The wave of violence engulfed Pakistan on its election day on May 11, 2013. Pakistan saw upsurge in violence across the country from small towns alongside border of Afghanistan to its key city of Karachi.

City of Peshawar in Pakistan’s Northern Western Frontier province was the worst target for deadliest terrorist atrocities. A suicide bomber blew himself up outside the polling station and further seven people were hurt when a bomb attached to motorcycle went off. A bomb targeting female voters was detonated at a Peshawar school injuring eight people. Other areas of Pakistan were also hit by violence, the deadliest bomb explosion in Karachi left 11 dead and 40 wounded. According to The Guardian: “Bombs at ANP party offices and at Peshawar polling station also leaves scores wounded following Taliban attacks in run up to vote.” An explosion was also reported in city of Quetta in Balochistan. A gunmen killed two people outside a polling station in the town of Sorab in Baolchistan.

In Chaman, a border town near Afghanistan, a clash between two opposition groups left several injured and tree dead. The death toll in the run up to elections has reached 130 now. The 2008 Pakistan elections were much bloodier and killed 150 people and injured 400 people when militants targeted the campaigns of Pakisan People’s Party (PPP), Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) and the Awami National Party (ANP).

Due to instability in the region, Pakistan closed its borders with Iran and Afghanistan for the following three days to keep foreign militants at bay. The government stationed 600,000 security officials all across the country to safeguard the voters and to deflect violence and vote rigging at polling stations. However despite such security measures, violence continued, and according to leading opposition party PTI, vote rigging also took place in several cities across the country.

Despite the violence and carnage, 90 millions Pakistanis finally casted their votes across 70,000 polling stations in one of the most historical elections of Pakistan. This is the first time in Pakistan’s history, when a civilian government was replaced by another civilian government by democratic means, through the sheer power of ballot box. Though the number of voters that turned up was lower than 2008’s figure, the election commission of Pakistan reported 60-80% of turn out by the end of day. Voting was extended for an extra hour across Pakistan.

In its 66 years of history Pakistan has experienced three military coups and endless number of failed governance. The 2013 elections proved to be a landmark in Pakistan’s history, where a staggering 40 million young people for the first time went to polls to vote. Social media websites such as Twitter have also played an imperative part in 11th May’s elections with voters tweeting and posting about their voting experience. Prior to elections, young Pakistanis took to the Internet to promote upcoming elections with pictures of ex-cricketer Imran Khan and his cricket bat as a symbol for change. The Facebook page ’We Want Imran Khan To Be The Next Prime Minster Of Pakistan’ has so far 930.721 likes and 528,1644 people are engaged in debates and discussions on this page.

Post elections, unofficial results by country’s election commission based on 254 of the 269 races where the counting has been completed, reveal that Nawaz Sharif is all set to serve Pakistan as the next Prime Minister. This is the third time that the 63-year-old steel mill tycoon will be serving Pakistan as the leader. Mr Sharif first served as prime minister from November 1990 to July 1993 and from February 1997 until he was ousted in a bloodless military coup in 1999 and was forced to spend years in exile in Saudi Arabia. He returned from exile in 2008, supported by thousands to compete in national elections, but lost to Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). His family is among one of the wealthiest, well-known and prestigious families of the country.

The unofficial election results has already ensued war of words between Imran Khan’s PTI and Nawaz Sharif’s party. During a press conference in Lahore on Monday, May 13, 2013, Mr.Sharif told Imran Khan to stop making allegations of vote rigging. The defeat in elections has hit Imran Khan and millions of his supporters hard. But despite their loses, PTI emerged as winners in some of the dangerous and hard to reach areas of Pakistan, such as Northern Western Frontier of Pakistan (NWFP) with 34 seats in the 99-member provincial assembly.

Now what remains to be seen is whether Mr Sharif, Pakistan’s next Prime Minister will be able to pull Pakistan out of thores of extremism and poverty. The biggest challenge he will be facing is dealing with the country’s volatile security situation, to protect the right of the Pakistanis to live in peace and to deal with the internal threat of different militant groups operating within Pakistan that will largely determine the parameter of Pakistan’s security and foreign policies.

Image credit: We Want Imran Khan To Be The Next Prime Minster Of Pakistan via Facebook

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More than two years after the January 25 revolution in Egypt people are still waiting for the change they thought would follow, after the ousting of former dictator Hosni Mubarak. Despite the changes brought about by the revolution, which first-and-foremost included the so-called fall of Mubarak’s military regime, the real change is still to be seen. The fall of Mubarak’s regime was followed by a range of democratic elections, where both women and youth remarkably went to the voting polls in big numbers. And a new president was voted into office. However, the world, not least the Egyptians themselves, is still left to see a change in the social structures of the Egyptian society. Changes, which can complete the revolution that became world-famous as its role in the Arab spring.

Theda Skocpol once remarked that revolutionary social changes does not primarily occur as a consequence of individuals’ actions but because of major, significant changes within the social structure. In other words, according to Skocpol, the revolution does not take place before a modification on a basic level, related to the overall condition of the society, such as economy and class structures, can be identified. This will only happen, she argues, when something happens to the structures themselves. And as most of us know, that is still to be witnessed in Egypt, where the amount of people living below the poverty rate has increased; the gap between rich and poor has not declined, the unemployment rate is higher than ever; the economy is continuously getting more challenged and human rights are still not to be found on the ruling party’s agenda.

Thus even though the Egyptians have put an incredible effort into keeping the revolution alive by continuously demonstrating to show their disappointment and lacking support to the new ruling party, consisting of Islamists with the Muslim Brotherhood in the leading position, obtaining its major support from the Salafi party, Al Nour, they can only be part of a major change as members of a structured social position.

That, however, seems disheartening, as the opposition, which could be the basis for such a ‘structured social position’, appears to be everything but structured. From such a perspective a lot of Egyptians do not have the surplus energy to unite and create alternative groups that potentially could fulfil the role as this structured social position, which possibly could challenge the current social structures with the aim to complete the revolution. They simply have enough anxieties worrying about bread feeding children and other family members, that nothing is left to focus on how to change the social structures.

Consequently, several youths are revolting in a savage attempt to show their resistance towards Egypt’s new regime. Nevertheless it must be stressed that far from all Egyptians show their frustration in this way: Some are depressed to an extent that they believe nothing can ever change their miserable situation, for which reason migration seems as the most appealing solution:

“The political situation [was] the main drive for them to go [to emigrate] because they feel that there is no hope. There is no change,”

- one man said, in an interview conducted for my MA thesis, about his friends who have migrated to Canada after the 25 January revolution. Others are trying their best to find stability within the structures of a country that currently comes across as very instable and chaotic, not leaving much hope for the vast majority of the citizens. Yet others do not really feel a difference between the time under Mubarak and this ‘new Egypt’.

All this shows the reality of the social structures related to socio-economical class relationships that can be found in every society, and in Egypt to a great extent. These class structures indicate how the social opportunities, such as income and other sources associated with wealth, are divided between different groups of the society. Thus the access to such sources seems to be frightening linked to the social position of the group one belongs to. In this way the social structures are often maintained by the poor and marginalised too, as they often tend to believe that they do not have other chances in life than what is their current status quo.

Meanwhile the people, who are rich and privileged, and benefiting from the corruption and inequality, seem likely not to be that eager for major changes in the social structures, as one of the respondents for my research remarked:

“I feel bad when I get advantage of anything like this [the corruption]. (…) for my job it is hard because we have a lot of connections so I can get use of that but I feel bad about it. I don’t want to use it [his connections], I want to go as a normal citizen and get my rights. That’s it! (…) but my chance or my force; I am forced to do this [use his connections] because suppose I am going to do something, maybe that would waist a lot of my time, I don’t want to waist my time, so I have to use my influence so they [his connections] can help me out with this.”

Frustrations derived from the feeling that the hope for a different, better, future, most Egyptians saw two years ago, are slipping away. Egyptians take to the streets, if not for the change they long for, then at least in an unsuccessful attempt to gain a minimum of respect with the idea: “If I cannot succeed in this system, I can at least leave my mark, trying to tier down the system that made me the failure I am!”

In conclusion, it can be highlighted that for the revolution to be finalised successfully, Skocpol suggests we need the opposition to form the structured social position that can take on a leading role in the fight for changes within the social structures of the Egyptian society. On that note, it can only be hoped that the parties and individuals represented in the opposition make their greatest effort in organising themselves better for the upcoming parliamentary elections than what have been the alarming case so far.

The article’s theoretical approach has been inspired by: Lemert, Charles. Social Forhold – En indføring i det sociologiske liv (pp. 128-142). Translated by Annika Dahl Ebert. Narayana Press. Denmark. 1997-2004.

Image Courtesy : Sierragoddess

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Last week’s decree made by Egypt’s president Mohamed Morsi brought Egyptians back to the streets. The decree, that has six articles, states that declarations, laws and decrees, made by Morsi during his presidency, cannot be appealed, suspended nor cancelled, until a constitution is drafted and the parliament elected. Neither can any judicial body annul them.

Following the announcement of the new decree the Egyptians have been extremely divided: People pro-Morsi agree that the decision he made was the only way to get rid of the remaining parts of the old Mubarak regime, while those against Morsi’s latest venture predicts another dictatorship, with the Muslim Brotherhood setting the agenda, if the new president gets away with implementing this new decree. Adding to this the constitution was put into vote Thursday, 29 November 2012 in spite of the fact that a significant number of non-Islamic representatives had left the constituent assembly after been called back to rethink their decision Wednesday evening, meaning that no Leftists, Liberals or Christians were left to vote.

Judging from what can be witnessed in Cairo these days – with a vast number of Egyptians occupying Tahrir Square, protesting against the current political actions by the president and the Muslim Brotherhood, who is seen as his close ally – a second revolution could be imminent. However, looking back at the economical situation of Egypt the last two years, following the 25 January revolution that had former president Hosni Mubarak step down, it is inevitable to ask: Can Egypt afford a second revolution?

It cannot be denied that Egypt’s economy has been struggling, especially since the revolution, which among other things has led to an IMF loan. According to the Egyptian newspaper, Al Ahram Online’s English version, the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) reports that the poverty rate is rising, thus has increased from 21.6 % in year 2008/2009 to 25.5 % in year 2010/2011: With 69% of the population in rural areas living under the poverty line, of which Assiut Governorate in Upper Egypt has the highest poverty rate nationwide. The difference in the amount of money, annually spend on expenses between the poorest part of the population and the richest, is 17.500 LE ($2864).

On an individual level the aftermath of the revolution has resulted in income lost, as one woman from the Shubra suburb in Cairo says in a research interview conducted in relation to my MA thesis: “In the beginning I was with the revolution [the 25 January revolution] and I was very happy because of it, but really, after some time my husband’s business was very bad, because he is related to tourism, so we sold everything; I sold my gold, we sold our car, the business, really, we faced big problems, so I hated it, really, in the end of it.”

And she is not alone. Several of the 45 people interviewed for the research express that they have been affected economically one way or the other as a consequence of the revolution.

Thus regardless of the sympathy one feel with the Egyptians right now camping in the sit-in at Tahrir square, keeping up their fight for democracy, it is hard not to sit back with the question: Can Egypt afford a second revolution? At the same time it must be remembered that during the January 25 revolution the demands were: ‘Bread, Freedom and Social Justice’, which nonetheless implies that the uprising witnessed was not just an opposition to the Mubarak regime, but a resistance towards the entire system applied by Mubarak and his regime. From such a perspective the current reaction is not surprising, since yet the people neither got their bread, freedom nor social Justice. On the other hand, the risk of another two years in transition, with sceptical tourists agencies, worried investors and migrating youth is unendurable and leaves Egypt’s future with very challenged future prospects.

Planned demonstrations among liberals and leftists will Saturday take place in Tahrir, which was initially intended opposed by president Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood and their supporters with a million-man counterdemonstration, however Thursday night it has been announced that the Muslim Brotherhood and their allies will move their demonstration to a different location to “protect Egypt’s national interests against division and conflict”.

The Egyptians are anticipated to return to the streets in big numbers the coming days, continuing their battle for bread, freedom and social justice, hopefully it will not end with a second revolution.

Image Courtesy : James A Dawson / Shutterstock.com

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The police in United Arab Emirates (UAE) have warned against wearing vendetta masks while celebrating the 41st national day of the UAE. Any person who wears this mask would face legal questionnaires, as the mask refers to opposition to the government and authorities.

According to the police, wearing this mask or any similar symbol violates the security of the state. It is considered a criminal offense and punishable by law, even for those who don’t know what this mask might refer to.

In a Gulf news website, a Dubai police official said “Using any symbol that insults the country or instigates unrest against its system is not allowed. We urge citizens to celebrate using other symbols such as national flags, slogans or photos that are more appropriate to the happy occasion of National Day.”

The vendetta mask, also called Guy Fawkes mask, was designed to hide Guy Fawkes. Guy Fawkes was the principle of the group that failed to bomb the British House of Lords in London in 1605.  In the end he was captured and hanged in Westminster January 31,1606.

Every November 5, the people in the UK, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa celebrate Guy Fawkes Night for his failure to bomb the British House of Lords.

The advertisements to sell this mask in the UAE have shown up in some online stores featuring number 41 and the UAE flag colors, red, black, green and white. The price of the mask is about $20 USD.  After the police call, most of the advertisers have withdrawn the advertisements from the online sites, especially in the UAE-based web sites and blogs.

Vendetta is a Latin word used in English and other languages which means revenge. This mask was so popular during the Arab spring demonstrations in Tunisia, Yemen, Egypt and Libya revolutions. In these countries, many protesters used to wear these masks to show their maximum discontent on their government while calling to overthrow it.

This year, the UAE is celebrating the 41 anniversary of being united and independent. The UAE is a confederation of 7 sheikhdoms which were united on December 2, 1971. Sometimes they call it union day rather than national day.

The capital of UAE is Abu Dhabi, while Dubai is the commercial capital and the most famous city in the country. The other sheikhdoms are Sharjah, Ajman , Umm al-Quwain , Ras al-Khaimah and Fujairah.

Image Courtesey of  Uros Zunic / Shutterstock.com

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The United Arab Emirates (UAE) President, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, issued a new law for electronic crimes that will punish anyone who tries to overthrow the government, hold illegal demonstrations, or affect the dignity of the state by making fun of or taunting the rulers of the emirates.

This law amended the previous law, which was issued in 2006. The former law for electronic crimes stated that anyone who promotes pornography or exposure of the heavenly religions is sentenced to prison.

The new law states that any person who uses the internet to harm the reputation, prestige any of its institutions or its chairman or his deputy or rulers or guardians’ royal family or deputy governors or flag or national anthem or symbols, will be punished. The punishment will be by imprisonment, according to the new law.

Also, the new law states it is illegal for any person who establish, manage or supervise a site on the Internet to call to the overthrowing or change of the regime or government, capture or to disable the provisions of the constitution or laws of the country.

The law also calls for imprisonment for those who use the Internet in the “planning, organization, promotion, or calling for demonstrations or marches without a license from the authorities.”

The UAE, which is one of the richest countries in the world, has not seen any massive protests during the uproar of the Arab Spring. The authorities have arrested, since the beginning of the year, about 60 locals accused of threatening the security of the country according to UAE official resources.

The UAE authorities announced in mid-July that it planned to dismantle a group that claimed to be plotting against security and opposed the constitutions of the Gulf states. On November 4, they group went to trial, a process which is still ongoing.

The Dubai Chief of Police, Dahi Khalfan, accused The Muslim Brotherhood party of attempting to overthrow the Arabian Gulf governments; the cell members who were arrested were charged with conspiring against state security and declaring their allegiance to the party. Most of them were using social media websites such as twitter and Facebook to call for public demonstration in the country.

This law might affect the social media coverage of the events in UAE; channels which played a very important role during the Tunisian, Egyptian, Libyan and Yemeni revolutions. Most of the demonstrations in these countries were mainly organized by Facebook and Twitter  activists. It will definitely affect the right to self-expression in the country because the written thought of people could be considered anti-government by law, thus forcing everything to think twice before saying anything.

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On August 16, a fourteen-year-old Christian girl, Rimsha Masih, was arrested in Islamabad for having allegedly burned pages from the Quran. She was found carrying a plastic bag containing several singed papers inscribed in Arabic. It was then unclear whether the leaves had come from the Quran; but an incensed mob, tipped off by the local imam, had converged at her door, threatening to torch the house.

300 Christian families fled in the incident’s wake for fear that they, as minorities, would be made scapegoats – as has happened in previous infringements of Pakistan’s unforgiving blasphemy laws. As investigations ensued, however, authorities’ perusal of Rimsha’s medical reports revealed she had been born with Down’s Syndrome and that her mental age was several years shy of her real age. A game-changing revelation rocked the case when a month later, Khalid Jadoon, the religious leader who had initially called the police, was arrested on suspicion of having planted the burned papers.

In an interview with ABC News the day before his arrest, Jadoon stoically declared that Rimsha had confessed to the burning of the pages. “It’s a matter of my religion. If there’s a threat to Islam, if our government doesn’t stand up to that person, then the people will. I’ll be the first of them.”

What Jadoon had really meant by “threat” became clear when two witnesses and Jadoon’s deputy, Hafiz Muhammad Zubair, brought evidence against him. Zubair had seen several people handing Jadoon some burnt papers. To this pile Jadoon had added additional pages of the Quran. “I asked him what he was doing,” Zubair told a television station, “and he said, ‘This is the evidence against them (the local Christians) and this how we can get them out from this area.’”

Religious tension as just one factor

Rimsha’s arrest had been at the nucleus of a larger scheme to evict Christian families from the neighborhood. “I have known for the last three months that some people in this area wanted the Christian community to leave so they could build a madrasa (on their land),” Hafiz Mohammad Ashrafi, Chairman of the All Pakistan Ulema Council, a body of senior muslim clerics, reportedly said. “Our heads are bowed with shame for what [Jadoon] did.”

Breaking the political code of simply glossing over religious tensions, Paul Bhatti, the minister for national harmony, conceded, “It is not just a religious problem. It’s a caste factor, because (the victims) belong to the poorest and most marginalized people. Unfortunately, they are Christians, and this caste system creates lots of problems.” The Muslim-Christian animosity predates the British occupation of Pakistan, stemming from a Hinduism-instilled social hierarchy that demoted the Christians to the most menial and despised rank.

Rimsha was acquitted and released from a prison in Rawalpindi on September 8, from where she was flown in a military helicopter to meet her family in an undisclosed location. Rimsha’s neighbors told ABC News reporters they do not believe she and her family will ever return to her village.

Implications for the future

Despite the exonerating evidence, Rimsha’s acquittal is a miracle in a country where those convicted of defiling the Quran face life in prison. The family is living in protective custody, in constant fear of assassination by vigilantes and Islamic hardliners who side with the tunnel-vision judiciary.

Critics of the blasphemy law, however, nurture a cautious hope that the court’s decision bodes a revision of the laws, as the case has highlighted how the stringency of the laws can invite people to misuse them for their own advantage. “The decision by a Pakistan court to grant bail to Rimsha Masih is an encouraging step, but the Pakistan government must urgently reform its blasphemy laws to prevent similar cases in future,” said a spokesman from Amnesty International. “In the recent past individuals accused of blasphemy have been killed by members of the public, often in incidents where the victim has not been formally charged by the authorities,” he continued. He then went on to stress the importance of “legal, policy and social reforms” to address “vilification on the basis of religion that has lead to almost daily intimidation and deadly attacks.”

Dr. Nazir S. Bhatti, President of Pakistan Christian Congress (PCC) has demanded reinvestigation in all cases lodged against Christians, Ahmaddiya and Muslims under charges of blasphemy.

Image Courtesy of   Mikhail Levit / Shutterstock.com

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Syrian Prime Minister Riyad Hijab has confirmed his defection from Al Assad’s government and that he is in Jordan, thus refuting the Syrian media which has suggested that he was dismissed by Al Assad.

“I announce today my defection from the killing and terrorist regime, and I announce that I have joined the ranks of the freedom and dignity revolution,” Hijab said in a statement read by his spokesman, Muhammed el-Etri, according to Al Jazeera. “I announce that I am from today a soldier in this blessed revolution.”

Hijab, former Minister of Agriculture, was elected prime minister in June after the parliamentary elections. Syrian authorities said this was a decisive step towards the path of democracy, while the opposition denounced it as a fraud.

Apparently, the now former Syrian prime minister has left the country along with at least two ministers and three military officers.

Hijab is thus added to the growing list of defectors, becoming the highest-ranking official to defect from Bashar Al-Assad’s government since the beginning of the uprising. It all started with the Oil Deputy Minister Abdo Houssameddine, who announced on March 8 his desertion and became the first government men to join the opposition.

Diplomats such as the Syrian ambassador in Iraq, his counterpart in the United Arab Emirates, and four deputies have also crossed the border to join the revolution since civil war started.

Hundreds of soldiers, including senior military personnel have also turned their back on Assad’s regime.

According to The Guardian, “Hijab’s defection had been planned for more than two months” but the actual implementation of the plan had be “delayed on many occasions.” Haaretz Israeli newspaper reports that “Hijab had started to plan how he would defect from the first day that he was appointed as prime minister.”

Omar Ghalawanji, a local government minister, has been appointed to take on Hijab’s office at the moment, official Syrian television announced.

The United States believes that the defection of Syria’s prime minister shows that President Assad grip on power is loosening: “This is the latest indication that Assad has lost control of Syria and that the momentum is with the opposition forces and the Syrian people,” says Tommy Vietor, the National Security Council spokesman.

“It’s clear that these defections are reaching the highest levels of the Syrian government and demonstrate that the Syrian people believe Assad’s days are numbered,” Vietor continued.

The news on Hijab’s defection was released just hours after a bomb ripped through the state TV building in the capital Damascus.

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The Syrian Prime Minister, Riyad Hijab, has resigned and joined the revolutionary movement for “freedom and dignity.” Hijab thus became the first Prime Minister of the Assad Regime to give up his post. He is said to have escaped to Jordan together with his family on Monday, August 6. However, Jordanian National Television has denied the rumor that Hijab is temporarily taking refuge in the territory of the Arab kingdom. It is still unclear where the former PM and his family are hiding.

There is information that three other ministers followed him out of the country. According to international reports, the Finance Minister, Mohammad Jlailati, was among them but his escape was prevented and lead to his arrest. The Syrian State Television officially repudiated these disclosures. An interview with Mr. Jlailati, in which he refutes the rumor that he was taken into custody, was broadcasted.

The uprising in Syria started in March, 2011 and has until now claimed the life of thousands of people. Syrians fight for change. The civil war is directed against the al-Assad regime, which prevents the democratization of the republic. As part of the revival of Syria under the government of Bashar al-Assad, Riyad al-Hijab was appointed to the post of Prime Minister in June, 2012.

The events in Syria immediately found an international response. The desertion of Mr. Hijab is “just the latest indication that Assad has lost control of Syria,” declared Tommy Vietor, US National Security Council spokesman.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson of Mr. Hijab announced that the former Prime Minister will work to “rebuild a Syria of the future, and Syria without Bashar al-Assad.” In a written statement to the media, Mr. Hijab himself declared his “deflection from the killing and terrorist regime.”

“I am from today a soldier in this holy revolution,” he adds.

It was reported that Omar Ghalawanji will provisionally assume office as Prime Misnister of Syria.

In the meantime, the actions of the revolutionaries continue. The building of the Syrian State Television and Radio in Damascue was the target in a recent bombing. As a result, three people were seriously injured.

In an official statement, Iran, one of the al-Assad regime’s allies, declared that it will organize a meeting in which the conflict situation in Syria will be discussed. The main goal of the conference will be to find a lasting solution of the problem between the revolutionaries and the ruling circles.

“Our aim is to find ways out of the current crisis, to return stability and to calm that country,” said Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister.

It was announced that Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Quarter will not participate in the meeting, because they are in opposition to the Syrian President.

“Saudi Arabia, Quatar and Turkey are responsible for the blood that is being spilled in Syria,” Mr. Abdollahian added. The fate of Syria remains unclear, although Middle East experts are convinced that the Assad regime is running into a serious crisis in its inner circles.

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The conflict in Syria rages on as the Battle of Aleppo enters its third week on August 2. Since March of 2011, when the first anti-government protests began in Syria, around 200,000 have been made refugees and around 20,000 people have been killed.

Aleppo, a commercial hub in Syria and the city with the largest population, is one of the most active combat locations in Syria. It is a key location since the winning of Aleppo for the rebels could mean the end of the Assad regime. BBC’s Jim Muir wrote, “The longer the situation remains unresolved, the stronger the rebels’ grip may become, as they pursue their goal of establishing a ‘liberated area’ in Aleppo and neighboring Idlib province to use as a springboard against the regime’s last stronghold, Damascus.”

Many rebels have taken hold of several districts within the city of Aleppo and Assad has sent tanks, helicopter gunships, and war planes to attack it.

On August 2 the rebel Tawheed Brigade left Tal Rifaat to give aid to the rebels in Aleppo. Also early in the morning of August 2 the rebels attacked Menagh army base with a stolen tank. Menagh is from where Assad has been launching several of his artillery and air strike attacks on Aleppo. The rebels pulled out after a short time with one rebel fighter claiming, “We hit the airport using a tank that we captured from the Assad army. We attacked the airport a few times but we have decided to retreat at this time.” However, several reports claim that the retreat may have been due to the war planes that attacked the rebels.

In Aleppo, rebels put a video online that showed them executing several prisoners; the act is being called a war crime by several organizations. The rebels also claim to have taken three police stations within the city in the last week. Also last month, Assad’s forces managed to drive most of the rebels out of Damascus and began to push an offensive on Aleppo.

Tensions between the two sides have also risen from the government activity in Damascus and the rebel activity in Aleppo. Assad, who has been in power since the death of his father in 2001, launched two attacks in Damascus on Thursday in which soldiers went door to door asking people to show their papers. The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) claimed “the bodies of 43 people were recovered. Some of them had been summarily executed.”

In the last month Assad’s top four advisers, including his own brother-in-law, were killed in a bombing. Since then, Assad has been in hiding and has only issued pre-recorded statements.

On Wednesday, August 1 the mobile phone connections were cut for the city of Aleppo leading many to believe that the government would launch an attack. In fact, on Thursday the government forces attacked the Salaheddine district in Aleppo, although most were repelled by the rebels.

The problems worsen even further for the citizens of Aleppo since the city is beginning to run out of food. The World Food Program issued a statement claiming, “The humanitarian situation is deteriorating in Aleppo and food needs are growing rapidly.”

The world’s response

Many believe that outside governments should be helping the rebels although since Russia and China are in favor of keeping Assad in power, there has been little consensus. The Security Council has created three separate resolutions that have been vetoed by Russia and China as too extreme because it would cause a regime change led by an outside power, violating sovereignty.

The UN General Assembly will be voting on a resolution written by Saudi Arabia shortly that would support the Syrian rebels.

President Obama called Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday, July 30 to “coordinate efforts to accelerate a political transition in Syria.” Although Obama will not send direct military assistance, he does seem to want to support the rebels. The Treasury Department has recently decided that it will give a license to the Syrian Support Group that will aid the rebels financially.

Jordan, a bordering country to Syria, has been helping Syrian refugees enter their country. However, in recent days Syrian soldiers shot at Jordanian troops that were helping the refugees to cross the border.

On August 2, the UN-Arab League joint special peace envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan, has announced that he will not renew his contract when it ends in August, effectively quitting his job. He claims that the Syrian people “desperately need action” but he believes that the UN Security Council is “finger pointing and name calling.”

Annan is the author of the six point peace plan that was introduced a few months ago. It called for an end to all military conflict, peaceful political negotiations, and more freedom of expression for the Syrian people. Unfortunately, neither the rebels nor the Syrian government upheld all sides of the plan and the situation quickly deteriorated.

Annan has blamed both sides in the Syrian conflict for the lack of peace but has also said that the problems were “compounded by the disunity of the international community.” He went on to state, “Syria can still be saved from the worst calamity – if the international community can show the courage and leadership necessary to compromise on their partial interests for the sake of the Syrian people – for the men, women, and children who have already suffered far too much.”

Currently it is unknown who will fill Annan’s position at the end of August, but most assuredly few are willing to take it.

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During the holy month of Ramadan, life usually  slows down in the Middle East. The main focus is on observing the month of fasting and fulfilling religious obligations.

Since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the scene across the Middle East has changed dramatically. Ramadan is no longer a month where wars, protests and feuds disappear; instead, it has become a month where people have used its significance to get their message across to regimes ruling body. On August 3, the Pakistani public took to streets to protest against killings in Myanamar.

Since the commemoration of Ramadan on July 19, over 25 demonstrations against the 200 year old ruling dynasty of Alkhalifah have taken place in Bahrain. These demonstrations come amidst the official warnings that any protests and public rallies will be considered illegal. On July 31, 2012, frustrated protestors took to streets in Bahrain and in the neighboring country of Saudi Arabia.

On Monday, clashes broke out between security forces and protestors in the village of Sitra. According to Agence France Presse, “wounded demonstrators are afraid to go to hospital for treatment because they are afraid that they will be arrested.” On Thursday, August 2, the security forces clashed with protestors in the village of Dair and Bani Jamarah.

Since last year, the human rights situation has further deteriorated in Bahrain. Last year, Saudi Arabia deployed more than 1,000 troops to Bahrain to help Alkhalifah government to quell anti-government uprisings in country’s capital city of Manama. Subsequently, there were over 50 fatalities, more were injured and many were incarcerated for their participation.

It was later revealed in a special report in November 2011 that security forces used torture and excessive force against those that were arrested during the assiduous crackdown on public demonstrations. The Bahrainis held the ruling King Hamad bin Isa Khalifa liable for scenes of carnage on streets, civil unrest and mass arrests.

Aljazzera International stated that ‘Forty people, including the daughter of a leading opposition activist, have been arrested hours after security forces used tear gas and birdshot to disperse hundreds of protesters demanding political reforms in Bahrain.’ Press Tv further reported that Bahraini authorities arrested opposition party al-Wefaq’s female member, Ahlam al-Khuzai, at the airport on Friday as she was travelling to Tunisia to attend a conference organized by Amnesty International.

One of the focal point of mass protests is calling an end to discriminatory measures used by the ruling monarchy towards the country’s 70 percent of marginalized Shiite population. Following the popular Arab Spring revolt across the Gulf region, Bahrainis too took to streets in mid-February 2011, demanding a transition from absolute monarchy to constitutional monarchy and to new socio economical and political reforms.

However, like any other Arab country, the problems of Bahrain could be traced back to 1975, when Sheikh Isa dissolved the national assembly, thus marking an end to country’s short lived constitutionalism and rendering democratic reforms. In the 1990s, a popular uprising and a demand to restore the 1973 constitution threatened the ruling seat of Alkhalifa family.

In 1992, the United Nations Human Rights Council placed Bahrain on a list of monitoring for its use of torture and force against opposition members. In 1999, Sheikh Hamad ascended the Alkhalifa throne and introduced new reforms to avoid repeat of 1990s mass political unrests by making promises to take country towards new reforms, democracy and constitutionalism.

On the surface Bahrain appears to be a model country in the Arab world and is signatory to eight human rights treaties from the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1990) to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (2006) to the Arab Charter on Human Rights (2008). In contrast, the country has failed to abide by most of these treaties. In December 2011, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton lauded Bahrain on being a ‘model partner’ for not only the United States but also for other countries.

According to Amnesty International “The Bahraini government’s response to the findings of an international commission of inquiry has proved inadequate as human rights violations continue.” However, the failure of the ruling body to live up to its promises has resulted in mass uprising, liberalized autocracy and suppression of human rights activists and opposition figures.

The West has come under much scrutiny in the media and with human rights organizations for maintaining its silence over Bahrain’s violation of human rights, its restriction on freedom of expression and right to assembly. Patrick Cockburn said in The Independent: “While Barack Obama and David Cameron vigorously oppose the atrocities against protesters in Syria, they handle Bahrain with kid gloves.”

The scene on the streets of Bahrain does not show any signs of dwindling down. A lesson should be learned from the ousting of governments in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen. Taking to the streets in the sweltering heat of July and August without food or drink indicates that Bahraini people have not given up their struggle for justice.

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Two wars are being waged in Syria. There is the physical fighting going on between the rebels and government troops but there is also a media war going on in which the results of the physical battles are being hidden or changed to misrepresent facts. One young activist, Yahya Abdulrahman, a physics student at Aleppo University claimed, “The regime is fighting the people in two ways. One is with the army. The other is with the media. There are parts of the Free Syrian Army that are fighting the regime. But there are other parts fighting the regime’s hackers.””

Smart phones have been key in the Syrian uprising – just like in the Arab Spring revolutions – because, according to the Christian Science Monitor, it is a way for the people to undermine the state media (which is controlled by Assad) and get supporters within Syria and in the rest of the world. So far the Syrian government has banned access to YouTube and Facebook, but several of the youth have found ways around these government firewalls.

Having smart phones and access to computers and internet allow the rebels to communicate with friends and family as well as talk to soldiers who want to defect to the rebel army.

Many Syrian rebels have risked their lives while fighting the media war. According to the Guardian hundreds of video activists have joined the revolution through videography; most are male, young, and technologically capable individuals. Abdulrahman, one of these activists, admits that filming is just as dangerous as fighting with a gun: “If the army sees anyone with a camera they try and kill him first.”

However, the video aspect of the revolution is just as important as the actual physical fighting. Assad controls Syria’s television stations which claim that the Free Syrian Army (the rebels) is a group of “terrorists” and “al-Qaida” while also broadcasting pro-regime propaganda. Abu Mhio, a rebel media activist claims, “When we will be free, [Syrian TV] will be dead.”

If Assad controls all of the media in the country he can prevent the successes of the rebels from being reported which lowers their support and prevents more people from getting involved. In order to ensure that the world and the Syrian people actually know what is going on in Syria they must record it for themselves, even if it is emotionally tolling and life-threatening.

Abdulrahman was arrested once for video-recording a protest on his campus. After being beaten and made to sign a piece of paper claiming he was an informant, he was released and continued filming for the rebels. He has also filmed the dead in the streets to show the toll of the fighting. “I filmed one of the children killed last week. We hadn’t eaten all day because of Ramadan. But afterwards I couldn’t touch any food.”

In previous years rebels have not had such technological access to aid them in their cause. Hafez al-Assad, the current ruler’s father, ruled Syria from 1970 and was responsible for destroying the Muslim Brotherhood uprising in the city of Hama in 1982, killing at least 10,000 people. One rebel fighter explained to the Christian Science Monitor, “His father destroyed Hama in a few days, but there was no TV there and no internet to show the world. But today we have the internet, we photograph and film and have Al Jazeera, so people know. They can see what is happening.”

Few journalists have been allowed within Syria in the recent months of fighting, but those that have, have received threats. One Guardian journalist received a death threat via a tweet from a member of the regime stating, “I pray every night that you die.”

Those journalists that are allowed in the country are also not provided a lot of access. Another journalist, Alex Thomson, tweeted “Syrian government is losing the PR war” when they refused to let him interview or record the Syrian military.

Ultimately, winning the media war will be just as important as winning the physical war for both sides. The rebels have succeeded in many ways but they must take Aleppo in order to really start making changes. According to Burhan Ghalioun, a member of the Syrian National Council currently in Paris, if the rebels take Aleppo “there will be nothing more that will stand in the way of the Free Syrain Army. Hama, Homs, to the outskirts of Damascus have in large part been liberated.”

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President Bashar al-Assad has not made a public appearance since the July 18 bombing which killed four of his most important security officials- including Assef Shawka, his brother-in-law. The bombing took place during an attack through rebel forces in the country’s capital city of Damascus.

A few days ago President Assad urged his army to increase fighting against rebel forces. The United States has condemned his recent declarations, and has called him a coward. U.S. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said, “We think it’s cowardly, quite frankly, to have a man hiding out of sight, exhorting his armed forces to continue to slaughter the civilians of his own country.”

Some reports said that President Assad has fled Damascus to a safe locations like Latakia or Tartous, which are areas in which the Alawite sect, Assad’s family sect, is predominant. Other reports say he is still in Damascus. His actual whereabouts are a mystery.

Fighting in Damascus has increased in recent days, so many Syrians have decided to evacuate the capital and many of them have headed towards neighboring country Lebanon.

A Syrian opposition activist, whom alleged receiving information from a senior Syrian army officer, said that after the deadly bombing  President Assad, accompanied by his wife and three children, decided to escape to Tartous, which is a port city on the Mediterranean coast and a place where Russia has a naval base. Russia has in past months supported Assad’s regime and even vetoed, along with China, the UN intervention in Syria.

The Syrian state media, on the other hand, is alleging that Assad is still in Damascus, and showed broadcast footage of the president swearing in the new defense minister, who will replace Daoud Rajha killed in the July 18 bombing.

Another report, published by Reuters, quotes opposition forces and a Western diplomat who assure that President Assad escaped to Latakia, which is another coastal city very close to Tartous. In this city President Assad has a summer palace that is heavily guarded.

These are just the main possibilities of President Assad’s location. His location is uncertain and the situation is getting worse every day. A diplomatic solution does not seem possible, as the Arab League and the UN have tried to force President Assad to resign, to no avail. The Syrian rebels’ methods are getting more and more brutal every day; some recent videos showed atrocities committed against Assad’s regime supporters. The situation is chaotic and has already taken thousands of human lives.

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Pakistan has had to stop the polio vaccinations in some zones of the country due to the Taliban opposition. The health workers and volunteers have not been able to immunize children in North and and South Waziristanduring recently. According to World Health Organization, this could affect to around 280,000 children who live in tribal areas that are controlled by the fundamentalist militias.

In order to allow the access to the health personnel, the fundamentalist militia that controls the northwest zone of Pakistan demands that the United States’ stop the drone strikes in the region.

With this decision, the Taliban is impeding 160,000 children from North and South Waziristan to receive the vaccine that they need. Pakistan, which is one of the countries along with Afghanistan, India and Nigeria that still have not eradicated polio, will now have to face a highly contagious disease that can even cause death.

Pakistani authorities are trying to hold an assembly, to convince the Taliban of the need to immunize children, but the clerics and clan chiefs argue that they are not able to overrule the decisions of the insurgents.

Gul Bahadur, one of the leaders of the Taliban guerrillas of Waziristan battling NATO troops in Afghanistan, announced in mid-June that they would not allow access to health personnel until there is an end of the drone attacks, which he described as an evil “worse than polio.” Now the threats have become a reality.

These drone attacks from the United States are operations against suspected hideouts of Taliban and AL-Qaeda in the rugged tribal regions of northwestern Pakistan.

Mazhar Nisar, the health education adviser of the Prime Minister’s polio program, said he hopes the vaccination campaign “will resume in the near future.”

The threats are not just words, but action. A doctor of the UN from Ghana involved in the national campaign against polio was attacked on July 17th by Taliban members. The attack took place in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, and was perpetrated by two armed men aboard a motorcycle. They shot the foreign doctor, Fostan Davis, who was in his vehicle with his driver. They are both out of danger.

This vaccine problem comes in a negative moment for Pakistan. On July 19th, 14 Pakistanis were killed by a roadside mine explosion. That same day there was an earthquake measuring 5.7 on the Richter Scale. However, no loss of life and property has been reported.

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Washington, U.S.A. — A new Christian Solidarity International (CSI) report released recently calls on Egypt’s Islamist government and the international community – especially the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton – to investigate and take strong measures to prevent the disappearance, forced marriage and forced conversion to Islam of Coptic Christian women and girls.

The report, entitled “Tell My Mother I Miss Her,” confirms that Coptic women and girls are deceptively lured or abducted into forced marriages with Muslim men and then to conversions to Islam, which frequently take place under duress and physical abuse.

The report’s co-authors, Michele Clark, adjunct professor at George Washington University, and Coptic human rights activist Nadia Ghaly, undertook research in Egypt in November 2011 in the midst of the uprising that resulted in the political ascent of the Muslim Brotherhood and other radical Islamist forces. According to Clark and Ghaly, the disappearance of Coptic women and girls has “escalated” since the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak in February 2011.

“Tell My Mother I Miss Her” was released in connection with the Congressional Helsinki Commission hearing on violence against Coptic women in Egypt, chaired by Congressman Chris Smith. Speaking as a witness before the hearing, Professor Clark stated, “Coptic women in Egypt are disappearing from their homes, their schools and their jobs.  These cases are not allegations.”

The hearing also featured testimony from an Egyptian Christian woman who received asylum in the United States after narrowly escaping abduction in Alexandria in January 2011. She was rescued by a doorman who saw her and her infant daughter being dragged into a taxi by a man shouting that she was “an enemy of Islam.”

“I’m here today, so I can tell you what happened to me,” she said. “I wonder about the others that weren’t saved. What happened to them?”

Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ), who chaired the hearing, called the forced disappearances “an outrageous crime,” and called the U.S. State Department’s failure to respond to repeated requests from the Commission to investigate the disappearances “appalling.”

“Unless the Copts and Coptic women and girls are protected,” he said, “Egypt will not be strong, Egyptwill not be stable, and Egypt will not be a successful democracy.”

Dr. John Eibner, the CEO of CSI-USA, called on the U.S. State Department and non-governmental organizations that specialize in women’s rights, human trafficking and religious liberty to conduct further research into this crime, commenting that, “Denial and obfuscation will neither help victimized Christian women, nor challenge the religious bigotry and sexism that impedes the development of democracy inEgypt.”

The new report can be accessed online at: http://csi-usa.org/TellMyMotherIMissHer.pdf. It should be read in conjunction with the 2009 report, which is available at http://www.csi-int.org/pdfs/csi_coptic_report.pdf.

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New York, U.S.A. — AJC called on the Knesset to censure one of its members for desecrating the Christian Bible.

MK Michael Ben-Ari of the National Union Party, in his Knesset office, tore pages from the New Testament as he condemned the Christian holy book for fostering anti-Semitism.

“MK Ben-Ari’s extremist views and actions are outrageous,” said AJC Executive Director David Harris. “The photograph of MK Ben-Ari tearing up the Christian Bible, holy to many around the world, is a sacrilegious outrage, an abominable assault on an entire religion.”

Ben-Ari has a long record of open hostility towards Israel’s Arab citizens, and has been barred from visiting the U.S., his country of birth, due to his association with the extremist Kach movement, banned in Israel. The Kach party was banned in Israel after a law was passed that stated political parties who incited racism could not be elected to office. Today the party is considered a terrorist organization in Israel, Canada, the United States, and the European Union.

Harris, praising today’s remarks by Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin, and by Mark Regev, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, urged other Israeli leaders to speak out and take appropriate action against Ben-Ari.

“I condemn all disrespect of holy writings, including the tearing of the New Testament by an MK last night. Imagine a foreign parliament member tore the bible, relating to it as a provocation,” Rivlin said at today’s Knesset session in Jerusalem. “Democracy means freedom of speech but not freedom to disrespect other religions. A foundation of the state is freedom of worship and belief.”

Speaking for the Israeli government, Regev said, “We totally deplore this behavior and condemn it outright. This action stands in complete contrast to our values and our traditions. Israel is a tolerant society, but we have zero tolerance for this despicable and hateful act.”

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To the United States Israel is different: both countries have a special relationship since the creation of the Israeli State in 1948. It is not an insignificant fact that during a meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition, Mitt Romney promised that the first country he would visit if he was elected President, would be Israel.

Jim Zanotti, specialist in Middle Eastern Affairs, wrote in a CRS Report for Congress dedicated to the relations between the United States and Israel: “Since Israel’s founding in 1948, successive U.S. Presidents and many Members of Congress have demonstrated a commitment to Israel’s security and to maintaining close U.S.-Israel defense, diplomatic, and economic cooperation. U.S. and Israeli leaders have pursued common security goals and have developed close relations based on common perceptions of shared democratic values and religious affinities.”

Both nations signed a free trade agreement in 1985, and the United States is Israel’s most important trading partner. Israel is the United States’ most important ally in a very conflictive area of the world, the Middle East.

But in recent years relations have become less fluid and even tense during some periods, like in 2011 when the United States government tried to press Israel to fulfill their promise of Palestinian independence within the next few months.

The United States didn’t get the expected reaction from Israel: Prime Minister Netanyahu’s response was an absolute no, so all hopes that Palestinian independence might finally come, simply vanished. This did not bode well in the White House, even though President Obama told Mahmoud Abbas, Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, that the United State would veto any United Nations proposals to recognize Palestinian statehood.

The last diplomatic struggle between the United States and Israel concerns Iran and its nuclear program. Prime Minister Netanyahu is pressuring the United States for a stronger policy against an Iranian nuclear program, based on economic sanctions to force immediate shut-down of the nuclear program. Israel demands that Iran agree to halt all its enrichment of uranium in the country, a demand that Iran is not willing to meet. The White House also rejected the Israeli demands and decided to stick with the economic sanctions plan.

The United States’ support of Israel has caused an anti-American reaction in some Arab countries, like Jordan, Lebanon and Sudan, were American flags have been burned and diplomats have even been killed. Even with all the political and economic cost it carries, the United States will still support Israel, which is proven by the Pentagon’s announcement in May to send $70 million dollars to Israel to help it enhance its missile defense system.

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The conflict between Turkey and Syria is heating up. On Sunday, June 30, the Turkish army sent  six F-16 planes to do emergency takeoffs on their border with Syria in response to the three jets that the Syrian army sent over on Saturday. Turkey recognizes that last Saturday’s action was not a violation of Turkish air space, but the nearness of these planes was enough for them to order a response.

The reality is that Turkey has become more aggressive towards Syria since a Turkish F-4 was brought down by the Syrian troops on  June 22. Turkish response came fast. Their armed forces deployed launchers and anti areal batteries missiles against Syria. Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan also said that they will “regard… as a threat” any type of military element that gets close to the frontier.

Officially, Turkey does not want confrontation with Syria, but the reality is that they are putting pressure on others, such as the United States, to stop the Syrian conflict. Turkey has gone from friendship to criticism. Now they support the Syrian National Council and the Free Syrian Army. They also asked for the creation of intermediate zones and humanitarian corridors in the border area.

Meanwhile, NATO has insisted that it is necessary to find a political solution, but has approved the steps that Turkey is following in order to defend their land and population.

In the other side, Rusia says that the felled Turkish airship on June 22 was flying in Syrian air space. Moscow assures the public that they have evidence that can prove it. Turkey has not taken long to defend themselves and has made a response that denies the information that accuses Turkey of flying in Syria’s air space.

The Syrian Minister of Information has stated that the armed forces shot down the plane by mistake because they thought that it was an Israeli craft. As the Minister explained, most of the Turkish and Israelis aircrafts are made by the United States. This is what confused the Syrian forces, and made them think that it was an Israeli plane.

In the meantime, the Syrian Civil War, which according to United Nations has caused more than 10,000 victims, keeps on going. A prominent Syrian Al Assad opposition, Fawaaz al Tello, has made a call to the United States asking for help. He is demanding weapons for the rebels, for fighting the Al Assad regime. The Free Syrian Army has expressed that they need weapons such as rocket launchers in order to destroy the tanks and army helicopters from the Syrian Army.

The United States does not seem to be convinced to give weapons to the Syrians because most of the rebels are Islamist, so there is a level of suspicion surrounding it. What it seems clear is that all of the steps need to be given careful consideration because the conflict could explode at any moment.

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United Nations Peace Envoy, Kofi Annan, has decided to hold an international conference regarding the ever-growing war in Syria, which has left several killed and severely injured. The meeting will take place in Geneva this coming Saturday, but cause for concern is arising, as the United States is having mixed emotions about being a part of the conference.

Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has confirmed that despite the United State’s lukewarm feelings about the conference, it will be in attendance, in addition to representatives from various countries including Russia, China, Britain, France, Turkey, and others from European Union, as well as the Arab League.

According to Annan, the purpose of the meeting, “is to forge a consensus on the terms for a political solution among international players with stakes and influence in the Syrian conflict over terms for a political solution. The U.N. envoy believes that the best hope of pressing the combatants on the ground to observe his peace plan to which they signed up in April but have not implemented, is for the foreign powers on whose support they variously depend to agree on terms.”

And the main problem that needs to be addressed this coming Saturday, is the conflict in different approaches and decisions that Russia and the United States both want to make. One of the countries that has yet to announce its appearance is Iran, which is a key factor in resolving conflict. “I have made it quite clear that I believe Iran should be part of the solution,” Annan said in Geneva last Friday. “If we continue the way we are going and competing with each other, it could lead to destructive competition and everyone will pay the price.”

The reason for both Iran and Saudia Arabia being excluded from the conference is based on the Obama Administration not wanting them there. According to Tony Karan, reporter for Time World, “The Obama Administration cited Iran’s role in backing up Syria’s bloody crackdown to declare Tehran’s involvement a “red line” for participating in the Geneva talks, and Annan presumably left out Saudi Arabia as a compensatory gesture to Russia which insists that those countries arming and funding Syria’s rebels share major responsibility for escalating the conflict.

A state department official told reporters last week that “If Kofi Annan can get the proposed participants to agree on such a plan for political transition then there will be a meeting, but that’s what we need to find out before we go to any meeting. There’s no point in going just for the sake of it.”

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For the first time ever Saudi Arabia has announced that Saudi women will be allowed to compete in the Olympics. Saudi Arabia is one of three countries the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has been pressuring to allow female competitors. The other two countries, Qatar and Brunei, have also announced that they will be sending athletes this year. Qatar will be sending three women: a shooter, a swimmer, and a runner; and Brunei will send a woman for the hurdling title.

The Saudi Embassy in London issued a statement announcing the decision which stated, “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia wishes to reaffirm its support the sublime meanings reflected by Olympic Games and the cherished values of excellence, friendship, and respect that they represent.”

The IOC has been working for several months with the Saudi government and issued a positive statement on March 19 that read, “the IOC is confident that Saudi Arabia is working to include women athletes and officials at the Olympic Games in London in accordance with the International Federations’ rules.”

Minky Worden, the director of Global Initiatives at Human Rights Watch said, “It is only right that the Saudi government should play by the Olympic rules. But an 11th-hour change of course to avoid a ban does not alter the dismal and unequal conditions of women and girls in Saudi Arabia.” Worden did admit that the announcement “pins them down to finding a woman. The Saudis should be on a bit of a desperate search” right now.

The Saudis have already allowed one woman, Dalma Rushdi Malhas, to compete in the equestrian competition at the Singapore Youth Olympics. After hearing the announcement that women will now be allowed to compete in the Olympics Malhas said it was “a dream come true. This just opens so many doors for women.”

Unfortunately, due to an injury her horse has suffered, Malhas missed the June 17 qualification and will not be prepared for this Olympic competition. She is still hoping that she will be able to attend the next equestrian competition at the Olympics.

Earlier this year the Human Rights Watch advocacy group said that the reason why women were not allowed to compete in sports came form a “predominant conservative view that opening sports to women and girls will lead to immorality: ‘steps of the devil’ as one prominent religious scholar put it.”

In Saudi Arabia women cannot drive, vote or hold public office, although some of these restrictions may change in 2015. Women are also not allowed to marry, leave the country, open bank accounts, or go to school unless they have the permission of a male guardian such as a father, husband, or brother.

In 2009 and 2010 Saudi Arabia closed its private gyms for women. The only exception for this restriction is the Jeddah United basketball section which is a private sports company.

Previously, female athletes were banned from the Olympics because the crowd includes both men and women who would be watching these women.

King Abdullah came to the throne in 2005 and has tried to do some modern reforms. However, the king has faced large opposition from religious conservatives on every policy that would ease restrictions against women.

One area that King Abdullah has tried to ease restrictions on is driving, but he has heard opposition on this as well.

Manal al Sharif, a Saudi female activist, was arrested and jailed after posting a video on YouTube of her driving. Sharif is helping to organize- and is participating in- the second annual driving protest. Sharif said about the Olympic decision that it “isn’t one of those things we’re crying out for” because they are more interested in their “basic rights.”

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After the entire country held its breath for the first half of the day, offices closed at noon and the military, The Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF), prepared to do whatever it could to maintain some level of security. It was finally time to start the announcement for who was going to be the new president of Egypt. After a 45 minutes long speech about the vote counting process as well as different complaints being taking into account, which together made the Presidential Elections Commission (PEC) postpone the announcement from Thursday, June 21 to Sunday, June 24, the Commission finally announced Mohammed Mursi as Egypt’s new president.

Ever since the result of the first election round that announced that the two candidates to continue to the second run off were going to be Mohammed Mursi, representing the Muslim Brotherhood, and Ahmed Shafiq, who among revolutionists in particular is considered an old regime figure, the scepticism about the credibility of the general election process has seemed to increase.

This distrust was furthered by the lack of transparency: the people were about to vote for whom  they would like to see rule the country, and they simply felt they did not knew anything about either of the two candidates’ agendas. What were their aims for the country and how did each of them plan on achieving this goal? However, with the SCAF placed as the country’s controlling mechanism for the last year and a half since Mubarak stepped down, there has been a very strong agreement among the revolutionists that the military would prefer to have a man from the old regime, which would make them ensure that Shafiq would be the winner of the second presidential run off.

Many even doubted that he had obtained enough votes to continue to the second round, which then would be due to SCAF’s control over the situation. Furthermore, the sudden decision about dismissing the newly elected parliament, for which the members had been elected during the three election rounds Egypt faced earlier this year and the end of last year, added to the suspicions about the interference of the military in ensuring that the coming political situation would be one that they would approve of.

According to revolutionists, this would mean that Ahmed Shafiq would be the new president, and that would be stepping back to the time of Mubarak, many believed. This would have made the martyrs die for nothing, and there has been a clear agreement among the people of the revolution that they would not allow that to happen, meaning that they would start a new revolution like the one the entire world witnessed last January.

Maybe this lack of trust to the SCAF, who has chosen the people sitting in the PEC, in addition to the very long, very detailed speech before announcing the result was thereason for the relief and exhilaration so that was overwhelming to many Egyptians. They made the streets float with happiness, chanter, drum play, clapping, singing and dancing, while the cars were honking their horns and people shouted Mursi’s name, as if they had just win a championship with him making the final and crucial goal.

The Egyptians truly deserve the victory many of them seem to find in this announcement, and tonight it is best to not worry about which consequences this result might end up having for Egypt and just congratulate all Egyptians who just experienced the result of their first free presidential election, which they themselves earned by being united–hopefully they will keep this in mind as time passes: One Nation!

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Revolution via Social Media is a recently set trend, especially in the Middle East. Inspired by it, women in Saudi Arabia have started the ‘Women to drive’ campaign in 2011. A 35 year old Saudi lady, Manal-al-Sharif, drove around the Eastern province in Dammam and posted the video on YouTube. In the video she highlighted the troubles females in Saudi Arabia face for transportation, and thought it was time to take an initiative and break this ridiculous custom. She was then arrested, and later made to sign a pledge to take no further part in a campaign to persuade the Saudi authorities to allow women to drive.  So were the few other brave ladies, who followed her footsteps in other parts of the country. June 17, 2012 marks the one year anniversary, and Ashwag Alghamdi, a Saudi female now studying in USA, decided to get supporters all over the world to go and honk in front of Saudi Embassies and post the videos on YouTube.

Toonari Post (TP): When did you decide you need to do something to change the law about women driving in Saudi Arabia?

Ashwag Alghamdi (AA): For a long time we didn’t like this unfair ban. Our mothers in 1990 made a protest but they were shocked because the government and the religious clerks made many troubles for them and that affected their lives. I decided to join the Women2Drive campaign last May 2011. I just participated online like the others till they arrested Manal Alsharif and then I decided to make pages in English to spread her story and make the world hear about her till they released her. Then I decided to keep fighting till we get our rights starting with the right to drive.

TP: Despite Saudis being very strict about demonstrations and knowing the punishment may be lashes or imprisonment, how did you dare to take this initiative?

AA: It’s not a protest. We just asked and encouraged women in KSA to go out and drive to work, school and supermarket. It’s not a big issue but they got scared of us this time.

TP: Is Manal-al-sharif your inspiration? If not, how and why are your projects different from hers?

AA: Manal thanked me after they released her because my group and I, back then were one of the reasons behind releasing her in 9 days only. But after that she worked alone and we worked alone. I’m the admin of 3 English pages and my other friends are supervising the Arabic page that is dedicated to Saudi people. We don’t serve people or make idols, we serve the case.

 TP: Have you ever driven around Saudi Arabia? If yes, how has it been? Do you think women can maneuver around such crazy drivers here, given that Saudi drivers are infamous for reckless driving and speeding?

AA: Yes I did. The last time I drove was June 17, 2012 in Jeddah since I’m back to Jeddah for a short family visit, and I posted the video on the wall. I’ve been always driving in Jeddah, in some resorts (Durrat Alarous) where women can drive and wear whatever they want. And I drove with my friend before dressed up as a male and that was very exciting. And about the dangerous roads, I think we’re ready now, since we have cameras at almost everywhere in our big cities, and women in desert communities and villages are used to driving for decades. I think it should be now or never. It’s our chance since we got the world’s attention.

TP: What do you hope to achieve via this new movement?

AA: We get the right of mobility, then we’ll get our other rights and be equal to men in this country.

TP: Recently a lot of revolution has been taking place in the Middle East with the help of Social Media. What are your views on this? Do you think your people will be able to make a change too?

AA: Yes I think so. If you observed KSA after 9/11, you’ll notice many changes and people are changing their minds, if there is any revolutions will happen in KSA, it’ll be a pinky revolution, women are making the change since 2011 and still.

TP: A lot of critics have commented that women driving is not the issue, the real problem arises when women are allowed out without a male guardian. They may undergo harassment and not be able to deal with problems in case a technical issue arises with the car, such as a flat tire or a dead battery. What are your views on this, and how do you think you will tackle such problems?

AA: Well, KSA still has no law against sexual harassment, they should make a law first because we get harassed in malls, streets and everywhere in here because guys are free to do whatever they want, there is no law. And women in the Arab gulf countries are driving in the same situation and nothing happened to them, they’re just scaring us so we’ll keep silent

TP: Recently an article was published stating ‘End of virginity’ if women drive, Saudi cleric warns’ and also including bizarre comments about increase in prostitution and homosexuality. What are your comments on this?

AA: That was the most absurd thing I’ve ever read. Believe me, many people in KSA laughed when they read it. He means that we’ll go out more than before and we’ll be free to date or whatever and I can tell you and tell him if any girl wanted to do so, she can do it with driving or without.

TP: Have any proof that you are not going against Shahriah?

AA: Women were riding camels and horses in the prophet’s time, it’s about transportation, if there was cars during the prophet’s time, he would allow women to drive, because he wouldn’t take it sexually like these people did.

TP: Do you have anything to say the numerous women who dream of driving freely in Saudi Arabia one day? And something for the critics of this dream?

AA: I just want to tell them, we will drive sooner or later, just get behind the wheels and buckle up and drive. And I feel it’s very soon, not because of his majesty, because we decided to get this right by force and I’m very proud of that.

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This is part 2 of an interview with feminist leader and professor Gulhan Balsoy.

Turkey has recently been plagued by a series of protests, after Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan announced that his government and party– the AKP Party– would push through a bill that would ban abortion after the first 4-6 weeks of pregnancy; this is a significant limitation from the original ten weeks that has been allowed in Turkey since 1983.

One woman and feminist, Gulhan Balsoy, a professor and historian of reproductive rights in the mid to late nineteenth century, spoke to Toonari Post about this ban, as well as the movement that has emerged to reject it.

Several protests have already occurred on June 3 and June 8, but the largest one yet happened June 17. These protests have occurred across the country and have been coordinated between the largest cities including Ankara (the capital), Eskisehir, and Istanbul. Balsoy stated, “Many young and old women were in the protests,” and these women were not only from feminist groups, but they were average Turkish citizens as well.

A protest was also arranged by a male group for women’s rights, called Irritated Men, although they protested independently of the other feminist groups. Balsoy discussed Irritated Men saying, “It is good to see some men support as well.”

According to Balsoy, the first protest resulted in police violence against the protesters, and several women being taken into custody. Since then the protests have grown in size and have been peaceful.

Balsoy, like many other women in Turkey, feels that there is no reasonable debate, stating, “Women haven’t seen any real ethical discussion.” She pointed out that the comments from government officials have been inflammatory at best and insulting at worst. The Health Minister Recep Akdag claimed that if a woman is raped and she does not want the child the government will take care of the child. Another example she gave was the comments of Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek who stated that if a woman is raped the child should not be aborted but the woman herself should be killed. Balsoy calmly stated, “We are offended, actually.” Many women can understand why.

Balsoy explains that there are so many different policies that the government could support to increase the population that would not involve banning abortion. She suggested that the government start by providing more funding for programs such as day care centers. She also added that the abortion rates in the country have been falling since 2008.

Balsoy has stated that the AKP Party has enough chairs in Parliament to pass the law. In fact, the Parliament’s summer break start date has been pushed back to July 19 which Balsoy believes may be so that the government can push through the law as the last act of this session. The main opposition party is not saying a lot about the issue. “They [the opposition party] act like nothing is happening. They are pretty much indifferent to the protest,” Balsoy stated. There are some members of government who are opposing the law, some even within the AKP Party, but not enough. Balsoy stated, “[The law passing] is the the worst scenario I can imagine right now.”

Balsoy stated that even if the law is passed the protests will continue and abortions will also probably continue,“Throughout all of human history women have had abortions.”

The ban has not gained much popular support. Only some conservatives are supporting the government, but weakly, and Balsoy claims that “people who support the government’s position are not bringing something new to the conversation.” As Balsoy pointed out, even if a woman is a conservative that does not mean that she will want to be only a mother her whole life. One Turkish newspaper, HaberTurk, reported that 55.5 percent of Turkish citizens oppose the law. Balsoy also claims that the popularity of the AKP Party is falling and that Erdogan has already announced that he will not be running for reelection.

Recently the protest groups have filed a petition with the government with 55,000 signatures and support from 900 organizations that are against the abortion ban.

According to Balsoy Health Minister Akdag has been talking about finding a middle ground. “[He says that] if a baby is going to have a health problem there could be an abortion. But this could be a problem too because people could know they are going to have a handicap child and still want to keep the child.”

Balsoy wants to make clear the message that the Turkish citizens and feminists are trying to get across. “Feminists think that abortion is a right and we are not negotiating this right with anybody… this is our right. It’s about our right to live and to make choices about our lives.”

Image Courtesy of  Gulhan Balsoy

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Turkey has recently been plagued by a series of protests after Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan announced that his government and party– the AKP Party– would push through a bill that would ban abortion after the first 4-6 weeks of pregnancy. This is a significant limitation from the original ten weeks that has been allowed in Turkey since 1983.

One woman and feminist, Gulhan Balsoy, a professor and historian of reproductive rights in the mid to late nineteenth century, spoke to Toonari Post about this ban, as well as the movement that has emerged to reject it.

Professor Balsoy explained that the debate about women’s rights and abortion rights began three years ago, when Prime Minister Erdogan declared that women should have at least three children; he later changed this number to more than three. Balsoy claimed that women protested because they did not want to be viewed as only mothers and wanted to have control over their bodies. Balsoy also stated that the protests were caused because “Prime Minister Erdogan has said several times that he does not believe in the equality of men and women.”

In addition to these women’s rights violations, Balsoy pointed out that the mandatory education of girls in Turkey is eight years, but with many questioning the policies and enforcement within Turkey. Some girls are only receiving four years, especially in the remote regions of Turkey.

Women across Turkey have also engaged in a photography campaign that advertises the sentiment “My body belongs to me.” The campaign, which features women– and men– supporting their partners, tells the government that their body is theirs and that the government cannot interfere with it.

“He wants to see women as mothers, just raising their children at home… even many conservatives do not accept that position,” Balsoy claimed. She later stated, “None of those men [from the AKP Party] have thought about abortion for a second.”

Erdogan wants to ban abortions and c-sections, in order to generate a larger population in Turkey that will propel the country into the top economies in the world. However, Balsoy challenges Erdogan’s claims about the shrinking population in Turkey stating, “His claims cannot be supported by numbers.” Although Erdogan has claimed that Turkey’s population is shrinking, the rate of growth is what has been shrinking, according to Balsoy.

Balsoy stated that previous to Erdogan’s announcement, women wanted the deadline for abortion to actually be extended to twelve weeks, so there was much outrage when Erdogan’s proposal limited it to four.

Erdogan is also trying to punish the use of c-sections because women who elect to have a c-section are usually only able to have two children. Balsoy admits that c-sections are happening more and more seemingly more than normal births; however, she also stated, “The government should not tell us how to give birth to our children.”

Instead, Balsoy believes that there are other policies and methods that the government could use to encourage natural births. Prior to the announcements from Erdogan, midwives in Turkey protested because they wanted normal births to be promoted. Instead of helping the midwives and listening to the ideas they had for promoting normal births, the government ignored their protests, according to Balsoy.

Image Courtesy of  Gülhan Balsoy

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According to the press office of the Egyptian Government Former President Hosni Mubarak, 84, is only confirmed to not be dead and that he is in a coma. One of Mubarak’s attorneys, Fareed El Deeb, told CNN, “he has been in a coma for hours now. He has had water on the lungs for 10 days now and his blood pressure is down today, which obstructed his breathing and forced doctors to put him on a respirator. He was given medicine intravenously to relieve the brain clot, and electric shocks were used to revive him but there was no substantial response. He is not dead as reported.”

Mubarak has been reportedly transported from the prison where he is being held to Maadi military hospital where he is on life support and clinically dead. Mubarak was jailed for life for his role in the killings of hundreds of protesters in February 2011.

CNN Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen commented that “clinically dead is not a phrase that is commonly used, but when it is used, what it usually means is that someone is brain dead…in the United States, we would call this person dead because they have no brain activity.”

However, many are doubtful of these allegations. A senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, Fouad Ajami, stated, “there’s a great Arab expression I like and it asks the following question: When you’re told that someone is dead, you say, ‘Is he dead and buried, or just dead?’ I think we are in the middle of this kind of situation.”

With tensions high in Egypt with the outcome of the presidential elections being announced today, some believe that this is a stunt by the government to distract from the problems with the elections. Sayed Ahmed, a protester, stated, “I don’t care about Mubarak. These are games played by the intelligence services.”

Recently many protesters have gathered in Tahrir Square to protest the way the elections are being run and recent problems in the government. The government is currently being run by the Egyptian military which ousted the recently elected Parliament after the Constitutional Court ruled that the elections were illegal. According to a statement issued by former US President Jimmy Carter’s Carter Center, they are “deeply troubled by the undemocratic turn that Egypt has taken.”

The Constitutional Court also ruled that candidate Ahmed Shafiq, former prime minister under Mubarak, could run and contest the elections even though a law was passed forbidding members of the former regime from running for office. According to “The Australian” the protesters of Arab Spring feel as though they are being marginalized.

Another lawyer of Mubarak’s claimed Wednesday, June 20 that the stories of Mubarak’s coma are exaggerated. Youssri Abdel Razeq says that Mubarak fell in the prison shower and developed a blood clot that has been removed. According to the “New York Times” Mubarak’s lawyers are trying to get him released from prison on medical grounds.

Image Courtesy of  Vasily Smirnov / Shutterstock.com

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Every day we see new developments in advertising ideas to attract the viewer’s eye.  The more creative the advertising idea, the higher the price to pay.

From that, SkyDive ,the sky diving company in Dubai and Go Fast , the energy drinks manufacturer from Denver state, USA put a new billboard with flying jetpack pilot around it. The billboard is located in the base of  Burj Khalifa, the highest building in the world, located in Dubai’s downtown.  In front of the Billboard, they put some chairs for the  audience to sit while watching the show.

The price for each second of advertising on this billboard is about $500 USD . The total cost of one month of advertising on this billboard would cost about $1.3 billion USD, making it the most expensive billboard in the world.

The Jetpack is a device worn on the back that, when pushed by escaping gasses, allows a man to fly. The Jetpacks were used in 2008 for advertising the Red Bull energy drink, the Go Fast large competitor.

According to Dropzone.com, Mr. Nasser Al Neyadi of Skydive Dubai said, “this is an epic moment, and we are very proud to be part of it. This initiative is another example showcasing Dubai as a world leader in innovation and technology. The billboard came into being with a simple idea that has transformed into an exceptional event to attract a global audience. Our gratitude to our partners, Go Fast and Emaar Properties, without whose support, this would not have been possible.”

Emaar Properties is the master developer in the Emirate of Dubai. It developed Burj Khalifa, Dubai Marina, Dubai’s downtown, Dubai Mall and other leisure attractions.

According to marketing-interactive.com, the Go Fast chief executive, Mr. Troy Widgery said, “we are certain that the brand will be received very well here. We are grateful for the support of Skydive Dubai for our venture in this part of the world. With this billboard, we want the people to know that we will be here soon.” Additionally, according to the same website, the Go Fast energy drink is a Halal friendly product. This would allow the majority of Muslim residents of Dubai and UAE in general to drink this product without worrying of consuming a non halal drink.

Halal means permitted in Arabic which usually refers to the allowed food and drinks according to Islamic thoughts. The Halal food and drinks shouldn’t contain any pork and all it’s products; animals slaughtered not in Islamic way, alcoholic drinks, carnivorous animals, birds of prey and any food polluted with any of these products.

Image Courtesy of  Elinag / Shutterstock.com

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Tbilisi, Georgia - Two days after he appeared at a Tbilisi press conference warning that media freedom in Georgia was under attack by the Saakashvili government, Georgian authorities detained, interrogated, and allegedly physically pushed, shoved, and bruised U.S. citizen Alexander Ronzhes as he was about to board a plane to leave Georgia.

Rondzhes is the 17-percent shareholder of Georgian cable provider Global TV, an independent television network whose largest shareholder is Alexander Ivanishvili, the brother of Georgian Dream opposition coalition Bidzina Ivanishvili.

On June 14, unidentified Georgian authorities who said they were affiliated with the Georgia prosecutor’s office stopped Ronzhes, who lives in New York, at Tbilisi International Airport. After seven hours of interrogation, during which he says he sustained visible bruises after being shoved into a security office at the airport, and separated from his Georgian attorneys, and after direct intervention by U.S. consular officers based in Tbilisi, Ronzhes was released.

Ronzhes had arrived in Georgia earlier in the week following a pattern of Georgian government actions against Global TV, the country’s major independent cable and satellite station, which included claims by government authorities – rejected by the independent network – that the television station was broadcasting illegally by reaching citizens on the wrong frequency.

On June 12, Georgian media companies Global TV, Channel 9 and Stereo conducted a press conference with Ronzhes which highlighted the campaign being waged by Georgian authorities against the companies and other media in the lead up to Georgian Parliamentary elections scheduled for October. During the hour-long press conference, Ronzhes discussed the harassment, detention and abuse of supporters of opposition candidates, ongoing arrests of reporters, and other attacks on political freedoms in Georgia, in addition to the pattern of attacks against Global TV.

Local representatives of Global TV debriefed by Ronzhes at the airport following his release stated that he was stopped at 15:25 at passport control by four people who did not identify themselves, and who claimed they wanted to question him about a money laundering case. They told him that they had informed the US Embassy, that everything was fine, and that he would make his flight. In fact, according to the Global TV representatives, the U.S. Embassy was not notified by the Georgian authorities, who only found about the detention of the U.S. citizen from Global TV.

Ronzhes was then subjected by the unidentified Georgian officials to extensive questioning regarding a property he sold during the current visit which he had owned since 2004. During that questioning, three officials restrained him and two pushed him behind, allegedly leaving physical bruises on his body, which were later filmed by a Channel 9 film crew that rushed to the scene. The officials interrogated Ronzhes about money from the sale that he had placed in a safe deposit box, repeatedly demanding that he provide them with access to his safe deposit box, where a portion of the proceeds were stored in cash.

Following interventions by local attorneys and the U.S. consular office, Ronzhes was released from detention shortly before midnight, and thus remains in Georgia.

On June 7, U.S. Congressman Howard Berman (D-Calif.), ranking member on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs expressed  concerns about Georgian authorities “preventing a prominent political opponent from running in the parliamentary election and reported attempts to intimidate local opposition leaders, including denying them access to media.”

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Washington, U.S.A. - Professor Habib Malik of the Lebanese American University has called on the United States and its European allies to “draw a thick red line” around religious liberty as it responds to the ongoing violence in Syria and the Middle East, and to provide “active protection” for minority rights in the region.

Dr. Malik issued this call this week at CSI’s 2012 conference series on The Future of Religious Minorities in the Middle East. Malik is a professor of history and the author of “Islamism and the Future of Christians in the Middle East.”

In Syria, Malik warned that the “first wave” of opposition leaders has been replaced by a “militant Islamist grouping” that engages in kidnappings and beheadings, including attacks on religious pilgrims.  Given these attacks, Malik said it is impossible to “take seriously” the opposition Syrian National Council’s assurances to Syrian religious minorities, given on June 10, that they will be protected after the regime falls.

Malik faulted Western powers for promoting their “democracy” agenda with the help of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, whom Malik termed “fanatic states” and “arch-repressors” that are “financing and supporting a militant Sunni Salafi Wahabi replacement in Syria and indeed anywhere else in the region they can manage it.”

Malik said that “if present trends continue,” the “better-funded and better-organized” Islamist parties are likely to rise to power in most of the Middle Eastern countries undergoing political change, with adverse consequences for Christians and other non-Muslim communities.

“Without these Christian communities,” he said, “pluralism is all but dead in the Middle East, and along with it, any real chances for genuine freedoms and democracy.”

To avoid these outcomes, Malik recommended that President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton try to reach a “comprehensive deal” with Russia to put an end to the Syrian conflict and the standoff over Iran’s nuclear program, pressure Saudi Arabia and Qatar to “stop fanning the flames of Sunni fanaticism,” and defend religious pluralism as an “absolutely integral component” of democratization in the Middle East.

Dr. John Eibner, the CEO of CSI-USA, said that Prof. Malik’s analysis “reinforced the urgent necessity for Christians and others of good will throughout the the world to press their governments to defend the Middle East’s religious minorities.”

CSI has issued a Genocide Warning for endangered religious minorities in the Islamic Middle East, and has called on President Barack Obama to make their survival a priority as the United States responds to the Middle East’s ongoing political turmoil.

Image Courtesy  fulili / Shutterstock.com

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As more countries in Europe are imposing the ‘Burqa Ban,’ activists in the Middle East in countries such as Qatar and United Arab Emirates (UAE) are interested in educating expatriates in their countries to follow a particular ‘dress code.’

The campaign  “UAE Dress Code” was initiated by two local residents of UAE, Hanan Al Rayes and Asma Al Muhairi. These women did not approve of what foreigners, especially other women, wore in the country and were outraged at the sight of their clothing. One of their recent tweets stated, “Whether you like it or not, this country has its own culture that should be respected & protected by its own people.”

Simultaneously, in Qatar, Najla Al Mahmoud is the founder of “One of Us”, another public awareness campaign on the similar issue. She hopes to educate expatriates on this issue, and make both men and women aware of the Qatari culture. She wants to get people of both genders to cover up between the shoulders and knees.  ”We are offended by this… but we are sure that people don’t know and we are sure that people will respect this. Why wouldn’t they? We want to educate them,” stated Al Mahmoud.

In the Gulf, most countries have the same dress code. Women are dressed in an ‘Abaya,’ a cloak like garment clad in black covering from head to toe, while men wear a white, ankle-length garment called a ‘Thobe/kandura’. Though this is traditional, Saudi Arabia is the only country with strict dressing rules. This applies especially to women; breaking the ‘dress code’ will have serious consequences. However, it is not mandatory in the other Gulf countries to stick to the traditional dress code.

In fact, since the campaigns started it has been discovered that there are loopholes in the constitutional article. For instance, Article 30 of the UAE Constitution states “Freedom of opinion and expressing it verbally, in writing or by other means of expression shall be guaranteed within the limits of the law.”   But doesn’t state what ‘other means’ indicate, like whether minimal clothing can be assumed to be freedom of opinion. There is absolutely no mention of ‘dress code’ anywhere in the articles for the UAE or Qatar, be it for local residents or for expatriates. Article 57 of Qatar Constitution states: “The respect of the Constitution, compliance with the laws issued by Public Authority, abiding by public order and morality, observing national traditions and established customs is a duty of all who reside in the State of Qatar or enter its territory.” But again no direct mention on clothing is mentioned, or what outfits are considered indecent.

While some argue that the laws on this matter are just petty, and also say that expatriates should abide by the customs of the country and respect the culture, a member of UAE Federal National Council (FNC), Hamad Al Rahoumi, thinks that public awareness merely is not enough because people can chose to ignore them. However, enforcing a law would mean people are less likely to breach it.

Khalid Al Ameri, an Emirati columnist and blogger, agrees. “Enforcing laws pertaining to clothes could prove difficult and arbitrary. For example, a woman may choose to wear shorts and a baggy T-shirt and find herself in violation of a hypothetical law, whereas another girl might come wearing tight stuff that reveals more than it covers, but complies with the dress code”, she stated.

“We want Qatar to be a place for everyone. Something in the middle, not too extreme and not too loose,” Al Mahmoud said. Rahoumi agreed. “We don’t want them to cover their face. (but), I don’t want to see the underwear… It is not suitable.” These were comments from some officials in both countries in support of the campaign.

The campaign has received a divided response from the foreigners residing in Qatar. While many think it is important to make the public aware of what the locals really feel, some think a public awareness campaign on something more productive and deadly such as smoking should be carried out, instead of how people dress.

People residing in the gulf have also stated that high end designer stores should start selling skirts and tops more ‘local area friendly,’ with longer length, sleeves and a not-too-deep neck. Now the question arises, are expatriates merely the ones deemed to dress inappropriately?

Image Courtesy of  arindambanerjee / Shutterstock.com

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Rome, Italy - “It is cause for great satisfaction that the date for the election of the National Assembly of the new Libya has been set for 7 July,” said Minister Giulio Terzi, according to whom “despite the many difficulties that any transition carries with it, by holding free elections, Libya is about to take a fundamental step toward building a democratic State fully integrated into the International community.

Recalling the “primary importance in this phase of the role of the United Nations Support Mission”, Terzi underscored that “the new government named by the Assembly will have the task of relaying the foundations of a Libyan State apparatus, based first and foremost on respect for human rights and, at the same time, of offering new opportunities for economic and social advancement to all the components of the Libyan society.”

“Italy is watching with confidence,” Terzi concluded, “as Libya follows the path to adopting a new constitution and will continue to steadfastly support the construction of a new, prosperous, free and democratic Libya, in the conviction that that nation’s progress and the gradual reduction of distance from the European Union are elements essential to regional stability.”

Minister Terzi is the Foreign Minister of Italy and has been working closely with many leaders of the Arab nation, including those in Libya. He received the diplomats from Syria and members of the Arab League in May to discuss the revolutions of Arab Spring and the future of the Arab world.

Giulio Terzi di Sant’Agata has been Italy’s Foreign Minister since November of 2011. Prior to his position as the Minister of Foreign Affairs he was the Permanent Representative of Italy at the United Nations in New York and was also the head of the Italy delegation in the Security Council of the United Nations.

Image Courtsey of the  Italian Embassy

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Israel has begun an “emergency plan” to battle its illegal immigration problems that will involve interning and deporting thousands. So far authorities have arrested sixty-two African migrants in on-going raids. Most of the migrants are from South Sudan, with some from the Darfur region. The government hopes to repatriate 60,000 African refugees. The immigrants are being detained at the Red Sea resort of Eilat.

After two months of heated debate, the Israeli government has declared that the African migrants have become a threat to the Jewish character of the state and that they are here illegally. Many illegal immigrants have also caused problems with labor and work, similar to those in the United States.

The main area being targeted for removing these African refugees is in the poor area to the south of Tel Aviv. Israelis living in the south of Tel Aviv claim that the wealthy northern residents of Tel Aviv can afford to be liberal and support the plight of the African refugee because their jobs are not being threatened by these Africans.

The decision has also arisen after a wave of hostility has arisen against blacks in general. A recent opinion poll in Israel showed that fifty-two percent of Israelis think that Africans are a “cancer” according to the Times of Israel. According to Jacob Berri, a Sudanese refugee at a protest, the refugees are “being called a cancer and an AIDS virus on the Israeli people, by politicians.” Berri claims that many in the South Sudanese community recognize they are not wanted and will leave as long as they are guaranteed refugee status and are helped by the UN.

African migrants marched on Sunday to the UN Refugee Agency offices in Tel Aviv to protest the mistreatment of refugees. Several protests have occurred due to these decisions including one with five hundred Sudanese men. These men chanted “we are refugees, not criminals” due to allegations that Africans are preying on Israeli citizens and raping Israeli women.

The rhetoric used against these immigrants suggests some personal bias. Interior Minister Eli Yishai stated, “this is only a small group of infiltrators…I’m not acting out of hatred of strangers but love of my people and to rescue my homeland.” According to Reuters, “infiltrators” is the the same word often used to describe Palestinian militants.

Many Israelis are worried that the deportations could damage Israel’s international image; in previous years, Israel was considered a champion of human rights and protector of these African refugees. Israeli human rights and activist groups are on the side of the African refugees, whereas the right wing and certain religious parties are against them.

Some of these refugees have lived in Israel for years – some of their children only know of Israel as home and only speak Hebrew – but these individuals have lived in legal limbo for too long.

An Israeli court upheld the government’s decision of internment and deportation of all migrants of South Sudanese origin. The government and courts agree that although South Sudan is still at war with Sudan, the region is safe enough for the refugees to return. The government has also claimed that all of the immigrants are in Israel looking for work when many are there to escape persecution and violence. Israeli activists have urged the government to consider each case individually rather than indiscriminately sending people back.

The Israeli government has offered financial incentives to all of those who leave voluntarily. Since many refugees recognize that their deportations are inevitable, they have begun registering to leave. The Interior Minister Eli Yishai has claimed, “whoever comes forward will get his grant…from the moment you come to immigration authorities and say you will pack up, from that moment you will be given an opportunity to pack up, and the grant of 1,000 euros.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is completely behind the new immigration policy, although he has urged Israelis to not harm the African refugees. Netanyahu claimed, “we are a moral people and we will act accordingly. We denounce violence; we denounce invective. We respect human rights…[but] Israel cannot accept infiltrators from an entire continent.”

According to Reuters, migration into Israel from Africa has been increasing since 2006, but the past year has seen an incredible increase in the number of refugees. The revolution in Egypt has prevented the Egyptian government from policing the border of the Sinai peninsula which has allowed the Bedouin people-smugglers to increase their operations.

In response to these high levels of immigration, Israel has built a high fence along its border to Egypt. Netanyahu said in a May 29th speech, “my policy with regard to the illegal infiltrators seeking work is clear… first of all, to stop their entry with the fence and at the same time to deport the infiltrators who are in Israel.” Netanyahu also claimed that in transition the African refugees would be held in “detention facilities with thousands of units.” The prime minister justified his actions by claiming that these migrants are threatening “the character of the country.”

Image Courtesy of  John Kropewnicki / Shutterstock.com

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