WADIblog

Kofi Ananns Friedensplan XXII

aus dem Netz — Wed, 16 May 2012 21:40:12 +0000

Annan has a plan, and because it’s the only plan in circulation everyone in the international community is clinging to it. And yet you will not find two people who truly believe that the deployment of United Nations monitors will slow the leviathan of civil war in Syria.

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The Failure of Arab Liberals

aus dem Netz — Wed, 16 May 2012 21:25:51 +0000

As the experience of Iran’s 1979 revolution demonstrates, liberals are already suspect when it comes to their anti-American and anti-Israel bona fides; Islamists and other radicals will always “out-compete” them on the anti-Western front. Liberals do themselves no favors by seeking to placate illiberal impulses—however popular they may be—and hoping to tame them further down the road through the electoral process. If liberal values are worth fighting and dying for when it comes to confronting autocracy, they must be guarded more jealously against Islamists, who hate liberalism even more than did the likes of Mubarak and Ben Ali.

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Mit Obama den Muslimbrüdern helfen …

Thomas von der Osten-Sacken — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:14:35 +0000

Syrian rebels battling the regime of President Bashar al-Assad have begun receiving significantly more and better weapons in recent weeks including antitank weaponry, an effort paid for by Persian Gulf nations and coordinated in part by the U.S., according to opposition activists and U.S. and foreign officials. U.S. contacts with the rebel military and information-sharing with Gulf nations mark a shift in Obama administration policy as hopes dim for a political solution. Many officials now consider an expanding military confrontation in Syria to be inevitable.
The flow of weapons significantly increased after a decision by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Gulf states to provide millions of dollars in funding each month. Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood said it has opened its own supply channel to the rebels, using resources from wealthy private individuals and money from Gulf states. “Large shipments have got through,” said one opposition figure.

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Hizbollah in Syrien

aus dem Netz — Wed, 16 May 2012 08:56:39 +0000

Hezbollah units marched into Syrian territory and invaded the villages of Safsafa, Masriya, Swadiya, Zeeta, and Matraba around the city of Qasir in the province of Homs. They arrested more than 70 Syrians and set up checkpoints assisted by Assad regime forces. Hezbollah also raided parts of the villages of Nizariya and Zira’a and the city of Qasir under the cover of heavy fire and shelling, and burnt many houses. UN observers travelled to the city of Kafarzeita in the province of Hama and left immediately without even entering the city.

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Kofi Annans Friedensplan XXI

aus dem Netz — Tue, 15 May 2012 22:41:29 +0000

At least 43 people were killed in violence across Syria Tuesday, including 20 gunned down by regime forces while attending the funeral of a man killed the previous day, a monitoring group said.

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Muslim Brothers promote FGM in Upper Egypt

aus dem Netz — Tue, 15 May 2012 21:39:42 +0000

A number of Egyptian human rights groups have submitted a communication to the Attorney General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud against the Muslim Brotherhood`s political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) to investigate the complaints of people in the village of Abu Aziz in the Minya governorate, south of Cairo, over the existence of a large medical convoy organized by the party that wanders streets and does medical examination on people, including female circumcision, or female genital mutilation, in violation of Egyptian law, conventions and treaties signed by Egypt.

Defend Freedom of Speech in Iraqi-Kurdistan II

Thomas von der Osten-Sacken — Tue, 15 May 2012 20:50:24 +0000

People from the city of Khanaqin, although outside the KRG area, joined the campaign for free speech and against a blasphemy law in Iraqi Kurdistan. 47 persons and organisations already signed a petition to the parliament not to pass the bill, Islamic parties were submitting last week. In the meanwhile almost 250 prominent individuals have joined the call in Iraqi Kurdistan as well as a growing number of civil society organisations, syndicats and other groups.

Die Geister, die er rief IV

aus dem Netz — Mon, 14 May 2012 16:45:51 +0000

The Syrian conflict has bred the emergence of obscure jihadists carrying out bloody attacks, either acting independently or manipulated by the regime seeking to tarnish the image of its opposition, analysts say.

“Al-Qaeda does not exist in Syria. But there are at present several splinter groups of jihadists who employ the same strategies,” said Mathieu Guidere, a France-based analyst who specializes in the Arab and Muslim world.

“We know that these are Syrians, not foreigners, and that they are very few. For now, nobody knows them – neither Al-Qaeda nor the rebels,” he added. (…)

The latest bombings primarily benefit the Syrian regime, analysts say, which, from the start of the 14-month revolt, has described the uprising as a Western-backed Al-Qaeda plot and its opponents as “terrorists” to justify its crackdown.

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Iran in Iraq

aus dem Netz — Mon, 14 May 2012 13:21:41 +0000

As the top spiritual leader in the Shiite Muslim world, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has championed Iraqi democracy and warned against Iranian-style clerical rule. Frail at 81, he still greets visitors at his home in Najaf, Iraq, only steps from the glimmering gold dome of the Imam Ali Shrine. But the jockeying to succeed him has begun, and Iran is positioning its own candidate for the post, a hard-line cleric who would give Tehran a direct line of influence over the Iraqi people, heightening fears that Iran’s long-term goal is to transplant its Islamic Revolution to Iraq.

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Defend Freedom of Speech in Iraqi-Kurdistan

Thomas von der Osten-Sacken — Sun, 13 May 2012 14:06:06 +0000

After Islamic Parties submitted a law proposal to the parliament demanding to forbid “blasphemy” and “insulting of religion” in Iraqi-Kurdistan, this petition collecting signatures to defend the freedom of speech was launched

Already many parliamentarians declared they are going to oppose such a law that would strangulate the freedom of expression Iraqi-Kurds were fighting for during the last decades. If democrats and secularists are going to suceed, this would not only be a major step for a better future in Iraqi-Kurdistan but for the whole Middle East.