Venezuelan Protests Against Government Leave Two Students Dead

Meanwhile, the economy is collapsing spectacularly as the government entrenches itself. People are hungry and getting more desperate by the day. Maduro needs to step down and call fair and open elections. What he is doing now is just outright evil.

By Eyanir Chinea and Anggy Polanco | CARACAS/SAN CRISTOBAL, VENEZUELA

Two Venezuelan students died on Wednesday after being shot during protests against unpopular leftist President Nicolas Maduro, increasing turmoil in the volatile nation amid a crippling economic crisis.

Demonstrators clash with riot police during the so-called 'mother of all marches' against Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela April 19, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

Opposition supporters protested in Caracas and other cities in what they called "the mother of all marches," denouncing Maduro for eroding democracy and plunging the oil-rich economy into chaos.

Crowds swelled to hundreds of thousands, including Maduro supporters who held a counter-demonstration in the capital at the urging of the president, and clashes were reported across the country during the most sustained protests since 2014.

Maduro says that beneath a peaceful facade, the protests are little more than opposition efforts to foment a coup to end socialism in Venezuela. The opposition says he has morphed into a dictator and accuses his government of using armed civilians to spread violence and fear.

The dueling marches drew parallels to the clashes between pro and anti-government protesters in 2002 that triggered a brief coup against late President Hugo Chavez.

Carlos Moreno, 18, a student, was leaving his home to play soccer in Caracas when armed government supporters approached a nearby opposition gathering and fired shots, according to witnesses. He was shot in the head, they said, and three security officials said he later died in a clinic after undergoing surgery.

Later on Wednesday in the opposition hotbed of San Cristobal near the Colombia border, university student Paola Ramirez died after being shot by men pursuing her and her boyfriend, according to relatives and witnesses.

"We were on a motorbike and they were following us, shooting," her boyfriend told Reuters. "I left her on a block where she was going to find her sister and I went to hide the bike. I heard shots and when I arrived she was on the ground. I tried to protect her as much as I could," he added, sobbing in front of her body.

The public prosecutor's office said it was investigating both cases.

The opposition attributed both deaths to groups known as "colectivos," armed government supporters who are frequently accused of involvement in confrontations during protests.

There are few clear ways of determining who belongs to colectivos, who call themselves community groups but the opposition accuses of being violent paramilitary wings of the ruling Socialist Party.

The deaths mean seven people have now been killed during protests in Venezuela this month. The opposition blames the deaths on security forces and alleged paramilitary groups. Over 270 people were arrested during protests on Wednesday, rights group Penal Forum said.

"MADURO OUT!"

Waving the country's red, yellow and blue flags and shouting "No more dictatorship" and "Maduro out," demonstrators clogged a stretch of the main highway in Caracas. Troops fired tear gas in Caracas neighborhoods, San Cristobal, the depressed industrial city of Puerto Ordaz, and the arid northern city of Punto Fijo.

"We have to protest because this country is dying of hunger," said Alexis Mendoza, a 53-year-old administrator marching in the Caracas neighborhood of El Paraiso. "There are a lot of people in the opposition and they are full of courage."

The march followed a fortnight of violent protests triggered by a Supreme Court decision in March to assume the powers of the opposition-led Congress - which it quickly reversed under international pressure.

The court's move nonetheless fueled long-simmering anger over the ruling Socialist Party's handling of the economy. The OPEC country suffers from Soviet-style shortages of food and medicines and triple-digit inflation.

The opposition is demanding early elections, the freeing of jailed politicians, humanitarian aid, and respect for the autonomy of the opposition-led legislature.

The marchers gathered at more than two dozen points around Caracas, although some were stalled by authorities closing around 20 subway stops. Protesters had hoped to converge on the office of the state ombudsman, a guarantor of human rights, but as in previous attempts they were blocked by the National Guard. The protests trailed off with youths throwing rocks squaring off against security forces spraying tear gas.

Maduro has charged that the opposition is trying to relive the 2002 coup against Chavez, his predecessor and mentor, by blocking roads with burning trash and vandalizing public property.

On Wednesday afternoon he addressed a cheering red-shirted crowd in Caracas to declare that a "corrupt and interventionist right-wing" had been defeated.

"Today the people stood by Maduro!" the president said, blasting his rivals as "anti-Christs." "We've triumphed again! Here we are, governing, governing, governing with the people!" he added, before breaking into song.

Analysts say there is less likelihood of a coup against Maduro because Chavez launched a broad purge of the armed forces following his brief ouster.

Nevertheless, there is a limit. 

Some unhappy Venezuelans also steer clear of protests, fearful of violence, cynical that marches can bring about change, or too busy looking for food amid the recession.

Venezuela benefited for years from oil-fueled consumption and many poor citizens rose into the middle class. But the 2014 collapse in oil prices left the government unable to maintain a complex system of subsidies and price controls. Snaking grocery lines are now a common sight and people routinely say they skip meals and cannot find basic medication.

Further spurring outrage was a decision by the national comptroller's office earlier this month to disqualify opposition leader Henrique Capriles from holding office for 15 years, dashing his hopes for the presidency.

The elections council, which is sympathetic to the government, has delayed votes for state governors that were supposed to take place last year.

Demonstrators also gathered on Wednesday in the eastern city of Puerto Ordaz, home to Venezuela's struggling state-run mining companies, and the oil city of Maracaibo.

"I've just graduated ... and what I've got in the bank isn't enough for a bottle of cooking oil," said Gregorio Mendoza, a 23-year-old engineer in Puerto Ordaz. "We're poorer every day."

Poll: Venezuelans say they 'suffer' more than 'thrive'

By Andrew V. Pestano 

A protester wearing a gas mask is seen during clashes with the Venezuelan National Guard in Caracas on April 10. A Gallup poll shows that 13 percent of Venezuelans rated their lives positively, as opposed to 28 percent who said they were "suffering." The remaining 59 percent of Venezuelans are "struggling." Photo by Miguel Gutierrez/EPA

UPI -- A Gallup poll shows that 13 percent of Venezuelans rated their lives positively in 2016, a 44 percent decrease from 2012 -- a year prior to Nicolas Maduro assuming the presidency.

Thirteen percent of Venezuelans said they rated their lives positively enough to be considered "thriving," as opposed to 28 percent who said they were "suffering." The remaining 59 percent of Venezuelans say they are "struggling."

It is the first time since Gallup began conducting the poll in 2006 that more Venezuelans considered themselves to be "suffering" than "thriving."

"The new low in the percentage of Venezuelans whose ratings are thriving comes amid dramatic political and economic upheaval that continues to unfold in Latin America's fifth-largest country," Gallup said in a statement. "Anti-government protests broke out in early April after the increasingly unpopular president and the Supreme Court attempted to strip the nation's congress of its power."

In the same poll, 91 percent of Venezuelans said the country's economy is "getting worse," compared to 5 percent who said the economy is "getting better." In 2012, 22 percent of Venezuelans said the economy was "getting worse," compared to 41 percent who said it was getting better.

The South American country is facing a political, security and economic crisis in which basic goods such as food and medicine are in short supply, unavailable or unaffordable. Venezuela has one of the highest homicide rates in the world.

In the poll, 80 percent of Venezuelans also said there have been times in the past year when they did not have enough money to buy food for themselves or their family, which is on par with Central African Republic's 83 percent and Malawi's 82 percent.

The Gallup poll's results are based on face-to-face interviews conducted from July 7 until Sept. 8 with 1,000 Venezuelans aged 15 and older. The poll has a 4.1 percent margin of error.

After Partial Recount of Ballots, Ecuador Still has Left-Leaning Government

Lenín Moreno declared winner after Ecuador election recount

By Andrew V. Pestano  

Lenín Moreno has once again been declared the winner of Ecuador's 2017 presidential election following a

recount of nearly 1.3 million votes, the South American country's National Electoral Council said in a statement.

Photo courtesy of Lenín Moreno

UPI -- Following a recount of nearly 1.3 million presidential votes, Ecuador's National Electoral Council once again declared Lenín Moreno the winner of the election, this time by a slightly wider margin.

In the recount results, the electoral council, or CNE, said Moreno's Alianza PAIS movement received 5,062,018 votes, or 51.16 percent of the total. Moreno's competitor, Guillermo Lasso, and his CREO-SUMA political coalition received 4,833,389 votes, or 48.84 percent of the total.

"Thank you for showing us that we are an honest society," CNE President Juan Pablo Pozo Bahamonde said in a statement Tuesday. "As I said before, elections are not won with speculation. They are won with votes."

In the initial results following the April 2 election, Moreno received 5,060,424, or 51.15 percent, whereas Lasso received 4,833,828, or 48.85 percent. The CNE recounted 1,275,450 votes.

"After the recount of 1.2 million votes, it ratifies victory of Alianza PAIS. Thanks, we will not let you down! Ecuador expects peace and work," Moreno said in a statement. "It is time for agreements for major national goals. Democracy is strengthened, we look forward. The future never stops!"

Members of the opposition have been protesting for weeks after the CNE announced Moreno won, saying electoral fraud occurred.

Lasso has repeatedly rejected a partial recount, instead calling for a full recount in the election.

"This recount of the CNE, rather than making the results transparent, will reveal the accomplices of this fraudulent process," Lasso said in a statement on Tuesday.

Moreno served as leftist outgoing President Rafael Correa's vice president from 2007-13 before serving as U.N. Special Envoy on Disability and Accessibility. He became paraplegic after being shot in the back in 1998.

Lasso, a center-right former banker who had the support of other opposition parties, ran on an economic platform in which he promised to create 1 million new jobs within four years. He is a conservative who vowed to reduce government spending and taxes.

Bizarre Criminal Record for Guantanamo Bay Youth Survivor

Omar Khadr's criminal record in Canada shows 'absolute ignorance,' lawyer says

Document refers to conviction by Guantanamo Bay 'youth court,' refers erroneously to concurrent sentences

By Colin Perkel, The Canadian Press 

Omar Khadr was released from prison in 2015 pending an appeal of his U.S. conviction,

which could take several more years. (Terry Reith/CBC)

Omar Khadr's official criminal record in Canada contains oddities and errors that are at odds with how the federal government viewed him on his return from the notorious prison on the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The record, obtained by The Canadian Press, makes no reference to the fact that Khadr, 30, was convicted by an internationally condemned U.S. military commission for purported offences he committed as a 15-year-old in Afghanistan.

Instead, the document states only that he was convicted at "Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (Youth Court)." It makes no reference anywhere to the United States or the commission.

While it's not clear when the record was first created, Khadr's Canadian lawyers call it bizarre. For one thing, they note there's no such thing as a Guantanamo Bay youth court.

However, despite the document, the Canadian government argued strenuously for years against treating Khadr as a young offender — placing him, for example, in a series of maximum security adult prisons on his return to Canada in September 2012.

I voted for Stephen Harper in every election he participated in and would again. Not because I like him, but because I like his opponents even less. Harper did a lot of things that I disliked intensely and leaving this kid hang out to dry was one of them. 

His mother and sisters are radicalized and should never be trusted, but Omar certainly appears to me to be as honest and sincere a person as there is. How he became such a person after enduring so many years in Guantanamo is worth a closer look. I hope he writes is story.

Additionally, the lawyers say, the record appears to formalize the fact that Khadr was convicted as a youth for alleged crimes that occurred in a war zone, which would make him a child soldier — a label the government has also always avoided.

No youth court in Guantanamo

Dennis Edney, one of Khadr's lawyers, who was initially unaware of the document, expressed profound surprise at its contents.

"There's not such a being as a criminal youth court in Guantanamo," Edney said from Edmonton. "Why would you do that? Internationally, the place was condemned because it didn't distinguish between Omar being a child and Omar being an adult."

The Americans captured the horrifically wounded Khadr in the rubble of a bombed out compound in Afghanistan in July 2002 following a fierce firefight that left an American special forces soldier dead and another partly blinded.

In October 2010, the Canadian citizen pleaded guilty to five war crimes before a military commission at Guantanamo Bay, and was handed an eight-year sentence. The Toronto-born Khadr, who has long maintained the Americans tortured him during his lengthy captivity, later said he only pleaded guilty so he could return to Canada.

Omar Khadr is shown in a Guantanamo Bay interrogation room in this image taken from a 2003 surveillance video. (Handout/Canadian Press)

Edney said it's important people understand the context of the convictions — something sorely lacking in the official record.

"It shows absolute ignorance. It misstates itself in a very fundamental way," Edney said. "It shows no understanding of what Guantanamo is (and) demands an explanation as to why it is so described."

Concurrent sentences?

The RCMP document also erroneously states that Khadr was sentenced to five concurrent eight-year terms for each of his five charges. In fact, Canadian courts have ruled Khadr was handed a single eight-year sentence on all counts.

Co-counsel Nate Whitling, who also had not seen the document, called it unsurprising Khadr has a record in Canada given his transfer here to serve out his sentence. But Whitling still called it "weird." He noted there's no such thing as a concurrent sentence at Guantanamo Bay, and suggested Canadian authorities had "tried to fit a square peg into a round hole."

Khadr's lawyers say his conviction record should not enjoy legal recognition in Canada given that it has no reference to a legitimate court in a foreign country but arises out of military commissions that were set up to avoid U.S. constitutional scrutiny. Still, the criminal record could have an impact on Khadr, who hopes to study nursing, when he applies in the future for employment.

Barney Brucker, the Justice Department's lead lawyer on the Khadr file, did not respond to a request for information. Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale was not immediately available to comment on Monday.

Khadr was granted bail in Alberta in 2015 pending an ongoing appeal of his U.S. conviction — a process that will likely take several more years at least. The appeal rests on the fact that he was convicted for acts that were not crimes at the time he did them.

Christian Man Tortured in Pakistan for 'Befriending' Muslim Woman

Pakistan, where the religion of peace rules

Sheikhupura, Pakistan

BILAL SHEIKH, Dawn

A Christian man was reportedly assaulted and burnt with hot iron rods, allegedly by the family of a Muslim woman in Sheikhupura district, for having "friendship" with her, it has been learnt.

The victim had received severe burn wounds and after failing to get proper medical care in Sheikhupura, he was shifted to Mayo Hospital, Lahore, on Sunday for further medical treatment.

A photo, which I am reluctant to show here, reveals serious burns to his buttocks and upper legs. There is no indication here as to whether or not there were internal injuries but I would be somewhat surprised if there weren't.

The incident happened earlier this month and a police case has also been lodged against the father and brothers of the woman, who were reportedly against the friendship between the two and allegedly tortured 21-year-old Ansar Masih.

According to the First Information Report (FIR) undersigned by Masih's sister in Sheikhupura's Saddar police station, Masih first established contact with the woman two years ago and their friendship grew with time.

They often spoke on phone and Masih would also visit the woman neighbourhood to meet her, the FIR stated.

When the woman's family learned of the friendship, her father, Manzoor, and her brothers called Masih's father asking him to tell his son to stay away from the woman, warning them of dire consequences if their instructions were not followed, the FIR added.

On April 1, Ansar's mother sent him to run an errand in the woman's neighbourhood where Ansar was allegedly kidnapped by the accused and his two sons, the report stated, adding the three unclothed him, beat him and burned him using hot iron rods.

The FIR further states that the accused then brought Ansar to his house and told his family that he had been in a traffic accident.

Ansar's family then rushed him to Sheikhupura's District Headquarters Hospital where, after gaining consciousness, he narrated the incident.

Subsequently, on April 5, his sister lodged the FIR following which the police took the accused into custody.

Speaking to DawnNews, the victim's father claimed that the family was under pressure by the accused as well as the area police to reconcile and take back the case.

When contacted, the officials at DHQ confirmed that Ansar had been shifted to Lahore's Mayo Hospital as the facility in Sheikhupura lacked equipment and necessary supplies to treat patients with serious burn injuries.

Ansar's condition is reportedly stable now. However, his medical treatment is underway.

Turkey Takes Big Step on Road to Making Erdogan a Caliph

The natural evolution of Islam is toward Sharia

Erdogan tightens grip on Turkey with

narrow referendum win

DOUG SAUNDERS

The Globe and Mail

From the moment he was first elected to Turkish high office as a reformist leader in 2003, Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s opponents have painted him as a Trojan-horse candidate hiding some darker agenda – specifically, a potential Islamic overthrow of Turkey’s nine-decade-old secular democracy.

On Sunday, Mr. Erdogan’s apparent narrow victory in a constitutional-change referendum turned at least some of those fears into reality. In a vote the opposition has vowed to challenge, the result cements Mr. Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian tendencies into permanent rules that allow the Turkish President to remain in power for another decade, to eliminate key checks and balances, and to wield formidable personal control over legislation and appointments of military and justice officials.

The constitutional changes over which Turks voted on Sunday, if recognized, will make Mr. Erdogan not so much an Ottoman-style sultan or Iranian-style theocrat but more a president-in-perpetuity in the mould of Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

That is, he has become another elected leader of a once-successful democracy who has managed to alter the constitution, eliminate checks and balances, and quash or intimidate opposition forces so as to guarantee himself more or less unchecked power within a nominally democratic system. As Turkish opposition leaders noted Sunday night, Mr. Erdogan has managed to erase much of the democratic infrastructure Mustafa Kemal Ataturk put in place in the 1920s, replacing it not with a return to Islamic rule (or not yet) but with the instruments of pure personal power.

Yes, for now!

Despite having won the referendum by a very narrow margin – 51.3 per cent to 48.7 per cent, according to official results, with 87 per cent of Turkey’s 58 million eligible voters casting a ballot – Mr. Erdogan spoke Sunday night of taking on even greater powers, declaring that he would attempt to reinstate the death penalty, which was abolished in 2002, and push for further changes. “We’ve got a lot to do; we are on this path but it’s time to change gears and go faster,” he declared in his victory speech.

Yet the most visible outcome of Sunday’s referendum may be a Turkey that is violently divided against itself and ostracized by its neighbours in Europe and the Middle East. The referendum marks the culmination of five years during which Mr. Erdogan has burned the bridges he carefully built during his first decade in power with European neighbours, minority groups and political opponents.

His reputation as a uniter has gradually evaporated over the past few years as he has violently crushed democracy protests; waged relentless war against the Kurdish populations he once courted; denounced the European leaders he once hoped to join as “Nazis” and threatened to flood their countries with refugees; alienated his partners in NATO by taking an ambiguous and counterproductive role in the Syrian civil war; and used last year’s bungled military coup attempt as a pretext for arresting or purging more than 175,000 officials and jailing more than 120 journalists.

After all, Sunday’s vote did not reflect a consensus around his rule so much as a deeply divided Turkey. Urbanites and more educated Turks decisively rejected the constitutional changes, with six of Turkey’s eight largest cities, including Istanbul and Ankara, delivering No majorities. Those cities erupted in protest Sunday night, with crowds filling the streets of Istanbul chanting “Thief, murderer Erdogan,” Ankara crowds banging kitchen pots and street battles between Erdogan supporters and opponents raging in Izmir.

Turkey's concentrated bombing of Syrian Kurds

Likewise, it appears that Turkey’s Kurds, Alawites, Armenians and other minorities – who make up more than a fifth of the population – strongly rejected the changes, as regions with large minority populations voted decidedly No. Electoral maps showed a large swath of Yes majorities across the rural and religious centre of the country, with the urban and minority-dominated regions around the periphery rejecting the proposals strongly. The vote is likely to be viewed by those groups as a majority population of Anatolian Turks imposing their political will on the rest of the country.

With Erdogan's support coming from the more devout Muslims, his power will also come from them. He will have no choice, not that he wants one, but to take Turkey in the direction of Sharia. Most Muslim countries will gravitate toward a more and more extreme form of Islam. It's happening in Iran and Pakistan, it happened in Egypt but for a coup, the Taliban made it happen in Afghanistan for a season and many groups are trying to make it happen in many other countries. It is the natural evolution of Islam!

The results were immediately contested by the major opposition parties. The third largest party, the Kurdish-based HDP party, declared that it would appeal a third of the votes.

Yet whatever the official outcome, it is clear that tens of millions of Turks voted willingly and often enthusiastically to turn their controversial President into something more like an authoritarian ruler – despite the fact that Mr. Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) has never quite won a majority of the popular vote.

What appears to have driven so many voters to his side was the force that has allowed him to keep opposition parties at bay for the past several years: Fear.

If the messages of most of Mr. Erdogan’s first decade – during which he served as Prime Minister – was unity and reconciliation, the message in recent years – especially after he was elected President in 2014 – has been one of fear and isolation.

Turkey’s sizable Kurdish minority, whom Mr. Erdogan courted as Prime Minister by legalizing their language and political parties, ending state persecutions and making gestures toward minority rights and “distinct society” status, has become more or less an official enemy, with Turkey’s Kurdish cities bombed more heavily than many in neighbouring Syria and even moderate Kurdish movements regarded as terrorist threats.

Likewise, last year’s coup attempt allowed Mr. Erdogan to demonize virtually any political moderates or opposition figures as threatening members of the “deep state” linked to the Islamist Gulen movement. His hostility toward opposition was visible in the 2013 Gezi Park democracy protests in Istanbul, which he crushed and denounced, and in his government’s long record of arresting and silencing critical journalists, which reached a peak last year with the takeover or shutdown of major media chains.

And after having spent a decade as a pro-European, free-trade leader dedicated to getting his country into the European Union, Mr. Erdogan has now turned aggressively against European institutions and leaders, taking a politically and increasingly economically isolationist stand.

One plausible reading holds that Mr. Erdogan’s shift to authoritarianism was the fault of European leaders: The moment they began rejecting Turkey’s EU ambitions, he gave up on much of his modernizing agenda and launched his quest for personal power at any cost.

Another theory holds that Mr. Erdogan’s shift is Middle Eastern or Russian in inspiration: He simply joined a bloc of emerging-economy leaders who saw “managed democracy” and authoritarianism as the best way to avoid personal defeat. Whatever the cause, Turkey emerges from Sunday’s referendum a country that has fallen, in a surprisingly short period, off the world’s democratic ledger.

Erdogan says resumption of death penalty could be up for referendum next

If Erdogan gets the death penalty approved, the Dardanelles

will run red with the blood of his political enemies

then there will be nothing stopping him

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and his wife Emine © Murad Sezer / Reuters

After claiming victory in a referendum that greatly expands his powers, the President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan has strongly hinted that the time has come for Turkey to consider reinstating the death penalty.

Erdogan used his victory speech on Sunday night to reveal that he will “immediately” discuss bringing back the capital punishment with Prime Minister Binali Yildirim and the leader of the nationalist opposition.

“If it [a parliament bill] comes in front of me, I will approve it,” the Turkish leader said as cited by AFP. “But if there is no support [from in parliament]... then what shall we do?”

“Then we could have another referendum for that,” Erdogan added.

The move could bring an ultimate end to Turkey’s long stalled efforts to join European Union. Accession negotiations have been sluggish for decades and were temporarily suspended in November 2016, with the EU citing Ankara's "disproportionate” crackdown following last year’s failed coup.

European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said a return of the death penalty would be a "red line” in Turkey's EU membership bid. "If the death penalty is reintroduced in Turkey, that would lead to the end of negotiations,” he told Germany's Bild newspaper in March.

Members of the European Parliament has said that the re-introduction of the capital punishment in Turkey would lead to a formal suspension of the accession process.

“The unequivocal rejection of the death penalty is an essential element of the Union acquis,” they said.

In the run up to Sunday's vote, Erdogan suggested that Turkey may reevaluate its relations with the EU if the constitutional amendments passed. He said he would have more leverage when negotiating with Brussels, claiming "it will be a different Turkey” then. He also suggested a “Brexit-like” referendum on whether the country should continue to try and join the union.

With most of the ballots counted, over 51 percent of the electorate have voted in favor of handing Erdogan greater powers. The president called the ‘yes’ vote a historic decision by the Turkish people, expressing hope that it will benefit the country.

During the victory speech he also said everyone should respect the nation's decision, and added Turkey would “shift gears” in the coming period.

UK Primary School Takes Pupils on Day-out to Meet ‘Extremist’ Islamic Preacher

It's called Islamization when British schools contribute to the

radicalization of British kids. This is disgraceful. God forbid

those children will believe anything that man tells them.

Imam Shakeel Begg © lewishammosque / Instagram

Children from a London primary school spent a two-day school trip with an imam described by a British High Court as supportive of “extremist Islamic positions.”

Aged between six to eight, the children from Kilmorie Primary School met with Shakeel Begg to discuss Islam at the Lewisham Islamic Centre on March 21 and 22.

Begg gained notoriety as the imam of the mosque attended by the killers of British army soldier Lee Rigby in 2013.

Details and images of the visit were posted to the center's website, reported the Telegraph, but have since been removed.

The center’s web page describes Begg as being impressed with the keenness of the children to test his knowledge of Islam and their understanding of “the many shared beliefs and values of different faith communities.”

The imam is described as getting a tear in his eye when the children express their love for Muhammad and Ali during a discussion “about the prophet of Islam, Muhammad (PBUH), and a person similarly named.”

Tom Wilson from the Henry Jackson Society, who is a vocal critic of Begg, condemned the visit as unacceptable, saying, that schools are obligated not to expose their pupils to “anyone associated with extremism.”

“Schools are under a statutory duty that quite explicitly prohibits exposing pupils to extremists,” said Wilson.

Kilmorie school's Sally Kelly defended the visit, saying it promoted “the British values of tolerance of people of different faiths and beliefs and the learning is part of the National Curriculum.”

Begg lost a libel action to BBC last year after a judge ruled he had promoted violence. The action arose from a 2013 politics show which alleged that Begg had claimed jihad was the greatest of deeds.

Justice Haddon-Cave said in the ruling against Begg that the Imam "clearly promotes and encourages violence in support of Islam and espouses a series of extremist Islamic positions.”

Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, who killed British Army soldier Lee Rigby in 2013, both attended the Lewisham Islamic Centre where Begg was Imam at the time.

In a statement following the murder, Begg described the incident as “brutal” and “against the very foundations of our Religion and the characteristics of a Muslim.”

In February, Begg spoke to RT at the launch of a report by the Islamic 5 Pillars forum which found that 94 percent of influential British Muslims believed Islamic State were not a “legitimate Islamic State.”

Begg told RT that the report shows the “true image” of Islam.

Pakistan to Blame for Its Own ‘Bad Name’ - Malala Yousafzai

Yousafzai made the comments in a Facebook video. © Darren Ornitz / Reuters

Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai hit out at Pakistan following the lynching of a university student accused of blasphemy. Mashal Khan was stripped naked and beaten to death with planks on a campus in the city of Mardin after a reported religious debate.

“No one is maligning the name of your country or religion…we ourselves are bringing a bad name to our country and religion,” Yousafzai said in a video posted to Facebook following a conversation with Khan’s father.

A caretaker at the college told Reuters that journalism student Khan, 23, who described himself as a Humanist on his Facebook page, was involved in a religious debate before he was killed on Thursday.

Khan allegedly brought up the issue of incest in relation to the offspring of Adam and Eve, the first ancestors of all humans according to Islamic, Christian and Judeo-Christian texts.

The debate intensified before attracting a mob of several hundred people, who descended on the dorm where they stripped and beat Khan before caving his skull in with planks, reports Reuters. 20 suspects have been arrested in connection with the murder.

In the video posted to Facebook following the victim’s funeral, Yousafzai said the Holy Prophet did not tell his followers to “be impatient and go around killing people,” claiming some followers have forgotten the message of peace and were not representing their religion.

'Impatient' is a bit of an understatement. 'Hysterical' is more accurate. And there are lots of references in Islamic scriptures where Mohammed tells people to go around killing infidels. I accused Malala, whom I believe to be a genuine heroine, of naivety yesterday. I still think she is deceived by the myth of 'the religion of peace'.

“This was not just the funeral of Mashal Khan, it was the funeral of the message of our religion Islam,” she said. “This is an incident filled with terror and fear.”

Insulting the Prophet Mohammed is a capital crime in Pakistan punishable by anything from a small fine to death, depending on the severity of the slight. Last month, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif issued an order for the removal of blasphemous content online, adding that anyone found guilty of the offence would face, "strict punishment under the law."