MRN

The aspiration of the Media Review Network is to dispel the myths and stereotypes about Islam and Muslims and to foster bridges of understanding among the diverse people of our country. The Media Review Network believes that Muslim perspectives on issues impacting on South Africans are a prerequisite to a better appreciation of Islam.

Going organicthe siege on Gaza

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

By Jon Elmer

(source: Al Jazeera)

The blockade on basic foodstuffs was designed to encourage Gazans to overthrow Hamas

In February 2006, following Hamas’ electoral victory, a top advisor to Ehud Olmert, the then Israeli prime minister, Dov Weisglass, described the essence of Israel’s Gaza policy."It’s like a meeting with a dietitian," Weisglass said. "We need to make the Palestinians lose weight, but not to starve to death."

Although any Gazan will quickly point out that the blockade on the movement of goods – and people – into and out of Gaza long predates the election of Hamas, as the years have passed the exact date of the siege has often been, for reasons of political expedience, recast to coincide with the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip in June 2007.Israel characterises the blockade as "economic warfare" targeting Hamas and its constituents.

‘No humanitarian crisis’

According to government documents that have surfaced in response to a lawsuit before Israel’s high court, "the limitation on the transfer of goods is a central pillar in the means at the disposal of the state of Israel in the armed conflict between it and Hamas".

A key white paper, entitled Food Consumption in the Gaza Strip – Red Lines, meticulously details the minimum caloric intake required, based on age and sex, to keep Gazans hovering just above malnutrition levels, and specifies the corresponding grams and calories of each type of food allowed into Gaza.

Israel implicated in hariri murder

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

(source: Voice of the Cape Online / Al Jazeera)

Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has implicated Israel for the murder of the former Lebanese prime minister, Rafiq al-Hariri.In a video address to journalists from an undisclosed location on Monday, Nasrallah said he had evidence to prove Israel’s complicity in al-Hariri’s assassination in a bomb explosion in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.

"He has not provided undisputed, solid proof that implicates Israel," Al Jazeera’s Rula Amin reporting from Beirut said.The Hezbollah leader, however, said that "there is enough evidence pointing to Israel," our correspondent said.

Al-Hariri and 22 others were killed on the Beirut seafront on February 14, 2005.The assassination sparked an international outcry and led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon.The murder has been widely blamed on Syria, but Damascus has routinely denied involvement.

Blaming Israel

Fawaz Gerges, a Middle East analyst, told Al Jazeera that Nasrallah "talked about who has the most to benefit from the assassination … [by trying to] provide a very complex case by drawing a historical link between Israel" and the killing.

Nasrallah said Israel used spying and covert operations to attempt to drive a wedge between Hezbollah and the Lebanese government.Among the material presented was what he described as Israeli reconaissance footage intercepted by Hezbollah of areas frequented by al-Hariri.Aaron Klein, a political commentator in Jerusalem, told Al Jazeera that the contents of Nasrallah’s rare speech were not surprising.

"This is exactly what everybody in Israel was expecting, which was to use the Jewish state as a scapegoat because he is up against a rock and a hard place," Klein said.

UN probe

A UN court probing the assassination of al-Haririis planning to charge Hezbollah members in the killing, Nasrallah said in July.Nasrallah criticised the UN investigation because it "does not look into the possibility that Israel is implicated, we believe it is biased".

Our correspondent said that Hezbollah considers the tribunal "an Israeli project to create strife in Lebanon".Impending charges from the international body had pushed Lebanon into a "very sensitive phase", Klein said. Hezbollah fought a devestating war with Israel in 2006.

Klein said that a UN verdict against Hezbollah would be "devastating for them in terms of the internal politics" as it could spark anger among other sectors of Lebanese society.Rula Amin said that "Hezbollah is trying to dismiss the findings of international investigations. They want to discredit the basic information that investigators had depended on in making their conclusions".

"He is trying to say that the findings are not credible and politically motivated … he is trying to do is build a case in which he says Israel is a legitimate suspect," our correspondent said.

Mrn action alert India human rights violations in Kashmir

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

Contents:

1. Summary
2. Background
3. Action required
4. Sample letters

1. Summary

A cycle of violence has erupted again in India’s troubled Kashmir valley
since 11th June 2010 with the shooting to death of a schoolboy by Indian troops. Until 29th June 2010, eleven Kashmiri youths have been killed by the heavily armed Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). The Indian authorities have imposed a curfew and deployed thousands of troops in Kashmir’s main towns in an effort to restore order in the volatile Muslim-majority province, which is at the centre of a decades-old sovereignty dispute between India and neighbouring Pakistan.

2. Background

The latest wave of trouble began on June 11, 2010 when a seventeen-year-old Kashmiri youth, Tufail Ahmad Mattoo died after he was hit by a teargas shell fired by the police during a routine post-Friday prayers protest in downtown in Srinagar. His death sparked angry clashes between stone-pelting youths and the heavily armed CRPF.

On June 19, Rafiq Ahmad Bangaroo, 27, who was beaten up by CRPF men near his residence in old Srinagar on June 12, died in hospital. The next day, mourners returning from Bangaroo’s burial attacked a CRPF mobile bunker with stones. They were reciprocated with fire, killing Bangaroo’s neighbour Javaid Ahmad Malla, 26, and wounding three others.

On June 25, Shakeel Ganai, 17, and Firdous Khan, 18, were killed by CRPF men in Sopore. On June 27, Bilal Ahmed Wani, 22, died following the firing in Sopore. On June 28, Tajamul Bashir, 20, and Tauqeer Rather, 9, were killed in Delina and Sopore.

On June 29, Ishtiyaq Ahmed, 15, Imtiyaz Ahmed Itoo, 17, and Shujaat-ul-Islam, 17, died in a CRPF firing in the southern town of Anantnag. This cycle of 11 killings in less than three weeks by the police and paramilitary forces across Kashmir is a gross violation of human rights conducted by the Indian government against the people of Kashmir. The chief minister, Omar Abdullah has resorted to imposing a curfew to curtail street protests from spreading further.

More information at: http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?266068

Read also: Kashmir: Act before foreign forces land in Srinagar by Zafarul-Islam Khan, Editor, The Milli Gazette at: http://ihrc.org.uk/news/articles/9416-kashmir-act-before-foreign-forces-land-in-srinagar

3. Action required

The Media Review Network urges all decent, freedom loving and human rights activists to write to the following authorities and urge them to remind India of its human rights commitments and demand an end to the killings of Kashmiri civilians.

a) Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India
(Fax: 0091-11-230-19334, e-mail: manmohan@sansad.nic.in)

b) Shri P. Chidambaram, The Union Home Minister
(Fax: 0091-11-230-92979, e-mail: hm@nic.in)

c) Navanethem Pillay, High Commissioner,
The Office of the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights
(Fax: nil, e-mail: InfoDesk@ohchr.org)

d) Baroness Catherine Ashton,
The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
(Fax: nil, e-mail: catherine.ashten@ec.europa.eu /
lutz.guellner@ec.europa.eu )

e) Prof. Dr. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, The Secretary General
Organisation of Islamic Conference
(Fax: +966-2651-2283, e-mail: cabinet@oic-oic.org)

f) Minister of Department of International Relations & Co-Operation South Africa, Ms Maite Nkoana Mashabane (Tel: +2712 351 002, email minister@dirco.co.za)

ACT NOW BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!!

Bibi Ayesha Laher
Media Liason
Media Review Network
Cell: 082 841 9105
Tell: 012 374 1635
Email: info@mediareviewnet.com

"And what reason has you that you should not fight in the way of Allah and of the weak among the men and the women and the children, (of) those who say: Our Lord! Cause us to go forth from this town, whose people are oppressors, and give us from Thee a guardian and give us from Thee a helper.” (Holy Qur’an: Chapter 4, Verse 75)

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Time cover vilifies muslims

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

By Dr Firoz Osman

(source: Star, 12/08/2010, PG18)

The disfigured face of Aisha, ostensibly perpetrated by the Taliban, on the cover of Time Magazine (below:‘what happens if We leave Afghanistan’) is a deceitful attempt to demonise Muslims and vilify Islam.

The failure of the 28- nation member NATO invasion and occupation of Afghanistan in order to flush out Osama bin Laden (dead or alive), and crush Al Qaeda, necessitated another fabricated subterfuge to vindicate the Western world’s presence in Kabul.

Throughout history the hegemonic powers cloaked their rapacious, greedy ambitions in the guise of doing something moral and praiseworthy. The underlying purpose was always to obtain a strategic military or economic benefit.