Archive for February 11th, 2007
US: KKK Resurgence on Tide of Anti-Immigration Sentiment
Brad Knickerbocker (The Christian Science Monitor)
The Ku Klux Klan appears to be on the rise again after years of irrelevance and splintered obscurity.
“Due to the successful exploitation of hot-button issues,” the Klan has seen “a surprising and troubling resurgence,” states a new report by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
Gay marriage and urban crime are part of the picture. But, in particular, it is the debate over what to do about the nation’s nearly 35 million immigrants, of whom about 11 million are in the US illegally, that has become the Klan’s main recruiting tool.
“If any one single issue or trend can be credited with reenergizing the Klan, it is the debate over immigration in America,” says Deborah Lauter, the ADL’s civil rights director. “New groups [are] sprouting in parts of the country that have not seen much activity.”
In addition to the South, where the Ku Klux Klan was founded by Confederate Civil War veterans in 1866, this now includes active or growing Klan chapters in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Iowa, Nebraska, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania…
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Israeli Apartheid Week Feb. 10-17, 2007
An international event. Follow the link for more details on Israeli Apartheid Week activities in USA, Canada and UK.
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China: Muslim Political Prisoner Executed; Evidence Questioned
China ‘executes’ Uighur activist
(BBC News)
An ethnic Uighur Muslim activist has been executed by China for “attempting to split the motherland”, the US-backed Radio Free Asia reports.
Ismail Semed was shot dead in the far western city of Urumqi, capital of the predominantly Muslim Xinjiang province.
The case has been criticised by rights groups who say the conviction was based mainly on his alleged links to an outlawed separatist movement.
There has been no word from Chinese authorities on the execution…
More on the situation faced by the Uighurs (an ethnic Turkic people) residing in China is available from the Uyghur American Association web site.
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Iran: Reformists Humbly Requesting US to Butt Out
Kim Murphy (Los Angeles Times)
It is a few weeks before the Iranian new year, and already the narrow market streets in south Tehran are boiling with extra shoppers. Houses must be cleaned, new curtains hung on the windows, the table laid with fresh linens. No child should leave home without new clothes and a few crisp bills in his pocket.
These neighborhoods of tight-clustered houses, dingy auto parts shops, cheap shoe stores and endless ribbons of honking, fuming cars were the bosom of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s sweep to the presidency in 2005.
“Most people voted for Ahmadinejad because he promised they would never have to feel sad again on New Year’s Eve in front of their children,” said Farshid Bakhtieri, a 21-year-old computer salesman. “Everyone right now, they feel nothing but regret…
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Saudi Arabia: Why Are Many Women Choosing the Single Life?
Theories of why many Saudi women are choosing to postpone marriage include fear of divorce, exposure to Western viewpoints, higher levels of education for women, selfishness (hers and his), abusive family history and meddling family members.
Another theory is that some Saudi women DO want to get married — just not to Saudi men. One woman claims: “Saudi men tend to be unaffectionate, fickle and just plain selfish.”
Sarah Abdullah (Arab News)
Recent studies have shown that the Saudi divorce rate is on the rise. According to a study cited last year in Asharq Al-Awsat, a sister publication of Arab News, 33 divorces occur every day. Eastern Province registers about 60 divorces each day. Riyadh registers 50 cases a day, followed by Hail (34), Jeddah (33), and Tabuk (29). Such statistics naturally encourage Saudi women to hold off on nuptials or even to put them on hold indefinitely…
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