An update on Assyrians

I wrote about Assyrians before in an essay. Got some comments there as well. I suggest you might want to read that first if interested in the background to this fascinating community.

Was reminded of this when I read this. The Kurds, however much sympathy I have for them, are frankly a bunch of nincompoops. They should know how they have been treated and one would have expected the Kurds to welcome minorities, but no, they are behaving in the same barbaric manner as Saddam Hussein and other barbarians did in Iran, Turkey, Syria and Iraq. I quote:

Inspired by the violent exhortations of a preacher during Friday prayers earlier this month, hundreds of young Kurdish men in the northern Iraqi town of Zakho went on a riot. Over four days, they set dozens of liquor stores alight, later threatening proprietors with further violence if they dared reopen their businesses. They also attacked an Assyrian church and homes in the neighbouring village of Mansouriyah and destroyed property including four hotels, a health club and an Assyrian social club in Dohuk.

The victims were Assyrians – an ethnically and linguistically discrete people also known as Chaldeans or Syriacs according to denomination – and Yazidis, members of two ancient communities who, like all the vulnerable elements of Iraqi society, have suffered disproportionately in the aftermath of the war.

The staggering upheaval and violence faced by Assyrians has led to a drop in their numbers from at least 800,000 in 2003 to 400,000 today. They represent 35% of Iraqi refugees since the war, as well as an enormous number of Iraq's internally displaced persons.

The sheer ethnic cleansing of Christians from much of what’s the Muslim nations is not mentioned politely but the numbers do not lie. In every country, you will see this happening. Palestine, Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Iran, etc. etc. Maybe India should offer these Assyrians a refuge, India has a long history of offering refuge to people from the Middle East. If these nincompoops want to kick out their most productive, educated and intelligent lot, then hey, India could help no?

The sad thing is, this pressure on minorities is not going to cease once the Christians have left. These people are cannibals, they devour their own. Once they don't have the Assyrians to go after, they will go after the Druze, the Kurds, the other minorities. When they are gone, they will go after the minority Islamic sects such as the Shia. Oh! I am sorry, they are already doing that (Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan etc.), their behaviour towards the other minorities such as women, gays and the like is already well known. And the Arab Spring has already brought forward the Salafis to the fore.

I welcome this step actually. This Islamism and basic illiberal thought is a boil in the body of Muslims. This shouldn't be lanced before it has gotten seriously ripe and the infection has run its course. So yes, I welcome the Brotherhood and the Islamist Parties taking power and trying to rule their countries with their perverted and bizarre philosophy. Let people know what they are asking for. Let them live in that pressure cooker of religious fanatics and then know that religion is NOT an answer. At this moment, if you go to a cook in a town or a farmer in a village, they will bang their chest and say Islam is the answer because their neighbourhood Mullah has said so (see above on how the pogrom happened).

Iran provides a classic example. See how a bunch of religious morons can drive their country into a ever restrictive circle of hell (Israel provides another example). But rest of the religious sheep need to understand that religion is about you and God. Not about you and the State. When you allow religion to rule your state, then you end up taking the logical step and kicking out or killing everybody who doesn't follow an increasingly narrow interpretation.

You can see when you take the argument ad absurdum infinitum. There will be one man standing in a field filled with empty houses and dead bodies proudly claiming that they have removed all impurity from his society.

Bah!

Support for Suicide Terrorism

So what is the relationship between the support for terrorism in public opinion and the relationship with terrorist attacks? Guess what these researchers found?

We find that justification in public opinion for suicide terrorism increases terror attacks on people in countries that are unfavorably regarded. There is a robust positive relationship between the share of the population in a country that at the same time justifies suicide bombings and has an unfavorable opinion of another country, and terrorism originating from the former country.

In other words, there is statistically significant evidence that public opinion does encourage terrorism. In a way, this is a d’oh statement. Terrorism thrives on the oxygen of publicity and then there are various assorted morons and idiots who will support terror as a way to punish other countries. What they do not understand (well, not surprising because its usually religious nutters and other ideologically screwed up people who do this) is that terrorism usually devours them.

So what do people from s Bangladesh, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kuwait, Malaysia, Morocco, Senegal, Tanzania, Mali, Jordan, Lebanon, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, Palestine and Nigeria respond to the PEW survey question?

Some people think that suicide bombing and other forms of violence against civilian targets
are justified in order to defend Islam from its enemies. Other people believe that, no matter
what the reason, this kind of violence is never justified. Do you personally feel that this kind
of violence is often justified to defend Islam, sometimes justified, rarely justified, or never
justified?

On average 23% justified suicide terrorism, with a minimum of 8% support and an astonishingly high 70% maximum support. Highest was in Palestine, Nigeria and Mali, Lowest up was in Egypt, Pakistan and Indonesia. Surprising eh? Palestine I can understand, but Nigeria, Mali, Egypt, Pakistan and Indonesia? The last 3 countries are like factories for terrorists. Some other facets, Nigerian Women were showing more support for suicide bombing compared to men. Here’s the graph

There was another question which was asked, about which countries are most unfavourable to the respondents. Some of the results for the most unfavourable and least unfavourable are amazing and bewildering.

So Bangladesh actually has the lowest unfavourable opinion towards India! and highest towards USA. And what on earth is happening in Ethiopia with least Japan and high Iran? USA seems to be the most hated country across these muslim nations. Extraordinary but what is worrying is the extraordinarily high level of support for suicide bombing and terrorism in all these countries. The next time somebody says that terrorist support in Muslim countries relate only to a very small minority, do ask about the definition of a very small minority because a minority which ranges from 8-70% with an average of 23% aint such a small minority by any stretch of imagination.

And the Saudi King says..

CASABLANCA: Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah and US President Barack Obama expressed their disapproval of the current turmoil in Egypt in a telephone conservation Saturday night.

“During the call, they reviewed relations between the countries and developments in the region as well as the tragic events taking place currently in Egypt that have been accompanied by chaos, looting, intimidation of innocents, exploitation of freedom and expression and attempts to ignite the flames of chaos to achieve their suspicious goals, which are not approved by Saudi and US sides,” the Saudi Press Agency reported.

The king also said the stability and security of the Egyptian people cannot be bargained with or be prejudiced under any justification.

“Egypt's capabilities and achievements are integral parts of the capabilities and accomplishments of the Arab and Islamic nations,” the king told the US president.

The king is currently recuperating from surgery in Morocco.

What the heck? USA has to approve this revolution in Egypt? Unbelievable, but then despots are like that. From here. Shameful on part of the Saudi king, but then what else can the poor man do? He is just your normal bog standard tin pot king trying to get along, no?

As for Obama, shame, seriously, mate, what’s up with your basic incoherence and inability to stand up to basic human principles? shame!

Asp in our own bosom

Here's something that is so bizarre that I cannot still understand it. So I am paying my tax money to support this man and his family who wants to destroy and kill me and my family? What about my right to security and my family's human rights are basically not counted then?

Technorati Tags: terrorism,al-Queda,jordan,united kingdom,human rights,legal system

Did you know there were Muslim Arab troops as part of the NATO mission in Afghanistan?

Read and applaud!



All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

Divorce around the world

Society is changing, and the answer is not to go back to basics (which is what?), but to think about how to manage this change. And for those people who think that divorce is a peculiarly western phenomena, please note the figures. I Quote:


I've heard this from many men over the past three months. It's like an epidemic virus violently threatening the Egyptian family, which we wrongly thought was immune to the virus that struck families in Western societies, simply because we still preserve the characteristics of the "happy orient."
Statistics indicate that divorce and the collapse of the family institution have become a phenomenon that cannot be ignored. Divorce strikes 46% of all marriages each year, compared to 33% a few years ago. A staggering 42% of divorces occur among newly-married couples in the first to fourth year of marriage.
Divorce rates among young people in the first year of marriage has risen to 34.5%, according to recent statistics by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMS). The figure is terrifying. In Austria, for example, divorce rates hit 48.9%, which has led the Austrian government to declare an emergency to tackle a disaster that threatens the security and safety of the community.
These statistics are not only in Egypt, but also in most of the Arab world. The divorce rate in Kuwait has reached 46%, according to a symposium on spinsterhood organized by Arabiyat forum. It hit 48% and 38% in the UAE and Qatar, respectively. Clearly this social phenomenon has undermined the family institution and threatens the next generation.
In France, for example, two thirds of schoolchildren come from broken homes and many of their parents live with second husbands and wives.
Psychologists are observing these students to predict future behavioral patterns. One must wonder about the psychological state of Arab society following three decades of its men not living under sound social conditions — at least from the old-school perspective that children must grow up in both their parents' care.
I recently met a group of university professors. When I told them that I was planning to write an article about divorce, all fifteen confessed that they were separated from their wives. One female workmate also said that the marriages of six of her close friends all lasted less than a year.
Regardless of the statistics, I vouch for the fact that this phenomenon has reached unprecedented heights.
What has really happened in the past few years? Some social research claims that poverty accounts for a considerable percentage of divorces and that sexual incompatibility between couples is another reason.
I disagree. Poverty, need and bedroom problems are as old as sin. So what has happened then?
Some point an accusing finger at women's emancipation as the culprit behind the collapse of the family. Once more, I beg to differ. I think that women have lost much of what they gained in the past ten years.
The divorce phenomenon is, without a doubt, the product of changes in society as a whole; the way marriages are conducted, the absence of any sense of belonging to the homeland, to a common cause or an institution.
With this feeling predominant among most young people, how can they have a sense of belonging to the institution of marriage? Young people these days change jobs and even careers as if they were changing their t-shirt. At the same time, many girls want to get away from their own broken homes, and so accept any proposal just to escape, only to continue their escapism by leaving their husbands.
Social pressure, not only financial problems, push people into a tight corner every day, and the prevalent fast food culture has made caution a thing of the past.
Globalization, the information revolution and the satellite revolution, which shower us with a barrage of images and poisoned values, have all nipped marriage in the bud. When I look at my children I wonder how long their marriages will last. Will it be years, months or hours?



All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

'As soon as the fresh air touched my hair I began to cry'

Very touching story here. Hat Tip (Tarek Fateh!)

My father imposed the veil on me three times and I took it off three times. The following is the story of how I took off the veil for that final time.

Technorati Tags: women in islam , Jordan , United Kingdom

Definition of - schizophrenia: Jordan Islamists slam women's rights convention while Lebanon's senior Shia cleric bans Honour Killing

So let me get this straight, according to religious scholars separated by about 100 kilometers, its bad to kill women for honour AND its bad to give them universal rights ? Eh? who is right then? So it is bad to kill women, its bad to kill them for supposed honour infractions ranging from wearing lipstick to selecting one's own spouse, etc. etc. While on the other hand, if you look at what constitutes discrimination in terms of the treaty, this is what it says, The Convention defines discrimination against women as "...any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field."

Pretty much contradictory even if you ignore the basic right of life!

I would like to draw your attention to the definition #2

1.
Psychiatry. Also called dementia praecox. a severe mental disorder characterized by some, but not necessarily all, of the following features: emotional blunting, intellectual deterioration, social isolation, disorganized speech and behavior, delusions, and hallucinations.
2.
a state characterized by the coexistence of contradictory or incompatible elements.

=======

Shia cleric bans ‘honour’ killings
BEIRUT Lebanon’s most senior Shia Muslim cleric has issued a fatwa banning “honour” killings, calling the custom of murdering a female relative for sexual misconduct “a repulsive act”.
The fatwa by Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah is a rare condemnation of the practice by a prominent cleric. Grand Ayatollah Fadlallah is the religious authority for Lebanon’s 1.2 million Shias. Honour crimes are rarely reported in Lebanon, but the ayatollah’s spokesman Hani Abdullah said that his office had received reports of an increase in “honour” killings, though he could not give specific figures.
Although the practice is illegal in Arab countries, perpetrators often go unpunished or receive light sentences. The overwhelmingly Sunni populations of Jordan – where it is estimated that some 20 women are killed every year by their male relatives – and the Palestinian territories are unlikely to heed the ayatollah’s fatwa. However, the cleric does have followers among Shias in Iraq, where he lived for 30 years in the holy city of Najaf. (AP)



Jordan Islamists slam women's rights conventionAFPAugust 5, 2007
AMMAN -- Jordan's Islamists Sunday criticized the government's endorsement of a United Nations convention eliminating discrimination against women, describing it as a "most dangerous" agreement. Last month Jordan endorsed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), 15 years after it signed the international document. "This is one of the most dangerous agreements that affects the rights of citizens, as well as the nation's identity and values," the top legal scholar of the Islamic Action Front (IAF) party said in a statement. "This agreement, as well as similar American and Zionist efforts, seek to steer people away from religion," said Ibrahim Zeid Al Kilani. "Scientists, rulers, and citizens must confront such efforts, which are aimed at destroying the Muslim family," he added. The UN says the convention, first adopted by the global body's General Assembly in 1979, "provides the basis for realizing equality between women and men through ensuring women's equal access to, and equal opportunities in, political and public life - including the right to vote and to stand for election - as well as education, health, and employment." Kilani noted with satisfaction that, in endorsing the agreement, the Jordanian government expressed reservations on clauses related to Jordan's personal status law, citizenship, housing, and the free movement of women. But he chided the government for failing to express reservations on one clause that stipulates that women should have the same rights as men concerning the legal guardianship of children. Women's groups and human rights organizations in Jordan, who have been pushing for the convention's endorsement, have welcomed the decision.