Raif Badawi, a Saudi blogger, faces execution

December 26, 2013 — xanthippa

Though his is not a household name, most people in the world have, by now, heard of the plight of Raif Badawi:  that Saudi Arabian blogger who is imprisoned for his words.

First, he was tried for having written things on the internet that the Saudi Government disapproved of – and he was sentenced to 600 lashes and 7 years in jail.

Unacceptable!

No man or woman ought to be penalized for stating their honestly held views.

Those who have visited my blog in the past know I am a bit of a free speech fundamentalist and would not place any limits on speech whatsoever, if it were my call.  And, I do mean all speech!

If we do not hold those who listen even to incitement to violence accountable for their actual deeds, then we are guilty of infantalizing them.  A responsible adult can hear all kinds of incitements to violence, and choose to ignore them. If one chooses to act upon incitement, then one is responsible for their actions!

It is one’s actions we must judge, not one’s words!

But, Raif Badawi situation gets worse!!!

Now, the Saudi court had recommended that he be also tried for apostasy.  In Saudi Arabia, this “crime” carries the death sentence!!!

Words cannot describe the outrage I feel.

We, all of us honest people in the world, must stand up and demand that Raif Badawi (and all other ‘blasphemy prisoners’) be set free and that countries that have blasphemy laws on their books and that imprison or even execute people for apostasy be immediately kicked out of the UN and all other organizations of civilized people!

Write, call or email your local legislators and demand they put pressure on the government to officially condemn this uncivilized behaviour and pressure these countries directly through diplomatic channels to alter their laws as well as indirectly through the UN.

And, if the UN refuses to take the side of the civilized countries on this issue, then the civilized countries MUST leave the UN in protest!

Anything less will make us complicit in their martyrdoom!!!

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‘One Law for All’ : here is their latest newsletter

December 4, 2013 — xanthippa

It is interesting that the open letter to Mr. Hamilton should have hit my mailbox so close to the time I got the newsletter for One Law for All, as they both discuss the burqa/nikab and the social attitudes this promotes. 

Personally, I regard both the burqa/nikab and the hijab (and all its variations) as a symbol of supremacism, in much the way the KKK hood is. 

Why? 

Under Sharia, slave women are not permitted to wear them:  it is thus, in no uncertain terms, worn to demonstrate that the wearer is a member of a higher social class than the woman who does not wear one.  And, since it is literally showing off that you are not a slave but others are/ought to be treated as one, the KKK hood comparison is painfully accurate.

As for gender segregation (which the newsletter addresses):  regular readers of my blog may be aware that I regard it as an incarnation of evil and advocate against it in every way, shape and form (including 100% of all sports).

But let me stop rambling and bring you One Law for All’s latest newsletter:

Unveiled: A Publication of Fitnah – Movement for Women’s Liberation
December 2013, Volume 1, Issue 3. Editor: Maryam Namazie. Design: Kiran Opal.

The publication is available here: fitnah.org/fitnah_publication_english/publication_english.html

PDF Version available for download here: fitnah.org/fitnah_publication_english/unveiled_3.pdf

URGENT ACTION: REJECT SEX SEGREGATION
IT’S 2013. LET’S NOT TIME TRAVEL
Universities UK (UUK) guidance to universities on external speakers endorses gender apartheid by saying that segregation of the sexes at universities is not discriminatory as long as “both men and women are being treated equally, as they are both being segregated in the same way!” Any form of segregation, whether by race, sex or otherwise is discriminatory. Separate is never equal and segregation is never applied to those who are considered equal. Join us on International Human Rights Day to unequivocally reject gender apartheid. It’s 2013. Let’s not time travel.
DATE: Tuesday 10 December 2013; TIME: 5:00-6:30pm; AT: Universities UK, Woburn House, 20 Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9HQ.

WE SHOULD NOT ABANDON SECULARISM
Maryam Namazie’s Interview with Pragna Patel and Gita Sahgal
Pragna Patel responds: “…If we don’t defend secular values and instead embrace religious ones then we will be guilty of developing counter resistance strategies against racism and imperialism that hides other forms of oppression. Religion cannot be embraced as a framework for articulating disaffection and alienation or to address questions of equality and rights since its very foundation is based on recognising some rights but not others. We see this most clearly played out in the clash between the right to manifest religion and the right to be free from religion. Women who want to be free from religious impositions that deny them their autonomy and sexual freedom are constantly excluded. But we need to alert to the ways in which this exclusion is actually articulated. Often demands for the right to manifest religion may seem on the surface to be progressive but in fact hide a highly reactionary agenda. A good example of this is the recent capitulation by Universities UK (UUK), a representative body of universities in the UK, to demands for gender segregation in universities… It would appear that UUK is ignorant of the history and struggles against racial discrimination based on the flawed logic of ‘separate but equal.’ Such logic legitimised racial apartheid in South Africa and now legitimises gender apartheid. There is a disturbing failure to recognise that this stance will allow the right to manifest religion (a qualified right) to trump the right to be free from gender discrimination and subjugation (an absolute right).”

NEWS FLASH: NOVEMBER 2013
“Afghanistan: Twelve years after the fall of the Taliban, Afghanistan’s government is considering bringing back stoning as a punishment for sex outside marriage. The sentence for married adulterers, along with flogging for unmarried offenders, appears in a draft revision of the country’s penal code being drawn up by the ministry of justice. It is the latest in a string of encroachments on hard-won rights for women, after parliament quietly cut the number of seats set aside for women on provincial councils, and drew up a criminal code whose provisions will make it almost impossible to convict anyone for domestic violence.
“Iran: A document adopted by the Supreme Revolutionary Cultural Council with president Rouhani’s signature has been forwarded to the education and health ministries to “reduce the unnecessary mixing of males and females.” The section on gender segregation included the expansion of the culture of chastity and the veil…”

ARTS CORNER: BURKA AVENGER
“The Burka Avenger is a mild mannered unveiled teacher who becomes the burka avenger when her school is threatened with being shut down by Islamists, armed with pens and books…”

EDITORIAL: SECULARISM AS A UNIVERSAL RIGHT
Maryam Namazie
“…There are strong secular movements in so-called Muslim-majority countries like Iran, Pakistan, Algeria and Mali, despite the great risks involved. Karima Bennoune has brought to light many such groups and individuals in her recently published book, the title of which is based on a Pakistani play where the devotional singer who is beaten and intimidated for singing deemed ‘un-Islamic’ retorts: ‘Your fatwas do not apply here.’ The uprisings and revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa, such as the mass protests against Islamists for the assassination of Socialist leader Chokri Belaid in Tunisia; the vast secular protests in Turkey against Islamisation; the Harlem Shake in front of Muslim Brotherhood headquarter in Egypt and the largest demonstration in contemporary history against the Muslim Brotherhood – 33 million people – are all evidence of that. Post-secularism (leaving people at the mercy of ‘their own culture’) and the systematic and theorised failure to defend secularism and people’s, particularly women’s, civil rights in many countries and communities, only aids and abets the religious-Right to the detriment of us all – believers and non. As British philosopher AC Grayling has said: secularism is a fundamental right. Today, given the influence of the religious-Right, it is also a precondition for women’s rights and equality and for rights and freedoms in the society at large. It must be actively defended, promoted, and articulated”…

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: UNDECIDED ABOUT LEGISLATING DRESS
Marieme Helie Lucas Responds for Fitnah
“…Women wearing the burqa in Europe today are instrumentalised by the Muslim extreme-right, whether or not they realise it. They display their ‘difference’ and ‘identity,’ which is exactly what the traditional far-right needs in order to fulfil its xenophobic agenda. Both the traditional xenophobic extreme-right and the Muslim extreme-right want a violent confrontation and need it in order to recruit fresh troops. This is not a reason for shying away from addressing the proliferation of burqas everywhere, but it should be an incentive to not isolate the ‘flag’ from the broader issue of the growing far-rights in Europe, including the Muslim far-right…”

Also See Maryam Namazie’s interview with Channel 4Thought.tv on banning the niqab:
www.4thought.tv/themes/should-britain-ban-the-veil/1484?autoplay=true

Fitnah Unveiled number 2 on the burqa and veil: fitnah.org/fitnah_publication_english/unveiled_2.pdf

Fitnah Unveiled number 1 on the rise of fitnah: fitnah.org/fitnah_publication_english/unveiled1.pdf

Contact Unveiled Editor:
Maryam Namazie: +44 (0) 7719166731
BM Box 1919, London WC1N 3XX, UK
Email: fitnah.movement@gmail.com
Blog: fitnahmovement.blogspot.co.uk
Web: www.fitnah.org

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Dear Mr. Hamilton: regarding that Quebec charter of values…

December 4, 2013 — xanthippa

Today, I was copied on an interesting letter which had been sent to Mr. Graeme Hamilton of the National Post as a reaction to his article in the National Post, which was highly critical of the Quebec charter of values.  I thought you might like to read it:

Dear Mr.  Hamilton,

Periodically a poster is displayed, especially on university campuses, depicting a little Arab boy facing an Israeli helicopter swooping down on him armed to the teeth.

The image and connotations presented in that poster are a distortion of the reality.  A more accurate redrawing would depict the little boy held up as a puppet on the end of a giant tentacle attached to a monster which would dwarf the helicopter in turn.

The redrawing is based  on a cartoon that appeared in Private Eye some years ago, depicting a seal-hunter on the ice about to club what he thinks is a baby seal, but is really the snout of a giant Basilosaurus or Kronosaurus-type creature under the ice.

I’m afraid your Saturday article in the National Post, Home No More,  contains a similar misconception.

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/11/29/graeme-hamilton-quebec-values-charter-sending-tolerance-civilized-discussion-out-the-window/

These black shrouds often worn by Muslim women should be seen as weapons of war, similar to Highland dress and pipes in the aftermath of the Battle of Culloden, and the women wearing them as human shields.

The fact is, and this is being repeated over and over again in cities all over Europe, that once the Muslim population reaches a critical mass in a given area, ALL WOMEN have to cover up, for their own safety.  Indeed, “This is a really serious slippery slope that we are all sliding down right now. I don’t like to be alarmist. I don’t like to talk like this. But I am seeing it happening in front of me. I am seeing …. women scared to walk in the streets” might be a description of precisely such a situation.

Passages such as:   “She was walking to a physiotherapy appointment in her neighbourhood when she saw two men approaching     …… growing number … who say they feel unwelcome [in what they thought were familiar neighbourhoods] … …… a wave of intolerance   ……  Only x% said they felt completely safe when they were outside their homes.”  Indeed “ ….. maybe the tolerance and respect are already out the window.”….. “This is my home, but I no longer feel at home”  are accurate descriptions of what such immigration has done to such cities in Europe.

Quebec is therefore to be applauded for its moves, which I hope are aimed at preventing such a situation from arising here.  Self-indulgent twits such as Ms. Pichette should be grateful that they still live in a society where  “TV host Richard Martineau dresses up in a burqa for laughs” is mostly the worst they have to put up with – although his comparison of burqas and niqabs to KKK sheets is apt.  And if she really “fears for her 14-year-old daughter”, she should maybe stop forcing her to cover up in the first place.

It is incredible that so-called “feminists” are coming out in favour of women wearing these dalek suits.  One might well seriously ask how voluntary it is, in the light of the large numbers of families one sees on hot summer days where the men and boys are dressed in comfortable Western-style shorts and T-shirts and the women tightly swaddled.

In fact, there was a case in a London teaching hospital a few years ago where the professor banned niqabs, burqas, etc., because of the risk of them getting caught in expensive lab equipment.  The response of the Muslim women in the class was “thank you … thank you … our brothers, uncles, cousins, etc. are putting terrible pressure on us to cover up, and now we can tell them ….”

Another disturbing, and related, phenomenon is the way in which Muslim cab-drivers are allowed to refuse blind people’s guide dogs.  As non-Muslim cab-drivers would be fired for this sort of nonsense, reports of Muslims getting favourable treatment should in such cases be described as accurate.

 

Sincerely,

(name redacted)

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Why Muslim countries cannot recognize Israel’s right to exist – and remain Islamic countries

December 1, 2013 — xanthippa

It seems that there is a lot of misunderstanding ‘out there’ about the reasons why Israel’s right to exist is not, and cannot – EVER – be officially recognized by countries that consider themselves to be Islamic.

Sure, there is a lot of tension in the region.

Certainly, many resented British and French colonial rule in the Middle East and have not liked the political borders that were drawn up following it.

Granted, the state of Israel has has some policies for which it can be legitimately criticized.

But none of this explains the rabid anger which Israel’s continued existence awakens among some of the most devout Muslims!

What is the root of this?

In order to understand, we must go back in history and look at how the Muslim Ummah perceives historic events which had occurred and what significance this has on the events in our times.

There are two separate things, neither one of them mentionable in the politically correct chambers that our mainstream media had become, necessary to explain this visceral anti-Zionism.

The first one is the ‘Jew hatred’ which is documented in both the Koran and the Hadith in so many places, it would be difficult to name them all.  It has been documented in so very many places by writers and researchers much better than I, that to repeat it at this stage seems redundant – so I will only stress the part of the story which is often left out.

We must look back to Abraham, the father of the three modern day religions we call Judaism, Christianity and Islam.  Abraham lived in a patriarchal, yet matrilinear society: so he needeed Sarah to produce an heir, because his position as ruler was only obtained by having married Sarah, the previous ruler’s daughter.

We all know the story that followed….Sarah’s hand maiden Hagar had a boy that was named Abraham’s heir, but then Sarah also had a child and tricked Abraham to switch the ‘heirship’ to her own son.  Jews are descended from Sarah, Arabs are descended from Hagar and have never been able to shake neither the shame of having originated from a slave girl, nor the slight at having been cheated out of their heritage by the Mother of the Jews.

Hence the strained relationship between Jews and Arabs, even during Mohammed’s time.

This ‘Jew hatred’  is documented in the Koran and the Hadith, well known about and while it does affect the way devout Muslims must think of Jews, it is in itself an insufficient explanation for why the idea of the State of Israel evokes such venom, such bile, in the devout Muslims.

Which brings us to the second reason:  Mohammed himself.

Mohammed was, according to Islam, the most excellent, the perfectest a man that could ever possibly get and that to become a better man, one should emulate Muhammad in every way possible, copying his behaviour, attitude and thoughts.  Though it is not usually phrased this way, it seems to me that most devout Muslims believe in the infallibility of Mohammed.

So, we must look a little at Mohammed’s life experience before he started to preach.  He was bounced around quite a bit, an orphan, a burden…

At one point in his life, he had, indeed, converted to Christianity (at least, that is what I was taught at a University course I took on this subject, long before discussing Mohammed’s life became politically incorrect).  This temporary conversion to Christianity by an illiterate youth may explain why so many of the stories in the Koran are deeply evocative of misunderstood stories from the Old and New Testaments.

Yet, one belief remains very uncorrupted to man of the early Christian teachings from that area, in that era:  that the defeat at Masada and the following expulsion of Jews from their homeland and their subsequent failure to establish a unified nation-state elsewhere was the divine punishment of the Jews for not having accepted Jesus Christ’s message.

This may seem academic, but it is important to note that while anti-Semitism in modern-day Europe was fueled by the belief the Jews were responsible for The Savior’s death, the early Christian sects that were roaming the Arabian desert tended to be a bit more Gnostic in their beliefs.  One notable belief among the early Christians in that region was that Jesus Christ was not the Son of God, but a Prophet.  Another strong defining belief of this particular time and region’s branch of Gnostic Christians (and, there were many, many sects with differing beliefs in different regions) was that Jesus Christ did not die on the Cross – that a substitute had been crucified in his place, that Jesus watched from a concealed place, and that he, in fact, died at the siege of Masada (a belief shared by the Cathars, by the way, and part of the Albigensian heresy against which a Crusade was called).

[OK – the Cathar beliefs may not have been as scholarly documented as I’d like, but, I do make this claim on the basis of childhood teaching to me of these beliefs by an adult relative who was a member of a religious sect that claimed its roots to be in the Cathar tradition:  tenuous, I grant, but other things she taught me were so much borne out (by my subsequent, rather obsessive, research) to be true of early Gnostic Christian teachings that I have little room to doubt this one belonged to their ideas, especially given the Koranic confirmation that much of these beliefs were kicking about around there, about then.]

Sorry, I get sidetracked so easily…

Let me stress:  these early Christians did not believe in the divinity of Jesus and thought that a substitute was crucified and that Jesus Christ himself died in Masada – and that because the rest of the Jews did not accept Jesus as their prophet, God punished them by having the Romans defeat them in war.  But, more than that:  because the Jews refused to accept Jesus as their prophet, God’s punishment was that they should never have a Nation State that would be their own, that there would never exist a ‘Jewish Homeland’.

And that is exactly what Mohammad preached:  he claimed that the very fact that 600+ years after they had been kicked out of Judea without being able to re-establish a homeland of their own was proof of God’s hatred of Jews and his rejection of them.  To Mohammed, this PROVED beyond any doubt that the Jews, the spawn of Sarah, were evil and that the Arabs, Hagar’s descendants, were the only legal descendants of Abraham, the true heirs of his heritage and the only chosen people of God.

We must remember that Mohammad’s target audience was Arab; he was not considering that other nations might become Muslim, not at that point.  For, he preached that Arabs were God’s chosen people and therefore they were better than any other peoples of the world! Hence, the Arab supremacism in the Koran and the Arabization of culture in non-Arab Muslim countries.

Even today, some evil imams use this teaching of Mohammed to recruit vulnerable youths from non-Arab Muslim families, telling them that they cannot equal Arabs in the eyes of God, since he declared the Arabs to be better than and dearer to him than every other race.  So, the only way that non-Arab Muslims can attain the highest level of heaven (or so these evil tongues whisper) is through Martyrdom!

Now that I have laid down the background, let me draw the line of my argument.

  1. Muslims are taught that the words of Mohammed are the literal words of God – and thus absolutely true.
  2. Mohammed preached that for not accepting Jesus Christ’s prophetic teachings, the Jews were punished by being for ever denied to have a homeland, a kingdom, a nation-state of their own.
  3. Israel may be a democracy that grants rights to all citizens, Jewish, Arab or otherwise, but it is, deep down at its core, a Jewish nation-state.
  4. But, if a Jewish nation-state exists, then God is no longer punishing the Jews and the teaching of Mohammed about God not permitting Jews to have a homeland are falsified.
  5. If one thing Mohammed preached is falsified, then everything else he preached cannot be regarded as true.
  6. Therefore, as long as Israel continues to exist, Mohammed is proven to be a liar and Islam is proven to not be a valid religion.
  7. Therefore, Israel must be destroyed at all costs, so that Mohammed is proven correct and ALL of the religion of Islam is no longer proven to be a fallacy.

And THAT is why devout Muslims cannot, in good conscience, accept any Jewish homeland to exist:  in the historic area we now call Israel and/or Palestine or anywhere else:  if it did, it would mean that Mohammed was wrong about it, and if he were wrong about it, then nothing else he preached could possibly be trusted to be true.

But, the Koran says that Mohammed’s words are God’s words:  therefore, he cannot be wrong!

And, therefore, a Jewish homeland cannot be suffered to exist!!!

I hope this clarifies why countries that consider themselves to be ‘Muslim Countries’, countries who draw on Sharia (Muslim laws) as part or all of their constitution, cannot continue to be ‘Muslim Countries’ and, at the same time, accept that their prophet Mohammed was wrong about God’s judgment to deny the Jew a homeland.

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Helping Muslim Girls is “Racist”: Edmonton Transit Submits to Sharia, Takes Down AFDI Bus Ads

October 29, 2013 — xanthippa

 

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Help Ezra Levant Protect Our Freedom of Speech

October 17, 2013 — xanthippa
From an email I received:
Dear Xanthippa*,
Please help: tomorrow (Thursday) in a Toronto court house, I’m being sued by Khurrum Awan, the youth president of the Canadian Islamic Congress who tried to censor Mark Steyn.
In fact, he’s suing me for writing about what he did at Steyn’s trial — five years ago!
Of course, it’s just more “lawfare” — the abuse of our western legal process, as a soft jihad against our traditional freedoms.
I won’t get into the details of the lawsuit here — you can see Awan’s Statement of Claim, and my Statement of Defence, here. I’ll make my official comments from the witness box. And you can see a column I wrote about it in the Sun, here. And the great Mark Steyn himself wrote about the trial, here.
But my point is, these radical, Islamic censors are still at it, still trying to silence their critics.
Awan himself gave away the game, in an interview he did after Steyn won his case. Awan told a reporter, “we do not plan to appeal the decision because we attained our strategic objective—to increase the cost of publishing anti-Islamic material.”
That’s what this latest lawsuit against me is: the “strategic objective” of punishing someone who criticizes radical Islam. I published the Danish cartoons of Mohammed; I supported Steyn; and now I have a TV show where I regularly report on radical Islam.
Since joining the TV station, I’ve been protected by the company’s lawyers. But this lawsuit started when I was a blogger, on my own. So I’m on the hook for all of my legal bills. And unlike Awan, I don’t have a big benefactor financing me.
Would you please consider helping me out? I am reluctant to ask, because I know you’ve helped me before. But a lot is at stake here.
This lawsuit is an attempt to undo the free speech victories of the past few years, and to send a warning to any Canadian journalist who dares to speak freely about radical Islam or censorship. It’s designed to instill a sense of fear into the national discussion, to create a “libel chill”.
It’s not just me who’s being targeted — it’s everyone who might ever want to talk about radical Islam. That’s the “strategic objective” of getting everyone to shut up.
I’ve already spent tens of thousands of dollars on lawyers, preparing for the trial. The trial is scheduled to last a week, and could go longer. The total cost will easily reach $50,000 — even if I win, I’ll lose. That’s why they’re doing it.
Can you please help me level the playing field? Can you help fill up my legal war chest, so I can keep standing on guard for our western values of freedom of speech, and the separation of mosque and state? If you can help me with my legal bills, I promise I’ll keep fighting.
You can chip in right now using my secure PayPal button here.
Whether you can donate $5 or $500, it all adds up. Let’s show them we’re as passionate about freedom as they are about censorship.
Wish me luck – I go to court at 10 a.m. tomorrow!
Yours gratefully,
Ezra Levant
P.S. Please help me level the playing field in this lawsuit, by chipping in to my defence fund, here.
P.P.S. And please visit www.StandWithEzra.ca to see the latest news about the trial, and read comments from free speech supporters across the country!

P.P.P.S. Feel free to forward this email to your friends and family who care about freedom too!

*I substituted my ‘nom-de-keyboard’, Xanthippa, for my ‘real-life-name’
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Muslims protect a church in Lahore

October 6, 2013 — xanthippa

We so need much more of this!

Among a deluge of news about Islamic extremists burning/demolishing/desecrating Christian churches, Hindu and Buddhist temples and Synagogues all throughout the Muslim world, among the news of religious murders and bombings, it is most excellent to see moderate Muslims standing up for religious tolerance and protecting their Christian neighbours during worship:

‘Hand in hand as many as 200-300 people formed a human chain outside the St Anthony’s Church adjacent to the District Police Lines at the Empress Road, in a show of solidarity with the victims of the Peshawar church attack two weeks back, which resulted in over a 100 deaths. The twin suicide attack on All Saints church occurred after Sunday mass ended and is believed to be the country’s deadliest attack on Christians.

Standing in the small courtyard of St Anthony’s Church, as Mufti Mohammad Farooq delivered a sermon quoting a few verses of the Holy Quran that preached tolerance and respect for other beliefs, Father Nasir Gulfam stepped right next to him after having conducted a two hour long Sunday service inside the church. The two men stood should to shoulder, hand in hand as part of the human chain that was formed outside the church not just as a show of solidarity but also to send out a message, ‘One Nation, One Blood’.

As part of an attempt to sensitize the public at large, the human chain was the second such event after a similar had been organized in Karachi last week outside the St Patrick’s Cathedral by an organization called Pakistan For All – a collective of citizens concerned about the growing attacks on minorities.

“Well the terrorists showed us what they do on Sundays. Here we are showing them what we do on Sundays. We unite,” said Mohammad Jibran Nasir, the organizer who made the calls for the event on social media.’

Go over to Express Tribune to read the full article and to see photos.

It takes a lot of bravery for people to stand up against the fanatics within their own group, whatever that group may be – religious, political or social.  But, when they do, we must do all we can to support them and spread the word about their actions!

 

 

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Warman vs Free Dominion and John Does – the Jury Trial (day 7)

September 18, 2013 — xanthippa

Day 1′s events can be read here.

Day 2′s events can be read here.

Day 3′s events can be read here.

Day 4’s events can be read here.

I’m afraid that I was unable to attend on day 5.  However, I have heard some accounts which I would like to share with you.  However, do remember I have not seen this myself, so it is just a person on the internet repeating a rumour….so give the account weight accordingly.  Mr. Warman was still on the stand and acted up the self pity, even bringing forth tears for the jury, when he recounted just how difficult this has all been for him, the righteous protector of our society.

Day 6’s events can be read here, as a real newspaper sent the liberal Glen McGregor to cover the appearance of Mr. Icke as a witness.  Following Mr. Icke’s testimony, Connie Fournier took the stand and began her testimony.  From the Ottawa Citizen:

‘Icke testified Warman’s efforts led to the cancellation of speaking events on the 2000 tour and hassles at the hands of Canada immigration officials, including when he arrived in Ottawa on Saturday.

“I started to realize there was a campaign to stop me and I was being painted as some kind of racist who was going to be engaged in hate speech, when I talk in my books about the need to love each other,” he told the court.

“That was shocking and the name Richard Warman started to appear as one of the ringleaders of this extraordinarily unfair character assassination.”’

…

‘”In her opening statement before presenting a defence of the libel claims, Kulaszka said the website posts Warman complained of show “how utterly trivial this lawsuit is. Some don’t even mention Richard Warman,” she said. “Some are obvious jokes.”

“The paltry few lines he is suing for could not damage his reputation,” she told the court. She said Warman had made himself into a public figure through repeated use of Canada’s hate-speech laws.’

Today is day 7 of the trial and as it opened, Connie Fournier was testifying.

In a pretty white blouse with black buttons and black embroidery detail topped by a red cardigan and simple pearls, she appeared competent and likable. Most of all, she appeared well grounded and very much in touch with technology and the latest trends on the internet.

Her easy smile was endearing.

Her testimony was deeply thought provoking.

She explained, among many other things, just how clear it was that some of the statements that Mr. Warman alleges are defamatory, just how very crystal clear it was that they were parody.

For example, there had been a thread from several years ago regarding an essay contest for the Western Standard, a magazine that used to be published by Ezra Levant.  In this particular thread, Peter O’Donnel had posted a list of the most ridiculous titles for an essay one might write and submit to this contest.  The thread had already been several years old at this point, but someone else had added another title, regarding Mr. Warman, and then added an emoticon after it of a face with the tongue sticking out, clearly indicating this is parody.

Yet, Connie Fournier explained, Mr. Warman was claiming it was defamatory – as if it had been a statement of fact!

Another instance which, Ms. Fournier testified, where Mr. Warman claimed they had defamed him by was when they had posted his libel notice.  Earlier, while he was testifying, Mr. Warman had indeed lamented at great length that when Free Dominion had posted his libel notice, they had re-packaged all of the defamatory material into one convenient package and then re-published it:  not only did this hurt him all over again, it made it easier for his haters to use…

Connie Fournier explained that some of the material Mr. Warman claims is defamatory had been excerpts from an Ottawa Citizen article which was overall very favourable to Mr. Warman, but which listed some descriptions of what his critics were calling him…  She was surprised he’d find this defamatory and one of the reasons she had posted it was precisely to show others what Mr. Warman thought constituted defamation.

Ms. Fournier testified that on the Free Dominion site, it was clearly marked that these were items Mr. Warman said were defamatory and in no way were they claimed to be statements of truth.  It was there as a public service, to let others know where Mr Warman thinks the ‘red line’ lies.

I, myself, remember that, a few years ago, when Mr. Ezra Levant was being sued for defamation by Mr. Warman’s friend and former co-worker from the Human Rights Commission, Mr. Vigna, he had also posted all the legal documents on his website:  both the notice of libel and his statement of defense.  As did a number of other people sued by Mr. Warman and/or his friends/minions.  From what I, the non-expert, had seen of the internet, this seems to be a pretty standard, non-controversial practice…these are, after all, public documents and as such, publishing them is newsworthy and good for society!

The other reason she had posted the notice of libel on Free Dominion, Ms. Fournier asserted, was to inform the John Does (who had not been identified so far) that they had become the subjects of a lawsuit.

Aside:

One little interesting thing happened at about the time Connie was testifying about this:  just 5 minutes short of noon, the Court Clerk we had had until now was replaced.  It appeared to me to be not due to any fault but because she just had to be elsewhere.  So, the Court Clerk with the most amazing strappy shoes left and we got one with great dangly earrings.  I only mention this because in my limited experience, I’ve never seen it before…

Later, during cross examination, Mr. Katz had returned to this.  Sorry to be jumping around, but it seems logical to me to finish the subject, even if the events were separated in time.

The questions Mr. Katz kept asking – at least, that is what my legally untrained mind made of it – he seemed to try to get Ms. Fournier to admit that she could have used non-public means to communicate the information about the lawsuit to both the John Does and the other members of Free Dominion, whom she was asking for help in this matter.  For example, she could have sent them private messages or even emailed them….

Ms. Fournier pointed out the practical limitation of trying to send 8 or 10 thousand private messages…and if my very imperfect Aspie observations of the jury were correct, I don’t think Mr. Katz advanced his clients position through this line of questioning.  Rather, it seemed to underline just how disconnected from reality Mr. Warman’s demands were…

The next bit of Connie’s testimony concerned (yes, we are back from the cross examination by Mr. Katz and back to questioning by Ms. Kulaszka) something called ‘Maximum Disruption Doctrine’  and Mr Warman’s speech to the Orwelian-ly named ‘Anti-Racist Action’ (ARA – sounds a lot like ‘NRA’, does it not?).

If you are not familiar with them, ARA use nasty techniques to target people who say things they don’t like – and they are not above not just doc dropping someone (and their family), but showing up by the bus-load at their homes or kids schools and protesting in less than pleasant manner.  Think ‘union thugs in training’…

Mr. Warman had testified earlier that he had given the ARA one of his ‘standard presentation’ speeches, with a preface and a few jokes tailored for this group, to make it more particular to them.  So far, so good.

In the opening remarks of this speech (and, I am trying to write as fast as I can at court, but I am a scientist, not a stenographer, so, if any readers out there have the exact wording, please post it in the comments for accuracy), Mr. Warman had made a joke about ARA members finding it surprising to know that he, Mr. Warman, had friends who were policemen – just as his police friends would find it surprising that he was friends with ARA people.

Ms. Fournier testified that this information had greatly informed her opinion regarding Mr. Warman:  the joke would not have made sense if ARA members were peaceful, law abiding citizens on good terms with the police…

Later in this speech, Connie explained, Mr. Warman had said that while he had lived in Toronto, he had been an old school ARA member, or words to that effect (again, please, help me out in the comments, if you can).

And, Mr. Warman had, in that speech, defined his ‘Maximum Disruption’ method of harassing Neo-Nazis and people who annoy him – for fun.  It was this bit that convinced Ms. Fournier that Mr. Warman’s goal was not conflict resolution but rather that he enjoyed the conflict itself and that later, when he made demands on the Fourniers under threat of legal action, he was not dealing with them in good faith and it would not have been possible for the Fourniers to satisfy his ever increasing demands.

Connie also testified that she had formed her opinion of Mr. Warman from his postings on the neo-Nazi website Stormfront, to which she had been directed through having read about them when she read the transcripts and ruling from the Human Rights Tribunal.  That was when she formed the opinion that he was ruining individual people’s lives as well as harming our society by giving support and encouragement to people who wanted to build Nazi organizations in Canada.  She gave quotes of where he had done that, but I am not skilled enough to reproduce them accurately, so perhaps, later, when I can catch my breath and/or get access to the source material, I may re-visit this.

One very, very essential point that Ms. Fournier had made on the stand was that, while reading the Tribunal transcripts, she had realized that some of the speech Mr. Warman based this particular Section 13 complaint were actually verses from the Bible.

If verses from scriptures, the Christian’s Bible or any other religion’s holy books, were to be suppressed as ‘hate speech’, then freedom of religion would be seriously threatened!!!

It went on in much that flavour, until I had to leave during the afternoon break (previous obligation).  I was fortunate enough to get this report about the last leg of the afternoon’s proceedings from another spectator (there were so many of us there today that we spilled over from the Fournier’s side of the courtroom benches to the middle, and Mr. Ike and a few others had to even sit on the prosecution side of the room!):

‘Too bad you couldn’t stick around for this afternoon’s proceedings in Court as Connie and Mark did very well in the hot seat up there.

David Icke even came up to Mark and later Connie and congratulated them on their testimony.
Mark gave a moving account of what it was like to have been hounded by Warman all these years.  He said with the exception of just one week, all of their marriage has been involved in fighting off the assaults that Warman has hit them with.  He talked about working 70 hours a week driving for a living as a long haul truck driver, keep driving an old car, and Connie having to quit her job to devote herself to fighting Warman, and working the website. Mr Icke told Mark that his honest speech was sure to have hit the jury more forcefully than all of the legal banter of Mr Katz.’
Posted in freedoms, religion, society, technology. Tags: , , , , , , , , . 7 Comments »

Thunderf00t: Atheists shouldn’t have rights -Fox News

September 15, 2013 — xanthippa

 

Posted in atheism, freedoms, society. Tags: , , , , , . Leave a Comment »

How our kids can become radicalized to the point of murdering innocents…

April 19, 2013 — xanthippa

Before the identity of the Boston Bombers was revealed, Salon.com carried an article titled “Let’s hope the Boston Marathon bomber is a white American.”

Well, what do you know – they got their wish!

One of the brothers is indeed an American citizen and both are about as Caucasian as you can get, in fact…  They are both devout Muslims, too!

Which just goes to unmask the ‘soft racism’ inherent in the ‘leftists’ own claim that to criticize the actions of some Muslims is a form of racism…  The colour of one’s skin does not determine a person’s belief system.

Aside:  I wrote earlier that a Saudi national, Abdul Rahman Ali Alharbi, was under police detention in a Boston hospital, first as a suspect and then as a ‘person of interest’.  Then, after Obama held an unscheduled meeting with the Sudi Foreign Minister, we found out that Abdul Rahman Ali Al-Harbi was only a few days away from being deported to Saudi Arabia because of national security concerns…due to his ties to terrorism.

While in our society, each one of us is free to determine their own path in life, in tribal cultures like Saudi Arabia, the clan one is born into have a huge influence (and place limitations) on their life choices.  And the Al-Harbi clan has close ties to Al-Qaida – and many of his clansmen are currently being held in Gitmo… He may indeed be quickly and quietly disappeared into Saudi Arabia, or, following protests over letting a suspected terrorist slip from US jurisdiction, he may remain.  We shall see…

Which still leaves us with two young men, who both appeared to be well focused on their future and with infinite potential, choosing to bomb a public event…

This has left many people in the US and worldwide wondering what is happening to the young people, living in comfortable middle-class families, to radicalize them?

And it is not just in the US that this is happening.  Here, in Canada, we have just found out that 4 young men have been radicalized (some of them converting to Islam from other religious faiths) and taking up arms as jihadis.

Perhaps our life is too comfortable!

Young people – especially intelligent and ambitious young men – strive to achieve, to overcome real challenges.  And, if they don’t think the society permits them to do just that, some of them just may search out a challenge outside the bounds they perceive as being set out by society.  Perhaps…

Being an immigrant to Canada myself, my family was helped by older immigrants from our ‘neck of the woods’ (the other side of the iron curtain – the nationality seemed less important than the shared experience of having been oppressed by socialist totalitarianism).  Many of these people had kids who were born in Canada – my age, plus a bit or minus a bit.  As I watched these 2nd generation immigrants grow through their teens and early twenties, I was struck by just how many of them followed a somewhat predictable pattern:  those who were very self-conscious, perhaps somewhat insecure, and did not quite know how to integrate their parents’ ‘differentness’ with their new country’s identity – the very people who, in the larger society would be most likely to ‘rebel against their parents’ in a self-destructive manner, in order to define their own identity – these kids were the most likely to embrace the most extreme Marxist views.

Looking at immigrants who tried to escape the oppression of Sharia, their kids who would be following the same pattern I had observed would be the ones most likely to be radicalized into Islamist jihad…

Of course, my observation is anecdotal, and I am not offering it as anything more than just one hypothesis.

Other hypothesies – and probably more likely ones – are being proposed by the moderate Muslims living in North America, like Salim Mansur and Tarek Fatah, who warn us of certain mosques whose members (perhaps even imams) seek out the vulnerable youths and radicalize them.  And, yes – these mosques are funded largely from Saudi Arabia or Iran and supplied with radicalized imams/ayatollahs from abroad.  If it were not for the vigilance of our moderate Muslims sounding the alarm bells, we would not know how to look for such subversive activity.

But, this subversive activity does occur!

Here is an example from Massachusetts itself:

In Canada, this also occurs…one does not have to look further than the virulent anti-Semitism in a Calgary Mosque, as documented by BlazingCatFur:

‘TORONTO, April 17, 2013 – B’nai Brith Canada is questioning why the investigation of its complaint to the Calgary Police about a Muslim website www.muslimsofcalgary.ca has been shut down. The Jewish human rights organization brought the complaint earlier this week after anti-Jewish postings were brought to its attention. One posting, for example, relied on the notorious antisemitic forgery “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” to allege a global conspiracy by the Jews to dominate the world. Another article posted stated that “Jews have deviated from the path of their religion as seen in their manners, debauchery and immorality.” Further postings have been brought to light that are equally offensive.

…
Highlights Of Muslims Of Calgary Hate Screeds Collection

Muslims Of Calgary: Quote Protocols Of Elders Of Zion To Prove Freemasonry A Jewish Plot

Muslims Of Calgary: Jewish Pornographers Destroy Nations By Seducing & Degrading Women

Muslims Of Calgary: Call to Jihad – The Jews Have Been The Enemies Of The Ummah Since Allah Began His Call

Muslims Of Calgary: Jews Corrupt Muslims To Steal Their Land

Calgary police are exercising ‘asymmetric’ application of justice in rejecting hate-speech claims against these rants, while non-Muslim critics of Islamic supremacism are dragged in front of the Human Rights Commissions/Tribunals.  And, it is not any better in Edmonton…  So much for Canada’s free-ist province.  The pattern is being repeater over and over again.

And, as soon as it becomes undeniable that the perpetrators of terror violence had indeed been Muslims, the Ummah unifies in cries of ‘backlash’…demonstrating just how skilled some of their numbers have become in turning aggression of some of its members into the appearance of victimhood  of all of them…

It is time we, the non-Muslims of the Western world, started to listen to Muslims like Salim Mansur and stopped giving audience to Islamists and their puppet organizations!  Perhaps then we could shut down the Mosques which DO preach hate and violence and radicalize our youth and replace them with Mosques which do not owe an allegiance to a foreign islamist regime.  This would go a long way to making not just our society safer, but to improving the rights of ALL Muslims to be as moderate as they wish in their practice of their faith!

Remember:  standing with the moderate Muslims against the Islamists is not racism, it is a positive application of freedom of religion!!!

Posted in politics, religion, society, war. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , . 3 Comments »
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