Thursday, April 30, 2009
Those who have faith, they are disabled or mentally ill?, by Francis Chartrand
There is people in life we can not know what mental illness they caught. But still ...
"Harry Potter and this kind of literature (big book) with the" magic "replied the kind perfectionists who must control everything in their lives but who hit the nose on the realities and that's good they are always disappointed. So they escape to play characters who have the "power" on people and events. Fabulent and they will enjoy a small consolation when writing the Bible gives us the character's most powerful, Jesus. Fortunately that Potter was far behind in the list of most sold books in the world "- forum on JP-chretien.com
"You is not gay Baptist, you are in fact victims of a sinful temptation, that of the homosexual. Especially not you ever consider as being homosexual, trying with all your heart to fight against that temptation, and Christ knows that nothing is impossible. "- Majestic forum on chretien.com
"This salary is other than AIDS that we often forget that its origin is homosexuality. This is why AIDS is a disease that will always incurable, simply because it was a divine punishment. Excuse me but you can not have tolerance for anything and everything. "- Levangile777 forum on chretien.com
( "Another states that the carbon 14 dating is a matter of interpretation. He said that nuclear physics is not blank ...) "That's your interpretation ... of scientist - Another Top Chrétien on Forum
Well first, when I say that I am thologien, historian and bla bla bla, it's not by degrees I justify this, but my attachment to these areas, period. - Another Top Chrétien on Forum
A touch of ethnocentrism:
(Background: we wonder if the ancestral Maledives are heresies).
"Absolutely, you will notice that these beliefs are mostly spread among the African Christians who think it is cultural as well. - Forum on Tinina Top Chrétien
"This issue for those who dispute the possibility of the existence of a" Triune God ", I remind them that for example if" UAE "written in three letters or three typographical as" H2O "in the language of a chemist, we should conclude that water can appear in three different forms namely concrete, a liquid, solid ice and gas in vapor form." - Site" Bible and numbers "
"I have another problem with the famous" continental drift ". Why is there no elephant, giraffe, hippopotamus, rhinoceros in South America as in Africa? You will answer me that it is because they have disappeared long ago in America and not Africa. Allow me to contradict myself constateur the simple things that everyone can take it with me. First there are the same types of climates from northern Argentina to northern Mexico, and vast areas virtually uninhabited. Then, the Americas were inhabited by very late man in relation to other continents, so there was no competition for large animals. Even if he had to cross the arm of the sea, all these animals can swim! - " Gillovy "on forum Topchrétien
"I am fighting against the devil and evil spirits with a few friends, spirits and jinn, which helped, but I had to take the drug because the psychiatrist did not want to get out of closed treatment in hospital since then, apart from a brief stop in 94, I take a drug, they can not get when I am not receptive, it can not crucify me." - " Gaetan "on forum Sceptiques Quebec
"Me I need to know that virtually no scientific or n'étudie use the theory of evolution in this work (except to make the plug-in) to conclude that evolution is a belief and not a theory understood and supported by the scientific community." - " KingJosias "on top Christian forum
"Science has taught us long ago that are carnivores because they no longer have the enzymes needed to digest certain components of the vegetation, or vice versa." - " D. Gasser, on top Christian forum
"I always ask a question ... Why are scientific as it rejects the establishment and acceptance as it changes ... Knowing that neither one nor the other is provable by a + b and that changes must also be called "Theory of evolution" as it is, I think he still theory and is trying to collect what seems to be "done" to derive a more "logical" ... "-" Fabien ", on top Christian forum
"I read the bible is the best scientific tool because it agrees with science." - " Adventist ", Forum on Religion
"ME I DON'T GIVE A FUCK (modo) IF GOD WANTS YOU IN HELL BECAUSE YOU HATE HIM I CAN NOT DO ANYTHING TO SAVE YOU. VOUS VOUS RAPPELLERAI DE MOI MAIS EN ENFER. YOU'LL REMEMBER ME BUT TO HELL. NOT BECAUSE YOU LIKE WHAT YOU LOVE. NEXT TIME I GIVE YOU THE DEFINITION OF HELL, THAT WAY YOU AN IDEA ON YOUR DESTINATION." - " LECHEMAINDROIT ", Forum on Religion
"What is evolution? It is a theory based on the unholy thought that the explanation of the origin of life can be a theist. Based on this principle laid down in rule, a materialistic atheistic (such mechanism) has been developed in concurrence with the design expressed by the biblical Genesis. Taking its starting point in the fabrications of the apostate Darwin Ch 1 (and a few others) as working hypotheses, a scenario 2 scientistic considering modification and improvement of species and it has been imagined "- gillovy forum TopChrétien.
The great confession of a creationist speaker:
"I don't care about his opinions [of the Intelligent Design proponent Michael Behe] and the views of creationists or evolutionists."- Julien P.aka Josiah and KingJosias "on the forum Sceptiques Quebec.
There are two elements in a couple, then God exists:
"Prove the contrary, prove that there are no pairs? if you find that is true of each element there are a couple, it means that God exists, if not, god no! this is your chance atheists!!" - " LECHEMAINDROIT ", Forum on Religion
"Of course man has cotoyé these fantastic beasts that are known dinosaur, although I am convinced that it was made of species of dinosaurs, whales, elephants, lizards and large birds. Moreover it was discovered that evidence of cohabitation in the fossils of the same geological layer. We must tell the truth and stop the misinformation! Because if the lie was punishable by law, there would be much more evolutionary in freedom!" - " Gillovy "on the Forum Topchretien
"An acquaintance who claims to rid themselves from the biblical teaching satanic claims the right to autonomy (I remind your kind thought that creationism is the official doctrine of the Church of the Apostles until today ... No father apostolic fathers of the Church, Doctor of the Reformation has supported an alternative explanation than that of Genesis, which is crucial to lay the foundations for understanding the functioning of the universe where we are .... Who can say it a cure?) Why autonomous thinking is it satanic? because it is based on .... Did God really say? Doubt, a search for a different understanding, a different interpretation." - " Gillovy "on the Forum Topchretien
"The true believer accepts to make a clean sweep of human ideas and to welcome those of God in the place. And believe me, when someone has received God himself in his life, the veil of ignorance and poor reasoning falls blind and his eyes open to consider how the truth is simple, beautiful and accessible ... so it is there in his eyes and he wondered how he had done so far to not see it! Our intelligence is renewed by the Holy Spirit of God and we finally understand things, how the world was made, how it works and how it eventually. Evolutionist propaganda seems so frivolous and vain that it ends soon by classify science-fiction mythology and post-scientific." - " Gillovy "on the Forum Topchretien
"If evolution was represented by a person, after these facts, you require the care of your property? If you were an employer, you commit? How can we trust any logic in this false science?"- J. Michel, comment on an article in the newspaper La Vie Rurale.
"Creationism is conveyed through scientific journals published by research centers creationists, via the Internet, via the debates in colleges and universities, etc ..." - Josiah, comment on an article in the newspaper La Vie Rurale.
"[T] he man was created to serve and not to be the master. The great seduction of 60 years was to believe that man can be free. Jesus reminds us of the truth, man was created to be under the government of God is under the government of money. The "free spirit" does not exist in the kingdom of God. - Impact Zone Blog, 1 April 2008
"What some theologians have taken on account of the" methodical doubt "of Descartes is unfortunately true. (...) For my part, I do not trust these pseudo-scientists of the Bible, these douteurs professional, the unbelievers in Christian clothing. I would never allow my old Bible, who followed me - and I tried to follow during my earthly pilgrimage, and be "eaten by the myths!" - Guillaume JC - Are there any myths in the Bible?
"[...] Participants display of" avatars "(images that forumeurs choose to represent) clearly demonic matching each message or a link to their site, like this young woman advocating lesbianism, the "conversion to atheism" and another glorification of suicide (sic) - but moderation is silent." - Site Voxdei on the forum topchretien.
"Do not forget that quantum mechanics can explain things quite large, such as the killer waves (waves of 20-30m high) that were impossible for classical physics." - " Yoda " on the Forum Topchretien
"0 = + m-m
= Should be read as a symbol of identity m anything (apple, man, god, music ...) + m-m and the expression of balance, which is universal.
For this truly magical, though infinitely simple, there is nothing that we did everything !!!!!!!!! So I believe that this scholar has fully answered questions about the identity of God, on the way up and on that of evolution. I personally do not see nothing to say more, or to explain any further." - Fabio, on the Forum Topchretien
"How to give a proof of the existence of God is above all a personal encounter with him with an open heart ready to give him access to all our lives for my part I was a hurry for without God there not but I started to do black magic and it did not bring peace but on the contrary one day I do encounter a Christian and m'ainvitée to come to church and I 've heard many stories but I could not really believe it made me worry and one evening in my room alone I have prayed and I asked forgiveness and I talk with God as a friend when I destémoignages had heard people crying and said they had felt peace n'aivaient they never felt so I foolishly waited all that I cry but nothing has happened I went to bed sad but always persévérence j got again the next night and has nothing; gold I thought I could not will not have forgiveness and above all the peace that I had since the practice of black magic then again the next night I did not update genous I am lying very very sad and I said I did not have the right because of what I did and all of a sudden I started crying and feeling resents the top of my head up toes and a peace I had never Wind fears and all my fears angoises that I lived a few years since we lost and that peace has never left and I have lived through extraordinary avecDieu an adventure so wonderful that is why it can not be explained that this is living with his heart, it is a personal decission must believe it just like a child the world wants proof God has already given proof look around you life is a miracle, but know that we are responsible for our actions God has given us the intelligence and choice of our actions we will meet un jour y God is not responsible for what we come c.est the world chosen and we accept them or not "- Choupette on the Forum Topchretien
"We have 10 or 100 billion neurons, and we only use a small part:" 5000 neurons. It is the scientists tell us. For me, I think that is a consequence of original sin. - Titou on Topchretien Forum
"You think it is possible to select pigs finally over several billion years be a pig the size of the city of Chicago? I think not.'' - Science Building on the Forum Topchretien (See also Samizdat, the site of Creation Science for an incalculable number of beads).
And Creation Science is doing it on that other thread, the same argument: the pig the size of the city of Chicago refutes evolution.
"While scientists are not evil Satanists attempting to corrupt the world, but ultimately one that does not belong to God belongs to the Devil. " - Saimoune on the Forum Topchretien
Link
Labels: Francis Chartrand, Human mistake, Science and theory
Did Jesus ever lied?, by Iba Bouramine
Jesus lied in John, Chapter 7.
In John, chapter seven, there is talk of a banquet which the disciples go. Jesus said he will not go to the party, but then went there on the sly.
In french, we have the translation Sower:
The world has no reason to hate you, but me it hates me because I testify that his actions are bad. So, go to the feast, for my part, I'm not going to [b] because the time has not yet come for me. After having said this, he remained in Galilee. But when his brothers were gone for the feast, he gave him, but secretly, without showing.
And b we note that "Some manuscripts have: I'm not going."
And Louis Segond, actually:
Mount you, in this celebration, for me, I did mount, because my time is not yet completed. After having said this, he remained in Galilee. When his brothers were fitted to the party, it climbed as himself, not publicly, but as in secret.
Bayard in the translation is even more pronounced:
Rendez-vous at the party, I will not go, the opportunity is not there yet. (...) Yet, once his brethren to the party, he went there too, not in broad daylight, but as in secret.
In English version VIN:
Therefore Jesus told them, “The right time for me has not yet come; for you any time is right. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that what it does is evil. You go to the Feast. I am not [yet] going up to this Feast, because for me the right time has not yet come.” Having said this, he stayed in Galilee. However, after his brothers had left for the feast, he went also, not publicly, but in secret.
The "yet" was added. Some try to explain it by saying that Jesus said he did not go with those who came to invite him.
The King James Version offers another explanation. The passage is phrased as if Jesus first mentioned the "feast" (feast) as the afterlife or something like:
Go ye up unto this feast: I go not up yet unto this feast: for my time is not yet full come. When he had said these words unto them, he abode still in Galilee. But when his brethren were gone up, then went he also up unto the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret.
The American Standard Version does not "yet":
Go up to the feast yourselves; I do not go up to this feast because (K) My time has not yet fully come. "9Having said these things to them, He stayed in Galilee. 10But when His (L) brothers had gone up to the feast, then HeHimself also went up, not publicly, but as if, in secret.
Jesus lied about his return
It puts into the mouth of Jesus words concerning the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven and the return of the messiah. For example in Luke:
Then they see the Son of Man coming on a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin to happen, straighten up and raise your heads, because your delivery approach. - Luke 21:32 (emphasis added)
Jesus told his disciples that they will return, as many will be still alive when he returns:
For the son of man comes in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then travel to each according to his conduct. Verily I say unto you: There are a few of those here who point not taste death until they see the son of man coming in his kingdom. Mat. 16:27-28. (Trad. Darby)
Link
Labels: Iba Bouramine, Religion and fanaticism, Science and theory
Pakistan: The Taliban are running a couple in front of the camera, by Francis Chartrand
Telegraph: The execution of a couple accused of adultery by the Taliban is filmed
They had a sordid death, riddled with bullets by the Taliban in a field near their home, their execution was filmed with a mobile phone.
In these images that the Pakistanis have watched with horror, the couple tried to escape after he realized what was about to happen. But a gunman slaughters nonchalantly man and woman in a burst of gunfire in the back, leaving them bloody in the dust.
Moments later, when individuals present at the execution shout they are still alive, the gunman returned and complete coldly by other bursts.
Their "crime" was an alleged liaison in their remote village in the mountains controlled by militants in a region that until recently was under government control. Such barbarism has increased across Pakistan with the rise of the Taliban.
But now that the men in black turbans are almost on the outskirts of Islamabad, the images showed few Pakistanis living in cities which could now expect.
Admiral Mike Mullen, Chief of the major arms of the United States, warned that Islamic extremists could take over the country.
In recent days, the images were circulated among the Pakistanis, who normally showed little interest in the brutal practices of the remote border regions.
They are now beginning to wake up to the fear that rebels in those regions that are linked to Al-Qaeda could take control of their nation.
The execution occurred in the district of Hangu, in the province of North West Frontier (PFNO), about two hours drive from Peshawar, the regional capital. The couple was executed by a local group of Pakistani Taliban, the Islamic militia that swept the PFNO in its march towards the capital Islamabad.
"The Taliban are strong and confident, the government is weak and hesitant," said Pervez Hoodbhoy, a professor at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad and one of the leading intellectuals of Pakistan.
"A victory for the Taliban reduce our women to slavery, destroy the rich historical and cultural heritage of Pakistan, will make education and science impossible, and the lives of citizens will be incredibly difficult. Some are already planning an exodus. "
Pakistan is now on the verge of the abyss and risk anarchy. The agreement signed with the desperate Taliban in Swat appears near collapse. The result will almost certainly be violence. Saturday morning, an army convoy en route to Swat was arrested by the Taliban and forced to turn in an open demonstration of their power.
The peace agreement appears to have only emboldened them. Many people think that a bloody military operation now seems inevitable.
Those living in the regions fell into the hands of the Taliban are terrified by the cruelty of their administration.
A text message sent SOS Friday terrified by a resident of a region called Swat Bahrain, said that the Taliban have established full control. Asking not to be named for fear of reprisals, he said they have set up checkpoints at the entrance to Bahrain where they kidnap who they want, including young women.
"They even warned the schools to close classes for girls, otherwise the consequences would be terrible. But the government says it has jurisdiction over Swat.
Another resident of Swat, said: "Every day I see armed Taliban movement. At the time of prayer, if they see someone in his shop or walking on the street, they strike with a stick."
The Pakistani Taliban, clones of the extremist movement in Afghanistan, has long controlled the tribal region along the Afghan border, a haven for militants, including al Qaeda. But it is progressing towards the center of the country which has shocked ordinary Pakistanis and the world. And the threat comes not only from the Taliban to the west. Islamic extremists, who are not part of the Taliban movement, are already firmly established in Islamabad and across the Punjab, the most populous province, apparently ready to show their time.
Islamabad's defenses were fortified emergency and paramilitary troops have been stationed on the Margalla hills overlooking the city from the west. In the capital, the radical Red Mosque has thousands of followers, and there are now open calls for Islamic revolution in Friday sermons.
"The Taliban will not stop in Swat. They will go to Islamabad," said Hasan Askari Rizvi, a military analyst based in Lahore. "If the army is taking action against them, it will be a bloody battle. And the civilian government will be aside."
"Extremist groups based in Islamabad will emerge from the inside and they (the Taliban) will increase the pressure from outside."
The video Pakistanis watching their shows what they can expect. A local journalist was invited to attend the execution, and he filmed with his mobile phone to the Pakistani channel Dawn News. The Sunday Telegraph shows the sequence to the West for the first time.
The two victims are not named.
"The use of media is part of their (the Taliban) psychological warfare," said Imtiaz Gul, president of the Center for Research and Security Studies, an independent think tank in Islamabad. "In this way, they spread fear in the minds of those who would oppose them, reducing the majority of people to silence."
After the couple was killed, families were told to remove the body for burial. The punishment was administered by a local group linked to Pakistani Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud.
Source: Taliban gunmen shooting dead for adultery couple caught on camera, Telegraph, 26 April 2009
Labels: Francis Chartrand, Islam, Pakistan, Religion and fanaticism, Sharia
Saturday, April 25, 2009
UK population must fall to 30m, says Porritt, by Noémie Cournoyer
JONATHON PORRITT, one of Gordon Brown’s leading green advisers, is to warn that Britain must drastically reduce its population if it is to build a sustainable society.
Porritt’s call will come at this week’s annual conference of the Optimum Population Trust (OPT), of which he is patron.
The trust will release research suggesting UK population must be cut to 30m if the country wants to feed itself sustainably.
Porritt said: “Population growth, plus economic growth, is putting the world under terrible pressure.
“Each person in Britain has far more impact on the environment than those in developing countries so cutting our population is one way to reduce that impact.”
Population growth is one of the most politically sensitive environmental problems. The issues it raises, including religion, culture and immigration policy, have proved too toxic for most green groups.
However, Porritt is winning scientific backing. Professor Chris Rapley, director of the Science Museum, will use the OPT conference, to be held at the Royal Statistical Society, to warn that population growth could help derail attempts to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Rapley, who formerly ran the British Antarctic Survey, said humanity was emitting the equivalent of 50 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere each year.
“We have to cut this by 80%, and population growth is going to make that much harder,” he said.
Such views on population have split the green movement. George Monbiot, a prominent writer on green issues, has criticised population campaigners, arguing that “relentless” economic growth is a greater threat.
Many experts believe that, since Europeans and Americans have such a lopsided impact on the environment, the world would benefit more from reducing their populations than by making cuts in developing countries.
This is part of the thinking behind the OPT’s call for Britain to cut population to 30m — roughly what it was in late Victorian times.
Britain’s population is expected to grow from 61m now to 71m by 2031. Some politicians support a reduction.
Phil Woolas, the immigration minister, said: “You can’t have sustainability with an increase in population.”
The Tory leader, David Cameron, has also suggested Britain needs a “coherent strategy” on population growth.
Despite these comments, however, government and Conservative spokesmen this weekend both distanced themselves from any population policy. ”
Link
Labels: Human mistake, Noémie Cournoyer, United Kingdom
Slash population to save the world: green lobbyist, by Anne Humphreys
Australia should consider having a one-child policy to protect the planet, an environmental lobby group says.
Sustainable Population Australia says slashing the world's population is the only way to avoid "environmental suicide".
National president Sandra Kanck wants Australia's population of almost 22 million reduced to seven million to tackle climate change.
And restricting each couple to one baby, as China does, is "one way of assisting to reduce the population".
"It's something we need to throw into the mix," the former Democrats parliamentarian told AAP.
More people means more coal-fired electricity, cars, houses, water use and food production, all of which increase greenhouse gas emissions, she said.
Ms Kanck, who has one child herself, expects her campaign will receive a hostile reaction.
"The Catholic church is going to be in like Flynn on an argument like this."
Sustainable Population Australia, which has about 1300 members, is so worried about climate change it is preparing a formal submission to the United Nations.
It has also applied to attend high-profile world climate talks in Copenhagen in December.
Australia's population has been increasing steadily and the Federal Government plans to continue the trend, largely through immigration.
The world's population stands at 6.7 billion, according to the US Census Bureau.
"Increasing the population is basically suicide, it's environmental suicide, it's utterly irresponsible," Ms Kanck said.
"We are eating away at the planet, we are eating into all the resources, be it petrol, be it superphosphate, be it clear air."
Ms Kanck also suggested Australia scrap the baby bonus, and restrict paid maternity leave and IVF to the first baby only, to discourage large families.
She did not suggest restrictions to immigration, saying Australia should take responsibility for cutting its own population instead of barring entry to others.
China introduced its one-child policy in 1979.
A Chinese academic visiting Canberra last week said the policy had avoided 300 million births and had therefore made a major contribution to the fight against climate change.
Link
Labels: Anne Humphreys, Australia, Human mistake
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Denmark: Cousin marriages account for third of babies with rare genetic diseases, by Francis Chartrand
Denmark: Cousin marriages account for third of babies with rare genetic diseases
Meanwhile, in the Netherlands (NL) Amsterdam Alderman Lodewijk Asscher is suggesting to ban cousin marriages. This is not the first time this proposal comes up. Asscher writes in an opinion piece in De Volkskrant that many problems with retarded boys are solved with import brides, who are brought to the Netherlands to serve a sort of life imprisonment as a carer/spouse. Addtionally, he says that there are 1200 children in Amsterdam who are sent by their parents to school in their homeland.
Every year 25 children are born with rare genetic diseases. A third of them come from ethnic minority family, where the father and mother often have close family relations.
According to Sygeplejersken (Nurse) journal, the risk for cousin couples to have children with a handicap or genetic disease is double the average.
Karen Brøndum-Nielsen, a professor in clinical genetic for the Kennedy Institute explains. "When you find a spouse who is related, the risk for that person to have the same sick gene as yourself is much higher than if you find one who's not from the family."
Cousin marriages is most common in families with Pakistani and Turkish roots.
A Norwegian study from 2007 shows that a third of Pakistanis and a tenth of Turks are married with a cousin.
And it will take a long time to change that says Karen Brøndum-Nielsen. She says the practice is widespread in the Muslim culture and especially in the Middle East countries, and it is not something one can just change.
Link
Labels: Denmark, Francis Chartrand, Islam
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Rights groups challenge Iran leader at racism meet, by Francis Chartrand
GENEVA (AFP) — Human rights groups on Sunday challenged President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to eliminate severe discrimination in Iran, ahead of his arrival at a UN conference against racism and intolerance in Geneva.
The International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), the Baha'i International Community (BIC) and the Iranian League for Human Rights (LDDHI) said Ahmadinejad must tackle discrimination against religious and ethnic minorities, women, and halt incitement to hatred.
"By coming to the Durban Review Conference, President Ahmadinejad signals a commitment to the conference's goals of eliminating all forms of discrimination and intolerance," said Diane Ala'i, the BIC's representative at the UN in Geneva.
"His first move on returning home, then, should be to address the severe discrimination and persecution that have flourished under his tenure," she added.
Ahmadinejad is the most prominent head of state scheduled to address the opening of the UN review conference on Monday, which is being boycotted by the United States, Israel, Canada, Australia and the Netherlands.
His virulent anti-Israel statements and comments casting doubt on the Holocaust have prompted fears that his speech could overshadow the primary aim of the conference, to take stock of racial discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance around the world.
The rights groups said religious discrimination was widespread in Iran, notably affecting Baha'is, Christians, Jews, Sufis, Sunni Muslims, and other minorities, through arbitrary arrests, intimidation and harassment.
They also accused Iranian government-controlled media of fomenting hatred against Bahai's, and warned that repression against activists belonging to ethnic minorities including the Kurds was "rising dramatically".
"Human rights have sharply deteriorated in Iran under the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities, as well as against women, are of grave concern," said Karim Lahidji of LDDHI.
The human rights groups called on governments taking part in the conference, as well as the media, to hold Ahmadinejad accountable for violations in Iran.
Link
Labels: Francis Chartrand, Hostile races, Human rights, Iran
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Sikh teen gets absolute discharge for assault with hairpin, by Marie-Êve Marineau
MONTREAL — A Sikh teen won't have a criminal record after he was granted an absolute discharge on a conviction on one charge of assault with a hairpin.
The local Sikh community expressed relief Wednesday that the judge in the case also acquitted the 13-year-old on two other assault charges — including one that stemmed from the alleged use of a ceremonial dagger on a classmate in Montreal last September.
Youth court Judge Gilles Ouellet said there was enough reasonable doubt created by contradictory testimony for the acquittals.
That came as a relief to community members who have seen the dagger, known as a kirpan, come under increased public scrutiny in recent years.
“The community is happy in the sense that the case has nothing to do with the kirpan,” said Ishan Singh, a community member and friend of the accused's family.
“A kirpan has never been nor will it ever be a threatening weapon. A kirpan is a religious object and it is sacred to the culture and the religion and in that case (the ruling is) a relief to the community.”
But Judge Ouellet said there was “technically” enough evidence to convict on the single assault charge.
However, Judge Ouellet said he gave the unconditional discharge because it is time for everyone involved to move on.
That means the youngster will not have a criminal record.
The pin, which is not a religious object, is used to tuck loose strands of hair into a turban.
The spat took place off school grounds in Montreal last Sept. 11 and stemmed from a tale of jealousy over the friendship of a mutual schoolyard chum.
The two victims were angered that a friend preferred to play with the accused instead of wanting to hang around with them.
They alleged that the Sikh teen assaulted them by threatening them with the hairpin and one of them said he was poked with the kirpan, which was wrapped in a cloth and worn by the accused near the waist under clothes.
The accused had received the kirpan only days before the alleged incident after being baptized.
In his ruling, Judge Ouellet said the case would have been better served by the mediation process and that it may not have ended up in court had all the parties come from the same background.
Defence lawyer Julius Grey agreed.
“I think the boys came from different millieus and the parents didn't understand each other and they did not have the way open to them to sit down and work it out amongst themselves,” Mr. Grey said.
But the Crown questioned the timing of Judge Ouellet's remarks.
“I don't think those comments were appropriate ... especially given the evidence the judge saw,” said Sylvie Lemieux, adding her office will review the ruling before deciding whether to appeal.
The kirpan was returned to the teen Wednesday but the hairpin was ordered destroyed.
In 2006, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down a Montreal school board's ban on the wearing of the kirpan. The school attended by the accused and the alleged victims in the case is part of the same board.
“I think (this case) would have gotten a bit less media attention if it had not been a Sikh boy and certainly if it not had involved a kirpan,” Mr. Singh said.
“But maybe a lot more people know about the religion know and understand better the religious value a kirpan holds.”
Link
Labels: Canada, Marie-Êve Marineau, Québec, Religion and fanaticism, Sikh
'I'm not a pirate, I'm the saviour of the sea', by Francis Chartrand
Boyah is a pirate. One of the original “Old Boys”, he quietly pursued his trade in the waters of his coastal home town of Eyl, years before it galvanised the world's imagination as Somalia's infamous “pirate haven”. Boyah is dismissive of the recent poseurs, the headline-grabbers who have bathed in the international media spotlight and it shows; he exudes a self-assured superiority.
Pirates are easy to spot on the streets of Garowe, the regional capital: their Toyota 4x4s cluster around equally new white-washed mansions on the edge of town. But to approach them, I am warned, is to invite kidnapping or robbery. In Somalia, everything is done through connections, be they clan, family, or friend, and Mohamed, my interpreter, was on and off the phone for almost a week to coax his network into producing Boyah.
Our meeting takes place at a virtually deserted farm 15km outside Garowe. Mohamed is the son of the newly elected president of Puntland and does not want to be seen in public cavorting with pirates. Moreover, Boyah has recently contracted tuberculosis and Mohamed insists that we meet him in an open space.
As we step out of our vehicles, I catch my first glimpse of Boyah. Immensely tall and disconcertingly menacing, he is wearing a ma'awis, the traditional robe of a clan elder, and a cimaamad, a decorative shawl. On his feet is a pair of shiny onyx leather sandals. He weaves his way around the tomato plants and lemon trees, before settling in a shady clearing, where he squats down. Other than the farm's owners, there is no one near by, yet the two AK-47-toting police escorts, who accompany me wherever I go, stand guard with an amusing military officiousness.
Asking my first question through my interpreter, I hesitate to use the word “pirate”. Somali pirates are aware enough of themselves in the international media that the word has become part of their vernacular but its closest Somali translation is burcad badeed, which means “ocean robber”, a political statement I am anxious to avoid. Boyah likes to refer to him and his comades as badaadinta badah, “saviours of the sea”, a term that is most often translated in the English-speaking media as “coastguard”. Boyah jokes that he is the “Chief of the Coastguard”, a title he evokes with pride. To him, his actions have been about protecting his sea; his hijackings, a legitimate form of taxation levied in abstentia on behalf of a defunct government that he represents in spirit, if not in law.
His story is typical of many who have turned to piracy since the onset of the civil war. Fourteen years ago, he was still working as a lobster diver in Eyl - “one of the best”, he says. Since then, according to Boyah, these reefs off Eyl have been devastated by foreign fishing fleets - mostly Chinese, Taiwanese and Korean - using steel-pronged dragnets. He says that there are no longer lobsters to be found locally, a claim partially corroborated by a 2005 UN Development Project report into the depletion of local stocks.
From 1995 to 1997, Boyah and others captured three foreign fishing vessels, keeping the catch and ransoming the crew. He boasts that he received an $800,000 bounty for one ship. When the foreign fishing fleets entered into protection contracts with local warlords, making armed guards and anti-aircraft guns fixtures on ships, Boyah and his men went after commercial shipping vessels instead.
Boyah says that there are about 500 pirates operating in the area, over whom he serves as “chairman”. Eyl's pirate groups function as a loose confederation, and Boyah is a key organiser, recruiter, financier and mission commander, rather than a traditional crime boss, but he claims that all applicants for the position of Pirate (Eyl Division) must come to him. Boyah's sole criteria for a recruit are that he has to own a gun, and that he must “[be] a hero, and accept death” - qualities that grace the CVs of many local youth.
Turnover in Boyah's core group is low; when I ask if his men ever use their new-found wealth to leave Somalia, he laughs: “The only way they leave is when they die.” He adds that a member of his band departed last night, dying in his sleep of undisclosed reasons.
When it comes to targets, Boyah's standards are not very exacting. He says that his men go after any ship that wanders into their sights. He separates his prey into “commercial” and “tourist” ships. The commercial ships, identifiable by the cranes on their decks, are slower and easier to capture. Boyah has gone after too many of these to remember. He claims to employ different tactics for different ships, but the basic strategy is that several skiffs will approach from all sides, swarming like a waterborne wolfpack. If brandishing their weapons fails to frighten the ship's crew into stopping, they fire into the air. If that doesn't do it, and if the target ship is incapable of outperforming the 85 to 150 horsepower engines on their skiffs, they pull alongside their target, toss hooked rope ladders on to the decks and board the ship. Resistance is rare.
Boyah guesses that 20 to 30 per cent of attempted hijackings succeed. Speedy prey, technical problems, and foreign naval or domestic coastguard intervention account for the high rate of failure.
Captured ships are steered to Eyl, where guards and interpreters are brought to look after the hostages during the ransom negotiation. Once secured, the money - often routed through banks in London and Dubai and parachuted directly on to the deck of the ship - is split: half goes to the hijackers, a third to the investors who fronted cash for the ships and weapons, and 20 per cent to everyone else, from the guards to the translators (occasionally high school students on a summer break). Some money is also given as charity to the local poor; such largesse, Boyah tells me, has turned his merry band into Robin Hood figures.
When I ask where his men have obtained their training, he pithily responds that it comes “from famine”. This isn't the whole truth. Beginning in 1999, the government of Puntland launched a series of ill-fated attempts to establish an (official) regional Coastguard, efforts that each time ended with the dissolution of the contracting company and the dismissal of its employees. The new generation of Somali pirates - better trained, more efficiently organised and possessing superior equipment - can be traced in part to these failed experiments. When pressed, Boyah confirms that some of his men are former coastguard recruits, and he reveals another detail of the interwoven dynamic between pirates, coastguards and fishermen. He claims that the Puntland Coastguard of the late 1990s and early 2000s worked as a private militia for the protection of commercial trawlers in possession of official “fishing licences”, alienating local fishermen. Sometimes the situation escalated into confrontation and Boyah recounts that in 2001 his men seized several fishing vessels “licensed” by President Abdullahi Yusuf and protected by his coastguard force. Almost a decade before the rise in pirate hijackings hit the Gulf of Aden, the conditions for the coming storm were already recognisable.
Boyah's moral compass, like his body, seems to be split between sea and shore. “We're not murderers,” he says, “we've never killed anyone.” He warns me, half-jokingly, not to run into him in a boat, but assures me that he is quite harmless on land. He insists that he is not a criminal but that he knows what he is doing is wrong.
Boyah hasn't been on a mission for more than two months, for which he has a two-pronged explanation: “I got sick and became rich.” He has called for an end to hijackings albeit from a position of luxury that most do not enjoy. I ask him whether his ceasefire was motivated by the recent deployment to the region of a Nato task force. “No,” he says, “it has nothing to do with that. It's a moral issue. We realised that we didn't have public support.” That support, according to Boyah, took a plunge last summer when a delegation of clan and religious leaders visited Eyl and declared that dealing with pirates is haram - religiously forbidden. Nato deliberations regarding possible missile strikes on Eyl, though, do not worry Boyah: “Only civilians live there, it would be illegal for them to attack. If they do...that's OK. We believe in God. Force alone cannot stop us,” he says vehemently, “we don't care about death.”
Throughout our interview, Boyah has looked uninterested but when I ask him to recount his most exhilarating raid, he brightens up, launching into the story of the Golden Nori. In October 2007, he captured the Japanese chemical tanker about eight nautical miles off the northern Somali coast, only to be surrounded by the US Navy. Boyah recalls seven naval vessels encircling him. He recites by rote the identification numbers marking the sides of four of the vessels: 41, 56, 76, and 78 (the last being the destroyer USS Porter). Fortunately for them, the Golden Nori was carrying volatile chemicals, including the extremely flammable compound benzene.
The stand-off dragged on for months and he claims that they “almost abandoned the ship so we wouldn't start eating the crew”. Eventually, Boyah ordered the ship into the harbour at Bosasso, Puntland's big port and most populous city. In case the Nori's explosive cargo proved an insufficient deterrent, Boyah added the defensive screen provided by the presence of the city's civilian population.
His perseverance paid off. After extensive negotiations, a ransom of $1.5million was secured for the ship and its crew. The US military guaranteed Boyah and his team safe passage off the hijacked ship and Puntland's security forces could only watch as US gunships escorted the pirate skiffs to land and allowed them to disembark. Why did he and his men trust the Americans? “Because that was the agreement,” Boyah says. But I already know the real answer. Like many Western nations, the Americans wouldn't have known what to do with Boyah and his men if they had captured them. According to international law - to the extent that international law has any meaning in an utterly failed state - the Americans were not even supposed to be in Somali territorial waters.
The Golden Nori hijacking took place before the international community had become aware of the piracy problem, when foreign navies tended to give them a slap on the wrist. More recently, concerned states have begun to use the international legal instruments available - particularly a UN Security Council Resolution allowing entry into Somali waters - more rigorously. Foreign warships are increasingly excluding, detaining and rendering suspected pirates to neighbouring countries to face justice.
In April 2008, Boyah's gang seized a French luxury yacht on route from the Seychelles to the Mediterranean - what he refers to as a “tourist” ship. Boyah calls it the “Libant,” a clumsy fusion of its French name, Le Ponant. After delivering a ransom and freeing the hostages, French helicopters tracked the pirates to the village of Jariban. On the orders of President Sarkozy, French commandos laun ched “Operation Thalathine”: Special Forces snipers disabled the pirates' getaway vehicle and captured six men, later flying them to Paris to face trial. Such a determined pursuit was once a rarity but that incident, along with US use of navy SEAL snipers to kill pirates holding Captain Richard Phillips hostage this week, illustrates that the international community is now taking piracy more seriously. But a military solution alone is incapable of completely eradicating piracy off the Somali coast-certainly not one which is economically or politically feasible. Boyah's men have been captured or killed with increasing frequency (his brother is sitting in a local prison), yet imprisoning them is almost useless: for each pirate captured, there are dozens of young men desperate to replace them.
If there is a solution to the problem, it lies in economic principles: the cost-benefit analysis for these men must be shifted from piracy to more legitimate pursuits. Naval battle fleets can do their part to boost the “cost” side, but without the “benefit” of meaningful occupations on land, there will be no permanent resolution.
Boyah may have accumulated a small fortune, but how long his current state of affluence will last is unclear - he announces with pride how he has given his money away to his friends, to the poor and how he didn't build a house or a hotel like many of his more parsimonious co-workers. When asked about his future plans, Boyah is evasive. “That is up to the international community,” he says, “they need to solve the problem of illegal fishing, the root of our troubles. We are waiting for action.”
Link
Labels: Francis Chartrand, Obama, Religion and fanaticism, Somalia, United States
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
DR Congo: Brutal Rapes by Rebels and Army, by Noémie Cournoyer
(New York) - Rwandan rebel forces, government army soldiers, and their allies have raped at least 90 women and girls since late January 2009 in the volatile North and South Kivu provinces of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Human Rights Watch said today. The Rwandan rebel forces have also been implicated in the deaths of most of the 180 civilians killed during this period.
The United Nations Security Council will discuss on April 9 the latest report by the UN secretary-general on the peacekeeping force in Congo. Human Rights Watch called on the UN Security Council to press the Congolese government to remove human rights abusers from its armed forces and end rights violations, including attacks against women and girls.
The Rwandan Hutu militia called the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) attacked and burned dozens of villages and towns in Masisi and Lubero territories (North Kivu) as well as in Kalehe territory (South Kivu) in recent weeks, committing numerous deliberate killings, rapes, and acts of looting. Blaming government military operations, the FDLR deliberately targeted civilians, used them as human shields, and accused civilians of having betrayed them. According to witnesses and victims interviewed by Human Rights Watch, the FDLR have been implicated in the killings of at least 154 civilians since January 23.
"The FDLR are deliberately killing and raping Congolese civilians as apparent punishment for the military operations against them," said Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Both the fighters who commit such horrific acts and the rebel commanders who permit them are responsible for war crimes."
The FDLR were temporarily pushed out of their military positions in January and February 2009 following the start of a joint military operation against them by Congolese and Rwandan troops on January 20. Following the withdrawal of Rwandan forces on February 24, military action diminished and the FDLR reoccupied many of their previous positions.
Most recently, at least seven civilians were killed and 24 others wounded during FDLR attacks in Lubero and Walikale in early April. On March 20, 2009, the FDLR attacked Buhuli, North Kivu, and four other nearby villages, killing at least five civilians, including two women, an elderly man, a 7-year-old girl and 9-year-old boy. On February 13, the FDLR attacked the village of Kipopo, killing at least 13 people, who were burned to death in their homes.
In late February, the FDLR abducted at least a dozen women and girls from Remeka, in Masisi territory, North Kivu. Two women who escaped reported that FDLR combatants brutally killed nine of the women and girls when they resisted attempts to rape them. The fate of the others is unknown.
The Congolese army has also been implicated in numerous rapes. In March, Congolese soldiers raped at least 21 women and girls in southern Masisi and northern Kalehe territories. Many of the victims were violently gang raped while the soldiers were on looting sprees.
On March 24, four women from Ziralo, South Kivu, were returning from the market when they were stopped by a group of army soldiers at a makeshift barricade. The soldiers took the sacks of food the women were carrying and then said they were going to examine the women's vaginas for any hidden money. The soldiers took the women into the nearby forest and gang raped each of them for hours. One woman was six-months pregnant and was raped so brutally that she lost her unborn child.
The recent killings by the rebel group are in addition to those perpetrated by its forces on January 27, when FDLR combatants hacked to death dozens of civilians used as human shields at their military position in Kibua. One witness at Kibua interviewed by Human Rights Watch saw an FDLR combatant batter a 10-year-old girl to death against a brick wall.
According to the United Nations, an estimated 250,000 people have fled their homes since January, adding to hundreds of thousands of others who fled earlier waves of violence.
The Congolese army says it is preparing for the next phase of operations against the FDLR, this time expanding the operations to South Kivu. The army has added over 10,000 additional soldiers from former Congolese rebel groups, including the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), the Coalition of Congolese Patriotic Resistance (PARECO), and other local militia groups. The rapidly mixed brigades of former enemies have been sent to the front lines with no salaries, rations, or any formal training, increasing the likelihood of future human rights violations.
Serious abuses against civilians by government soldiers have already been reported. Army soldiers killed at least five civilians in Lubero territory in March, some while on looting sprees. In Ziralo, an elderly man was killed by soldiers while they raped his wife and looted his home.
The rapid integration process has included no formal vetting mechanism to stop those with serious records of past human rights abuses from being promoted and integrated into the Congolese army.
Bosco Ntaganda, wanted on an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the war crime of enlisting child soldiers and using them in hostilities, was promoted to the position of general in the Congolese army in January 2009. In addition to the ICC charges, Ntaganda has been accused of commanding troops that massacred 150 civilians at Kiwanja in North Kivu province in November 2008.
Jean-Pierre Biyoyo was recently appointed a colonel in the Congolese army despite being found guilty by a Congolese military court in March 2006 of recruiting child soldiers. He later escaped from prison. Both Ntaganda and Biyoyo play an important role in current military operations.
The Congolese army will be supported by the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, MONUC, in its military operations against the FDLR. MONUC says that its top priority is to protect civilians, but it is not clear how civilians will be protected against further attacks by either FDLR or Congolese army soldiers.
"Protection of civilians can only be taken seriously if known human rights abusers are removed from the ranks of the Congolese army," said Van Woudenberg. "The Security Council should seek an immediate answer from the Congolese government on when it will carry out such arrests and what it will do to stop further rape and killing by its troops before it gives any support to the military operations."
Link
Labels: Congo, Human rights, Human Rights Watch, ICC, Noémie Cournoyer
Monday, April 13, 2009
Algeria - "The people kabyle is based not recognize as its President Bouteflika", by Iba Bouramine
"The people kabyle is based not recognize as its President Bouteflika"
The presidential elections have just taken place in Algeria gave results with the only surprise is the act of power lies in the participation rate in Kabylia. With the slogan of the boycott made by all political forces that have a real anchor, the people kabyle has adhered closely to the record.
The participation figures announced by the Minister of Interior no relation to reality, especially when one knows what the climate of violence and unrest polling day took place. Multiplying by ten the real rate of participation in these elections in Kabylie, the Algerian authorities to ridicule a little more while generating unanimous disapproval and condemnation of the Country Kabyles.
MAK pays tribute to all those who refused to go to the polls for not wanting to betray the memory of martyrs of the "black spring" the wounds of our disabled by bullets, and by remaining faithful to decades struggles and sacrifices made by many generations of Kabyles for their values, their dignity and freedom.
As in 1980 and 2001, history was written in letters of gold all these young people who braved the danger of physically preventing death on 9 April 2009 the forces of repression from many vote in place of the citizens in our cities and our villages. Particularly between Tuvirett and Aqvu.
MAK shall witness opinion on Algeria and falsification of official figures from the 2009 presidential Kabylie.
THE PEOPLE KABYLE IS NOT ENTITLED TO RECOGNIZE BOUTEFLIKA AS ITS PRESIDENT
Kabylia participate willingly in the presidential elections on the day it will have its regional autonomy, and justice for the murderers of his children.
And democracy as secularism must prevail again in Algeria.
Labels: Algeria, Iba Bouramine
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Right in your face, by Francis Chartrand
Easter day of glory, dear friends.
Happy Easter!
In a context where the human rights of the United Nations desperately wanting to suppress the words and deeds that insult the religious feelings of Muslims, it is worth recalling that even the baptism of a former Muslim or the exercise of freedom of conscience guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is seen as an insult to Islam, which would prefer that this right is not exercised in broad daylight.
Following his baptism by Pope Benedict XVI on the eve of Easter Sunday 2008, the journalist Magdi Allam said in his diary his choice to escape "the obscurantism of an ideology that legitimizes lies and concealment , the violent death that leads to homicide and suicide, blind submission to tyranny." Magdi Allam has also welcomed the gesture of the pope who had agreed to baptize him as "an explicit and revolutionary message to a Church that until now has been too prudent in converting Muslims" because she "was afraid of not unable to protect their converts face death sentence for apostasy."
Sheikh Qaradawi, who is the head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) and the European Council for Fatwa and Research, said at the time that the public baptism of Magdi Allam had "provoked the Muslims of the world wide, and he saw an "act of hostility against Islam."
A group of militants of Islamic-Christian dialogue has written to Pope Benedict XVI, saying "painfully surprised and deeply struck" by this event, they would have liked to see more "discreet".
By comparison, no Christian leader has expressed outrage when Cat Stevens converted to Islam with marching bands and drum media. Moreover, his life was not threatened because of his conversion, contrary to Magdi Allam.
Restrict freedom of expression by censoring the words and acts which offend or may offend the religious feelings of Muslims eventually censor any manifestation of religious beliefs other than Islam, and even the lack of religious beliefs, Atheism is absolutely unacceptable to Islam. Recall that in Turkey, the editor of the Turkish version of a book by the atheist Richard Dawkins is accused of inciting vilification of religions and risk 4 years in prison.
musluman Baptisé par le pape, De magdi à Cristiano
envoyé par mmmichelll2
Now that you've seen what I have done, here in the interest of humanity a few Koranic verses.
9.29. Fight those who believe neither in Allah nor the Last Day, quin'interdisent not what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden and do not profess the religion of truth, among those who received the Book, until that they pay decapitation by their own hands after being humiliated.
47.4. When you meet those who disbelieve smiting of the necks. Then when you've mastered, chaining them securely. Then it is the free release or ransom until the war lay down its burdens. This is true, if Allah willed, He will avenge himself against them, but you feel with each other. And those who are slain in the Way of Allah, He does not make their actions vain.
How to deal with Christian
4-89. They would like to see you disbelieve as they disbelieve: you'd be all equal! Do not, therefore, among them allies until they emigrate in the way of Allah. But if they turn back, then seize them and slay them wherever you find them and do them one friend or helper,
8.65. O Prophet, urge the believers to fight. If there be of you twenty steadfast they shall overcome two hundred, and if any cent, they will vanquish miles unbelievers, because they were real people who do not understand.
2.191. And slay them wherever you find them and drive them out from where they drove you out, the association is more serious than murder. But do not fight at the Sacred Mosque until they fight you have. If they fight you, then slay them. Such is the reward of disbelievers.
Prayers to Allah and less, believe me I will enjoy.
Francis Chartrand,
White Prince
Labels: Francis Chartrand, Islam, Religion and fanaticism
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