Islam - Current Day > ISIS Lone Wolf in NZ; Taliban Stops Celebratory Shooting; Afghan Resistance Still Fighting; Iraqi Men Murder Wives, Sisters

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As I have mentioned several times on this blog, the only way to handle radicalized Muslims is to segregate them completely from the rest of society. That would require new laws to be passed in most countries, but no-one is even talking about it yet.

‘All avenues for his detention were exhausted’: Details leading up to 

ISIS-inspired knife rampage in New Zealand released

4 Sep, 2021 11:54 / Updated 7 hours ago

Police at Countdown Lynn Mall in Auckland, New Zealand. © Fiona Goodall/Getty Images

Three people injured in an Auckland shopping mall by an offender tailed by surveillance officers remain in critical condition, authorities have announced, also shedding more light on circumstances that led to the bloody attack.

On Saturday, a High Court judge lifted a ban on the attacker’s identity disclosure and his name was made public. The assailant was Ahamed Aathil Mohamed Samsudeen, born in Sri Lanka. There had been plans to deport him, local media reported, saying that immigration officials have sought to revoke his status, but he appealed.

A total of seven people were wounded in the supermarket stabbing spree on Friday, three of whom are in critical condition. One victim is in serious condition and another in moderate condition, Reuters reported on Saturday citing an ambulance service. The remaining two are recovering at home, officials said, while also releasing the ages of the people who suffered from the attacker: three men aged 53, 57 and 77 and four women, 29, 43, 60 and 66 years old. While it was initially believed that the attacker managed to physically hurt six people, police later learned of one more person who had received a minor injury and hadn’t been hospitalized.

Speaking at a press conference on Saturday, New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Police Commissioner Andrew Coster tried to explain how the 32-year old man under heavy surveillance managed to get hold of a deadly weapon and launch his attack before being shot dead by police who had been closely following him for nearly two months. 

“This was a highly motivated individual who used a supermarket visit as a shield for an attack,” Ardern said, adding that the incident was “an incredibly tough set of circumstances.”

Police Commissioner Andrew Coster (R) listens to New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern during a press conference on September 4, 2021. © Mark Mitchell / POOL / AFP

Dubbing the attack “despicable” and “hateful,” the prime minister said only the “lone wolf” man was responsible for it, warning against a backlash aimed at the Muslim community. “It was carried out by an individual, not a faith,” she said.

His intention was to further Islam and to please Mohammed and Allah. You can't say Islam has no part in this. That's absurd.

The government had “utilized every legal surveillance power available to us to try and keep people safe from this individual,” Arden alleged, saying that “all avenues to continue his detention had been exhausted.”

Consequently, you need new tools to work with - segregation of radicals.

Ahamed Aathil Mohamed Samsudeen arrived in New Zealand 10 years ago on a student visa and spent three years behind bars in his new country after authorities twice caught him with hunting knives and found out he owned and shared extremist propaganda content inspired by the Islamic State group. In a warning court report, the man was described as having a sense of entitlement, extreme attitudes and an isolated lifestyle.

He should have been deported right then!

However, earlier this year, a judge ruled his IS videos were not of the worst kind of illicit material and ordered that he be released and put under supervision instead. He lived at an Auckland mosque, from where he took a train and traveled to the Countdown supermarket, tailed by police at a distance. 

Good decision, Judge. How do you feel about that now?

The attacker’s every move had been monitored around the clock for 53 days from July, the police commissioner told the media on Saturday, saying that some 30 officers had been involved in the operation. The man was “highly paranoid,” used counter-surveillance measures and on some occasions confronted members of the public who he thought were on his tail, Coster claimed. 

On Friday, police officers in charge of the attacker were unable to follow him too closely in the supermarket as they could have disclosed themselves. Due to coronavirus restrictions, not many people were at the shop, so police waited near the entrance instead. 

“The surveillance team following him observed him taking a trolley at the supermarket and begin shopping as we had observed him doing on previous occasions,” Coster explained, adding, “He was shopping as normal for approximately 10 minutes before the attack started.” The man, who grabbed his weapon from the supermarket shelf, was “very clever in the way he planned it,” or just “opportunistic and did it at short notice,” the police official concluded.

Countdown said on Saturday that all knives and scissors had been removed from its shops, for people “to feel safe,” and the supermarket group is considering whether to continue selling the items in the future. Other supermarkets followed suit, local media reported. 

The attacker, who in 2017 was headed for Syria, presumably to join IS terrorists, but got arrested at Auckland Airport, had been known to multiple New Zealand agencies and the prime minister herself was personally aware of him before the Friday attack. “This was someone who was known to our national security agencies and was of concern and was being monitored constantly,” Ardern said, adding, “There are very few that fall into this category.” 

She vowed that immediate changes would be made to anti-terrorism laws, with experts suggesting New Zealand officials are currently not able to adequately deal with such plots. “I am committing that as soon as parliament resumes, we will complete that work,” Ardern said, promising action “no later than by the end of this month.”

And that I don't doubt one bit. But will they do what they have to do to get these lunatics off the streets?

Taliban orders commanders to disarm & arrest fighters for

celebratory gunfire, says practice kills and maims civilians

5 Sep, 2021 10:58

A Taliban militant in Kabul, Afghanistan, September 4, 2021. © WANA/Reuters

The Taliban has issued strict guidelines against its members who shoot in the skies at weddings and victory celebrations. The order came after reports that people were hurt in Kabul, Afghanistan by celebratory gunfire.

Firing weapons in the air by militants during weddings and other celebrations leads to deaths and injuries and spreads fear among civilians, according to an instruction tweeted out by Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid on Sunday.

Military commanders in Kabul and other cities were told to immediately disarm and arrest anyone who fires in the air. Police chiefs and intelligence officials were instructed to identify and punish offenders.  

The new rule was apparently meant to address reports in Afghan media that several people were killed and sustained gunshot wounds after Taliban members fired celebratory gunshots into the sky over Kabul on Friday night. The fighters were reacting to news of a major victory against their opponents in the northeastern Panjshir Province, a stronghold of the anti-Taliban resistance.

Mujahid warned on Saturday against wasting ammunition and endangering civilians with celebratory gunfire.  

The Taliban, a hardline Islamist group, captured the majority of Afghanistan by August 15. The sweeping offensive ran concurrently with the final stage of the withdrawal of US troops, which was completed on August 30.

The celebratory gunfire Friday night was premature at best. The resistance in the Panjshir Valley is still fighting.

Leader of Afghanistan's ‘resistance’ group says he's ready to talk

with Taliban as they claim reaching Panjshir province capital

5 Sep, 2021 18:31

A humvee with National Resistance Front flag is seen in front of a radio mast near Panjshir Valley, Afghanistan. © Reuters

Ahmad Massoud says he is ready to talk with the Taliban if it withdraws from Panjshir valley. The Taliban, meanwhile, claimed its forces have reached the capital of the province.

The call for talks was issued by the head of the self-styled Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF) on Sunday in a Facebook post. The son of the late mujahideen commander Ahmad Shah Massoud expressed readiness to end hostilities and talk with the Taliban, urging it to withdraw from the Panjshir valley, located north of Kabul.

“The NRF in principle agrees to solve the current problems and put an immediate end to the fighting and continue negotiations,” Massoud stated.

“To reach a lasting peace, the NRF is ready to stop fighting on condition that the Taliban also stop their attacks and military movements on Panjshir and Andarab,” he added, referring to a district located in the neighboring province of Baghlan. After such ceasefire is reached, a large meeting of Muslim scholars should be held to settle the differences between the warring sides, Massoud suggested.

In recent weeks, the Taliban has established control over most of the Afghan territory, seizing the capital city of Kabul. The fall of Kabul resulted in the disintegration of the late Afghan government and sent President Ashraf Ghani fleeing abroad.

Few areas, including the Panjshir valley, remained out of the Taliban’s control. The Taliban and the NRF forces have been engaged in open fighting over the past few days, with both sides claiming victories over each other.

While the Taliban said it established control over multiple districts of the province, the NRF said it captured hundreds of Taliban militants, including foreign nationals. Neither side, however, has managed to produce any public evidence to back up their claims.

Massoud’s call comes after the Taliban forces claimed they had reached the provincial capital town of Bazarak, securing neighboring districts. Taliban spokesman Bilal Karimi said the group’s fighters had captured a large cache of weaponry and ammunition from the NRF forces.

At the time of this article's publication, the Taliban has not responded to Massoud’s statement. The opposing sides have made several attempts in talks already, with the negotiations ultimately flopping and both sides blaming each other for it.

It's not clear what the incentive would be for the Taliban to negotiate. They could eventually surround the Panjshir Valley and prevent military supplies from getting in and the NRF would have to surrender. It's hard to see why they would want to deal with Panjshir as a separate state.

Panjshir Valley, AFG

Iraq: Man guns down wife with Kalashnikov

Domestic violence surges in Iraq as country grapples with COVID-19

Published:  September 05, 2021 21:09

Ramadan Al Sherbini, Correspondent

Husband Murders Wife

  

Cairo: An Iraqi man had shot dead his wife with a Kalashnikov rifle near the capital Baghdad, a local news portal reported.

The suspect had fired shots Saturday at the woman in their house in the district of Al Wahda, south of Baghdad, after an unspecified dispute, Al Sumaria News added, quoting a security source.

“The killer was arrested and kept in custody. He frankly admitted to having committed the crime,” the source added, without specifying the motive for the murder. The ages of the couple were not revealed.

Another Brother Murders Sister

In recent months, Iraq has seen a series of incidents of family violence.

Last month, a 20-year-old Iraqi woman was stabbed to death near a bridge in Baghdad in a crime that sparked an outcry in the country as a chilling reminder of rising violence against females.

Later, police arrested her brother, accusing him of being the murderer due to a family row.

In May, an Iraqi doctor shot dead his wife during a dispute in the northern governorate of Kirkuk.

Experts blame a perceived upsurge in domestic violence in Iraq on economic woes compounded by an outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic after years of a devastating fight against Daesh terrorists in the country.

I have a different idea. This is what happens when men treat women as property rather than equals.

New Pakistan report says violence against women and children downplayed

Published:  September 05, 2021 18:44

Zubair Qureshi, Correspondent

  

Islamabad: A new report in Pakistan has thrown the spotlight on the plight of women and children while highlighting the everyday risks of safety, security and rights violations being faced by them.

Women and children in Pakistan continue to face harassment and violence while the Pakistani media has failed to highlight these acts of torture, says a report titled ‘Tracking Numbers: State of violence against women and children.’

Issued by Sustainable Social Development Organisation (SSDO), the report states that as many as 6,754 women were kidnapped and 1,890 raped during the first six months of the current year.

In Punjab alone, 3,721 cases of violence against women were registered during the said period, however, the media reported fewer cases in this regard, the report claims.

Giving details, it says, in Islamabad 34 rape cases were registered while in Punjab 752 cases of child abuse were registered. However, according to the SSDO only 27 cases were highlighted in the media.

The report further says out of 163 cases registered in Islamabad about kidnapping of women only 26 cases were reported in the media.

The report pointed out that Lahore was a hotspot district in Punjab and has the highest number of cases of rape, violence against women, kidnapping, domestic violence and child abuse followed by Faisalabad and Gujranwala.

Right to information

The report is based on information provided by mainstream English and Urdu print media and through access to official registered cases by using Right to Information (RTI) laws.

For collection of information under this research report, a set of eight indicators were developed; which were relatively easy to update periodically.

Out of these eight indicators, three indicators such as child abuse, child labour and child marriages relate to children. The other five indicators were domestic violence, violence against women, harassment of women at workplace, rape of women and kidnapping of women.

According to SSDO Director Shahid Jatoi, while violence against women and children was rampant in Punjab, the lack of proper space in the media over the subject was a more alarming trend.

Unless you are a woman or child!

“Lesser space in media compared to official data”

The less reporting in the media compared to the official data suggests lack of attention over such issues by the media over the alarming situation of human rights violations of women and children in Punjab and ICT, Jatoi added.

The report also stresses the need for all stakeholders including the government, politicians, law enforcement agencies, relevant departments, judiciary, media and civil society to come forward, develop joint action to spread awareness, implement laws to curb violence against women and children in the country.

This is one of the reasons why Pakistanis think their country is above reproach and incapable of being a world leader in women and child sexual abuse. In fact, while the numbers are dreadful they are woefully inadequate. The great majority of sexual abuse cases of women or children never gets reported to the police. So, while only one in 29 abuse cases make it into the newspapers, the real number is probably several times that - maybe one in 100.

Pakistan Organizes Event to Discuss Feminism With All Male Panel

Pakistan is one of the most Islamic countries in the world (95% Muslim) and is typical of a country that has a strong Muslim majority. Most people want Sharia as the law of the land, and most people identify as Muslim before Pakistani. Islam is hopelessly misogynistic.

‘We’ll teach them how to menstruate!’ Uproar after Pakistani feminism event featured
NO WOMEN

A woman hold sign as she takes part in an Aurat March, or Women's March in Karachi, Pakistan March 8, 2018. © REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro

A feminism discussion organized by the Arts Council of Pakistan has been changed to include women, after social media users blasted the panel for being all-male.

The Karachi event, billed as “Feminism: The Other Perspective,” originally featured a panel of five prominent men involved in media, entertainment, and activism in Pakistan. The only woman included in the line-up was the event’s female moderator, whose name was put at the bottom of the promotional flyer. Social media users expressed near unanimous disgust with the panel, arguing that it reflected Pakistan’s extremely conservative, male-dominated society.

This is not out of step with a society that prefers to keep its women invisible.

Atiya Abbas
@AtiyaAbbas_
should ve just called it men's day 
and why are all these men agreeing to participating? @manelwatchpk

One upset netizen accused the event organizers of "exploiting feminism" to benefit men.

Some criticism was more light-hearted. Comedian Shehzad Ghias Shaikh joked that he would be hosting a “workshop on how to menstruate,” followed by a talk on breastfeeding.

“Please join me in teaching the world about women’s lives,” he wrote on Twitter.

Responding to the backlash, the panel’s female moderator said that the discussion was meant to focus around what men “think and perceive about feminism,” the “other perspective.”

uzma alkarim
@uzmaalkarim
Hello all, We are now re-framing the event and including a more diverse group of speakers. Requesting all of you to attend as your participation will add value to the conversation around understanding "feminism” together.

She announced that two women would be added to the panel and that the event’s name would be changed to “Understanding Feminism.”

With 5 men and 2 women. That's a far as the organizers were willing to go. Good grief!

Is Europe Still Lurching to the Right? E. Germany Appears to Be

Looking for an alternative: AfD soars in East Germany polls

ahead of crucial regional elections

©  Reuters / Pawel Sosnowski

The right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has received a groundswell of support in Eastern Germany, leading in polls just weeks before regional elections in three states. Support for major parties is at a historic low.

In an outcome sure to unnerve Germany’s more conventional politicians, a series of polls conducted in June and July has demonstrated that the anti-establishment force has moved to the fore in the former Eastern Bloc territory, where they enjoy steady public backing – all ahead of the crucial regional elections, two of which are scheduled in about a month’s time.

By contrast, the heavyweights of German politics – Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and their coalition partners in the Social Democratic Party (SPD) – are facing what might be called a near collapse of popular support in the same eastern regions. In the latest poll conducted by the Emnid Institute, AfD picked up 23 percent of the vote in the five East German states, narrowly beating out the CDU, which received 22 percent.

All other political forces are lagging: the Left Party (Die Linke) took third place with 14 percent backing, while the Greens nipped at their heels just one percentage point behind. Meanwhile, the Social Democrats, once considered one of Germany’s “people’s parties” – or factions enjoying the broadest public support – have dropped to fifth place in the East, earning a mere 11 percent of the vote.

Looming defeat

In the states of Brandenburg, Saxony and Thuringia, where regional elections are scheduled for the coming weeks, the CDU and the SPD are facing a real risk of defeat – from contenders on both ends of the political spectrum.

In Brandenburg, a Social Democratic stronghold ever since Germany’s reunification in the 1990s, the SPD is now poised to be dethroned by AfD, while Saxony will likely see a closer race against the CDU, which faces historically low support in the region. Thuringia seems to be divided between the two niche parties, the Left and the AfD, according to the latest poll.

The more establishment-friendly politicians are still attempting to reverse the trends favoring their competitors with tried-and-true tactics of comparing them to Nazis, or accusing them of exploiting Germany’s problems. Most recently, Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) told the German media that AfD’s rhetoric is something that “we have previously heard only from the NPD” – an openly neo-Nazi party, which the German government has repeatedly sought to ban.

Yet, these strategies no longer appear to work – and the German establishment may only have itself to blame.

Out of touch with voters

As striking as they may seem, the poll results do not guarantee the AfD’s victory in any of the German states – even in the East. It would need to form a coalition in order to govern, but so far not a single party has expressed willingness to join forces and create a ruling bloc.

Besides, the party’s support is significantly less impressive on the national level. Throughout all of Germany, the AfD enjoys only 12 percent of support, falling far behind both the CDU (27 percent), the SPD (13 percent) and even the Greens (25 percent), who have seen an almost unprecedented surge in popularity over the last year.

AfD’s success in the East, however, can hardly be explained solely by the rise of anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiments in that part of the country, regardless of how hard the German media works to portray the region as a hotbed of far-right extremism.

Germans in the east tend to be more concerned over migration, an issue that Merkel and other mainstream political forces have long tended to ignore, refusing to consider that the infamous “open doors” policy at the height of the 2015 refugee crisis may have been a mistake. The AfD certainly capitalizes on the regional feelings, but that alone does not explain the party’s support.

East German weariness of the old “people’s parties” may have something to do with the fact that their living standards have yet to match those in the West, thirty years after the German reunification. After years of establishment parties ruling over the East almost unchallenged, the region is still seeing sluggish economic growth, with an ‘Ossi’ earning 40 percent less than any other German.

According to some reports, it is this inequality between the East and West that has given both the AfD and the Left a boost. It might well be that the establishment parties have simply lost touch with their voters, who, in turn, have become disillusioned with the traditional forces and struck out to find an alternative.

A High School Student Speaks Out on Feminism and It's Amazing

Hard to believe she is a high school student. Her vocabulary is far beyond any high school student I know. Nevertheless, this is really worth the read.

by Helene Hennig 

Today’s feminism has lost its way.  In the late 1800s, “first wave” feminism rightfully started out as a movement to establish, first and foremost, suffrage for women (i.e., the right for women to vote). From there, it then quickly evolved into a movement that focussed on gaining women equal opportunity in the workplace and equality in the eyes of the law.  Through the 1960s, “second wave” feminism sought an end to sexual harassment and fought against discrimination. 

All of these were worthy goals and, to a large extent, have successfully been accomplished.  However, feminism today—“third wave” feminism—has morphed into a shrill, self-righteous crusade that, in what seems like a desperate bid to remain relevant, has not just vilified men but has turned on children, families and even women themselves.

Modern feminism has set out to infiltrate family life, destroying it with poisonous lies through the cultivation of a “culture of grievance” in which women are always to be seen as victims. It has done this by promoting the ideological falsehood that men and women are not natural allies, but that their relationship is adversarial in nature. Feminism strives to pit women against men at every opportunity.  

Because of this, men are not allowed to speak on any issue concerning women, from the supposed “pay gap” to abortion to even the difficulties men face simply being men.  The new anti-men hashtags coined by modern feminists—#killallmen or #menstears to name a couple—show how feminism has allowed itself to become synonymous with misandry. Delivering generalizations on the back of slogans is, as Chairman Mao proved, a powerful way of thought control. It allows the idea to form that all men are inherently bad while overlooking the fact that there are also bad women.

The fact is, over all, men and women work well together and I can attest to this personally. My father raised five girls with my mother. When my mother gets complimented on having been a good mother to so many children, she always responds that she couldn’t have been half the mother she is without the extraordinary support of her husband. It is important to note now far this goes against the modern-day feminist creed. From today’s feminist standpoint, my father is an oppressor who kept my mother locked away at home to raise the children and cook the meals when, instead, she could have had a fulfilling role slaving for a big corporation as a top executive. 

In the eyes of today’s feminist, my mother sacrificed her education to the “drudgery” of motherhood and therefore failed to reach her full potential. My mother is, in essence, a “traitor to the sisterhood.” This is not how my sisters and I see it, nor how my father sees it and certainly not how my mother sees it.

Furthermore, because feminism promotes the idea that women should have a “fulfilling” career, the majority of today’s children are now left in daycare centres to be raised by the state. This is another Maoist idea that Western feminism, in the name of female empowerment, has embraced: collective, state-sponsored childcare. We can already see the results of what happens when the state raises the children instead of the parents; today we have a generation of children in which mental illnesses, suicides, and drug use are all out of control. 

How did this happen? Feminism thrives on the lie that the centre of woman’s life is her career. But if my father is anything to go by, in the end, a career is not even the centre of a man’s life. Most people lying on their deathbeds do not lament the career they must now relinquish. Instead, the dying lament the loved ones they must now leave, most especially their children.

Secondly, feminism has turned from meaningful, worthy goals into a dogmatic, indoctrinating agenda. With its poisonous slogans, the new age feminism is just repeating history from totalitarian regimes with their propaganda. There is no clearer example of this than the fight over the rights to abortion. Feminists use slogans such as “Shout Your Abortion” as they wave placards and mindlessly chant through megaphones. But in actual fact, it can be argued that none of us own our bodies; in short, we are all little more than mere tenants of our bodies and we are forced to vacate when we die.  

However, more worrying than the slogans and propaganda is that, in its rabid promotion of abortion, feminism has actually turned against itself in a grotesque twist of irony; abortion has paved the way for the erasure of future women through sex-selection abortion. Little girls are aborted for being little girls because little boys are more valued in some cultures. In a nutshell, feminists claim for themselves an almost untouchable virtue even in the face of something as fundamentally and obviously discriminatory as sex-selective abortion.

Lastly, feminism has managed to hoodwink an entire society into believing that a woman deserves a job or a promotion just because she’s a woman. No one demonstrated this bizarre, modern-day fraud better than our very own Prime Minister—the buffoon with a bouffant—Justin Trudeau. When he created his cabinet, he mandated that it was to consist of 50% women. However, he did so from a caucus that was made up of only 22% women. The unpleasant message for women is that they don’t have to be particularly good to assume a job, they just have to be female. How infantilizing. When I finally start my career, I hope I’m chosen because I’m competent, able, and skilled. NOT because I’m female.

Feminism has become its own worst enemy. Far from promoting the rights of women as it once did, it now strives to (take?) away from women any sense of responsibility by promoting a culture of victimhood. With its faux outrage over “mansplaining,” “manspreading,” and eggplant emojis to obsessions over trivial matters such as “slutwalks,” armpit hair and bra burning, feminism is rendering itself ridiculous and petty. Its silence over real issues of concern for women, such as female genital mutilation, forced marriages, and honour killings has made it difficult to take it seriously anymore.

Helene Hennig 17-year-old student high school in Vancouver.

‘Under UN’s Care’: Saudi Woman ‘Rescued’ from Deportation After Social Media Storm

Rahaf may just be better off than her predecessors

who have been violently repatriated and then disappeared

See link at bottom of story

Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun leaves Bangkok airport with UN officials and Thai immigration officers.

© Thai Immigration Bureau / AFP

The UN is examining the asylum appeal of a young Saudi woman who fled her family and is afraid of getting killed if sent home. She earlier barricaded herself in a Thai hotel room, refusing to leave until the UN intervened.

It will take the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) “several days” to determine whether Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, 18, needs international protection, the organization’s representative in Thailand said. The woman earlier claimed asylum, fearing that she will be killed if expelled to her home country. UNHCR staff is expected to continue interviewing her on Tuesday.

A student at the University of Ha’il, Saudi Arabia, al-Qunun fled her family during a holiday trip to Kuwait. She was planning to seek asylum in Australia but was intercepted at an airport transit zone in Bangkok. She claimed that a Saudi diplomat seized her passport and tickets as part of a plot to forcefully return her to Kuwait on the next flight.

Al-Qunun then barricaded herself inside an airport’s hotel room, refusing to come out until she was granted a meeting with UN officials.

Renouncing Islam

In a series of emotional posts and videos on social media, she said that she escaped from abusive relatives and fears for her life because she had publicly renounced Islam. Leaving Islam is illegal in Saudi Arabia and punishable by death.

“They will kill me,” she said. “My life is in danger.”

She was fleeing psychological and physical abuse by her male relatives, in particular her father and her brother.

She had cut her hair and then been confined to her room for almost six months. She very clearly stated that she was unhappy with Islam. She was unhappy having to wear the hijab and being forced to pray. She was very unhappy being told that she couldn't study the things she wanted to study or she wouldn't be able to work in the way she want to work.

She was having her life interfered in every possible way by conservative men who were telling her that she could do this and couldn't do that, and when she tried to defy them and showed any independence, you know, she suffered abuse. 

She was remarkably consistent in talking to us and talking to others in saying that she thought she would be killed if she was sent back to Saudi Arabia.

Her father is a senior government official in a provincial administration. This is someone, I think, who would be able to treat his family any way he wants and would basically benefit from impunity because of his position, his stature, his influence.

What we have found in Saudi Arabia is a complete failure by Saudi Arabia to effectively investigate and prosecute honour-related violence, i.e. violence against women and girls when they do something that the men believe brings the family's honour into disrepute.

She is 18 years old, she's considered adult by international law.  - CBC

Rahaf’s posts immediately caused outcry on social media and attracted a flurry of responses. They were quickly shared online as Twitter users appealed to the UN and world leaders to rescue the trapped teen.

In her pleas online, the young woman specifically asked for asylum in the US, the UK, Canada and Australia. Thai immigration police initially indicated that she had to be sent back to Kuwait. But as her desperate calls for help quickly attracted human rights campaigners and UN refugee staffers intervened, they promised not to deport her.

“We will take her into Bangkok and provide her with safe shelter under the care of the UNHCR,” Thai immigration chief Surachate Hakparn told reporters on Monday after UN officials escorted her out of the hotel.

Riyadh denied that it had ever planned on apprehending al-Qunun and bringing her back, calling the case a “family matter.” Al-Qunun’s father and brother arrived in Bangkok seeking a talk with her. Thai immigration services said that such a meeting is possible only with approval from UN personnel.

After leaving the airport, al-Qunun reiterated that she would like to seek asylum in Canada. Ottawa didn’t issue any official response. However, Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director with Human Rights Watch, revealed that Canada “really worked very hard” to “persuade” Thailand not to expel her.

I suspect she doesn't know how cold our winters are here in Canada, or she would aim for Australia. Nevertheless, we would love to have her; I'm just not sure how good we would be at keeping her safe from her family. We invite ISIS veterans to return home to Canada with full rights.

At the same time, Australian media has reported that the government in Canberra will be ready to take in al-Qunun if the UN verifies her claims. Senator Sarah Hanson-Young had earlier urged the prime minister to issue emergency travel documents for the Saudi woman and admit her into the country.

If she is returned, violently to Saudi Arabia, or Kuwait, rest assured that she will suffer for bringing dishonour to her family, and for renouncing Islam. She would certainly not be the first to suffer such a fate.

Thousands Protest Against Menstrual-Age Women Accessing Hindu Temple in India

© AFP/ SAM PANTHAKY

Hundreds of police officers had to be deployed in India as thousand-strong crowds poured onto the streets to stop women of menstruating age from entering one of Hinduism’s holiest sites.

India’s Supreme Court, at the end of September, struck down a ban on females aged between 10 and 50 from entering the temple for Ayyappa, god of growth, in the southern Kerala state.

The ruling will take effect on Wednesday and allows for females of all ages to flock to the place of worship, which sees tens of millions of devotees each year.

© Reuters/ SIVARAM V

But protesters, including women, gathered to protest the judgement, which they say goes against their religious beliefs. The god Ayyappa is considered to be celibate, so women of menstruating age are banned from entering his temple. Some Hindu communities also consider women on their periods to be unclean and ban them from religious practices.

According to local news agency PTI, mobs circled vehicles attempting to reach the shrine to stop women of the banned age from accessing the site. But Kerala police spokesman Pramod Kumar told AFP the situation is “under control.”

Temples across the country mostly allow for women of menstruating age to access holy sites, but there are still those who oppose their entry, despite ongoing rights activists’ campaigns.

© AFP/ Kaviyoor Santosh

Activist Trupti Desai who received death threats as she planned her visit to the temple, said: “It is our constitutional right, and we will stand up for it. People are trying to bully me but I am not scared.”

It is understood Prime Minister Narendra Modi, leader of the Hindu nationalist BJP party, supported the marches against the court’s order.

Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, however, warned there would be “stern action” against those attempting to block women from reaching the site, local media reports.

Bermuda Becomes First Country to Repeal Same-Sex Marriage

By Susan McFarland 

The Bermuda flag flies in May 2017. The territory's governor has signed an act that repeals citizens' right to same-sex marriage. Instead, same-sex couples can only enter into domestic partnerships.

File photo by EPA-EFE/CJ Gunther

UPI -- Despite a Supreme Court ruling last year authorizing same-sex marriages, Bermuda's governor approved a bill reversing the right of gay couples to marry.

Governor John Rankin announced Wednesday that he signed into assent the Domestic Partnership Act, which was passed in December in the British territory's House of Assembly and Senate.

The new act defines "domestic partnerships," instead of marriages, for same-sex couples, though Rankin said the rights of couples in domestic partnerships won't differ from those who are married.

"The Domestic Partnership Act permits any couple (heterosexual or homosexual) to enter into a domestic partnership and gives same-sex couples rights equivalent to those enjoyed by heterosexual married couples; rights that were not guaranteed before the passage of this Act," Rankin said.

Included in the act is the right to inherit in the case of no will, the right to a partner's pensions, access to property rights, the right to make medical decisions on behalf of one's partner and the right to live and work in Bermuda as the domestic partner of a Bermudian.

"The Act is intended to strike a fair balance between two currently irreconcilable groups in Bermuda, by restating that marriage must be between a male and a female while at the same time recognizing and protecting the rights of same-sex couples," Rankin said.

Same-sex couples previously married under Bermuda law will continue to be recognized as being married and overseas same-sex marriages taking place before and during the transitional period will be recognized as marriages in Bermuda, Rankin said.

Critics say it is unprecedented that a jurisdiction would take away the legal right to marriage after it has been granted.

"Governor Rankin and the Bermuda Parliament have shamefully made Bermuda the first national territory in the world to repeal marriage equality," said Ty Cobb, director of Human Rights Campaign Global. "This decision strips loving same-sex couples of the right to marry and jeopardizes Bermuda's international reputation and economy."

The Bermuda Tourism Authority has said the tourism industry would have an economic fallout if the law goes into effect.

"At the Bermuda Tourism Authority, we work hard to keep our research and commentary on this issue restricted to economics," Kevin Dallas, Bermuda Tourism Authority CEO, said in a December letter to lawmakers. "The Bermuda tourism economy, and the workers and businesses who make it thrive, deserve their fair share of the LGBT market as we all continue the uphill climb toward tourism resurgence."

Patriarch of Russian Orthodox Church Warns of End Times

Orthodox Patriarch warns of approaching end times,

asks not to push for revolutionary change

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia © Sergey Pyatakov / Sputnik

In a public speech in the main Moscow cathedral, Patriarch Kirill said the signs from the Book of Revelation are now apparent. He also called on politicians and ordinary citizens to unite and stop the movement towards the abyss.

“All people who love the Motherland must be together because we are entering a critical period in the course of human civilization. This can already be seen with the naked eye. You have to be blind not to notice the approaching awe-inspiring moments in history that the apostle and evangelist John was talking about in the Book of Revelation,” the patriarch was quoted as saying by Interfax. 

Patriarch Kirill added, however, that the exact time of the end times depends on everyone’s actions. He called on people to understand their responsibility regarding Russia and the whole of mankind, and to stop “the movement towards the end of history’s abyss.”

He emphasized that many representatives of the modern Russian intelligentsia are repeating the mistakes made by their predecessors, who led the country into the ruinous revolutionary events of the early 20th century.

“Today is the wrong time to rock the boat of human passions because there is already too much negative influence on people’s spiritual lives,” Kirill said.

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia turned 71 on Monday. After holding mass in Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral, the Holy Synod presented the head of the Russian Orthodox Church with a copy of ceremonial headwear worn by Patriarch Tikhon – the man who was elected head of the Church 100 years ago.

Unfortunately, this brief report is a little cryptic as to what Patriarch Kirill was referring to with regard to 'rocking the boat of human passions'. However, over the previous few weeks he was more explicit in his concerns. He seems to be worried about a revolution that might take Russia back into communism, - a very dark period for Russia and the Russian church, or perhaps he is referring specifically to Ukraine.

Here is a very interesting report from MEMRI dated 13 Nov - 

At The Opening Of Russia's Wall Of Grief, Patriarch Kirill Criticizes The Bolshevik Revolution On Its 100th Anniversary And Warns Against Fomenting New Revolutions

Vladimir Putin has tried to straddle the issue of the Bolshevik Revolution in an effort to forge a consensus between supporters and opponents of the revolution. He has described the fall of the Soviet Union as a tragedy and brought back the anthem used during Soviet times. On the other hand with the exception of the Communist Party that tried to launch commemoratives of the centennial anniversary of the revolution throughout the country and have the anniversary declared an official holiday, the event was officially played down. Lately Putin has become more outspoken against the revolution. In downtown Moscow, on October 30, the Russian President attended the opening of the Wall of Grief (known in English also as the Wall of Sorrow) memorial to victims of political repression during the Soviet-era government.[1] The ceremony was held as part of the official Day Of Remembrance For Victims Of Political Repression. During the event, Putin stated: "It is very important that we all and future generations – this is of great significance – know about, and remember this tragic period in our history when entire social groups and entire peoples were cruelly persecuted… This terrifying past cannot be deleted from national memory or, all the more so, be justified by any references to the so-called best interests of the people."[2]

Patriarch Kirill and the Russian President Vladimir Putin at the opening of the Wall of Grief memorial. (Source: Kremlin.ru)

A major participant in the solemn ceremony was Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, who took the opportunity to express his views on the centenary of the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. The Patriarch stated that the events that ensued during the Bolshevik Revolution could explain the 20th century repressions that came later. However, the Patriarch's speech, was less an analysis of the Bolshevik Revolution and more an apparent warning against future color revolutions against the Kremlin. Indeed, he warned the new generations against repeating historic errors.

On November 1, in a lengthy address before the 21st World Russian People’s Council in Moscow, the Patriarch reiterated that Russian society should learn from its "mistakes" and remain united, avoiding the trap of fomenting new political revolutions as in 1917. The Patriarch further openly warned against color revolutions, which have become a "technological concept", defining the "forceful change of power" and justifying the "violation of the Constitution" and "norms of international law." Here he was very much on the same page as Putin and his surrogates.

Recently, on November 7, the head of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department for External Church Relations, Metropolitan Hilarion channeled Patriach Kirill's views when interviewed on the Rossiya-24 TV channel. "Russia could have achieved much more, if it had developed in an evolutionary, not revolutionary way," said the hierarch.[3]

Patriarch Kirill and the Russian President Vladimir Putin at the opening of the Wall of Grief memorial. (Source: Kremlin.ru)

Below are excerpts of the Patriarch's recent speeches on the Bolshevik revolution:

Patriarch Kirill: 'The Dream Grew Over Into A Nightmare'; 'The Current Generation Does Not Have The Right To Repeat The Mistakes Of History'

During the ceremony, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill I said:

"The year of centenary of the Russian revolution offers an important occasion for understanding [repressions of the 20th century]. As we look into this tragedy, we’re asking ourselves how it could happen that children of the same country, neighbors, fellow-workers persecuted and killed one another, how the momentous idea of building a world of freedom and fairness led up to bloodletting and lawlessness? At that time, people dreamed of a world without exploitation, poverty or war, about a world of peace where science would resolve the problems and cure all the illnesses but the dream grew over into a nightmare for many, many people."

He then added: "Where did the error lurk? Was it because people were seeking to build a humane and fair society upon denial of spiritual fundamentals of human life and subjugating morality to ideology, which led to justification of acts of cruelty on the way to building the radiant future. Departure from the standards of morality always breeds crisis."[4]

The prelate warned Russia's new generations against succumbing to the same historic mistakes, i.e. starting new color revolution: "The current generation does not have the right to repeat the mistakes of history. Hatred should not lead us in our quest to build a peaceful, just, and prosperous life."[5] He then added: "The tragic pages of our history should not serve as pretexts for fanning animosity or for a buildup of tensions. And condemnation of terror should not turn from an act of morality into a political ritual."[6]

Patriarch Kirill: 'Color Revolutions Have Become A Technological Concept… Justifying The Violation Of The Constitution'

A few days later, on November 1, Patriarch Kirill returned to the topic when he delivered a speech at the 21st World Russian People’s Council in Moscow. In his speech, the Patriarch stressed that with the passage of years Russian society distanced itself from the Bolshevik revolution. Contemporary Russian society should cherish its national unity and steer clear of the "political radicalism" that could lead to color revolutions.[7]

The Patriarch said: "During the last 100 years our society reached a certain maturity and distanced itself historically enough from 1917 - this enables us to speak in a more balanced and meaningful manner without avoiding some judgment and without politicizing the issue superfluously."

"It is hard to deny that the revolution was a tragedy: a civil war, when one brother killed another, the death and expulsion of millions of people, huge spiritual and material losses. The most horrifying thing is that, during the revolutionary struggle, the seeds of hatred and evil were sown in human souls. Currently, we can only painfully observe how the same hatred is resurrecting itself in other regions of the contemporary world – both in faraway countries as well as amongst the most kindred peoples, amongst our brothers" [apparently referring to Ukraine].

"But this hatred has a different ideological garb today and is connecting with drawing new and intensifying the old dividing lines on the planet, with the growth of global inequality and justifying it, by cultivating artificial differences in the societies. These processes are already unconnected to the ideas of the original revolution - they have different ideological roots.

"Despite the rapid growth in the number of conflicts, wars and revolutions in the world, Russia retains enough strength to be an island of stability in this dangerous stream and to continue along its historical path."

"Today, our society is consolidated and there is no tragic civil gap, which [back then] divided the people in two. On the contrary, today we learn again to cheer the national unity and reconciliation.

"This unity and reconciliation ensure us that the country and the society won't stumble and won't rupture into the historical divide as happened back in 1917. Russian history does not go round in circles. We learn from our mistakes. We received immunity to all forms of political radicalism – for us as never before, consensus, is important shared values are important. What unites us - is important rather than what divides us. By cultivating and building the internal peace Russia may serve as an example and moral support for anyone who wants to survive the current crisis.

"The international community is very close today to the historical features, defining the beginning of a new epoch – an age of a great change in peoples' lives, especially the change of the worldview. The new age is coming inevitably, because the limits of globalization have been reached, thus the crisis in its unifying criteria has already emerged. This does not mean that the values of democracy, humanism, and human rights will totally disappear from our lives, but they will cease depending on some abstract, global standards. Every cultural – historical subject will have to seek internal support in its own traditions, a support, necessary for development and progress and will have to seek its own model of modernization, roots of its social institutes system.

"The same thing that applies to the life of a private individual applies to the life of a nation – the belief in social institutions and legal mechanism is dead without moral praxis, without an ability to do the right thing. In this case, this belief leads only to chasing the chimers, the elusive mirages of happiness and freedom. And it leads to uncountable human victims.

"We witness eloquent examples of faith without deeds and deeds without faith - both in the history of Europe and in our Russian history. These are world wars, and revolutions unleashed by the world's powerful. It begins with the French Revolution, which solidified new values in the minds of European peoples, and ends with a series of revolutions of the 20th century. This topic is all the more important because revolutions are currently being mass produced. The so-called 'color revolutions' have become a technological concept, defining the change of power by force and justifying the violation of the Constitution and norms of international law.

"However, despite the fact that the revolution has become just a common technique, its ideologues still rely on quasi-religious rhetoric, they try to justify the revolution as a spiritually lofty, and morally justified act. At the same time, modern revolutionaries, like their predecessors, always sacrifice a part of their own people - through the very logic of the revolutionary process - for the sake of achieving abstract benefits.

"The selective approach of such revolutionaries and their handlers to international norms shows that behind the beautiful facade of legal justifications there are in fact double standards, the desire not to subordinate to the power of laws but, on the contrary, to subordinate others to the right of the strongest, to interfere in internal matters of the sovereign states.

"Revolutions are generally conducted 'from above' – by the elites, which are driving and intoxicating people with their destructive energy. It may be the people's "own elite", uprooted from the traditions, and it may be a foreign elite, driven by colonial interests. The common people are organically disinclined to conductions revolutions – on the contrary the common people are the guardian of traditions without this hindering their desire to attain social justice…

"So, here the question arises regarding the quality of the elite that must be faithful to their own people and be replenished by talented people 'from below', without being constrained by the interests of external global players.

Today Russia looks for the 'shape of the future'. I think the shape of the future is a shape of people and elites which are mutually complimentary. The elites are not above the people. The elites are individuals who take the responsibility for the fates of the country, who equate their own interests with the interests of the state. The elites and the people should be a single undivided whole.

"Thus, it's impossible to 'appoint elites artificially. We need a base from which the current elite is drawn. In order to nurture the elite we need to nurture the people, to nurture society, to invest resources in it. If we don't nurture our own people – others will [he refers apparently to foreign/external forces]…

"Revolutions pretend to create a 'new man' – they strive to break the traditional, Christian core inside a man, to 'reforge him. The struggle of the revolutionaries with traditions and culture stem from this very logic. But this is a dead end, it leads to denial and fragmentation…

"If in the 21st century we want to be a flourishing country, respected by other states and which has a future, if we want to avoid revolutionary catastrophes and civil confrontation – we should not forget our historical experience, we should not renounce our historical fate."

Patriarch Kirill: It All Began 'When People Lost Their Internal Sovereignty'

On November 4, after Saturday's liturgy in the Kremlin, the Patriarch went on speaking about the revolution. He stated that the cause of the Bolshevik revolution had its roots in events that took place 200 years earlier, when people began denying the sovereignty of states and governments.[8]

The Patriarch said: "If we sweep aside the entire political environment connected with the events of a century ago, if we detach ourselves from this ideological view, then by this impartial view we will see a great deal, and we will understand that the beginning of our national illnesses, which led to the catastrophe a century ago, began not a year, not five years, not ten years, but at least 200 years, and perhaps even more, beforehand, when they began to destroy the spiritual foundations of the life of our enlightened society, of the so-called elite."

According to the Patriarch, it all began "when people lost their internal sovereignty, giving their minds and souls to that which came from outside, receiving these signals from outside uncritically, exposing their faith, worldview, and view on life to these ideas."

Patriarch Kirill: 'If There's Liberty, Then There Can Be No Equality'

During his Pastor's Word television program, the Patriarch also commented on the slogan of the French revolution "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" (Liberté, égalité, fraternité). The slogan, as mentioned by the Russian news agency Interfax, became "rooted in the psyche" of the Russian intelligentsia.[9]

The Patriarch said: "If there's liberty, then there can be no equality. Because liberty is just a meadow upon which flowers and grass grow, with each blade rising to the best of its ability. There is no equality: one is stronger, the other is weaker, and there is no sign of the third at all. But equality, it is a mown lawn, everyone is equal but there is no freedom…

"If our unfortunate intellectuals had thought of it earlier, if this kind of comparison had occurred to them, if this kind of comparison could have been disseminated in mass consciousness, then maybe one would have paid closer attention to this seductive motto - equality, fraternity, liberty - because then the revolution would have been carried out primarily for the sake of liberty."

[1] The monument depicts faceless victims of the Soviet-era. The monument was realized by sculptor Georgy Frangulyan, who designed the monument.

[2] Kremlin.ru, October 30, 2017.

[3] Interfax-religion.com, November 7, 2017.

[4] Tass.com, October 31, 2017.

[5] See Putin and Patriarch Kirill Open "Wall of Sorrow" In Memory of Victims of Bolshevik Repression

[6] Tass.com, October 31, 2017.

[7] Patriarchia.ru, November 1, 2017.

[8] Orthochristian.com, November 7, 2017; Interfax.ru, November 4, 2017.

[9] Interfax.ru, October 30, 2017; Interfax-religion.com, October 31, 2017.