US military says won’t release rape records

Sexual assault pervades the military, but the Pentagon refuses to release records that fully document the problem and how it is handled, the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups said in a federal lawsuit that seeks access to the records. Tens of thousands of service members have reported some form of sexual assault, harassment or trauma in the past decade, according to the lawsuit filed on Monday in New Haven against the departments of Defence and Veterans Affairs. The plaintiffs include the Service Women’s Action Network, the ACLU of Connecticut and Yale Law School students.

The groups want information on the number of acquittals, convictions and sentences, the number of disability claims related to sexual trauma that were accepted and rejected, and the number of sexual harassment complaints. The records are needed to determine the extent of the problem and what has been done to address it, the groups say. The Department of Defence does not comment on pending lawsuits, a spokeswoman said. A message was left on Monday with the Department of Veterans Affairs. The government prosecutes 8 percent of military sex offenders, while 40 percent of civilian sex offenders are prosecuted, according to the lawsuit. Post-traumatic stress disorder claims related to sexual trauma are often denied for failing to prove the case, even when men and women in uniform have been diagnosed with the disorder, the lawsuit said.

The Department of Defence said there were 3,230 reports of sexual assault involving military service members as victims or subjects in fiscal year 2009, an increase of 11 percent from the prior year, keeping in mind that 90 % of rape and sexual assault are not reported. The report said part of the increase stemmed from a social marketing campaign aimed at preventing sexual assault.

Communist China plans to build mosques across the country

In an apparent move to appease its 20-million-strong Muslim minority, Communist China plans to build mosques across the country to meet their religious requirement.

Authorities are addressing a lack of religious facilities for millions of Muslims who have moved to coastal cities in search of jobs and livelihood, a senior official at the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) said.

A large number of Muslims have migrated to cities from inland regions since 1978 leading to a growing demand for religious facilities, primarily more mosques, greater availability of Islamic food and special graveyards, Deputy Director of the Islamic Department of the SARA Ma Jin was quoted as saying by the state-run China Daily.

By 2008, about three million Muslims, or more than 10 per cent of the country's total Muslim population, had migrated from rural areas in traditional Muslim-concentrated western provinces to coastal cities, according to the Annual Report on China's Religions in 2009.

A book is a garden

“A book is like a garden carried in the pocket.” – Arab proverb

A book in your pocket is like a secret treasure. It is a magical means of transportation, a source of knowledge, a historical record, and a treasure chest containing the knowledge of human minds and hearts, or in the case of the Quran, the message of Allah to humanity.

You can take the book out of your pocket and lose yourself in it, forgetting about all the worries of the world, just as you can do in a beautiful garden.

Indian Worshipers Of Idols Occupied Army Terrorists Martyr 93,537 Kashmiris In 21 Years, Mirwaiz Denounces Indian State Terrorism In IHK

Srinagar, December 09 (KMS): In occupied Kashmir, Indian troops during their unabated acts of state terrorism martyred 93,537 innocent Kashmiris including 6,981 in custody during the last 21 years.

According to a report released by the Research Section of Kashmir Media Service on the eve of International Human Rights Day, these killings rendered 22,747 women widowed and 107,397 children orphaned. It added that the troops molested 9,984 women and destroyed 105,900 structures during the period. In the current uprising, 122 peaceful demonstrators were killed by Indian police since June 2010 and at least 1,500 Kashmiris are currently detained under draconian law, Public Safety Act. Addressing a seminar in Srinagar, today, the speakers appealed the international community to impress upon India to stop human rights violations in occupied Kashmir. Presiding over the seminar, the APHC Chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, said that the ongoing phase of the Kashmiris’ struggle had clearly manifested its indigenous and peaceful nature. He denounced the state terrorism unleashed by India to suppress the movement of Kashmiris’ right to self-determination. An Indian Army vehicle crushed to death a Kashmiri social worker, Malik Javed Ahmad, in Barzalla area of Srinagar.

The members of Joint Association of Kashmiri Affected Families staged a silent sit-in at Bagh-e-Mehtab in Srinagar on the eve of World Human rights Day. They were carrying placards to press their demand of knowing the whereabouts of the Kashmiri people, disappeared in custody. The speakers at a seminar, held in connection with International Human Rights Day in Brussels, expressed concern over the continued gross human rights violations being committed by Indian troops in the occupied territory. They said that Kashmiris had been deprived of their inalienable right to self-determination for the last more than six decades. The speakers included Barrister Abdul Majeed Tramboo, James Elles, Professor Nazir Ahmad Shawl, Ms. Victoria Schofield, Khalid Mehmood, Ronald Barnes and Frank Schawalba-Hoth.

Taliban Not Responsible For Cutting Aisha's Nose, Ears

The Taliban were not behind the slicing off of a woman’s nose and ears in central Uruzgan province, chief of the human rights commission said on Monday. The story of how Aisha Bibi, 19, was mutilated as punishment for running away from her abusive husband and in-laws a year ago caused an international outcry.

She was given refuge by an Afghan non-governmental organization, and sent to the US for reconstructive surgery and psychological treatment. Much of the western media blamed the Taliban for the brutal act, saying Aisha’s husband was a Taliban member and he and his father had orchestrated the punishment. The Taliban, however, denied any involvement. On Monday, Abdul Ghaffar Stanakzay, head of the AIHRC in Uruzgan, also absolved the Taliban after what he said was a “thorough investigation of the case”. "This was because of domestic violence which Aisha fell victim to," he told reporters. Aisha - who was reportedly given away by her family in childhood as a "blood debt" - had her trip to California for reconstructive surgery documented by ABC News.

The front cover of Time magazine generated debate over the headline "What Happens if We Leave Afghanistan" and over the use of the photo itself. Aisha's case has been used in the West to illustrate the fear of what will happen if US, British and other international forces leave prematurely.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is a courageous man.

Some might say he is troublemaking or foolish. Since he released earlier caches of US military documents on Afghanistan and Iraq, he’s had to go underground for fear of reprisals. He regularly alters his appearance and camps out on friends’ sofas. Nobody knows for sure where he is now but there’s a suspicion that he’s traveling around the UK.

With the release of American diplomatic cables on Sunday evening, published by newspapers in the US, Britain, France, Germany and Spain, Assange has “target’ written on his back. Once again, Washington shies away from explaining itself in favor of shooting the messenger when the blame should go to those responsible for US national security. If America has failed to guard its own secrets, it deserves to be embarrassed.

Assange’s website and Twitter page has come under attack, US lawyers are attempting to take him to court as a spy, Peter King, a New York Republican Congressman wants WikiLeaks to be designated “a terrorist organization” that will open the door to assassination squads, and the Swedish appeals court has upheld an arrest warrant accusing Assange of rape that has been forwarded to Interpol.

But however the powers that be decide to punish Assange, the grim truth is out there and may irreparably damage State Department diplomacy for the foreseeable future.

Thus far, comparatively few of the 251,287 leaked US Embassy cables, dating from 1966 until the end of February 2010, have been put into the public domain; the rest are to be published in stages over the coming months, leaving the State Department on tenterhooks. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has just begun a tour of the Arabian Gulf and Asia during which she will, no doubt, have much red-faced explaining to do.

President Barack Obama has yet to address the leaks, preferring to spend time on the basketball court...and who can blame him! Usual diplomatic damage control isn’t helpful when world leaders now know exactly what the US government really thinks about them. The macho Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin might be flattered to be known as an “Alpha Dog” but President Dmitry Medvedev will be furious at being characterized as a “pale and hesitant” person who “plays Robin to Putin’s Batman”.

Other leaders whose feathers have been ruffled include the French President Nicolas Sarkozy, “an emperor with no clothes, with a thin-skinned and authoritarian personal style”, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel who “avoids risk and is rarely creative”, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi labeled “feckless and vain”, the Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad likened to “Hitler”, the Libyan President Muammar Qaddafi thought of as “strange”, the Afghan President Hamid Karzai described as “paranoid” and the North Korean leader Kim-Jong-Il who was called “a flabby old chap”.

Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron must be bracing to learn what unflattering comments were written about him that The Guardian newspaper promises to reveal later in the week. The Tory leader has been warned that the Americans don’t think too highly of him. Cables yet to be published are expected to cast aspersions on former British PM Gordon Brown, the British military’s record in Afghanistan, and a member of the royal family said to have behaved inappropriately. The British Foreign Office has condemned the leaks and stresses upon the importance of the “special” trans-Atlantic relationship.

However, until now there is a resounding sound of silence from Number Ten Downing Street. So much for Britain standing shoulder to shoulder with the US in its time of need to the extent of engaging in two wars of aggression that have taken a crippling toll in lives and treasure! The UK’s military establishment, in particular, must be seething while hardly a week passes when a flag-draped coffin isn’t flown home. Unsurprisingly, the only world leader to get a partial thumbs up is the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; someone who is “elegant and charming” but never keeps his promises.

It can’t have made comfortable reading for world leaders and UN delegates to learn that US diplomats have been instructed by Hillary Clinton to garner their personal credit card and frequent flier numbers, iris scans, fingerprints, work schedules, e-mail addresses, fax numbers, passwords and encryption keys. This secret “National Human Intelligence Collection Directive” was sent by the State Department to its embassies all over the world.” US ambassadors can now expect to be monitored during official visits to heads of state to ensure they don’t walk away with the drinks glasses or access computers.

Aside from the hurtful rude remarks and invasions of privacy, which thicker-skinned leaders may be able to brush aside, the cables contain extremely serious revelations.

They show a regional nervousness concerning Iran’s increasing nuclear capability and the need to do something about it. For example, in May last year, the Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told members of Congress that the international community had only six to 18 months to stop “Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons” before “any military solution would result in unacceptable collateral damage.”

And, according to US intelligence, Iran has purchased missiles from North Korea capable of reaching European capitals. One cable, dated Feb. 12, 2010, focuses on a meeting between US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and the then French Defense Minister Hervé Morin who asked his American counterpart whether Israel could strike Iran’s nuclear facilities on its own. Gates answered in the affirmative but added that he wasn’t sure the Israelis would be successful and any such strike “would only delay Iranian plans by one to three years while unifying the Iranian people to be forever embittered against the attacker.”

We have also learned that the US has tried to bribe small countries such as Belgium to take-in Guantanamo detainees using such carrots as an official visit from Barack Obama and that Germany was pressured not to prosecute CIA operatives who abducted Khaled Al-Masri, an innocent German car salesman, for rendition to a secret prison at Bagram air base in Afghanistan where he was tortured.

One question yet to be answered is whether the US can ever be trusted again. Will the leaks cause a major rift between the superpower and the rest of the world or will most countries try to play the controversy down? All that we know for sure is this: With a lot more secrets bursting to get out of the box, Obama and his administration are in for the rollercoaster ride of their lives.

Man executed in Tabuk for killing 5-year-old daughter

TABUK: A man was executed on Friday for killing his five-year old daughter in the northwestern town of Tabuk, a statement of the Interior Ministry said.“Musleh bin Saleem Eid Al-Atawi was beheaded for beating his daughter Bayan, 5 to death with an electrical wire. The accused had a criminal background besides being a drug trafficker,” the statement added.

Al-Atawi is the 24th to be executed this year in the Kingdom, where the crimes of drug trafficking, rape, murder, armed robbery and apostasy are punishable by death.

http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article201121.ece

12,000 American Muslims To Make Pilgrimage To Mecca

Some 12,000 American Muslims are expected to join an estimated 2.5 million pilgrims in the Saudi Arabian city of Mecca for the hajj, the annual Islamic pilgrimage that this year runs between Nov. 14 and 18.

The number of pilgrims expected is about the same as in recent years, said Nail Al-Jubeir, a spokesman for the Saudi Arabian embassy in Washington, D.C., which limits pilgrims to making the pilgrimage no more than once every five years.

Islam requires followers who are physically and financially capable to complete the hajj once in their lifetime.

Overcrowding and catastrophic stampedes have led Saudi authorities to issue special hajj visas; since 1990, more than 2,500 pilgrims have been killed in stampedes, while hundreds more die each year as a result of sickness, heart attacks, traffic accidents and other incidents.

Most problems have occurred at an elevated platform known as the Jamarat, from which pilgrims throw stones at walls representing the devil. To ease overcrowding, Saudi authorities have gradually expanded the Jamarat to five levels and added exits.

Despite efforts to limit the number of pilgrims, hundreds of thousands of mainly Saudi residents still try to perform hajj without permits. "Quite a few people get turned back because of overcrowding," said Al-Jubeir.

Many unauthorized pilgrims evade detection and camp out in the hills surrounding Mecca, where Muslims believe Islam's prophet Muhammad received his first revelation from God in 610 A.D. "It becomes a sanitation nightmare," he said.

For American Muslims, the most difficult part of the journey may be the return home. In recent years, many Muslims returning from travel abroad have complained about religious profiling and lengthy searches and questioning at airports and border crossings.

In response, Muslim civil rights groups have issued travel advisories for pilgrims, telling them to expect questioning and advising them what types of questions are legal, such as name and residency, and which are not, including questions about religious or political beliefs.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com

Murderers should be killed

"...If anyone kills a person - unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land - it would be as if he killed all people. And if anyone saves a life, it would be as if he saved the life of all people" (Qur'an 5:32).

Life is sacred, according to Islam and most other world faiths. But how can one hold life sacred, yet still support capital punishment? The Qur'an answers, "...Take not life, which God has made sacred, except by way of justice and law. Thus does He command you, so that you may learn wisdom" (6:151). The key point is that one may take life only "by way of justice and law." In Islam, therefore, the death penalty can be applied by a court as punishment for the most serious of crimes. Ultimately, one's eternal punishment is in God's hands, but there is a place for punishment in this life as well. The spirit of the Islamic penal code is to save lives, promote justice, and prevent corruption and tyranny. Islamic philosophy holds that a harsh punishment serves as a deterrent to serious crimes that harm individual victims, or threaten to destabilize the foundation of society.

According to Islamic law (in the first verse quoted above), the following two crimes can be punishable by death: * Intentional murder * Fasad fil-ardh ("spreading mischief in the land") Intentional Murder
The Qur'an legislates the death penalty for murder, although forgiveness and compassion are strongly encouraged. The murder victim's family is given a choice to either insist on the death penalty, or to pardon the perpetrator and accept monetary compensation for their loss (2:178).
Fasaad fi al-ardh The second crime for which capital punishment can be applied is a bit more open to interpretation. "Spreading mischief in the land" can mean many different things, but is generally interpreted to mean those crimes that affect the community as a whole, and destabilize the society. Crimes that have fallen under this description have included: * Treason / Apostacy (when one leaves the faith and joins the enemy in fighting against the Muslim community) * Terrorism * Land, sea, or air piracy * Rape * Adultery * Homosexual behavior

Actual methods of capital punishment vary from place to place. In some Muslim countries, methods have included beheading, hanging, stoning, and firing squad. Executions are held publicly, to serve as warnings to would-be criminals. It is important to note that there is no place for vigilantism in Islam -- one must be properly convicted in an Islamic court of law before the punishment can be meted out.

The severity of the punishment requires that very strict evidence standards must be met before a conviction is found. The court also has flexibility to order less than the ultimate punishment (for example, imposing fines or prison sentences), on a case-by-case basis.

What if I don't pay zakat?

Allah (The Glorified and the Exalted) has strongly warned those who are negligent in the fulfillment of these duties. Thus He said, "Those who hoard up treasures of gold and silver and spend them not in the way of Allah; give them the news of a painful punishment, on the Day when that (wealth) will be heated in the Fire of Hell and with it will be branded their forehead, their sides, and their backs, (and it will be said to them:) 'This is the treasure which you hoarded for yourselves. Now taste of what you used to hoard.'" [Al-Quran 9:34-35]

And also: "And let not those who hoard up that which Allah hath bestowed upon them of His bounty think that it is better for them. Rather, it is worse for them. That which they hoard will be their collar on the Day of Resurrection. Allah's is the heritage of the heavens and the earth, and Allah is Informed of what you do." [Al-Quran 3:180]

Further, At-Tabarani relates, on the authority of 'Ali, that the Prophet (PBUH) said: "Allah has enjoined upon rich Muslims a due to be taken from their properties corresponding to the needs of the poor among them. The poor will never suffer from starvation or lack of clothes unless the rich neglect their due. If they do, Allah will surely hold them accountable and punish them severely." (related by At-Tabarani in Al-'Aswat and as-Saghir).

Narrated Abu Huraira: Allah's Apostle said, "Whoever is made wealthy by Allah and does not pay the Zakat of his wealth, then on the Day of Resurrection his wealth will be made like a bald-headed poisonous male snake with two black spots over the eyes. The snake will encircle his neck and bite his cheeks and say, 'I am your wealth, I am your treasure.'" (Bukhari, Vol. 2, Book 24, No.486)