"Gulf's Shameless Ramadan Food Wastage Criticised"

"The Muslim month of fasting, Ramadan, meant to be a month of spirituality and understanding of the suffering of the poor and needy draws to a close today.

But, the period does not end on an entirely positive note.

Extravagant breaking-of-the-fast buffets in the Gulf have been criticised for their excessive food wastage, among other things, as the Horn of Africa and other world regions experience severe food shortages.

In Dubai alone, around 1,850 tonnes of left-overs were thrown out during Ramadan in 2010.

That is enough to feed more than 40,000 people for a whole year.

Al Jazeera's Suranjana Tewari reports from Doha, Qatar"

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Video: CAIR Rep Says 9/11 Coloring Book Promotes Anti-Muslim Stereotypes...

The fact that there is a colouring book out there directed to young impressionable children that openly promotes ignorance is shocking to say the least. These open acts of racism and prejudice prove more and more the negative and backwards way that our society is heading. Humanity is sinking and ignorance is rampant, we live in a time where being anything other than a white Christian leads to an automatic dislike and turns you into a stereotype. These attitudes are becoming more and more prevalent where I live and what's worrying is that people seem to think it's OK.



"There's a new coloring book on the market and it doesn't feature cute animals or cartoon characters...it shows the Twin Towers burning and Navy Seals shooting Osama Bin Laden. CAIR-MI Executive Director appears on Dr. Drew's CNN program and says the coloring book promotes anti-Muslim stereotypes. CONTACT: CAIR-MI Executive Director Dawud Walid, E-mail: dwalid@cair.com"


Source

Sign the petition to discontinue the nasty colouring book

Two Plead Guilty to Branding of Disabled Navajo Man

By Dennis J. Carroll

Santa Fe, New Mexico | Thu Aug 18, 2011 5:16pm EDT

(Reuters) - Two men pleaded guilty on Thursday to a racially motivated attack on a developmentally disabled Navajo Indian man in which they branded him with a swastika, the U.S. Justice Department said.

A third assailant had already pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy charges related to torturing the 22-year-old man in New Mexico in 2010. The victim's name was not released.

"No one anywhere, but especially in a state like New Mexico that prides itself on its ethnic, racial and cultural diversity, should be victimized because of what he or she happens to be," U.S. Attorney for the District of New Mexico Kenneth J. Gonzales said.

"The young victim in this case was assaulted, branded and scarred because he happens to be a Native American - that simply is inexcusable and criminal."

The three men - Paul Beebe and Jesse Sanford of Farmington, N.M., and William Hatch of Fruitland, N.M., - are the first defendants to be charged under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009.

Beebe pleaded guilty to violating the hate crimes act, while Sanford pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate it. Hatch had pleaded guilty in June to the conspiracy charge. There was no immediate word on when the men would be sentenced.

The defendants in this case admitted covering the victim's body with white supremacist and anti-Native American symbols, including shaving a swastika in the back of his head and using markers to write the words "KKK" and "White Power" on his skin, a Justice Department statement said.

Department officials said that during the plea hearing, Beebe and Sanford admitted that Beebe had taken the man to his apartment, which was full of racist paraphernalia.

After the man fell asleep, the trio drew on his body with blue, red and black markers. When he woke up, Beebe branded him with a swastika using a heated wire hanger as the man sat with a towel shoved in his mouth, officials said.

"The defendants further mocked the victim's heritage" by drawing obscene pictures on his back and telling him that they were his "native pride feathers," the statement said.

The men, who recorded the entire incident on cell phones including a recording of them coercing the man into saying he wanted to be branded, were indicted in November 2010 on charges of conspiracy and violating the hate-crime statute.

The statute is named after Shepard, a young gay man murdered in 1998 in Wyoming and Byrd, an African-American man who was decapitated in Texas in 1998 after he was dragged behind a truck by two white supremacists.

"Deplorable, hate-filled incidents like this one have no place in a civilized society," Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Thomas Perez said.

"The Justice Department is committed to using all the tools in our law enforcement arsenal, including the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, to prosecute acts of hate."

(Edited by Karen Brooks and Cynthia Johnston)

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Wealthiest 400 Now Own More Than The Bottom 150 Million Americans

"The wealthiest 400 people in America now own more wealth than the bottom 150 million Americans."

Source

Slave Labor in the U.S. Sealed with a Hershey's KISS

"International student workers are going on strike at a Hershey's plant in Pennsylvania. Why? They paid thousands of dollars to come here and work and they're being treated like slave labor workers making only a few dollars an hour."

Source

"Muslims Called 'Enemy' at Hearing on Minn. Islamic Center"

"An Islamic Community Center is one step closer to moving into a Plymouth neighborhood, but not everyone in town is happy about it.

A downtown Plymouth post office doesn't use most of the space in their building and it's for sale. So, the Northwest Islamic Community Center made an offer to buy it.

That move brought a rare crowd into the Plymouth Planning Commission meeting Wednesday night.

It's because the Islamic group would like to share the building with the post office, leasing it back for rent, which means prayer services and postal services would be in the same building.

During a public hearing on whether the building should be used for religious purposes, citizens sent strong messages — on both sides.

"Aiding the enemy is treason," said one man opposed to the center.

"Those who are, you know, do not understand the religion, they are a small minority," said a man in favor of the center. "I hope we can reach out to them, and I hope they can come visit us and know us in person."

The Planning Commission gave unanimous approval for a conditional-use permit, which they believe can be used for religious reasons. They called it a win for both the Islamic center and the post office, which needed to sell the space.

The City Council will make the final decision next week."

"

Source

Minn. City Gets 'Vile' Hate Mail Over Planned Islamic Center

"Plymouth City Council member, Bob Stein, told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that he is disappointed to receive vile, religiously hostile emails from people opposed to the Islamic Center. The Muslim group needs a permit from the city to open the community center and the Plymouth Planning Commission will make its recommendation on approval of that permit Wednesday night."



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"MINARETS IN TEMECULA"

"America was founded on the concept of religious freedom, but the desire of the Muslim residents in Temecula, a city north of San Diego, to build a new place of worship is met with resistance from elements in the local community. We examine how this conflict plays out against a backdrop of national and global politics and explore the roots of the opposition, as well as the diverse nature of the support for the project."

Source

"Bolivia Indians in Road Protest"

"15 August 2011
Last updated at 13:33 ET

Hundreds of Amazonian Indians in Bolivia have begun a long march in protest at the construction of a road through a pristine rainforest reserve.

Activists say the road will encourage illegal settlement and deforestation.

Isiboro-Secure National Park is home to several isolated tribes.

The protest is an embarrassment for President Evo Morales, who is a prominent advocate of indigenous rights and the protection of “Mother Earth”.

His government says the road is vital for national integration, and insists there will be environmental safeguards.

More than 500 protesters from a range of indigenous groups began the march in the Amazon city of Trinidad.

“We do not want dialogue, we want them to respect us as indigenous peoples,” said Pedro Vare, the head of the regional indigenous organisation CPIB.

The protesters plan to walk all the way to La Paz – Bolivia’s main city in the Andean highlands – a 500km (310 mile) journey they expect will take a month to complete.

Brazilian backing

The highway between the highland city of Cochabamba and San Ignacio de Moxos in the Amazon lowlands is being funded by Brazil and built by a Brazilian company.

It will help connect the Southern Brazilian Amazon with ports on the Pacific coasts of Peru and Chile.

The road passes through the heart of Isiboro-Secure Indigenous Territory and National Park (Tipnis), a rainforest region of exceptional biodiversity.

The area is home to communities of Chiman, Yurucare and Moxos Indians who live by hunting, fishing and farming in the rainforest.

Environmental groups and indigenous activists say the road will open the region up to illegal logging, as well as settlement by farmers from the highlands who grow coca leaf – the raw material for illegal cocaine.

They also say the government has failed to meet its constitutional duty to consult indigenous groups about development on their ancestral territory.

The government says the route will promote much needed development, and says it will take measures to protect the rainforest.

“If we wanted to destroy the park and wipe out nature we would concrete over the whole park – that is not what we are going to do,” said Vice-President Alvaro Garcia Linera.

“The highway will only cross the park, we will not allow any land exploitation around it,” he added.

President Morales says he is prepared to talk to indigenous leaders, but will not halt construction.

The march is the latest in a series of challenges Mr Morales is facing from indigenous groups and social movements that helped make him Bolivia’s first indigenous president.

He also faces criticism from environmental groups who say his policies in Bolivia contradict his international profile as a defender of what he calls “Pachamama” or “Mother Earth”."

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Aboriginal Canadians Get a Fuller Share of Rights

Published Sunday, Jun. 19, 2011.

Until Saturday, Canada’s aboriginals had less recourse than other Canadians when their human rights were violated. And so the extension of the Canadian Human Rights Act to complaints under the Indian Act is a welcome and overdue move. Not only will it give further dignity to aboriginals; it holds the promise of improving governance on reserves.

The Canadian Human Rights Act covers many of the activities of everyday life that usually proceed without incident, but over which a malicious person, or a maliciously-run institution, can run roughshod – practices like sexual harassment in the workplace; denial of an apartment because of someone’s background; or dismissal from a job because of a family feud. Previously, aboriginal Canadians could not use the complaint mechanism in the Act to appeal to the Canadian Human Rights Commission if they faced this kind of unacceptable discrimination. Now, they can.

Aboriginals have some special concerns that deserve redress, and one group of women, in particular, could use protection. As reported by the Commission in 2005, “The lack of an on-reserve matrimonial real property regime is a long standing human rights issue.”

There are significant challenges ahead. Shawn A-in-chut Atleo, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, who has pledged to work with the federal government to implement the extension, says “First Nations lack the capacity and resources to effectively implement the changes.” The most obvious new challenge that the extension of the Human Rights Act will allow – over access to band offices and other on-reserve facilities for people with physical disabilities – might also be the most visible and costly one. And it will take time for aboriginals themselves to be aware of the new avenues of redress they can seek, an awareness that First Nations governments themselves should be willing to foster.

But in these challenges comes an opportunity for greater collaboration. A small band government with jurisdiction over a population in the hundreds can’t be expected to deal with complaints as competently or professionally as a provincial government might. Existing cross-reserve institutions such as the First Nations Land Management Resource Centre – which helps First Nations with matters like environmental assessments and land codes – are good models for the professionalization and centralization of work that can bring First Nations governments into compliance with human rights legislation.

There needn’t be any contradiction between collective aboriginal rights and human rights. And First Nations people have been lacking crucial protections for too long. While the struggle for other aboriginal rights, and for a revision to the Indian Act, continues, the new human rights regime is a cause for celebration.

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BBC Doesn't Want to Hear Real Reasons for London Riots

From the Majority Report, M-F 11:30am EST at http://Majority.FM:
"The youth and lower class of London are rioting. It's easy to just write them off as "hoodlums"...but as Darcus Howe points out, is there more to it?"

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‘Do you have running water? I don’t and I live in Canada’

Published Thursday, Jul. 28, 2011.   Maude Barlow

One year ago today, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a historic resolution recognizing the human right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation. Two months later, the Human Rights Council adopted a second resolution affirming that drinking water and sanitation are human rights, and setting out the responsibilities all governments now carry to fulfill these rights.

Because the Human Rights Council resolution is an interpretation of two existing international treaties, it clarifies that the General Assembly resolution is legally binding in international law. Together, the two resolutions represent an extraordinary breakthrough in the international struggle for the right to safe drinking water and sanitation and a milestone in the fight for water justice.

For the past decade, Ottawa has consistently opposed recognizing the right to water and sanitation. The Harper government voted to abstain when the General Assembly vote took place, and then argued (incorrectly) that the resolution is not binding. Canada and Tonga are now the only countries in the world that have not recognized the right to water or the right to sanitation.

The only explanation the Harper government gives is that it’s concerned about Canada’s sovereignty over its water supply, an argument that’s been debunked by international legal experts who point out that a newly recognized right is a pact between a government and its own citizens and doesn’t oblige one country to fulfill that right in another. The more likely reason is that, with an enforceable obligation, the government would likely face extensive liability with respect to the terrible drinking water and sanitation conditions in so many first nations communities.

There are at least 49 “high risk” aboriginal communities in Canada with little access to clean water and more than 100 facing “boil water” advisories. First nations homes are 90 per cent more likely to be without running water than the homes of other Canadians. And unlike other Canadians, whose water services are provided by the provinces, the federal government is responsible for the delivery of public services to first nations. But the Indian Act doesn’t explicitly authorize the protection of source water and, as a consequence, says environmental lawyer David Boyd, first nations people on reserves are without the legal guarantees of water quality enjoyed by the other 34 million Canadians.

The UN’s recognition of the human right to water and sanitation could become a powerful tool for the first nations to force the Canadian government to deal with this situation. Canada, like all members of the UN, must put in place an action plan and submit it to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. This plan is required to address three obligations that affect aboriginal communities.

Under the obligation to respect, water and sanitation services now delivered can’t be removed. But as local authorities move to increase water rates to pay for aging infrastructure repair or lease their water services to for-profit companies, poorer and marginalized Canadians can expect to start seeing water cutoffs as is happening in U.S. inner cities.

Under the obligation to protect, governments must step in to ensure that third parties such as corporations or extractive industries aren’t destroying local water systems. The Cree of Fort Chipewyan in northern Alberta could argue that their right to safe drinking water has been violated by the destruction of water sources in tar sands production, as could the Aamjiwnaang of Sarnia, Ont., whose water supply has been so contaminated by the petrochemical industry that two girls are born for every boy.

And under the obligation to fulfill, the government is required to take additional measures necessary to guarantee the newly recognized right. This means it must pledge to provide the safe drinking water and sanitation services to the first nations communities now without.

“Do you have running water? I don’t and I live in Canada.” These words are on posters that the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs took to the UN in an attempt to gain international recognition of their plight. It’s time for the Canadian government to recognize this most basic of rights, in Canada and around the world.

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Video: Leading Islamophobe Publishes New Anti-Islam Book (CAIR)

"In her new book titled "Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance," self-proclaimed human rights activist Pamela Geller discusses what she says are ways in which the United States is under attack by "Islamic supremacists" and "Shari'ah".

Geller is Executive Director of Stop Islamization of America which is considered by many civil and rights organizations as Islamophobic and listed as a hate group, including by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The book, which is scheduled to be released September 6, discusses ways in which the U.S. is being Islamized without Americans' knowledge such as the Justice Department's so-called fight in favor of Sharia law and the possibility of buying halal meat in grocery stores without knowing it.

One organization that comes under direct attack by Geller in her new book is the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which she states, like many other American Muslim groups, is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.

But CAIR spokesperson Ibrahim Hooper states Geller's rhetoric is intolerant and hateful, much like the Norway bomber who mentioned Geller in his manifesto as a "decent human being".

Hooper also discussed the possible impact literature like Geller's book may have on the general public."

Source - http://www.youtube.com/user/CAIRtv

Salam Alaikum

The Corporation

"WINNER OF 26 INTERNATIONAL AWARDS! 10 Audience Choice Awards including the 2004 Sundance Film Festival.

Provoking, witty, stylish and sweepingly informative, THE CORPORATIONexplores the nature and spectacular rise of the dominant institution of our time. Part film and part movement, The Corporation is transforming audiences and dazzling critics with its insightful and compelling analysis. Taking its status as a legal "person" to the logical conclusion, the film puts the corporation on the psychiatrist's couch to ask "What kind of person is it?" The Corporation includes interviews with 40 corporate insiders and critics - including Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Milton Friedman, Howard Zinn, Vandana Shiva and Michael Moore - plus true confessions, case studies and strategies for change." - Source

Salam Alaikum

The Silence

A PBS documentary. "FRONTLINE examines a little-known chapter of the Catholic Church sex abuse story -- decades of abuse of Native Americans by priests and other church workers in Alaska. Through candid interviews with survivors, this FRONTLINE report focuses on the abuse by a number of men who worked for the Church along Alaska's far west coast in the late 1960s and early 1970s. All told, they would leave behind a trail of hundreds of claims of abuse, making this one of the hardest hit regions in the country."

The Silence

Shale Gas Confrontation in Durham Bridge, NB

Have you heard of the documentary Gasland? You know the one where actor Mark Ruffalo was put on a terrorism watch list because of his support for the documentary. Well they have brought "Gasland" to Canada and with all the protests that have been going on, there has been very little about it in the news. Protesters include members of the NDP, Green Party, Liberals, citizen groups and Aboriginal groups just to name a few. New Brunswick happens to belong to the Conservatives (right wing), and as of now they allow hydraulic fracturing in their province no matter how many voices oppose it. That's democracy in it's true form......isn't it?

The documentary Gasland at one time was fully available to watch on youtube, now just the first half is available and it's crowded around pro fracking corporate videos...

Click here  for more information on what's happening in New Brunswick and to sign the petition.

Salam Alaikum

Bahrain: Shouting in the dark

*Update* Aug 7th
Matar Matar and Mohamed Al-Tajir have both been released from Prison
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-14439733