‏إظهار الرسائل ذات التسميات Amnesty. إظهار كافة الرسائل
‏إظهار الرسائل ذات التسميات Amnesty. إظهار كافة الرسائل

3/06/2013

Egypt book blasts Brotherhood, becomes best-seller

#Egypt Egyptian book blasts Muslim Brotherhood and becomes a best-seller

 
An Egyptian lawyer whose dissenting voice got him thrown out of the Muslim Brotherhood examines what he calls the group's hidden radicalism in a book that has become a best-seller in Cairo.
Tharwat al-Khirbawy's "Secret of the Temple" has been dismissed by Brotherhood leaders as part of a smear campaign.
But its success points to a deep mistrust harboured by some Egyptians towards a once-outlawed movement that has moved to the heart of power since Hosni Mubarak was toppled and its candidate secured the presidency.
In its 12th print run since November, the book is being sold in upmarket shops and on street corners, pointing to a thirst for information about a group whose inner workings remain a mystery months after President Mohamed Mursi came to power.
Expelled from the group a decade ago, Khirbawy says he aims to expose dictatorship and extremism inside the Brotherhood. In the process, he has joined a media war being waged to shape views in Egypt's deeply polarised political landscape.
Asked to comment on the book, one senior Muslim Brotherhood leader dismissed its content as "fallacies". Another said that to comment on such a book would be a waste of time.
"I want to make all people know the reality about the Brotherhood," Khirbawy said in an interview with Reuters.
Khirbawy sees the way he was kicked out of the Brotherhood as an illustration of the group's authoritarian streak.
He was disciplined in 2001 at a "Brotherhood court" for publishing three articles that criticised the group for not engaging with other opposition parties - a criticism still levelled at the Brotherhood today. "The Brotherhood does not know the virtue of differences of opinion," he said.
Demonised for decades by Egypt's military-backed autocracy, the Brotherhood sees such attacks as propaganda concocted by opponents who have struggled to get organised and carve out their place in the new order.
But Khirbawy's arguments resonate among those Egyptians who believe the Brotherhood aims to subvert new freedoms for their own ends to set up a new Islamist autocracy - a view hardened late last year when Mursi unilaterally expanded his powers.
MURSI DEFENDS QUTB
Khirbawy has been extensively interviewed by independent Egyptian media that are broadly critical of the Brotherhood.
In his book, he explores the ideology of Mursi and the small group of leaders at the top of the movement, examining their devotion to Sayyid Qutb, a radical ideologue executed in 1966 for plotting to kill president Gamal Abdel Nasser.
Qutb, a Brotherhood leader, formulated some of the most radical ideas in political Islam. These included the idea that modern-day Muslim societies were living in a pre-Islamic state of ignorance. His most radical work, written while he was in prison, advocated violence to bring about change.
Mursi is on the record as defending Qutb as a thinker "who liberates the mind and touches the heart". In a 2009 talk show appearance posted on YouTube last year, Mursi said Qutb "finds the real vision of Islam that we are looking for".
Among Brotherhood watchers, it is no secret that the Brotherhood's current leadership were heavily influenced by Qutb, who also wrote more broadly on Islam.
But "trying to give the impression that Mursi is a Qutbist is an exaggeration" said Khalil al-Anani, an expert on Islamist movements. "Yes they are influenced by him in terms of the purity of ideas, but not in terms of believing in violence or judging people as non-believers," he said.
Brotherhood spokesman Ahmed Aref said the movement, like all groups, had rules that must be respected, adding that it was not the first time a member had left over the years and spoken out. "The difference this time is the media," he said.
A well-oiled campaign machine and grass-roots support base helped the Brotherhood sweep the first post-Mubarak parliamentary vote at the end of 2011, but the assembly was disbanded in June when Egypt's highest court declared the election rules unconstitutional.
Suspicion that the Brotherhood plans to dominate Egypt means the group may find it harder to win votes as fresh parliamentary elections near.
"They don't have people who can explain themselves in a good way, particularly those who talk to the Egyptian public," said Anani. "There is a huge gap of mistrust."
(Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer)

2/23/2013

Protest Torture & Zero Dark Thirty


 

 

  "Zero never acknowledges that torture is immoral and criminal. It does portray torture as getting results."

Click here to download flyer to take to your local movie theater in protest. 

 

 

Click here for series of posters of Guantanamo prisoners cleared for release yet still unjustly held.

Here are some of the articles and opinion pieces outlining why people of conscience must take a stand against the justification and use of torture:

Instead of being indicted, these torturers are presented as heroes, as brave and dedicated “detectives.”  No one gives Maya or Dan the kind of scolding, which you envision Obama giving, off-screen.  Chastain’s Maya, is presented as especially admirable, a feminist action hero.  She not only gets her man; she also muscles CIA male chauvinists out of the way, as she pushes ahead on “The Greatest Manhunt in History.”  And we’re supposed to empathize and cheer her on.
On Zero Dark Thirty
by James Spione
That a movie which at its core is essentially a revenge flick—evil guy kills innocents, heroine stops at nothing to kill evil guy—is even being compared to journalism by its makers or anyone else says more about the sorry state of journalism today than it does about the film.
Torture in Zero Dark Thirty protested"The controversy surrounding Zero Dark Thirty has been as misguided as the film itself, which opened nationwide on Friday. Much of the debate has centered on whether The Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow's latest opus leaves viewers with the false impression that torture led to the killing of Usama bin Laden. That both the means employed and the ends achieved in that equation are illegal and repugnant seems all but forgotten. Both torture and extrajudicial executions are anathema to civilized society, irrespective of their possible efficacy or expediency. More importantly, both the film and the controversy it has ignited treat torture at secret CIA prisons as though it were a thing of the past, masking the reality of an enduring practice."
"Bigelow, Boal, and Sony thus have portrayed the criticism of their film as censorship and wrapped themselves in the flag of free expression. But the opposition their film has sparked is not about censorship at all and their characterizing their critics as censorious is dishonest. People who oppose torture want torture to be shown to the American people. The fine 2007 film Rendition, for example, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Meryl Streep, and Reese Witherspoon, showed torture and was appreciated by those of us who admire well-made films and oppose torture’s immorality and illegality."
"Those who are protesting the easy tolerance of torture in Zero Dark Thirty have been dismissed by some commentators as having a political agenda. The problem of torture is not political. It's moral. And it's criminal.
I'm a member of Hollywood's Motion Picture Academy. At the risk of being expelled for disclosing my intentions, I will not be voting for Zero Dark Thirty - in any Academy Awards category."
"Extraordinary renditions apparently continue to this day.  These are secret abductions and transfers of prisoners to other countries where torture is used. Torture is torture whether it is done by Americans at Guantánamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, Afghanistan, or by proxy through our rendition program."
Martin Sheen, Ed Asner Join 'Zero Dark Thirty' Protest
Zero Dark Thirty Protest
Protest
Above, protesting at the opening of Zero Dark Thirty in NYC December 19, 2013
Dark, Zero-Feminism
by Zillah Eisenstein
"...the real problem with ZDT is that it lets the audience and the American public think that terrible things are allowable because they are doable.   A courageous telling of the U.S. anti-terror narrative would demand critique and defiance."
"By peddling the lie that CIA detentions led to Bin Laden's killing, you have become a Leni Riefenstahl-like propagandist of torture"
a critical choiceby Curt Wechsler
"The public "controversy" whipped up by release of the new torture movie Zero Dark Thirty is actually a re-hash of an argument that had largely been put to bed, that torture works to extract reliable intelligence from suspected terrorists (and even if it did, would that make the practice morally acceptable?) But torture IS effective in getting subjects to say what you want them to say, to fabricate rationale for government venture, such as the ultimate war crime of aggression on sovereign nations that pose no imminent threat."
Listen to Debra Sweet discuss the film on Flashpoints, KPFA (at 42:00 into the show).
Torture is Wrongby Debra Sweet
Torture, Torture Everywhere
by Andy Worthington


Ending U.S.-Sponsored Torture Forever from NRCAT on Vimeo.

2/20/2013

#Yemen Factsheet - January 2013

Yemen Factsheet - January 2013

 



 

Yemen is the only country in the Arabian Peninsula that is a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol. UNHCR established operations in Yemen in 1987 and expanded its work in the southern governorates in 1992 in response to the large-scale influx of Somali refugees. Yemen faces major challenges with a high number of refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and mixed migration. Somalis arriving in the country are granted prima facie refugee status, while UNHCR conducts Refugee Status Determination (RSD) for other nationalities. UNHCR also coordinates on protection activities and provides assistance to IDP populations in the Yemen .

 

 

Background

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC STATEMENT

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PUBLIC STATEMENT

Egypt law-makers blame women victims for sexual violence
Amnesty International condemns comments by Egyptian members of parliament which blamed
women protesters for a recent spate of sexual assaults in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
The remarks were made on Monday during a session of the Human Rights Committee of the
Shura Council, Egypt’s upper house of Parliament.
Members of the Committee were reported to have said that women had brought the attacks
upon themselves by attending the protests; that they bore responsibly for the attacks; and that
women should not mingle with men during demonstrations.
The remarks reveal deep-seated discriminatory attitudes that throw into question the
authorities’ determination to eliminate sexual violence.
Amnesty International has expressed particular concern that such attitudes were voiced in the
Shura Council, which in the coming months is likely be asked to consider new legislation to
tackle sexual- and gender- based violence.
The organization has said it is difficult to see how an effective law to combat sexual violence
could be passed by law-makers who believe that women are to blame.
Amnesty International urges the Egyptian authorities to publicly condemn all sexual
harassment and gender-based violence.
A clear and unambiguous message is needed that women are not responsible, and that they
have the rights to freedom of expression and assembly.
Egypt is a state party to international human rights treaties which prohibit all forms of
discrimination, including on the basis of gender and requires the authorities to ensure gender-
equality.
In particular, under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women, the Egyptian authorities are obliged to ensure officials refrain from engaging in any
act or practice of discrimination against women.
In a
briefing documenting the attacks
published 6 February 2013, Amnesty International
called on the Egyptian authorities to order independent investigations into the attacks in Tahrir
Square, and ensure the perpetrators are found and brought to justice in fair trials.
BACKGROUND
Violent sexual assaults against women, including rapes, have surged in the vicinity of Cairo’s
iconic Tahrir Square in recent months.
They peaked on 25 January 2013 during protests commemorating the second anniversary of
the start of the 2011 uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak. The attacks have been
carried out by groups of men and have lasted from a few minutes to over an hour.
 
 
 
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