Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Trouble in paradise as radical Islam grows in Zanzibar


Trouble in paradise as radical Islam grows in Zanzibar

The rising tide of radical Islamism has sparked growing unrest on the idyllic island of Zanzibar. Daniel Howden reports from Stone Town

Workmen are raising the walls around the Assemblies of God Church on the outskirts of Zanzibar's Stone Town. Sweating in the heat and humidity, they have cemented row after row of concrete blocks to a height of some 10 feet. In May this year a violent mob stormed this compound and burned the 500-seater church inside. Six months on from the attack tell-tale licks of black smoke still darken the cross on its repaired walls.
Bishop Dickson Kaganga, who now has bars on the window of his office, says he and his fellow Christians are "living in fear". The Pentecostal priest, whose car was also torched in the assault, talks darkly of a rising tide of radicalism on the Indian Ocean archipelago once famed for its cosmopolitanism and religious tolerance.
After 16 years work as a missionary on the overwhelmingly Muslim archipelago, the bishop has little doubt who is to blame for the attacks that ruined his church and ransacked several others. He points to the rise of a group calling itself The Awakening, or Uamsho in the islands' native Swahili. A religious charity which historically confined itself to propagating Islam but has recently entered the political realm with its own brand of faith-based populism. The group's loud calls for independence from Tanzania and anti-mainlander rhetoric have proven hugely popular. Mr Kaganga insists that they are "advocating chaos".
The church burnings coincided with the arrest of Uamsho's leader, the cleric Farid Hadi Ahmed, in connection with an illegal demonstration.
The following day witnessed some of the worst riots seen on Zanzibar.
The leadership of the group has denied any involvement in the attacks and no arrests have been made. Since then a pattern of arrests, riots and unrest has dogged the islands culminating the deaths of several protesters and one policeman earlier this month.
With its population of one million people split between the two main islands of Unguja and Pemba, Zanzibar is no stranger to political violence. Shortly after independence from Britain in 1963 the black African islanders, many of them descendants of slaves traded through the archipelago, overthrew the Arab Sultan of Zanzibar. A year later its new leaders declared union with mainland Tanganyika – creating Tanzania. The islands' history as an African entry point for Christian missionaries, a transit centre for the slave trade and a hub for Islamic scholars have all left their mark.
Little of this rich, turbulent history sits comfortably with Zanzibar's modern fame as a tropical tourist destination with a spiced history of cloves and slaves. Beyond the glamorously dilapidated streets of Stone Town and sun loungers of the beachfront hotels more than one-third of the population lives in grinding poverty. The large underclass, living in rural villages or the crumbling concrete apartment blocks built by Soviet-era allies in the 1960s, face problems which don't appear in holiday brochures.

Non-Muslims have 'sex like donkeys' and deserve to be blown-up, said 'terror plot' leader


Non-Muslims have 'sex like donkeys' and deserve to be blown-up, said 'terror plot' leader

Westerners have 'sex like donkeys' so 'why shouldn't we terrorise them?' the alleged leader of a terror plot was recorded saying.

Irfan Naseer, 31, Irfan Khalid and Ashik Ali, both 27 Photo: PA
The leader of alleged suicide bomb plot said non-believers deserved to be attacked because they “have sex like donkeys”, orgies and took drugs, a court heard.
Ifan Naseer said the whole world was **** and people deserved to be terrorized.
The al-Qaeda inspired gang is accused of plotting to use eight suicide bombers detonating rucksacks packed with explosives in crowded places to cause “mass death” and carnage on the streets of Britain.
Naseer, 31, Irfan Khalid, 27, and Ashik Ali, 27, all unemployed from Birmingham, are the alleged “senior members” of the group and were among 12 people arrested and charged last year.

Christians persecuted throughout the world


The latest bombing in Nigeria shows how Christians are increasingly suffering for their faith – and how their plight is being ignored


Imagine the unspeakable fury that would erupt across the Islamic world if a Christian-led government in Khartoum had been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Sudanese Muslims over the past 30 years. Or if Christian gunmen were firebombing mosques in Iraq during Friday prayers. Or if Muslim girls in Indonesia had been abducted and beheaded on their way to school, because of their faith.
Such horrors are barely thinkable, of course. But they have all occurred in reverse, with Christians falling victim to Islamist aggression. Only two days ago, a suicide bomber crashed a jeep laden with explosives into a packed Catholic church in Kaduna, northern Nigeria, killing at least eight people and injuring more than 100. The tragedy bore the imprint of numerous similar attacks by Boko Haram (which roughly translates as “Western education is sinful”), an exceptionally bloodthirsty militant group.
Other notable trouble spots include Egypt, where 600,000 Copts – more than the entire population of Manchester – have emigrated since the 1980s in the face of harassment or outright oppression.
Why is such a huge scourge chronically under-reported in the West? One result of this oversight is that the often inflated sense of victimhood felt by many Muslims has festered unchallenged. Take the fallout of last month’s protests around the world against the American film about the Prophet Mohammed. While most of the debate centred on the rule of law and the limits of free speech, almost nothing was said about how much more routinely Islamists insult Christians, almost always getting away with their provocations scot-free.
Innocence of Muslims, the production that spurred all the outrage, has been rightly dismissed as contemptible trash. What, though, of a website such as “Guardians of the Faith”, run by Salafist extremists in Cairo? Among many posts, it has carried an article entitled “Why Muslims are superior to Copts”. “Being a Muslim girl whose role models are the wives of the Prophet, who were required to wear the hijab, is better than being a Christian girl, whose role models are whores,” it declares. “Being a Muslim who fights to defend his honour and his faith is better than being a Christian who steals, rapes, and kills children.” Hateful messages breed hateful acts. Is it any surprise that mobs have set fire to one church after another across Egypt in recent years?

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Islam convert whipped for drug use, court told


Islam convert whipped for drug use, court told

Date
Wassim Fayad
Wassim Fayad ... charged. Photo: Ben Rushton
AS HE was being held down and whipped repeatedly with a power cord by four men who said they were acting in accordance with Islamic law, a Sydney man was told ''you're going to remember this next time you take alcohol and drugs'', a court has heard.
Zakaryah Raad, 21, Tolga Cifci, 21, Wassim Fayad, 44, and Cengiz Coskun, 22, faced Burwood Court yesterday charged with whipping Cristian Martinez, 32, with an electric cable as punishment under sharia.
Police allege that in the early hours of July 17 last year, the four men came to Mr Martinez's Silverwater home after he asked one of them for help with his drug and alcohol problem. They allegedly told him he was ''going to be lashed 40 times in accordance with Islamic law''.
''Fayad told me I was going to be punished for what I had done,'' Mr Martinez said.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/islam-convert-whipped-for-drug-use-court-told-20121022-281ik.html#ixzz2AAj4xg1T

Afghan man kills wife for working: police


Afghan man kills wife for working: police

Date

An Afghan man has stabbed his wife to death because she worked for a non-government organisation (NGO) outside the home, police said after arresting the suspect in the western province of Herat.
"Kulsoom was stabbed eight times by her husband on Friday afternoon because she was working," provincial police spokesman Noor Khan Nekzad told AFP.
"We have arrested the murderer, Abdul Rahim, who killed his wife," Nekzad said.
The couple had been married for six years and had two children.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/afghan-man-kills-wife-for-working-police-20121023-2829x.html#ixzz2AAiNLIvY

Alleged terrorist gang 'planned mass death'


Alleged terrorist gang 'planned mass death'

Date

Tom Whitehead and Sam Marsden

'Mass death'... Irfan Naseer, 31, Irfan Khalid and Ashik Ali, both 27, are accused of plotting a deadly bombing campaign
'Mass death'... Irfan Naseer, 31, Irfan Khalid and Ashik Ali, both 27, are accused of plotting a deadly bombing campaign Photo: AP
An al-Qaeda inspired gang planned to attack Britain with up to eight suicide bombs because the 7/7 terrorists had not done enough damage, a court has heard.
The jihadist group, from Birmingham, wanted to carry out "another 9/11" and planned to hit crowded public places to cause "mass death" and "carnage in the name of Allah".
Naseer told one potential recruit that 7/7 had "gone a bit wrong". 
Their attack would have been even more devastating than the London bombings on July 7, 2005, which left 52 innocent people dead, Woolwich Crown Court was told.
Carnage ... the plotters allegedly believed the London attacks on July 7, 2005, had not been successful enough.
Carnage ... the plotters allegedly believed the London attacks on July 7, 2005, had not been successful enough. Photo: Reuters
The alleged terrorists also discussed using AK47 assault rifles and poisons and even attaching blades to the wheels of cars to drive into crowds, it was claimed.
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One was said to have joked to his estranged wife that they were not the "Four Lions", a reference to the film about home-grown British jihadists, because there were only three of them.
Two of the alleged ringleaders twice went to Pakistan to receive terrorism training and made martyrdom videos to be released after they had "blown themselves up".
After their return they began recruiting others and arranged to send them to Pakistan, it is alleged.
The court heard that they planned for up to eight suicide bombers to detonate rucksacks packed with explosives and possibly others to explode on timers.
The attack was to be funded after the gang organised bogus street collections in Birmingham in the name of the charity Muslim Aid and a local Islamic school.
The alleged three "senior members" of the terrorist cell are on trial for the plot.
Irfan Naseer, 31, Irfan Khalid, 27, and Ashik Ali, 27, all unemployed from Birmingham, deny between them a total of 12 terrorism charges including planning a bombing campaign, recruiting others for terrorism and terrorism fund-raising.
The three were among 11 men and one woman arrested by police on terrorism charges last year.
Counter-terrorism officers had been monitoring them in a "long surveillance operation" which had included listening devices in the flat used as their base and in two of the gang's cars.
Brian Altman, QC, prosecuting, told the jury of six men and six women that police had "disrupted a plan to commit an act or acts of terrorism on a scale potentially greater than the London bombings in July 2005, if it had been allowed to run its course.
"Although the finer details had not been worked out and agreed upon, the defendants were proposing to detonate up to eight rucksack bombs in a suicide attack and/or detonate bombs on timers in crowded areas in order to cause mass deaths and casualties. One of them was even to describe their plan as 'another 9/11'."
Naseer told one potential recruit that 7/7 had "gone a bit wrong" and that had also been the view of his "teacher" in the Pakistan training camp he attended.
The London bombers had forgotten to put nails in their bombs, Mr Altman said.
The prosecutor said the defendants were jihadists influenced by al-Qaeda, especially Osama bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki, the US-born extremist of Yemeni descent known for his internet lectures in English.
Naseer and Khalid are accused of travelling twice to Pakistan to receive training in terrorism, bomb-making, firearms and poisons.
They, along with Ashik Ali, are accused of attempting to produce home-made bombs in Ali's one-bedroom council flat in the Sparkbrook area of Birmingham.
Naseer, nicknamed "Chubbs" or "Big Irfan" because of his size, was a trained chemist who had completed a four-year pharmacy degree at Aston University.
Mr Altman said: "The degree was beneficial to this terror cell as it was Naseer's knowledge of chemistry, together with his training in terrorism, that allowed the defendants to experiment in producing an explosive mix with a view to constructing a home-made explosive device, an IED, in the kitchen, in the days leading up to the arrest of these defendants and others."
Khalid, known as "Little Irfan", was allegedly recorded as saying he would be "dead" by June 2011.
Ali later told police the plan was for him to "wear a suicide vest and carry a gun" but he denied he would have carried out an attack.
The three men planned to extract ammonium nitrate, used to make explosives, from cool packs normally used to help sports injuries, the court was told.
They, along with others, allegedly took part in a series of unauthorised street collections during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which raised more than £13,500 ($21,000), the vast majority of which never reached the good causes for which it was intended.
They also planned to open up an Islamic shop to act as a cover.
The group's alleged chief fund-raiser, Rahin Ahmed, 28, tried to generate more funds by investing the money in the capital markets but lost more than £9000 through "incompetent" trading. Mr Altman said: "The stark fact is that the defendants and those they employed to raise funds with them were despicably stealing from their own community money donated to charity."
The court was told that four other men – Naweed Ali, 24; Ishaaq Hussain, 20; Khobaib Hussain, 20; and Shahid Khan, 20 – had pleaded guilty to travelling to Pakistan in August last year for terrorist training. Three returned within days and the fourth later, after the family of one of them discovered where they had gone.
Ahmed has admitted collecting and investing money for terrorist acts and helping others to travel to Pakistan for terrorist training.
Mujtahid Hussain, 21, who was said to be heavily involved in raising money for terrorism, has pleaded guilty to a charge of fund-raising.
Two people whom the defendants allegedly tried to recruit to their plan – Ashik Ali's older brother, Bahader Ali, 29 and Mohammed Rizwan, 33 – deny the charges they face and will stand trial next year.
Ashik Ali's estranged wife, Salma Kabal, 23, who is accused of knowing of her husband's terrorist intentions but failing to disclose them to the authorities, will also be tried later. The trial continues.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/alleged-terrorist-gang-planned-mass-death-20121023-28263.html#ixzz2AAi6Y75T

Sunday, October 21, 2012

'Shocked' Sonia's Tahrir Square ordeal: mob gropes TV reporter after live broadcast


A mob of about 30 men has turned "crazy" and groped and robbed a French television journalist near Tahrir Square in Cairo, in the latest case of violence against women at the epicentre of Egypt's protests.
France 24 news station said in a statement that Sonia Dridi was attacked about 10:30pm on Friday after a live broadcast on a protest at the square and was later rescued by a colleague and other witnesses.
Sexual harassment is a 20-year problem here, but now there's a feeling of impunity and the knowledge that the police won't do anything about it, it breeds this culture of lawlessness 
The station said its employees were safe and sound, though "extremely shocked".


"More frightened than hurt," wrote Dridi in French on her Twitter page on Saturday.
Referring in English to a colleague, she tweeted: "Thanks to @ashrafkhalil for protecting me in #Tahrir last nite. Mob was pretty intense. thanks to him I escaped from the unleashed hands."
Later she wrote: "Thks everyone for support, shocking but I'm OK. Could have been [worse]. Crowd out of control, guys took advantage of it but kept my clothes on.
"More frightened than hurt" ... Sonia Dridi.
"More frightened than hurt" ... Sonia Dridi. Photo: Twitter
"We lost our bags in the 'fight'. Very luckily, mine was found by a brave Egyptian guy a few hours later. He took it from the hands of thugs."
Ashraf Khalil, a colleague who works with France 24's English language service, said the crowd was closing in on him and Dridi while they were doing live reports on a side street off Tahrir.
"The crowd surged in and then it went crazy. It was basically me keeping her in a bear hug, both arms around her and face-to-face," he told The Associated Press, estimating that at least 30 men were involved.
"It was hard to tell who was helping and who was groping her."
Khalil said they retreated into a fast food restaurant called Hardee's, which had a metal door, to keep her out of the reach of the attackers.
He told The Guardian: "What was depressing is that the employees inside Hardee's knew exactly what to do because this seems to happen all the time.
"Some terrified woman running in one step ahead of a mob."
Khalil said the doors were locked and when he later went out to hail a taxi and usher Dridi out, there were men banging on the bonnet of the car.
"Sexual harassment is a 20-year problem here, but now there's a feeling of impunity and the knowledge that the police won't do anything about it, it breeds this culture of lawlessness.
"There are always good Samaritans in the crowd but crowds can be stupid and when it tips, it tips.


Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/shocked-sonias-tahrir-square-ordeal-mob-gropes-tv-reporter-after-live-broadcast-20121022-2801t.html#ixzz29ybN3w7W

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

AFGHAN WOMAN 'BEHEADED FOR REFUSING PROSTITUTION'



HERAT, Afghanistan (AFP) - Afghan police have arrested four people who allegedly tried to force a woman into prostitution in western Afghanistan and beheaded her when she refused, officials said Wednesday.
Mah Gul, 20, was beheaded after her mother-in-law attempted to make her sleep with a man in her house in Herat province last week, provincial police chief Abdul Ghafar Sayedzada told AFP.
"We have arrested her mother-in-law, father-in-law, her husband and the man who killed her," he said.
Gul was married to her husband four months ago and her mother-in-law had tried to force her into prostitution several times in the past, Sayedzada said.
The suspect, Najibullah, was paraded by police at a press conference where he said the mother-in-law lured him into killing Gul by telling him that she was a prostitute.
"It was around 2:00 am when Gul's husband left for his bakery. I came down and with the help of her mother-in-law killed her with a knife," he said.
The murder comes against a backdrop of a world outcry over the shooting by Taliban Islamists of a 14-year-old Pakistani girl, Malala Yousafzai, who had become a voice against the suppression of women's rights.
While Yousafzai's case has made world headlines, people using social media in Afghanistan have made the point that oppression and violence against women are commonplace in Afghanistan.
Abdul Qader Rahimi, the regional director of the government-backed human rights commission in western Afghanistan, said violence against women had dramatically increased in the region recently.
"There is no doubt violence against women has increased. So far this year we have registered 100 cases of violence against women in the western region," he said, adding that many cases go unreported.
"But at least in Gul's case, we are glad the murderer has been arrested and brought to justice," he said.
Last year, in a case that made international headlines, police rescued a teenage girl, Sahar Gul, who was beaten and locked up in a toilet for five months after she defied her in-laws who tried to force her into prostitution.

More:
http://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/-/world/15147758/afghan-woman-beheaded-for-refusing-prostitution/

Where is the "Gaza" style Peace flotilla?


'Devastation' after mosque bombing in Aleppo, activists say




The peace of prayer time at a mosque in Aleppo was shattered Wednesday when Syrian army planes bombed the site, killing and injuring several worshippers, activists said.
Tama Hazem, head of the Aleppo Media Center, said Nour Al-Shuhada mosque was struck during Asr, the third Islamic prayer of the day.
"The scene was of complete devastation. The main hall of the mosque and the minaret were destroyed and many of the wounded were in critical condition," Hazem said.
"There was no reason to target this mosque and it is not the first one to be targeted in the neighborhood. There is no FSA base in the mosque and it was not frequented by rebels," he said, referring to the rebel Free Syrian Army.
The opposition Local Coordination Committees also said warplanes dropped TNT barrels on the mosque in the neighborhood of Shaar.
Opposition activists say more than 30,000 people have been killed since March 2011, when anti-government protesters took to the streets calling for political reform and an end to four decades of Assad family rule.
The government responded with a violent clampdown, spawning an armed conflict that has spiraled into a civil war. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government has insisted it is fighting "armed terrorist groups."
CNN cannot independently confirm reports of casualties in Syria because the government has restricted access by international journalists.

More:
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/10/17/world/meast/syria-civil-war/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

Monday, October 15, 2012

As teen recovers from Taliban hit, Pakistanis demand answers


As teen recovers from Taliban hit, Pakistanis demand answers


Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- A Pakistani teenage activist shot in the head by the Taliban for demanding an education has left her beloved country for specialized medical treatment in Britain.
The Taliban's attempted assassination last week of Malala Yousufzai, 14, has sparked outrage inside Pakistan and around the world, transforming the young blogger into an international symbol of defiance against the radical Islamist group that continues to wield influence in parts of Pakistan.
After Tuesday's attack, Malala was treated immediately by Pakistani doctors who later removed a bullet lodged in her neck. She was airlifted Monday to a hospital in Birmingham, England, that treats the country's war casualties. There she will be treated by neurosurgery specialists. Her recovery could take months, doctors said.
Authorities in Pakistan said they are moving forward with their investigation into the attack. The country's interior minister, Rehman Malik, offered a $1 million bounty Monday for Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan.
Most Pakistanis consider the Taliban murderous ideologues, and the young girl's willingness to risk her life to attend school -- despite the Taliban's opposition to education for girls-- has struck a nerve.
One of the largest rallies supporting Malala took place Sunday in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, where men, women and their children held signs that said, "Shame on you, Taliban." Others held signs condemning terrorism.
Massive posters and billboards said, "Malala, our prayers are with you." At another rally in the capital of Islamabad, protesters held candles and prayed for the girl's recovery.
More:

Palestinian status bid jeopardizes peace process: U.S.




(Reuters) - A Palestinian bid to upgrade its U.N. status to a sovereign country would jeopardize the peace process with Israel and make it difficult to get the two sides to return to talks on a two-state solution, the United States said on Monday.
But the diplomatic drive by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas received support from Russia and Arab countries at a U.N. Security Council debate on the Middle East situation.
Having failed last year to win recognition of full statehood at the United Nations, Abbas said last month he would seek a less-ambitious status upgrade at the world body to make it a "non-member state" like the Vatican.
The president of the 193-member U.N. General Assembly, Vuk Jeremic, has said the issue will likely be debated in mid-November, after the U.S. elections. Washington argues a Palestinian state can only be created through direct talks.
"Unilateral actions, including initiatives to grant Palestinians non-member state observer status at the United Nations, would only jeopardize the peace process and complicate efforts to return the parties to direct negotiations," the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, told the Security Council.
There have been no direct Palestinian talks with Israel on peace since 2010, when the Palestinians refused to resume negotiations unless the Israeli government suspended settlement building in occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
"Any efforts to use international fora to prejudge final status issues that can only be resolved directly by the parties will neither improve the daily lives of Palestinians nor foster the trust essential to make progress towards a two state solution," Rice said.
The Palestinians' current U.N. status is an "observer entity." If Abbas wins, that would change to "observer state."
JOINING INTERNATIONAL BODIES
Being registered as a state rather than an entity would mean the Palestinians could join bodies such as the International Criminal Court and file complaints against Israel for its continued occupation of land it seized in the 1967 war.
Egypt's U.N. Ambassador Mootaz Ahmadein Khalil, speaking to the council on behalf of the Arab group of countries, said it fully supported the Palestinians bid.
"We expect the General Assembly to adopt a resolution during its current session to upgrade the status of Palestine to become a 'non-member observer state,' as a first step towards reaching full membership," he said.
Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said: "We believe that the initiative to gain broad international recognition for Palestinian statehood ... complements efforts to achieve a negotiated solution to the conflict with Israel rather than serve as an alternative."
"In no case should they be used by Israel to tighten the screws in the occupied territories or exert any other pressure on the Palestinian authority," he said.
The Palestinians won admission to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in October last year, a move that prompted the United States to cut off funding to the U.N. agency.
A 1990s U.S. law prohibits U.S. funding to any U.N. organization that grants full membership to any group that does not have "internationally recognized attributes" of statehood.
The law could also prohibit American funding for any other U.N. organization that grants Palestinians full membership status, such as the International Atomic Energy Agency, which among other things monitors Iran's nuclear program.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said last month that the two-state solution was the only sustainable option for peace. But he said the continued growth of Israeli settlements meant that "the door may be closing, for good.
The so-called two-state solution involves the creation of a state of Palestine to exist peacefully alongside Israel.

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Concern for doctor detained in Dubai




SOUTH African expats in Australia have added their voices to an international chorus of concern over the welfare of renowned Cape Town doctor Professor Cyril Karabus, who has been jailed in the United Arab Emirates.
The 78-year-old oncologist was arrested at Dubai International Airport on August 18 this year after being tried and convicted in absentia on charges of manslaughter and falsifying medical documents.
The case relates to the death of a three-year-old leukaemia patient who was treated by Karabus 10 years ago, while he was working as a locum for five weeks at the Sheikh Khalifa Medical Centre in Abu Dhabi.
When his contract expired, he left the country unaware of any legal proceedings against him. The first that the former professor of paediatrics at the University of Cape Town knew of the charges and conviction was a decade later – when he was arrested while in transit at the airport eight weeks ago.
He was flying back to South Africa from Canada, where he had attended his son’s wedding.
According to Karabus’s lawyer, Michael Bagraim, not only was the child in question terminally ill and going to die regardless of treatment – a claim supported by other medical practitioners – but the documents his client is accused of falsifying can’t be found.
Having been refused bail, Karabus, who Bagraim describes as “old, frail and very sickly”, remains detained in Abu Dhabi while awaiting a retrial.
Sydney paediatrician Mark Selikowitz, who trained under Karabus, said he remembered him as “a very devoted doctor who worked at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital in Cape Town, where he set up the haematology [and] oncology unit”.
“I cannot think of a more dedicated and more committed professional,” he said. “He was absolutely devoted to his patients and their parents.”
Selikowitz said it was sad to hear stories of Karabus arriving at court hearings in a jumpsuit and shackles. “It seems a terrible way to be treating a person of his stature and reputation in what are his mature years.”
St Ives GP Dr Abirah Lipschitz knew Karabus as a medical student in South Africa. “The whole thing is unbelievable. As a doctor myself, it’s just really scary that you can be pulled up for doing something that sort of happened anyway.”
Lower North Shore resident Vernon Katz went to the same boarding school as Karabus. “We all feel sorry that this has happened, and it’s also a warning for anybody going to any of those Middle Eastern countries – they may seem civilised but perhaps there’s something still missing.”
An online petition calling for Karabus’s release has already amassed almost 11,000 signatures.
More here:

Sunday, October 14, 2012


Muslims protest 'age of mockery' as thousands descend on Google HQ



A protest by 10,000 Muslims outside the offices of Google in London today is just the first in an orchestrated attempt to force the company to remove an anti-Islamic film from website YouTube in Britain.
Thousands had travelled from as far afield as Glasgow to take part in the demonstration, ahead of a planned million-strong march in Hyde Park in coming weeks.
Anger over 'The Innocence of Muslims', an American-produced film which insults the Prophet Mohammad and demeans Muslims, according to protesters, remains available to watch on the website YouTube, a subsidiary of Google.
Organiser Masoud Alam said: "Our next protest will be at the offices of Google and YouTube across the world. We are looking to ban this film.
More here:
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