Aftermath News

Washington Post | May 1, 2008

By Joby Warrick

Swelling populations and a global tide of immigration will present new security challenges for the United States by straining resources and stoking extremism and civil unrest in distant corners of the globe, CIA Director Michael V. Hayden said in a speech yesterday.

The population surge could undermine the stability of some of the world’s most fragile states, especially in Africa, while in the West, governments will be forced to grapple with ever larger immigrant communities and deepening divisions over ethnicity and race, Hayden said.

Hayden, speaking at Kansas State University, described the projected 33 percent growth in global population over the next 40 years as one of three significant trends that will alter the security landscape in the current century. By 2050, the number of humans on Earth is expected to rise from 6.7 billion to more than 9 billion, he said.

“Most of that growth will occur in countries least able to sustain it, a situation that will likely fuel instability and extremism, both in those countries and beyond,” Hayden said.

With the population of countries such as Niger and Liberia projected to triple in size in 40 years, regional governments will be forced to rapidly find food, shelter and jobs for millions, or deal with restive populations that “could be easily attracted to violence, civil unrest, or extremism,” he said.

European countries, many of which already have large immigrant communities, will see particular growth in their Muslim populations while the number of non-Muslims will shrink as birthrates fall. “Social integration of immigrants will pose a significant challenge to many host nations — again boosting the potential for unrest and extremism,” Hayden said.

The CIA director also predicted a widening gulf between Europe and North America on how to deal with security threats, including terrorism. While U.S. and European officials agree on the urgency of the terrorism threat, there is a fundamental difference — a “transatlantic divide” — over the solution, he said.

While the United States sees the fight against terrorism as a global war, European nations perceive the terrorist threat as a law enforcement problem, he said.

“They tend not to view terrorism as we do, as an overwhelming international challenge. Or if they do, we often differ on what would be effective and appropriate to counter it,” Hayden said. He added that he could not predict “when or if” the two sides could forge a common approach to security.

A third security trend highlighted by Hayden was the emergence of China as a global economic and military powerhouse, pursuing its narrow strategic and political interests. But Hayden said China’s increasing prominence need not be perceived as a direct challenge to the United States.

“If Beijing begins to accept greater responsibility for the health of the international system, as all global powers should, we will remain on a constructive, even if competitive, path,” he said. “If not, the rise of China begins to look more adversarial.”

Related

Revolution, flashmobs, and brain chips. A grim vision of the future

Aircraft will be banned from flying under 3,000 feet
while the Pope is at Ground Zero

Telegraph | Apr 14, 2008

By Malcolm Moore in Rome

The Pope will pray for the redemption of Islamic terrorists when he visits the site of the September 11 attacks in New York next week.

The pontiff will call for terrorists to convert to Christianity, saying: “Turn to Your way of love those whose hearts and minds are consumed with hatred.

“God of understanding, overwhelmed by the magnitude of this tragedy, we seek your light and guidance”.

The prayer is likely to further incense the Muslim world, which has already attacked the Pope for publicly converting Magdi Allam, a journalist and one of Italy’s most high-profile Muslims, at Easter.

Osama bin Laden accused the Pope of trying to provoke “a new crusade” against Islam.

Aref Ali Nayed, a leading scholar and proponent of peaceful relations between the Roman Catholic Church and Islam, said that there were “genuine questions about the motives, intentions and plans of some of the Pope’s advisers on Islam”.

He said that religious conversion should not be “made into a triumphalist tool for scoring points”.
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The Pope’s first visit to the United States begins on Tuesday. He will visit Ground Zero on April 20 and the prayer is expected to be the emotional high-point of his tour.

The Pope will also ask for “eternal light and peace to all who died” in the tragedy. His prayer will remember “the heroic first-responders: our firefighters, police officers, emergency service workers… along with all the innocent men and women who were victims of this tragedy”.

Around 3,000 people died in the attacks on the World Trade Centre, including the 19 hijackers. The prayer will also mention the victims “on the same day at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania”.

The Pope will conclude: “Bring Your peace to our violent world: peace in the hearts of all men and women and peace among the nations of the earth.” He will then sprinkle the crater with holy water and bless the site.

Security for the visit will be some of the tightest New York has seen. Ray Kelly, the city’s police commissioner, said it would be like having a UN general assembly, followed by a parade, followed by a presidential visit.

Aircraft will be banned from flying under 3,000 feet while the Pope is at Ground Zero. No-fly zones will also be set up above St Joseph’s Seminary and Yankee Stadium while the Pope is present.

The Pope’s itinerary includes a Mass at the baseball stadium, and he will also address the United Nations.

He will visit the White House on the first leg of his trip in Washington DC, although his spokesman said yesterday that he would not attend a state dinner given in his honour.

The Vatican did not offer a reason for his absence.

The Pope will hold talks with President George W Bush, but Cardinal Raffaele Martino, one of the Vatican’s most senior prelates, said the Holy See “cannot renounce its own beliefs on this visit, which are a rejection of the [Iraq] war and the constant encouragement of dialogue to resolve differences”.

All the venues on the Pope’s itinerary will be swept for bombs, while the authorities in New York said that there would also be divers in the East River, roof-top snipers, helicopters and undercover detectives carrying tiny radiation detectors on their belts. While he is in New York, the Pope will stay with Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the papal ambassador to the UN.

The street off Fifth Avenue where the archbishop lives will be closed and all residents “will be escorted to their homes by police officers”.

The Vatican has also announced that the Pope will confront the issue of paedophile priests while he is in the United States. Several Catholic organisations have protested that he will not visit Boston, the epicentre of the sex abuse scandal.

One group took out a full-page advertisement in the New York Times.

However, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s secretary of state, said that the Pope would address the issue in a speech and that the Church needed “constant purification” over the issue.

Soldiers carry the coffin of former Indonesian president Suharto in Jakarta January 28, 2008, before his body is flown to Solo in Central Java. Suharto, whose legacy was marred by graft and human rights abuses during his 32 years in power, will be given a state funeral in the royal city of Solo on Monday.

Suharto ruled with a totalitarian dominance that saw soldiers stationed in every village, instilling a deep fear of authority across this Southeast Asian nation. The bulk of the political killings occurred during his rise to power in 1965-1966 when between 300,000 and 800,000 alleged communists were rounded up and slain. Over the next three decades, 300,000 more were killed, disappeared or starved.

AP | Jan 28, 2008

SOLO, Indonesia (AP) - Former Indonesian President Suharto, who led a military dictatorship for three decades and whose regime killed hundreds of thousands of left-wing opponents, was laid to rest Monday at a state funeral with full military honors.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono led the ceremony, which began just before noon at the Suharto family mausoleum near the city of Solo, Suharto’s hometown, some 400 kilometers (250 miles) east of the capital.

Suharto died of multiple-organ failure Sunday, after more than three weeks on life support at a Jakarta hospital. He was 86.

Although he oversaw some of the worst bloodshed of the 20th century, Suharto is credited with developing Indonesia’s economy and was buried with the highest state honors.

After a long reading of Suharto’s military accomplishments, a shot was fired in his honor and Yudhoyono offered a salute.

We offer his body to the motherland, Yudhoyono said. His service is an example to us. Islamic prayers were said and as his body was lowered, mourners tossed flower petals into his grave. A military band played a dirge.

Tens of thousands of mourners lined the streets of Solo to watch the motorcade carry Suharto’s body to the mausoleum, many of them sobbing and calling the name of the man whose brutal rule brought stability to Indonesia.

Many waved Indonesian flags and threw flowers at his hearse.

“He was a great man,” said Sumartini, a 65-year-old woman who, like many Indonesians, goes by just one name. “His death touched us deeply.”

Sumartini came from a nearby village with her four children to watch the funeral procession.

Suharto’s body was flown to Solo on Monday morning after a brief ceremony at his Jakarta home, where a string of the country’s political elite visited Suharto’s family in a sign of his lingering importance.

“May god bless his soul and forgive his mistakes and sins,” said Agung Laksono, the speaker of Indonesia’s house of representatives.

The Hercules C-130 carrying Suharto’s body from Jakarta arrived in Solo just after 10 a.m., accompanied by two planes used by his family and friends.

Suharto ruled with a totalitarian dominance that saw soldiers stationed in every village, instilling a deep fear of authority across this Southeast Asian nation that stretches across more than 4,825 kilometers (3,000 miles).

He was toppled by mass street protests in 1998 after more than three decades in power. His departure from office opened the way for democracy in this nation of 235 million people and he withdrew from public life, rarely venturing from his comfortable Jakarta villa.

Suharto loyalists, who run the courts, have called for forgiveness and for his name to be cleared, but survivors of the atrocities that took place under his rule want those responsible to be held accountable.

Since being forced from power, he had been in and out of hospitals after strokes caused brain damage and impaired his speech.

Suharto’s poor health _ and continuing corruption, critics charge _ also kept him out of court.

The bulk of the political killings occurred during his rise to power in 1965-1966 when between 300,000 and 800,000 alleged communists were rounded up and slain. Over the next three decades, 300,000 more were killed, disappeared or starved in the independence-minded regions of East Timor, Aceh and Papua, human rights groups and the United Nations say.

With the court system paralyzed by corruption, the country has not confronted its bloody past. Rather than put on trial those accused of mass murder and multibillion-dollar (euro) theft, some members of the political elite consistently called for charges against Suharto to be dropped on humanitarian grounds.

Sayed Parwez Kaambakhsh, 23, sentenced to death for ‘insulting Islam’

Telegraph | Jan 24, 2008

By David Blair, Diplomatic Editor

The Taliban-style intimidation of Afghan newspapers came to the surface after a journalist was sentenced to death for distributing an article deemed to have “insulted Islam”.

Sayed Parwez Kaambakhsh’s crime was to have passed around a piece taken from a website questioning why Muslim women cannot have multiple husbands in the same way as their menfolk can legally take four wives.

Mr Kaambakhsh, who works for “The New World”, a newspaper in Afghanistan’s northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, was prosecuted for downloading this article, apparently gleaned from an Iranian website, and distributing it to his friends.

On Tuesday, a court found him guilty of “insulting Islam” and sentenced him to death.

“Based on the crimes Parwez Kaambakhsh committed, the primary court sentenced him to the most serious punishment which is the death penalty,” said Hafizullah Khaliqyar, the province’s deputy attorney general.

No lawyer represented Mr Kaambakhsh, 23, during the critical hearing, which appears to have taken place in secret in Mazar-i-Sharif. The journalist will appeal against the verdict and both Afghan and international campaigners denounced his treatment.

“This is unfair, this is illegal,” said Rahimullah Samander, president of the Afghan Independent Journalists’ Association (AIJA). “This is too big for a small mistake - he just printed a copy and looked at this and read it. How can we believe in this ‘democracy’ if we can’t even read, we can’t even study?”

The AIJA urged President Hamid Karzai to intervene in the case and quash the death sentence. The penalty must be confirmed by a higher court before it can be inflicted.

But campaigners believe that the court’s real motive was not protecting the honour of Islam. Mr Kaambakhsh’s brother, Yaqub Ibrahimi, also works as a journalist and has written a series of reports on atrocities committed by senior politicians in northern Afghanistan.

The authorities may have been trying to silence him by threatening Mr Kaambakhsh’s life. Jean MacKenzie, country director for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, which trains Afghan journalists, said: “We feel very strongly that this is a complete fabrication on the part of the authorities up in Mazar, designed to put pressure on Parwez’s brother, Yaqub, who has done some of the hardest-hitting pieces outlining abuses by some very powerful commanders in Balkh and the other northern provinces.”

The overthrow of the Taliban in 2001 brought a new era of media freedom in Afghanistan. Dozens of newspapers and television stations have sprung up across the country. In practice, however, the authorities are deeply suspicious of journalists and all media outlets face pressure and harassment. Laws protecting the good name of Islam can often be invoked to stifle press criticism.

AP | Jan 22, 2008

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Malaysia’s only state run by the Islamic opposition party will get stricter about enforcing separate lines for men and women at supermarkets, an official said Tuesday.

Authorities in the northern state of Kelantan — governed by the opposition Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party — will fine supermarkets and shops if they let men and women use the same lines at checkout counters, said party spokesman Anual Bakri Haron.

Chief Minister Nik Aziz Nik Mat has called for stricter enforcement “to safeguard the ladies” from being harassed and to avoid close proximity between opposite sexes while lining up to buy groceries, Anual said. “He wants the enforcement to be looked into thoroughly.”

Kelantan is the only Malaysian state governed by the opposition Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party. The rest are ruled by the National Front coalition, which is made up of various parties representing Malaysia’s different ethnic groups.

The coalition is dominated by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s United Malays National Organization party, which draws its support from the ethnic Malay Muslims who account for 60 percent of the country’s 27 million people.

The Islamic opposition party, which has ruled Kelantan for more than 17 years, imposed the separate lineup rule as part of its agenda to promote Islamic values. In recent years, however, people ignored the regulation, and there was little enforcement.

Col Gaddafi resembling a Jim Jones-like cult guru: Human Rights Watch said in a statement Wednesday Libyan citizens continue to suffer serious abuses, including “the absence of a free press, the ban on independent organizations, the torture of detainees, and the continued incarceration of political prisoners.”

CNSNews.com | Jan 4, 2008

By Patrick Goodenough

(CNSNews.com) - Libya’s return from international outcast status edged forward Thursday with the first meeting in Washington between the top U.S. and Libyan diplomats in 36 years. For many critics, however, it is too soon to normalize ties with a regime with one of the world’s worst human rights records.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Foreign Minister Abdelrahman Mohammed Shalgam for about an hour, during which — State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said — she urged Muammar Gadaffi’s government to respect human rights.

Rice also said Libya should resolve outstanding claims by families of American victims of terrorists acts linked to the Libyan government.

“Secretary Rice also reiterated her intent to visit Libya at the appropriate time,” the department said in a statement, holding out the possibility of the first visit to Tripoli by a secretary of state since the 1950s.

After the meeting, the State Department said, the U.S. and the “Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya” signed a science and technology cooperation deal — the first such bilateral agreement between the two governments since the re-establishment of diplomatic ties in 2004.

The department called the agreement “an important step in recognizing Libya’s historic renunciation of weapons of mass destruction and positive re-engagement with the international community.”

In December 2003, Libya announced that it would eliminate its nuclear and chemical weapons programs. Two months earlier, a German-owned ship carrying uranium centrifuge equipment destined for Libya was stopped and diverted to Italy, an incident which Rice said later played a “major role” in Libya’s decision to shut down its WMD programs, and in exposing a nuclear black market run by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the founder of Pakistan’s nuclear program.

The move paved the way for a slow improvement in bilateral ties, and in 2006 the State Department removed Libya from its list of terror-sponsoring states and normalized diplomatic relations.

Although ties were restored to ambassadorial level, however, Congress is holding up funds to build a new U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, and some lawmakers have also pledged to block confirmation of a new American ambassador.

The reason: Libya’s failure to finalize the promised payment of compensation to the families of victims of the 1988 Pan Am 103 bombing, which cost 270 lives; and to the victims of a 1986 bombing of a Berlin discotheque, which killed two American servicemen and wounded scores more.

“Congress has made it clear that the U.S. is not ready for full normalization of relations with Libya,” Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and seven other senators wrote in a letter to Rice last month.

They cited passage of the State Department and Foreign Operations Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2008, “which would block the construction of a new U.S. embassy in Tripoli and prevent support for energy investment there until these settlements are fulfilled.” President Bush signed the bill into law on Dec. 26.

Lautenberg said in a statement Thursday, “t is time for the Libyans to address these issues with the seriousness they deserve and for Libya to provide justice for all American victims of these attacks.”

Detention without trial, torture, media restrictions

The Rice-Shalgam meeting came two as Libya took a non-permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council — for the first time since 1977 — and on Thursday assumed the rotating presidency of the body.

Apart from the council’s five veto-wielding permanent members - the U.S., Britain, France, China and Russia - the council has 10 other seats, filled by General Assembly vote for two-year terms by member states which do not enjoy veto powers.

Libya’s return to international respectability — Gadaffi visited France and Spain last month — has not been excessively hampered by its controversial human rights record.

Physicians for Human Rights said this week that the Libyan leader “has continued to violate fundamental human rights of his citizens while seeking to develop a public posture of respect for them.”

The Cambridge, Mass.-based group cited cases of torture and detention without trial, in particular the plight of democracy activist Fathi Eljahmi, imprisoned since 2002 — except for a two-week period in 2004.

PHR and another group in 2005 sent a physician to visit Eljahmi in detention, and “raised serious concern about his health.” On Wednesday it once again called for his immediate release.

In a column published in the Washington Post Wednesday, Eljahmi’s brother, Mohamed, recalled that on the day his brother was released in March 2004, Bush called the move “an encouraging step toward reform in Libya.”

“Two weeks later, Gadaffi rearrested Fathi. My brother has been in solitary confinement ever since,” said Mohamed Eljahmi, a Massachusetts-based Libyan-American activist.

“With Washington offering wholesale concessions to Tripoli, Gadaffi has little incentive to improve human rights. Absent pressure, Gadaffi understands that he has a free pass to rule Libya as a private fiefdom.

Human Rights Watch said in a statement Wednesday Libyan citizens continue to suffer serious abuses, including “the absence of a free press, the ban on independent organizations, the torture of detainees, and the continued incarceration of political prisoners.”

The democracy watchdog Freedom House rates Libya as “not free.” Its annual assessment is based on scores for political rights and civil liberties, with “1″ being the best rating and “7″ the worst. In a rating that has not improved since 1972, Libya scores 7 for political rights and a 7 for civil liberties.

“We have four million Muslims in Albania. There are signs that Allah will grant Islam victory in Europe – without swords, without guns, without conquests. The fifty million Muslims of Europe will turn it into a Muslim continent within a few decades. Europe is in a predicament, and so is America. They should agree to become Islamic in the course of time, or else declare war on the Muslims.”

- Col Muammar Gaddafi, interview on Al-Jazeera TV. Qatar, April 10, 2006.

Trained at the British Army Staff College, the brutal and psychopathic Islamic-socialist military dictator, murderer, terrorist and human-rights abuser over Lybia for nearly 40 years, Col Muammar Gaddafi, now playing a lead role in the UN Security Council?

VOA | Jan 3, 2008

By Margaret Besheer

Five countries have joined the U.N. Security Council as non-permanent members for two-year terms. Among them is Libya, which has also assumed the Security Council’s rotating presidency for the month of January. 

Libya moved deeper into the fold of the international community Thursday, taking up the helm of the very same body that had previously sanctioned it as a state-sponsor of terrorism.

Libya’s ambassador to the U.N., Giadalla Ettalhi, told reporters Thursday that this reversal has great significance for his country.

“For us, you know, for a country that was for a decade under the sanctions of the Security Council, it is very important and very significant, I think, that to be back in the Security Council,” he said.  “It means that we are back to normal, at least from the perspective of the others. We have considered ourselves always in the right way, but this is very, very important for us.”

Burkina Faso, Costa Rica, Croatia and Vietnam joined Libya as new members. Unlike the five permanent members of the Security Council, non-permanent members do not have veto power.

Several high priority issues will be on the Council’s agenda in January, including the deployment of a joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force to Sudan’s Darfur region and the continuing issue of Kosovo’s future status.

Libya was elected to the Security Council in October, after the U.S. vetoed two previous bids. The United States did not block Libya’s most recent effort.

Relations between the two nations have warmed since 2003, when Libya accepted responsibility for the 1988 bombing of a U.S. airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people. Earlier, Tripoli had turned over two suspects for trial in the case.

Relations further improved between the U.S. and Libya after Tripoli renounced weapons of mass destruction in late 2003.

The two countries resumed full diplomatic relations in 2006 after more than a two-decade break, and Libya’s foreign minister was in Washington Thursday, meeting with U.S. officials.

Ambassador Ettalhi says his government is pleased relations have normalized.

“We have good relations with the United States,” he added.  “At least they are back to normal and, I think, moving in the right direction. Perhaps, not at the desirable speed, but they are really going in the right direction. We are happy about that and I think that they are happy about that.”

The rotating presidency of the Security Council is designated in alphabetical order, and Libya enters the body as president for the month of January, taking over from Italy.
. . .

Related

Libya Shedding Pariah Tag, But Rights Abuses Continue

Libya: Human Rights Not on Agenda in US

Human rights in Libya’s authoritarian regime continue to have a poor record 

AP | Jan 2, 2008

By NICOLE WINFIELD

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Catholic and Muslim representatives plan to meet in Rome in the spring to start a “historic” dialogue between the faiths after relations were soured by Pope Benedict XVI’s 2006 comments about Islam and holy war, Vatican officials said.

Benedict proposed the encounter as part of his official response to an open letter sent to him and other Christian leaders in October by 138 Muslim scholars from around the world. The letter urged Christians and Muslims to develop their common ground of belief in one God.

Three representatives of the Muslim scholars will come to Rome in February or March to prepare for the meeting, the head of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, told the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano this weekend.

He did not give a date for the larger meeting, except to say it would take place in the spring.

Pope John Paul II kissing the Koran

The agenda, he said, would cover three main topics: respect for the dignity of each person, interreligious dialogue based on reciprocal understanding, and instruction of tolerance among the young.

“The meeting with a delegation of some of the 138 Muslims, planned for Rome next spring, is in a certain sense historic,” Tauran was quoted by L’Osservatore as saying.

Benedict angered Muslims with a speech on faith and reason in September 2006 in Germany in which he cited a medieval text that characterized some of the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad as “evil and inhuman,” particularly “his command to spread by the sword the faith.”

The pope later said he was “deeply sorry” over the reactions to his remarks and that they did not reflect his own opinions. The Vatican has been working ever since to improve relations with moderate Islam.

Thirty-eight Muslim scholars initially wrote to Benedict soon after his 2006 speech, thanking him for his clarifications and his calls for dialogue. But the Vatican never officially responded to that initiative, and a year later the number of signatories of a new letter had swelled to 138.

In the letter, the Muslim scholars, muftis and intellectuals draw parallels between Islam and Christianity and their common focus on love for God and love for one’s neighbor. They also note that such a focus is found in Judaism.

“As Muslims and in obedience to the Holy Quran, we ask Christians to come together with us on the common essentials of our two religions,” the letter says. “Let this common ground be the basis of all future interfaith dialogue between us.”

Noting that Christians and Muslims make up an estimated 55 percent of the world population, the scholars conclude that improving relations is the best way to bring peace to the world.

Church leaders and analysts have praised the initiative, and Benedict met with one of the 138 signatories in October, when they both attended an interfaith peace meeting in Naples.

But that meeting was somewhat soured when some Muslim participants complained in a communique that Benedict had neglected to comment publicly on the open letter, and over published comments by Tauran about the unwillingness of Muslims to critically discuss the Quran.

The Vatican No. 2, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, followed up within a month with a formal letter on behalf of Benedict to one of the 138 signatories, Jordan’s Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal, inviting representatives of the scholars to meet with the pope.

The prince, who is a special envoy to Jordan’s King Abdullah II, responded by confirming the agenda of the meeting and saying three representatives of the scholars would travel to Rome in February or March to lay its groundwork.

Outrage: Proposals for loudspeaker Muslim calls to prayer in central Oxford have been attacked by local residents

Daily Mail | Dec 24, 2007

Muslim plans to broadcast a loudspeaker call to prayer from a city centre mosque have been attacked by local residents who say it would turn the area into a “Muslim ghetto”.

Dozens of people packed out a council meeting to express their concerns over the plans for a two-minute long call to prayer to be issued three times a day, saying that it could drown out the traditional sound of church bells.

But a spokesman for the Central Mosque said that Muslim’s also have the right to summon worshippers.

Dr Mark Huckster, who lives in Stanton Road and works at East Oxford hospice Helen House, told the Oxford Mail: “The proposal to issue a prayer call is very un-neighbourly, especially in a crowded urban space such as Oxford.

“I have lived in the Middle East and a prayer call has a very different feel to church bells and I personally found the noise extremely unpleasant, rather disturbing and very alien to the western mindset.”

He added: “If an evangelical Christian preacher proposed issuing sermons three times a day at full volume there would be an outcry.

“There could be a sense of ghettoisation of East Oxford. Cowley Road would have a Muslim flavour and could become a Muslim ghetto which is contrary to what we want in a multicultural society.”

Dr Huckster was among six residents speaking in opposition to the plans, revealed in the Oxford Mail in November.

Allan Chapman, who lives in East Oxford, said: “We are concerned with civil liberties and civil peace and the right to be able to live in our own space.

“I do not want preaching at. It is not the tradition of this country or the tradition I subscribe to.

“I find this totally, utterly unacceptable and I plan to do whatever I can to stop it.”

David Hutcheson, of East Avenue, said: “I’m very happy for people to practice their own religion but very unhappy about the thought of having a loudspeaker broadcasting any messages into my private space.”

After the meeting, Sardar Rana, a spokesman for the Central Mosque, said he would be happy to clarify any issues and invited anyone to come to the mosque so he could satisfy their concerns.

He said: “The call is going on in so many places in the UK, and we must get the same right as everybody else.

“When they ring the bells in church, we respect it but that is also a call to prayer.

“We don’t want to do anything that will disturb the people or upset the people.”

Aqsa Parvez.

National Post | Dec 11, 2007

Dad charged in daughter’s death

by Chris Wattie

TORONTO - A Mississauga, Ont. cab driver has been charged with the murder of his 16-year-old daughter, who was attacked in the family home after clashing with her strict Muslim family over whether or not to wear the hijab, the traditional Islamic head scarf for women.

Muhammad Parvez, 57, was charged after his daughter Aqsa Parvez died in hospital late Monday.

The victim’s older brother Waqas Parvez, was charged with obstructing police in connection with the girl’s death.

Police were called to a home in Mississauga early Monday morning by a man who told 911 operators that he had killed his daughter.

They found Aqsa Parvez lying motionless on the floor of her bedroom, to all appearances dead, but paramedics found a faint pulse and rushed her to hospital. The teenager succumbed to her injuries several hours later, police said Tuesday.

Const. J.P. Valade would not give any details about the teenager’s killing, but police sources said she was strangled.

Friends of the girl said she had left the family home, where her brothers also lived with their families, about a week before the attack because of arguments with her father and brothers over her refusal to wear traditional Muslim garb, including the hijab.

“She was scared of her father: He was always controlling her,” said Dominiquia Holmes-Thompson, a friend and classmate at Applewood Heights Secondary School, where both were Grade 11 students. “She wasn’t allowed to go out or do anything: That’s why she left.”

Valade would not comment on the possible motive for the killing, but said detectives are continuing to interview neighbours and friends of the girl as well as members of her extended family.

Canadian Muslim groups on Tuesday condemned the attack.

“There should be zero tolerance for violence of any kind against women or girls,” said Shahina Siddiqui, the president of the Islamic Social Services Association.

Faisal Kutty, the legal counsel for the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations, said: We call for the strongest possible prosecution of Ms. Parvez’s alleged attacker.”

Sylvia Link, a spokeswoman for the Peel District School Board, said grief counsellors have been sent to the school to help Aqsa’s classmates deal with the incident.

The flag outside the school was flown at half-mast and a memorial table was set up at the school where friends of the slain teen could write their memories, display pictures, leave flowers and mementos.

Link said school officials are also looking into the case to see if there was anything they could have done to help Aqsa or students in similar situations.

“We want to see what we can learn from this tragedy,” she said.

Valade said police and prosecutors have not yet decided whether to charge the dead girl’s father with first- or second-degree murder, but they have until the beginning of his preliminary hearing to make that decision.

Parvez is scheduled to appear in a Brampton court today on a bail hearing.