The Saudi Association for Civil and Political Rights is a respected organization established by intellectuals who seek to protect human rights in the Kingdom and the creation of both democratic and legal institutions that guarantee such rights. Not surprising, the Saudi government has treated such ideas as terroristic threats and has jailed many of its members. The latest is one of the founders Issa al-Hamid who was convicted of inciting people to breach public order, insulting the judiciary, defaming the kingdom’s senior religious clerics and establishing an unlicensed organization. Our close ally in the Middle East has once again shown how it stands in direct opposition to the most basic rights of free speech and free exercise. Rather than actually move its laws and government out of the Middle Ages, the Kingdom has hired a variety of top firms, including leading establishment figures like Tony Podesta, to improve its reputation with the American public (particularly with the expected release of the long withheld 9-11 reports pages that reportedly implicate Saudi officials in the attack.
Category: International
We have another murder of an intellectual in Bangladesh by suspected Islamic extremists. The Latest and seventh victim was English professor Rezaul Karim Siddique, 58, was hacked from behind with machetes as he walked to the bus station from his home in the country’s northwestern city of Rajshahi. These cowards often use machetes and jump writers on public streets to murder them in the name of religion.
Continue reading “Bangladesh Professor Reportedly Hacked to Death By Islamic Extremists”
At times Saudi Arabia and its medieval Sharia system seems a bad parody of itself. That is the case with this video of a leading Saudi family therapist inexplicably sitting on a chair in the middle of the forest discussing calmly the Islamically correct way of beating your wife. What is even more unnerving is this guy, Khaled Al-Saqaby, is not only viewed as sane and learned but is probably viewed as a moderate on the subject.
Continue reading “Saudi Family Therapist Explains The Islamically Correct Method Of Wife Beating”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
German Chancellor Angela Merkel keeps digging herself deeper with her latest statement regarding her government’s prosecution of satirist Jan Böhmermann at the behest of Turkish President. Now, the chancellor expresses her regrets for offering support to President Erdoğan at the expense of her countryman, claiming it was a “mistake”.
Continue reading “German Chancellor Merkel Continues To Lose Credibility On Free Speech Issues”
For civil libertarians, the administration of President Barack Obama fallen well short of the great expectations from his first election. Indeed, despite his high polling numbers with liberals, President Obama has left one of the worst records of modern presidents in areas like privacy, press freedom, transparency, and unilateral executive action. The antagonistic position of the Obama Administration with the media was evident in this year’s ranking by Reporters Without Borders. The U.S. is ranked 41 out of 180 countries in term of the “level of freedom of information in 180 countries.”
Continue reading “The United States Ranked 41st Among Nations In Press Freedom”
There are Oxford dons and then there are Oxford cons. Nicola Boardman, 34, was the latter after bilking her parents of more than £250,000 by convincing them she was a student at Oxford University. She continued to hit them up for money for research and travel that prosecutors allege was used for drugs, holidays and a secret wedding. Adding insult to injury, her parents, Frank and Marilyn, were not even invited to the wedding.
There is another controversy over the punishment of a teacher for statements made on his private time on social media. In this case, University of Sydney tutor Wu Wei, the business school’s head corporate finance tutor, used the pseudonym Pekojima and did not speak at a faculty member. However, his students found him out and exposed such statements like Wu calling Chinese students “pigs” (using the symbol “tun”) and accusing them of cheating “due to low IQs.” The comments appeared on the Chinese micro-blogging site Weibo and caused a firestorm.
As if to leave no doubt about the evisceration of free speech in Germany after the decision to prosecute comedian Jan Boehmermann for insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the founder of Germany’s anti-Islamic PEGIDA movement will appear in court on hate speech charges for branding refugees “cattle” and “scum” on social media. The views of Lutz Bachmann, 43, founder of the far-right “Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident” movement, are obnoxious and hateful but his views of migration generally and migrants in particular should be protected speech.
Continue reading “German Right-Wing Politician Stands Trial For Anti-Immigrant Comments”
While the level of protection afforded Saudi Arabia in Washington is hardly a secret, the level of that support was on display this month when officials pushed the Obama Administration to release long-withheld pages from the 9-11 report, as we previously discussed. Those pages reportedly implicate Saudi Arabia in the 9-11 attacks. Saudi Arabia response with an express threat to sell off hundreds of billions of dollars of assets if Congress were to pass a bill allowing the Kingdom to be held liable for the attacks. One would think that the response would be outrage at the threat. After all, the bill would only allow citizens to sue and a bipartisan group of Senators have joined to support the 9-11 families. Saudi Arabia could still defend itself (and according to its government, vindicate itself) in a court of law. Of course, the United States has a real court system as opposed to the government controlled, Sharia “courts” used in the Kingdom to mete out medieval justice.
I have previously written about the increasing monitoring and discipline of teachers for conduct in their private lives. A new case this week highlights this trend. A Mexican elementary teacher has been fired after she was seen on a video twerking in a dance contest in Cabo San Lucas. The 24-year-old identified only as “Miss Clarissa” on the film won the top prize of $260 but then lost her job. The teacher won the contest to the beat of Daddy Yankee’s “Rompe.”
Continue reading “Risqué Rompe: Teacher Fired After Winning Dance Contest While On Vacation”
We regularly discuss horrific reports from Saudi Arabia of beheadings and floggings under its medieval Islamic Sharia law system. Finally, there is a chance to report on a positive development out of the Kingdom. The Saudi cabinet has approved a major change related to the infamous religious police, or Mutawaa. The religious police will now longer have the power to arrest citizens and must report all alleged crimes to the police instead. Of course, the reform falls short of the obvious and most meaningful reform: getting rid of the roaming religious police entirely.
Continue reading “Saudi Religious Police Stripped Of Power To Arrest”
The 9-11 Report was criticized by many as crafted by the Commission to avoid any real criticism of individuals in prior administrations. Carefully selected by the two parties, the Commission was composed of highly reliable and connected individuals that avoided assigning responsibility despite the obvious intelligence indicating a pending attack. There was one section of the Report however that was notably sealed and kept from the public. Twenty-eight mysterious pages that the Bush and Obama Administrations did not want the public to see. It was reportedly a section containing incriminating informative linking Saudi Arabia even more closely to the 9-11 terrorists. The government refused to let the public know the degree to which one of our closest allies bore responsibility for the worst attack on U.S. soil in our history. Now, thirteen years later, Commission members are finally pushing for the release of the 28 pages against the resistance of the Obama Administration, which has one of the worst records in modern history in barring public access to information.
The media is still trying to learn details about the latest arrest of a Westerner in the Middle East for the exercise of free speech. The 25-year-old woman was reportedly arrested in Abu Dhabi for insulting the United Arab Emirates. This allegedly occurred while waiting for a taxi at the Abu Dhabi International Airport.
Continue reading “Abu Dhabi Arrests U.S. Woman For “Insulting The United Arab Emirates””
We have been following the environmental meltdown in China from lethal levels of air pollution to “cancer villages” from industrial waste. The latest report comes from the water ministry and, while some are questioning whether there is full disclosure of water contamination, the official position is shocking enough. According to the report, more than 80% of rural wells in China’s north-east contain water unsafe for drinking. It is the safety of water in urban areas that is being questioned but the government insists that the water is fine.
Continue reading “Report: 80 Percent of China’s Northeast Now Unsafe For Drinking”
A story in Norway has attracted international attention after Karsten Nordal Hauken, a male leftist politician, stated how he was racked with “guilt and responsibility” that his rapist, a Somali man, was deported after serving time for his rape. In a documentary series entitled “I Against Me,” Hauken describes how he felt relief at the news that the Somali man was to be deported but then also felt guilt that he was the cause of the deportation.