Sharia no Reino Unido: ameaça a uma lei para todos e à igualdade de direitos

A new report by One Law for All has found Sharia Councils and Muslim Arbitration Tribunals to be in violation of UK law, public policy and human rights.

The report is being launched to coincide with a 20 June 2010 rally on the issue of Sharia law.

Based on an 8 March 2010 Seminar on Sharia Law, research, interviews, and One Law for All case files, the report has identified a number of problem areas:

- Sharia law’s civil code is arbitrary and discriminatory against women and children in particular. With the rise in the acceptance of Sharia courts, discrimination is being further institutionalised with some UK law firms additionally offering clients advice on Sharia law and the use of collaborative law.

- Sharia law is practiced in Britain primarily by Sharia Councils and Muslims Arbitration Tribunals. Both operate on religious principles and are harmful to women although Muslim Arbitration Tribunals are wrongly regarded as being of more concern because they operate as tribunals under the Arbitration Act 1996, making their rulings binding in law. [...]

Ver notícia em One Law For All

‘A geografia do poder chinês‘, por Robert D. Kaplan

The English geographer Sir Halford Mackinder ended his famous 1904 article, "The Geographical Pivot of History," with a disturbing reference to China. After explaining why Eurasia was the geostrategic fulcrum of world power, he posited that the Chinese, should they expand their power well beyond their borders, "might constitute the yellow peril to the world's freedom just because they would add an oceanic frontage to the resources of the great continent, an advantage as yet denied to the Russian tenant of the pivot region." Leaving aside the sentiment's racism, which was common for the era, as well as the hysterics sparked by the rise of a non-Western power at any time, Mackinder had a point: whereas Russia, that other Eurasian giant, basically was, and is still, a land power with an oceanic front blocked by ice, China, owing to a 9,000-mile temperate coastline with many good natural harbors, is both a land power and a sea power. (Mackinder actually feared that China might one day conquer Russia.) China's virtual reach extends from Central Asia, with all its mineral and hydrocarbon wealth, to the main shipping lanes of the Pacific Ocean. Later, in Democratic Ideals and Reality, Mackinder predicted that along with the United States and the United Kingdom, China would eventually guide the world by "building for a quarter of humanity a new civilization, neither quite Eastern nor quite Western." [...]

Ver artigo na Foreign Affairs

Violência no Quirguistão e um arco de crise

The already grim situation in the central Asian state of Kyrgyzstan has, around the southwestern cities of Osh and Jalalabad in particular, become desperate. On 10 June 2010 and the subsequent days, members of the Uzbek minority in the area have been targeted by Kyrgyz gangs who burned their homes, killed at least 118 people and wounded 1,485, while forcing tens of thousands to flee towards the border with Uzbekistan - which around 75,000 of them (at the time of writing) have been allowed to cross (see “Kyrgyzstan: violence in the south escalates”, Irin, 14 June 2010).

This unfolding human catastrophe has political roots in the crisis of the Kyrgyz state itself. The complex and multifaceted ingredients of the crisis cast a dark shadow over Kyrgyzstan’s future. In the context of poverty, insecurity and dysfunctional politics in the unsettled Ferghana valley - whose territory and population of 11 million is distributed between Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan - what is happening now in Kyrgyzstan has ominous implications for the wider region. For if Kyrgyzstan fails as a state, and inter-ethnic violence in the Ferghana valley is not contained, the resulting security vacuum in Kyrgyzstan could threaten the fragile stability of central Asia as a whole. [...]

Ver notícia no OpenDemocracy

Arábia Saudita concede corredor aéreo a Israel para bombardear instalações nucleares iranianas

Saudi Arabia has conducted tests to stand down its air defences to enable Israeli jets to make a bombing raid on Iran’s nuclear facilities, The Times can reveal.

In the week that the UN Security Council imposed a new round of sanctions on Tehran, defence sources in the Gulf say that Riyadh has agreed to allow Israel to use a narrow corridor of its airspace in the north of the country to shorten the distance for a bombing run on Iran. To ensure the Israeli bombers pass unmolested, Riyadh has carried out tests to make certain its own jets are not scrambled and missile defence systems not activated. Once the Israelis are through, the kingdom’s air defences will return to full alert.

“The Saudis have given their permission for the Israelis to pass over and they will look the other way,” said a US defence source in the area. “They have already done tests to make sure their own jets aren’t scrambled and no one gets shot down. This has all been done with the agreement of the [US] State Department.”

Sources in Saudi Arabia say it is common knowledge within defence circles in the kingdom that an arrangement is in place if Israel decides to launch the raid. Despite the tension between the two governments, they share a mutual loathing of the regime in Tehran and a common fear of Iran’s nuclear ambitions. “We all know this. We will let them [the Israelis] through and see nothing,” said one. [...]

Ver notícia no Times

Cartoon de Mike Keefe: ‘A BP, uma célula adormecida da Al-Qaeda‘

Imagens do ‘pacifismo‘ dos activistas do Mavi Marmara publicadas pelo jornal turco Hürriyet

Turkey's highest circulating newspaper Hurriyet on Sunday released photos of Israeli navy commandos who had been embroiled in the clash aboard the Gaza-bound Turkish aid ship Mavi Marmara last week.

The Israel Defense Forces released a video depicting the activists aboard the ship attacking the navy commandos. The activists argued that they had been attacked first. Nine activists were killed in the melee, and dozens, including Israeli soldiers, were hurt.

The photos published by Hurriyet on Sunday, under the headline "tears of a commando", Israeli soldiers are seen beaten and bleeding, being carried below deck by Turkish activists.

In the accompanying article, the paper reported that the photos had been censored and deleted by Israeli fighters aiming to prevent embarrassment for Israel and the IDF, but the activists were able to restore them. The paper further reported that in some of the photos, activists belonging to the IHH organization are seen caring for the wounded soldiers. [...]

Ver notícia no Haaretz

‘A Turquia na encruzilhada‘ in ABC

Deesde hace unos meses, el Gobierno de Ankara ha emprendido una lenta pero clara orientación hacia una nueva política exterior. De los dos componentes de la idiosincrasia turca, Oriente y Occidente, el jefe del Gobierno, el islamista Tayip Erdogan, ha escogido el primero y, mezclándolo con el fuerte espíritu nacionalista del país, está llevando a Turquía hacia posiciones no solo alejadas de la sintonía de la Unión Europea o Estados Unidos, sino en ocasiones claramente contrarias. El trágico episodio de la flotilla apresada por la Marina israelí es el último de estos ejemplos. No es posible pensar que una operación como la que han llevado a cabo las organizaciones pretendidamente humanitarias bajo bandera turca pudiera haberse gestado sin la connivencia de las autoridades de Ankara. La reacción popular que ha producido este hecho puede ser perfectamente comprensible, pero en los hechos ha destruido los lazos estratégicos que existían entre Turquía -miembro fundador de la OTAN- y el principal aliado de Occidente en Oriente Medio, Israel, ya maltrechos tras la furibunda espantada de Erdogan en el foro de Davos.
En este sentido, los esfuerzos de acercamiento hacia el régimen iraní -Turquía nunca puso ninguna pega a la fraudulenta elección de Ahmadineyad ni a la brutal represión que siguió a aquellos comicios- han sido contraproducentes para detener los planes nucleares del régimen teocrático. La fotografía de Ahmadineyad junto a Erdogán y el brasileño Lula alzando los brazos en señal de triunfo ha reducido, prácticamente a la nada, todo el trabajo para un reforzamiento de las sanciones en el Consejo de Seguridad.
Es cierto que Turquía es un gran país, con un pasado imperial que no puede ignorarse. Como nación independiente tiene todo el derecho a elegir sus prioridades en política exterior, pero como aspirante a unirse a la familia europea no debe ignorar que hay valores e intereses que no puede permitirse el lujo de omitir. Si su objetivo es convertirse en una potencia regional a la sombra de su pasado otomano, deberá elegir entre cuál de sus dos esencias prefiere: hacia Europa o hacia el pasado.

http://www.abc.es/20100602/opinion-editorial/turquia-encrucijada-20100602.html

O assalto israelita a uma estranha operação humanitária