(h/t: D. F.)

Right-wing activists try to crash Jewish-Muslim wedding

Police on Thursday prevented a bus with some 50 right-wing activists from entering the wedding of a Jewish woman and a Muslim man.

The woman had converted to Islam before the wedding, which was held in the groom’s hometown of Araba in the Galilee.

Former MK Michael Ben Ari posted his sentiments about the marriage on Facebook hours before the incident. “I’m on my way to this ‘celebration,’ ” he wrote. ”What would Golda Meir think of it? In the Diaspora we had intermarriages, and here?”

Residents of the village confronted the bus and demanded that it not enter the village, Ynet reported. Police called to the scene redirected the activists away from the wedding.

Priests lead Orthodox anti-gays in violent Tbilisi clashes with rights activists, police (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

Thousands Orthodox anti-gay activists broke through police cordon and pursued gay rights protesters in Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi, injuring at least 28 people in the process. The violent brawl marred the May 17 International Day Against Homophobia.

The first sanctioned anti-homophobic rally in Georgia organized by Identity NGO activists had to be moved to a public garden on Tbilisi’s Freedom Square after a 10,000-strong Orthodox crowd gathered at the initial rally spot on Friday.

But heavy police cordons failed to contain furious anti-gay activists led by priests, who rushed to the new gay parade location. Upon breaking into the public garden, the agitated crowd engaged in a violent pursuit, beating and throwing stones at all the people who were thought to be representing and advocating for the minorities.

At least 28 people were injured in clashes, and 14 of them hospitalized, Georgian Minister of Health David Sergeenko said. A journalist suffering blunt force trauma to the head and a passer-by who had his leg broken were among the injured.

The police and special task forces managed to evacuate the rally participants using minibuses, but several vehicles were attacked in the process. Counter-demonstrators blocked the way and smashed the windows of a yellow van, in which minorities were thought to be carried.

Georgian ombudsman Uchya Nanusahvili was also compelled to leave the scene guarded by a dozen police after trying to persuade the Orthodox believers not to obstruct the gay rally, according to Interfax. The angry crowd responded to the rights commissioner plea by shouting insults.

Local media said that acting US Ambassador to Georgia Bridget Brink was caught in the turmoil too. Brink arrived at the scene before the clashes started and left without public comments, but her car was taken for a retreating vehicle of a gay rights defender and pursued, Georgia-Online reported.

The thwarted parade had been allowed by the city authorities, despite the call by the head of Georgia’s Orthodox Church to ban the event. Georgian Patriarch Ilya II on Thursday said it would be “an insult” to Georgian tradition. He also called homosexuality an “anomaly and illness.”

“The people do not want propaganda from minorities,” Orthodox priest Father Ioanne told AFP, as he stood among the jubilant anti-gay crowd in the center of Tbilisi. “When these people want to demonstrate then it becomes a problem,” he said.

Other priests who led the rally told reporters they would not allow “rampant immorality” in Georgia.

Meanwhile, the Georgian parliament voiced its support for the minorities’ rights.

“The constitution assumes freedom of faith and views and no one has the right to go beyond the constitution and law,” Chairman of the Georgian Parliament David Usupashvili said at a Friday plenary session.

One of the parliamentary majority’s leaders, Georgy Gabashvili, has blamed the authorities, saying “the government has not taken sufficient measures to protect the rights of sexual minorities.” The parliamentary minority led by the Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili has also spoken in support of the gay parade, according to Interfax.

Orthodox Christian activists run during clashes with gay rights activists at an International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO) rally in Tbilisi, May 17, 2013. REUTERS/David Mdzinarishvili (GEORGIA – Tags: CIVIL UNREST RELIGION SOCIETY POLITICS) – RTXZQ70

Dying woman denied abortion in El Salvador

San Salvador, El Salvador - Beatriz, a 22-year-old woman known to the world only by a single name, has a simple request.

“I want to live,” she says.

Her life hangs by a thread while the El Salvador’s Supreme Court decides whether her right to life should be protected, or whether the rights of her unborn foetus should prevail.

Beatriz is almost 23 weeks pregnant. She has lupus, an auto-immune disease which causes the body’s immune system to attack its own tissue. Her condition is deteriorating and her doctors say she is at “high risk of death” if the pregnancy continues.

Medics have recommended an abortion in order to save her life, but cannot proceed amid fear of prosecution.

El Salvador is one of three Latin American countries where abortion is illegal in all circumstances – punishable with up to 30 years in prison.

Yet in this case, the foetus is unviable. Several scans have revealed that it is anencephalic – missing a large part of the brain and skull. Almost all babies with anencephaly die before birth, or within a few hours or days after birth. It has no chance of surviving into infancy, experts say.

First pregnancy

Beatriz, from the east of this tiny Central American country, has a 14-month-old son who also suffers various health problems – caused by serious complications she suffered during pregnancy.

At that time, Beatriz suffered an exacerbation of her lupus, but also anaemia, pneumonia, and high blood pressure which led to severe pre-eclampsia. Her son was delivered early using an emergency caesarean section, and spent more than a month in hospital with digestive and respiratory problems.

“I want to live to protect and raise my son,” Beatriz said through her lawyers.

She is currently in hospital suffering from early-stage kidney failure, caused by her lupus. With every day that passes the risk to Beatriz’s life increases, her doctors say.

But the country’s powerful religious campaigners are adamant that there be no exceptions - that the life of the foetus must be protected from the moment of conception. Public opinion is divided.

‘Aggravated homicide’

Her medical team made an application to El Salvadorian legal authorities at the end of March, seeking permission to proceed with a therapeutic abortion in order to safeguard Beatriz’s health. They asked for a guarantee that they would not be prosecuted.

Under Article 133 of the country’s penal code, anyone who provides – or tries to access – abortion services can face lengthy prison sentences. Women and doctors can be charged with aggravated homicide.

The authorities have yet to respond to her doctors’ request.

The attorney general could use his powers to give the doctors and Beatriz protection from prosecution. He has so far refused to do so.

The country’s highest court was therefore presented with the case in mid-April. Lawyers acting for Beatriz asked the Supreme Court to guarantee legal protection for Beatriz and her doctors.

Several international bodies have also intervened.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights took the unprecedented step of ordering the El Salvadorian government to take “precautionary measures” and implement the treatment recommended by the Specialised National Maternity Hospital.

On April 29, the commission gave the government 72 hours to comply with the precautionary measures in order “to safeguard life, personal integrity and health”. It was an attempt by the commission to ensure the case was expedited by the Supreme Court.

Despite that ruling, no decision has yet been made.

“The delays are unconscionable,” Amnesty International’s Esther Major told Al Jazeera.

Last week the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court ordered a range of psychological and physical tests to be carried out on Beatriz by the Institute of Legal Medicine (ILM).

To the shock of campaigners, the ILM opinion contradicted all previous assessments and recommended Beatriz continue with the pregnancy – a “wait and see” approach.

“The opinion was completely biased,” said Sara Garcia from the Citizens’ Group for the Decriminalisation of Therapeutic, Ethical and Eugenic Abortion. ”Four of the doctors that participated had already expressed an opinion against Beatriz being allowed a therapeutic abortion.”

The ILM has publicly rejected accusations of bias, stating that its opinion was supported by various national medical organisations – including the Association of Bioethics, the Association of Rheumatology and the Association of Nephrology and Arterial Hypertension.

‘Political manoeuvring’

In what appears to be Beatriz’s last chance, her lawyers submitted an application to the Supreme Court on May 8, urging them to reject the ILM opinion on the grounds of “bias and flawed process”.

“This is the end, the legal possibilities have been exhausted,” said Victor Hugo, Beatriz’s lawyer.

The case has re-ignited national and international debates about access to abortion and a woman’s right to life.

Abortion was criminalised in El Salvador in 1997 by the then-governing Nationalist Republican Alliance party. Before then, abortion in cases such as Beatriz’s would have been permitted.

Marta Maria Blandon is the regional director of the international abortion rights organisation IPAS. “It was a political manoeuvre in an electoral context, trying to secure votes from conservative groups by showing unconditional support for the Catholic Church,” she told Al Jazeera.

“The reform to the penal code was done in secret without any public consultation.”

Since then, around 600 women have been criminally investigated. Almost 30 have been imprisoned for 30 years, many convicted of infanticide. Six women have subsequently been freed following campaigns by the Citizens’ Group for the Decriminalisation of Therapeutic, Ethical and Eugenic Abortion.

Activists, rights groups, academics and clinicians – including the United Nations representative in El Salvador and UN experts on the rights to health, torture, violence and discrimination against women – are among those urging authorities to grant Beatriz the right to a termination in order to save her life. Amnesty International has launched an online appeal for people to write to Luiz Martinez, the country’s attorney general.

They argue that the failure of the state to act amounts to cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.

El Salvador’s Minister of Health, Maria Isabel Rodriguez, and her legal adviser have also written to the Supreme Court supporting the medical and constitutional basis of Beatriz’s case.

Rodriguez is the only government minister so far to speak out in support of Beatriz’s right to life – and has also criticised the IML medical opinion as flawed.

In contrast, the “Sí a la Vida” ["Yes to Life"] Foundation, an anti-abortion religious group, says feminist groups are exploiting and manipulating Beatriz in order to legalise abortion.

In a recent statement of support for anti-abortion groups, El Salvador’s Conference of Catholic Bishops said protecting the unborn child “does not constitute a violation” of Beatriz’s constitutional rights.

A global issue

Parallels are being drawn between this case and the death of Savita Halappanavar in Ireland in October 2012.

Halappanavar, an Indian dentist working in Ireland, was denied a potentially life-saving emergency abortion despite the fact she had suffered a miscarriage – because the foetus’ heart was still faintly beating.

In Ireland, the Catholic Church is vehemently opposing a new parliamentary bill to relax the strict laws and allow abortion to save a mother’s life.

Around 25 per cent of the world’s population live in countries which prohibit or punish women and health professionals for abortion.

World Health Organisation figures suggest almost 70,000 women die annually as a result of unsafe “illegal” abortions – accounting for 13 per cent of all maternal deaths.

Latin America hosts some of the world’s most restrictive abortion laws. In many countries, abortion is permitted only to save the woman’s life, but in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Chile, abortion is prohibited under all circumstances.

Yet the region also has some of the world’s highest rates of abortion, due to the significant unmet need for contraceptives which causes high rates of unplanned pregnancies, according to IPAS.

“We are horrified that government officials in El Salvador are standing by, watching Beatriz suffer pain and anguish, and maybe even die. It is utterly inexcusable of them to deny her life-saving treatment,” said Esther Major, Amnesty International’s El Salvadorian expert.

“Each official and judge who does not do what they can to save her, or prevent her suffering severe health damage, risks having blood on their hands. It is a human rights scandal, and one which has discrimination at its heart. Beatriz is poor, and needs treatment only women and girls need.”

Beatriz’s identity has been hidden amid enormous stigma and strong, divided opinions about her case. But on Sunday May 5, she recorded a plea to the country’s president.

“President Mauricio Funes Cartagena, help me please,” she said.

“This baby inside me cannot survive. I am ill. I want to live… I want to live for my son.”

PA: Settlers exhume graves, spray racist graffiti

NABLUS (Ma’an) — Israeli settlers on Monday exhumed a number of graves and sprayed racist graffiti in the Sawiya village in Nablus, a Palestinian Authority official said.

Ghassan Daghlas, who heads the PA settlement activity file, said settlers from the Alia settlement were responsible for the damage.

He added that a plant nursery and two tractors, belonging to local Abdel Azziz Nasserallah, were also damaged in the attack.

The attack follows clashes on Saturday in the Burin village in Nablus, when dozens of settlers marched into the village.

One villager in Burin was slightly hurt in the hand by a stone and another passed out from tear gas fired by Israeli troops trying to separate the two groups, an AFP journalist said.

The military said that Israeli soldiers also fired rubber-coated bullets, lightly wounding a Palestinian who was given first aid on the spot.

An Israeli army spokeswoman told AFP that about 50 settlers and 20 Palestinians were involved in the confrontation.

The settlers came from Yizhar, a notorious settlement known for being home to Jewish extremists.

Yitzhar settlers also clashed with Palestinians in another neighboring village, Urif, but no injuries were reported, AFP reported at the time.

Tensions have been high in the northern West Bank following a stabbing attack which killed a settler from Yizhar on April 30.

Settlers started over 50 fires across the West Bank following the stabbing, and attacked a mosque and burned tires at junctions in Nablus.

Israeli forces rarely prosecute settlers for violence against Palestinians and their property, which is routine in the occupied West Bank.

Settler terrorists strike again in their daily assault against the indigenous Palestinian population.

Setters uproot 150 trees near Nablus

NABLUS (Ma’an) — Israeli settlers on Tuesday uprooted over 150 trees belonging to Palestinians south of Nablus, a local official said.

Settler monitoring official Ghassan Daghlas told Ma’an that several settlers attacked Sbeih mountain area between Beita and Yatma villages and destroyed over 150 olive and fig trees.

Malawi’s Radio Islam Slapped With Fine For Saying “Jesus is not the Son of God”

If the converse happened in a Muslim majority country and a Christian program was fined for saying Muhammad wasn’t the last prophet, you can be sure there would be spitting vitriol in the Islamophobic looniverse, whole seminars would be dedicated to the topic at Conservative think tanks like the Heritage Foundation.

Interestingly when it comes to freedom of speech in this regard they are rather silent.

What if they were Muslim?:

Malawi’s Radio Islam punished for demeaning Jesus Christ

By Yankho Msukwa, Nyasa Times April 9, 2013 (NyasaTimes)

The Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (Macra) has slapped Radio Islam with a $625 (about K260, 000)  fine for denigrating the Christian religion, mostly stating that Jesus Christ is not the son of God.

Macra has imposed the fine on Radio Islam for breaching Clause 2(a) of the Third Schedule to the Communications Act and Clause 10.1.3 of its Licences by denigrating other religion beliefs.

“In January, 2013 Radio Islam aired a programme where they denigrated the Christian religion by among other things stating that Jesus Christ is not the Son of God and all people who follow him shall perish in hell.

“Upon hearing representations from Radio Islam, they admitted to have aired the program in breach of both the Communications Act and the Licence terms and conditions.

“Radio Islam has been warned before for the same conduct of denigrating other religious beliefs. Therefore, pursuant to Section 54(5)[c] of the Communications Act, the Authority has imposed the fine of $625 on Radio Islam which is a quarter of their Licence fees,” said Macra Director General, Charles Nsaliwa.

Real News: Israel’s New Generation of Racists

Nigerian Christian Group To Launch Terror Campaign Against Muslims in “Defense of Christianity”

Guardian

Nigeria could face a battle between rival terrorist groups after Christian militants threatened to attack Muslim targets in response to bombings carried out by the Islamist group Boko Haram.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend), the umbrella body of armed groups in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta, said it would launch a new terror campaign “in defence of Christianity”.

“The bombings of mosques, hajj camps, Islamic institutions, large congregations in Islamic events and assassinations of clerics that propagate doctrines of hate will form the core mission of this crusade,” the Mend spokesman Jomo Gbomo said in an emailed statement.

The group appears to be responding to the ongoing attacks against churches and Christian populations in northern Nigeria, which some estimate have killed more than 1,000 people, including Christians and Muslims, in recent years.

The threat of a new round of violence, which Mend said would be codenamed Operation Barbarossa, comes a week after the Christian group claimed responsibility for the ambush of a boat in Bayelsa state, southern Nigeria, in which 13 police officers were killed.

The statement prompted concern in Nigeria, although there were questions about whether Mend had the capacity to launch widespread attacks on Muslim targets.

“We are on the cusp of something imaginable happening – there is a likelihood that we are going to experience some kind of Christian retaliatory killings for what’s happening in the north,” said Tolu Ogunlesi, a journalist and witness to attacks on Muslims in southern Nigeria.

“I’m just not confident it will be Mend that will do it. Just like Boko Haram, it is not a single organisation but different faces and shadows all using the same name.”

Mend has appeared increasingly fragmented in recent months. The group behind the current threat against Muslims is believed to comprise disgruntled militants who have turned against the amnesty agreed between Mend and the Nigerian government in 2009.

“Mend no longer exists in the way it has done in the past,” said Ken Henshaw from the Niger Delta-based group Social Action. “They key characters from Mend who really had the capacity to unleash mayhem have all accepted amnesty and handed in their arms. I can’t think of anyone left who can carry out the same level of violence.

“But I don’t think this threat should be handled lightly. At the moment Nigeria is so volatile, things are getting out of control,” Henshaw added. “Here is a group threatening to kill other people, it must be taken seriously.”

There have been a series of attacks or threats against Muslims by Christians in Nigeria in recent years. In 2011 a group called Akhwat Akwop – which it claimed was the Christian equivalent of the name Boko Haram – began distributing leaflets in northern Nigeria threatening terrorist attacks against Muslims, claiming it would emancipate Christians in the north.

In January there were attacks against Muslims in Rivers state in the Niger Delta, although Mend did not claim responsibility for those attacks.

“There is some precedent for attacks against Muslims in southern Nigeria,” said Adunola Abiola, founder of Think Security Africa. “And although there are real questions about whether Mend have the capability and the networks to carry out the attacks they are threatening now, it’s worth remembering that this is not just a group confined to the Niger Delta – they have operated in Lagos and Abuja before.”

Last month the Mend leader Henry Okah was sentenced to 24 years in jail after a South African court convicted him of terrorism over twin car bombings in Nigeria’s capital city, Abuja, in 2010.

There was speculation that the threat from Mend was at attempt to coerce the government into negotiating for Okah’s release. “The timing of this sentence suggests to me that this might be intended as some sort of proxy conflict with the federal government,” said Abiola. “But at this point in time and given the unpredictable turn of events in Nigeria, that anything is possible and they shouldn’t be ignored.”

Nigerian Christian group threatens retaliation over Islamist attacks

The “Burmese Bin Laden”

Whenever a Muslim is involved in a crime against humanity, regardless if she or he is religious or not, the mainstream media and many of the people who rely on it for an objective source of news, straight away demonize all Muslims as being collectively guilty of the crime. Calls for a public apology on behalf of the entire Muslim community are issued, along with declarations that all Muslims should be killed, deported, surveyed, or otherwise contained until they “prove” their loyalty – which can never be done, because the bar is intentionally set higher and higher whenever a Muslim does manage to fulfill all of their ridiculous criteria. But what about “huggable” Buddhism? The true “Religion of Peace”?

While Islam is seen through blood colored glasses in the West, Buddhism receives the rose colored platinum treatment. When barely covered news reports of Buddhist on Muslim violence in Myanmar began to surface, the few people who paid attention were absolutely shocked. Buddhists killing Muslims? “What did the Muslims do to them first?”, I am sure many people asked silently. This is how propaganda and stereotypes work. The mere thought of a Buddhist violently attacking a person of another faith simply makes no sense. Whereas the thought of a Muslim violently attacking a person of another faith makes perfect sense. Danios wrote an article a few months ago about the history of “Buddhist violence.” The intention of the article was not to claim that Buddhism is “inherently violent”, but simply to point out that every religion, even “huggable” Buddhism, can be used to justify religiously inspired violence.

Cue Wirathu, the “Burmese Bin Laden.”

“Burmese Bin Laden” Creating Division in Myanmar

Every religion has extremists. Buddhism isn’t an exception, as a 45-year-old Burmese Monk dubbed as the “Buddhist Bin Laden” is flaming social tensions between Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar by advocating for violence against Rohingyas. In doing so, Wirathu is invoking the call for a Burmese Buddhist national identity while gaining popularity in the country to help his own rise as a significant influence in Myanmar’s politics.

Wirathu is a 45-year-old Buddhist monk who has used social media channels to convey his hate-filled messages. The West’s conventional image of Buddhist followers is one of a religion of peace, yet many are shocked that in a region that has often been called one of the most peaceful in the world, there is an emergence of such hate induced actions caused by his speech.

Wirathu was born near Mandalay, and in 2001, created a national campaign to boycott Muslim businesses in 2001. He was soon jailed 25 years for his actions. He was released in 2010 through a general amnesty.

Wirathu has been on the stump since his release, and has been associated with violence in Rakhine and in Mandalay. In Rakhine, more than 200 people were killed and 100,000 in 2012. His message of hate and violence against Muslims also led to recent violence in Meiktila, where a dispute at a gold shop led to 40 deaths, and the destruction of a Muslim community in the city.

Muslims comprise of 5% Myanmar’s 60 million people. Wirathu’s rants and tirades against Muslims in Myanmar have also culminated in the nationalist “969” campaign using the number 969 to demarcate homes so that they can identify themselves as clearly Buddhists and create remnants of a state divided not by sectionalism, but rather through religion. This has led to hate-filled speeches where he has described Muslims as both “cruel and savage” and has attacked many Muslim practices from the killing of cattle to convincing many Buddhists in Myanmar that the population boom among Muslim communities in these countries will lead to a takeover of the country.

Read the rest here: http://www.policymic.com/articles/37001/burmese-bin-laden-creating-division-in-myanmar

This is ridiculous. To be exact, this is what an Apartheid state does: state-sanctioned racism. Imagine for one second how the media will react if Muslims kicked out Jews or Christians out of a certain area because they declared the area a “live-fire training zone”, the world will create a huge media event surrounding it.

Israel Evicts Bedouins From West Bank Village

Army Declares Restricted Military Zone

Israeli soldiers evicted several hundred Bedouins from a village in the occupied West Bank on Monday after the army declared the area a live-fire training zone.

The residents of Wadi al-Maleh, a village mostly inhabited by shepherds in the arid area bordering Jordan, had almost all left their homes by an evening curfew and retreated to neighbouring villages, Aref Daraghmeh, a local leader told Reuters.

The displacement coincided with several demolitions of Arab properties in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which come as the United States is trying to revive stalled peace.

In January, villagers received a similar eviction order and left without resisting, only to return after 48 hours. Almost all of their 90 buildings, including shelters for their animals, were demolished in 2010, local rights groups said.

Israeli troops prevented outsiders, including journalists, from accessing the area saying it was a “closed military zone”. The military did not respond to a request for comment.

Wadi al-Maleh is located in “Area C,” a swath of land making up two-thirds of the West Bank under full Israeli control and where most Jewish settlements are located.

Half a million settlers live in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, territory captured in the 1967 Middle East War which Palestinians want for a future state.

Israeli army firing zones comprise 18 percent of the West Bank, roughly the same size of “Area A,” the land including major cities and towns which is under full Palestinian control.

According to the U.N. Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 5,000 Palestinians in 38 herding communities live on army firing zones, along with several sprawling Jewish settlements and farms.

Besides al-Maleh, 12 Bedouin villages throughout the length of the Jordan Valley have received eviction orders since 1999, according to the Association for Human Rights in Israel.

The International Court of Justice and most governments deem Jewish settlements in the West Bank illegal. Israel disputes this and cites Biblical and historical links to the land.

Israeli authorities razed two family homes in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of al-Tur on Monday morning, displacing 18 Palestinians who failed to acquire elusive building permits, local officials said.

The army also demolished a well near a Palestinian refugee camp south of the city of Hebron and cleared an agricultural area of dozens of olive trees east of Bethlehem, according to Palestinian government media. Israeli officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.