By Andrew L. Jaffee

When Putin doesn’t like bad press, he has the source killed. Pretty simple — for a tyrant, that is:

The owner of an internet site critical of the Russian authorities in the volatile region of Ingushetia has been shot dead in police custody.

Magomed Yevloyev, owner of the ingushetiya.ru site, was a vocal critic of the region’s administration. …

This is Putin’s “democracy:” executing website owners in police custody, shutting down the free press, assassinating journalists (Anna Politkovskaya), poisoning dissidents (Litvinenko), grabbing private companies (Yukos) for his own portfolio, interfering in Ukraine’s elections (poisoning the opposition candidate), rigging Russia’s elections, bullying Estonia for no reason, trying to rig the Ukraine’s elections and poisoning presidential candidate Yushchenko, supplying weapons to South Ossetian extremists, violating Norwegian airspace, keeping a military force in Moldova, etc. And of course, invading little Georgia.

(more…)

by Scott Carpenter*

When Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali extended his term in 2004 for another five years, making him effectively president-for-life, Mohsen Marzouk realized that for change to occur not only in Tunisia but also in other North African police states, it would be necessary to mesh internal Tunisian networks with ideas and activists from outside the country.

Born in July 1965 and raised in a poor, working-class neighborhood in Sfax, Marzouk has long been politically active. When he was thirteen, he joined a student movement aimed at challenging the rigid control of the governing party. At fourteen, authorities expelled him from his high school for his “political activities.”

(more…)

By Phyllis Chesler

“Shaikha,” a 16-year-old Saudi girl, drank bleach in an attempt to kill herself because her father was forcing her to marry a 75-year-old man. And why? So that Shaikha’s father could himself marry the elderly man’s 13-year-old daughter! Shaikha begged and pleaded not to be forced into this marriage–even her mother supported her plea; all to no avail. … (Continue reading…)

(more…)

By Andrew L. Jaffee

I’ve often wondered why Russia freed itself from communism, only to slide back to the paternalistic ways of authoritarian rule (e.g., Putin). Even though there’s been obvious vote rigging, and squelching of the media, it’s probably fair to say that the major of Russians voted for Putin because he makes them feel secure. While skimming some headlines this week, I finally found some insight into Russia’s love for paternalism — literally.

Recently, a Russian judge threw a woman’s sexual harassment case out of court on the grounds that, “If we had no sexual harassment we would have no children.” Huh? Read the statistics — and weep. From the Telegraph:

(more…)

by David J. Rusin*

Persuading Western Muslim leaders to repudiate Shari’a-sanctioned violence against apostates can be a frustrating exercise, as Prince Charles discovered in 2004. Troubled by the treatment of Muslims who convert to Christianity in Islamic nations, the prince convened a summit of senior figures from both religious communities. It ended in disappointment. The Islamic representatives failed to issue a declaration condemning the practice, which the Christians had requested; they also cautioned non-Muslims not to discuss such matters in public, arguing that moderates would be more likely to make progress if the debate were kept internal.

(more…)

By Phyllis Chesler

Yaser Abdul Said, who honor murdered his two beautiful and brilliant daughters Sarah and Amina earlier this year in Dallas, is alive and well and has been using a calling card to allegedly threaten various Christian members of his formerly Christian wife’s family. He did so as recently as three weeks ago. … (Continue reading…)

(more…)

By Phyllis Chesler

Oh dear, I have a live one here. Emily Brink has now posted three comments which take issue with what I’ve written about female suicide bombers. In each instance, she misses the boat–and the train, the plane, and the camel. She writes:

“The only problem I have with this article is that Chesler assumes that mentally ill people don’t know the difference between right and wrong. She also makes some comments about “inbreeding” among Arabs that I think are just meant to be mean and are not factual. But most troubling to me was the calling of these women mentally ill and thus furthering the stigma that mentally ill people must face all the time.” … (Continue reading…)

(more…)

By Andrew L. Jaffee

Reuters reported today that, “Some International Olympic Committee officials cut a deal to let China block sensitive websites despite promises of unrestricted access, a senior IOC official admitted on Wednesday.” Now, why is it that so many people with consciences resent “international” organizations like the United Nations (UN) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC)? This moral relativism, this treating tyrannies like China and Iran as equals with democracies like Canada and Denmark, is downright repulsive. But the IOC is helping China erase human rights.

And it’s not just “international organizations,” but businesses like networking giant Cisco Systems, who’ve helped dictatorships like China repress their own people (also click on this link to read more on how China uses technology to strangle Internet access).

Here’s more distasteful news on the Beijing Olympics from Reuters:

(more…)

By Phyllis Chesler

This weekend, on both Saturday and Sunday evenings at 8pm, EST, Fox-TV will be airing a one hour documentary about honor murders in America. They interviewed me at length and you may see my face and my words on camera. … (Continue reading…)

(more…)

By Phyllis Chesler

The monster was hiding in plain sight–working as a holistic healer, a health guru. I am talking about Dr. Radovan Karadzic of course who has finally been captured by his own people, not because his crimes repulsed them, (he was viewed as a hero), but rather in the hope that his capture and extradition to the Hague might soften their image as a rogue nation and lead to an economically profitable membership in the European Union. … (Continue reading…)

(more…)

by Daniel Pipes*

As the United Nations mandate that legitimizes the presence of U.S forces in Iraq expires on December 31, 2008, a humanitarian and strategic disaster is coming into view. The fate of about 3,500 anti-regime Iranians will be decided in the course of status-of-forces negotiations between Washington and Baghdad.

(more…)

By Phyllis Chesler

The photo arrests my gaze. It instantly haunts me. It shows two Afghan women chatting while sitting on their heels, close to the ground. They are both wearing iridescent light blue burqas. One seems to be clutching a shopping bag. They are about to be shot to death by Taliban fighters who accused them of running a prostitution ring that catered to American soldiers. For good measure, the Taliban also accused them of working for the local governor. According to the BBC here: (Continue reading…)

(more…)

By Phyllis Chesler

Cultural differences exist, they are real and they matter. As a lifetime critic of injustice, I understand that it exists everywhere but as someone who has also once lived in the Islamic Third world and studied it thereafter, I understand that, as my dear friend Ibn Warraq says, the West is worth defending; our values and virtues, our laws and customs are different from and in many ways more evolved than the (absence) of laws and abusive customs that characterize totalitarian, fascist, tyrannical, and fundamentalist regimes.

Just today, here is a small sampling of news about the recent and ongoing fate of women in the Islamic world. …

(more…)

A film directed by Laura Bialis

Review by: Fern Sidman

The film ‘Refusenik’ is a seminal retrospective documentary chronicling the thirty year history of the struggle to liberate Soviet Jews from the spiritual shackles of bondage that was endemic to their existence in the former USSR. Told through the eyes and brave voices of such celebrity dissidents as Anatoly (Natan) Scharansky, Vladimir Slepak, Yosef Begun, Yosef Mendelevitch, Ida Nudel, Sylva Zalmanson, Alexander Kholmiansky and Yuli Edelstein, director Laura Bialis takes us on a multi-faceted journey of the creation of a revolutionary global grass-roots movement for freedom from tyranny and oppression.

(more…)

By Phyllis Chesler

Every day, people send me the most worrisome and surreal newspaper accounts about Islamic gender and religious apartheid and the Islamification of Europe. To me, these clippings are prescient warnings; they describe patterns and the gathering storm. My informants live on five continents. Here’s a quick round-up of some of today’s clippings.

On June 5th, the GVB bus company in Amsterdam cancelled its annual Christmas party because too many of its workers do not celebrate Christian holidays. Employees union VTN were told that “the multicultural representation of the colleagues in the Christmas party is too one-sided.” Given budgetary restriction and multicultural sensibility, the union opted to gather their drivers together on a holiday all may celebrate, such as New Years.

(more…)