By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
President Yahya Jammeh, who has for twenty-one years served as Gambia’s president, declared his nation an Islamic republic claiming this action would serve to break from the nations “colonial past.”
Though Gambia’s population is ninety percent Muslim and this would be in many ways seem an alignment with the culture of its people, the nation nevertheless has a very poor reputation for human rights, especially in its treatment of its homosexual citizens.
Jammeh is a vehemently and vocal anti-gay leader who told gays and lesbians in 2008 to leave the country or risk decapitation. Five women have now been arrested as accused lesbians in what human rights groups are calling a national campaign of terror and torture by the police.
The law criminalizes what it calls “aggravated homosexuality,” involving “serial offenders” and people living with HIV or AIDS. The law lumps such “repeat offenders” who engage in homosexual relations with people who engage in homosexual acts with someone who is under 18, disabled or who has been drugged or is under the “authority” of the homosexual. The accused face life in prison.
Amnesty International has charged that people are being tortured by police and forced to confess to homosexual acts or to accuse others of such acts.
Last year the European Union withheld aid packages to the small nation over its human rights record.
President Jammeh claimed in a television interview that no dress code would be enforced and promised that people of all religions would be allowed to practice their faith. He continued, “As Muslims are the majority in the country; the Gambia cannot afford to continue the colonial legacy.”
Jammeh withdrew Gambia from the British Commonwealth in 2013 claiming it was a neo-colonial organization.
By Darren Smith
Source: BBC News
The views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays or art are solely their decision and responsibility.
Sometimes the bad guys win.
And where is Mike, where is Gene, where is Bob, where is SWM, BettyKath, Blouise… ?
Where are those powerhouse female intellects?
LÓbserver…Great observation, and great question…
What a shame!
Nick can’t get full credit for chasing them all away but he sure does get a great amount of it.
Where’s Annie? Where’s Elaine? Where’s Appleton? Where’s Raff? Where’s Kimberly? Where’s Chuck? Where’s Mespo?
They’ve all fled.
Where is Cara at?
I cannot let the mentioning of Ayaan Hirsi Ali slip by without pointing out that she is mentally not all that far removed from President Jammeh. She is merely more sophisticated.
Together with Theo van Gogh she produced one of the vilest anti-Muslim flicks worthy of the infamous “Der Jud Suess”. How many of you have seen it? I have.
Because she lied to get asylum in the Netherlands the Dutch government took away her Dutch citizenship. That is very, very rare.
She promptly came to our country to work for one of the most reactionary organizations on this planet.
Perhaps coming from you, not a vile Muslim like me, karen and Nick will finally give a rest quoting Ayaan as the mother Teresa of Islam…when she isn’t even a Muslim.
po – you raise an interesting point. There is no Mother Theresa of Islam. No St. Francis either.
Paul, as I said before, thank God you no longer teach history!
po – rather than taking pot shots prove me wrong.
Paul, I could, but why do the work for you?
That’s your assigned homework for today, look it up.
po – you have stated that I was wrong. Prove it. That is your homework. I am happy to stand corrected if you prove me wrong.
Paul, where did I state you were wrong? Prove it!
Damn all them doubles, impersonators, and maybe them thar triples who framed Boin Laden.
@Tom Nash
1, December 13, 2015 at 1:01 am
Top U.S. Bin Laden Expert: Confession Video ‘Bogus’
by Kevin Barrett, http://mujca.com
2/17/06
“Was Osama Bin Laden responsible for 9/11?
“The Bush Administration says yes, citing a grainy, badly-edited videotape that surfaced in December, 2001. In that tape, a fat guy who vaguely resembles Bin Laden chortles about the success of the 9/11 attacks. (In earlier interviews, Bin Laden had denied responsibility for 9/11, once even deploring the loss of civilian life in the attacks and calling them un-Islamic.) (Emphasis added)
“Is the famous ‘confession video’ genuine? Despite Bush’s insistence that the tape is authentic, America’s top academic Bin Laden expert has finally gone on the record, joining numerous other experts.
“ ‘It’s bogus,’ says Professor Bruce Lawrence, head of Duke University’s Religious Studies program.
“Lawrence, author of Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama Bin Laden, offered his historic debunking of the administration’s lie in an interview with Kevin Barrett (‘Dynamic Duo,’ gcnlive.com, 2/16/2007, first hour). The interview marked Lawrence’s first major public statement since he made headlines last year by suggesting that recent Osama tapes are hoaxes and that the real Osama Bin Laden may be dead.
“Why has the Bush Administration been lying for more than five years by telling us that this preposterously bad hoax is a genuine ‘confession video’? Lawrence, citing informants in the US intelligence apparatus’s Bin Laden units, said that everyone knows the tape is fake, adding that the hoax has been kept alive because it is politically useful to those who wish to deflect attention from
‘conspiracy theories’ about 9/11.
“If Professor Lawrence is right—and anyone with eyes can see that he is, simply by comparing the overweight impostor in the Fatty Bin Laden bogus confession video to other pictures of Osama Bin Laden—the Bush Administration, by repeatedly citing the tape as authentic, is clearly guilty of obstruction of justice at best, high treason and conspiracy to mass murder at worst. Since the FBI now tells us that Osama Bin Laden is ‘not wanted for 9/11’ because there is ‘no hard evidence’ connecting him to the 9/11 attacks, and since US intelligence personnel all know the ‘confession tape’ is a Bush Administration hoax, it should not be difficult to nail the perpetrators of this outrageous cover-up of the crime of the century.
“It is time for Congress or an appropriate judicial authority to mount an investigation of the Fatty Bin Laden bogus confession video.”
http://911blogger.com/node/6317
prof. Bruce Lawrence’s theories are contested in the “screwloose change” website and other forums. I don’t intend to try to respond to the various conspiracy theories, but I wonder what conspiracy theorists really believe happened on 9-11.
A Hollywood/Zionist production? Special effects, the Twin Towers never really came down?? Internal explosives did knock them down, but the disoriented pilots accidently hit and coincidently hit the towers, obscured by the flames and smoke from the inside job, the previous internal explosion??
I briefly viewed the twin towers, and the Empire State Building, on takeoff from acrossed the Hudson in the 1990s. The cereal box design of the Towers was not all that distinctive compared to the Empire State Building. Could it have been a Howard Roark devotee who brought the Towers down?
I would refer interested readers to the Sept. 10,2015 article in the Miami Herald by Dan Christianson. It deals with the issues of unanswered questions about 9-11….”Fourteen Years after 9-11″.
I can’t explain why the families of the 9-11 families were not given info related to the Interpol warrant for Bin Laden. I can’t understand the explanation that the U.S. would need permission from Bin Laden to release the Interpol information, lest Bin Laden’s privacy rights be violated.
I can better explain the behavior of morons in government beauracracies. And I can explain the negligence, stupidity, and confusion of some civil servants tripping over each other’s di**k’s in a classic display of incompetence.
Ken Rogers….I recogonized that Bin Laden as a real threat from 1998 on……admittedly, I did not predict the attacks on Sept. 11th. I had no specific knowledge that would have been of help to prevent those attacks.
You, on the other hand, feel that Bin Laden was erroneously blamed for 9-11. Have you attempted to correct the common perception with your conclusion that Bin Laden was innocent?
U.S. intel agencies could benefit from your input, and you may be of assistance to a legal team that might clear Bin Laden, albeit posthumously.
I had nothing specific in the way of Pre-Sept 11th knowledge, but you and fellow True Believers should be able to influence the official, generally accepted belief that Bin Laden was behind 9-11.
Has there been any attempt in this quest beyond blowing smoke in a freewheeling comments forum? Any cases filed, any FOI requests, etc.??
Ken Rogers….Too bad that Bin Laden and co. took the rap for 9-11 by falsely confessing to it, and bragging about it. He could have easily cleared his name by turning himself in, and getting cleared in a subsequent investigation and/or trial.
He could have probably proved that all of the Pre-9-11 tapes/threats were done by a double.And that he was just blowing smoke, or his double was, after 9-11.
And that the previous arrest warrants for the African embassy bombings, etc. were issued in error.
I think that the State Dept.Issued an arrest warrant for the 9-11 mischief, but I ‘d have to check that to be sure.
In any case, I think that Rex Toombs proved that the FBI does not necessarily always get the best and the brightest.
There is a very uphill quest, on the part of some, to exonerate Bin Laden in the 9-11 attacks. That quest, and the argument that there is some sort of phony equivillancy between Islamic terrorism and “Christian terrorism”, is a cause for real concern.
As is understating the threat America faces by talking about ” media hype” or JV team”.
@phillyT
1, December 13, 2015 at 12:15 am
“Kenny Rogers, You are joking I take it”
———————————–
“Novelist Peter De Vries used a metaphor to explain the difference between satire and humor: ‘The satirist shoots to kill, while the humorist brings his prey back alive–often to release him again for another chance.’ ”
http://grammar.about.com/od/rs/g/satireterm.htm
Ken Rogers….write a script for the next Oliver Stoned movie on the PR front. Team up with Mark Lane on the legal front…..you have a slam dunk, then.
@Tom Nash
1, December 12, 2015 at 11:51 pm
“Philly T. The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan was in response to the 9-11 hijinks of BinLaden, Al Queda, and co.”
Tom, where were you when the CIA and FBI needed you? 🙂
Osama Not Wanted by FBI
“On June 5, 2006, reporter Ed Hass contacted the FBI Headquarters to learn why Bin Laden’s Most Wanted poster did not indicate that Usama was also wanted in connection with 9/11. He spoke with Rex Tomb, Chief of Investigative Publicity for the FBI. When asked why there is no mention of 9/11 on Bin Laden’s Most Wanted web page, Tomb said, ‘The reason why 9/11 is not mentioned on Usama Bin Ladens Most Wanted page is because the FBI has no hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11.’ (Source: Teamliberty.net) Click image for large format.
“CIA reportedly disbands Bin Laden unit
“A CIA unit that had hunted for Usama bin Laden and his top deputies for a decade has been disbanded, according to a published report. Citing unnamed intelligence officials, The New York Times reported Tuesday that the unit, known as ‘Alec Station,’ was shut down late last year. The decision to close the unit, which predated the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, was first reported Monday by National Public Radio. (Source: Associated Press, July 4, 2006)
“This means both the CIA and FBI don’t consider as reliable evidence the confession video released in December 2001 in which a character we’re told is Bin Laden is celebrating the attacks! Notice the main-stream media hasn’t reported on this? Notice our Congress hasn’t acted on this stunning news, yet they have us mired in this ‘global war on terror’ with Bin Laden as their bogeyman?
“Instead, they’ve used Bin Ladin to scare us into two Middle East wars, torturing people, and allowing the NSA to tap our phone calls and e-mails. It’s worked like a charm for the war profiteers. But all along they’ve known that Usama Bin Laden is NOT GUILTY of the 9/11 attacks and have concealed it from us.
“The evidence above demonstrates the brutal, frightening truth: we’ve been DECEIVED AND BETRAYED. Now how could anyone think Bin Laden tapes used to keep us in fear can be real? This knowledge alone should alert you to the fact that something is terribly wrong with the official account of the 9/11 attacks on America. To prevent another 9/11 as a pretext for war, we must demand the truth now.”
http://911review.org/Media/Bin-Laden-Not-Wanted-for_9_11.html
Tom Nash,
I get it now. You have nothing to say so you’re going to start calling me names. Thanks for clearing that up, and good day, sir.
Good Night, Gracie.
Kenny Rogers,
You are joking I take it?
@phillyT
1, December 12, 2015 at 10:21 pm
“Thousands of ‘good christians’ signed up to go to Afghanistan and Iraq to kill muslims as religious assassins.”
Well, yes, but that was because 19 Iraqi-Afghans armed with box cutters pulverized three of Larry Silverstein’s heavily insured skyscrapers on 9/11. It was in all the papers.
https://www.darkmoon.me/2013/will-larry-silverstein-ever-be-brought-to-justice-for-911-insurance-fraud-by-dr-kevin-barrett/
Religion is the opiate of the people.
Tom Nash:
“PhillyT synonym is bs”
What does that even mean?
Tom Nash you either accidentally misread or purposely misinterpreted what I said.
What I actually said was that a lot of christians signed up for the invasions because they saw this (and still see it) as a holy war and their opportunity to go shoot muslims, “towel-heads”, “sand ni**ers” “hucka-luckas”, etc.
There were also thousands of decent Americans who signed up to fight for our country as loyal citizens, who then got tricked into going into Iraq to do more of the same.
You should try reading a little more carefully.
Po I saw that. Not surprising. I’ve read more of the bible than most of the christians i know. It is full of some of the the most horrible and wonderful stories ever made up by humans, much like the quran.
Imagine for a moment that a hatemonger/rabbler-ouser Donald Trump was president on 9/11 and what would have happened in this country.
Slightly off topic, but why is it that when a few muslims commit murder some people want to ban muslims from entering the country, but when christian terrorists do the same, no one talks about banning christians? And of course, no one ever wants to talk about banning the guns.
My question exactly…of the 353 mass shootings this year, 2 were known as Muslim committed, and yet, and yet…
PhillyT
This, http://www.trueactivist.com/watch-people-criticize-bible-verses-thinking-theyre-from-the-quran-to-find-out-the-truth/?utm_source=fb&utm_medium=fb&utm_campaign=antimedia, to follow up on your point.