Skip to content

Terrorism not biggest threat to Africans

  • by

 

Peter Fabricius quotes an important statistic in his Analysis column (The Star, September 12) when he writes that only 4% of Americans think that terrorism is their country’s top problem.

Statistics from the research group Afrobarometer, which surveyed 12 African countries – including South Africa – showed that Africans regard the greatest security threats on the continent to be unemployment, poverty and HIV/Aids, not terrorism.

If the American and African people themselves do not consider terrorism to be a priority, why is the American government trying to convince Africa that we need to fight the "war on terror"?

Why are African governments fighting the "war on terror" by introducing repressive anti-terror legislation, when they should be fighting the "war on poverty and Aids"?

Suraya Dadoo- Lenasia, Joburg

Published in The Star on September 18, 2008.
© Star 2008. All rights reserved.
 

 

Read More »Terrorism not biggest threat to Africans

Gaza pays for west holocaust guilt tutu

  • by

"This silence begets complicity," Tutu insisted. (Reuters) 

 
South African Nobel Peace laureate Desmond Tutu on Thursday, September 18, accused the West of complicity in Palestinian suffering, blaming the West’s deafening silence to its sense of guilt over the Holocaust.

"I think the West, quite rightly, is feeling contrite, penitent for its awful connivance with the Holocaust," Tutu told journalists after delivering a report to the Geneva-based Human Rights Council about Israel’s deadly shelling of the town of Beit Hanoun in 2006.

"The West is penitent, the penance is being paid by the Palestinians."

Israel has been closing the Gaza Strip’s exits to the outside world since last June, banning food, fuel and medical supplies.

With support form the US and the European Union, decisions by Arab government to transfer aid to Gaza remain ink on paper.

Money and in kind assistance raised by NGOs and individuals remain stranded at the Egyptian border with Gaza, the latest being a Scottish aid convoy.

Tutu, the South African archbishop famed for his anti-apartheid activism, said the West does not want to criticize Israel because of the Holocaust.

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, the Holocaust refers to "systematic state-sponsored killing of Jewish men, women, and children and others by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II."

The commonly used figure for the number of Jewish victims is six million.

But the figure has been questioned by many European historians and intellectuals, chiefly French author Roger Garaudy.

Complacent

Tutu, the South African archbishop famed for his anti-apartheid activism, criticized the international community for failing to speak out against the suffering of the Gaza Strip, home to 1.5 million Palestinians, under an Israeli blockade.

He told the UN Human Rights Council that "the international community is failing to fulfill its role in respect of the suffering of the people of Gaza."

"It is the silence of the international community in the face of what is happening there which most offends. This silence begets complicity," Tutu insisted.

"I just hope that ordinary citizens in the West will wake up and say, ‘we refuse to be part of this’," Tutu said.

Some 44 activists from 17 world countries recently demonstrated once again the power of people in making a difference when governments and politicians fail to rise to the challenge.

The activists sailed aboard two boats into Gaza waters on Saturday, August 23, to break the Israeli siege.

The Liberty and Free Gaza boats made the 370-kilometre voyage from Larnaca port on Cyprus’s south coast, carrying 200 hearing aids for Gaza children and 5,000 balloons.

War Crime

Tutu told the UN Human Rights Council the Israeli shelling of the Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun might be a war crime.

"In the absence of a well-founded explanation from the Israeli military  — who is in sole possession of the relevant facts — the mission must conclude that there is a possibility that the shelling of Beit Hanoun constituted a war crime."

Israeli occupation forces bombarded houses in the battered northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, killing twenty Palestinians, including eight children and four women, in their sleep.

Pools of blood laid in the streets as pieces of flesh and the small sandals of children were strewn about.

An Israeli military committee in February blamed the fatalities on "a rare and severe failure in the artillery fire control system."

Following an internal investigation, it decided that no legal action would be taken against military personnel.

"Israeli response of a largely secret internal military investigation is absolutely unacceptable from both legal and moral points of view," said Tutu, who was mandated by the UN in 2006 to investigate the incident.

"Regardless of whether the casualties at Beit Hanoun were caused by a mistake, recklessness, criminal negligence or willful conduct, those responsible must be held accountable."

(By  IOL Staff- Islam Online)

 

Read More »Gaza pays for west holocaust guilt tutu

German lawmakers turkish group slam anti islam rally

  • by

German politicians and a Turkish group appealed for tolerance on Wednesday and condemned an anti-Islamic congress, planned by a nationalist group in the western city of Cologne.

The Pro-Cologne group fiercely opposes a decision by the city of Cologne to allow the construction of a new mosque which will include a dome and minarets.

"It is high time that people in Germany raise their voices to support dialogue and peaceful coexistence and take a stand against injustice, racism and extremism," Rafet Ozturk, of the DITIB Turkish-Islamic Union in a statement.

Leftist groups are planning counter-protests on Saturday and the Christian-Muslim Peace Initiative said it would put up 500 placards around Cologne with the slogan "dialogue and tolerance instead of aggression and fear!".

"The36in Cologne linked to the planned mosque — of which right-wing populists’ activities are unfortunately a part — will be watched across Germany and Europe," said Ruprecht Polenz, head of parliament’s foreign policy committee and a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives.

The congress has also sparked anger in Islamic countries.

Earlier this month, Iran called on the French presidency of the European Union to stop the congress and summoned the French charge d’affaires in Tehran to the Foreign Ministry’s human rights department, according to the IRNA agency.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of France’s National Front, Austrian far-right Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache and members of Belgium’s Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) party are due at the congress on Saturday, says Pro-Cologne’s website. Media have reported between 1,000 and 1,500 people are expected to join the Pro-Cologne march on Saturday.

About 3.2 million Muslims live in Germany, more than half of whom are of Turkish origin.

Reuters
(worldbulletin.net)

Read More »German lawmakers turkish group slam anti islam rally

China vows preemptive strikes on uighur muslims

  • by

 

China is preparing to put high-pressure on Uighur Muslims by forcing them to accept identification with the Chinese nation and Chinese culture.

China will conduct a "re-education" drive against Uighur Muslims in East Turkistan with its Party chief vowing preemptive attacks, Reuters said.

Historical records show that the Uyghurs have a history of more than 4000 years. Throughout the history the Uyghurs developed a unique culture and civilization and made remarkable contribution to the civilization of the world.

Wang Lequan, the hardline Communist Party boss, told officials that a sweeping propaganda campaign was needed in East Turkistan, where mostly Muslim Uighurs have suffered under Chinese religious controls, the Xinjiang Daily reported on Wednesday.

Critics of China’s policies in the remote region said there would be an official reckoning after the Games, and Wang’s fiery words seemed to confirm that prediction.

"We must always maintain a high-pressure strike-hard posture, adhering to a policy of taking the offensive, striking when they show their heads and making preemptive attacks," he told a meeting on Tuesday, according to the report also carried by the China News Service.

"This winter and next spring we will launch a concentrated anti-separatist re-education across the whole region."

East Turkistan has 8 million Uighurs.

The government points to big investments in the region’s economy and resources, which include oil and gas, and efforts to lift living standards. But critics say too few decent jobs and benefits flow to Uighurs.

Wang spelt out measures to tie the region more closely to the rest of China and to Communist Party control — measures that are sure to draw criticism from advocates of an independent "East Turkistan" homeland for Uighurs.

The re-education campaign will seek to enhance "identification with the Chinese nation and Chinese culture", Wang said, adding measures to spread teaching in Mandarin Chinese among Uighur children.

Religious activities must also be carefully policed, he said.

The Uyghurs Islam in 934, during the reign of Satuk Bughra Khan, the Kharahanid ruler. Since that time on the Islam continuously served Uyghurs as the only religion until today.

After embracing Islam the Uyghurs continued to preserve their cultural dominance in Central Asia. World renowned Uyghur scholars emerged, and Uyghur literature flourished. Among the hundreds of important works surviving from this era are the Kutat-ku Bilik by Yusuf Has Hajip (1069-70), Divan-i Lugat-it Turk by Mahmud Kashgari, and Atabetul Hakayik by Ahmet Yukneki.

East Turkistan was occupied by the communist China in 1949 and its name was changed in 1955. The communist China has been excersizing a colonial rule over the East Turkistan since then.

Agencies
(worldbulletin.net)

Read More »China vows preemptive strikes on uighur muslims