Sudan: " Unsheathe the blade within the voice, my friend "

New Vision Uganda reports:

Sudan Christian woman faces new legal challenge: lawyer

                                                           Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag, 26 and her husband

KHARTOUM - Muslim "relatives" of a Sudanese Christian woman hiding at the US embassy are taking her to court to try to prove she belongs to their family, a lawyer said Tuesday.

She " belongs " to them, they think they own her in other words.

The complainants are the same people who laid an apostasy charge against Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag, 26, said the lawyer, Mohanad Mustafa.

Ishag was sentenced to death in May for apostasy from Islam, under Islamic sharia law that has been in force in Sudan since 1983 and outlaws conversions on pain of death.

Sudan refuses to learn from even its recent history.   

"....Sudan became a single-party state under the National Congress Party (NCP). During the 1990s, Hassan al-Turabi, then Speaker of the National Assembly, reached out to Islamic fundamentalist groups, even personally inviting Osama bin Laden to the country.The United States subsequently listed Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism. The U.S bombed Sudan in 1998. ..."

An appeals court later quashed the verdict and sentence.

Something that totally fails to impress me.

" Twelve days after the verdict, Ishag gave birth to a daughter at the women's prison in Khartoum's twin city of Omdurman."They removed the chains" after she delivered, one of her lawyers, Mohanad Mustafa said.
"This is on order by the doctor."


Her case raised questions of religious freedom and sparked deep concern among Western governments and human rights activists.

Wrong. The this case fucking appalled the world. Sure some Muslim morons probably thought the death penalty it was a good result. Don't try and paint this as just " The West ".  

"In fact, it is not her family" who filed the cases, Mustafa told AFP. "They want to get her in trouble. Somebody supports them. I can't mention who."

Why not ? Lets find out which scumbags are behind this, lets examine their lives under a bloody microscope for any breaches of the bogus legal code called Sharia Law. That might actually provide a sort of justice but certainly some belly laughs if it resulted in a bit of religious brutality inflicted on the so called family.


Mustafa confirmed that a case has been lodged against Ishag in family court "to prove that Meriam is Abrar and she is one of the family."

Muslims refer to her as Abrar al-Hadi Mohamed Abdalla.

Neither Ishag nor her lawyers have yet received documents confirming when the case will be heard, Mustafa said.

"I think the court will dismiss the case," he added.

I wouldn't count on that at all. It would seem far more likely that the Sharia court will impose another brutal sentence that will probably amount to a crime against humanity. It would be good to see the ICC issuing a few indictments for the so called judges. 

It is not a criminal action, meaning it would not affect her chances of travelling abroad.

Being stoned to death I suspect might have a rather limiting effect on overseas travel.


Ishag is, however, charged criminally with forgery and providing false information in relation to a South Sudanese travel document she used last week while trying to leave Sudan for the United States, a day after the appeals court ruling.

The Sudanese Government are of course bloody insane. The document she used it would seem was a legitimate visa issued by the American Embassy 

" On 24 June 2014 Meriam Ibrahim was released on the order of a Sudanese appeal court. The following day, as she and her family were to board a plane to the United States, she and her family were arrested and taken from the airport to Khartoum for questioning following a tip-off to the police by her half brother. The US Ambassador was summoned in protest at the granting of an exit visa, described by the Sudanese Foreign Ministry as 'a criminal violation'. Meriam Ibrahim was freed again on the 26th June 2014 and took refuge in the United States embassy with her family. "

On Sunday, lawyers asked prosecutors to dismiss the forgery-related charges.

Mustafa said that would leave Ishag and her family -- including a baby daughter born while she was on death row -- free to leave the country.

Letting her leave the country would have been the smart thing to do. The choice for the Sudanese Government now comes down to humiliation followed by further humiliation.

Ishag's American husband Daniel Wani has said threats forced the family to go into hiding and seek the embassy's protection.

A man claiming to be her brother has stated that the family would carry out the death sentence if she were acquitted, according to Christian activists.

Which would seem to me like a fairly good reason to hole up at the US embassy. Should the clown claiming to be her brother / half brother ever venture into the world I hope like fuck there is a arrest warrant from INTERPOL/ ICC waiting for him.

Ishag was born to a Muslim father who abandoned the family, leaving her to be raised by her Ethiopian Orthodox Christian mother, according to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Khartoum, which said she joined the Catholic church shortly before she married.

The case has re-focussed attention on a country which has slipped from the international spotlight but where an 11-year-old war and other unrest continues in Darfur, government troops and rebels are fighting in South Kordofan and Blue Nile, and millions of people need humanitarian aid.

Sudan... focusing on things that matter. 

Mali: France decides to fight.

The Guardian reports

French troops arrive in Mali to stem rebel advance

François Hollande responds to Malian president's plea for help, as UN calls for swift deployment of international force

                                         Islamist fighters in Timbuktu. Mali's president is under                               growing pressure to fight back against Islamist control of the north of the country. Photograph: AP

French troops have arrived in Mali amid a rapid escalation of international efforts to intervene in the country, where Islamist groups are continuing to clash with the army for control of the desert north.

The French president, François Hollande, announced on Friday night that French armed forces had come to the aid of Mali troops on the ground. He said the operation would last as long as necessary and the French parliament would sit to debate the move on Monday.

I know very little about the Mali situation other than this scrap has been on the cards for a long time back in November I observed,

" I haven't commented on Mali largely because I have more than enough on my plate trying to keep up with Central and Eastern Africa. However it is worth noting that it is starting to look like the international community is getting serious about resolving the situation.  

The March coup was a miscalculation by the military and seems to have been initiated due frustration at the failure of the military to put down the Tuareg rebellion in the north. If my understanding is correct the power vacuum created by the military leaving the field ( the Tuareg rebels were unable to exploit the vacuum ) was filled by Islamist groups." 

That the French have moved so decisively is a bit of a surprise given the French reluctance to get more involved in the Central African Republic. It could of course be that the French reluctance in CAR is a result of the situation in Mali.

The French foreign office has advised ex-pats to leave Mali because of the security situation.

French media quoted Malian officials as saying European military were present on the ground, namely at Sévaré.

Colonel Abdrahmane Baby, a military operations adviser for the foreign affairs ministry, told Associated Press that French troops were in the country but gave no details about how many or what they were doing.

The announcement confirmed reports from residents in central Mali who said they had seen western military personnel arrive and that planes had landed there throughout the night.

Earlier, Hollande said France was "ready to stop the terrorists' advance if it continues". In a speech to the country's diplomatic corps, he said: "I have decided that France will respond, alongside our African partners, to the request from the Malian authorities. We will do it strictly within the framework of the United Nations security council resolution.

The whole situation is incredibly complicated. Fortunately we have Lesley On Africa  who has done a series of posts on the situation in Mali.   

"[The rebels] have even tried to deal a fatal blow to the very existence of Mali. France, like its African partners and the entire international community, cannot accept that."

The tough-talking announcement by Hollande came after a plea for assistance from Mali's embattled president, Dioncounda Traoré, who has been under growing pressure in Mali to fight back against Islamist control of the north. The UN called for the swift deployment of an international force to Mali.

Al-Qaida-linked groups have controlled north Mali since the army deserted a campaign against Tuareg and Islamist rebels, followed by a military coup last March.

It is fairly much accepted a deal can be done with the Tuareg rebels but the Islamist groups I suspect have bitten of a hell of a lot more than they can chew.

On Thursday rebels captured the town of Konna, less than 40 miles from the strategic city and army base of Mopti. The situation in Konna is described as complicated, with army personnel still in the town but rebels now in control. 

"There are Islamists controlling Konna, but they are integrated into the population, it is very difficult for the army to fight them," said Boubakar Hamadoun, editor of the Bamako-based newspaper Mali Demain, who has reporters based in the north. "It is a very complicated situation."

Hamadoun cast doubt on reports that Douentza, one of the southernmost towns under Islamist control, had been recaptured by the Malian army this week. "There are some army personnel in Douentza in strategic positions, but the rebels are still very much in control of the town," he said.

The renewed fighting follows the disintegration of a ceasefire between one of the Islamist groups, Ansar Dine, and the government. It has sparked panic in Mopti and other towns south of the de facto border between government and Islamist control, and prompted concerns in the international community that the Islamist groups – who operate a drug trafficking and kidnap economy in northern Mali and other Sahelian countries – could capture more ground.

Hollande's announcement marked a radical departure from recent agreements that limited the role of French and other international forces to providing Mali's army with training and logistical support.

The bottom line is the world is sick to death of radical Islam. If France goes and kills the sods nobody will weep and France will enhance its prestige. Should France fail I suspect the US will get involved.

France, the former colonial power in Mali and other countries in the Sahel region, has hundreds of troops stationed across west and central Africa. This month it declined to provide a military intervention to another former colony, the Central African Republic, whose government is also under threat from rebel groups.

A UN security council resolution has been passed, paving the way for military intervention in Mali, but the UN's special envoy for the Sahel, Romano Prodi, said in November there would be no deployment until September.

" The wide world is all around you. You can fence yourself in...."

NZ Herald reports

Calls to kill anti-Islam film maker

Supporters of Pakistani religious group Ahle Sunnat Wal Jammat shout anti-US slogans during a funeral for a colleague who was killed in Friday's violent protest against an anti-Islam film. Photo / AP

A Pakistani official on Saturday placed a US$100,000 bounty on the head of the maker of an anti-Islam film that has sparked a wave of violence and anger, as Muslims mounted fresh protests worldwide.

Railways Minister Ghulam Ahmed Bilour also called on the Taliban and Al-Qaeda to join the hunt and help accomplish the "noble deed.''

Bilour spoke to reporters in the northwestern city of Peshawar a day after violent nationwide demonstrations against the "Innocence of Muslims'' film left 21 people dead and more than 200 injured.

"I announce today that this blasphemer who has abused the holy prophet, if somebody will kill him, I will give that person a prize of $100,000,'' Bilour said, urging others to shower the killer with cash and gold.

I blogged last week about the situation Australia finds its self in.

" Those sentiments are repugnant to Australians, and repugnant to Australians particularly of Islamic background.

Except Mr Carr they are not repugnant to Islamic Australians or this would not of happened."

The  sentiments are not repugnant to many Muslims but rather central to what is considered acceptable. Can you imagine a New Zealand cabinet minister saying that they would reward someone for murder.

"I also invite Taliban and Al-Qaeda brothers to be partners in this noble deed,'' he added. "I also announce that if the government hands this person over to me, my heart says I will finish him with my own hands and then they can hang me.''

Protests against the low-budget film, which mocks Islam, have erupted across the Muslim world, leading to more than 50 deaths since the first demonstrations on September 11.

A French satirical magazine's publication this week of cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammed has further stoked anger.

The producer of the film, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, is reportedly a Los Angeles-based 55-year-old Egyptian Copt and convicted fraudster, currently out on parole.

DPF at Kiwiblog makes some excellent points.

" Even worse, neither his Government nor his party are taking any action against him. They are saying that his statement are personal views, not Government policy, so no need to do anything!
I think we are understanding how Osama managed to live in Pakistan for so long, undetected. "

US media reports say Nakoula wrote and produced the film, using the pseudonym Sam Bacile before being identified. Police questioned him before he went into hiding with his family.

Thousands of Islamist activists in Pakistan staged demonstrations again Saturday but there was no repeat of the previous day's widespread violence.

More than 5,000 protesters, including hundreds of women, marched towards the parliament in Islamabad chanting "We love our Holy Prophet'' and ``Punishment for those who humiliated our Prophet''.

Some 1,500 people from the hardline Islamist Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Sunni religious groups rallied in front of the US consulate in the eastern city of Lahore, chanting "The US deserves only one remedy - jihad, jihad''.

Like it or not we are actually at war with Islam. They seem to like it and we not but that doesn't change the situation. Jihad is war.

Smaller protests took place in the southwestern city of Quetta, as well as in Peshawar, where six people died in Friday's protests, and in the southern port city of Karachi, where 15 people were killed Friday.

Witnesses estimated that more than 45,000 people joined Friday's nationwide rallies, mainly members of right-wing religious parties and supporters of banned terror groups.

Those numbers, however, were still considered small in a country of 180 million.

Look at it globally  . 1.5 billion muslims or about 25% of the worlds population with many giving tacit if not explicit approval of murder. There is a huge difference between drawing a cartoon, making a film and killing someone. 

Four more people died overnight from wounds they received during the protests, taking toll of those killed across Pakistan on Friday to 21, health officials said.

The combined total of wounded in Karachi, Peshawar and the capital Islamabad was 229.

In Nigeria, meanwhile, tens of thousands of people protested in the second city of Kano, burning images of US President Barack Obama and stomping on the American flag.

The procession of men, veiled women and children stretched for several kilometres (miles) through the city, the largest in Nigeria's mainly Muslim north.

They shouted ``death to America, death to Israel and death to the enemies of Islam''. There were no reports of violence.

No reports of violence. Excuse me. " Death to...."   that is violence.

The demonstration was organised by the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, a pro-Iranian group that adheres to the Shiite branch of Islam.

In Lebanon, thousands of supporters of the Shiite Hezbollah movement took to the streets in the southern town of Bint Jbeil.

Women in black chadors carried colourful Islamist flags alongside young children holding the Koran, the Muslim holy book.

Hezbollah parliamentary representative Nawaf al-Moussawi told the crowd the film was ''... not merely a trivial creation carried out by a group, but American politics intended to be disseminated to the Western world.''

He also warned against reprisal attacks on the Christian community.

In east Jerusalem about 500 Palestinians, accompanied by a marching band, protested against both the film and the cartoons in the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.

In Germany, 1,500 people staged a peaceful protest in the western city of Dortmund, a day after similar demonstrations in other German cities.

A German far-right group's threat to screen the video has prompted heated debate over whether or not the authorities should ban the film on security grounds.

In neighboring Austria, about 500 people protested outside the US embassy in the capital Vienna.

In France, riot police were out in force in several parts of Paris to enforce a ban on protests, a week after an unauthorised demonstration against the film led to 150 arrests.

Social networks had been awash with appeals for French Muslims to defy the ban and hold fresh protests.

French police have arrested a man in the western city of La Rochelle for having allegedly called on a jihadi website for Stephane Charbonnier, chief of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, to be decapitated.

We are at a "drawing a line in the sand point." New Zealand has 45,000 muslims or effectively none.

“The wide world is all around you. You can fence yourself in, but you cannot forever fence it out.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

We have to face up to the fact this undeclared war is heading our way. We don't fence ourselves in so it will arrive sooner rather than later.

Islamic outrage. Australia needs to act forcefully.

ABC ( Australia ) reports 

Police warn of more arrests after Sydney protests

Police in Sydney say they are likely to call in their federal counterparts as they try to trace the computer used to send a group text message linked to Saturday's violent protest in the city's CBD.

Six police officers were injured during clashes with Muslim protesters who had gathered to voice their anger over a low-budget US film, mocking the Prophet Mohammed, which has caused fury around the Muslim world.

The ABC understands the protest was sparked by a mass text message which read in part: "They are mocking him in a movie, why are we allowing this, why are we silenced, we must defend his honour."

Six men have been charged over the protest so far, but police say they expect to make further arrests.

Followed I hope by lengthy jail terms and deportations.

New South Wales Police Deputy Commissioner Nick Kaldas says Australian Federal Police expertise could assist them tracking the computer used to send the message.

"I wouldn't say they're involved in terms of being part of the investigation, but whenever we have called for their assistance they have been very helpful," he said.

"If the matter involves electronic investigation then we do tend to work in cooperation with others."

Commissioner Kaldas said police were unaware of how many people received the message, but he said he understood it was first circulated in relation to a demonstration which had been scheduled for 1:00pm on Sunday.

"Somewhere along the line that was changed and obviously it was shifted to Saturday," he told AM.

"We were aware that Sunday had actually been canned essentially because there was a conference on from one of the groups that were organising it and they didn't want to go ahead.

"So as far as we were aware, I don't think we were aware that anything was going to shift to Saturday until it began to mount."

At least nine people have been killed and scores injured in worldwide protests sparked by the 13-minute Innocence of Muslims video which has been posted on the internet.

Among the protesters in Sydney was at least one child carrying a placard which called for the beheading of people who insulted the prophet.

It is incredible what we are expected to put up with in the name of religious tolerance. New Zealand blogger Not PC  has listed the outrages inflicted on the West by " these people of God " and concluded we are at war, undeclared, but war none the less. It is hard to argue with him.

This morning Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr urged Australians not to blame all Muslims for the behaviour of what he said was a "telephone box minority".

The problem is that we don't hold all Muslims accountable a child carries a sign calling for beheadings and the Australian authorities deem that he is growing up in a safe environment
I have seen the beheading of Eugene Armstrong I don't recommend it but the link is there. This is Islam. This is what Muslim Australia wants.

"It was an unacceptable demonstration, first in terms of the violence that was used - and I accept the views of the police completely that it was generated by some of the protesters - and secondly the sentiments being expressed," he told News Breakfast.

"Those sentiments are repugnant to Australians, and repugnant to Australians particularly of Islamic background.

Except Mr Carr they are not repugnant to Islamic Australians or this would not of happened.

"This telephone box minority, this hundred-strong demonstration, had nothing to do with the Islamic community I know and I admire, and I appeal to Australians not to judge Australian Muslims by what they saw in those pictures, and those images, repugnant as they were."

Just a hundred ? Australians have little else to judge them on Mr Carr. That is other than the list of hate crimes listed in the link above by Not PC.

Mariam Veiszadeh, a lawyer and Muslim community advocate, told News 24 yesterday that many in the Muslim community were outraged by Saturday's scenes.

"The individuals responsible for the violent outburst run completely contrary to Islamic tradition, and the rest of the community is equally as outraged," she said.

"We sincerely hope this doesn't further damage relationships between the Australian Muslim community and the wider Australian community."

OK Mariam do something about it. Give the authorities a list of Muslims that the Australian government should investigate.

Police have set up a strike force to track down those responsible for the protests, with surveillance and media footage to be reviewed.

Six people have already been charged, with one of them, 27-year-old Ahmed Elomar, refused bail.

Police allege he was part of a group who threw bottles and missiles at officers. He will appear in court again on Tuesday.

Elomar's five co-accused have been summonsed to appear in court next month.

Why next month ? Why not jail followed by court next week. 

'This is not Libya'

New South Wales Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione says he was shocked by the violent scenes and has urged those responsible to turn themselves into police.

"If you are one of those people that you know are in those photos, it's better in that you come forward and talk to us because we will certainly be coming to knock on your door," he said.

"You can be assured, we are waiting. We will deal with you," he said.

"This is a no-nonsense engagement. If you want to act like you are extremist criminals, we will treat you like you are extremist criminals.

"This is not Libya. This is not the country where you come to do what we saw yesterday."

Really starting to look like Libya from my side of the ditch.

Yesterday Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott both condemned the protests.

"This kind of conduct has no place on the streets of our country," Ms Gillard said.

"I also want to say very clearly, I do not want to see in the hands of anyone, particularly children, offensive signs that call for the killing of others.

"This is not the Australian way."

Mr Abbott said he expected "every Australian to live in accordance with Australian values", but that he did not think the protests reflected the true nature of Australia's Islamic community.

So neither Gillard or Abbott are prepared to lay the blame where it clearly belongs. At the feet of Australian Muslims.

This morning Commissioner Zaldas said police had no knowledge of a Coptic Christian cleric who reportedly lived in Sydney for a decade and inspired some of the movie makers in their views.

The Los Angeles Times has reported that three of the people behind Innocence of Muslim are devotees of Zakaria Botros Henein, who has been referred to as Islam's public enemy number one for his criticisms of the Prophet.

The newspaper reports that after being exiled from Egypt, Henein began an online ministry in Australia which preached that Islam was a misguided religion and that the prophet was a morally challenged man.

"It's one of those things that we'll look at," Mr Zaldas said.

"But if somebody has lived in Sydney but didn't break the law and didn't come to notice, I don't know how you can expect the New South Wales Police to be aware of him."

Hang on what the hell is this, shifting the blame to a Coptic Christian called Henein who may or may have not lived in Sydney and in Commissioner Zaldas's own words "..somebody has lived in Sydney but didn't break the law and didn't come to notice,...."  Stop making excuses stop trying to lay the blame anywhere but where it belongs.