‏إظهار الرسائل ذات التسميات Activists. إظهار كافة الرسائل
‏إظهار الرسائل ذات التسميات Activists. إظهار كافة الرسائل

4/29/2015

Saudi warplanes strike Sana’a International Airport #YEMEN

A wave of Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen on Tuesday seriously damaged Sana’s international airport, dealing a blow to already faltering efforts to bring in desperately needed humanitarian aid and arrange evacuation flights for those trapped by fighting.

Video by M.Qaid my bro form Sanaa 







1/18/2015

#FreeSpeechStories #France accused of 'double standards'



Tens of thousands of fans of the French comic Dieudonne - often criticised as anti-Semitic - are making claims of hypocrisy and double standards after French authorities opened up dozens of cases against people accused of justifying terrorism.

Fans of the controversial comedian reacted angrily after he was arrested and charged with condoning terrorism for a remark on his a Facebook page: "je me sens Charlie Coulibaly" ("I feel like Charlie Coulibaly").
The remark, which has since been taken down, was a mash-up of the#JeSuisCharlie tag and the name of Amedy Coulibaly, the man who killed a policewoman near a Jewish school and four people at a Jewish supermarket in Paris. Dieudonne later defended the remark by saying he felt like he was being persecuted by authorities as if he were a terror suspect.
"Freedom of expression is dead, but its funeral on Sunday was pretty!!" said one of the comedian's Facebook fans, referring to the enormous march through Paris in support of Charlie Hebdo.
"WHAT HYPOCRISY!!!!!" shouted another commentator. "You can legally caricature and insult the prophet and the Muslim world: the oligarchy calls this freedom of expression ... We are in a pseudo-democratic dictatorship."

Dieudonne is a comedian with a history of making crude jokes about the Holocaust (and occasionally getting into legal trouble). He has a huge following on social media including more than 900,000 Facebook fans. Most of the comments on his page were in support of the comedian, and his name was trending briefly on Twitter earlier in the week, but there were a few fans who thought Dieudonne had crossed a line.
"There is a big difference between freedom of expression and incitement to hatred," said one fan. "He knew what to expect ... Charlie Hebdo made caricatures of the prophet that I haven't agreed with, it has made a mockery of the prophet, made some laugh, shocked others, but there was no incentive to hatred and this is a big difference."

The arrest of Dieudonne was just one of dozens of cases - up to 100according to one estimate - opened by the French authorities since the attacks. Some people have even been jailed already under fast-track legislation that was passed last year.
In a typical year, only one or two people are arrested for speaking out in favour of terrorism, said Emmanuel Pierrat, a French media lawyer and member of PEN International, which supports free expression.
Pierrat told BBC Trending that free speech is an idea at the core of the French nation, but one that in his view has been eroded over the years by exceptions for things including hate speech.
"We have weakened the principle of freedom of speech, for good intentions, but without thinking about the consequences. We need to think about how we can recover the idea of freedom of speech after an event that is so emotional, like the one in Paris (last week)," he said.
He cautioned however, that Dieudonne's statements could not be directly compared with the Charlie Hebdo cartoons showing the Prophet Muhammad.
"One thing is for sure, in France you can make drawings or speeches against ideology or against religion. The French revolution of 1789 abolished the crime of blasphemy" and courts have consistently upheld the legality of speech directed at religions or historical religious figures, he says.
Pierrat, who represented Michel Houellebecq when the author wascleared of charges of religious hate speech against Muslims in 2002, says the Dieudonne case will be difficult to judge given the ambiguity of the comedian's outburst. But he says he believes the authorities are made a mistake by arresting him. A trial is scheduled for next month.

"If Dieudonne wins, he will be like a hero," Pierrat says. "It will gives a lot of young people the idea that he is a champion of Muslims or immigrants ... he's no longer a comedian or an actor, but instead his audiences are far-right sympathisers."
"What makes me somewhat afraid is that French justice is speeding up when it comes to these questions," he says. "Like Americans after 11 September, the worry is that judgments are coming too quickly, and influenced by a very emotional event."


Blog by Mike Wendling

7/28/2014

That how Egyptian (devils) kids Treatment of a lion #EGYPT



That how Egyptian kids of (devils) 
Treatment of a lion !!

In fact No words can explain! What the lion and his wife did for them,nothing ! 
why that happiness the kids of (devils) ? WHAT WRONG FUCKEN WITH THEM ! ;(

And that fucken garden watching them! sun of pitch  like nothing happened 

FUCK YOU AND FUCK HOW PUT TO WORK  THERE ALL OF YOU JUST FUCKEN SYS!!  



2/21/2014

'The Square' Film On Egypt's Revolution Will Not Be Shown In #Egypt #Tahrir #25jan

There’s a lot anyone can learn from Jehane Noujaim’s Oscar-nominated documentary “The Square,” an examination of the 18-day uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak.




But Egyptians may be least able to benefit from its lessons. So far, the film has not been approved for screening here.
On the third anniversary of Mubarak’s ouster, which falls on Tuesday (Feb. 11), Egypt is more polarized than ever, largely between those who are sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood and those who support the military. The film is a reminder of what Egyptians share, regardless of religious or political beliefs.
“The Square” depicts the uprising through the eyes of six revolutionaries who lived in Tahrir Square during those historic weeks and follows them as Egyptians struggled to redefine themselves. Mubarak’s ouster ushered in a tumultuous period that saw clashes with the military, the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood, the return to the streets to demand the deposal of the Muslim Brotherhood’s President Mohammed Morsi, and the sit-ins that followed Morsi’s overthrow by the army.
The film, available to American audiences on Netflix and in theaters, ends with the clearing of the Morsi supporters’ encampment, which resulted in nearly 1,000 deaths. Since then, the Brotherhood has been outlawed and people have been arrested for simply possessing Brotherhood materials, now a crime.
Noujaim, 39, is an accomplished documentarian and TED Prize winner whose credits include “Startup.com” and “Control Room,” a film about the Al-Jazeera network. “The Square,” though, is not a film that intends to accurately and journalistically represent all factions. Noujaim, an Egyptian-American who spent much of her childhood in Egypt, lived on Tahrir Square with her characters during the revolution. In many ways, she is one of them, and “The Square” is her contribution to the revolution.
The film depicts those historic events from the revolutionary’s point of view. There were hundreds of thousands of people in the square; Noujaim chose to follow the ones she was intrigued by, trusting that viewers would do the same.
Two of the most captivating characters are Ahmed Hassan, a young street revolutionary, and Magdy Ashour, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and a father of four who, under Mubarak, was imprisoned and tortured. Despite their differing backgrounds and perspectives, the two become fast friends, and the exchanges between them provide some of the film’s most compelling moments.
Through Ashour viewers get a nuanced view of the Brotherhood and its army of foot soldiers, a stark contrast to the heavy-handed, black-and-white demonization of them in Egyptian media of late. Ashour had been a loyal member of the Brotherhood for decades, attracted to its religiosity and benefiting from its financial support. After it seized power, he began to question some of its decisions, which left him conflicted.
When Morsi was first elected, many Egyptians opted for Muslim rule. But that feeling didn’t last long. Only 150 days into his presidency, Morsi made a power grab that gave him even more authority than Mubarak.
The revolutionaries were upset with his autocratic maneuvers and with the new constitution that the Islamist-dominated parliament drafted, which they considered a betrayal of the ideals they had fought for. Noujaim said she spoke to many ordinary Egyptians during that time — many of them practicing Muslims — who were “deeply disturbed” that the ruling party was now determining who constituted a good Muslim.
Ashour is visibly torn in the film between the revolutionaries, whose principles he, too, had stood for, and the Brotherhood. He found himself increasingly at odds with Hassan and his other friends from the square.
“If there were an alternative, I wouldn’t want Morsi,” he says at one point in the film. “We’re afraid that if Morsi falls we’ll be taken back to prisons,” Ashour said.
One of the film’s most poignant moments comes a short time later when British-Egyptian actor Khalid Abdalla sits with Ashour and his son and shows them video of Muslim Brotherhood members attacking protesters outside the presidential palace, some of the very same people who had been in Tahrir with Ashour.
Ashour’s son had gone to the presidential palace that day, and was on the side of the Brotherhood throwing rocks at their opponents. Ashour looks mournful, and chastises his son for his actions: “You have to stand as an individual,” Ashour tells the boy. “You have to think for yourself.”
It is Ashour and his conflict that resonated most strongly with some of the film’s most conservative and religious audiences in the United States.
When Noujaim took the film to Sundance, some of the screenings were in downtown Salt Lake City and attended by Mormons and ex-Mormons. They, as well as evangelicals, came up to the filmmakers after showings and said that, despite initially thinking they had the least in common with Ashour, it was he whom they related to the most. They identified with his deep faith, his trust in the fledgling government, and his ultimate disillusionment. Those feelings transcended culture and creed.
“We are all confused sometimes, and we question our beliefs,” Noujaim said.
Once Morsi was overthrown and the Brotherhood was again the victim of state oppression, that changed.
“Once they were persecuted, Ashour was immediately back on their side,” she said.
His rueful words all those months ago now seem prescient. Authorities recently raided his house, and he is reportedly in hiding.
Noujaim said she is not one of those filmmakers who believes her work can change the world. Perhaps, though, it can make a difference in what’s happening in Egypt today. Noujaim, who is currently in the U.S., hopes to be able to bring the movie to Egypt.
But “The Square” has already thawed some icy relations in the places it’s been shown. Noujaim said she spoke to an Egyptian woman in the United States who had seen “The Square” on Netflix, and decided to bring her family to a screening.
Like many other Egyptian families, they were so divided over events that relatives weren’t talking to one another. Seeing the film together enabled them to find enough understanding for one another’s viewpoints to enable them to begin to communicate once again, the woman told Noujaim.
And therein lies perhaps the most salient lesson of the film, particularly for Egyptians.
“We are all human beings,” Noujaim said. “Reminding ourselves of our humanity is a very simple idea, but I think it couldn’t be more important right now.”

As #Egypt 's Tourism Industry Crumbles, Business Owners Look To Military General To Restore Security

When Egyptians rose up against their government three years ago, it wasn’t just dictator Hosni Mubarak’s reign that crumbled. The mass protests, political instability, and now, increasingly frequent terrorist attacks, have devastated Egypt’s once-thriving tourism sector.

For many Egyptians still working in the industry today, there is only one answer to their problems: Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who is gearing up for a likely presidential bid and is seen as a leader who will bring back security to businesses.
"Sissi is the only man who can solve Egypt’s problems," said Emad Nour, a third-generation shopkeeper in Cairo’s sprawling Khan el-Khalili bazaar, where tourists used to flock before the unrest began. "He can fix the security problem here."
Nour once made a decent living making intricate tables, traditional lamps and other handmade items that often attract tourists. But nowadays he, like many other vendors, has barely anyone coming to his shop.
"We depend on tourism," he said with dismay. "If there are no tourists, our lives are not good." Lots of stores around him have closed down, he said, adding that many shop owners have given up and changed professions entirely.
At Cairo’s ancient Giza Pyramids, which used to be swarming with foreigners, desperate vendors and guides with skinny horses now harass the occasional straggling tourists. Buses carrying tourists from the capital to resort towns along the Red Sea now travel in armed convoys through the restive Sinai, where hardline militants have launched a campaign against security forces. Once bustling hotels and youth hostels are eerily quiet.
From 2009 to 2010, before the revolution, Egypt took in $11.6 billion from tourism,according to Reuters. But 2012 to 2013 were marked by a devastating dip in tourism, with Egypt only earning $9.75 billion from the industry. Following the military's ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi last year, tourism fell by a whopping 45 percent, Tourism Minister Hisham Zaazou told Reuters.
Under the military-backed government, unrest has surged. In recent weeks alone,gunmen assassinated a top government figure, a jihadist group targeted security forces in Cairo with four bombs, and dozens of anti-government protesters have been killed in clashes with police.
On Jan. 29, the U.S. Embassy in Cairo urged its citizens to "limit their movements to the near vicinity of their neighborhoods," warning against traveling outside of Egypt’s cities by car. And many governments, like the United States and the United Kingdom, have issued travel alerts for Egypt.
Thousands of dissidents have been imprisoned, and rights groups and critics have slammed the interim government as repressive and increasingly authoritarian. Yet despite a heavy-handed crackdown on what the state has labeled a "war on terrorism," many Egyptians, especially those working in tourism, say forceful rule is the only way to restore security.
"We need a man who can stabilize everything," said Abdel Rahman Aly, a tourism company owner. "I’m against a man with a military background, but there is no one else."
In Egypt, Sissi is portrayed as a national hero. Posters bearing his face are plastered everywhere. Pro-government protesters who rallied on Jan. 25, the three-year anniversary of the revolution, didn’t chant revolutionary slogans of "bread, freedom, and social justice." Instead, they wore Sissi masks and praised the military leader for cracking down on violence.
"This man is an idol," Aly said. "If that works for everyone else, that works for me."
Aly says the only reason his company is still afloat is because he has started coordinating international trips for Egyptians, having largely given up on foreigners coming to the country. But with military checkpoints everywhere and a very real fear of terrorist attacks, the success of even this venture seems improbable.
Unlike Aly, some have their doubts that Sissi can up live to the expectations of his cult-like followers.
"The notion that Sissi can curb terrorist attacks is odd in my view," said Shadi Hamid, a Middle East analyst and fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Saban Center. "Under Sissi, over the last seven months, terrorist attacks have increased significantly. Brute force seems to be his approach to dealing with things -- but that’s not how you defeat terrorism."
Dr. Kareem Eltamamy, the owner of Dahab Hostel, a once bustling youth hostel just a short walk from Tahrir Square, agrees with that sentiment.
"If Sissi became president, the Muslim Brotherhood or whoever is making these explosions will just become more angry," he said, mirroring popular consensus that the Islamist group is behind the attacks, even though a Sinai-based jihadist group has claimed responsibility for most of the recent terrorist attacks across Egypt.
Eltamamy said his hostel, which is widely known among backpackers and budget travelers in Egypt, doesn't come close to reaching capacity on a good day. He describes the past few months in a single word: "hell." Unlike many Egyptians who wholly believe in Sissi’s promise to quell the violence, he doesn’t think the current security situation, or the tourism sector, will turn around anytime soon.
But after three years of tumult, he said he doesn’t know how it could get much worse.
Eltamamy recently poured money into remodeling his hostel, hoping to draw in tourists from the "adventurous" crowd he says now occasionally comes through. But so far, it hasn’t helped.
"Nobody wants to go to a country that is exploding," he said with a sigh.

Central African Republic in Massacre against #Muslims

(RNS) Churches in Central African Republic are caring for thousands of Muslims who have been trapped in a cycle of revenge attacks, perpetrated by a pro-Christian militia.

Since December, Anti-Balaka militias have been emptying Muslim quarters and avenging earlier attacks by the Seleka, an Islamist militia. The Seleka rampaged through the country in early 2013, terrorizing Christians and ransacking churches, hospitals and shops.


A man holds a knife to his throat claiming that he is looking for Muslims to cut off their heads in the 5th district of Bangui on Feb. 9, 2014.

Now that the Muslim president Michel Djotodia has stepped down, Seleka is being forced to withdraw from its strongholds, as the center of power shifts, amid a mass exodus and displacement of Muslims.


In Baoro, a town in the northwest, a Roman Catholic parish is caring for more than 2,000 Muslims who can’t flee. A group of Catholic sisters in the town of Bossemptele is sheltering more than 500 Muslims, providing food, water and medicine.
“Now is the time for [people] of good will to stand up and prove the strength and quality of their faith,” the Rev. Xavier Fagba, a priest in Baoro, told the BBC.
One reason Muslims are able to take shelter in churches is because the country’s religious leaders believe this is a nonreligious conflict, said the Rev. Nicolas Guerekoyame-Gbango, president of the Alliance of Evangelical Churches in the Central African Republic.


“We have been traveling to the provinces telling people to understand this is not a religious conflict,” said Guerekonyame-Gbango. “This is contributing some tolerance, although many people, including Christians, have taken up arms. This is regrettable.”
 
Roman Catholic Archbishop Dieudonne Nzapalainga of the Bangui Archdiocese has welcomed Imam Omar Kobine Layama, president of the country’s Islamic Community, to live with him in the church compound.
“I live alongside him and I ask Christians to do likewise,” Nzapalainga said in a statement Tuesday (Feb. 18) for Caritas, the international relief organization. “Love should be a characteristic of Christians. You can’t call yourself a Christian if you kill your brother. You can’t call yourself a Christian when you hunt him down.”
Last week, CAR interim President Catherine Samba-Panza said she was “going to war” with the Anti-Balaka, who she described as having replaced a “sense of their mission” with warfare and killings.

2/20/2014

#Ukraine Kiev's Maidan Square in surreal 'Before & After' images



The blackened ruins and gaping windows of Ukraine’s landmark Independence Square have left Kiev looking like a warzone for the first time since WWII. The square has always served as a main stage for Ukrainian politics – but not a literal battleground.

Featured on every postcard, the grandiose post-war complex of monuments has been the true – if slightly touristy – heart of Kiev.

But now, the square is divided by ad hoc barricades built from paving stones, wooden debris, and tires. The iconic Trade Union building, which has served as the protesters' headquarters, was set on fire earlier this week and is now just a shell, after its floors and walls collapsed one by one.


In contrast to the normal, everyday hustle and bustle, the square is currently filled with hastily-appointed leaders deciding who mans the entrances and who is responsible for food and barricade building. But regardless of security measures, people in the area are an easy target for snipers lurking in the buildings that surround the square from all sides.


Police dressed in riot gear are stationed several blocks away, taking turns between sitting in their vehicles and patrolling the perimeter. Journalists with the world 'PRESS' written on their jackets float between the two sides, but find themselves in the crossfire once skirmishes begin.

Once the conflict ends, the square will have to be rebuilt. It may be more difficult to do the same with the country that surrounds it.