Fundamentalisms

Masih Alinejad, an Iranian journalist, writes Christiane Amanpour, the broadcast journalist of America's ABC News who interviewed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad this week. Originally in Rah-e-Sabz and translated by Hasty Pezhman:

Les derniers évènements, qui ont caractérisé le retour des pèlerins algériens des Lieux saints de l’islam, ont occupé aussi bien l’opinion publique nationale que les pouvoirs publics, faisant l’impasse sur un autre fait majeur grave qui s’est déroulé cette année à La Mecque.

The posters put up Tuesday in Mea She'arim, a Haredi (ultra-Orthodox ) neighborhood of Jerusalem, answered some questions about what to expect during the week-long Sukkot holiday, and especially the mid-holiday Simhat Beit Hasho'eva celebrations. On one hand, contrary to rumors, women will not be forcibly prevented from entering the neighborhood. On the other, women are definitely not invited. But that is not a good enough reason for a group of non-Haredi women to cancel a planned march through the neighborhood Friday morning to protest discrimination against women. On the contrary: They are threatening to petition the High Court of Justice against the police for having given them a permit to demonstrate only outside the neighborhood rather than in Shabbat Square, as they had wanted.

“This is a collection of songs from artists around the world who have faced censorship or had their music banned. These artists and other like them in the different corners of the world must have the right to exist and freely express their feelings and opinions through their art. We can not allow our freedom of expression to be compromised. Music must not be silenced” - Deeyah. Listen to the Banned is a unique collection of contemporary songs by artists who have been censored, persecuted, taken to court, imprisoned and even tortured for a very simple reason – their music.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) is gravely concerned over the unjustified intervention of the Ministry of Interior into public freedoms, closing a number of tourist places in Gaza City, imposing restrictions on their work and arresting one of these places' owners under the pretext of gender mixture and non-compliance with the Islamic customs. PCHR calls upon the government in Gaza to take all necessary measures to ensure and respect public freedoms which are constitutionally guaranteed under relevant international standards.

In the Name of Almighty. Your Excellency, With Salutations and Greetings, Peace, international and national security, social, economic, judicial and political stability and the privileges of a peaceful life, and even more importantly equality, fraternity and avoidance of violence, tyranny and oppression and other unjust discriminations can only become possible in the third millennium and come to a desirable conclusion worthy of proper human dignity, only if all the world leaders show determination and take steps in preserving human rights and human dignity and convince  the countries which abuse human rights to safeguard the inherent human dignity and grace.

 As the influence of Islamic fundamentalism spreads, more and more women are fleeing its repressive laws - compelling Western nations to deal with such cruel traditions as forced marriages, honor killings, and female circumcision.In April 1991, a 22-year-old Saudi student arrived at Montreal's Mirabel Airport and requested asylum on the unprecedented grounds of gender persecution. The woman, who has asked that she be identified only as Nada, told authorities that if Canada forced her to return to Saudi Arabia her life would be in danger. Her crime, she said, was walking outside her home without being fully veiled - that is, enveloped from head to toe in a black chador.

The ninth anniversary of September 11, 2001, finds the international community still grappling with the consequences of that terrible day. Armed conflicts which began in the wake of 9/11 continue in Afghanistan and Iraq, spilling over now into Pakistan and Yemen with often devastating consequences for civilians. Human rights abuses in the “war on terror” remain largely unpunished, but will never be forgotten around the world. Xenophobia directed against Muslims serves as a useful tool for right-wing politicians in the West. And you may have heard that an idiot in Florida has been trying to decide whether or not he will burn hundreds of Qur’ans today.

At the same time, Muslim fundamentalist armed movements akin to those that perpetrated 9/11, like the various permutations of Al Qaeda and the Taliban, or Al Shabab in Somalia or Boko Haram in Nigeria, just to name a few, continue to pose major challenges to human rights in Muslim majority societies and around the world. For a terrifying insight into the worldview of defenders of such movements, see here.

Contrairement à ce qui est dit ici et là, nous vivons l’émergence d’un camp laïque progressiste dans nombre de pays arabo-musulmans. Bien évidemment, la nature répressive et corrompue de leurs régimes politiques et les risques mortels que leur font courir également les mouvements islamistes obligent parfois ces groupes à agir dans la clandestinité ou la semi-clandestinité

We call upon the Sudan government, UN agencies, the African Union countries, Human Rights organizations, the International community and men and women of faith across the world to join hands and stop the Sudan Parliament whose majority represents the current Sudan ruling party. The parliament continues to legalise acts of violence against women and girls, by enforcing laws that directly escalate the prevalence of violence against women and girls in our society.

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