Justice Ministry to Appeal ECHR Ruling on Russian ‘Gay Propaganda Law’

The European Court of Human Rights - neo-liberal instrument

for the promotion of LGBTQI rights?

© Bogdan Cristel / Reuters

The Russian Justice Ministry has announced plans to appeal a ruling that found Russia’s ban on the promotion of non-traditional sexual relations to minors discriminatory and awarded damages to several activists previously convicted under the act.

According to the statement published on the ministry’s website on Tuesday, the ban does not contradict international practices and the sole purpose of the law was to protect children’s morals and health.

The statement was released soon after the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled that the law, often described in the mass media as a ‘gay propaganda ban’, was discriminatory and encouraged homophobia. The court took the side of three Russian activists who were convicted in Russia for violating the ban between 2009 and 2012, and ordered the Russian state to pay compensation for damages.

One of the main sponsors of the original Russian bill, State Duma MP Vitaly Milonov (United Russia) called the ECHR ruling a “propaganda stunt” and a “bludgeon” used by neo-liberals to destroy their opponents.

“This court became an information propaganda dump quite some time ago and everyone should stop calling it a court. Because a court is something independent and important,” Milonov told RT.

“The ECHR [European Court of Human Rights] is nothing more than a branch of the propaganda machine servicing the European neoliberal circles. It has already stopped protecting the human rights and liberties, now they use it as a bludgeon for making threats,” he added.

The lawmaker also said that the ruling can be easily ignored in Russia.

The head of the Upper House committee for constitutional law, Senator Andrey Klishas, said on Tuesday that in his view, the Justice Ministry should have sent an enquiry to the Constitutional Court to check whether the potential execution of the ECHR ruling is in line with the Russian Constitution.

According to the senator’s press service, he believes that following the ECHR orders could violate the constitution, which states that the exercising of one’s rights must not infringe upon the rights and freedoms of others, as well as banning public promotion of social, racial, ethnic, or religious hatred.

“The current legislation matches public morals as they are traditionally understood in Russian society. As any legislative solution to a public request lies within the powers of the national legislative bodies, the senator’s opinion is that European entities should abstain from interfering in the internal affairs of our state,” the press service’s statement reads, as quoted by Interfax.

In 2013, Russia introduced the law banning any promotion of non-traditional sexual relations to persons under 18. Before being approved nationwide, the law had been passed at a municipal level in the city of St. Petersburg.

The law ordered fines for breaches of the ban, including in the media, on the internet and via viral advertisements. Holding LGBT rallies was also prohibited as well as distribution of information aimed at forming non-traditional sexual concepts in children, describing such relations as attractive, promoting a distorted understanding of a social equality between traditional and non-traditional relations, and also unwanted solicitation of information that could provoke interest in such relations.

In late 2015, two Communist Party lawmakers proposed an additional ban on any public demonstration of “non-traditional” sexual orientation, however this bill has not been passed by the parliament.

Police Identify Finsbury Park Mosque Suspect as 47yo Darren Osborne

© RT

Police have named the man suspected of using a van to attack worshipers at a London mosque as 47-year-old Darren Osborne, a father-of-four from Cardiff, Wales.

Osborne's neighbor, 52-year-old Dave Ashford, told the Guardian he was shocked to discover that Osborne was suspected of being behind the attack.

“Someone called me and said it was him and I said ‘It can’t be’. Then I saw the picture on the news and said, 'it’s him," he said.

“A 47-year-old man was arrested for attempted murder and taken to a south London police station where he remains in custody. He has further been arrested for the commission, preparation or instigation of terrorism including murder and attempted murder,” a statement from the Metropolitan police says.

The police statement does not mention Osborne by name.

Osborne's family is believed to be based in Weston-super-Mare, England.

One person died and 10 others were injured in the incident, which British Prime Minister Theresa May has called "sickening," and London's mayor has described as a "horrific terrorist attack."

The attack took place after worshipers had finished prayers during the holy month of Ramadan. All of the victims were Muslim, according to police.

It is not clear whether the person who died, died because of the vehicle assault or not. People were administering first aid to one man before the incident and it is not known whether it was that person who died, or whether the vehicle assault contributed to his death. 

There are lots of questions to be answered in this horrible incident, but it certainly appears to have been an attack on Muslims by a white man. Was he influenced by right-wing extremists? Was he acting alone and spontaneously? Was he affected by drugs? 

Unlike Muslim terrorists who see themselves as martyrs and assume they will be going to Paradise where 72 virgins await them, there is no reward for non-Muslims to kill Muslims. Hopefully, police will be able to determine what his motivation was. 

Weston-super-Mare, across Bristol Channel from Cardiff

Are Muslims Blowing Another Chance to Prove They Are a Religion of Peace?

Wahhabists, like all Salafists work toward global domination with Sharia Law. They may denounce terrorism but they admire what terrorists accomplish, especially in destabilizing western society.

As in Cologne on the weekend, Lebanese Muslims have a chance to stand up against extremism, but as in Cologne, they have failed miserably to make any statement other than support.

Lebanese activists aim to block ‘extremist’ preacher Zakir Naik 

Activists want to stop preacher Zakir Naik from coming to Lebanon © Adnan Abidi / Reuters

Activists in Lebanon have launched a campaign to ban Indian preacher Zakir Naik from entering the country, saying his extremist views do not belong in Lebanon.

Naik, who is believed to have become a Saudi citizen last month, is wanted for questioning in India in connection with his alleged role in inspiring one of the 2016 Dhaka terrorist attackers, and over money laundering allegations, which he denies.

The Salafist Islamic preacher and televangelist has over 16 million Facebook followers, while the Peace TV channel he founded is said to reach 100 million viewers.

Lebanese activists have threatened legal action, saying Naik’s views may be in violation of laws regarding sectarian incitement. A petition calling for Naik to be banned from entering Lebanon was started on Avaaz, however, it has only gathered a little over 100 signatures.

“Zakir Naik is an extremist preacher known to spread hate speech that attacks non-Muslims and moderate Muslims alike, and he has been banned from entering many countries,” lawyer and activist Khaled Merheb told The New Arab.

UK Prime Minister Theresa May denied Naik’s entry to the UK in 2010 as Home Secretary, citing his extreme views. “Numerous comments made by Dr Naik are evidence to me of his unacceptable behavior,” May said at the time.

Naik maintains that his comments have been taken out of context, and that he has condemned Islamic State and political and religious extremism. He has referred to ISIS as the “anti-Islamic State of Iraq and Syria."

In the past, Naik said LGBT people are suffering from a mental problem as a result of watching pornographic moves, and that chopping off thieves’ hands is not a bad thing. He also reportedly said “If bin Laden is fighting enemies of Islam, I am for him,” and said 9/11 was an “inside job.”

In 2015, Saudi Arabia awarded him the ‘Service to Islam’ prize, calling him “one of the most renowned non-Arabic-speaking promulgators of Islam.”

Islam Blows It Again in Cologne

The New Years 2015 horror show put on by Muslim migrants at the expense of German women and girls in Cologne, some Germans realized, perhaps for the first time, that Muslims are not like Europeans. Two and a half years later, it appears that Muslims in Cologne have revealed that they, in fact, don't want to be like Europeans.

Yesterday, they had the opportunity to show the world that Muslims are indeed peaceful and want to be good citizens of the society they find themselves in. Remember most of these people fled the horrors and hopelessness of Muslim societies for the west. One would think they would abandon the causes of their former failed societies and embrace the freedoms of the west. But, in fact, it appears most are sympathetic to the cause of those who want to convert the west to Islam.

Some stats from UK

40% of Muslims in the UK want sharia and 

25% of Muslims in the USA think suicide bombing is okay. 

Although an overwhelming majority of the public —

88 per cent — gave Isis a low score,

5.2 per cent of 18 to 34-year-olds gave it a nine or a ten. Overall,

14 per cent of under-25s and 

12 per cent of 25 to 34-year-olds gave Islamic State a score of between six and ten, implying a degree of sympathy.

That is for ISIS. The number of sympathizers for less terroristic endeavours to subdue western society would, obviously, be much, much higher.

These stats are from the UK where countless jihadi sympathizers were not invited to come and live as in Germany. No doubt the numbers would be much worse there.

‘Just the beginning’? Anti-terror Muslim peace march in Cologne attracts fewer people than expected

© Thilo Schmuelgen / Reuters

A Muslim peace march against Islamist extremism and terrorism in Cologne organized by prominent Muslim public figures was attended by a much smaller number of participants than expected. The organizers, however, are planning new actions.

The march, held under the slogan, “Not with us,” took place in the center of the German city of Cologne on Saturday and started at 13:00 local time (12:00 GMT). It was organized by a group of prominent German Muslim public figures, including Lamya Kaddor, an Islamic scholar and author, and Tarek Mohamad, a Muslim peace activist.

The event was supported by a number of major German Muslim associations, including the Central Council of Muslims in Germany (ZMD) and the German Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. However, the number of the rally participants turned out to be much smaller than expected.

The organizers initially said that some 10,000 were expected to join the march. Initial police reports suggested that from 200 to 300 people joined the procession when the march started. People continued to join the event, which lasted between three and four hours. The total number of participants eventually grew to around 1,000, the Rheinische Post daily reports.

Der Spiegel weekly reported that the organizers put the number of participants at between 3,000 and 3,500, adding that, according to police estimates, it could have reached 2,000.

The smaller number of rally participants did not escape attention of German politicians and media. “I find it regrettable that more journalists and police officers arrived today [in central Cologne] than demonstrators,” Michael Groschek, the head of the German Social Democratic Party office in the state of North Rhein Westphalia said, as cited by Focus magazine

Large police forces, including heavily equipped riot police, were indeed deployed to the city ahead of the march, German media report. However, the event was peaceful and no incidents were reported, police said.

According to the German media, the atmosphere during the march “was calm and peaceful.” The demonstrators marched through the central Cologne, holding placards and banners that read: “We say NO to right-wing extremism, racism, anti-Semitism, Salafism/Sharia police and Islamophobia,”“We want peace” and “Muslims want to live in peace with Christians” as well as “Muslims are not to blame” and “Hate turns Earth into hell.”

The demonstrators were chanting, “People of all countries, hand in hand, are against terrorism in any land!” The organizers called on German Muslims and non-Muslims alike, and politicians representing various political forces, to take part in the event.

Despite the lower number of participants, the rally organizers declared the march a success. Kaddor told the demonstrators she hopes that they managed to “make at least a small but visible signal demonstrating that Muslims are against violence and terror.”

Kaddor also said that the event in Cologne was “just the beginning” and announced that similar events under the slogan, “Not with us,” would be held in other German cities, including Berlin. She also called on the German Muslim community to unite and “self-organize.”

Muslims, “irrespective of whether they are liberal or conservative,” should stand against terrorism and those who spread it, Kaddor said, as cited by the Rheinische Post. “Muslim civil society should not let extremists speak [for them].”

She also criticized the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB), one of the largest Muslim associations in Germany, which refused to support the rally. “It was a mistake not to participate in such a peace march,” she said, referring to DITIB’s decision.

On Friday, DITIB said that “calls for ‘Muslim’ anti-terror demos fall short [of their goal], stigmatize Muslims, and confine international terrorism to being just among them, and within their communities and mosques,” as it explained its decision to stay away from the rally.

Another major Cologne-based umbrella group, the Islamic Council (Islamrat), which includes the second-largest German Islamic organization, Millî Görüş, among its 37 member groups, also refused to participate in the rally.

German media speculated that it was the position of several influential Muslim organizations that could have led to the small number of participants at the rally. In the meantime, DITIB’s decision provoked criticism not only from the event organizers but also from the German top politicians.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said: “It would be much better to take part” in what he called “an important initiative that clearly shows that Muslims are against terror in the name of Islam” rather than “to stay away” from it.

He added that it was “regrettable” that “not all Muslim associations supported this initiative,” apparently referring to DITIB. 

German Justice Minister Heiko Maas went further and said that DITIB “isolated itself with it refusal [to participate in the rally] and should not be surprised by the fact that it provides the enemies of Islam with new proof-points [with its policy].”

That's a nice try but unfortunately, not true. DITIB was one of several organizations that refused tot take part. Rather than isolate one Muslim group (the largest group in Germany), it isolates those who genuinely want peace and appreciate western society. It reveals that such Muslims are in a small minority, not a majority.

It also reveals how erroneous the German government has been in it's openness to accept Muslim refugees who have little probability of ever merging into German society.

Militant Islamists in Sweden have Grown ‘from 100s to 1,000s’ – Security Police

Swedish policemen patrol the Arlanda airport outside Stockholm, Sweden 

© Johan Nilsson / TT  News Agency / Reuters

Sweden has seen the number of militant extremists among its population surge in recent years, according to the chief of the country’s security police, who noted that the vast majority support violent Islamist ideologies.

“We have never seen anything like it before,” Sapo chief Anders Thornberg told Swedish news agency TT.

“We would say that it has gone from hundreds to thousands now,” he added.

Thornberg said Sapo currently receives around 6,000 intelligence tips a month regarding terrorism and extremism, compared to an average of 2,000 a month in 2012.

He went on to describe the situation as the “new normal,” calling it a “historic challenge that extremist circles are growing.”

The Sapo chief went on to state that the rise is mainly due to Islamic State propaganda, which has united different sectors of Islamist extremists.

Of course, it has nothing to do with the dramatic increase in young, migrant, Muslim men entering Sweden in the past couple years. No, of course not!

Do you know what is being preached, whether overtly or covertly, in Swedish mosques? Can you say without question that no Swedish Imams are encouraging radicalization? Do you know how many mosques in Sweden are being, or have been built by Saudi money? Do you know how many Imams and clerics are Salafists?

If you answer these questions you might find that IS internet propaganda is not the only source of home-grown Islamic extremism.

“We used to have different circles. We had radicalized people from North Africa, the Middle East, and Somalia, but they were all separate,” he said.

However, Thornberg stressed that Sapo believes only a few of the extremist militants have the ability or intention to carry out a terrorist attack in Sweden.

The number of people supporting violent Islamist ideologies in Sweden has sharply increased since 2010, when a Sapo report put the number at 200. 

Thornberg’s statements come less than three months after an Uzbek national, who had shown sympathies for jihadist groups including IS, mowed down pedestrians on a Stockholm shopping street, killing five people and injuring 15.

In addition, Osama Krayem, a Swedish citizen, has been charged with committing terrorist murders in the 2016 Brussels metro bombing.

Sapo stated previously that around 300 people from Sweden are known to have traveled to Syria and Iraq to join organizations such as IS since 2012.

Meanwhile, a Swedish police report recently added eight areas to its list of so-called “no go zones,” which are described as “especially vulnerable” areas with high rates of crime and poverty that might host violent extremism. 

The additions, which brought the number of such areas to 23 nationwide, are in the cities of Stockholm, Boras, Gothenburg, Landskrona, Malmo, and Uppsala.

Sweden’s threat assessment is currently at three on a scale of one to five.

Which is actually not too bad for many EU countries, although, I suspect it was not many years ago when there was no such thing as a threat assessment for terrorism.

Major German-Turkish Muslim Group Opts Out of Massive Cologne Demo Against Terrorism

© Wolfgang Rattay / Reuters

A massive anti-terrorist march organized by Muslim activists is to take place in the German city of Cologne. However, the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB), one of the largest Muslim associations in Germany, has refused to take part.

The march, which will be held under the slogan “Not with us,” is scheduled for Saturday, June 17. It was organized by a group of prominent German Muslim public figures, including Lamya Kaddor, an Islamic scholar and author, and Tarek Mohamad, a Muslim peace activist.

“The attacks by people who justify their acts by invoking Islam, without justification, are becoming more frequent,” the organizers said on the rally’s official website, as they called on Muslims and non-Muslims to join the march to condemn the terrorists and their violence.

“Our faith is being abused, defiled, insulted, and distorted into something unrecognizable by this,” the organizers also said, adding that it is “our duty to stand against terrorists.”

Some 10,000 are expected to take part in the demonstration, according to the organizers. Some major German Muslim associations have already expressed their support to the march’s organizers, including the Central Council of Muslims in Germany (ZMD) and the German Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.

“We must take to the streets, make a point and [show] that we fight for the unity of our society and condemn extremism,” Aiman Mazyek, the head of the ZMD, told the German Rheinische Post daily, adding that his organization would participate in the Cologne march to “openly stand against” the terrorists.

However, the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB), which is considered to be one of the largest Islamic organizations in Germany, comprising more than 900 Muslim communities across the country, instead rejected the event and criticized its organizers by accusing them of “hijacking and exploiting” the anti-terrorist agenda during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

“Calls for ‘Muslim’ anti-terror demos fall short [of the goal], stigmatize Muslims, and confine international terrorism to being just among them, and within their communities and mosques,” Ditib wrote in its statement, adding that it is a “false way and a false signal.”

“This initiative was either not well thought through or initially aimed primarily at a media and political effect rather than… at [expressing] the will of the Muslims,” the statement says. It also added that all people bear common responsibly for fighting terrorism and it is not only the Muslims, who “should sort it out among themselves.” 

DITIB also drew attention to the fact that it would be just “unreasonable” and almost “impossible” for the fasting Muslims to rally and march through the city in the middle of a hot day with 25 degrees Celsius expected. Instead, the group said it will collect signatures under a joint petition against terrorism and for peace during the Friday prayer.

Sat fcst 24 deg & cloudy

25 degrees C is a hot day? That's 77F! 22-24 degrees C is just about the perfect temperature, so 25 is, what, one degree too hot? 

Where are these people from? Did they migrate from Russia, from Canada? No, most of them came from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, North Africa, etc., where 25 degrees is winter weather. 

I think we are seeing the divide between those Muslims who truly want to live peacefully in German society and those who are sympathetic to the Salafist cause of world domination. 

I don't believe that most of the people in these organizations are Salafistic, but, it would appear that some of them and their leaders are. Or, perhaps the leaders are just afraid of those who are.

Another major Cologne-based umbrella group, the Islamic Council (Islamrat), which includes the second-largest German Islamic organization, Millî Görüş, among its 37 member groups, has also refused to participate in the rally, various German media have reported.

DITIB’s and Islamrat’s decision quickly provoked a wave of criticism.

DITIB has “missed a great chance and played right into the hands of the enemies of Islam,” peace activist Kaddor wrote in her Twitter post.

Meanwhile, Stephan Mayer, the spokesman for Home Affairs of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, told Frankfurter Rundschau he considers the move to be “regrettable and very counterproductive.”

The two prominent groups “miss an important opportunity to show solidarity with other associations and the German society at a time when this is rightly expected by the society,” Mayer said, adding that he believes it is “not a sign of social responsibility.”

Mayer’s counterpart at the SPD party, Burkhard Lischka, also criticized the decision, calling DITIB’s concern for the fasting Muslims marching under the sun a “petty” excuse. He cited weather forecast as saying cloudy skies were expected, adding that combined with the warm day it makes for the “best weather for demonstrations.”

Volker Beck, of the Green Party, issued a scathing statement on DITIB, saying that “those who want to represent millions of Muslims in Germany must also assume social responsibility.” DITIB’s statement criticizing the march “strikes it off the civil society” and shows that the group is “becoming more and more a problem for the Islamic community,” Beck argued.

U.S. Senate - An Out-of-Control Bully?

Germany, Austria hit out at US over new

anti-Russian sanctions

The Reichstag building, Berlin 

“Unacceptable” new anti-Russian sanctions approved by the US Senate violate international law, affect European companies and have a real aim of benefitting the US oil and gas sector, Berlin and Vienna said in an angry joint statement.

The new anti-Russian sanctions are outlined in an amendment to a bill imposing sanctions against Iran. It was approved by the US Senate on Thursday by a majority of 98 to 2, but still needs to pass the House of Representatives and be signed by the US president to become law.

The anti-Russian measures in the amendment involve imposing penalties on enterprises that cooperate with Russian oil and gas companies. A number of European companies are doing just that, participating for example in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project.

“Europe's energy supply is a matter for Europe, and not the United States of America!” said the joint statement by German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel and Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern, published on Thursday.

“We cannot accept threatening European companies that contribute to the development of the European energy supply [system] with extraterritorial sanctions that violate the international law.”

“Sanctions as a political instrument should not be linked to economic interests,” the statement says. It adds that “threatening German, Austrian and other European enterprises, which take part in the gas supply projects such as the Nord Stream II together with Russia or finance them, with penalties on the US market would add an absolutely new and highly negative aspect in relations between the US and Europe.”

The statement went on to say that Washington’s intention to impose new sanctions against Russia is guided not by some political or humanitarian reasons but rather by economic interest.

“This issue is all about the sales of the US condensed gas [to Europe] and pressing the Russian energy supply companies from the European market. The actual goal [of such sanctions] is to provide jobs for the US gas and oil industry,” the statement says, citing the US bill on the new sanctions.

Gabriel and Kern also expressed their concerns over the fact that the US is actually trying to boost its own competitiveness at the expense of its European allies that the new measures would eventually negatively affect “competitive positions of our [European] energy intensive industries and thousands of jobs.”

They also accused the US of attempts to interfere in Europe’s internal affairs and impose its will on its allies by undermining the principle of “open and fair market competition.”

“It would be not only highly regrettable but also detrimental to the effectiveness of our position in the context of the Ukrainian conflict, if some unrelated issues such the US economic interests in exporting gas gain the upper hand in this matter,” the statement warns.

The two politicians then urged the US authorities to back away from these plans and said that they “very much support” the efforts of the US Department of State aimed at changing the bill concerning the sanctions.

The amendment on anti-Russian sanctions stipulates “broad new sanctions on key sectors of Russia’s economy, including mining, metals, shipping and railways”. The bill also prohibits lifting any executive sanctions imposed on Russia by the Obama administration without congressional review.

The amendment states that the goal of US policy in this particular case is to “oppose the Nord Stream II pipeline given its detrimental impacts on the European Union's energy security… and energy reforms in Ukraine.”

According to the amendment, the US president can impose sanctions against entities and individuals that either make an investment “that directly and significantly contributes to the enhancement of the ability of the Russian Federation to construct energy export pipelines” or provides Russia with “goods, services, technology, information, or support that could directly and significantly facilitate the maintenance or expansion of the construction, modernization, or repair of [its] energy pipelines.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said that Russia has been historically living under some form of sanctions from the West, which are used as a tool of economic competition as well as a means of containment.

“If there were no situation with Crimea and other problems, they would have invented something else to contain Russia,” he said.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called for a more “flexible approach” to the issue of anti-Russian sanctions. He particularly said that he would not like to see Washington “handcuffed” to the progress in the implementation of the Minsk agreements as Moscow and Kiev could eventually find some other way to resolve the crisis in eastern Ukraine.

Earlier, Tillerson also said that virtually all US partners and allies were calling on Washington to improve its relations with Russia and warned that a new set of restrictive measures against Moscow might further worsen relations with Russia.

Proposed Nord Stream 2, gas pipeline