Just when you thought you could not get more depressed about the state of humanity. Uganda officials are dealing with a rash of mutilations and murders of children. The reason is chilling. Some Ugandans believe that mutilating and murdering children can bring you good luck. With the recent Ugandan elections, people appear to have tried to rig the outcome through child ritualistic murder. Makes you feel a little better about the current crop of candidates in our elections. Ritualistic child murder is perhaps the only thing that they have not accused each other of.
Category: International
Renee Rabinowitz, a retired lawyer with a Ph.D. in educational psychology who lives in Jerusalem, has finally had enough with having to deal with sexist rules imposed by Orthodox men. The 81-year-old woman has filed a discrimination lawsuit against Israeli airline El Al after she was allegedly forced to move seats after an Ultra-Orthodox man complained about having to sit next to a woman. As have previously discussed such cases where religious men have forced delays and movement of women without penalty from El Al — requiring everyone else to accommodate their extreme religious views. Even Delta airlines did nothing after ultra orthodox men prevented a flight from taking off until women were moved from the seats that they rightfully purchased.
Daniel and Samuel Sledden have again shown how the combination of a demonstrably low intellect and access to social media can be a terrible combination. The two drug dealing brothers were pulled back into court in England by Judge Beverley Lunt after they posted abusive remarks — mocking her for giving them only probation. That directly contradicted the expressions of remorse that the brothers had just made as the basis for suspended sentences.
Saudi Arabia is again reminding the world of the medieval demands of its religious, Sharia legal system. Recently, Saudi Arabia enacted a law making atheism a form of terrorism. It was an act that reaffirmed the Kingdom as one of the most oppressive government’s in terms of free speech and free exercise of religion. The law was particularly ironic since Saudi Arabia and its extreme Wahhabi brand of Islam has been a major contributor to Islamic extremist and terrorism around the world. However, it is atheism that the Kingdom believes is the source of terrorism. Making good on that threat, a Saudi court has sentenced an atheist to 10 years in prison and 2,000 lashes for expressing his views on Twitter posts.
Continue reading “Saudi Arabia Sentences Atheist To 10 Years In Prison and 2000 Lashes For Speaking About His Values On Twitter”
After excerpts from Ahmed Naji’s novel Istikhdam al-Hayat, or Using Life, were published in a literary newspaper, a reader brought charges against the author and said that reading sexually explicit passages caused him distress and heart palpitations. An Egyptian court has now sentenced the author to two years in jail for public indecency. Notably, Naji was first acquitted by a court in Egypt on the basis of free speech, however the prosecution appealed. He was retried and convicted.
While the Obama Administration has staked a great deal on moderates in the Iranian regime, it is hard to see much progress in the Islamic Republic. That was made clear this week with the news that forty state-run Iranian media outlets have jointly offered a new $600,000 bounty for the death of British Indian author Salman Rushdie. Ayatollah Khomeini, the First Supreme Leader of Iran, issued the fatwa against Rushdie on charges of blasphemy for his novel The Satanic Verses on 15 February, 1989. Ayatollah Khomeini’s successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in 2005 in the hateful fatwa remains in full force not just against Rushdie but anyone associated with the book. The fatwa captures the continuing problem that Islamic countries have with basic free speech and free exercise rights.
I have made no secret of my dislike for monarchies — an illogical and wasteful system of government, including the maintenance of “figure head” royal families as in England. The lunacy of such systems was brought home with the visit of Thai Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn to one of Cambodia’s poorest areas (where sanitation is virtually unavailable). The government will spend over $40,000 to build her a luxury toilet for one night with silver railings, tile roofing, and air conditioning. It will them be disassembled after her departure. This is taking the concept of a hereditary throne too far.
This disturbing picture shows one of two Franciscana dolphins that were pulled from the water by bathers at an Argentinan resort and then passed around for pictures and petting. The crowd continues to manhandle the dolphins until one died and was just discarded on the sand by these thoughtless swimmers and beachgoers. The Franciscana dolphins have been diminishing in number.
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A Nigerian lawyer is testing the belief that you can never have too many lawyers. Prominent lawyer Rickey Tarfa is charged with the obstruction of justice and attempting to pervert the course of justice. Justice Aishat Opesanwo was expected a robust defense but not a 90-lawyer team to show up in his court. Yet, as Oscar Wilde noted, “Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.”
President Barack Obama and other leaders have stressed that the greatest victims of Islamic extremism are not Christians and Jews but Muslims. This week produced another tragic example. Yemen’s top Salafi cleric Samahan Abdel-Aziz, also known as Sheikh Rawi, was found in the southern port city of Aden, Sudan after he gave a sermon denouncing the Islamic State and Islamic extremism. He had been tortured before he was killed.
There is a shocking interview circulating on the Internet that purportedly (I have no way to confirming the translation) shows the “Grand Mufti of Gaza” Hassan Al-Laham holding forth on such subjects as how to best beat your wife, including the advice not to hit them in a way that “makes the face ugly.” He also reminds women that they cannot refuse sex with their husbands under the Koran and must please him in accordance with the principles of Islam. He is also asked for guidance on such issues as whether to allow women to shop during the holidays. Of course, this discussion strikes most sane people as two raving lunatics engaging in a delusional fantasy. Yet, this is a high ranking cleric who apparently holds sway with many people. You are left with the bizarre image of people dutifully writing down such advice as “beatings — yes; but try not to make her ugly.”
In a direct violation of international rules governing these sporting events, the Iranian government barred women from entry to the Beach Volleyball World Tour event on Kish Island. The FIVB had expressly required Iran to guarantee that women would be allowed to enter and watch the matches. However, the Iranians barred them anyway at the five-day competition.
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We have been following reports on climate change that appear to support the view that major changes are occurring around the world. This week, NASA released figures showing that, after setting records in 2015, January was was the warmest on record. In another story, Australian wine producers are faced with changing grapes due to the sharp change in climate in that country. As someone who loves Australian reds, the news hits particularly hard and captures the range of subtle and substantial changes that will have to be made in light of the worsening situation.
China is again showing that it remains an authoritarian government fearful of its own people learning the truths of history or politics. This week, China barred Yang Jisheng, 76, a former journalist with China’s official news agency, from traveling to the United States to accept a Harvard University prize for Tombstone, a 2008 book uncovering the devastating toll of the Great Chinese Famine of 1958-1961.
We recently discussed the highly disturbing cases of 12 protesters who called for the boycotting of Israeli products. France’s Supreme Court (the Court of Cassation) upheld the shocking prosecution of the twelve anti-Israel activists in a blow to free speech. Now, England is moving to bar local councils, public bodies and even university student unions from boycotting “unethical” companies.
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