Pakistan: "Convert to Islam or you’re not getting aid", Christians told

Agenzia Fides – ASIA/PAKIST�N – Discriminaci�n en los auxilios: episodios y testimonios:

“There are a lot of cases of humanitarian aid’s discrimination about which Agencia Fides has been informed, against Christians, other religious minorities, dalits and weaker. “The general picture of social and religious discrimination in Pakistan is more heinous everyday and is contaminating solidarity made to the country”, says a Fides’ source. Among victims, rage is growing, and last Thursday, in Hyderabad, a lot of them protested in a march against the mistreatment suffered by religious minorities.

Humanitarian operators and NGOs in Pakistan have told Fides that in Thatta’s district, flooded these past days, a lot of Christian families have been denied aid, even from Government’s civil servants.

Zubair Masih says: “I come from Sukkur. We have lost everything. We have gone to a camp for victims near Thatta but they haven’t let us enter because we are Christians”.

Abid Masih, Christian, is living in a camp near Larkana, and says: “My wife is sick, but the doctor doesn’t want to visit and cure here and has told us to wait for the Health World Organisation to send Christian doctors”. 

Aamir Gill, a victim from Dadu, says: “I arrived with my family to a camp near Hyderabad, but the manager didn’t want to register us because we are Christians and didn’t give us anything. We are obliged to go”.

Carl Moeller, president of the American organization “Open Doors”, which publishes a report about persecuted Christians around the world, in a note sent to Fides says: “Some Christian victims have been denied aid openly, while others have been invited to go or to convert to Islam. We can imagine the terrible decision: abandoning one’s faith to be able to feed your own child”.

It’s pathetic that we are sending aid to this country without obliging authorities to treat everyone as equals. It’s amazing to what extent religious hate can grow…

Iran: protests all over the world in support of Ms. Ashtiani

Received by mail:

Since I last wrote to you Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani has again been flogged 99 times for an unveiled photo mistakenly attributed to her. She has also been threatened with execution, and denied visitation rights. Even, her lawyer’s home (Hatoun Kian) has been ransacked and his computer and documents seized. Court documents pertaining to Ms Ashtiani’s husband’s closed murder case have also gone missing.

Her 22-year-old son Sajjad is extremely concerned that the Iranian authorities are trying to frame Ms Ashtiani for his father’s murder by constructing a ‘new’ murder case to refute the stoning sentence. Unfortunately a number of media outlets have bought into the lie (see for example BBC Sunday Morning Live’s bias here). In fact, the press have been given a copy of the actual court judgment of stoning for adultery at a 30 July press conference in London. Also, even the man who has been found guilty of murdering her husband has not been executed. In Iran, under Diyeh laws, the family of the victim can ask for the death penalty to be revoked. Ms Ashtiani’s son explains why he and his 17 year old sister spared the man’s life in an interview with French writer and philosopher, Bernard-Henri Levy.

Despite all the regime’s outrages against Ms Ashtiani, her lawyers and family, on 8 September, a government official had the audacity to deceivingly claim that Ms Ashtiani had not been denied visitation rights, that her televised confession was not made under duress, and that she had not been flogged again. He also went on to say that her execution had been halted when no official documents halting her stoning or execution have been given to her lawyer or family.

Clearly this is yet another one of the regime’s ploys to push back the international campaign in her defence by giving the false impression that Ms Ashtiani is safe.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

On 18 September, we call on citizens everywhere to come out in defence of Ms Ashtiani and against the regime of flogging, stoning and execution. We are also calling for protests during 23-24 September when Ahmadinejad will be addressing the UN General Assembly.

Nothing can and will stop us from defending Sakineh’s precious life and bringing an end to the medieval and barbaric punishments of stoning and execution.

Let’s keep the pressure on.

We look forward to receiving news of your actions and events at actionforsakineh@gmail.com.

Warmest wishes

Maryam

Maryam Namazie

PLEASE ACT NOW!

1- Find out about 18 September 2010 and 23-24 September 2010 actions here. The events will be updated on a daily basis.

2- Send actions you are organising in your city of residence to actionforsakineh at gmail.com so we can post it on the events page.

If you need help organising an event, see our toolkit on how to organise an action in your city.

3- See reports from the brilliant 100 Cities against Stoning that took place on 28 August. Thanks to all of you who participated. It was an historic day and hopefully one of many more to come!

4- See an updated list of those stoned or awaiting death by stoning compiled by the International Committee against Executions here (PDF).

5- Send Sakineh a postcard telling her you are thinking of her and other prisoners on death row in Tabriz prison. You can address it to:

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani

Tabriz Prison

Tabriz, Iran

6- Write letters of protest to the Islamic regime of Iran demanding Ashtiani’s release and an end to stonings, floggings and executions. Protest letters can be addressed to the below:

Head of the Judiciary

Sadeqh Larijani

Howzeh Riyasat-e Qoveh Qazaiyeh (Office of the Head of the Judiciary)

Pasteur St., Vali Asr Ave., south of Serah-e Jomhouri

Tehran 1316814737, Iran

Email: info@dadiran.ir or via website. 

First starred box: your given name; second starred box: your family name; third: your email address

Head of the Judiciary in East Azerbaijan Province

Malek-Ashtar Sharifi

Office of the Head of the Judiciary in Tabriz

East Azerbaijan, Iran

Ali Khamenei

The Office of the Supreme Leader

Islamic Republic Street – Shahid Keshvar Doust Street

Tehran, Iran

Email: via website: (English); (Persian)

Secretary General, High Council for Human Rights

Mohammad Javad Larijani

Howzeh Riassat-e Ghoveh Ghazaiyeh

Pasteur St, Vali Asr Ave., south of Serah-e Jomhuri

Tehran 1316814737, Iran

Fax: +98 21 3390 4986

Email: bia.judi@yahoo.com

7- Sign petitions in support of her case if you haven’t already done so. Here are two of them: 1, 2.

8- Write to government officials, heads of state, MEPs and MPs in your country of residence and the UN calling on them to intervene to save her life and to cease recognition of a regime that stones people to death in the 21st century.

9- Donate to the important work of the International Committee Against Stoning, International Committee Against Executions and Iran Solidarity by making your cheque payable to ‘Count Me In – Iran’ and sending it to BM Box 6754, London WC1N 3XX, UK. You can also pay via Paypal. Please earmark your donation.

10- For more information, contact:

Mina Ahadi, International Committee Against Stoning and International Committee Against Executions, minaahadi@aol.com, 0049 1775692413; No More Executions; Stop Stonings Now.

Maryam Namazie, Iran Solidarity, iransolidaritynow@gmail.com, 0044 7719166731, Iran Solidarity: Website; Blog.

Maria Rohaly, Mission Free Iran, maria.rohaly@gmail.com.

Before: Woman’s stoning put on hold.

Afghanistan: Karzai Divides Afghans In Reaching Out to Taliban

Karzai Divides Afghanistan In Reaching Out to Taliban – WSJ.com:

“…key leaders of Afghanistan’s three largest ethnic minorities told The Wall Street Journal that they oppose Mr. Karzai’s outreach to the Taliban, which they said could pave the way for the fundamentalist group’s return to power and reignite civil war.

Mohammed Mohaqeq, a lawmaker and former warlord representing the 2.5-million-strong Hazara minority, endorsed Mr. Karzai in last year’s presidential race, contributing to his reelection.

‘We feel betrayed by the president,’ Mr. Mohaqeq says now. ‘It seems that what President Karzai pursues now is the Talibanization of Afghanistan. The only difference between him and the Taliban is that he sits in the presidential palace and the Taliban sit in the mountains.’

Mr. Karzai’s overtures, formally launched at a June peace conference where he called insurgents ‘brothers’ and ‘dear Talibs,’ included asking the United Nations to remove Taliban leaders from the international sanctions black list and ordering the freeing of Taliban suspects from government custody. A separate government-sponsored conference of clerics in Kabul passed a resolution singling out insufficient enforcement of Sharia Islamic laws, the Taliban’s key demand, as the obstacle to peace. This month, Mr. Karzai created a formal negotiating committee for talks with Taliban leaders.”

Read it all. It’s a very good way of considering if NATO troops are doing a good job supporting this “new” regime….

Photo: Winds of Jihad.

Stoning: Hami Ramadam defends it because "it is dissuasive"

From L’Observatoire de l’islamization:

“Hami Ramdan was not moved really after 43-year-old Ashtiani was sentenced to death by stoning (the Iranian woman whose death has been suspended). The director of the Geneva Islamic center wants to “place this affair in its context“. According to him, “the punishment of stoning is used mainly as a deterrent“. He adds that “when a bomb explodes in a Muslim village on Iraq or in Afghanistan, that is not a deterrent, but the facts’ reality“. 

The intelectual points out that “this woman has been condemned because of adultery and murder“. Or “the stoning is a very difficult punishment to obtain, as the judge needs four ocular witnesses. A condition that is nearly impossible to meet“. Mr Ramadan concludes that “we should be cautious before judging this affair, and it’s important to know the nature of the facts“.

“Attacking Teheran because of this punishment is as a result a political act“, according to him. “It’s a pretext to attack Teheran“, he explains. “It’s true that the image of a woman crushed by stones is unbearable, but the bombings of innocents by donez of thosends is just a pure abstraction, specially if they are Muslims“, underlines Mr. Ramadan. 

The difference, Mr. Ramadan, is that no one is defending the killing of innocents in the Western world and that in all wars there are innocents killed in attacks. It can’t be considered equal the errors an Army makes in the course of war with the judicial process which ends in the stoning of a human being. Besides, there is no one saying that God wants them to be killed or have considered them as responsible as some Islamic jihadists have considered all non-Muslims.

Secondly, here we have (again) that line of thought by which only Western countries can kill innocents in Islamic countries, with no mention to terrorists, who of course, are also Islamic, so Mr. Ramadan prefers not to remember their participation in the slaughter of thousands across the world.

And thirdly, it’s revolting that so unbearable a punishment can be used as “deterrent“. Aren’t there other ways to deter people from adultery, which don’t end murdering anyone? Of course, without mentioning the crazy consideration of women (and sex with them) among Iranian ayatollahs…

This is not the first time that Mr. Ramadan has supported stoning:

These statements are not very surprising, if we consider that their author also wrote in an opinion peace in Le Monde on Sept 10th septembre 2002 that stoning is “a punishment but also a way of purification. It’s forbidden to insult the culprit. After his death, we pray for him. That is what the prophet did for a woman who was acquitted after giving birth to an adulterous child, and whose repentance was sincere“.”

So you kill someone in the worst possible way, and afterwards, you pray for him. Wow, that’s truly just and fair. I have seen the light…

One would like to know who was really the father of that woman’s child…

PS: Injustice against one single human being is also injustice.