Abortion clinics nationwide face significant threats of harassment, intimidation, and violence, according to a new report showing that threats of violence against abortion providers have doubled since 2010.
The survey of 242 abortion providers in the United States found that there has been significantly higher levels of threats and targeted intimidation of doctors and staff in recent years. The report comes as widespread intimidation tactics were deployed against clinics during the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision affirming a woman’s right to choose an abortion.
More than 500 plastic handcuffs placed inside “care packages” were reportedly delivered to abortion clinics throughout the country last week, according to The Christian Post. The packages were sent by the anti-choice organization Pro-Life Action League.
Many Muslims often respond to atrocities committed in the name of Islam not by accepting the source of the problem, but by bringing up the World Wars, the colonial history of Australia and the Americas, Hitler, Mao, Stalin Mussolini, or others. Not only do they show a tremendous amount of disrespect for those who are murdered in the name of Islam, but they deliberately ignore the problem. They assume that criticism of Islam insinuates that only Muslims have committed crimes, so in a pathetic attempt of trying to change the subject they ignore the fact that Islamic scripture is directly used in order to justify many crimes in the name of Islam, while in most of the examples they brought up there was no scriptural justification that was considered to be a perfect guide. The only thing they achieve by using this cliched embarrassment of an “argument” is create more hatred for Muslims who as a result are seen as heartless, careless, clueless, deceitful and incredibly ignorant
Despite thursday’s suicide bombing (three detonations, 170 civilian deaths, 13 US personnel KIA), evacuation at Kabul Airport carries on: In the past 24 hours, 35 US military flights and 54 coalition flights evacuated 12,500 people from Kabul. 105,000 people have been airlifted from the Afghan capital since August the 14th.
Returningonce again to our regularly scheduled broadcast, let us once againrememberEgypt during what must be a terrifying Holy Week. Saint Mary of Egypt is the patroness of penitents, which should be all of us this week. Let us ask her intercession for Egypt and for ourselves.
O Lady, Mother of God, who gave birth in the flesh to God the Word, I know, O how well I know, that it is no honour or praise to thee when one so impure and depraved as I look up to thy icon, O ever-virgin, who didst keep thy body and soul in purity. Rightly do I inspire hatred and disgust before thy virginal purity. But I have heard that God Who was born of thee became man on purpose to call sinners to repentance. Then help me, for I have no other help. Order the entrance of the church to be opened to me. Allow me to see the venerable Tree on which He Who was born of thee suffered in the flesh and on which He shed His holy Blood for the redemption of sinners an for me, unworthy as I am. Be my faithful witness before thy son that I will never again defile my body by the impurity of fornication, but as soon as I have seen the Tree of the Cross I will renounce the world and its temptations and will go wherever thou wilt lead me.
Saint Mary of Egypt, pray for your homeland, pray for us, and pray for all penitents during this Holy Week.
And now back to our regularly scheduled programming…
All jokes aside, let us remember Egypt, where ISIS bombings killed dozens of Christians worshiping on Palm Sunday. We pray for the living, that God may grant them strength and courage. We pray for the dead, that their souls will receive mercy and rest in peace.
God our Father, You gave St Anthony of Egypt the courage and belief of an apostle to give up his wealth, living a life of poverty and solitude, and to found monasteries. Help us to be zealous in imitating his virtues and to follow in the footsteps of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Grant this through the same Christ Our Lord who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
The Communist Party of Australia condemns ongoing attempts on the part of the federal government to increase surveillance on ordinary Australians and to deny them their right to privacy and other political and human rights.
The current push to legislate for the retention of Internet users’ metadata must be defeated. Labor must stop its supine “bi-partisan” compliance with the demands of the Abbott government for more police state powers and stand up for the rights of Australians. Revelations from NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden confirm that the electronic communications of people across the planet are being subjected to mass surveillance and harvested for later analysis. The Australian government must be compelled to protect the rights of the people it purports to represent.
The excuse offered for the mass spying project being put in place at the moment is that it protects Australians from acts of terrorism. Recent history puts lie to this claim. The perpetrator of the Lindt Café siege could not have done more to draw the attention of the responsible security forces to his violent potential. It is claimed 60 Australians are currently fighting with IS in Syria and Iraq and it has been confirmed that one person left Australia for this purpose using his brother’s passport. The recent arrest of two alleged would-be terrorists in Sydney followed a tip-off from a neighbour. Religion is being used for perverse political purposes. If the intention of the Australian government is truly to protect the population from terrorism this can and must be done without trampling on the rights of people to the privacy of their communications and without the construction of a police state.
“306 Palestinians killed and 2250 injured in just 12 days. And 70% are women and children.
After an explosion, this paramedic rushed in his ambulance to save the injuries. When he reached there he found them to be his children and relatives who were killed and injured. May God give him strength to bare this pain.
Israel has started their offensive ground invasion into Gaza. And we have started the last 10 days of Ramadan. Our prayers will not go to waste.
Latest shocking update on Gaza. 306 Palestinians killed and 2250 injured in just 12 days. And 70% are women and children. Israel should be held accountable for this. We should not stay silent.”
Negotiations are underway between Israel and the European Union for Israel to sell natural gas to Europe, which wishes to end its dependence on Russia for fuel. Italy and Germany presently get 40% and 35% of their gas from Russia, respectively. Russia recently informed Finland – which just announced that it would like to join NATO – that it would stop selling it gas. The dispute is officially about a Russian demand to be paid in rubles, and it represents only a small amount of Finland’s energy supply, but the political overtones are unmistakable. The delivery of Israeli gas, via Egypt, could begin as early as this coming winter.
Naturally, I welcome the idea that Israel will be able to help the Europeans in their time of need. It can get very cold in Europe in the winter. So I have prepared a draft of a letter that our government could send to the EU in order to get the ball rolling. It’s warmish now at the end of May, but Berlin, for example, is located at 54.5 north latitude, and temperatures there in January average 1 degree C. So let’s get started!
Dear European Friends and Allies,
We in Israel are excited to hear of your interest in buying some of our natural gas. We’ll be happy to sell it to you. But there are a few small bumps in the road to iron out first. So here they are:
We demand that you reverse your blatantly racist decision to demand that Israeli products from Judea, Samaria, the Golan Heights, and eastern Jerusalem be labeled according to the ethnicity of the producer, and not as products of Israel (see 16 here).
Your subsidizing of illegal construction by Palestinian Arabs in Area C of Judea and Samaria, a zone which by international treaty is supposed to be under full Israeli civil and security control, is an egregious violation of Israeli sovereignty and international law, and must stop immediately.
Yourcontinued financial support, which amounts to millions of Euros annually, to subversive Israeli NGOs, terror-linked organizations in the Palestinian Authority, Gaza, and other locations, and NGOs promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories as well as BDS and lawfare against Israel, constitutes non-military warfare against the Jewish state. We demand a halt to this activity.
Your consistent support for our enemies in the UN in their efforts to deny and obscure the Jewish history of sites such as the Temple Mount, despite the overwhelming archaeological and historical evidence, demonstrates bad faith or cowardice, and is not consistent with a desire for good relations.
Your desire to reach an accommodation with Iran that will allow the regime to have nuclear weapons is not only threatening to Israel, it is dangerous to yourselves, who will soon be in range of Iranian missiles.
We understand that you have strong feelings of guilt for your colonialist past, and for the collaboration of many Europeans with the Nazi effort to liquidate the Jewish people. But it’s absurd, even pathological, to try to ameliorate these feelings by helping the heirs of the Nazis, whose leaders included Hitler’s associate Amin al-Husseini and the Father of Terrorism Yasser Arafat, to continue the Nazis’ genocidal program. We suggest that you apply some of the millions – perhaps billions – that you will save by ending your financial and diplomatic war against Israel to actual humanitarian causes.
We also understand that a growing segment of your population is Muslim, and that the great majority of them are anti-Zionist, even antisemitic. Pandering to these attitudes can be useful for short-term political gain, but you should understand that they are also anti-Western. Appeasing them is much like feeding a crocodile in the hope that he will eat you last (apologies to Winston Churchill).
We are looking forward to working to provide you with a warm winter, just as soon as you reverse your irrational anti-Israel policies!*
Israel
___________________________ * I’m not holding my breath.
Filmmaker Medyan Dairieh spent three weeks alone, embedded with the Islamic State in June 2014, gaining unprecedented access into the heart of the self-proclaimed caliphate.
PDF was joined by Naheed Mustafa on October 27th, 2013 to share her experiences while recording her audio documentary in Pakistan on the ethical dilemma of using drones in the FATA region, which sits on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
While most of the audience members were aware of the damage and destruction caused by the drone warfare, it would be safe to say that a lot of their information was based on the narrative propagated by the Pakistani media. Therefore, it became even more important to get first hand information from someone who spent time in Pakistan working and talking with family members of the victims. Ms Mustafa tackled complex debates while addressing the divide amongst Pakistani’s on the use of drones. She discussed the political implications of drone warfare as well as the complicity of the Pakistani military and the civilian government. It was also brought up in the discussion that although the drone program was controlled by the CIA, it is executed by US military officials and falls within the realms of international law by waging war on foreign soil against “militants.” Naheed pointed out that this was especially problematic because the definition of “militant” is not clearly defined and could include a majority of civilians who are uninvolved in any activity within the region.
A more startling revelation during the discussion with Naheed was that recently there have also been talks about launching drone strikes in Baluchistan, particularly Quetta. Rejecting the false dichotomy that drone is safer and more precise than a military operation to ‘weed out militancy’, Ms Mustafa made the crucial observation that a much more feasible and long-lasting alternative is really to increase political engagement, civilian government and people-led social efforts among the local population in affected areas. These areas have always been under the direct or indirect control of first the colonial, and then the Pakistani government, that has only led to entrenched corruption and disempowerment of the local population. In these situations, ordinary people who may even be suffering from militancy and terrorism are too afraid and powerless to speak out or act against it.
The discussion ended with Ms Mustafa highlighting that drone warfare is actually a continuation of existing violence experienced by people living in the region and without serious consideration to both the humane and policy implications, the drone warfare will continue, and, along with airstrikes conducted by the Pakistani military, more innocent lives will be lost.
Naheed Mustafa covers the above and much more in her audio documentary, “How we kill in war?” on Ideas with Paul Kennedy on CBC Radio. You can catch her documentary at the following link:
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN OF THE 137 VICTIMS IN THE ATTACKS IN PARIS LAST NOVEMBER 13th. / PAÍS DE PROCEDENCIA DE LAS 137 VÍCTIMAS MORTALES DE ATAQUES DE PARÍS DEL PASADO DÍA 13 DE NOVIEMBRE.
On the 16th of December 2014, the Army Public School in Peshawar was targeted by Tehrik-e-Taliban. In their classrooms, books were replaced by bullets. 132 innocent lives were lost and these were school children who were eight to eighteen years old. We can’t bring them back, but we can share the pain of the loved ones they left behind; the brave souls who are dealing with this unimaginable loss every day.
Azaad Pakistan is running a letter writing activity for the friends of the victims, and the survivors of the APS Peshawar Attack. In this letter writing activity we are inviting you to talk to the students at APS, to give them strength and to tell them that their pain hasn’t been forgotten.
Your letters would be delivered to the students directly in APS Peshawar. Please be kind and do not express anger or hate in your letters. While you’re writing these letters, please remember that these are for kids.
So basically earlier today, a mob of extremist muslims set a Chipboard factory in Jhelum on fire, with people still inside it because its being by Ahmediya community members. Amazing, we are the same people who are wishing bad for all the western community which us adopting a similar behaviour in west against muslims, Islamophobia basically where they accuse muslims of terrorism, a bigger and worse crime to me, however we don’t look at what’s in our own state? Ahmediyaphobia, where we accuse them of Blasphemy, with no proofs in hand, where are we headed?
“First, you would be challenged to find a more heavily armed place in the United States than Uvalde. It’s a town where the love of guns overwhelms any notion of common-sense regulations, and the minority White ruling class places its right-wing Republican ideology above the safety of its most vulnerable citizens — its impoverished and its children, most of whom are Hispanic. Second, at news of the shooting, I was struck to hear the words “Robb Elementary” because I knew of its centrality to the struggle in Uvalde over the past half-century to desegregate its schools. Robb sits in the city’s southwest quadrant. So I knew the victims of the shooting would largely be Hispanic. They have been locked into that school for decades. In Uvalde, simply put, everything north of Highway 90 is primarily White Republican, and everything south is mostly Hispanic Democrat. The city has about 15,000 residents; more than 80 percent identify as Hispanic or Latino. Most of Uvalde’s political leadership and the heads of the largest employers are White. At the center of town on the courthouse grounds, you’ll find a monument to Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president — installed when the Ku Klux Klan dominated Uvalde politics. (Some of us tried to get the monument removed after the murder of George Floyd, but that’s a story for another day.)”
That’s what the Hongkong police do now, they are on the same side with the thugs, turn a blind eye when people are being attacked.
Then they attack and arrest ordinary people who participate in legal gathering. The police issued letter of no objection to the march on 1 January 2020, over a million people were in it, yet they were told to stop the march and leave in a very short period of time.
Over 400 people were arrested on 1 January, some of the arrestees were just passerby who happened to be in the area.
Following the three attacks that took place in Brussels, yesterday morning (Tuesday, March 22), and which are reported to have taken 30 lives, the people of Belgium have received massive support coming from all over the world. Some even likened the case to that of Paris (November 13, 2015). Thereafter, diverse sympathetic and reassuring articles, images and videos, have emerged on social media.
I – as a human being – condemn such barbaric and politically-motivated terrorist acts. But, Je suis Bruxelles or Je suis Paris? Well, regardless of my belongings; of where I am from and who I might be, I am neither Brussels nor Paris. Why? Because before it had occurred in Paris or Brussels, let us not forget the fact that it had actually occurred somewhere in the world. Both of Paris and Brussels belong to the world before they belong to France and Belgium. Let us not forget that those who died in Paris and Brussels where actually human beings before they ever were French or Belgian. And also, numerous other countries have known such acts. Therefore, and more importantly, terrorism is an act against humanity more than it is an act against a specific country, ethnicity religion or ideology.
Since Paris, there have been literally hundreds of terrorist attacks around the world, but sadly many of them have gone unnoticed.
Bamako, Mali (November 20, 2015): 20 dead.
A group of al-Qaeda-linked militants took 170 people hostage, ultimately killing 20, during a mass shooting at a Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako.
Tunis, Tunisia (November 24, 2015): 13 dead.
A bus loaded with Tunisian presidential guards was struck by a suicide bomber linked to the so-called Islamic State. The lone bomber killed 13 people.
Istanbul, Turkey (January 12, 2016): 13 dead.
A suicide bombing in a popular central square in Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, left 13 people dead and 14 people injured.
Jakarta, Indonesia (January 14, 2016): 8 dead.
A series of suicide bombings and shootings in Indonesia’s capital left eight people dead, including four assailants. Another 24 people were wounded.
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (January 15, 2016): at least 30 dead.
A group of al-Qaeda backed militants attacked the Splendid Hotel in Ouagadougou. At least 30 people were killed, and another 56 were wounded.
Ankara, Turkey (February 17, 2016): At least 29 dead.
At least 29 people were killed and another 60 people were injured. The attack was carried out by a car bomb
Mogadishu, Somalia (February 25, 2016): At least 15 dead.
After a suicide bomber detonated a bomb at the gate of the SYL hotel, at least 15 people and left others wounded.
Ankara, Turkey (March 13, 2016): 37 dead.
A second attack in Ankara this year saw the deaths of 37 people and another 127 people injured.
Istanbul, Turkey (March 19, 2016): At least 4 dead.
At least four people were killed by a suicide bomber, another 36 people were wounded by the attack on Istanbul’s main shopping street.
But why does a Western life matter more than any other one does? The world does not only revolve around the West, does it? Is Islam to blame?
As mentioned before, between the two tragedies (those of Paris and Brussels), Muslim-majority countries such as Tunisia, Mali, Egypt, Turkey and doubtlessly Syria & Iraq also suffered from such deadly ‘Islamic’ acts.
Either before or after the two tragedies, of which ISIS claimed full responsibility, Muslims have always been ISIS’ closest and main target. Especially those in Syria whom, if not affected by terrorism itself, they are being affected by 'the war against terrorism’.
According to the Syrian Centre for Policy Research, 470,000 have been killed during the time period between 15 March 2011 and 11 February 2016.
Terrorism is an act against humanity more than it is an act against a specific country, ethnicity religion or ideology.
Raqqa, January 8th, 2016. A woman, Lena Al-Qasem, was publicly executed by her own 20 year-old jihadi son, Ali Saqr al-Qasem, the charge was : “inciting her son to leave the Islamic State and escaping together to the outside of Raqqa.” In accordance to a hadith, the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said: ”Your Heaven lies under the feet of your mother.”
Isisorthe Islamic State In Iraq and Syria, as the barbaric group refers to itself with all complacency, is claimed to be a Salafi jihadist militant group that follows a so-called ‘Islamic’ fundamentalist, Wahhabi doctrine of Sunni Islam, which seems to be nothing but a poor justification for their politically-motivated barbarism. ‘Islamic fundamentalism, Salafism, Wahhabism…’ none of these actually existed back in the prophet’s era, nor have been mentioned in the Islamic scripture.
Where did Isis come from?
“In Syria we backed … some of the wrong people and not in the right part of the Free Syrian Army. Some of those weapons from Benghazi ended up in the hands of ISIS. So we helped build ISIS.” says the Fox News analyst and U.S. military ex-general McInerney. (See video here.)
Writing for The Guardian in August 2014, Ali Khedery states: “Principally, Isis is the product of a genocide that continued unabated as the world stood back and watched. It is the illegitimate child born of pure hate and pure fear – the result of 200,000 murdered Syrians and of millions more displaced and divorced from their hopes and dreams. Isis’s rise is also a reminder of how Bashar al-Assad’s Machiavellian embrace of al-Qaida would come back to haunt him. Facing Assad’s army and intelligence services, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Iraq’s Shia Islamist militias and their grand patron, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Syria’s initially peaceful protesters quickly became disenchanted, disillusioned and disenfranchised – and then radicalised and violently militant.”
Who is funding Isis?
“The most important source of Isis financing to date has been support coming out of the Gulf states, primarily Saudi Arabia but also Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates” says Günter Meyer, the director of the Center for Research into the Arabic World at the University of Mainz.
Isis is now funding itself, through oil sales mostly. But when it all started out, Isis was ‘seed funded’ by wealthy donors, charities and even the governments of the Persian kingdoms, Saudi Arabia and Qatar who gave money to the opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Isis included.
According to an estimate by IHS (an energy research consultancy) Isis-controlled territory produces up to 60,000 barrels per day, which is an estimated £1m every 24 hours.
Who is arming Isis?
According to a Conflict Armament Research Group study, the ammunation the group uses was manufactured mostly in America, China and Russia.
Back in 2014, Isis took possession of large amounts of kit including tanks, rocket launchers and howitzers. It is known to have smuggled in arms from places such Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Eastern Europe.
According to Reuters, the U.S. made weaponry that fell into enemy hands includes 2,300 Humvee armored vehicles, at least 40 M1A1 main battle tanks, 74,000 machine guns, and as many as 52 M198 howitzer mobile gun systems, plus numerous small arms and ammunition.
We’re so immunised to deaths of Iraqi bodies, that suicide bomber killing young children in a football stadium doesn’t warrant global outrage. Boys from the ages of 10 to 16 were being presented trophies for their talents in the sport when IS killed them. Bear in mind the importance of football in Iraq, it holds the biggest form of unity to the people of Iraq, Sunni, Shi’a, Christian, none of it matters when it comes to football. IS strategically did this at a football tournament to show that nothing is safe. These were young children killed far too early.
It’s frightening the place that white bodies hold in times like this over brown bodies. As Teju Cole once called it, we’re ‘unmournable bodies’.
There are only three days left before the #Iran sanctions deadline, so here’s the third requirement for the Iranian regime to behave like a normal state: it must end support for the Taliban and other terrorists in Afghanistan and the region, and cease harboring senior al-Qaida leaders.
Read more about the Trump administration’s Iran strategy. Download the "Outlaw Regime: A Chronicle of Iran’s Destructive Activities" report.
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