Danmark?
2. Ja
47%
3.
4. Nej
45%
5.
6. Ved ikke
8%
7.

Der var 148 stemmer i alt!

Muhammedtegningerne er stadigvæk en kilde til had mod Danmark - og vil formentlig betyde flere forsøg på terrorangreb fra folk som øksemanden og den etbenede tjetjenske bombemand i mange år frem. Sådan lyder vurderingen fra terrorforsker Lars Erslev Andersen fra Dansk Institut for Internationale Studier før femårsdagen for tegningernes udgivelse den 30. september.
Quickpoll

1. Frygter du terrorangreb i Danmark?
2. Ja
47%
3.
4. Nej
45%
5.
6. Ved ikke
8%
7.

Der var 148 stemmer i alt!

"Jeg tror, der vil komme flere episoder i de kommende år. Danmark er i fokus hos de voldelige islamistiske grupperinger, og vil også være det fremover," siger han.

Bombe har især bragt sindene i kog
Det er især tegningen, der forestiller den muslimske profet Muhammed med en bombe i turbanen, som har bragt sindene i kog i den islamiske verden, og det er der en naturlig forklaring på, siger terrorforskeren.

"De militante islamiske kræfter så hurtigt, hvilken effekt tegningen havde på de moderate og ikkevoldelige islamister, og derfor tog de den op. Og samtidig kan man med en tegning appellere bredt og meget enkelt," siger Lars Erslev Andersen.

Freelance-terrorister
Han nævner eksemplerne fra de senere år med øksemanden, der angreb tegneren Kurt Westergaard, og for nylig den tjetjenske bombemand, hvis sprængstof gik ud over et toilet og ham selv på Hotel Jørgensen, som sager, Danmark vil opleve flere af.

"Den gode nyhed er, at angrebene kommer fra de her freelance jihadister, der på egen hånd forsøger sig med angreb, men sjældent har den fornødne kompetence til at udsætte ret mange andre end sig selv for fare," siger terrorforskeren.

Samtidig siger han, at den bedste chance Danmark har, for at forsvinde ud af søgelyset som terrormål er, at der kommer en større sag i et andet land, som islamisterne vil forfølge.

"Det er selvfølgelig rent spekulativt, men hvis der kommer en anden begivenhed, som overskygger Muhammedsagen, kan det være, at fokus flytter sig," siger han.

Samtidig siger han dog også, at forfatteren Salman Rushdie stadigvæk er et terrormål på grund af hans bog "De Sataniske Vers" fra 1988, der ifølge ekstremister behandler profeten Muhammed blasfemisk.

German Islamic Fifth Colonne and Meet Bin Ladens and their Saudi buddies: Der Spiegel analysis of Osama Bin Laden funding and logistics of Islamic Imperialism - "The Saudi Arabian Wahhabites are the luxury version of the Taliban"

2010-09-29T06:40:00.000-07:00

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,715919,00.html
09/06/2010

Terror Alert
Hamburg Islamist Speaks of Threat of Attacks in Germany
Police officers guard the entrance of the Taiba mosque, the Hamburg home to many Islamists that was closed by the city in August.
Zoomjavascript:void(0)
AFP

Police officers guard the entrance of the Taiba mosque, the Hamburg home to many Islamists that was closed by the city in August.

German officials are investigating apparent statements by a Hamburg Islamist recently arrested by US forces in Afghanistan about attack scenarios for terror strikes in Germany and neighboring countries. Ahmad S. is one of a number of Germany-based Islamists thought to have traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2009.

Federal authorities in Germany are moving quickly to investigate claims by a German Islamist based in Afghanistan that militant jihadists may be planning attacks in Germany. American security forces detained Ahmad S. in Kabul at the beginning of July on suspicion of terrorism. The 36-year-old, who comes from Hamburg, Germany, has since been interrogated at the US military prison in Baghram.

He is reported to have spoken extensively about attack scenarios in Germany and neighboring European countries, according to information obtained by SPIEGEL. The Americans consider the prisoner to be an important source. S. is believed to be part of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IBU), a terror organization that has succeeded in attracting a number of recruits from Germany.

Since his arrest, Germany's Foreign Ministry has also issued several requests calling for German diplomats in Afghanistan to be given access to S., who is a German of Afghan descent. The German Interior Ministry and security authorities are also interested in the prisoner. They believe that S. left Germany at the beginning of March 2009 together with his Indonesian wife, his brother Sulyman and another married couple from Hamburg. They are believed to have flown from Qatar to Peshawar in ordered to travel from there to the Afghan-Pakistani border region.

Homegrown Islamists

Within a short period of time in 2009, a total of around a dozen Hamburg-based Islamists disappeared. German security authorities believe some of them received training in terror camps in the use of weapons and explosives. The group moved in circles close to Hamburg's Taiba mosque, which was recently closed by city officials and had also been visited by members of the terror cell responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks in Washington and New York.

S. apparently also had good contacts within the conspirators' circle. He often drove the father of Mounir el Motassadeq to jail visits with Motassadeq who was sentenced in 2007 to 15 years by a German court for his participation in the 9/11 attacks in the United States. In 2002, S. also went on vacation with Motassadeq's family in Morocco.

Like Motassadeq, S. also worked at the Hamburg airport, where he did cleaning work on aircraft. A further Islamist from Hamburg, the German-Syrian Rami M., was extradited from Pakistan two months after his arrest to Germany in August and is now sitting in a jail in Germany. A judge had ordered him to be obtained on suspicion of membership in a foreign terrorist group and the German federal prosecutor is currently investigating S.

400 Dangerous Islamists in Germany

Over the weekend, the head of Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) told a newspaper that his office estimates there are more than 400 Islamists currently in Germany. The core is comprised of 131 people considered to be potential "offenders." BKA President Jörg Ziercke used that term to describe in an interview with Berlin's Tagesspiegel those "we assume could commit politically motivated crimes of considerable scale." Ziercke also estimated that those potentially violent criminals were supported by a further 278 supporters and other "relevant people."

He said the BKA is concerned by the many trips taken by Islamists between Germany and the Afghan-Pakistani border region. He said there was concrete evidence that 70 Islamists from Germany had undergone paramilitary training in terror camps. He said 40 are believed to have participated in combat in Afghanistan. Ziercke noted, however, that German authorities succeeded in stopping a total of 26 potentially violent Islamists from leaving Germany since early 2009.

Ziercke also told the newspaper he did not believe that al-Qaida is still capable of repeating terrorist acts on the scale of those seen in 2001. He noted that al-Qaida leaders like Osama bin Laden and Egypt's Aiman al-Sawahiri are being pursued with great effort and that their movements are severely restricted in their hiding spaces in Pakistan's Waziristan border region. He said he considered al-Qaida in North Africa, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Iraq to be more dangerous.

dsl -- with wires

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,687306,00.html
04/05/2010

The Third Generation
German Jihad Colonies Sprout Up in Waziristan

By Yassin Musharbash, Marcel Rosenbach and Holger Stark

Photo Gallery: 5 Photos

A wave of Germans traveling to training camps for militant jihadists has alarmed security officials back in Europe. The recruits are quickly becoming radicalized and, in some cases, entire families are departing to hotbeds for terrorism. It is even believed that colonies catering to German Islamists have taken shape in the border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

It was a Sunday in September when they lost their son Jan*. He gave his parents a particularly tight hug, his father recalls, a long and intense embrace. The father says that he could sense that this was no normal goodbye, and that it was about more than the supposed vacation trip to celebrate the couple's first wedding anniversary -- which was the story that Jan, 24, and his wife Alexandra* had cooked up for him.

It was the day of the German parliamentary elections in 2009, and the autumn sun was shining in Berlin, but Jan and Alexandra weren't interested in who would govern the country. They were going to leave Germany. They had rejected this society and this state. Jan and Alexandra packed their things into a rental car, picked up another couple, and the four friends headed off into exile. One of their traveling companions was 17 years old and six months pregnant -- her husband had just turned 20. Their child would not be born in Germany.

The two married couples headed to Budapest, where they boarded a plane for Istanbul. Jan placed one last call to his parents from a hotel.

Since then there have been only sporadic e-mails. These have been loving messages to his father and mother. But he also writes things that frighten his parents. He is living among brothers and doesn't need much money, Jan writes. No, they can't visit him -- it would be too dangerous, he says. And no, he can no longer imagine returning to Berlin, to a life among the kuffar, the infidels.

Then, in December, he wrote that he didn't know if he would live to see the next summer. Since then his parents have been looking in their mailbox every morning -- and every morning it's the same: nothing. They can hardly bear the uncertainty.

Extremist Expats

German intelligence agencies presume that Jan and Alexandra are now living in the Afghan-Pakistani border region. It is a world in which al-Qaida and the Taliban are strong and the state is weak, where conflicts are resolved according to the rules of the sharia and local chieftains. This is also allegedly the last refuge, at least for the time being, of Osama bin Laden.

In this remote mountain region, a colony of Germans has sprung up -- expats who have severed all roots and found a new homeland in the Hindu Kush. Germany's Federal Office of Criminal Investigation (BKA) maintains a list of suspects who have taken off to Afghanistan or Pakistan -- or at least tried to leave -- over the past few years. The list has nearly 100 names. It's a directory of the third generation of Islamist terrorists after the 9/11 suicide pilots and Germany's so-called "Sauerland Cell". Like their predecessors, they are eager to fight the holy war and die a martyr's death. Intelligence agencies are now wondering who among this generation will become the next Mohammed Atta or the next Fritz Gelowicz, the ring leader of the Sauerland Cell -- or who will emulate former Bosch employee Cüneyt Ciftci, who hailed from the quiet southern German town of Ansbach and carried out a suicide bombing in Afghanistan in March 2008, blowing himself to pieces and killing four people.

The list includes Jan and Alexandra from Berlin, Michael W. from Hamburg -- who tried to slip away last spring but was arrested in Pakistan and sent back -- and the 19-year-old Berliner Omar H., who disappeared with his girlfriend last January. They are driven by the dream of a life that they see as a pure reflection of the teachings of Islam. They want to exchange the Western world for an archaic life in barren huts, where they only occasionally have electricity and where the Koran stands above everything.

The first two generations consisted of angry young men who yearned to go into battle, and opted to leave their women behind. The third generation is different, though. They are younger and highly ethnically mixed, often men and women who leave Germany together -- or even shortly before the birth of their children -- on their way from the Berlin district of Wedding to Waziristan, the porous border region skirting the Afghan-Pakistani border.

Part 2: 'It's Shocking How Quickly Your Own Child Can Slip Away from You'

Agencies such as the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany's domestic intelligence agency, and the BKA are particularly worried about the speed at which these young men and women are prepared to leave their lives in Germany, usually burning their bridges behind them. Occasionally, as in the case of Jan and his wife, it takes only a few months before they become unreachable -- first in terms of their willingness to listen to opposing points of view, then in a very literal sense.

Jan's parents, who came to Berlin from Eastern Europe 20 years ago, noticed the first change in May 2008, when their only son suddenly refused to eat pork. He told his mother earlier that he had purchased a copy of the Koran.

His parents weren't concerned because Jan had completed high school and planned to become a career soldier. He also had his girlfriend Alexandra, who was two years younger than him. The two young people wanted to get married. It looked like the makings of a picture-book life: peaceful, happy and unspectacular.

The wedding was in September 2008 -- a beautiful ceremony, held in the middle of the religious fasting month of Ramadan. They didn't eat until after sunset, but there was music and the bride was dressed entirely in white, just as she had wanted. In November, the couple married again -- this time in a Muslim ceremony -- and after that everything went very quickly. By March 2009, the parents only saw their daughter-in-law wearing a full veil. And the number of conflicts started increasing.

Jan tried to convert his father to Islam. His father accompanied him to the mosque to see who his son was meeting with. Jan even tried to convert his elderly grandmother, who is a fervently pious Catholic.

He decided to drop his original career plan of becoming a professional soldier, preferably stationed abroad. Jan told his parents that he otherwise might be forced to fight against his fellow believers. He also dropped out of vocational school.

By early 2009 the young couple mentioned for the first time that they would rather practice their faith undisturbed by distractions, in a country where this was still possible -- in Yemen, for example, Somalia or Pakistan, far away from the big cities. Last autumn, Jan and Alexandra started to secretly auction off their possessions on eBay. The process of radicalization had taken little over a year. "It's shocking how quickly your own child can slip away from you," says Jan's mother, who is now seeking contact with other families who have had similar experiences. "Hardly anyone else can understand our situation," she says.

The Recruiter

German officials believe that Jan can be seen in a video made by a relatively new group that calls itself the "German Taliban Mujahedeen". Up until now, they have drawn attention to themselves with noisy propaganda -- in a video released last fall that threatened to take the war to German cities, for example. This message was illustrated with images of the Brandenburg Gate and the main railway station in Hamburg. The man who appears to be responsible for the propaganda is Ahmet M., 32, who has apparently become something of a media services provider for a segment of the German colony.

Ahmet goes by the name of "Saladin" on the Internet, and every few weeks his "Elif Medya" label issues a new propaganda film aimed at luring new volunteers to Afghanistan. The muddled messages of German Islamist Eric Breininger from the milieu of the Sauerland Cell carry this same trademark, as do the communiqués of the "German Taliban."

Saladin's specialization with recruits from Germany can be explained by his personal history. He was born in the northern town of Salzgitter and his last German place of residence was in the state of Saarland. He ran afoul of the law in Germany at an early age and was caught stealing for the first time at 15. Later, he was convicted of dealing hash and cocaine, sentenced to three years in prison and deported to Turkey in April 2000.

German investigators believe that Ahmet M. alias Saladin is a key recruiter on the German-speaking scene. Only a few weeks ago, he personally tried to direct a willing recruit all the way from Germany to the Hindu Kush, but the German police intercepted the Berliner en route.

Ahmet M. boasts that he has served as the spokesman for the Islamic Jihad Union over the past few years, but he says "now I work for the Taliban." The German-Turk is thought to act as a link between the young new recruits and the front. During the month of Ramadan, he collected donations on German online forums to purchase "basic foodstuffs for the widows and orphans" and the wounded on the jihad battlefields of Afghanistan.

Part 3: From Pothead to Mujahedeen

The videos from the combat zone may seem bizarre, but they are effective. They lure men like Michael W. from Hamburg, an ethnic German born in Kazakhstan, who headed off in March 2009. Traveling with a friend, he flew with Qatar Airways from Vienna to Doha. When the two men checked in that morning in Vienna, Austrian officials asked them questions such as where they intended to travel and what they planned to do in Pakistan.

Take a vacation, said one.

Do business with carpets, said the other.

Police discovered that Michael W. was carrying two notes that smacked of neither vacationing nor the carpet trade.

One of them bore the headline "Rules of Conduct for the Jihad" and focused on highly practical issues. "Remain calm during battle. Do not scream," was one of the guidelines. "Do not punish with fire" and "no mutilating corpses," were two other bits of advice. The second piece of paper was a letter of recommendation from someone called "Ibrahim, the Lebanese from Hamburg," apparently to grant the holder access to a training camp. In addition, both men had laptops and mobile phones in their original packaging. The Austrians allowed them to pass, and they traveled via Doha to Karachi in Pakistan. There they were arrested because they were apparently traveling under false pretenses. Later, they were deported to Germany.

Michael W. is now 24 years old. He usually wears long, light-colored garments, has a big flowing beard and smiles a great deal. The police have identified him as a "dangerous element" and federal prosecutors are investigating his activities. He is seen as one of the new enemies of the state. It is likely that he was introduced to the scene by a fellow high school student in his graduating class of 2006.

In Hamburg there is a group of young believers who have been meeting since the summer of 2008, and it reportedly includes Michael W. The leader of the group has slipped past the border controls and is now in Waziristan -- a former pothead who has become a mujahedeen. Those who have been left behind meet every Friday in the former Quds Mosque on Hamburg's Steindamm street -- the very same house of worship once frequented by Mohammed Atta, and now called the Taiba Mosque. During religious services, Michael W. sits extremely close to the low wooden pedestal where the prayer leader stands.

Isolation, Deprivation and Suffering

It's possible that Michael W. should be thankful to the Pakistani border authorities. They may have saved his life. Reports currently arriving from the Hindu Kush in Hamburg, Berlin and elsewhere sound like a far cry from paradise -- and more like war and death. They paint a picture of life in isolation, full of deprivation and suffering.

Ever since the Pakistani army launched an offensive last fall and advanced on Waziristan, the Islamist groups have had to fear for their existence. "The kuffar are attacking us with all their might," one report from the combat zone states. There are also Germans among the heavily wounded. Relatives back home in Germany are now afraid that their children will be killed by the bullets of the Pakistani army -- or by a US drone attack.

Ever since he left Germany, Jan's parents have been asking themselves if their son is actually capable of fighting. On the one hand, his father says, Jan has never been violent. The father says he once asked him directly about it, and his son replied: "I'm not crazy." On the other hand, he recalls that they once went to see the combat-filled film "300," and Jan said how great it must be to have something worth fighting for.

And then there's that last will and testament. It was written by Omar H., one of Jan's acquaintances from Berlin. He slipped off the radar in late January together with his 16-year-old girlfriend Stefanie, who now calls herself "Amina". They are probably on their way to the German colony -- to the others from Berlin.

"I want to be buried in a Muslim cemetery. Care should be taken to ensure that no non-believer (including Jews and Christians) is buried near my grave," Omar decreed in his testament with his rounded, flawless schoolboy handwriting. "When I die, I would like to be washed according to Islamic rites by my wife Amina along with the helpers of her choice, then wrapped and buried. This is my wish unless Allah, in his mercy, honors me with a martyr's death."

* Editor's note: Name has been changed by the editors.

Translated from the German by Paul Cohen

06/06/2005

Meet The Bin Ladens
Osama's Road to Riches and Terror

By Georg Mascolo and Erich Follath

The Bin Laden family disowned black sheep Osama in 1994. But have they really broken with the mega-terrorist? Recently revealed classified documents seem to suggest otherwise. Osama's violent career has been made possible in part by the generosity of his family -- and by his contacts with the Saudi royals.
Osama bin Laden remains at large. More questions are now being asked as to exactly how much help he has received from his family.
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AFP

Osama bin Laden remains at large. More questions are now being asked as to exactly how much help he has received from his family.

In early spring 2002, American intelligence agents tipped off authorities in Bosnia-Herzegovina that something wasn't quite right with the "Benevolence International Foundation." Their reaction was swift; special forces stormed eight offices of the Islamic foundation in Sarajevo and in Zenica. They found weapons and explosives, videos and flyers calling for holy war. More importantly, however, they discovered a computer with a mysterious file entitled "Tarich Osama" -- Arabic for "Osama's Story."

After printing out the file -- close to 10,000 pages worth -- the intelligence experts quickly realized they had stumbled upon a true goldmine. They were looking at nothing less than the carefully documented story of al-Qaida, complete with scanned letters, minutes of secret meetings, photos and notes -- some even written in Osama Bin Laden's handwriting. CIA experts secured the highly sensitive material, dubbed "Golden Chain," and took everything back to the United States. To this day, only fragments of the material have been published. Now, however, SPIEGEL magazine has been given complete access to the entire series of explosive documents dating from the late 1980s to the early 1990s.

During that time, Osama bin Laden, known as "OBL" in CIA parlance, was primarily interested in "preserving the spirit of jihad" that had developed during the successful Afghanistan campaign -- a fight which saw an international group of Muslim fighters stand up to the mighty Soviet army. Bin Laden wanted to expand the group's activities to battle "the infidels" in the West. A full decade before the attacks on the Twin Towers, the documents make horrifyingly clear, bin Laden was already dreaming of "staging a major event for the mass media, to generate donations."

Meet the bin Ladens

This is the first installment of a two- part series on the family of Osama bin Laden. You can read the second here. more...
Finances are the focal point in these early al-Qaida documents. OBL, as one of the heirs of a large construction company, had a substantial fortune at his disposal, but it was still not enough to finance global jihad. The Saudi elite -- and his own family -- came to his assistance.

"Be generous when doing God's work"

The evidence lies in the most valuable document investigators managed to acquire: a list of al-Qaida's key financial backers. The list, titled with a verse from the Koran, "Let us be generous when doing God's work," is a veritable who's who of the Middle Eastern monarchy, including the signatures of two former cabinet ministers, six bankers and twelve prominent businessmen. The list also mentions "the bin Laden brothers." Were these generous backers aware, at the time, that were not just donating money to support the aggressive expansion of the teaching of the Islamic faith, but were also financing acts of terror against non-believers? Did "the bin Laden brothers," who first pledged money to Al-Qaida and then, in 1994, issued a joint press statement declaring that they were ejecting Osama from the family as a "black sheep," truly break ties with their blood relatives -- or were they simply pulling the wool over the eyes of the world?

Bin Laden became a household name after the dramatic Sept. 11 attacks.
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REUTERS

Bin Laden became a household name after the dramatic Sept. 11 attacks.
Vincent Cannistraro, former head of counterterrorism for the CIA, says, "I tracked the bin Ladens for years. Many family members claimed that Osama was no longer one of them. It's an easy thing to say, but blood is usually thicker than water."

Carmen bin Laden, a sister-in-law of the terrorist, who lived with the extended family in Jeddah for years, says, "I absolutely do not believe that the bin Ladens disowned Osama. In this family, a brother is always a brother, no matter what he has done. I am convinced that the complex and tightly woven network between the bin Laden clan and the Saudi royal family is still in operation."

French documentary filmmaker Joël Soler even goes so far as to refer to the family as "A Dynasty of Terror," in his somewhat speculative made-for-TV piece.

But could this really be possible? Are the bin Ladens (or "Binladins," as they more commonly spell it), with their 25 brothers, 29 sisters, in-laws, aunts and, by now, at least 15 children of Osama, nothing but a clan of terrorists? Or are relatives being taken to task for the crimes of one family member, all on the strength of legends and conspiracy theories?

American celebrity attorney Ron Motley plans to file a lawsuit against alleged Saudi backers of al-Qaida on behalf of hundreds of families who lost relatives in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Listed among the defendants summoned by federal judge Richard Casey at Motley's request in January 2005 were Osama and one of his brothers, as well as the family's billion-dollar business in Jeddah, the "Saudi Binladin Group."

Tracking the bin Ladens across the globe

To form an impression of this rather unique extended family, one would have to travel to the desert kingdom, where it has its roots, as well as to Washington, Geneva, London and the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan -- in other words, to all those places where the bin Ladens have left their tracks or where they live today. And the best way to get to the bottom of this clan is to piece together its many parts. Only then will it become more apparent whether the bin Ladens are a clan of terrorists or (with one well-known exception) a terribly affable family.

The bin Laden story, with its dramatic twists and turns, almost comes across as an Arab version of Thomas Mann's novel "Buddenbrooks." In both cases, it's the story of an imposing patriarch, who has managed to hold the clan together, and of his sons, who cannot or do not wish to stop the family's moral decline.

Al-Qaida has supporters the world over.
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AP

Al-Qaida has supporters the world over.
JEDDAH, ON THE RED SEA, IS A MAJOR CITY AND AN IMPORTANT TRANSIT PORT FOR SAUDI ARABIA. It's also one of the main ports of entry for pilgrimages to the Muslim holy city of Mecca -- and to the headquarters of the family dynasty, the Saudi Binladin Group (SBG).

"We have a mayor and all kinds of political heavyweights. But the truly ruler of Jeddah is Bakr bin Laden," says an informer who agreed to speak only under condition of anonymity. "But Bakr is never seen in public, and when he does occasionally go to the Intercontinental Hotel for dinner -- usually with Osama's son Abdullah -- he has the entire restaurant closed. During a tour of the city, the source points out a glass and steel palace not far from the city's downtown area, with its twisting alleyways and smattering of restored old houses. It's the headquarters of SBG, the secretive realm of Bakr Bin Laden, 58, the son of the family's patriarch and chairman of the company's board of directors.

Jeddah is the place where the clan's founding father began his astonishing career. And it's also the place where the first family member became connected with Islamic terrorism -- not Osama, but his older brother, Mahrus bin Laden. US authorities have also clearly linked another member of the clan, Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, who is married to one of Osama's sisters, to terrorist attacks abroad.

Although Bin Laden senior -- Mohammed bin Laden -- was practically illiterate, he was blessed with tremendous energy and keen sense of business. In 1930, he left his village, Ribat, in the desperately poor Yemeni region of Hadramaut, and headed north. In Jeddah, then a small city, he eked out a living as a porter for pilgrims, steadfastly saving his earnings to start his own company.

A year later, when the desert kingdom of Saudi Arabia gained its independence, the immigrant from the south was still struggling to make ends meet. But he quickly recognized the two factors that were becoming increasingly important in his adopted country: oil, which had been flowing from Saudi wells since 1938, and, with its enormous profits, was revolutionizing the country's traditional society and causing nomadic tribes to take up roots; and the country's authoritarian king, whose patronage sometimes determined survival, but always determined social advancement.

Despite a worldwide manhunt -- and an assault on Tora Bora in Afghanistan, bin Laden has managed to evade capture.
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AFP

Despite a worldwide manhunt -- and an assault on Tora Bora in Afghanistan, bin Laden has managed to evade capture.
A third factor that was critical to the success of the state, and was symbiotically linked with the monarchy from the very beginning, was the religious establishment in its uniquely Saudi form. The principles of Wahhabism-- as Saudi Islam is known -- have their roots with the 18th century radical zealot Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, the Sauds' most powerful ally in their efforts to take control of the peninsula. After the founding of the Saudi state, fundamentalism became the official religion.

The royal court builder

Mohammed bin Laden had no quarrels with either the preachers or the princes; his only goal was to make it to the top, and the construction business was the ideal launching pad. The kingdom needed roads, railroads and airports. Bin Laden senior built ramps in the palace for the handicapped King Abd al-Aziz's wheelchair and highways into the mountains for his luxury cars. Bin Laden was later named Minister of Public Spending, and the royal family even awarded him the contract to renovate the country's holy sites. The family business, SBG, quickly developed into the court builder for the entire Saudi infrastructure.

Following an old Islamic tradition, the bin Laden senior kept numerous wives. In 1956, he sired child number 17 with a Syrian woman from Latakia, and the boy was named Osama. It must have been difficult for the patriarch to keep track of his family; ten years later, child number 54 was born -- Mohammed bin Laden's last offspring. In 1968, the patriarch was killed when his Cessna, piloted by an American, crashed -- a foreshadowing of things to come.

The king placed the family business, SBG, under the management of a trustee, making the bin Laden sons the de facto wards of the monarch. Osama was ten years old at the time and he was occasionally allowed to ride along on the company's bulldozers. But he had hardly known his father -- a deficit he recognized only later in life when he elevated the family's patriarch to the status of Spiritus Rector in matters of Islamic fundamentalism.

Even as a boy, Osama was always considered the "holy one" in the family. He drew attention to himself when he denounced school soccer tournaments as a godless waste of time and assiduously monitored the houses of neighbors, taking it upon himself to enforce the state's prohibition of music. He enrolled in the economics program at Jeddah's King Abd al-Aziz University, where the curriculum was determined by anti-Western agitators from the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.

Bin Laden with some of his top deputies.
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AP

Bin Laden with some of his top deputies.
The family became divided, into a more stationary branch, and an "international" branch that settled across the globe. One member of the latter camp was Salem bin Laden. He attended a British university, married a woman from an upper-class British family, and vacationed in Disneyland. In 1972, when the Saudi government relinquished control over SBG, Salem, as the family's eldest son, was named head of the company and quickly made it clear that he had no compunctions about doing business with the United States.

Salem bin Laden established the company's ties to the American political elite when, according to French intelligence sources, he helped the Reagan administration circumvent the US Senate and funnel $34 million to the right-wing Contra rebels operating in Nicaragua. He also developed close ties with the Bush family in Texas. But Salem's successors, not Salem, were the ones who were able to fully capitalize on these connections. In 1988, Salem died in a plane crash near San Antonio, Texas, when the aircraft he was piloted became entangled in a power line. After Salem's death, Bakr took control of SBG.

Brother terrorist

In the meantime, trouble was brewing at home in Saudi Arabia -- in Mecca, of all places, and with the presumed involvement of a family member. In November 1979, insurgents occupied and barricaded themselves into Islam's holiest site, demanding an end to corruption and wastefulness in Saudi Arabia and charging the royal family with having lost its legitimacy by currying favor with the West. It was an act of terror that foreshadowed every major plank of the al-Qaida platform of radical fundamentalism -- and it was no coincidence that this radical group was lead by members of the Muslim Brotherhood with ties to Osama's professors.

At the time, Osama was still entrenched in Saudi society, but his older brother, Mahrus, maintained ties to the fanatics. It's even speculated that he may have used his access to SBG's offices to obtain the renovation plans for the Great Mosque, together with all its secret passageways, and handed them over to the radicals. In any event, the fanatics forced their way onto the mosque's grounds in a truck that was later identified as a Binladin company vehicle.

Mahrus bin Laden was arrested, but was then released for lack of evidence. The terrorist attack turned into a nightmare for the authorities. With the help of French special forces, the Saudis managed to overcome the attackers, but only after a two-week siege and a bloody battle claiming more than a hundred lives. For Mahrus's career, however, the affair proved to be nothing more than a minor speed bump and he later resurfaced as head of SBG's office in Medina.

In late 1979, Osama, with the royal family's blessing, set off for Afghanistan to participate in the jihad against the Soviet Union, which had invaded its neighbor to the south. Both the CIA and Saudi Arabia helped fund the Mujahedeen's armed struggle against the communist "infidels." Prince Turki, head of the Saudi secret service, visited Osama several times in Afghanistan and heavy equipment provided by the SBG family business was used to excavate secret tunnels. For Osama, the support of the Saud family and the bin Ladens became a reliable source of funding.

Osama bin Laden with his son Mohammed and Mohammed Atif.
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Osama bin Laden with his son Mohammed and Mohammed Atif.
In 1990, after his triumph in Afghanistan, OBL offered the Saudi royal family the use of his troops to battle Saddam Hussein, whose forces had invaded Kuwait. But King Fahd decided instead to bring in American forces. The decision proved to be a financial coup for the family business, which helped build military bases for the outsiders, but it was turning point in Osama's life. Embittered, he went to Sudan in 1992, where he built training camps and organized attacks with his al-Qaida group, especially against "infidels" from the United States. He also made sure that the planning of terrorist activities remained in the family. His brother-in-law, Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, was involved in the first terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in 1993. On his visa application for the United States, he had listed his occupation as an "employee of the Saudi Binladin Group." Khalifa was briefly detained in the United States, but was then deported to Jordan, where he was released because of formal legal errors. In the past, he had also been implicated as a financial backer of the Philippine Abu Sayyaf terrorist organization.

Part II of "Osama's Road to Riches and Terror" can be read here.

Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan
06/06/2005

Meet The Bin Ladens, Part II
Tracking Osama's Kin Around the World

By Erich Follath and Georg Mascolo

Osama bin Laden's family has disavowed itself from its terrorist "black sheep," but the discrepancies are considerable. In interviews with his family that took our reporters to Paris, Arlington, Virginia, Geneva and the furthest-flung corners of Pakistan, we take a closer look and the ties he may or may not still have to his relatives.

Osama also stayed in touch with his friends from the Saudi intelligence agency, even after Libya issued a warrant for his arrest, charging bin Laden with alleged involvement in the murder of two Germans -- an official working for Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and his wife. Prince Turki sent Osama's mother, Hamida, and his brother Bakr to the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, several times to convince Osama to abandon his terrorist activities. The visits were so frequent that Israel's intelligence agency, the Mossad, believed at the time that Osama was a Saudi spy. Washington increasingly came under pressure to do something about OBL, especially after his involvement in attacks in Somalia and Yemen. The US government met with Saudi officials behind the scenes, confronting them with satellite images of al-Qaida training camps in northern Sudan. In April 1994, King Fahd finally revoked Osama bin Laden's Saudi Arabian citizenship. The bin Laden family followed suit, issuing a sparse, two-sentence statement, signed by Bakr, disowning Osama.

Meet the bin Ladens

This is the second installment of a two- part series on the family of Osama bin Laden. You can read the first here. more...
Despite these actions, OBL was still far from being a "black sheep" with no ties to his native country. Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki visited bin Laden several times after he had moved from Sudan to Afghanistan to join forces with the radical Taliban. Turki allegedly brought along expensive gifts to Kandahar, in the form of dozens of pickup trucks. According to a former member of the Taliban intelligence service, Prince Turki and OBL made a deal: The Saudis would support al-Qaida financially, but only under the condition that there would be no attacks on Saudi soil. (Prince Turki, now Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Great Britain, has denied these claims, telling SPIEGEL that they are "nothing but fantasy.")

On Jan. 9, 2001, OBL attended his son Mohammed's wedding in Kandahar, accompanied, according to CIA sources, by his mother and two of his brothers. The CIA also claims that "two of Osama's sisters traveled to Abu Dhabi" a month later, where they met with an al-Qaida agent at the Gulf emirate's airport to deliver large sums of cash.

In mid-January 2005, New York federal judge Richard Casey wrote, in his grounds for allowing the civil suit against SBG filed by the families of 9/11 victims, that "the Saudi Binladin Group maintained close relationships with Osama bin Laden at certain times," and that it remains "unclear" whether these ties continued when OBL became involved in terrorism.

Can this global company, with its close ties to the Saudi royal family, truly be brought to trial, or will the US government, officially allied with Riyadh in its "war on terror," work behind the scenes to have the case dismissed? SBG has already demonstrated its willingness to work with the West by entering into joint ventures with Motorola and a deal with Disney, and has also been Porsche's official agent in the kingdom. Moreover, SBG is developing new airport security equipment in Saudi Arabia, as well as building housing for US managers working in the oil industry.

In Kazakhstan, the Saudi Binladin Group is helping build the country's new capital, Astana. In Syria, SBG and a Spanish company jointly operate the country's biggest olive oil processing plant. And in Dubai, the family company has just submitted a bid for a portion of the construction of what will be the world's tallest building. Next to aircraft, it seems, the bin Ladens see towers as a special challenge.

PARIS, AVENUE MONTAIGNE, NEAR THE CHAMPS-ELYSÉES AND THE LUXURY HOTEL "PLAZA ATHÉNÉE". A dinner appointment with Yeslam bin Laden at one the French capital's most expensive and exclusive restaurants.

He did not reserve a table. Was it because he doesn't like to identify himself as a bin Laden on the phone? "No no," says Osama's brother, "despite everything, I am proud of our family's name. But they know me here, so I don't need a reservation." Indeed, the staff, apparently accustomed to princely gratuities, practically bends over backward for bin Laden, a regular here, and seats us at the best table in the restaurant. Yeslam bin Laden, 55, orders a steak, medium rare. "Osama and I grew up very differently, and I never shared his system of beliefs," says Yeslam bin Laden.

When Yeslam was six, his mother sent him to a school in Beirut, because it was far more liberal there than in Saudi Arabia. He later attended schools and universities in Sweden and England. Although he spent his vacations at home, he saw his father "rarely," and his "half-brother Osama no more than three or four times, the last time in 1987 or thereabouts." He says that his only clear memory of Osama is of his strict condemnation of music, and his religious fanaticism, which struck Yeslam as odd. Yeslam himself believes religion is a personal matter, and he refuses to take responsibility for others. "Am I my brother's keeper?" he asks, calling himself an "enlightened Muslim," clearly alluding to the biblical story of Cain and Abel.

As a young man, Yeslam went to night clubs, drove a Porsche and earned his pilot's license. He studied business administration in Los Angeles. Photos from his college days show him with his Persian fiancée, a long-haired, happy hippy couple ensconced in the California lifestyle. He rarely received visitors from Saudi Arabia. One of these visitors was his devout brother Mahfus, who brought news of the bin Laden family, the Saudi royals and the Wahhabite clerics. But despite his worldly influences, Yeslam bin Laden retained his Saudi roots and insisted on a wedding in Jeddah. Against his wife Carmen's will, the women were fully veiled at the ceremony.

After living in the United States, Yeslam spent more than a decade and a half in Saudi Arabia -- from 1977 to 1984 -- where he was one of the leading executives in the family company in Jeddah. After a dispute with his brothers over SBG's finances, Yeslam went to Geneva, where he founded an investment company that specialized in managing large fortunes. There were soon rumors that Yeslam had reconciled with Bakr and was involved once again in business dealings with the bin Laden family. He dreamed of the birth of a son, and probably of rising to the top of SBG management in Jeddah.

When Yeslam's third daughter was born in April 1987 and he began spending long periods away from home, his marriage failed. According to his wife Yeslam, worried about his business, he became increasingly tense. Members of the Saudi royal family were now traveling to Geneva regularly and demanding his attention, especially the influential Prince Mishal. Yeslam bin Laden's divorce developed, as he himself says, into a bitter "War of the Roses." But in 2001, after years of troubles, he was finally successful on another front when he was granted Swiss citizenship. What is Yeslam's relationship with his brother Osama, who, as he claims, he last saw 18 years ago?

"9/11 was a tremendous shock for me," says Yeslam, now an upstanding citizen of Geneva who has also donated many thousands of dollars to the local film festival. "Osama had long since become a stranger to me, nothing but a name one reads in the newspaper," he says. "I felt that I was being held responsible for the crimes of a relative." The offices of his Geneva-based Saudi Investment Company (Sico) and his properties near Cannes were searched by the authorities, "just like that, on the strength of suspicion," he says. In early 2001, he registered the name "Bin Laden" as a trademark. He planned to establish a fashion house that would sell Bin Laden jeans but then, heeding the advice of friends, he abandoned the idea after 9/11: "After the incidents in New York, it would have been seen as a label in poor taste."

He developed a new business idea in the fall of 2004, a line of perfume. It's named "Yeslam," after its inventor and, according to its advertising, marries the scents of jasmine and lilies of the valley with an underlying note of sandalwood. In ads for the perfume, this combination of scents produces "a penetrating but gentle message for those who yearn for inner peace." The company plans to sell 60,000 bottles to its peace-loving customers.

Everything could work out for the best in Yeslam's world -- if only these new, hateful accusations would go away. A shadow lies over the man who tries to be pro-American and anti-Osama with every fiber of his being. In late December 2004, the French paper Le Monde reported that examining magistrate Renaud von Ruymbeke plans to investigate the bin Laden family's allegedly dubious financial dealings.

At the center of the investigation is an account that brothers Omar and Heidar bin Laden opened in 1990 with Swiss bank UBS with an initial deposit of $450,000. According to documents presented to the court, this account was still in existence in 1997, and only two people were authorized to conduct transactions: Yeslam and Osama bin Laden. The French court also intends to investigate information suggesting that €241 million were funneled from Switzerland to shadowy bank accounts in Pakistan through Akberali Moawalla, a former business partner of Sico and an acquaintance of Yeslam. Could all this have occurred with Yeslam's involvement or knowledge?

"I am not involved in money-laundering, and especially not with al-Qaida," says Yeslam bin Laden, his voice becoming slightly hoarse and edgy. He says that he never used the alleged UBS account and, probably for this reason, forgot about it. He takes pains to point out that he has not been charged with anything, neither by the New York court nor the French judge. He says that he is "innocent until proven guilty" -- another Western concept that this man living between cultures values, knowing full well that it carries no particular weight in his native country.

ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA, HOME OF THE AMERICAN CEMETERY FOR WAR HEROES AND "HARRY'S TAP ROOM". It's a relatively inconspicuous burger-and-seafood restaurant conveniently located halfway between the White House and CIA headquarters in nearby Langley, Virginia. We are here for a meeting with the CIA agent who hunted down Osama, tried to shed light on the bin Laden family's business dealings, and probably knows a great deal about the mysterious departure of more than a dozen bin Laden family members from the United States after 9/11. This is the man who published the bestseller "Imperial Hubris" last year under the nom de plume "Anonymous."

Anonymous now has a name and a face. His name is Mike Scheuer, and a gray beard partially covers his finely-chiseled academic face. He resigned from the CIA after 22 years of service, because he was no longer able to remain anonymous. Journalists were on the verge of uncovering his identity, and his book was facing harsh criticism from the White House. "That was when I did what had to be done," says Scheuer, 52, before taking a bite of his hamburger. He leaves his French fries untouched, glancing at his stomach. Being overweight isn't exactly part of the image someone wants to convey who, as a CIA field agent, helped arm the mujahedeen to fight the Russians in Afghanistan and who, in 1996, was placed in charge of "Alec," the top-secret unit authorized by former President Bill Clinton to hunt down bin Laden.

It was the first time an entire CIA station focused on a single man. Scheuer headed the special unit for three years until his superiors, angered by his complaints that the hunt for the world's top terrorist was being conducted half-heartedly, reassigned him for the first time. But he was brought back after Sept. 11, 2001, when it became clear that his bleak predictions had come true. But Scheuer's criticism of the Iraq war ultimately destroyed his good standing with the White House. "Bush strengthened the terrorists with his invasion, but it was a truth that they didn't want to hear."

Scheuer's axis of evil differs markedly from the president's. He believes that Pakistan and, even more so, Saudi Arabia are the epicenters of global violence. "Many Saudis support the terrorists in Iraq to this day - but we're the ones who are putting up the money -- by paying $50 for a barrel of oil and making ourselves dependent on oil imports."

Scheuer, an experienced intelligence expert, doubts that the entire bin Laden family has severed ties with Osama: "I haven't seen anything in the last 10 years that's convinced me that would be the case." In his view, SBG still derives some of its profits from business dealings in the Islamic world that can be linked to the family's supposed "black sheep." "He's treated as a hero almost everywhere over there," says Scheuer.

The CIA came close to capturing OBL several times. On one occasion, during the al-Qaida leadership's hasty retreat from the Afghan city of Kandahar in the fall of 2001, family passports were inadvertently left behind. Saad, a son of Osama bin Laden, was supposedly sent back to al-Qaida headquarters to make sure the documents wouldn't fall into the hands of the Americans. When he realized he had forgotten the combination for the safe, he used a cell phone to get the information, directly violating his father's strict instructions. Several different intelligence agencies picked up the call, but by then it was too late to act.

According to Scheuer, members of the bin Ladin family who were doing business in the United States or studying at US universities were almost completely inaccessible. "My counterparts at the FBI questioned one of the bin Ladens," the former CIA agent recalls. "But then the State Department received a complaint from a law firm, and there was a huge uproar. We were shocked to find out that the bin Ladens in the United States had diplomatic passports, and that we weren't allowed to talk to them."

Scheuer believes that these diplomatic privileges also helped the bin Ladens get out of the United States quickly after September 11, in a bizarre episode that has even been probed by the US Congress and an investigative commission.

Only two days after the attacks, when the US government had just reopened US air space, charter jets began taking off from various cities. Nine pilots flew 142 Saudi Arabians back to the kingdom. On Sept. 20, 2001, the "bin Laden jet" took off from St. Louis, making stops in Los Angeles, Orlando, Washington and Boston. At each stop, the plane picked up more half-brothers, nephews, nieces and cousins of public enemy number one. At that point, the FBI had already begun investigating two of the bin Ladens who were flown out of the country. They both lived in Falls Church, a suburb of Washington, and were officials in the "World Assembly of Muslim Youth."

Richard Clarke, for many years the chief of counterterrorism at the White House, has revealed that he was responsible for the flights. He says that he grantedhis approval after having been asked to handle the issue. And by whom? Perhaps by Bush's chief of staff, Andrew Card, after coordinating the plan with Saudi ambassador Prince Bandar, a close friend of the First Family? "I would be happy tell you, but I don't remember," Clarke told a Senate investigating panel -- few believe he was telling the truth.
Of course, former CIA agent Scheuer is well aware that the bin Ladens, as investors in and customers of the Carlyle Group, an investment company, had common business interests with the Bushs. In fact, until October 2003 George W.'s father and predecessor in the White House still worked as an "advisor" for Carlyle, which is also involved in the defense sector. Although Scheuer is no wild-eyed conspiracy theorist, he also believes that the US government was "unusually" accommodating to the bin Ladens. Does he regret leaving the CIA, and does he dream of returning? Scheuer, a father of four, says: "I liked my job. I wanted to protect the country against its enemies -- but not the president against
06/06/2005

Meet The Bin Ladens, Part II
Tracking Osama's Kin Around the World

By Erich Follath and Georg Mascolo

Part 2: NEXT PAGE: "The Saudi Arabian Wahhabites are the luxury version of the Taliban"

GENEVA, IN THE FRENCH-SPEAKING PART OF SWITZERLAND, AT THE BAR IN THE FIVE-STAR HOTEL LA RÉSERVE. The bar offers an impressive view of the lake and its snow-covered banks. We have an appointment with Osama's sister-in-law, Carmen bin Laden.

She arrives precisely on time. "I hate unpunctuality," she says, dropping her fur onto the arm of her chair and, with an alert, almost furtive look in her eyes, and observing her surrounding, as if she were expecting trouble and had to keep her guard up. She is an attractive woman who seems to draw attention to herself, the type of woman who is eternally in her late 30s, perfectly put together, from her face to her figure to her wardrobe. But despite her appearance, she doesn't come across as a Chanel doll. And despite the willpower she must have needed in the past, especially during her seven years in Saudi Arabia, she also exudes a sense of fragility.

Her father was a wealthy Swiss businessman and her mother the child of an upper-class Iranian family, and Carmen never lacked anything money could buy. But her parents' marriage failed just as she was entering school and, like so many children of divorce, she felt responsible. What fascinated Carmen most about Yeslam bin Laden when she met him in her early 20s was his self-confidence, but his good looks and clearly unlimited financial resources were also a plus.

While she felt that her years studying in the United States were carefree, the years spent in Jeddah after her marriage to Yeslam were nothing short of martyrdom. Living in the family clan's environment, she was able to observe first-hand the oppression of women and the indoctrination of children. For Carmen, it was unbearable not to be allowed to drive a car, or to be required to obtain her husband's permission whenever she wanted to travel. "The Saudi Arabian Wahhabites are the luxury version of the Taliban," says Carmen bin Laden.

She rarely saw Osama. She noticed him because he turned away in horror when she opened the house door: "I was unveiled, and he was afraid of the sight." The family saw OBL as fanatically pious -- and he was also admired for the same reason. But Carmen thought he was odd. She says that Osama's young wife, Najwa, was not even permitted to give her baby a bottle when it was very hot, because the merciless father felt that the bottle's nipple was "haram" -- impure in a religious sense.

The outsider observed the trench warfare that was taking place for power within the family dynasty, a battle in which her husband, son number 10, soon moved to the top. "The daily realty within the family was jealousy, envy and intrigue," she says. "But the all-powerful Islamic traditions of Wahhabism ensure that no one is excluded from the clan. No individual destiny is more important than the shared system of values."

This is why Carmen bin Laden believes it is impossible that the brothers have severed all ties with Osama. "No matter what he has done, they cannot disown him -- it would be a violation of the Sharia laws." And because of the close relationships between the royal family and the construction company, Carmen also believes that there are still secret links among Osama, various princes in senior government positions and leading religious scholars.

Carmen had little difficulty separating from Yeslam. "He became more and more Saudi, more intolerant, especially when we left Jeddah in 1984 and began living in Switzerland." After publishing a critical book about her experiences two years ago, she no longer maintains any contact with Yeslam or anyone in the bin Laden clan. Now she is working on a second book -- using documents she says will shed light on the bin Ladin's financial dealings and dubious transactions in tax havens.

She has never considered dropping her married name. "It would have looked as though my daughters and I were plagued by a bad conscience," she says. Even after divorcing Yeslam, she continues to fight for an adequate financial arrangement, "for the daughters," she says. Carmen bin Laden is proud of the fact that her three daughters have stayed with her. The youngest, Nur, 18, still lives at home and goes to school in Geneva, where she is a year away from graduation. Nadja, 27, studies design at a university in Geneva. Waffa, 29, earned a law degree from Columbia University and commutes between New York and London.

"My uncle's terrorist attack on Sept. 11, 2001 was also directly against me personally," says Waffa. Although she was in Geneva at the time of the attacks, her New York apartment, where she spends most of her time, was only about a mile from the Twin Towers.

Waffa, born in Los Angeles, is an American citizen and a vocal champion of everything OBL detests: Western open-mindedness in matters of faith, music and fashion. British tabloids describe Waffa as an "erotic-exotic brunette" who has become a "fixture on the London club scene." There has also been talk of a potential career as a pop singer, after friends introduced Waffa to Nellee Hooper, who has produced Madonna's and Björk's albums. Waffa has already recorded demos of what insiders have dubbed catchy East-West ethno-pop.

But Waffa bin Laden does not feel drawn to the spotlight, at least as she claims. She is primarily interested in finding a job in a law firm. After all, she says, she does have a law degree. She is convinced that her lack of success on the job market is solely attributable to her family name: "After all, who wants Osama bin Laden's niece as their legal advisor?" Manager Simon Coldwell also believes that she should think carefully before embarking on a career as a pop star: "There is only one surname that's less well-suited to launching a pop career -- Hitler."

THE VILLAGE OF DIR ON THE SOUTHERN SLOPES OF THE HINDUKUSH MOUNTAINS, JUST BELOW THE LOWARI PASS. The village is little more than a wretched, dusty group of huts at the end of the world, in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province, a place shaped by "Pashtunwali," the code of honor of warlike tribes and Islamic loyalties. Tribal law offers unconditional protection for guests, even at the risk of one's own life, but also gives rise to gruesome blood feuds for perceived injustices and any form of insult.

Dir is famous throughout the region for its sharp knives and the Kalashnikov knockoffs that every young man older than 14 carries in the streets. It's also known for smuggling along dozens of hidden paths across the border into Afghanistan, only 40 kilometers away. Asmar, the Afghan village on the other side of the border, is the place where Osama bin Laden was last seen by credible witnesses -- well over a year ago (whereas his last taped message was recorded only five months ago).

The world's number one terrorist has moved on. Some intelligence experts believe he has gone north into the remote Wakhan region, with its jagged mountains and thousands of caves in which to hide. Others believe he is in the rugged mountainous Khost region south of here, on either side of the border town of Parachinar.

It seems difficult to believe that OBL can move around in this region entirely without the knowledge of Pakistani intelligence and military officials. American special forces are repeatedly seeing the same pattern: Whenever they believe they are close to bin Laden's followers in the border region, someone tips off the terrorists -- presumably high-ranking sympathizers within the ranks of Pakistani intelligence or military.

His mother Hamida's phone line in the Middle East is constantly monitored, on the off chance that Osama will call, enabling agents to track his whereabouts. The National Security Agency, America's enormous spy agency, obtained Osama's satellite telephone number in 1996, and its computers recorded every call made from Osama's number, 00873-682505331, but the number is long since defunct. Hundreds of calls were recorded, conversations with contacts in Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Pakistan. But no one spoke with Osama as frequently as his mother, Hamida. He apparently last spoke with Hamida in the spring of 2001, a few months before 9/11. In the very brief conversation Osama told his mother that he would not be able to call again for a long time, a remark that seemed cryptic to the agents listening in at the time, especially when Osama added that "great events are about to take place." At the time, US President George W. Bush was so convinced that this would be the way to catch the terrorist leader that he told the Emir of Qatar: "We know that he'll call his mother one day -- and then we'll get him."

Hamida herself has remained loyal to her son. "I disapprove of the ambitions the press ascribe to him," she said in 2003, "but I am satisfied with Osama, and I pray to God that He will guide him along the right path."

Said bin Laden, one of OBL's older sons and now on Washington's Top Twenty list of terrorists being sought worldwide, is also presumably under electronic surveillance. Two years ago, the Iranian authorities arrested Said as he was crossing the border from Afghanistan, and are apparently holding him, together with three other high-ranking members of al-Qaida, as a bargaining chip for negotiations with Washington.

Some American investigators believe that their best chances lie in keeping an eye on a village in Yemen's Hadramaut region, not far from the birthplace of the family patriarch, Mohammed bin Ladin. According to Western intelligence sources, a 20-year-old Yemeni woman and her child recently came to the village from Pakistan, and was taken in by her relatives. The two-year-old child is apparently another offspring of Osama bin Laden. If the information is correct, this would demonstrate that, even after 9/11, the world's most-wanted terrorist has not been leading the monastic life of a hermit.

A terrorist as a caring father of a family? As recently as 2000, OBL said the following to an interviewer: "I thank God that he has allowed my family to understand my path. They are praying for me."

He also values the blessing of his father, who he transformed posthumously into an Islamic fighter. "When he did some work in Jerusalem, he tried to have bulldozers converted into tanks so he could attack Israel -- he was disappointed when the plan failed."

Experts say that it would be a mistake to apply Western patterns of thought to Middle Eastern reasoning. According to the Wahhabite world view, those who declare war on the West and have killed Western civilians can still love their neighbors at home.

Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan

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* Part 1: Tracking Osama's Kin Around the World
* Part 2: NEXT PAGE: "The Saudi Arabian Wahhabites are the luxury version of the Taliban"

Finally some liberal democratic common sense: Cable, Lib Dem Business Secretary of the Great Britain, to shine light on 'murky corporate world', rigged markets, cartels and monopolies etc.

2010-09-22T06:27:00.000-07:00

Link: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20100921/tuk-cable-to-shine-light-on-murky-corpor-dba1618.htlm

Cable to shine light on 'murky corporate world'

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Announcing a wide-ranging probe into "murky" corporate activities, Mr Cable is to condemn markets as "often irrational or rigged". He will also insist that unrestrained capitalism "kills competition".

The tough comments may reassure Lib Dem activists who have been questioning the compromises leader Nick Clegg made in order to forge the coalition with David Cameron.

But they could also make life difficult for Mr Cameron, as Conservative traditionalists are similarly concerned that they are being dragged to the left on issues such as replacing Trident.

As the Lib Dem conference in Liverpool draws to a close, Mr Cable will use his speech to announce a consultation starting next month to cover issues surrounding takeovers, executive pay and corporate short-termism.

"The principle of responsible ownership should apply across the business world," he will tell party members. "Let me be quite clear. The Government's agenda, is not one of laissez-faire. Markets are often irrational or rigged. So I am shining a harsh light into the murky world of corporate behaviour."

Fritiran Secular Liberal Minority Report on 18 Sept. Action for Sakineh and against stoning, flogging and executions and also to expose the Islamic state of Iran's genocide of political prisoners in 1988 and bring the leaders of the Islamic Imperialist state to justice at the International Court of Justice

2010-09-21T17:51:00.000-07:00

Fritiran Secular Liberal Minority Report: Maryam Namazie's new statement and report from Copenhagen 18-09-2010 action to Save Sakineh and to stop stoning, flogging and executions and to remember and condemn 1988 Islamic Republic genocide of political prisoners:
Enough! On the ‘storm’ around Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani’s case

By Maryam Namazie

The Islamic Republic of Iran and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have raised the issue of 41 year old Teresa Lewis’ impending execution in the US to challenge the “storm” surrounding 43 year old Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani who has been sentenced to death by stoning in Iran.

Clearly both women must not be executed. Executions – for whatever reason – are the most deplorable form of intentional murder.

Having said that, however, there are a number of reasons why Sakineh’s impending stoning has caused such a huge public outcry.

Firstly, we have a photo of Sakineh; we know her full name, that she has had a fifth grade education, and that she ‘wants to live,’ making it extremely personal.

Her children have pleaded for help. The international campaign took off in an unprecedented manner after an open letter from Sakineh’s two children calling on people to intervene.

Who can ever forget that letter?

It said: ‘Today we stretch out our hands to the people of the whole world… Is the world so cruel that it can watch this catastrophe and do nothing about it?’

Also we – and particularly Mina Ahadi – have been campaigning against stoning for years. Mina first started working on Sakineh’s case three years ago.

Finally, stoning is the most egregious and barbaric form of execution. The law even specifies the size of stone to be used. Prior to the stoning, the bodies of the victims are washed in the same way the dead are (whilst they are alive), wrapped in a shroud, and then buried in a ditch – up to the waist for men and chest for women. They are then pelted with stones – on prison grounds or in their already dug out graves – until they are dead.

Sakineh has become the cry of 21st century humanity vis-à-vis this era’s barbarism.

Today, stoning has become the racial apartheid of this century – intolerable and unacceptable. The public are just not going to stand for stoning anymore. And as a result governments have taken heed. We know that many governments supported racial apartheid in South Africa for a very long time and only as a result of public pressure did they eventually deem racial apartheid a crime against humanity. We also know that many of the very governments criticising Iran on Sakineh’s case have had and continue to have wonderfully cosy relations with that regime despite its slaughter of an entire generation.

But that is the nature of public outcries – they change laws, they ban the intolerable, they challenge the powers that be and even bring down governments and regimes.

Sakineh’s case has caused such a storm because we want her to live.

We want to save her.

We won’t let her die.

Not because she is the only one in this situation but because she symbolises that which we will no longer tolerate.

There are many others like her – in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, China and yes the US waiting to be killed one way or the other by the state as a tool to repress and intimidate society at large.

But there are also many others like Baby P or Dua Khalil, yet it is their faces and names and stories that force us to scream enough.

Enough!

Copenhagen Action for Sakineh and to remember victims of the 1988 genocide in Iran

Dear Save Sakineh campaign coordinators,

A handful of dedicated political refugees from Iran to Denmark and a Danish college professor defied short notice and the Autumn windy weather of Copenhagen on 18 September 2010 to inform Danes of Sakineh's case and urge them to make the leadership of Denmark to get active in stopping Islamic Imperialist states in their sharia-law stoning, flogging and executions and to remember and condemn 1988 Islamic Republic genocide of political prisoners. Those who remain indoors due to weather were offered extensive information from the campaign website resources. After the Save Sakineh action we went on to a conference regarding the 1988 genocide of political prisoners in Iran, a meeting called by the cross-political grassroot movement the Committee to Defend Political Prisoners in Iran, Denmark, where indictment of the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran incl. Khamenei and Mousavi, Rafsanjani, Khatami, Karoubi and all for their establishment's genocide and for their following and execution of the now dead Khomieni's Islamic order, fatwa, to perpetrate the genocide wiping out most of the secular activists of Iran in a matter of weeks. The focus was the recently published legal report by the Boroumand Foundation and the task to break the silence of the Danish establishment as well as Danish left, centre and right about the 1988 genocide.

Sincerely

Pedram Kazemi-Esfarjani, Fritiran's secular, liberal minority member elect of the board.

An update on the Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani campaign

2010-09-20T12:51:00.001-07:00

Hello

Thanks to all of you who supported the 18 September day of action in support of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani and against stoning and flogging.

You can see a visual report of some of the actions here: http://stopstonningnow.com/wpress/3930. Highlights include a rally of over 150 people in Brussels organised by Brussels humanists/secularists, MPs and Amnesty International as well as nearly 20,000 people chanting ‘stop stoning now’ at the Protest the Pope rally in London at which I spoke along with Terry Sanderson, Pragna Patel, Richard Dawkins, Johann Hari, Peter Tatchell and others: http://iransolidarity.blogspot.com/2010/09/we-dont-need-corrective-supplied-by.html.

Our next actions are on 10 October, International Day against the Death Penalty and against Ahmadinejad’s visit to New York to address the UN General Assembly this week: http://notoahmadinejad.net/.

In protest to Ahmadinejad’s visit, 40 campaigners, academics and writers have called on the UN General Assembly to issue an emergency resolution calling for an end to the medieval and barbaric punishment of stoning as well as the immediate release of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani and all those sentenced to death by stoning. The open letter also asks that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad not be allowed to address the General Assembly and that his government be boycotted. You can see the letter here: http://notoahmadinejad.net/letters/openletterUN.html.

Just recently, Ahmadinejad has said in an interview with ABC network that Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani had never been sentenced to death by stoning. Her son, Sajjad, a 22 year old transport worker, has challenged him to a debate on this. In Sajjad’s letter distributed by the International Committees against Stoning and Execution, he says: ‘For peoples’ information, we will publish documents of our mother’s stoning sentence, issued by the offices that work under Mr. Ahmadinejad’s presidency, so the world can judge his words objectively.’ He goes on to ask ABC network to ‘arrange for a live broadcast discussion between Mr. Ahmadinejad and I on these issues...’ You can read his full statement here and also see copies of the actual stoning sentence: http://stopstonningnow.com/wpress/4059.

In Ahmadinejad’s interview he also blames: ‘someone in Germany’ for the uproar surrounding Ms Ashtiani’s case. Mina Ahadi’s response will be translated into English shortly. In her statement in Persian she ‘accepts the “accusation” with pride!’

By the way, Facebook had disabled Mina and my accounts recently right before the 18 September day of action for Sakineh and against stoning. After many letters of protest from supporters, and an open letter to Facebook founders by a number of well-known personalities (http://iransolidarity.blogspot.com/2010/09/open-letter-to-facebook-founders-on.html), my account has been enabled again, though Mina’s has not. Please keep writing to Facebook until they enable her account as well: http://iransolidarity.blogspot.com/2010/09/protest-faceooks-disabling-of-maryam.html.

Finally, please don’t forget to donate to the Save Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani campaign. Thank you for all your donations so far but we need a lot more money to be able to cover all our costs. You can donate via cheque or Paypal here: http://countmein-iran.com/donate.html. No amount is too small or too big!

Thanks again

Warm wishes

Maryam

Maryam Namazie
Iran Solidarity
BM Box 2387
London WC1N 3XX, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 7719166731
iransolidaritynow@gmail.com
www.iransolidarity.org.uk
iransolidarity.blogspot.com

Dansk/English: Erklaering/Statement for d.18.09. kl.14-16 ved Glentevej-Vibevej, Kbh. NV

2010-09-17T08:48:00.000-07:00

Opfordring til handling Lørdag den 18. September 2010: Medborgere over hele Verden mod et Regime af Piskning og Stening

I København d.18.09. kl.14-16 ved Glentevej-Vibevej, Kbh. NV

Den Islamiske Republik i Iran har endnu engang, ifølge dens voldelige Islamiske love, pisket Sakineh Ashtiani 99 slag. Regimet har lagt et foto publiceret i avisen the London Times af en kvinde fejlagtigt rapporteret at være Sakineh Ashtiani, uden det Islamiske hijab-slør, til grund for piskningen. Anklagen lød paradoksalt nok: “spredning af korruption og uanstændighed”. Regimet havde truet, at Sakineh ville blive henrettet Søndag 29 August. Derfor hænger både dødsdommen og stenings-truslen stadigt over hendes hoved. Sakineh’s søn, Sajjad, har fornylig udtalt sig til en presse-konference i Paris ved telefonisk kontakt fra Iran, at han er bekymret for, at afslutningen af ritualistiske Ramadan måned ville blive benyttet til at henrette Sakineh. Vi er virkeligt oppe imod et sadistisk Islamisk regime. Regimet er ved at tage livet af Sakineh lidt for lidt, for at demonstrere sin magt og fortsatte existens. Hvert skridt taget af regimet afslører dybden af dets vildskab, totalt manglende respekt for menneskerettigheder, dimensionerne af regimets had til kvinder, fratagelse af ethvert forsvar fra de tiltalte fanger, regimets barbariske retssystem, bagstræberiske religiøse love, og den høje grad af regimets vold og blodtørst, og samtidig dets totale impotens. Det er nødvendigt at komme ud med fuld kraft for at redde Sakineh Ashtiani og mod dette Regime af Stening og Piskning. Vi har til enhver tid erklæret, at det ville være et effektivt skridt i støtte til befolkningen i Iran i deres kamp mod den Islamiske Republik, at regimet skulle blive boykotted politisk og dets ambassader og kontorer skulle blive lukket over hele Verden. I mange år har vi sagt, at regimet skulle blive ekskluderet fra det internationale samfund, fra FN, fra ILO etc. og ikke blive anerkendt som repræsentanter for det Iranske folk. Tiden til at implementere disse krav er NU. Befolkningen i Iran accepterer ikke den Islamiske Republik blive givet talerstole ved regeringer og andre internationale etablissementer. Den Islamiske Republik er en skamplet på menneskeheden og regimets ledere skal blive retsforfulgt for 31 år af daglige forbrydelser mod mennekseheden. Vi opfordrer alle medborgere af Verden til at demonstrere om lørdagen, den 18. september, i alle byer over hele Verden, mod den Islamiske Republik af Piskning, Stening og Henrettelse. Demonstrer og fordøm regimet. Vi skal kræve at Sakineh ummedelbart og ubetinget sættes paa fri fod. Stening, henrettelse, piskning og lignende forbrydelser skal blive afskaffet for bestandig.
Stil krav om, at Ahmadinejad ikke skulle tilladelses deltagelse i FN’s General Assembly. Lad os med vores deltagelse gøre denne aktions- og folkeoplysningsdag større end den vellykkede 100 Cities Against Stoning den 28. August 2010, hvor 111 byer deltog markerede deres modstand mod stening og krævede, at Sakineh og andre ofre skal sættes på fri fod!

Frit oversat af den lokale kontaktperson for kampagnen, Pedram Kazemi-Esfarjani, sekulaer, liberal aktivist
Valgt bestyrelsesmedlem i Fritiran, sekluaert, liberalt mindretal
docpedram@gmail.com
www.fritdanmark-fritiran.blogspot.com

A Call for Urgent Action Saturday September 18th: Citizens of the World against the Regime of Flogging and Stoning

The Islamic Republic has once again, in accordance with its savage Islamic laws, flogged Sakineh 99 times. The regime has used a picture published in the London Times of a woman, purportedly Ashtiani, whithout the Islamic hijab, as an excuse to flog her on charges of spreading corruption and indecency. The regime last week threatened Sakineh to be executed on Sunday August 29th. And of course both the execution sentence and stoning are still hanging over her head. Sajjad told the audience of today’s press conference in Paris by phone that he’s worried that by the conclusion of Ramadan this week, his mother would be executed. Indeed we are dealing with a sadistic Islamic regime. It is killing Sakineh little by little, to demonstrate its continued existence. Every move of this regime further reveals the depths of its savagery, the utter absence of peoples’ rights, the dimensions of the regime’s misogyny, the sheer defenseless of prisoners, the barbarity of the judiciary system of this regime, the backwardness of religious laws, and the heights of the regime’s savagery and blood lust, and – at the same time – its total impotence. It is necessary to come out with full force to save Sakineh Ashtiani and stand against the Regime of Stoning and Flogging. We have always said that as an effective step to supporting the people in Iran in their struggle against the Islamic Republic, this regime should be politically boycotted and its embassies and offices closed around the world. For years we have said this regime should be expelled from the international community, from the United Nations, from the International Labor Organization, and all other communities, and not to be recognized as the representative of the Iranian people. The time to implement these demands is now. The people of Iran do not accept that the Islamic Republic be given a podium from which to speak by any entity or government . The Islamic Republic is the shame of humanity and its leaders must be prosecuted for 31 years of daily crimes against people. We ask all citizens of the world to demonstrate on Saturday, the 18th of September, in all cities around the world, against the Islamic Republic of Flogging, Stoning and Execution. Demonstrate and condemn this regime. Announce that Sakineh must be immediately and unconditionally free. Stoning, execution, flogging and the like all should be abolished forever. Demand that this Regime of Flogging, Stoning and Execution not be recognized and that its offices and embassies be closed everywhere.
Announce that Ahmadinejad should not be permitted to take part in the General Assembly of the United Nations, from behind a podium, as the representative of Iranian people. Prepare yourself for demonstrations against the Regime of Flogging and Stoning and Execution. Tell your friends. Decide the place and time of demonstration and inform us. We know that this is short notice, but this time, we must try to have even larger demonstrations that on the 28th of August.

Loerdag 18. Sept. kl.14-16 mod stening, Glentevej-Vibevej, Kbh. NV, derefter kl.17 deltagelse i Ali Azad og andres moede om 1988 folkemordet i Iran, Kulturhuset Indre By, Ahlefeltsgade/Charlotte Ammundsens Plads 3, Kbh K

2010-09-16T04:56:00.000-07:00

Jeg inviterer hermed alle fredelige, lovlydige medborgere til en tvaerpolitisk, fredelig, lovlig oplysnings-kampagnedag mod stening, piskning og henrettelser. Arrangementet er sekulaer og religioese sympoler frabedes. Kampagnen vil ogsaa saette fokus paa, at et regime af stening ikke burde anerkendes af FN som repraesentanter for det Iranske folk. Danmark kunne starte med at tage sagen op!

Demonstrationen/folkeoplysningsdagen afholdes loerdag d.18.09.2010, kl.14-16, i naerheden af den Iranske Islamiske statsmoske, ved Glentevej-Vibevej, som led i det internationale samarbejde: http://stopstonningnow.com/wpress/3692, idet vi i Koebenhavn vil samtidig vise, at den statslige sharia-stormoskee paa Vibevej ikke er velkommen. Jeg vil fraraade megafon-larm, idet vi er der ogsaa til at stoette nabolaget mod den larm, uro og undertrykkelse, som en evt. kommende stormoskee vil udsaette dem for. Vi vil som d.28.08.2010 samtale med interesserede forbipasserende - folkeoplysning! Hvorfor tror I, at Islamisk Imperialisme truer og assassinerer vores forfattere, forlaeggere, redaktoerer, tegnere og kunstnere? Det er fordi folkeoplysning om og mod sharia og Islamisk Imperialisme er et effektivt redskab i folkelig modstand mod disse.

Hidtil er 32 byer over hele Verden med i denne kampagnedag for at holde Sakineh og andre truede fanger i live, og for at opfordre Verdenssamfundets til at goere alt hvad der er i vores magt til at stoppe stening, piskning og henrettelser, i Iran og i resten af Verden. Men ogsaa at sikre retfaerdig, sekulaer, civil og humanistisk rettergang for de indsatte og anklagede.

Politiet og kommunen har givet tilladelse til stopstoningnow demonstration/oplysnings-kampagnen ved Glentevej-Vibevej Der vil komme en pressemeddelelse i morgen.

Vejrudsigt fra DMI: Lørdag lidt eller nogen sol, men også spredte byger. Temp. op mellem 12 og 15 grader, og jævn til hård vind omkring vest, ved kysterne endnu lokalt op til kuling.

I London vil der paa samme tid vaere demonstration og oplysningskampagner mod Paven, som man flere inkl. Sam Harris og Richard Dawkins har indstillet til at blive arresteret og stillet for retten for de forbrydelser mod menneskeheden, hvilke han og hans multinationale etablissement er ansvarlige for.

Kl.17: Derefter vil jeg opfordre alle at deltage i konference og sekulaer mindehoejtidighed for de faldne venner, bekendte, familiemedlemmer og kammerater i 1988, under en af de stoerste Holocausts i den Iranske Islamiske stats blodige historie: man kunne kalde den folkemord mod de sekulaere mindretal i Iran, omend der ogsaa blev henrettet mange troende.

Nedenfor brev fra Maryam Namazie om 18. September aktionsdagen paa Engelsk, efterfulgt af Ali Azads brev paa persisk med indkaldelse til moedet om 1988 henrettelserne.

Med venlig hilsen

Pedram Kazemi-Esfarjani, fortsat fuldgyldigt medlem af bestyrelsen i den koebenhavnske forening Fritiran, sekulaert liberalt mindretal.

BILAG: 1- Maryam Namazie's brev vedr. 18. September aktionsdag for Sakineh. 2- Maryam Namazie og venners kampagnes hjemmeside har bragt nedennaevnte analyse af folkemord i Iran 1988; 3- Ali Azad og Komitteen til Forsvar af Politiske Fanger i Iran indklader til moede om 1988 masse-henrettelserne.

Nedenfor en af koordinatorerne, kommunisten Maryam Namazie, saa bedes I forstaa, at dette er en tvaerpolitisk engagement mellem saavel kommunister som liberale. pke

"Hello

Since I last wrote to you Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani has again been flogged 99 times for an unveiled photo mistakenly attributed to her . She has also been threatened with execution, and denied visitation rights. Even, her lawyer’s home (Hatoun Kian) has been ransacked and his computer and documents seized. Court documents pertaining to Ms Ashtiani’s husband’s closed murder case have also gone missing.

Her 22-year-old son Sajjad is extremely concerned that the Iranian authorities are trying to frame Ms Ashtiani for his father’s murder by constructing a ‘new’ murder case to refute the stoning sentence. Unfortunately a number of media outlets have bought into the lie (see for example BBC Sunday Morning Live’s bias here). In fact, the press have been given a copy of the actual court judgment of stoning for adultery at a 30 July press conference in London. Also, even the man who has been found guilty of murdering her husband has not been executed. In Iran, under Diyeh laws, the family of the victim can ask for the death penalty to be revoked. Ms Ashtiani’s son explains why he and his 17 year old sister spared the man’s life in an interview with French writer and philosopher, Bernard-Henri Levy.

Despite all the regime’s outrages against Ms Ashtiani, her lawyers and family, on 8 September, a government official had the audacity to deceivingly claim that Ms Ashtiani had not been denied visitation rights, that her televised confession was not made under duress, and that she had not been flogged again. He also went on to say that her execution had been halted when no official documents halting her stoning or execution have been given to her lawyer or family.

Clearly this is yet another one of the regime’s ploys to push back the international campaign in her defence by giving the false impression that Ms Ashtiani is safe.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

On 18 September, we call on citizens everywhere to come out in defence of Ms Ashtiani and against the regime of flogging, stoning and execution. We are also calling for protests during 23-24 September when Ahmadinejad will be addressing the UN General Assembly.

Nothing can and will stop us from defending Sakineh’s precious life and bringing an end to the medieval and barbaric punishments of stoning and execution.

Let’s keep the pressure on.

We look forward to receiving news of your actions and events at actionforsakineh@gmail.com.

Warmest wishes

Maryam

Maryam Namazie

PLEASE ACT NOW!"

http://stopstonningnow.com/wpress/3809

The mass execution of political prisoners in the summer of 1988 was genocide

During the summer of 1988, as a continuation of the massacres and political executions that had taken place from the moment that the regime took power [in 1979], the Islamic Republic perpetrated mass executions of political prisoners. In a hasty operation, several thousand imprisoned opponents of the Islamic Republic were “tried” in minute courts (1) without any legal defense, sentenced to death, and immediately executed. What happened in the summer of ’88 was not only a new wave of political executions, but a genocide (2) against the Islamic Republic’s imprisoned opponents that was designed to systematically decimate and physically eradicate all who opposed the Islamic Republic.

The Iranian Revolution [which marks its beginning in June 2009] turned the eyes of the world towards Iran and blew the dust away from the hazy picture of 31 years of crime and genocide that people have suffered under the rule of the Islamic Republic. Today, the whole world is witness to the bloodthirsty political system confronting Iranian people. The International Campaign to Save Sakineh Ashtiani has drawn the attention of people worldwide to this reality: the Islamic Republic is a regime of stoning, execution, flogging, torture, enslavement of women, and utter denial of peoples’ rights.

Today, 22 years after the tragic genocide carried out against the Islamic Repblic’s opposition in the summer of ’88, and in the midst of efforts to save the life of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani and others sentenced to stoning and execution in Iran, we declare that all leaders of the Islamic Republic must be prosecuted and tried immediately. None of the heads of the Islamic Republic should be permitted to visit other countries. None of them should be permitted to stand behind a podium in front of international bodies and claim to be a representative of Iranian people. All political relationships with the Islamic Republic should be severed, and embassies of this regime of genocide should be closed.

On the 18th of September, people should demonstrate everywhere, and demand the freedom of Sakineh, as well as the legal and practical abolition of stoning, flogging, torture, and execution. Loudly declare that you stand with Iranian people in their endeavor to bring down this regime.

This regime is the murderer of the Iranian people, and it is the shame of all humanity. This regime should be brought to an end.

(1) “Minute courts” is the name given to these summary trials, which lasted less than 5 minutes in total and were followed by immediate execution.

(2) “The Genocide Convention of 1948, to which Iran has been a party since 1949, applies to killings of, or causing serious mental or physical harm to, members of a racial or religious group as such, with intent to destroy that group in whole or in part. The “religious group” that the Iranian regime intended to destroy in the second wave were those in its prisons who had been born Muslim but who had later renounced Islam. Whether or not atheists should count as a “religious group” for the purposes of the Convention, it is clear that persons who are born into a particular faith that they later renounce can be so categorised. This is a feature of the second wave of killings and is one reason why they must, in international law, engage continuing attention. And it must never be forgotten that the first wave of killings, although triggered by fury at the “Mersad” incursion, was based on the conclusion
that the MKO version of Islam was a blasphemy. Both the MKO and the leftists were condemned as moharebs, warriors against God, whose divinely ordained punishment was to be enforced by the state.”

The legal argument for judging the regime to be guilty of genocide begins on page 106.

Robertson, G. 2010. The Massacre of Political Prisoners in Iran, 1988: Report of an Inquiry Conducted by Geoffrey Robertson, Q.C. Washington DC: The Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation.
به مناسبت بیست ودومین سالگرد قتل عام هزاران زندانی سیاسی توسط رژیم جنایتکار اسلامی

در بیست دومین سالگرد قتل عام زندانیان سیاسی یاد هزاران زندانی سیاسی که در زندانهای جمهوری
اسلامی به قتل رسیده اند ، بخصوص کشتار دسته جمعی زندانیان در دهه 60 و نسل کشی تابستان 76 را
گرامی میداریم
با ردیگر همراه با میلیونها انسان آزادی خواه و دها هزار خانواده جانباختگان برای برچیده شدن بساط
زندان ، شکنجه ،اعدام و رژیم جنایتکار جمهوری اسلامی ایران تلاش میکنیم ، و باردیگر با آرمانهای
بزرگ وانسانی همه جانباختگان راه آزادی ،برابری ، عدالت خواهی و سوسیالیسم تجدید عهد میکنیم
کشتار زندانیان سیاسی ونسل کشی دهه شصت را نه فراموش میکنیم ونه می بخشیم و تا برچیده شدن
پدیده زندان ، شکنجه ،اعدام ومحاکمه همه دست اندرکاران این جنایت هولناک مبارزه وتلاش پیگیری
این خواست برحق دهاهزار خانواده داغدار ادامه خواهد داشت . به همین مناسبت کمیته دفاع از زندانیان
سیاسی ایران مراسم ویژه ای را تدارک دیده است .
زمان . شنبه 18 سپتامبر 2010 از ساعت 17 تا 20
مکان . KULTRHUSET INDRE BY
آدرس . (Ahlefeldtsgade) CHAROTTE AMMUNDSENS PLADS 3
8531 KØBENHAVN K
برگزار کننده .کمیته دفاع از زندانیان سیاسی ایران )دانمارک)

Saturday 18. Sept. 2010, 14:00-16:00, Glentevej-Vibevej, Copenhagen NV - police permission confirmed. Join September days of action against stoning, execution and flogging

2010-09-11T16:12:00.000-07:00

Join September days of action against stoning, execution and flogging

‘Our mother is innocent and should be released unconditionally’

Hello

Since I last wrote to you Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani has again been flogged 99 times for an unveiled photo mistakenly attributed to her . She has also been threatened with execution, and denied visitation rights. Even, her lawyer’s home (Hatoun Kian) has been ransacked and his computer and documents seized. Court documents pertaining to Ms Ashtiani’s husband’s closed murder case have also gone missing.

Her 22-year-old son Sajjad is extremely concerned that the Iranian authorities are trying to frame Ms Ashtiani for his father’s murder by constructing a ‘new’ murder case to refute the stoning sentence. Unfortunately a number of media outlets have bought into the lie (see for example BBC Sunday Morning Live’s bias here). In fact, the press have been given a copy of the actual court judgment of stoning for adultery at a 30 July press conference in London. Also, even the man who has been found guilty of murdering her husband has not been executed. In Iran, under Diyeh laws, the family of the victim can ask for the death penalty to be revoked. Ms Ashtiani’s son explains why he and his 17 year old sister spared the man’s life in an interview with French writer and philosopher, Bernard-Henri Levy.

Despite all the regime’s outrages against Ms Ashtiani, her lawyers and family, on 8 September, a government official had the audacity to deceivingly claim that Ms Ashtiani had not been denied visitation rights, that her televised confession was not made under duress, and that she had not been flogged again. He also went on to say that her execution had been halted when no official documents halting her stoning or execution have been given to her lawyer or family.

Clearly this is yet another one of the regime’s ploys to push back the international campaign in her defence by giving the false impression that Ms Ashtiani is safe.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

On 18 September, we call on citizens everywhere to come out in defence of Ms Ashtiani and against the regime of flogging, stoning and execution. We are also calling for protests during 23-24 September when Ahmadinejad will be addressing the UN General Assembly.

Nothing can and will stop us from defending Sakineh’s precious life and bringing an end to the medieval and barbaric punishments of stoning and execution.

Let’s keep the pressure on.

We look forward to receiving news of your actions and events at actionforsakineh@gmail.com.

Warmest wishes

Maryam

Maryam Namazie

PLEASE ACT NOW! http://stopstonningnow.com/wpress/3695

Fidel to Ahmadinejad: 'Stop Slandering the Jews' + Ahmadi goes to Lebanon

2010-09-09T14:24:00.000-07:00

* Published 17:31 09.09.10
* Latest update 17:31 09.09.10

Report: Ahmadinejad to visit Lebanon's border with Israel
Iran announces official presidential visit to Lebanon next month, Ahmadinejad's first since taking office in 2005.
By Jack Khoury Tags: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Iran IAEA Lebanon Saad Hariri

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will make an official visit to Lebanon next month, the Iranian administration said in an official announcement on Thursday.

The visit will be Ahmadinejad's first official visit to Lebanon in the five years since he was elected to office.

Lebanese media reported that Ahmadinejad, who is scheduled to arrive in Lebanon on October 13, was expected to tour the southern part of the country and to visit the county's shared border with Israel.

Lebanese media further reported that during his visit, the Iranian president was expected to meet with his Lebanese counterpart, Michel Suleiman, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri and senior Hezbollah officials.

Last month, tension between Israel and the Lebanon came to a head when Lebanese soldiers fired at Israeli troops across the border, killing an officer and wounding another. A clash ensued in which two Lebanese soldiers and a journalist were killed.

Ahmadinejad met Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah during a visit to Damascus in February. Hezbollah is an Iranian-backed group which fought a month-long war with Israel in southern Lebanon in 2006.

Earlier this week, the International Atomic Energy Agency revealed in a report that Iran had accelerated its nuclear program and currently possesses a sufficient supply of enriched uranium to make three nuclear devices, assuming it speeds up enrichment to 90 percent.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/un-report-iran-has-enough-uranium-for-three-nuclear-devices-1.312614?localLinksEnabled=false

According to the UN nuclear watchdog, Iran currently has 22 kilograms of uranium enriched at levels of 20 percent, and a total of 2.8 tons of uranium enriched at 3.5 percent. All the uranium is under IAEA supervision and Iran cannot make use of it for military purposes without alerting the international community.

http://www.haaretz.com/misc/article-print-page/report-ahmadinejad-to-visit-lebanon-s-border-with-israel-1.313064?trailingPath=2.169%2C2.216%2C2.217%2C

Jeffrey Goldberg - National Correspondent for The Atlantic.
Fidel to Ahmadinejad: 'Stop Slandering the Jews'

Sep 7 2010, 12:06 PM ET
(This is Part I of a report on my recent visit to Havana. I hope to post Part II tomorrow. And I also hope to be publishing a more comprehensive article about this subject in a forthcoming print edition of The Atlantic.)

A couple of weeks ago, while I was on vacation, my cell phone rang; it was Jorge Bolanos, the head of the Cuban Interest Section (we of course don't have diplomatic relations with Cuba) in Washington. "I have a message for you from Fidel," he said. This made me sit up straight. "He has read your Atlantic article about Iran and Israel. He invites you to Havana on Sunday to discuss the article." I am always eager, of course, to interact with readers of The Atlantic, so I called a friend at the Council on Foreign Relations, Julia Sweig, who is a preeminent expert on Cuba and Latin America: "Road trip," I said.

MORE ON Fidel Castro:
Jeffrey Goldberg: Castro: "The Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore."
I quickly departed the People's Republic of Martha's Vineyard for Fidel's more tropical socialist island paradise. Despite the self-defeating American ban on travel to Cuba, both Julia and I, as journalists and researchers, qualified for a State Department exemption. The charter flight from Miami was bursting with Cuban-Americans carrying flat-screen televisions and computers for their technologically-bereft families. Fifty minutes after take-off, we arrived at the mostly-empty Jose Marti International Airport. Fidel's people met us on the tarmac (despite giving up his formal role as commandante en jefe after falling ill several years ago, Fidel still has many people). We were soon deposited at a "protocol house" in a government compound whose architecture reminded me of the gated communities of Boca Raton. The only other guest in this vast enclosure was the president of Guinea-Bissau.

I was aware that Castro had become preoccupied with the threat of a military confrontation in the Middle East between Iran and the U.S. (and Israel, the country he calls its Middle East "gendarme"). Since emerging from his medically induced, four-year purdah early this summer (various gastrointestinal maladies had combined to nearly kill him), the 84-year-old Castro has spoken mainly about the catastrophic threat of what he sees as an inevitable war.

I was curious to know why he saw conflict as unavoidable, and I wondered, of course, if personal experience - the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 that nearly caused the annihilation of most of humanity - informed his belief that a conflict between America and Iran would escalate into nuclear war. I was even more curious, however, to get a glimpse of the great man. Few people had seen him since he fell ill in 2006, and the state of his health has been a subject of much speculation. There were questions, too, about the role he plays now in governing Cuba; he formally handed off power to his younger brother, Raul, two years ago, but it was not clear how many strings Fidel still pulled.

The morning after our arrival in Havana, Julia and I were driven to a nearby convention center, and escorted upstairs, to a large and spare office. A frail and aged Fidel stood to greet us. He was wearing a red shirt, sweatpants, and black New Balance sneakers. The room was crowded with officials and family: His wife, Dalia, and son Antonio, as well as an Interior Ministry general, a translator, a doctor and several bodyguards, all of whom appeared to have been recruited from the Cuban national wrestling team. Two of these bodyguards held Castro at the elbow.

We shook hands, and he greeted Julia warmly; they have known each other for more than twenty years. Fidel lowered himself gently into his seat, and we began a conversation that would continue, in fits and starts, for three days. His body may be frail, but his mind is acute, his energy level is high, and not only that: the late-stage Fidel Castro turns out to possess something of a self-deprecating sense of humor. When I asked him, over lunch, to answer what I've come to think of as the Christopher Hitchens question - has your illness caused you to change your mind about the existence of God? - he answered, "Sorry, I'm still a dialectical materialist." (This is funnier if you are, like me, an ex-self-defined socialist.) At another point, he showed us a series of recent photographs taken of him, one of which portrayed him with a fierce expression. "This was how my face looked when I was angry with Khruschev," he said.

Castro opened our initial meeting by telling me that he read the recent Atlantic article carefully, and that it confirmed his view that Israel and America were moving precipitously and gratuitously toward confrontation with Iran. This interpretation was not surprising, of course: Castro is the grandfather of global anti-Americanism, and he has been a severe critic of Israel. His message to Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, he said, was simple: Israel will only have security if it gives up its nuclear arsenal, and the rest of the world's nuclear powers will only have security if they, too, give up their weapons. Global and simultaneous nuclear disarmament is, of course, a worthy goal, but it is not, in the short term, realistic.

Castro's message to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran, was not so abstract, however. Over the course of this first, five-hour discussion, Castro repeatedly returned to his excoriation of anti-Semitism. He criticized Ahmadinejad for denying the Holocaust and explained why the Iranian government would better serve the cause of peace by acknowledging the "unique" history of anti-Semitism and trying to understand why Israelis fear for their existence.

He began this discussion by describing his own, first encounters with anti-Semitism, as a small boy. "I remember when I was a boy - a long time ago - when I was five or six years old and I lived in the countryside," he said, "and I remember Good Friday. What was the atmosphere a child breathed? `Be quiet, God is dead.' God died every year between Thursday and Saturday of Holy Week, and it made a profound impression on everyone. What happened? They would say, `The Jews killed God.' They blamed the Jews for killing God! Do you realize this?"

He went on, "Well, I didn't know what a Jew was. I knew of a bird that was a called a 'Jew,' and so for me the Jews were those birds. These birds had big noses. I don't even know why they were called that. That's what I remember. This is how ignorant the entire population was."

He said the Iranian government should understand the consequences of theological anti-Semitism. "This went on for maybe two thousand years," he said. "I don't think anyone has been slandered more than the Jews. I would say much more than the Muslims. They have been slandered much more than the Muslims because they are blamed and slandered for everything. No one blames the Muslims for anything." The Iranian government should understand that the Jews "were expelled from their land, persecuted and mistreated all over the world, as the ones who killed God. In my judgment here's what happened to them: Reverse selection. What's reverse selection? Over 2,000 years they were subjected to terrible persecution and then to the pogroms. One might have assumed that they would have disappeared; I think their culture and religion kept them together as a nation." He continued: "The Jews have lived an existence that is much harder than ours. There is nothing that compares to the Holocaust." I asked him if he would tell Ahmadinejad what he was telling me. "I am saying this so you can communicate it," he answered.

Castro went on to analyze the conflict between Israel and Iran. He said he understood Iranian fears of Israeli-American aggression and he added that, in his view, American sanctions and Israeli threats will not dissuade the Iranian leadership from pursuing nuclear weapons. "This problem is not going to get resolved, because the Iranians are not going to back down in the face of threats. That's my opinion," he said. He then noted that, unlike Cuba, Iran is a "profoundly religious country," and he said that religious leaders are less apt to compromise. He noted that even secular Cuba has resisted various American demands over the past 50 years.

We returned repeatedly in this first conversation to Castro's fear that a confrontation between the West and Iran could escalate into a nuclear conflict. "The Iranian capacity to inflict damage is not appreciated," he said. "Men think they can control themselves but Obama could overreact and a gradual escalation could become a nuclear war." I asked him if this fear was informed by his own experiences during the 1962 missile crisis, when the Soviet Union and the U.S. nearly went to war other over the presence of nuclear-tipped missiles in Cuba (missiles installed at the invitation, of course, of Fidel Castro). I mentioned to Castro the letter he wrote to Khruschev, the Soviet premier, at the height of the crisis, in which he recommended that the Soviets consider launching a nuclear strike against the U.S. if the Americans attack Cuba. "That would be the time to think about liquidating such a danger forever through a legal right of self-defense," Castro wrote at the time.

I asked him, "At a certain point it seemed logical for you to recommend that the Soviets bomb the U.S. Does what you recommended still seem logical now?" He answered: "After I've seen what I've seen, and knowing what I know now, it wasn't worth it all."

I was surprised to hear Castro express such doubts about his own behavior in the missile crisis - and I was, I admit, also surprised to hear him express such sympathy for Jews, and for Israel's right to exist (which he endorsed unequivocally).

After this first meeting, I asked Julia to explain the meaning of Castro's invitation to me, and of his message to Ahmadinejad. "Fidel is at an early stage of reinventing himself as a senior statesman, not as head of state, on the domestic stage, but primarily on the international stage, which has always been a priority for him," she said. "Matters of war, peace and international security are a central focus: Nuclear proliferation climate change, these are the major issues for him, and he's really just getting started, using any potential media platform to communicate his views. He has time on his hands now that he didn't expect to have. And he's revisiting history, and revisiting his own history."

There is a great deal more to report from this conversation, and from subsequent conversations, which I will do in posts to follow. But I will begin the next post on this subject by describing one of the stranger days I have experienced, a day which began with a simple question from Fidel: "Would you like to go to the aquarium with me to see the dolphin show?"

About the journalist: Jeffrey Goldberg is a National Correspondent for The Atlantic. Before joining The Atlantic in 2007, he was Middle East correspondent, and Washington correspondent, for the New Yorker. Previously, he served as a correspondent for the New York Times Magazine, and New York Magazine. He has also written for the Forward, and was a columnist for The Jerusalem Post.

His book Prisoners has been hailed as one of the best books of 2006 by the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Slate Magazine, the Progressive, Washingtonian Magazine, and Playboy. Goldberg is the recipient of the 2003 National Magazine Award for Reporting for his coverage of Islamic terrorism. He is also the winner of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists prize for best international investigative journalist; the Overseas Press Club award for best human rights reporting; and the Abraham Cahan Prize in Journalism. He is also the recipient of 2005's Anti-Defamation League Daniel Pearl Prize.

In 2001, Goldberg was appointed the Syrkin Fellow in Letters of the Jerusalem Foundation and was appointed in 2002 to be a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C.
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Good news for Sakineh, also for Kurt - and no book burnings, please!

2010-09-08T13:02:00.000-07:00

Three comments:

- Good news for Sakineh and other victims of Iranian sharia injustice and also

- Good news for freedom of expression and the peaceful resistance against Islamic censorship,

- and no to book burnings, please!

yet another victory for freedom of expression of political cartoonists: Kurt Westergaard, one of the Danish Muhammad Cartoonists has just been awarded a Press Freedom Prize in Germany, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel with her memories form the dictatorial, totalitarian DDR, has stated that at least one European government shall stand firm by the cartoonists’ rights to publish drawings containing criticism of religions including criticism of Islam! I admire Kurt also for his speech at the ceremony, and for his courage to take the heat and attention from the other Danish cartoonists under Islamic death threat - he always says, he does not mind to take the blame and the anger as he has lived long, implying the other younger cartoonists would hopefully be forgotten as targets for Islamic militants as they evade press attention. I wrote this regarding those advocating for Quran/Kuran burnings: Give amnesty to the book, sentence it to life on library bookshelf - criticize the content of the book by words, not by flames. Instead, bring the prophet and his tyrannical heir, the Islamic Imperialism, for the International Court of Justice and try them for their crimes against humanity. I was as a teenager involuntary witness to the Iranian Islamic Republic's book burnings on the streets in front of the University of Tehran, and since that time I've developed a kind of parental care for books - let's face it, it is not the book itself to blame for the inhumane and violent words of the writers of that book. Also to preserve a minimum of common diplomatic rules, no burnings of books, flags etc., please!

Pedram Kazemi-Esfarjani, member elect of Fritiran, secular liberal minority

Merkel to honor Mohammed cartoonist at press award
Danish cartoonist Westergaard, who sparked anger in the Muslim world with his caricatures of the prophet Mohammed, arrives for a news conference befor Reuters – Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, who sparked anger in the Muslim world with his caricatures of the …
By Stephen Brown and Knut Engelmann Stephen Brown And Knut Engelmann – 2 hrs 57 mins ago

BERLIN (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel risked angering Muslims by speaking at an awards ceremony on Wednesday for a Dane whose cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed provoked sometimes violent protests by Muslims five years ago.

The 75-year-old cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, whose drawings of Mohammed that offended Muslims worldwide first appeared in Danish paper Jyllands-Posten in 2005, was due to receive a prize on Wednesday evening at a conference on freedom of the press.

At a time of fierce debate in Germany over disparaging remarks about Muslim immigrants made by a central bank member, some Muslims criticized the center-right chancellor and the media said she was taking a risk by honoring a man whom many Muslims believe insulted their faith.

Aiman Mazyek of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany said in a statement: "Merkel is honoring the cartoonist who in our view trampled on our Prophet and trampled on all Muslims."

"By having her photo taken next to Kurt Westergaard, Merkel is taking a huge risk," wrote the conservative daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung before the ceremony.

"It will probably be the most explosive appointment of her chancellorship so far."

The mass-circulation Bild, which has voiced admiration for Bundesbank member Thilo Sarrazin for depicting Turkish and Arab immigrants as welfare spongers who fail to integrate, praised Westergaard and said Merkel's presence showed Germany "does not back down in the face of threats from Islamist fanatics."

Organizers of the M100 Media Prize to be awarded at Potsdam near Berlin said the cartoons had "triggered an international controversy about freedom of speech and sparked worldwide, partly violent demonstrations of Muslims who felt insulted."

Most Muslims consider any depiction of the founder of Islam to be offensive, and the Danish cartoons portrayed Mohammed with a turban shaped like a bomb. At least 50 people died in ensuing riots by enraged Muslims in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Westergaard stood by his work "invoking the right to freedom of speech," said the M100 prize committee, praising the Dane's "courage to stand by these democratic values and defend them, notwithstanding threats of violence and death."

The Organizers issued a statement from Merkel saying that, at a time when Germany is marking 20 years of unity after the fall of East Germany's communist regime, her country was "still conscious of what the lack of freedom implies."

Conservatives in Berlin's city assembly threw out a member for inviting Dutch anti-immigrant politician Geert Wilders to speak next month.

But Wilders said he would "of course" still speak in the German capital despite the action taken by Merkel's Christian Democrats against councilor Rene Stadtkewitz, telling Reuters in an email he had "respect for Rene Stadtkewitz!"

(Writing by Stephen Brown; additional reporting by Ben Berkowitz in Amsterdam; editing by Paul Taylor)

European pressure mounts on Iran over stoning case

By RAF CASERT, Associated Press Writer Raf Casert, Associated Press Writer – 28 mins ago

BRUSSELS – European Union nations and the continent's biggest human rights organization slammed Iran on Wednesday for its plans to stone a woman convicted of adultery, increasing the global pressure on Tehran over a case it has tried to frame as a criminal matter and not one of human rights.

The plight of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani , a 43-year-old mother of two, has cast a harsh light on Iran's version of Islamic justice and taken multiple twists. Iran says it has put the stoning on hold for now but has also indicated Ashtiani could be hanged for her conviction of playing a role in her husband's 2005 murder.

Even as Iran insists the case is a matter for its own courts and society, the global outcry has grown.

On Wednesday, the European Union Parliament in Strasbourg, France, passed a resolution condemning Tehran, a move that comes on the heels of EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso calling stoning "barbaric." The vote passed by a huge 658-to-1 margin with 22 abstentions. The vote against was an error and was to be amended in the parliamentary records later.

Sweden summoned Iran's ambassador to protest the sentence.

"It is important that we are not passive in a case that - except for her own destiny - has become a symbol for the repression in Iran," Sweden's Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said. "We are against the death penalty in all cases, but stoning is a specifically vile form of the death penalty."

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle released a statement saying he is "deeply worried for Ms. Ashtiani's life."

"Iran has to respect human rights, especially because it committed to do so under international law," Westerwelle said. It is "not a question of religion, but a question of fundamental human dignity."

The sentiments were echoed by the 47-nation Council of Europe, the continent's biggest human rights organization. It called on the Islamic republic's parliamentary speaker, Ali Larijani, to do his utmost to fully repeal the sentence.

"This inhuman sentence and the mistreatment that Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani is suffering cast a tragic shadow on your country," wrote Mevlut Cavusoglu, President of the Council's Parliamentary Assembly.

On Iran's state-run Press TV, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast repeated previous statements that plans to carry out the stoning have been "stopped" while judiciary officials also study the punishment for Ashtiani's conviction of playing on role in her husband's 2005 murder.

Ashtiani's lawyer, Houtan Javid Kian, told The Associated Press there has been no change in her case and the stoning sentence was suspended but not officially canceled. He has said Ashtiani was never formally put on trial on the charge of being an accomplice to murder and was not allowed to mount a defense.

On Monday, Kian said he had received word that his client was lashed 99 times last week in a separate punishment after British newspaper ran a picture of an unveiled woman mistakenly identified as Ashtiani. The newspaper, the Times of London, apologized for the error.

There has been no official Iranian confirmation of the new punishment.

The Vatican has hinted at the possibility of behind-the-scenes diplomacy to try to save Ashtiani. Some Western officials, including Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, have said they don't believe Iran will carry out the stoning following the international outcry.

But Iran has at times struck a defiant tone. Even an offer of asylum from Brazil - which is on friendly terms with Tehran - went nowhere.

Mehmanparast accused the United States and other Western countries of trying to "exploit" the case and turn it into a "political charade."

"Our country has been under a lot of political pressure by the U.S. and other Western countries over its nuclear work," he noted.

The European Parliament, however, insisted universal human rights were what was at stake.

In its resolution, it said that "a sentence of death by stoning can never be justified."

-------------

Associated Press Writers Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Malin Rising in Stockholm and Juergen Baetz in Berlin contributed to the story.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100908/ap_on_re_us/iran_stoning;_ylt=AssjOHxlV2ouMdnOH4_DlY5vaA8F;_ylu=X3oDMTJkZGQ2dGZ2BGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwOTA4L2lyYW5fc3RvbmluZwRjcG9zAzIEcG9zAzQEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yeQRzbGsDZXVyb3BlYW5wcmVz

Religious honour killings - The honour killing files: Robert Fisk: The crimewave that shames the World - and spreads into every corner of the World

2010-09-08T05:13:00.000-07:00

The honour killing files:
Robert Fisk: The crimewave that shames the world

It's one of the last great taboos: the murder of at least 20,000 women a year in the name of 'honour'. Nor is the problem confined to the Middle East: the contagion is spreading rapidly

Tuesday, 7 September 2010

It is a tragedy, a horror, a crime against humanity. The details of the murders – of the women beheaded, burned to death, stoned to death, stabbed, electrocuted, strangled and buried alive for the "honour" of their families – are as barbaric as they are shameful. Many women's groups in the Middle East and South-west Asia suspect the victims are at least four times the United Nations' latest world figure of around 5,000 deaths a year. Most of the victims are young, many are teenagers, slaughtered under a vile tradition that goes back hundreds of years but which now spans half the globe.

A 10-month investigation by The Independent in Jordan, Pakistan, Egypt, Gaza and the West Bank has unearthed terrifying details of murder most foul. Men are also killed for "honour" and, despite its identification by journalists as a largely Muslim practice, Christian and Hindu communities have stooped to the same crimes. Indeed, the "honour" (or ird) of families, communities and tribes transcends religion and human mercy. But voluntary women's groups, human rights organisations, Amnesty International and news archives suggest that the slaughter of the innocent for "dishonouring" their families is increasing by the year.

Iraqi Kurds, Palestinians in Jordan, Pakistan and Turkey appear to be the worst offenders but media freedoms in these countries may over-compensate for the secrecy which surrounds "honour" killings in Egypt – which untruthfully claims there are none – and other Middle East nations in the Gulf and the Levant. But honour crimes long ago spread to Britain, Belgium, Russia and Canada and many other nations. Security authorities and courts across much of the Middle East have connived in reducing or abrogating prison sentences for the family murder of women, often classifying them as suicides to prevent prosecutions.
Related articles

* Robert Fisk: Relatives with blood on their hands
* One woman's nightmare, and a crime against humanity
* Search the news archive for more stories

It is difficult to remain unemotional at the vast and detailed catalogue of these crimes. How should one react to a man – this has happened in both Jordan and Egypt – who rapes his own daughter and then, when she becomes pregnant, kills her to save the "honour" of his family? Or the Turkish father and grandfather of a 16-year-old girl, Medine Mehmi, in the province of Adiyaman, who was buried alive beneath a chicken coop in February for "befriending boys"? Her body was found 40 days later, in a sitting position and with her hands tied.

Or Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow, 13, who in Somalia in 2008, in front of a thousand people, was dragged to a hole in the ground – all the while screaming, "I'm not going – don't kill me" – then buried up to her neck and stoned by 50 men for adultery? After 10 minutes, she was dug up, found to be still alive and put back in the hole for further stoning. Her crime? She had been raped by three men and, fatally, her family decided to report the facts to the Al-Shabab militia that runs Kismayo. Or the Al-Shabab Islamic "judge" in the same country who announced the 2009 stoning to death of a woman – the second of its kind the same year – for having an affair? Her boyfriend received a mere 100 lashes.

Or the young woman found in a drainage ditch near Daharki in Pakistan, "honour" killed by her family as she gave birth to her second child, her nose, ears and lips chopped off before being axed to death, her first infant lying dead among her clothes, her newborn's torso still in her womb, its head already emerging from her body? She was badly decomposed; the local police were asked to bury her. Women carried the three to a grave, but a Muslim cleric refused to say prayers for her because it was "irreligious" to participate in the namaz-e-janaza prayers for "a cursed woman and her illegitimate children".

So terrible are the details of these "honour" killings, and so many are the women who have been slaughtered, that the story of each one might turn horror into banality. But lest these acts – and the names of the victims, when we are able to discover them – be forgotten, here are the sufferings of a mere handful of women over the past decade, selected at random, country by country, crime after crime.

Last March, Munawar Gul shot and killed his 20-year-old sister, Saanga, in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan, along with the man he suspected was having "illicit relations" with her, Aslam Khan.

In August of 2008, five women were buried alive for "honour crimes" in Baluchistan by armed tribesmen; three of them – Hameeda, Raheema and Fauzia – were teenagers who, after being beaten and shot, were thrown still alive into a ditch where they were covered with stones and earth. When the two older women, aged 45 and 38, protested, they suffered the same fate. The three younger women had tried to choose their own husbands. In the Pakistani parliament, the MP Israrullah Zehri referred to the murders as part of a "centuries-old tradition" which he would "continue to defend".

In December 2003, a 23-year-old woman in Multan, identified only as Afsheen, was murdered by her father because, after an unhappy arranged marriage, she ran off with a man called Hassan who was from a rival, feuding tribe. Her family was educated – they included civil servants, engineers and lawyers. "I gave her sleeping pills in a cup of tea and then strangled her with a dapatta [a long scarf, part of a woman's traditional dress]," her father confessed. He told the police: "Honour is the only thing a man has. I can still hear her screams, she was my favourite daughter. I want to destroy my hands and end my life." The family had found Afsheen with Hassan in Rawalpindi and promised she would not be harmed if she returned home. They were lying.

Zakir Hussain Shah slit the throat of his daughter Sabiha, 18, at Bara Kau in June 2002 because she had "dishonoured" her family. But under Pakistan's notorious qisas law, heirs have powers to pardon a murderer. In this case, Sabiha's mother and brother "pardoned" the father and he was freed. When a man killed his four sisters in Mardan in the same year, because they wanted a share of his inheritance, his mother "pardoned" him under the same law. In Sarghoda around the same time, a man opened fire on female members of his family, killing two of his daughters. Yet again, his wife – and several other daughters wounded by him – "pardoned" the murderer because they were his heirs.

Outrageously, rape is also used as a punishment for "honour" crimes. In Meerwala village in the Punjab in 2002, a tribal "jury" claimed that an 11-year-old boy from the Gujar tribe, Abdul Shakoor, had been walking unchaperoned with a 30-year-old woman from the Mastoi tribe, which "dishonoured" the Mastois. The tribal elders decided that to "return" honour to the group, the boy's 18-year-old sister, Mukhtaran Bibi, should be gang-raped. Her father, warned that all the female members of his family would be raped if he did not bring Mukhtar to them, dutifully brought his daughter to this unholy "jury". Four men, including one of the "jury", immediately dragged the girl to a hut and raped her while up to a hundred men laughed and cheered outside. She was then forced to walk naked through the village to her home. It took a week before the police even registered the crime – as a "complaint".

Acid attacks also play their part in "honour" crime punishments. The Independent itself gave wide coverage in 2001 to a Karachi man called Bilal Khar who poured acid over his wife Fakhra Yunus's face after she left him and returned to her mother's home in the red-light area of the city. The acid fused her lips, burned off her hair, melted her breasts and an ear, and turned her face into "a look of melted rubber". That same year, a 20-year-old woman called Hafiza was shot twice by her brother, Asadullah, in front of a dozen policemen outside a Quetta courthouse because she had refused to follow the tradition of marrying her dead husband's elder brother. She had then married another man, Fayyaz Moon, but police arrested the girl and brought her back to her family in Quetta on the pretext that the couple could formally marry there. But she was forced to make a claim that Fayaz had kidnapped and raped her. It was when she went to court to announce that her statement was made under pressure – and that she still regarded Fayaz as her husband – that Asadullah murdered her. He handed his pistol to a police constable who had witnessed the killing.

One of the most terrible murders in 1999 was that of a mentally retarded 16-year-old, Lal Jamilla Mandokhel, who was reportedly raped by a junior civil servant in Parachinar in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan. Her uncle filed a complaint with the police but handed Lal over to her tribe, whose elders decided she should be killed to preserve tribal "honour". She was shot dead in front of them. Arbab Khatoon was raped by three men in the Jacobabad district. She filed a complaint with the police. Seven hours later, she was murdered by relatives who claimed she had "dishonoured" them by reporting the crime.

Over 10 years ago, Pakistan's Human Rights Commission was recording "honour" killings at the rate of a thousand a year. But if Pakistan seems to have the worst track record of "honour" crimes – and we must remember that many countries falsely claim to have none – Turkey might run a close second. According to police figures between 2000 and 2006, a reported 480 women – 20 per cent of them between the ages of 19 and 25 – were killed in "honour" crimes and feuds. Other Turkish statistics, drawn up more than five years ago by women's groups, suggest that at least 200 girls and women are murdered every year for "honour". These figures are now regarded as a vast underestimate. Many took place in Kurdish areas of the country; an opinion poll found that 37 per cent of Diyabakir's citizens approved of killing a woman for an extramarital affair. Medine Mehmi, the girl who was buried alive, lived in the Kurdish town of Kahta.

In 2006, authorities in the Kurdish area of South-east Anatolia were recording that a woman tried to commit suicide every few weeks on the orders of her family. Others were stoned to death, shot, buried alive or strangled. A 17-year-old woman called Derya who fell in love with a boy at her school received a text message from her uncle on her mobile phone. It read: "You have blackened our name. Kill yourself and clean our shame or we will kill you first." Derya's aunt had been killed by her grandfather for an identical reason. Her brothers also sent text messages, sometimes 15 a day. Derya tried to carry out her family's wishes. She jumped into the Tigris river, tried to hang herself and slashed her wrists – all to no avail. Then she ran away to a women's shelter.

It took 13 years before Murat Kara, 40, admitted in 2007 that he had fired seven bullets into his younger sister after his widowed mother and uncles told him to kill her for eloping with her boyfriend. Before he murdered his sister in the Kurdish city of Dyabakir, neighbours had refused to talk to Murat Kara and the imam said he was disobeying the word of God if he did not kill his sister. So he became a murderer. Honour restored.

In his book Women In The Grip Of Tribal Customs, a Turkish journalist, Mehmet Farac, records the "honour" killing of five girls in the late 1990s in the province of Sanliurfa. Two of them – one was only 12 – had their throats slit in public squares, two others had tractors driven over them, the fifth was shot dead by her younger brother. One of the women who had her throat cut was called Sevda Gok. Her brothers held her arms down as her adolescent cousin cut her throat.

But the "honour" killing of women is not a uniquely Kurdish crime, even if it is committed in rural areas of the country. In 2001, Sait Kina stabbed his 13-year-old daughter to death for talking to boys in the street. He attacked her in the bathroom with an axe and a kitchen knife. When the police discovered her corpse, they found the girl's head had been so mutilated that the family had tied it together with a scarf. Sait Kina told the police: "I have fulfilled my duty."

In the same year, an Istanbul court reduced a sentence against three brothers from life imprisonment to between four and 12 years after they threw their sister to her death from a bridge after accusing her of being a prostitute. The court concluded that her behaviour had "provoked" the murder. For centuries, virginity tests have been considered a normal part of rural tradition before a woman's marriage. In 1998, when five young women attempted suicide before these tests, the Turkish family affairs minister defended mandated medical examinations for girls in foster homes.

British Kurdish Iraqi campaigner Aso Kamal, of the Doaa Network Against Violence, believes that between 1991 and 2007, 12,500 women were murdered for reasons of "honour" in the three Kurdish provinces of Iraq alone – 350 of them in the first seven months of 2007, for which there were only five convictions. Many women are ordered by their families to commit suicide by burning themselves with cooking oil. In Sulimaniya hospital in 2007, surgeons were treating many women for critical burns which could never have been caused by cooking "accidents" as the women claimed. One patient, Sirwa Hassan, was dying of 86 per cent burns. She was a Kurdish mother of three from a village near the Iranian border. In 2008, a medical officer in Sulimaniya told the AFP news agency that in May alone, 14 young women had been murdered for "honour" crimes in 10 days. In 2000, Kurdish authorities in Sulimaniya had decreed that "the killing or abuse of women under the pretext of cleansing 'shame' is not considered to be a mitigating excuse". The courts, they said, could not apply an old 1969 law "to reduce the penalty of the perpetrator". The new law, of course, made no difference.

But again, in Iraq, it is not only Kurds who believe in "honour" killings. In Tikrit, a young woman in the local prison sent a letter to her brother in 2008, telling him that she had become pregnant after being raped by a prison guard. The brother was permitted to visit the prison, walked into the cell where his now visibly pregnant sister was held, and shot her dead to spare his family "dishonour". The mortuary in Baghdad took DNA samples from the woman's foetus and also from guards at the Tikrit prison. The rapist was a police lieutenant-colonel. The reason for the woman's imprisonment was unclear. One report said the colonel's family had "paid off" the woman's relatives to escape punishment.

In Basra in 2008, police were reporting that 15 women a month were being murdered for breaching "Islamic dress codes". One 17-year-old girl, Rand Abdel-Qader, was beaten to death by her father two years ago because she had become infatuated with a British soldier. Another, Shawbo Ali Rauf, 19, was taken by her family to a picnic in Dokan and shot seven times because they had found an unfamiliar number on her mobile phone.

In Nineveh, Du'a Khalil Aswad was 17 when she was stoned to death by a mob of 2,000 men for falling in love with a man outside her tribe.

In Jordan, women's organisations say that per capita, the Christian minority in this country of just over five million people are involved in more "honour" killings than Muslims – often because Christian women want to marry Muslim men. But the Christian community is loath to discuss its crimes and the majority of known cases of murder are committed by Muslims. Their stories are wearily and sickeningly familiar. Here is Sirhan in 1999, boasting of the efficiency with which he killed his young sister, Suzanne. Three days after the 16-year-old had told police she had been raped, Sirhan shot her in the head four times. "She committed a mistake, even if it was against her will," he said. "Anyway, it's better to have one person die than to have the whole family die of shame." Since then, a deeply distressing pageant of "honour" crimes has been revealed to the Jordanian public, condemned by the royal family and slowly countered with ever tougher criminal penalties by the courts.

Yet in 2001, we find a 22-year-old Jordanian man strangling his 17-year-old married sister – the 12th murder of its kind in seven months – because he suspected her of having an affair. Her husband lived in Saudi Arabia. In 2002, Souad Mahmoud strangled his own sister for the same reason. She had been forced to marry her lover – but when the family found out she had been pregnant before her wedding, they decided to execute her.

In 2005, three Jordanians stabbed their 22-year-old married sister to death for taking a lover. After witnessing the man enter her home, the brothers stormed into the house and killed her. They did not harm her lover.

By March 2008, the Jordanian courts were still treating "honour" killings leniently. That month, the Jordanian Criminal Court sentenced two men for killing close female relatives "in a fit of fury" to a mere six months and three months in prison. In the first case, a husband had found a man in his home with his wife and suspected she was having an affair. In the second, a man shot dead his 29-year-old married sister for leaving home without her husband's consent and "talking to other men on her mobile phone". In 2009, a Jordanian man confessed to stabbing his pregnant sister to death because she had moved back to her family after an argument with her husband; the brother believed she was "seeing other men".

And so it goes on. Three men in Amman stabbing their 40-year-old divorced sister 15 times last year for taking a lover; a Jordanian man charged with stabbing to death his daughter, 22, with a sword because she was pregnant outside wedlock. Many of the Jordanian families were originally Palestinian. Nine months ago, a Palestinian stabbed his married sister to death because of her "bad behaviour". But last month, the Amman criminal court sentenced another sister-killer to 10 years in prison, rejecting his claim of an "honour" killing – but only because there were no witnesses to his claim that she had committed adultery.

In "Palestine" itself, Human Rights Watch has long blamed the Palestinian police and justice system for the near-total failure to protect women in Gaza and the West Bank from "honour" killings. Take, for example, the 17-year-old girl who was strangled by her older brother in 2005 for becoming pregnant – by her own father.

He was present during her murder. She had earlier reported her father to the police. They neither arrested nor interrogated him. In the same year, masked Hamas gunmen shot dead a 20-year-old, Yusra Azzami, for "immoral behaviour" as she spent a day out with her fiancée. Azzami was a Hamas member, her husband-to-be a member of Fatah. Hamas tried to apologise and called the dead woman a "martyr" – to the outrage of her family. Yet only last year, long after Hamas won the Palestinian elections and took over the Gaza Strip, a Gaza man was detained for bludgeoning his daughter to death with an iron chain because he discovered she owned a mobile phone on which he feared she was talking to a man outside the family. He was later released.

Even in liberal Lebanon, there are occasional "honour" killings, the most notorious that of a 31-year-old woman, Mona Kaham, whose father entered her bedroom and cut her throat after learning she had been made pregnant by her cousin. He walked to the police station in Roueiss in the southern suburbs of Beirut with the knife still in his hand. "My conscience is clear," he told the police. "I have killed to clean my honour." Unsurprisingly, a public opinion poll showed that 90.7 per cent of the Lebanese public opposed "honour" crimes. Of the few who approved of them, several believed that it helped to limit interreligious marriage.

Syria reflects the pattern of Lebanon. While civil rights groups are demanding a stiffening of the laws against women-killers, government legislation only raised the term of imprisonment for men who kill female relatives for extramarital sex to two years. Among the most recent cases was that of Lubna, a 17-year-old living in Homs, murdered by her family because she fled to her sister's house after refusing to marry a man they had chosen for her. They also believed – wrongly – that she was no longer a virgin.

Tribal feuds often provoke "honour" killings in Iran and Afghanistan. In Iran, for example, a governor's official in the ethnic Arab province of Khuzestan stated in 2003 that 45 young women under the age of 20 had been murdered in "honour" killings in just two months, none of which brought convictions. All were slaughtered because of the girl's refusal to agree to an arranged marriage, failing to abide by Islamic dress code or suspected of having contacts with men outside the family.

Through the dark veil of Afghanistan's village punishments, we glimpse just occasionally the terror of teenage executions. When Siddiqa, who was only 19, and her 25-year-old fiancé Khayyam were brought before a Taliban-approved religious court in Kunduz province this month, their last words were: "We love each other, no matter what happens." In the bazaar at Mulla Quli, a crowd – including members of both families – stoned to death first Siddiqa, then Khayyam.

A week earlier, a woman identified as Bibi Sanubar, a pregnant widow, was lashed a hundred times and then shot in the head by a Taliban commander. In April of last year, Taliban gunmen executed by firing squad a man and a girl in Nimruz for eloping when the young woman was already engaged to someone else. History may never disclose how many hundreds of women – and men – have suffered a similar fates at the hands of deeply traditional village families or the Taliban.

But the contagion of "honour" crimes has spread across the globe, including acid attacks on women in Bangladesh for refusing marriages. In one of the most terrible Hindu "honour" killings in India this year, an engaged couple, Yogesh Kumar and Asha Saini, were murdered by the 19-year-old bride-to-be's family because her fiancée was of lower caste. They were apparently tied up and electrocuted to death.

A similar fate awaited 18-year-old Vishal Sharma, a Hindu Brahmin, who wanted to marry Sonu Singh, a 17- year-old Jat – an "inferior" caste which is usually Muslim. The couple were hanged and their bodies burned in Uttar Pradesh. Three years earlier, a New Delhi court had sentenced to death five men for killing another couple who were of the same sub-caste, which in the eyes of the local "caste council" made them brother and sister.

In Chechnya, Russia's chosen President, Ramzan Kadyrov, has been positively encouraging men to kill for "honour". When seven murdered women were found in Grozny, shot in the head and chest, Kadyrov announced – without any proof, but with obvious approval – that they had been killed for living "an immoral life". Commenting on a report that a Chechen girl had called the police to complain of her abusive father, he suggested the man should be able to murder his daughter. "... if he doesn't kill her, what kind of man is he? He brings shame on himself!"

And so to the "West", as we like to call it, where immigrant families have sometimes brought amid their baggage the cruel traditions of their home villages: an Azeri immigrant charged in St Petersburg for hiring hitmen to kill his daughter because she "flouted national tradition" by wearing a miniskirt; near the Belgian city of Charleroi, Sadia Sheikh shot dead by her brother, Moussafa, because she refused to marry a Pakistani man chosen by her family; in the suburbs of Toronto, Kamikar Kaur Dhillon slashes his Punjabi daughter-in-law, Amandeep, across the throat because she wants to leave her arranged marriage, perhaps for another man. He told Canadian police that her separation would "disgrace the family name".

And, of course, we should perhaps end this catalogue of crime in Britain, where only in the past few years have we ourselves woken to the reality of "honour" crimes; of Surjit Athwal, a Punjabi Sikh woman murdered on the orders of her London-based mother-in-law for trying to escape a violent marriage; of 15-year-old Tulay Goren, a Turkish Kurd from north London, tortured and murdered by her Shia Muslim father because she wished to marry a Sunni Muslim man; of Heshu Yones, 16, stabbed to death by her father in 2005 for going out with a Christian boy; of Caneze Riaz, burned alive by her husband in Accrington, along with their four children – the youngest 10 years old – because of their "Western ways". Mohamed Riaz was a Muslim Pakistani from the North-West Frontier Province. He died of burns two days after the murders.

Scotland Yard long ago admitted it would have to review over a hundred deaths, some going back more than a decade, which now appear to have been "honour" killings.

These are just a few of the murders, a few names, a small selection of horror stories across the world to prove the pervasive, spreading infection of what must be recognised as a mass crime, a tradition of family savagery that brooks no merciful intervention, no state law, rarely any remorse.

Surjit Athwal

Murdered in 1998 by her in-laws on a trip to the Indian Punjab for daring to seek a divorce from an unhappy marriage

Du'a Khalil Aswad

Aged 17, she was stoned to death in Nineveh, Iraq, by a mob of 2,000 men for falling in love with a man outside her tribe

Rand Abdel-Qader

The Iraqi 17-year-old was stabbed to death by her father two years ago after falling in love with a British soldier in Basra

Fakhra Khar

In 2001 in Karachi, her husband poured acid on her face, after she left him and returned to her mother's home in the red-light district of the city

Mukhtaran Bibi

The 18-year-old was gang-raped by four men in a hut in the Punjab in 2002, while up to 100 men laughed and cheered outside

Heshu Yones

The 16-year-old was stabbed to death by her Muslim father Abdullah, in west London in 2002, because he disapproved of her Christian boyfriend

Tasleem Solangi

The Pakistani village girl, 17, was falsely accused of immorality and had dogs set on her as a punishment before she was shot dead by in-laws

Shawbo Ali Rauf

Aged 19, she was taken by her family to a picnic in Dokan, Iraq, and shot seven times after they had found an unfamiliar number on her phone

Tulay Goren

The 15-year-old Kurdish girl was killed in north London by her father because the family objected to her choice of husband

Banaz Mahmod Babakir Agha

The 20-year-old's father and uncle murdered her in 2007, after she fell in love with a man her family did not want her to marry

Ayesha Baloch

Accused of having sexual relations with another man before she married, her husband slit her lip and nostril with a knife in Pakistan in 2006

9/11 memorial 2010, Copenhagen: lay flowers at WTC statue at Soelvgade

2010-09-07T16:25:00.000-07:00

Dear secular liberals,

Let's remember the passengers, civilians, rescue workers and officers who were killed by Islamic Imperialists' military attack on America 9/11-2001 - we lay flowers at Soelvgade Twin Tower memorial statue in Copenhagen, and hold 2 minutes silence in respect and reflection.

We shall never forget! And we shall never let it happen again. We shall stop Islamic Imperialism sooner rather than later.

Sincerely

Pedram Kazemi-Esfarjani, independent secular liberal activist
Member elect of the board of Fritiran, secular liberal minority

For a photo and short description of the WTC Memorial statue in Copenhagen:
http://copenhageneye.blogspot.com/2009/08/world-trade-center.html

Black satire: Denmark at imminent risk for being re-occupied by totalitarian powers - 40000 troops on their way

2010-09-07T13:23:00.000-07:00

Comment in Danish and English, on the risk of de facto re-occupation of Denmark by yet another totalitarian power...in 1940 Nazis did it, in 2015 Islamic Imperialists and their neo-Nazi axis probably would do it. If we go along with the new version of the "Collaboration Policy", meaning collaboration with and submission to totalitarian axis powers...

Danish:

2x stormoskeer i København 8000 kvadratmeter i alt, 1x i Roskilde, 2x i Aarhus…Odense har hidtil gjort modstand mod stormoskeer, men skal hjælpes at fastholde modstanden. 40000 kvadrat meter stormoske plus 115 moskeer er klare om et par år til at absorbere ca. 1 islamisk fundamentalist per kvadrat meter. En tanke-eksperiment: Tænk, at give Nazister og Fascister tilladelse til etablering af 40000 kvadratmeter Nazistisk Kulturcenter og Nazi-Jugendschule eller Fascist-rekrutteringsbase, eller Hirohitos Japan at bygge Japanske stortempler til forgudelse af Emperaturen Hirohito…lige ved selveste Pearl Harbour, anno 1939. Ville modstand mod sådanne fiktive projekter være betegnet ulogisk, anti-demokratisk eller tendentiøs? Nej, det ville være betegnet ganske i tråd med vores liberal, demokratiske Grundlov og humanistisk etik, samt militær fornuft. Hvis nogen synes sammenligningen er upassende, se Undercover Mosque (2007) og Undercover Mosque - the Return (2009) ved at søge Google video. Det er granskende journalistik, bedre end hemmelige PET rapporter, ved den Britiske TV kanal Channel Four og Hardcash Productions Ltd.

English

2x grand mosques in Copenhagen, 8000 square metre total, 1x in Roskilde, 2x in Aarhus…Odense has so far resisted grand mosque Trojan Horses, and would need national public support to stand the ground against the widespread Islamophilia among many political parties in Denmark. Estimated 40000 square metre grand mosques plus 115 existing small to mid size mosques, will in 1-2 years abosrb ca. 1 islamic fundamentalist per square metre. A historical thought experiment: Think, we had been giving the Nazies and Fascists permission to establish 40000 sqm Nazi Cultural Centres, Nazi-Jugend Schule or Fascist-recruitment bases, or Hirohito's Japan permission to build several Japanese grand temples to worship the Emperor Hirohito…adjacent to the Pearl Harbor, on the year 1939. Would resistance against those fictive projects be designated illogical, anti-democratic or biased? Nope! It would have been perceived as as civic resistance in accordance with liberal, democratic Constitutions of ours and humanistic ethics, as well as military common sense. Should anyone find this historical comparison irrelevant, I encourage viewing Undercover Mosque (2007) and Undercover Mosque - the Return (2009), respectively, via Google. It is investigative journalism at its best, better than secret police reports. Those two documentaries were originally aired by the British Channel Four Television, produced by Hardcash Productions Ltd.

Sincerely, Pedram Kazemi-Esfarjani, member elect of board of Fritiran, secular, liberal minority

Political satire on a Semptember weekend

2010-09-04T05:48:00.000-07:00

http://www.spicyjihad.com/?page=video&video_id=35

Bravo! You have exactly caught the essence of Mousavi the mass-murder accomplice of the Islamic state: He IS the Islamic state representative and his false fox face and talk of democracy is no good! I asked his ambassador to Europe Mohsen Makhmalbaf during a debate at a Copenhagen event in 2009: \"How can the Green movement of Mousavi talk about bringing democracy to Iran, while you proclaim still to be Islamists - Islam is undermining democracy in Europe, USA and elsewhere outside Iran, how could Islam possibly be compatible with democracy in a future Iran.\" After some disorientation pause Makhmalbaf used the usual Islamic trickery: \"Iran will become a secular state at some point in the future, Khatami told me in Prais\", he said. Yeah, well, after all oil, gas and other riches of Iran be robbed and deposited in Swiss or Lichtenstein bank accounts, and Iran burnt to ashes after an atomic war, Mousavi, Karoubi, Khatami, Khamenei, Ahmadinejad, Rafsanjani and the rest of the Islamic state founders leave and Iranians might be allowed to create a secular state - in the year 2350 maybe? Only the minority secular dissidents of Iran deserve any support from the World outside - not Islamic state agents like Mousavi.
#1: Pedram Kazemi-Esfarjani on 2010-09-04 08:06:51

http://www.spicyjihad.com/?page=video&video_id=26

This very funny and very educational debate deserves to be captioned in English, French, Spanish, German, Danish, Norwegian, etc. to let the people ot the World get a laugh and get wiser about Iran : ))

#1: Pedram Kazemi-Esfarjani on 2010-09-04 10:43:33

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/anntelnaes/2010/05/free_speech_doesnt_come_easily.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyllands-Posten_Muhammad_cartoons_controversy

http://www.google.dk/images?q=mohammad%20cartoons&oe=utf-8&rls=com.google:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&hl=da&tab=wi&biw=1280&bih=617

http://www.cagle.com/news/muhammad/

http://www.cagle.com/news/ObamaMosque/main.asp

http://iranholland.wordpress.com/

Lively self-criticism in Pakintani online media on dehaminization of Pakistan

2010-09-03T13:31:00.000-07:00

Pakistan’s human cockroaches

The writer is a columnist, and TV and radio anchor fasi.zaka@tribune.com.pk

Pakistan, you are a failed state. Not because of Zardari. Not because of America. But because you are a failed people, all of us undeserving of sympathy. We are diseased, rotten to every brain stem, world please make an impenetrable fence around us, keep us all in so we don’t spread it to other people, other countries.

These were words I posted on a social networking website. I have an unusually negative mindset these days. It happened after I saw the video of the two teenage brothers brutally clubbed to death by a crowd frenzied with blood thirst in Sialkot. The police watched gleefully. The video has blurs at certain parts, but even this sensible sensitivity does not prevent one from seeing mists of blood flaying from the heads of these teens as they are hit relentlessly, and remorselessly, again and again.

The murderous crowd was truly representative of the richness of Pakistan. Some wear jeans, others shalwar kameez, some were bearded, others clean shaven. The Pakistanis had gotten together to have some fun.

Do not be shocked. This wasn’t isolated, it’s just that the crowd wanted to make sure their orgasmic moment could be captured for later viewing, at one’s pleasure. We blame our ill-educated brethren for the barbarity we witness, but that’s a self-serving lie.

The middle and upper classes are immune to education it seems. They hold opinions of everyday violence even if they have never raised their hand at anyone. If you believe Jews are the scum of the earth, all Ahmadis deserve to die or that Hindus are inferior, well why not two teenage boys?

I want Pakistanis to feel shame, in fact a substantial loss of self-esteem would be great. This is the only way for us to begin to doubt ourselves and the incessant excuses we make. Yes, the world is right to add restrictions on our visas, to see us as dangerous. If for even a while we felt we were the cockroaches of the human race, maybe we would get to the point we stopped the lies we tell ourselves and let this continue.

The fact is, if we had real democracy, there would be no internet in Pakistan, women would not be allowed out of their homes, education would come to a standstill and we would begin a programme of killing off every minority. Thank you corrupt generals and politicians, you keep this at bay with some sense of being answerable to a world that still has some humanity in it, even if you don’t.

And please, no excuses, no excuses. Don’t give us that, “If only there was true Islam they would be better”. I think a thousand years is enough, we can’t wait longer. And there was no America in existence for most of that, or even western colonialism.

You want to know just how sociopathic we are? In response to these killings some are happy to say we deserve earthquakes and floods. Typical. Don’t change yourself, but give credit to the indiscriminate and inhumane forces of nature. The floods are a tragedy, an atrocity and should never be used to bolster an argument that really only demands self-reflection.

And please, in your self-reflection don’t call us animals, most of them are benign vegetarians. Also don’t blame Sialkot; they were just unlucky because they are subject to scrutiny. There is so much more out there.

There is such a sense of sickening moral superiority in Pakistanis, it needs to be addressed. All we care about is foreign policy, eager to point out the hypocrisies of the world, silent on our domestic, or even local life. Why should the world take what you say seriously, why should you be a regional power, or a leader in the comity of Islamic nations?

Truth is, there is only one way to get change, and it’s not hanging the people who killed these boys. It is raising your voice to contradict people who advocate death for others, no matter who they are speaking of. To internalise that murder of any kind, for anyone is wrong. Sounds easy? Well just try it.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 24th, 2010.
Min kommentar for en ordens skyld:

*

Dear secular, liberals, no human being should be called “cockroaches” not even for the sake of argument. Last time populations were called “cockraoches” on mass media was on Ruwandan state radio up to and during the genocide! Even Islamophiles and Islamists are human beings with rights and duties before International law and as a secular liberal activist for democracy and against re-introduction of Middle Ages theocarcy be it Islamic or Catholic, I say let’s bring all Islamic Imperialist leaders to the International Court for Crimes Against Humanity. We will be very busy for a long time as thousands of Mufties, Mullahs, heads of states etc. have to be tried now! As criminal human beings, not as “cockroaches”.
Pedram Kazemi-Esfarjani 4 days ago
Indsendt af Pedram Kazemi-Esfarjani, secular liberal activist kl. 13.29

Nyhedsbrev om Sakineh's advokat som politisk flygtning i Norge

2010-09-03T13:29:00.001-07:00

http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/verden/1.7240833

Trodde aldri at jeg måtte flykte

Mohammad Mostafaei var lettet over at han kom seg velberget til Norge, og at ektefellen er sluppet fri av iransk etterretningstjeneste.
Foto: David Krekling/NRK

- Jeg er svært glad for å være i Norge, sier den iranske menneskerettsadvokaten Mohammad Mostafaei. Den største lettelsen er at hans kone er løslatt fra fengselet i Teheran.

Laila Ø. Bakken Laila.o.Bakken@nrk.no
David Vojislav Krekling David.Vojislav.Krekling@nrk.no
Publisert 08.08.2010 14:12. Oppdatert 08.08.2010 16:13.

Mohammad Mostafaei (35) har forsvart den dødsdømte iranske kvinnen Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani og en rekke andre dødsdømte i Iran.

Han kom i går fra Istanbul til Norge, etter at han i slutten av juli valgte å flykte fra sitt hjemland da det ble utstedt en arrestordre på ham.

- Jeg er svært glad for å være i Norge, åpner Mohammad Mostafaei på pressekonferansen som ble holdt i Oslo i dag.

Mostafaei ble i forrige uke pågrepet av tyrisk politi i Istanbul, etter flukten fra Iran. Norske myndigheter arbeidet aktivt sammen med andre land for å påvirke Tyrkia til ikke å utlevere ham til Iran, og i går kunne han sette seg på et fly til Stavanger - til sin egen og Amnesty Internationals store lettelse.

- Norsk UD hjalp meg mye, både i Iran og de var veldig behjelpelig da jeg kom til Tyrkia. Det er også en av grunnene til at jeg kom til Norge, forteller Mostafaei og legger til med et smil.

-Skjebnen brakte meg til Norge.
Kona fri

Han selv er likevel mest lettet over nyheten om ektefellen Fereshteh Halimi (33).
Mohammad Mostafaei (Foto: David Krekling, NRK)

Mohammad Mostafaei kom til Norge fra Tyrkia i går.
Foto: David Krekling, NRK
- Jeg fikk i går ettermiddag høre at hun var løslatt etter to uker i fengsel, sier Mostafaei.

Halimi ble pågrepet etter at mannen gikk i skjul og har sittet arrestert i det beryktede Evin-fengselet i Teheran, hvor blant annet politiske fanger plasseres.

- Min største bekymring de to siste ukene, var bekymringen for sikkerheten til kona. Den første natten jeg har sovet, var i natt da jeg visste at hun var i sikkerhet, forteller Mostafaei.

Parets sju år gamle datter Parmida har blitt tatt vare på av besteforeldrene etter at ektefellen ble arrestert. Nå gjenforenes familien trolig i Norge.
Stort press

Han forteller om et stort press de siste ukene han var i Iran.

Det var stor oppmerksomhet rundt de internasjonale kampanjene for å få omgjort dødsdommen til Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, som er dømt til døden ved steining for utroskap, og han visste at den iranske etteretningstjenesten var etter ham.

- Fem ganger dro jeg til fengselet for å overgi meg. Hver gang snudde jeg fordi jeg visste at kona mi ikke ville ha tilgitt meg dersom jeg hadde gjort det. Det var et voldsomt press, forteller han.

- Jeg har ikke dratt fra Iran for å benytte meg av asylinstituttet, men for å belyse situasjonen for utenomverdenen. Det er flere som er i min situasjon, sier han.

CNN fortalte da flukten ble kjent at advokaten hadde søkt om visum til Norge ved den norske ambassaden i Teheran før han forlot hjemlandet. Dette bekrefter han nå.
Mohammad Mostafaei (Foto: David Krekling, NRK)

Mohammad Mostafaei viste frem visumet i passet.
Foto: David Krekling, NRK
- I Iran søkte jeg om visum til Norge, og har fått innvilget dette både for meg selv og familien for ett år, sier han.

- Men norske myndigheter var ikke på noen måte involvert i avgjørelsen om å flykte, eller til gjennomføring av flukten. Jeg har hatt visum til Norge tidligere, og jeg søkte om fornyelse av dette. Det fikk jeg også, sier Mostafaei og forteller at han også har visum til Tyskland.

Flukten fra Iran gikk med hest, bil og til fots til Tyrkia. Etter at han ble løslatt av tyrkisk politi, fikk han bistand av den norske ambassaden i Ankara med å komme seg fra Istanbul til Stavanger.
- Dette er takken

Saken til tobarnsmoren Ashtiani, som er dømt til steining for utroskap, har vakt store protester internasjonalt.

- Jeg har, gjennom min forsvarergjerning, klart å redde livet til flere titalls mennesker. Også flere kvinner som har blitt dømt for utroskap. Det har jeg gjort for mitt land, og hva var takken? sier en kritisk Mostafaei.

Både han og kona Fereshteh Halimi har i mange år engasjert seg i saker som gjelder rettighetene til iranske borgere.

- Grunnen til at jeg startet med dette arbeidet, er blant annet at jeg kjenner igjen vanskelighetene jeg selv opplevde som liten. Og jeg har engasjert meg i kvinnenes rettigheter fordi jeg kjenner igjen mange av problemene min mor hadde da jeg vokste opp.

* Siste: Klient kan bli henrettet når som helst

Måtte bare dra

Advokaten forteller at han aldri hadde trodd han kom til å flykte fra sitt eget hjemland.

- Jeg trodde aldri at jeg skulle måtte forlate jobben min og Iran, men det var umulig å bli igjen etter hendelsene de to siste ukene. Noen ganger gjør skjebnen at man ikke vet hva som vil skje, sier Mohammad Mostafaei.

- Men jeg hadde aldri tenkt at jeg skulle rømme fra Iran gjennom Tyrkia for å sitte her i dag.

Han sier forholdene i Iran blir verre og verre, rettssikkerhetsmessig.
Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani (Foto: Carl Court/Afp)

Saken til Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani vekker voldsomt internasjonalt engasjement.
Foto: Carl Court/Afp

- Situasjonen er blitt mye mer brutal og langt mer uforutsigbar. Og det var langt fra bra før. Regimet bryter til stadighet landets lover, sier Mostafaei.

Den iranske advokaten roser Norge og norske myndigheter.

- Norske myndigheter og utenriksstasjoner jobber hardt for menneskerettighetene i verden, ikke bare i Iran. Det er viktig for dem, og det er beundringsverdig. Spesielt når de reagerer, blant annet i Iran, så vet de at det kan skade forholdet mellom landene.

Mohammad Mostafaei sier at tankene hans fortsatt er hos hans klienter.

- Jeg skal gjøre mitt beste for å hjelpe dem fortsatt.

Ellers vil han bruke tiden i Norge på å skrive bok. Han har allerede forfattet to bøker og vil forsette å skrive sakprosa om det iranske rettssystemet - hovedsakelig myntet på borgerne i hjemlandet.

- Dessuten vil jeg bruke muligheten til å lære meg bedre engelsk, så kanskje det kommer en bok på engelsk også med tid og stunder, sier advokaten og smiler - før han alvorlig legger til:

- Jeg har så mange sterke historier om personene jeg har møtt og forsvart, som burde vært fortalt, sier han.

http://stopstonningnow.com/wpress/3569
Press Release 60: Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani is Held Incommunicado

Setptember 2, 2010

PR 60

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani is Held Incommunicado

According to news sent to the International Committees against Execution and Stoning, responsible parties within Tabriz prison have told Mrs. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani that she is not allowed visits with her children or her lawyer.

Today, as last week, Sakineh's children have not been allowed to visit their mother. Prison authorities have informed them that their mother is no longer allowed to have contact with the outside world.

According to other received news, Mr. Houtan Kian, Mrs. Ashtiani's lawyer, is also under increasingly intense pressure.

The International Committees against Execution and Stoning condemn this attitude of the Islamic Republic and call upon the people of the world to increase their efforts to free Sakineh. Every reaction by the Islamic Republic bears a sign of the savagery of this regime, indicates the inhuman judiciary system, indicates that people of Iran are utterly bereft of their rights, and at the same time indicatjavascript:void(0)es the weakness and desperation of this regime in the face of increasing international pressure.

Undercover Mosque: debate between a political refugee vs. tyrants of Iran

2010-08-29T11:21:00.000-07:00

Dear secular and atheist friends,

the first newpaper for the illegal Danish anti-Nazi resistence during 1940´ies, the Dagbladet Information, still lives and has published a historic exchange between exile-Iranian dissidents and the diplomatic and ideological agents of the Islamic Imperialistic military junta of Iran! Please read, distribute, comment and investigate the freely with proper reference to Dagbladet Information's original Danish language Op-Eds. Also, as secular activists, please show active resistence to the Islamic Imperialism and diminish their new offensive: building multiple Trojan Horses - "Islamic Mosques, Sharia Schools, Sharia courts and Cultural Centres" - to spread their network of military intelligence-, recruitment and operations and Sharia injustice within our infra-structure and against our own infra-structure and lives and those of our allies.

Sincerely

Dr Pedram Kazemi-Esfarjani, liberal-secular activist, atheist

No to Iranian propaganda-mosque
Call to Danes and the Danish left-wing politicians: Do not support the grand mosque at Vibevej road- it will become a propaganda central for the Iranian clergy-regime and a platform for fundamentalist brain wash of unadjusted members of immigrant youth
By: Hussein Ferdowsipour
14. april 2010 | Historik
Published on the internet at information.dk 14. april 2010,19:15. Printed version 15. april 2010 on page 17 in 1. section. Latest update 14. april 2010, 20:55.
I am writing this, because I feel squeezed. Squeezed between the Danish right wing with Pia Kjærsgaard in the lead, who perceives almost every muslim as a potential terrorist, and the Danish left-wing politicians, who in a wellmeaning attempt to accept of other ethnic people overlook most basic human rights. I am a board member of Frit Iran, a grassroot organization of exile-Iranians, who fight, using peaceful means, for a demokratic Iran.
Many of us have experienced the oppression of fundamentalism on our own bodies. More have been subject to harsh physicial and psychological torture and yearlong imprisonment. I am myself one of the over five million Iranians, who have been forced to exile since 1979.
Through the years I have experienced consequences of the xenophobic atmosphere, which the Danish right wing has put energy in spreading. Let me illustrate this by an example concerning a good friend. Ashkan Panjeheighalehei, also a board member at of Frit Iran, was deported from Denmark to Iran after biased case processing by immigration authorities. Three years after he succeeded anew to flee and reunite with the rest of his family in Denmark. Here he told, how he with bloody clothes and wrist, which was sutured hastily after unsuccesful suicide attempt at Copenhagen International Airport at Kastrup - and quite against medical advice from hospital staff - had been flown to Iran and handed over to his tormentors in Teheran. Thereafter he had to go through 23 months confinement in the ayatollahs´ secret prisons, where he was subject to harsh torture, without ever being presented for any court proceeding.
Owned by the Iranian state
The problem arises, when various minority rights collide. At present we experience horrifying examples of how the left-wing politicians set aside both women´s rights, children´s rights and freedom of expression only to show concern for, what they imagine, is the right to retain and practice own religion and culture.
I am addressing the project regarding a mosque by the name Imam Ali, which soon is to be built at Vibevej in Copenhagen Northwest neighbourhood.
The shocking fact is, that Denmark´s first real mosque will both be financed and owned by the Iranian state. That means, owned by a regime, which practices Sharia law, rapes women and men in its prisons and stones and mutilates its own citizens in full public display.
Behind the mosque is standing a foundation called Ahl-Ul-Beyt, which already runs 68 other centres for Iran´s clergy-rule around the World. The foundation has as its goal to promote the Islamic Republic of Iran´s views, which shows from the list of its board members, many of which are hardboiled Holocaust deniers.
Why dares the Danish left-wing politicians not take the discussion about the mosque, which based on available documentation is intended as a platform for dessimination of the way of approaching matters, which are tightly related to Sharia law and legitimizes crimes such as amputation of arms and legs and stoning of women? Approaches, which left-wing politicians in any other context would oppose without compromise, and here brutally undermine women´s rights, children´s rights, the right of atheists?
Sophisticated operation
Looking into those centres that Ahl-Ul-Beyt Foundaton is running around the globe, one gets some insight into, what the idea behind the mosque at Vibevej in Copenhagen Northwest neighbourhood be.
The foundation´s centres in Africa and Asia have become an axis for radicalization of local muslim communities. The mosques payout mony to the poor, who in return convert to Shia-Islam. With this regard they are subjected to religious education, which is permeated by the clergy-rule´s official stance and its political visions.
The Repulic of Azerbajdjan has deemed Ahl-ul-bayt´s presence in that country a threat and closed down their centre there. Similarly South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Thailand, Singapore and a few countries in Central Asia have banned Ahl-ul-bayt´s activities.
In the West, Ahl-Ul-Beyt is operating in a more sophisticated manner. mere raffineret. Externally they present their centres as peaceful places for sport, culture and celebration of religious holy fiests (at some locations the centres received state funding for these innocent activities). However, at the same time big sums are accumulated and transfered to build similar projects at locations in the World, where a far more radical-fundamentalist practice is preached.
Groups associated to Ahlul Bayts mosque in Hamborg, Germany, where involved in the assassination of four leaders of the Kurdish Democratic Party in Berlin i 1992. The Ahlul Bayts mosque in London has similarly created a framework for recruiting of terrorists, death threats against the British-Indian author Salman Rushdie, and espionage against exile-Iranians.
The Imam at the planned grand mosque at Vibevej, Mehdi Khademi, was untill 2004 empolyed at the Iranian Islamic Revolution Guard Corps´ department of ideology, whereafter he has switched the military helmet to a turban and was handpicked by the clergy-rule to transfer to Denmark. He must be suspected to have connections to Iran´s ill-reputed intelligence services, especially in lue of his past working collaboration with experts in brain washing and recruiting of new members to the holy cause.
Directly from the clergy-rule

Ahl-Ul-Beyt has as its assignment to mission for a form of islam, which rules and regulation is dictated directly by the clergy-rule in Iran - thus from a fundamentalist state, which is ill-reputed for its oppression, not only towards other religious communities, but also against competing versions of Islam, thereby oppressing Sunnies, Alavits, moderate muslims, Sufi muslims and secular muslims, all subject to persecutation.
This pitch-black ideology, which will dominate within the new mosque. Most exile-Iranians do not perceive the mosque as a forum, where muslims freely practice their belief, but rather yet another location that can be used as a base for espionage against us and a place, where the integration of immigrants be undermined. After 11. of September we have observed a marginalization of people of muslim background, where the media primarily have been preoccupied by us, when any bloody conflicts and sensatinal stories happened. During the same period some of our youth have lost their foothold in the society, where they have been born and grown up, which in turn has fertilized the grounds for exstremist views.
Thus Hizbollah has gained a larger recruitment in Danmark, the same can be told about Hamas. Now it is the ayatollahs´ turn to handpick our youngsters. And this time with support from the Danish left-wing politicians!
The building of the new mosque is about more than just the issue of freedom of religion and respect for minority cultures. It is about Iran´s wish to grasp political-religious power in Denmark and to create discord, distrust and insecurity amongst the immigrant milieu.
Therefore, dear left wing, wake up to reality. This is serious. Listen to the prrotests against the Imam Ali
Mosque and Culture Centre.
Hussein Ferdowsipour is a freelance journalist.
Today at 16.00 Frit Iran and other exile-Iranians hold a peaceful demonstration in front of the City Hall, where the mosque is to be debated

__________________________________________________

http://www.information.dk/230656
"Baseless accusations about the mosque", claims the Islamic Iranian Embassy first secretary

The Iranian Embassy has nothing to do with the planned grand mosque at Vibevej road - the claim comes from doubtful exile-iranian circles
By: Ali Reza Jabbari, first secretary at the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Copenhagen, Denmark
21. april 2010 | Historik
In Danish only at information.dk 21. april 2010, 19:15. Printed issue 22. april 2010 on page 16 in 1. section. Latest update 21. april 2010, 21:06.
Search words for this article
Subject words::
refugee and asylum, human rights, mosques in Denmark, religion
Organizations:
Dagbladet Information (established in 1940´ies as the illegal Danish resistence newspaper, now a newspaper in the league of the British The Guardian,The Independent, The Observer etc.)
Places:
Iran, Copenhagen
In Information 15. april one could read an article on the projected Imam Ali-mosque in Copenhagen, which contains both wrongful reports and baseless accusations against the Embassy of Islamic Republic of Iran in Copenhagen.
The author of the article (Hussein Ferdowsipour, editor) presents himself as the leader of an organization called Frit Iran. It is ironic, that members of the terror-organizationen MKO (‘Peopl´s Mujahedin’, editor) feel themselves be called to speak out about a free Iran. During the war forced on by Iraq in 1980’ies the Iranians defended their country against all odds with their blood. They had to, during this endeavour, also guard themselves against traitors within own ranks, who acted as the fifth column acted on behalf of the enemy and recruited innocent youngsters to a especially established army division in Iraq, which was to attack their compatriots. Those, who were lucky enough to get away from MKO security apparatus at the Ashraf-camp in Northren Bagdad, sought political asylum in the West claiming there were persecuted. On their asylum applications, however, they noted nothing about the trison that they had commited against their country or about MKO’s terrorizing the Iranian people during a time of war and suffering. Rather they filled their applications with stories that appealed to the Danish humanitarian instincts and peace-loving conscience.
They are terrotists
Most Iranian citizens in Denmark are dignified and lawabiding citizens, wo are well-integrated in the Danish society, but a little minority of these citizens have a hardened background as terrorists, and their newest recruits act as foot soldiers and speakers for interest groups, which are determined to perpetrate extensive slander of Iran. It is surprizing that a well-respected Danish newspaper offer itself as a platform for a bunch, whose only contribution to the Danish society has been to organize demonstrations and unrest in front of the Iranian Embassy.
It is a fact, that in Iran mosques are seldom built by the government itself. Most mosques are built thanks to donations from the believers. In the islamic Iran khoms - a religious tax, which consists of one fifth of a citizen's annual income after most expenses are paid - lays the foundation for most charity work, including building of hospitals, mosques, orphanages and other humanitarian activities. The Imam Ali-mosque has possibly attempted to acquire financing from such sources, but the Iranian Embassy in Denmark must categorically reject, that we in any way should have given assistance to financing, drafting or building of the mosque at Vibevej road.
Engaged in dialogue
It is worth noting, that a Shia Muslim mosque has operated in Copenhagen in nearly ten years without ever having preached violence or disobedience towards Danish values and laws. On the contrary, it has continuously been in dialogue with the local community, church leaders, and the and congregation to promote better dialogue between religious communities and integration and religious tolerance. It is difficult to see, how building a mosque in an orderly architectural framework could change these functions, which by the way also are approved by the Danish authorities.
Iranians have inherited tolerance towards other races and religions from their forfathers. As the Persian King Cyrus the Great conqured Babylon in 500 BC, he freed all slaves and prisoners and proclaimed, that all were free to practice their prefered religion. This decret was carved in on a cylinder (which is to be found at the British Museum) and is internationally recognized as the first human rights declaration.
Those, who oppose building of a mosque in Copenhagen, would be wise to visit Iranian cities and see the churches and synagogues and other places of worship. It could teach them one or two things about religious tolerance and freedom to practice own belief, which are basic principles for individual freedom and human rights.
Regarding accuastions of terrorism, is it not timely that the Danish media stop forwarding these rediculous stereotypes about Iran, which are being sought to be spead by opponents of the Iranian nation, henchmen and others, who only try to defer attention from their own crimes in the Middle East.
It is regretable, when Danish press Det er beklageligt, når dansk presse spread accusations, which cannot be backed by evidence.
Ali Reza Jabbari is first secratary at the Iranian Embassy in Copenhagen
(The author of the herein commented article, the exile-Iranian Hussein Ferdowsipour, rejects that he at any time at all should have been a member of MKO, editor)

http://www.information.dk/231041

Fear creating agitation about the mosque at Vibevej
Islam without violence, terror and with respect for human rights is a wish for all, who work at the mosque at Vibevej. There is no difference between Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Zoroastrians, blacks, whites, Arabs or Turkseller
By: S.M.M. Khademi, imam and chairman for Imam Ali Islamic Center
25. april 2010 | Historik
Lagt på information.dk 25. april 2010 kl. 17:15. Bragt i den trykte udgave 26. april 2010 på side 21 i 1. sektion. Senest opdateret 26. april 2010 kl. 13:16.
Opslag til denne artikel
Emneord:islam, stormoské
Steder:Iran, København
On 14. april a H. Ferdowsipour wrote an article in Information, where he - besides throwing dirt on the undersigned, the imam and responsible leader of Imam Ali Islamic Center - puts forward some lies and vicious statements with the goal to cast suspicion both on my person and the forthcoming mosque project at Vibevej.
He marginalizes by his way of his agitation all here residing Iranians and Islam and is not promotnig in any way the possibility for a worthy integration and a peaceful co-existence characterized by tolerance, enlightenment, understanding and respect for each other - regardless of belief and political views.
I wish to start with presenting myself: My name is S. Mohammad Mehdi Khademi, I am born in Isfahan in 1962 in a very well-known and respectable family. After school years, in 1977 I went to Ghom to study (Islam and Sharia - edit.english). After compeleted studies I taught in 12 years as tutor at the Theological Faculty in Ghom until 2001 - except for ca. nin months, when I taught in another city. In 1991 I received several recognitions from Theological centres in Ghom, and Najaf in Iraq.
Until I emigrated to Denmark in 2001, I have not one day worked for the Iranian Islamic Republic, and therefor I chose to report H. Ferdowsipour to the Police for hais grave slander. Mr. Ferdowsipour should very well prove the judge in court, that his following claims be truthful:
That the Iranian state owns the Imam Ali Islamic Center.
That the mosque project is being built by money from the Iranian state.
That the Islamic organization Ahlul Bait supports the project economically (financially red.english)
That the Ahlul Bait organization denies the Holocaust.
That employees at the mosque accept and recognize stoning and amputation of arms and legs as punishment.
That I until 2004 have been part of the militia organization and worked in the ideological section in Iran.
That I and my employees at the mosque gather information about him and his organizationation.
All can come
As mentioned I have since 2001 resided in Denmark and functioned as imam in Imam Ali Center at Vibevej. It can be confirmed by many Muslims and non-Muslims and the Police via my passport.
Mr. Ferdowsipour must be a forgetful liar as he in the programme Deadline at DR2 (16. april) claimed, that I until 2008 have been active member of the militia in Iran? He forgot immediately, that he in his article in Information wrote, that I until 2004 have been a member of a militia organization!
How can it be, that he speaks for all exile-Iranians in Denmark, but as he and his organization arranged the demonstration in front of the City Hall, no more than 30-40 persons attended?
Since 2001 I have functioned as imam in the mosque at Vibevej in tolerance wih the Danish society. My biggest wish is a peaceful co-existence between diverse groups and congregations. I will present the true and loving Islam. An Islam without violence, terror and with respect for humn rights. For us employees at the Vibevej-moskeen There is no difference between Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Zoroastrians, blacks, whites, Arabs or Turks or, Shia or Sunni. We respect all and everyone. We all orginate from the same mother and father. For me an antisemit is as appalling as an antimuslim.
Our goal with the building a good-looking mosque is, that people - regardless of their belief and stance - be able to come here and in a beautiful and peaceful environment talk about God. We are therefor building a big and modern amphitheater, where there can be arranged lectures, conferences and debating evenings, where people with different background and views can meet for better understanding of each other.

Although I am an Iranian and love my country, it is no hinderance for me of course to respect the Danish laws and regulations. I will never as much as consider to be the long arm for another country and agitate against Denmark, this gorgeous country and its honest and enlightened people. I and my family are a part of this society, and my son is going to a Danish school.
I am proud of the fact that my mosquw is the only mosque in the country, where we celebrate at the birthday of Jesus on 24. December. My mosque has the best relations to the Danish population and various churches in Copenhagen. We visit the churches here, and they visit our mosque.
I wish that the picture of Islam created by the media be revised. There should not be fear and uncertainty among the Danish population. We will build a house of God - and not a house of Iranian Islamic Republic!
Rightwing views
In September 2009 2.481 names and signatures and addresses were delivered to the Copenhagen City Council - among these were many non-Muslims - who wish to support the mosque project economically (financially - red.english), and these numbers have grown larger during past six months.

Mr. Ferdowsipour and people like him create impressions of animosity and uneasiness and fear among the Danish population. That of him chosen designaion "grand mosque" - for the recently approved mosque building project at Vibevej - is synonymous with increased risc for terror, according to his article in Information.
if Mr. Ferdowsipour´s thesis, that a square metre area equals risc for terror, I can calm him by saying that the mosque project is ca. 300 sqm less than the present worn down factory buildinigs at Vibevej, where I have since 2001 been imam. The claimed square metre- related progressive terrorrisc is this case degressive!
‘Grand mosque’ is used consciously by Ferdowsipour in his manipulation of especially the left wing - although his article at several instances indicates rightwing views.
I look forward with joy as imam - and on behalf of my congregation - that we within near future shall take a beautiful environment in use at Vibevej and continue to work for a peaceful co-existence characterized by love of the next.
S. M. M. Khademi is imam and chairman Imam Ali Islamisk Center

Copenhagen among 111 Cities Against Stoning, 28 August 2010

2010-08-28T17:49:00.000-07:00

Koebenhavn blandt 111 Byer mod Stening 28 August 2010 - Copenhagen among 111 Cities Against Stoning, 28 August 2010

Sammen med folk fra 111 byer paa alle fem kontinenter, loerdag 28 August 2010, en gruppe af dedikerede politiske flygtninge fra Iran og Danske venner gennemfoerte en ansigt-til-ansigt oplysnings-samtale om og mod stening og andre Sharia-forbrydelser mod menneskeheden. Der blev uddelt oplysende loebesedler til flere end 60 Danskere af forskellige herkomst og idegrundlag, inkl. ateister, Muslimer, Kristne, ikke-specificerede, heteroseksuelle eller homoseksuelle, venstre, hoejre, center og uafhaengige. “100 Cities Against Stoning” kampange-erklaeringen blev givet videre til mangfoldiggoerelse, distribution og diskussion med disse borgeres netvaerk af venner. Vi talte ligeledes om hvad medborgerne kunne goere for at opmuntre den Danske regering til mere effektiv indsats mod stening af kvinder, boern og maend i Iran og andre steder i Verden. Vores fokus var kommunikation med beboere af nabolaget omkring den Iranske Islamiske Republiks (IRI) Imam Ali Moske, der drives af diktatoren Khamenei’s beviseligt berygtede Ahl ul Bait organisation. Der er planlagt en massiv 10 million $ udvidelse af denne sharia-hjernevask-center for IRI, en potentiel militaer intelligens- og lokal rekrutterings-center for IRI, -Hamas og -Hizbullah. En hazarderet og uvelkommen ambition opponeret ved et 78% flertal af Danskere jvf. Danmarks Radios meningsmaaling ved 5000 sms stemmer. Danskere oensker ikke nogen skulle praedike stening, hverken i Koebenhavn eller nogen andet sted. Vi skal tilsutte os kommende bestraebelser paa at opretholde fokus paa Sakineh og andre fanger i Iran og redde dem fra stening, haengning eller andre metoder af henrettelse. Vi sagde nej til stening sammen med vores kampagne-kolleger i 111 deltagende byer! Og sidst ikke mindst skal vi forsoege at introducere denne debat i de kommende Foketingsvalgs-kampagner for de store partier i Danmark.
Pedram Kazemi-Esfarjani, valgt medlem af Fritiran, sekulaert, liberalt mindretal. 100 Byer Mod Stening

Copenhagen among 111 Cities Against Stoning, 28 August 2010

کپنهاگ علیه سنگسار
همگام با ایرانیان بیش از صد شهر در پنج قاره دنیا, امروز, شنبه 28 اوت جمعی از پناهندگان سیاسی ایران در کپنهاگ آکسیونی اعتراضی بر علیه سنگسار برگزار کردند.
این آکسیون در مقابل مسجد امام علی که وابسته به جمهوری اسلامی و بنیاد جهانی اهل بیت میباشد برگزار شد. تظاهر کنندگان ضمن پخش اطلاعیه هایی بر علیه سنگسار در بین رهگذران به افشاگری در مورد سیاستهای بلند پروازانه جمهوری اسلامی ایران در ارتباط با ساخت مسجدی 10 ملیون دلاری در این منطقه پرداختند.
حسین فردوسی پور.

Along with people from 111 cities on the five Continents of the World, today, Saturday 28 August 2010, a group of dedicated political refugees from Iran and fellow Danes conducted one-on-one informative conversations about and against stoning and other sharia law atrocities against humanity. More than 60 Danes of various creed and origin including atheists, Muslims, Christians, non-specified, straight or gay, right, left, centre and independet, were given leaflets with the “100 Cities Against Stoning” campaign statement to multiply, distribute and discuss with their network of friends. We also talked about what citizens could do to urge the Danish government to work more effectively against stoning of women, children and men in Iran and elsewhere in the World. Our focus was communication with the residents of the neighbourhood surrounding the Islamic Republic of Iran’s (IRI) Imam Ali Mosque run by dictator Khamenei’s notorious Ahl ul Bait organization. A massive 10 million $ expansion of this particular sharia-brainwashing centre of IRI, a potential military intelligence and local recruitment centre for IRI, Hamas and Hizbullah in Copenhagen is planned. A hazardous and unwelcome ambition opposed by a 78% majority of Danes according to Danish National TV poll by 5000 instant messaging voting. Danes do NOT wish anyone preach stoning neither in Copenhagen, nor anywhere else!
We shall join coming efforts to keep the focus on saving Sakineh and other prisoners from stoning, hanging and other methods of execution . We said no to stoning, alongside our co-campaigners in the 111 participating cities! And we shall try to introduce this debate to coming Danish parliament election campaigns of leading parties.
Pedram Kazemi-Esfarjani, member elect of Fritiran, secular liberal minority

Copenhagen, Denmark joins the August 28 Campaign Event: 100 Cities Against Stoning

2010-08-19T15:21:00.000-07:00

INVITATION
111 byer har tilsluttet sig kampagnen 100 Byer mod Stening - København er med! Copenhagen among 111 cities joining the campaign 100 Cities Against Stoning!

Det Koebenhavnske bidrag til 100 Cities Against Stoning, 28.08.2010, kl.14-16, krydset Glentevej-Vibevej

Jeg opfordrer alle anti-imperialister, humanister og sekulaere Danskere, inkl. Danskere med Iransk fortid etc., og andre interesserede, fredelige, lovlydige borgere til at deltage i det Koebenhavnske bidrag til 100 Cities Against Stoning, 28.08.2010, kl.14-16, krydset Glentevej-Vibevej - polititilladelse og kommunal vejbrugsformalia er bragt i orden: kom og vaer med!

Der vil laegges vaegt paa samtale med interesserede forbipasserende og omdeling af oplysnings-materiale i form af kampagnens officielle loebesedler og presse-meddelelser. Dette skal vaere en rolig og fredelig demonstration. Man behoever ikke at raabe for at blive hoert, man kan tale og laese. Al forsoeg paa haervaerk eller ulovligheder meldes til politiet omgaaende.

Vedr. Fritirans politik vil jeg henlede til generalforsamlingens vedtagelse 30.05.2010: "Fritiran, som en græsrodsforening for dansk-iransk venskab og demokratisk frihedskamp, vil fejre Grundlovsdagen 5. Juni 2010, eller deltage aktivit og synligt i de eksisterende Grunlovsdags-møder og markere vigtigheden af forsvar af den danske Grundlovs frihedsrettigheder og humanisme mod Islamisk Sharia lovs ulighed og undertrykkelse i Iran og i Europa".

Med venlig hilsen, Pedram Kazemi-Esfarjani, af generalforsamlingen valgt, fortsat fuldgyldigt medlem af bestyrelsen i Fritiran, sekulaert, liberalt mindretal

CONTACT:

Please contact Pedram Kazemi-Esfarjani, secular liberal activist and member elect of board of Fritiran, secular liberal minority for news and details of the Copenhagen event, or if you wish to join the event planning, by contacting: docpedram@gmail.com

READY TO PRINT: FLYERS, POSTERS, VIDEOS
For flyers and poster to print out and bring along to the demonstration on 28.08.10: http://www.scribd.com/mrohaly
For more general information and also to watch video reports from the previous international events to save Sakineh and other victims of sharia injustice on 24 July 2010: http://missionfreeiran.org/ (a secular website!)

TIME AND PLACE
The Copenhagen Police Department and the Copenhagen City Council administration have both approved the campaign 100 Cities Against Stoning to meet up on Saturday 28.08.2010, 2-4 pm at the Glentevej-Vibevej crossing, Copenhagen NV neighbourhood, literally speaking our message stop stonings and executions in Iran, so the neighbourhood's good people be informed, and the bad ones, the Iranian Islamic state's sharia-centre in Copenhagen, the mosque at Vibevej 25, to get the message and bring it to their Lord, Khamenei. By that we protest the execution orders against Mrs Sakineh Ashtiani as well as protest sharia-law export incl. future export of stoning og women and girls to Copenhagen!

Place: Google Map for Glentevej close the address Vibevej 25 - where supreme commander of Iranian Islamic Imperialism armed forces Khamenei's Ahl ul Bait Unit is building a base, yet another Undercover Mosque: http://maps.google.dk/maps?hl=da&rlz=1I7DLUK_en-GB&q=glentevej%20&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl

Weather report, bring along your rain coat: http://www.dmi.dk/dmi/index/danmark.htm

THE COPENHAGEN CAMPAIGN EVENT PRESS RELEASE - IN DANISH AND ENGLISH, RESPECTIVELY

Pressemeddelelse om 100 Byer Mod Stening den 28.08.2010

Det sekulære mindretal i den københavnske forening Fritiran inviterer hermed alle fredelige, lovlydige medborgere til at deltage i den fredelige, internationale oplysningskampagne 100 Byer Mod Stening. I København afholdes en fredelig demonstration, lørdag d.28.08.2010, kl.14-16, ved krydset Glentevej-Vibevej, modsat den Iranske statsmoske. Den fredelige demonstration har modtaget tilladelse fra både politiet og kommunen. Der vil være officielle løbesedler fra kampagnens side mhp. samtale med interesserede forbipasserende og deltagere. Man behøver ikke at råbe i en megafon for at blive hørt, man kan også samtale og læse. Det er princippet for netop dette tvær-politiske arrangement. Kom og laes og tal sammen i fred og ro, venstre, center og højre i Danmark.

Opdateringer via: www.fritdanmark-fritiran.blogspot.com

Med venlig hilsen

Pedram Kazemi-Esfarjani, valgt medlem af bestyrelsen i Fritiran - ovenstående er en sekulært, liberalt mindretalsudtalelse.

Kontakt: Pedram Kazemi-Esfarjani, docpedram@gmail.com

Kilder til flere oplysninger om kampagnen:

- For kampagne-koordinatorers pressemeddelelse, se: http://stopstonningnow.com/wpress/2137

- For kampagnes informationsmateriale, posters og loebesedler, se: http://www.scribd.com/mrohaly

- For kampagnens video reportager fra seneste internationale aktion 24 Juli 2010 m.m. se: www.missionfreeiran.org (bare rolig, trods navnet er det 100% sekulaert)

- For opdatering af antal byer, der deltager d.28.08.2010: http://stopstonningnow.com/wpress/2249

- For mere information om denne og lignende oplysningskampagner og konferencer, se: www.onelawforall.org.uk

Press release regarding 100 Cities Against Stoning on 28.08.2010

The secular liberal minority in the Copenhagen based grass-root group Fritiran hereby invites all peaceful, law abiding citizens to participate in the peaceful international campaign 100 Cities Against Stoning. In Copenhagen there will be held a peaceful demonstration on Saturday 28 August 2010, 2-4 pm, at the street junction Glentevej-Vibevej, Copenhagen NV, opposite to the Iranian state mosque. This peaceful demonstration has received permission from both Copenhagen Police Department and Copenhagen City Council administration. There will be official campaign flyers and posters to show and to talk about with interested participants and bystanders. There is no need to shout through a megaphone to be heard, one could read and have a informative chat instead. This would be the philosophy of this particular politically open and broad event. Come on and read and talk to each other in peace, left, centre and right in Denmark.

Updates, including Google map reference and weather report on: www.fritdanmark-fritiran.blogspot.com

Sincerely

Pedram Kazemi-Esfarjani, member elect of the board of Fritiran - this event and the press release is on behalf of the secular liberal minority among the membership of Fritiran, who elected me as their delegate at the General Assembly 30 May 2010.

Contact: Pedram Kazemi-Esfarjani, docpedram@gmail.com

Links to more information about this and related campaigns by the same campaign coordinators:

- For campaign statement: http://stopstonningnow.com/wpress/2137

- For more data, printable flyers and posters: http://www.scribd.com/mrohaly

- For video reports from the International events against stoning on 24 Juli 2010 and more: www.missionfreeiran.org (100% secular)

- For an update on the number of cities participating in the campaign on.28 August 2010: http://stopstonningnow.com/wpress/2249

- For more information on this and similar campaigns and conferences: www.onelawforall.org.uk

MORE ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO SAVE SAKINEH AND OTHER VICTIMS OF SHARIA INJUSTICE AND AGAINST STONING AND EXECUTIONS IN IRAN

Other web links to the campaign: http://stopstonningnow.com/wpress/2137

The International campaign to save Sakineh Ashtiaani from stoning has brought this savage, criminal punishment to the attention of the world. Today Sakineh’s name is familiar to millions of people. Hundreds of thousands have expressed their abhorrence of stoning through, among other things, signing petitions and taking part in protest actions worldwide. This millions strong movement must be organized. It must take its protest to the streets!
To that end we call on citizens of the world to mark August 28, 2010 the day of protest action by 100 CITIES OF THE WORLD AGAINST STONING. We call on you, civilized people of the world, to actively show your vehement opposition to stoning as a pre-medieval form of savagery. Organize, or participate in, protest rallies everywhere. Condemn the Islamist regime in Iran as the cruelest regime of its kind that stones people to death. It has, during the 31 years of its existence, stoned at least 109 people, predominantly women, and currently has 25 more people sit on stoning death row. These barbaric, serial killings must be stopped!
We call especially on all anti-stoning campaigners, as well as all groups and organizations particularly involved in the on-going international campaign to save Sakineh, to actively mobilize, with everything in their power, for a strong 100 CITIES OF THE WORLD AGAINST STONING action. We request you all to contact us through our website addresses below in order to coordinate your efforts and organize more effectively. We shall soon announce the list of names of the cities willing and prepared to organize an action.
Further, we request all trade unions and other workers’ organization, women’s organizations, Amnesty International and all progressive organizations to join us in this campaign aimed at forcing back the Islamist regime. Please forward this callout to your membership and mobilize them for a forceful, global 100 CITIES OF THE WORLD AGAINST STONING.
We call on all local councils, city governments and MPs around the world to actively join this global, citizens’ campaign, issue statements and pass resolutions condemning the barbaric regime of stoning in Iran.
We request the world media to help us in disseminating the news of the advance of 100 CITIES OF THE WORLD AGAINST STONING campaign.
We also call on all Iranian individulas living abroad, all Iranian opposition organizations, and all the Farsi language media to consider 100 CITIES OF THE WORLD AGAINST STONING their own protest action against the regime of stoning in Iran. We request them to add to its force as well as expanse through contributing their creative ideas.

And now to something related:

Undercover Mosque (2007) and Undercover Mosque - the Return (2009)

Watch on Google Video Undercover Mosque (2007) and Undercover Mosque - the Return (2009) by the British Channel Four Dispatchers and Hard Cash Productions and learn why we all should resist the ongoing Islamic Imperialist grand mosque and sharia-school offensive.

Danish: Vis fredelig, staedig og Grundlovssikret modstand mod Islamisk Imperialismes Trojanske Heste stormoskeer, sharia-skoler og saakaldte Islamiske Kulturcentre, der er sharia-centre som de andre.

English: Resist Islamic Imperialism's Trojan Horses, grand mosques, shria-schools and so-called Islamic Cultural Centres, which are none but sharia-centres, peacefully, but persistently and with the Danish liberal democratic constitution Grundloven in your hands.

Author Sam Harris joins plot to have Pope arrested
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article7127805.ece

Interesting article with the author's kind permission:

Why hard-line Islam is winning
by Roy W Brown*
* Roy W Brown is main representative at the UN Geneva for the International Humanist and Ethical Union. Note by the author: Because it makes references to immigration (about which IHEU has "no agreed policy"), I gave the speech in my personal capacity rather than as an IHEU representative.
Since the Iranian revolution of 1979 Islam has become far more assertive world-wide. The Iranian revolution showed the Muslim world that Muslims could shake off the “yoke of western economic imperialism” and become the masters of their own fate. But more importantly, Saudi Arabia suddenly woke up to the threat on their doorstep and since the Iranian revolution has spent billions of dollars in promoting its own version of hard-line Islamism world wide.
The Saudi regime is kept in place through a bargain struck with the Wahabis, the dominant sect in Saudi Arabia. The deal is simple: the family can enjoy their jet-setting western life-style, but the quid pro quo is that they spend much of the nation’s oil wealth on promoting Islam – Wahabi Islam.
According to estimates we saw back in 2004, Saudi Arabia spent between 60 and 100 billion dollars on this project between 1980 and 2004 – a process that someone – quite accurately in my opinion – called “stealth jihad”. We believe the Saudi regime is still subsidizing hard-line Islamism to the tune of $8 to $10 billion annually.

First they poured money into the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (the OIC) which represents the 57 Islamic States, and has become the most influential power block at the United Nations where they have succeeded in silencing any criticism of human rights abuse in the Islamic world.
I shall come back to the influence of the OIC at the United Nations in a moment.
Since the early 1980s the Saudis have been supporting local and national Islamic organisations around the world. The support the Muslim Brotherhood, CAIR in the United States and Canada, the Muslim Council of Britain, the Geneva Islamic information centre, home of the Ramadan brothers, and a myriad mosques and Islamic information centres around the world.
But most insidiously of all, they have been using their money and influence to replace liberal, moderate leadership in mosques by hard-line imams. Over half of the mosques in England are now controlled by the Deoband – a hard-line Islamist cult that originated in India. Over half the mosques in France are now controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood and their sympathisers. I heard just this week in Geneva that over the past 20 years the Saudis have been quietly offering financial support to mosques in India provided they changed their imams to someone approved by them. I have no information on what has been happening in Scandinavia but I would be very surprised if things here were very different.
Right across Europe we are seeing worrying signs of a new Islamic assertiveness: condemnation by self-appointed Islamic leaders of every perceived insult to Islam, demands for special treatment for Muslims in schools, hospitals and the workplace, and for the acceptance of Shari’a law for the settlement of family disputes. But this phenomenon is not confined to Europe. It is part of a global campaign, orchestrated by the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the OIC, for the world-wide acceptance and adoption of Islamic norms and values.
For the past 20 years, the OIC has been pushing for international recognition of a unique and special status for their particular hard-line interpretation of Islam.
Their first step was the adoption in 1990 of the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam[1], a document which the OIC claims is “complementary” to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights[2] but which actually turns the Universal Declaration on its head, replacing individual rights by “rights” based exclusively on Shari’a law.
When I presented a paper at the UN Human Rights Council in March 2008 on behalf of IHEU, highlighting the incompatibility between the Cairo Declaration and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights [3], I was stopped on a point of order by the Pakistani delegate who said that “any discussion of Shari’a law in this forum is insulting to our faith”. This extraordinary objection was actually upheld by the president of the Council [4]. If threats to the universality of human rights cannot be addressed in the world’s supreme human rights body, where can they be discussed?
The OIC have since announced plans for an Islamic Charter of Human Rights based on the Cairo Declaration, and a new international Islamic Human Rights body for which the OIC is seeking, and will probably obtain, UN recognition [5]. Should they succeed the UN will have accepted that the Universal Declaration no longer applies to more than one billion of our fellow human beings living in the Islamic States.
But the ambitions of the OIC are not restricted to their own countries. Every year since 1999 they have introduced resolutions in the Human Rights Council and, since 2006 in the UN General Assembly, “Combating Defamation of Religion”, with the objective of restricting all negative comment about religion, Islam in particular. Every year these non-binding resolutions have been adopted by the Human Rights Council with a comfortable two to one majority, with only the liberal democracies among the 47 member states of the Council voting against. When this resolution was first introduced in the UN General Assembly it was adopted by a similarly impressive majority. Freedom of expression - and the idea that criticism of Islam should be permissible – is anathema to the Islamic States, and combating defamation of religion has been their weapon of choice in their fight against that freedom. But the western liberal democracies, and every child of the Enlightenment, understand that it is freedom of expression that underpins all our other human rights. Without freedom of expression, how are we to expose and challenge tyranny, corruption and intolerance in all its forms? One hopeful sign, however, is that support for these resolutions has been declining in the UN General Assembly every year since 2006, as a result, no doubt, of the massive negative publicity that the concept of defamation of religion has attracted from NGOs and western delegations [6].
In their latest moves this year, the OIC has begun pushing for additional “complementary” clauses in the legally binding Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination, the CERD, that would extend protection to religions (for which read “Islam”) thereby making defamation of religion, or blasphemy, a criminal offence under international law.
And in June 2010 they pushed through a change to the mandate to the special rapporteur on freedom of expression requiring that defender of freedom to report on abuses of that freedom – to report, in fact, on cases of Islamophoia!
They are winning

However unreasonable the demands of the hard-liners might seem, and how alien to our way of life and values, they are winning the war in the UN and in many western states as well. One of their key strategies has been to label any criticism of Islam or Islamic extremism as “Islamophobia”, and to equate it with racism. In this they were strongly supported by the former UN special rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, Doudou Diene, a Muslim from Senegal, who during his term of office succeeded in ignoring every manifestation of the endemic anti-Semitism in the Islamic world while focusing almost exclusively on Islamophobia, which he described as “the worst form of racism”. The OIC were, of course, delighted with his statements and have been quoting him endlessly ever since. So all-pervading has been the malign influence of this man that he is still travelling the world advising governments from South East Asia to Northern Europe on how best to counter this phenomenon.
Diene defined Islamophobia as an “irrational fear or hatred of Islam”, so no-one among the hundreds of advocates of freedom of expression that I know can be described as Islamophobic; their fears of radical Islam, far from being irrational, are well founded. But fear of being labeled Islamophobic – and of violent reprisals – seems to have infected governments and the media throughout the western world. We see writers, comedians, politicians, playwrights and film-makers happy to attack Christianity while steering well clear of Islam. The film 2012 released earlier this year is a good example. We can see the Vatican wiped out as the Earth faces extinction, but not the Kabaa in Mecca. Director Roland Emmerich and co-writer Harold Kloser admitted that they “didn’t want a fatwa on their heads because of a film”.
The future

To see what is in store should the Islamists succeed, we need look no further than Iran or Somalia today where, under Sharia law, young people are being executed for crimes committed while they were still children, men and women are being stoned to death for adultery, homosexuals are killed, and girls as young as eight or nine are being forcibly married off to middle-aged men.
The Islamists are skilful at playing the victimisation card. Yes, they are victims – but victims of an Islamic culture that segregates young Muslims from mainstream society, treats girls and young women as the property of their menfolk, and shows disdain and even contempt for the very values that have enabled them to come to Europe and to prosper.
I am certain that if western employers, the media and governments were prepared to stand up for our values, far from finding opposition from the Muslim community they would hear a collective sigh of relief, that they have indeed come to a country that is proud of its values and prepared to defend them. After all, didn’t the parents and grandparents of today’s young Islamic extremists actually come here in search of a better life, away from the perpetual poverty and intolerance of those states where Islam holds sway?
We must oppose every attempt by the Islamists to introduce Islamic values into our society. Those values are totally alien to the values of the Enlightenment on which our modern democratic societies have been built.
We must oppose attempts to create parallel systems of justice. We must fight every step of the way attempts to create Shari’a courts. All of us, whether Humanists, Christians, Hindus, Jews or especially Muslims, must reject Shari’a law because, as the Islamic scholar Hassan Mahmud has said: “Muslims are the first victims of Islamic law.” And, unless we are very, very careful we will be next.
Where are we heading?

Europe is facing immense demographic changes, and many people are worried about what this will mean for European culture and values in the future. I would recommend an article by Eric Kaufmann in the April addition of Prospect Magazine in which he reports on a research project that has produced the first rigorous projections of the religious composition of 16 European countries to the year 2030.

Even assuming European Muslim fertility declines to the level of the indigenous population by 2030 – which seems unlikely given the increasing influence of fundamentalism – then the Muslim population of Sweden will have reached about 14% by 2030, Austria 11% and France 9%. Since most of the immigrants will be living in our largest cities, we can see that many inner cities will have Muslim majority populations even before that date. And if the assumption about declining Muslim fertility rates is wrong, and the present decline in fertility should stop, we could see far higher proportions of Muslims in our populations by 2050.

But whether we like it or not, and whatever we do now, we are faced with the absolute inevitability of an increasingly Muslim population in Europe.

Misguided policies of uncontrolled immigration and multiculturalism have led to the creation of ghettos in our cities with large numbers of unemployed and effectively unemployable young people who fall easy prey to the rhetoric of the fundamentalists.

So what can we do about it?

I would like to start by making a few suggestions that seem to me to be vital.

First, I would suggest that what we should not do is attempt to return to the imagined ideal of a Christian continent because of our fear of an Islamic takeover. Talk of our Christian heritage is nonsense. Our heritage is the heritage of the Enlightenment; it was the Enlightenment that led our escape from the tyranny and bondage of medieval Christianity. What we need, and the only system that will enable all Europeans to live together in peace and harmony, is Secularism – by which I mean complete state neutrality in matters of religion and belief.

We should start by adopting a policy of zero tolerance towards incitement to hatred and towards preachers of hate. This is crucially important because incitement to hatred has been shown to play on our human capacity to hate injustice, and to turn that hatred into violent action. The genocides of the Holocaust and Rwanda happened because ordinary people were inspired by their leaders to hate those who were perceived as acting unjustly towards them.

We should therefore have no hesitation in acting severely against anyone who incites hatred of any group. And this applies whether the group in question is Jews, Muslims, immigrants, atheists, homosexuals, Christians, or any other. In fact, our governments are obliged under Article 20 of the ICCPR to act in this way, but unfortunately few of them do so consistently; Islamist imams, for example, seem to have a free pass to preach hatred of the West and of Western values in many of Europe’s mosques.

No religion should be permitted to preach hate simply because such hatred appears in their holy texts. Religious belief cannot and must not be allowed to trump human rights or the law of the land.
We also need to make clear the distinction between – on the one hand - incitement to hatred, and on the other, criticism of religion, no matter how crude and vulgar the criticism. Incitement should be outlawed but criticism permitted as part of our precious commitment to freedom of expression. We must make absolutely clear the distinction between the believer and the belief. Believers should have all their human rights protected, but beliefs are fair game – and there is no human right not to be offended.Harsh though it may seem on the poor and dispossessed, if we are to avoid major conflicts in the future, we do need to limit immigration to the numbers that can be absorbed and assimilated into our societies. We must do far more to help members of the immigrant communities learn the skills they will need to prosper here, but we must also recognize that the numbers we can absorb depends on their cost to society in education, healthcare, social services and, it must be said, security.

We should support Muslim dissidents, apostates and heretics, groups like the Islamic Reform Movement and the Councils of ex-Muslims which now exist in many European states. In June this year I attended a conference in Oxford called “Critical Thinking for Islamic Reform”. There were about 60 people there, almost all of them believing Muslims, but all of them totally opposed to the hard-liners, Sharia law, the Muslim Brotherhood and the OIC. We hardly ever hear about these Muslims. I left the conference hugely encouraged. But unless reformers become the dominant voice of Islam in Europe we are heading for serious trouble. We must do what we can to help these dissidents.

We should not accept self-censorship. Every time an editor, out of fear, spikes an article or a cartoon that is mocking or critical of Islam or any other religion, we should publicise the fact, and that it was done out of fear, not respect.

We should oppose all attempts by organized religions to obtain special concessions from government. What we allow for Christianity, we cannot reasonably deny to Islam, Hinduism or any other religion.
We should oppose state funding for religious events, for faith schools, tax-breaks for supposedly charitable activities, or attempts to allow religious courts to adjudicate in matters of family law.
We should promote the teaching of critical thinking. I was pleased that when our two youngest children took the International Baccalaureate, one of the compulsory subjects was the “Theory of Knowledge”: that is, a combination of philosophy and critical thinking.
We should promote the teaching of ethics as rooted in an understanding of our shared humanity. All children should be taught comparative religion, including atheism and Humanism, as an antidote to indoctrination – which today runs unchecked in many schools in Europe. The teaching of ethics should be centred on the humanist ideal – shared by many religions – that we are entitled to be treated with dignity, allowed personal autonomy and have equal treatment before the law, and that we should treat others as we wish to be treated.
We need to promote the teaching of science for the non-scientist: an appreciation of the scientific method, of the discoveries of science, and how we know what we think we know. Respect for the scientific, evidence-based approach to life, politics, society and the world around us will go a long way towards the elimination of superstition and undue religious influence in public life.
We need to understand that the history of European civilisation is the history of of the struggle for freedom - and above all for freedom of the mind. We must not allow religion, this time in the guise of Islam, to erode any more of our hard earned freedom.
Notes:

[1] http://www.religlaw.org/interdocs/docs/cairohrislam1990.htm

[2] http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/
[3] http://www.iheu.org/node/3162
[4] http://www.iheu.org/node/3115
[5] http://www.islamtoday.com/showmenews.cfm?cat_id=38&sub_cat_id=2164
[6] http://www.iheu.org/united-nations-will-violate-human-rights-says-new-report-religious-freedoms* Roy W Brown is main representative at the UN Geneva for the International Humanist and Ethical Union