China: Army Harvesting, Selling Organs from Prisoners

Chinese army harvesting parts from Falungong inmates

Michel Comte (Agence France Presse)

China’s military is reportedly harvesting organs from prison inmates, mostly Falungong practitioners, for large scale transplants including for foreign recipients, a study said.

Canada’s former Secretary of State for the Asia Pacific region David Kilgour and human rights lawyer David Matas released a report Wednesday into such transplants after interviewing organ recipients in 30 countries.

They also interviewed Canadian hospital staff who subsequently cared for hundreds of patients after they underwent dubious transplant surgeries in China.

“The involvement of the People’s Liberation Army in these transplants is widespread,” Kilgour told a press conference…

YouTube: Let the Quran Speak

Some videos from “Let the Quran Speak“, an informational series produced by Canadian Muslims, have been posted at YouTube. They feature discussion between the hosts and Sheikh Shabir Ally, and the topics include Quran, history of Islam, and understanding how Islam is practiced. The target audience is Muslims and non-Muslims who want to know more about Islam.

Check out this one, on Little Acts of Kindness. (Little Acts of Kindness includes a nice discussion of Jumaah prayers and the khutbah that will answer many of the questions that non-Muslims have about what really happens in a mosque during Jumaah.)

These videos are very nicely produced.

You can visit www.quranspeaks.com to learn more about their mission, to comment or to offer support.

Germany: Court Issues Order to Arrest CIA Operatives For Role in Kidnapping

CIA operatives to be arrested and tried in Germany? This could get interesting.

The Bush Administration just doesn’t understand that not every country is willing to sacrifice the rule of law to fight the “War on Terrorism.”

German court orders arrest of El Masri kidnappers

(Reuters via Yahoo)

A court in Germany has ordered the arrest of 13 people suspected of being involved in the abduction of a German national who says he was kidnapped and tortured by the CIA, state prosecutors said on Wednesday.

“According to current findings, the particulars of the suspects listed in the arrest warrants suggest these could be cover identities of CIA agents,” prosecutors said in a statement.

They said a district court in Munich had issued warrants for the arrest of the 13 on suspicion of falsely imprisoning and causing grievous bodily harm to Khaled el-Masri, a German of Lebanese descent…

…Masri was arrested in Macedonia at the end of 2003 and says he was handed over to the CIA, who flew him to Afghanistan and wrongly held him until his release in late May 2004.

Masri’s lawyer, Manfred Gnjidic, said the issuing of the arrest warrants was the first sign that German authorities were now prepared to back his client against the CIA….

Italy: What Really Happens in the Confessional?

An “investigative report” on what really goes on in the Catholic confessional has put the Vatican into attack mode.

The situation is interesting on two different levels.

First, confession is a very important sacrament to Catholics, so sending a reporter into the confessional with a bunch of made-up “confessions” in order to get the priest to say something provocative is bound to be offensive.

Second, it was interesting that none of the priests are sticking to the party line set forth by the Pope. They were uniformly anti-abortion, but on other topics such as homosexuality and euthanasia, their responses were quite liberal.

Vatican enraged by magazine’s confessional expose

Philip Pullella (Reuters)

An Italian magazine report which sought to prove that what some priests tell Catholics in the confessional is not always what the Church preaches in public has enraged the Vatican.

To write the cover story in this week’s L’Espresso, reporter Riccardo Bocca visited 24 churches in five large Italian cities and confessed sins he never committed or invented ethical dilemmas for the priest…

Quebec: Town Forbids Stoning and Throwing Acid in People’s Faces

Herouxville wants immigrants that fit in with its citizens
Quebec town outlines societal ‘norms’ for would-be immigrants

Dene Moore (The Canadian Press)

A sign at the entrance of this rural Quebec town says: Herouxville welcomes you.

Unless, that is, you plan on stoning a woman to death, sending your kids to school with a kirpan or covering your face other than on Halloween.

The town council of Herouxville, a sleepy town dominated by a towering Roman Catholic church, has adopted a declaration of “norms” that it says would-be immigrants should be aware of before they settle in this town.

Among them, it is forbidden to stone women or burn them with acid…

Really? How do the people of Herouxville amuse themselves if they can’t stone women, throw acid in people’s faces and compare the size of their kirpans?

The small town, near Shawinigan in central Quebec, has only one immigrant family…

Well, that’s a shock. You’d think people would be lining up to move to such a welcoming place.

Germany: Visitors Turn Holocaust Memorial into Public Toilet

Berlin Holocaust Memorial Used as Toilet

(Der Spiegel International)

Berlin’s Holocaust Memorial has attracted millions of visitors since it was inaugurated in May 2005. However, some of these visitors have shown little respect for the memorial — and have used it as a public toilet…

Part of this nastiness can be attributed to a lack of public facilities for visitors.

But mostly, this disgusting behavior is the product of a lack of respect and (in the case of the World Cup fans) large amounts of alcohol.

Iraq: Black Gold Rush On the Way; Oil Companies Rejoice

The Black Gold Rush: Divvying Up Iraq’s Oil

Washington Dispatch: A reform law put together with lots of help from U.S. consultants could finally open Iraq’s massive reserves to ExxonMobil & Co.

James Ridgeway (Mother Jones)

The biggest story out of Iraq so far this year may not be the surge, or the latest mass bombing, or the escalating sectarian violence; it might, instead, be a decision that further complicates all of the above. Over the next few weeks, a law to reform Iraq’s oil industry — essentially the only source of income the country has aside from U.S. subsidies — is expected to move toward implementation, and the consequences could be enormous.

Coverage of the proposal has focused on the fact that it doesn’t break up the country’s oil resources, as some had suggested, to various ethnic groups — a piece for the Kurds, a piece for the Shiites, etc. But the real story may be that once the proposal is put into place, international oil companies will have a far better shot at Iraq reserves than ever before…

US: Lowered Standards to Increase Military Recruitment

At Ease [Link goes to graphic]

Elizabeth Gettelman (Mother Jones)

To keep recruitment up, over the last few years the Army has been offering new incentives and loosening enlistment rules for incoming GIs.

Of note: Waivers for serious criminal records increased by 35% between 2004 and 2005.

Germany: US Consulate Disrupting Hamburg; Blocking Street Access

Round-the-Clock Security for Skeleton Staff

Sebastian Knauer (Der Spiegel International)

In the aftermath of terrorist attacks, United States embassies around the world have been turned into fortresses. In Hamburg the US Consulate General has just four State Department staff and few duties, yet it is blocking off major streets and the round-the-clock security is costing the German taxpayers dearly…

You can view the blocked off streets here.

I know that the State Department is claiming that this disruption of an entire neighborhood is due to security issues; however, the Germans have tried to work with the DOS to find a more workable solution. They have gotten nowhere.

Liberia: All-Female UN PeaceKeepers Arrive

Female peacekeepers reach Liberia

The first all-female unit of United Nations peacekeepers has arrived in Liberia’s capital, Monrovia.

(BBC News)

Presumably, this female peacekeeping unit will not embarrass the UN with sex scandals and charges of sexual assault against the people they are supposed to be helping.

UK: Rape Cases Mishandled; Victims Ignored

Rape victims ‘failed by police and courts’

Robert Verkaik (Independent UK)

More and more rape suspects are escaping justice each year despite record numbers of women prepared to come forward to report a sex crime.

A damning report into the investigation and prosecution of rape cases in England and Wales shows that victims are being failed at almost every stage of the criminal justice system…

See also:

Rape victim: ‘I spent hours giving a 40-page statement’

Robert Verkaik (Independent UK)

Saudi Arabia: Astoundingly Stupid Child Welfare Decision

Abused Girl of Buraidah

Lulwa Shalhoub (Arab News)

Schoolteachers in Buraidah, about 300 km northwest of Riyadh, intervened on behalf of a nine-year-old student after they noticed signs of abuse, including bruises and an unkempt appearance.

“The girl is now in the children’s shelter home supervised by the Ministry of Social Affairs,” said Fahd Al-Mutlaq, president of Qasim’s Social Security Committee…

The father of the child is being treated in a mental institution, said Al-Mutlaq. The mother has a second child, a girl about two years younger, but Al-Mutlaq says she is being treated humanely by the mother and has, therefore, not been taken into state custody.

“There is no danger to the younger girl,” he said. “The mother was only abusing her older daughter.”

This sort of thing makes my head hurt. If they think this woman was abusing one child, then all children should be removed from her custody. Period.

UK: Treasury Minister’s Proposals to Make Sharia Financing Easier

The proposals aim to level the playing field between Sharia-based financing and interest-based financing by adjusting tax and insurance regulations.

Balls sets out reforms to boost Islamic finance

David Prosser (Independent UK)

The Treasury minister Ed Balls will promise today to introduce legal reforms to make it easier for Muslims in the UK to access key financial services and to give British banks more chance of competing in the booming global Islamic finance market.

Mr Balls will announce a package of measures, to be included in this year’s Finance Bill, that will overcome many of the problems faced by Muslims who live in strict accordance with the rules of sharia.

The rules bar them from paying or receiving interest, which has prevented many from obtaining traditional savings and mortgage products.

Saudi Arabia: Marriage Annulled Against the Wishes of the Husband and Wife

Saudi appeals court upholds enforced divorce

(Reuters via Yahoo)

A Saudi couple have been forced to divorce against their will by a top court because of arcane tribal customs which allowed the woman’s family to seek a split, the pair’s lawyer said on Sunday.

Abdul-Rahman Al-Lahem said the court had upheld a ruling from a lower court and backed the divorce on the basis of the man’s family background.

“The appeals court in Riyadh has supported the divorce because of ‘inappropriate lineage’,” he said in a statement…

… [His wife, Fatima,] and her two children were imprisoned for refusing to return to her family’s custody after the lower court first annulled the marriage…

Saudi Arabia rules by an austere school of Islamic law often termed Wahhabism, and judges in family courts are themselves Wahhabi religious scholars.

Lahem said the ruling contradicted the principles of sharia, Islamic law, which objects to discrimination in terms of color, nationality and race…

And Lahem is right. There are no “castes” in Islam. This court verdict is quite disturbing (although it is not surprising). And if Fatima is forced to return to the custody of her relatives, I don’t like to think of what her fate might be.

Czech Republic: Hebrew Text on Statue Vandalized

That a Jew was forced to pay for the re-creation of an inscription that violates the monotheistic tenets of Judaism is quite interesting. At the time (1600s), I’m sure it was also very humiliating. No doubt the Jewish community was probably infuriated that the man was forced to finance what amounted to blasphemy. So, could the recent vandalism of this statue in Prague harken back to this old conflict?

Controversial Hebrew text of Prague statue disappears after attack

(Agence France Presse)

Part of the controversial Hebrew inscription adorning a 17th century statue on Prague’s famous Charles Bridge has disappeared following an attack by an unknown vandal, members of the city’s heritage department told AFP…

The inscription surrounding a figure of the crucified Jesus Christ on the Saint Cross, or Calvary, statue was paid for by a Prague Jew at the end of the 17th Century as a penalty for allegedly defaming the statue…

…The text: “Holy, Holy, holy is the Lord of the disciples,” gives Jesus Christ divine status which is offensive to Jewish believers…