Category: International

Bizarre, Criminal law, International, Politics, Religion, Society

The First Glimpse Into The Farook Family Confirms Twisted and Hateful Views

tashfeensyedpicWe have often discussed how Islamic extremists seem to recruit mentally ill candidates for terrorist operations. What is most unnerving about the history of the couple is that they appeared to be fully functioning and relatively successful people. However, exposure to extreme elements on the Internet and in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan seemed to unleash a deep hate and latent violence within them. If that is now clear is that San Bernardino gunman Syed Farook came from a family and married a woman with extreme views on Jews and Islam. An Italian newspaper interviewed Farook’s father who offered his own bizarre take on the world. In the meantime, more is being learned about the entry of Tashfeen Malik, who married Syed Rizwan Farook after meeting him online and coming to the U.S. on a fiance visa – including this entry photograph.

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International, Military, Religion, Society

“We Are All Jews”: In Memory of Roddie Edmonds, A True American Hero

ap_898887944364_custom-3d07a4beda0108cf7cfd53c8be76edd98d22c668-s400-c85This month, Israel will honor Roddie Edmonds, the first U.S. soldier to be recognized among those called Righteous Among The Nations. The recognition is for an extraordinary act of courage in January 1945 in a German POW camp, an act where Edmonds stood face to face with pure evil and refused to yield.

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Bizarre, Criminal law, International, Religion, Society

The Massacre and The Aftermath (Updated)

farookThe massacre in San Bernadino, California is as baffling as it is chilling. I am very familiar with the Redlands and San Bernadino areas since I would spend summers in the area growing up and still have relatives there (including one of the officers responding to this shooting). What is so chilling is the lack of any indication of such an act from a couple that seemed to be living the American dream with a good income and new baby . . . and highly supportive colleagues who they proceeded to slaughter.

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Bizarre, Constitutional Law, International, Religion

Sunni Leader: Gender Equality Is “Un-Islamic” and Women Are “Fit Only To Deliver Children”

Kanthapuram_AP_Aboobacker_MusliyarSunni leader Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musalyar (head of one of the traditionalist Sunni Muslims in Kerala, India) has reportedly confirmed that worst expectations of women and civil liberties advocates in India with recent comments calling the concept of gender equality “un-Islamic” and saying that women could never equal men as “they are fit only to deliver children.” It is a chilling reminder of the intense prejudices and oppression faced by women in many traditional Islamic areas.

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Bizarre, Criminal law, Free Speech, International, Media, Politics

“We Swears To Serve The Master”: Turkish Court Orders Investigation Into Whether a Comparison of Erdoğan to Gollum Is Insulting And Thus Criminal

220px-Gollum220px-Recep_Tayyip_ErdoganLike most of the world, we have watched the rapid decline of civil liberties in Turkey after the election of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his coalition of Islamic parties. Just last month, we discussed the arrest of Mehmet Emin Altunses, 16, who allegedly committed the crime of “insulting” Erdoğan. calling people who use birth control “traitors” and saying Muslims discovered America, you are not allowed to be disrespectful or insulting in discussing Erdoğan. Then there was the prosecution of model and former Miss Turkey Merve Buyuksarac, 26, for criticizing Erdogan for quoting a few lines from a poem called the “Master’s Poem” from weekly Turkish satirical magazine Uykusuz. Erdogan’s totalitarian measures have earned him the nickname “Buyuk Usta” (the Big Master). The fact is that censorship and repressions is that it tends to become increasing absurd as leaders try to punish those who would insult them or question their leadership. This week is another case in point for Erdoğan. His government is investigating physician Dr. Bilgin Çiftçi for allegedly insulting Erdoğan after sharing a meme comparing Erdoğan’s facial expressions to the Gollum character in the “The Lord of the Rings” movies. Now here is the truly wonderful part: a court has reportedly demanded an expert examination by two experts to determine if a comparison to Gollum’s character would be an insult.

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Bizarre, Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Free Speech, International, Media, Politics, Religion

Muslims in India Launch Violent Protests and Call For Arrests Over “Blasphemous Picture” In Newspaper . . . of a Piggy Bank

piggy-bank-isis We have often discussed the various protests, often violent, in Islamic countries over alleged blasphemous statements or images. These usually involve depictions of Mohammad or religious symbols. In Mumbai, however, Muslim protesters found a new blasphemous symbol: the use of a piggy bank to show where ISIS gets its money to conduct worldwide terror campaigns. This is a standard illustration of a “piggy bank” to show the savings of a group or person. Yet, some took this from a different perspective.

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Bizarre, Congress, Criminal law, Free Speech, International, Society, Uncategorized

Beauty Remains In The Eye Of The Beholder As China Prevents Canada’s Miss World From Traveling To Finals

Anastasia_LinThis week, China has once again shown the world that there is nothing quite so ugly as its ongoing struggle to bar basic rights and freedoms to its people.  The authoritarian government’s effort took a particularly bizarre turn when it reportedly stopped Canada’s China-born Miss World, Anastasia Lin, 25,  from boarding a flight to the beauty pageant finals in China.  Lin is a member of the repressed Falun Gong movement and just testified in Congress on Chinese repression in July.

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Criminal law, International, Media, Politics, Religion, Society

Our Decapitations Of Nonbelievers Are Nothing Like Their Decapitations of Nonbelievers: Saudi Arabia To Sue Twitter User Over Comparisons To ISIS

125px-Coat_of_arms_of_Saudi_Arabia.svgFlag_of_the_Islamic_State.svgI recently raised concerns on PBS Newshour about a lawsuit by Israelis who are suing in the United States to force Facebook to take down violent, anti-Jewish sites. While I believe Facebook can and should take down the sites, the use of the government to close such sites raise serious free speech questions in where to draw the line on such censorship or regulation of speech. I noted that such lawsuits like the recent successful action against Twitter by Jewish students are part of a comprehensive attack on free speech that uses such civil actions as a form of speech regulation or retaliation. Saudi Arabia has again stepped forward to make this point more powerfully that I could ever hope to. The Saudi justice ministry has announced that it will sue a Twitter user who compared the death sentence handed down on Friday to a Palestinian poet to the punishments meted out by Islamic State. I have drawn the same obvious comparison in the case of Ashraf Fayadh as have readers on this site and other sites. Rather than stop acting like ISIS (which would require a greater recognition of due process and human rights in the Kingdom), Saudi Arabia is seeking to threaten people to stop them from making the analogy. However, the beheadings of nonbelievers will continue. For many, the Saudi Foreign Ministry sounds like it is putting out the word “if you say we are like ISIS again, we will behead you.”

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Bizarre, Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Free Speech, International, Politics, Society

Russia Moves To Shoot Down Turkish History: New Legislation Would Make Denial Of Armenian Genocide A Crime

260px-MarcharmeniansThe Russians appear to be moving in the aftermath of Turkey shooting down one of its fighters: it has targeted Turkish history in a new and abusive criminal law. Russian lawmaker Sergei Mironov said that his Just Russia party has proposed a bill that criminalizes the denial that the 1915 killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces was a “genocide.” I previously wrote about a similar law passed in France as not just a denial of free speech but academic freedom. The law was later struck down. The Russians are moving just weeks after the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Switzerland also violation freedom of speech for its criminalization of the denial of the killings of Armenians as genocide.

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Criminal law, International, Religion, Society

Afghan Woman Reportedly Dies After Public Flogging After She Is (Wrongly) Accused Of Running Away From Home

ghor_lashingWe have another outrage against women in Afghanistan where Shirin Gul, 26, was reportedly flogged to death in the Shahrak district of Ghor after being accused of running away from home. What is fascinating is how the greatest concern is not that a woman can be publicly flogged but whether the flogging proved too excessive under Islamic law. Recently, a 19-year-old woman was stoned to death in Ghor.

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Free Speech, International, Politics, Society

Forty Percent of Millennials Favor Censorship of Offensive Speech By Government

Freedom_of_SpeechWe have long discussed the rapid decline of free speech protections in the West. I have long argued that the West appears to have fallen out of love with free speech, which is more often viewed as a rising scourge rather than a defining value in some countries. A recent poll of the Pew Research Center shows just how many people we have lost to those calling for greater censorship and criminalization of speech. It is not surprisingly more prevalent with younger age groups, though Democrats are almost twice as likely favor censorship that Republicans. The largest (and most alarming) group is the millennials — 40% of whom favor government censorship of speech offensive to minority groups.

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Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, International, Politics, Religion, Society

Israeli Police Officer Who Brutally Beat American Teenager Is Given Just 45 Days Community Service

140705-tariq-abu-khdeir_d9e4791a5703b6a982fa70b12116a29aThe Obama Administration has responded critically to the decision from an Israeli court to give an Israeli border police officer just community service for his entirely unjustified attack on an American teenager. Tariq Khdeir, 15, a Palestinian-American, was beaten by the officer, whose name has been withheld by the courts to avoid any further repercussions for him or his family. The beating was filmed after the officer caught the teenager near a riot in East Jerusalem in July 2014. Despite this evidence (and no evidence of just cause) the Israeli court gave the officer just 45 days of community service and a suspended prison term of four months.

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Academia, Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Free Speech, International, Lawyering, Media, Politics, Religion, Society

Saudi Arabia Sentences Poet To Death For Being An Atheist and Insulting The Country

1911We have long discussed our close alliance with Saudi Arabia despite that country’s denial of the most fundamental human rights for women, non-Muslims, journalists, and political dissidents. While the State Department continues to vaguely reference “reforms” in the Kingdom, the Saudi Sharia courts and religious police continue to generate shocking medieval cases where people are flogged or executed for exercising free thought or associations. The latest outrage is the death sentence given Ashraf Fayadh, a Palestinian poet and leading member of Saudi Arabia’s contemporary art scene. He has been sentenced to death for renouncing Islam, being an atheist (which he denies) and insulting Saudi Arabia. Many view his real offense as being his embarrassment of the infamous religious police (mutaween) in Abha after he posted a video of their lashing a man in public. As is often the case in the pseudo, “courts” of Saudi Arabia, he was denied counsel and any real opportunity to present a defense.

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Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, International, Religion

Thou Shalt Not Leak: Vatican Interrogates Journalists In Search For Sources Of Prior Articles

Unknown-1It appears that the Obama Administrations is not alone in pursuing journalists in the search for whistleblowers and leakers. Emiliano Fittipaldi has revealed that he has been interrogated and faces charges from Holy See prosecutors. He was given a Vatican summons to appear to answer questions about his recently published book “Avarice.”

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