By Brittney Hodnik Impunity Watch Reporter, North America
WASHINGTON, United States – Sharia Index is a recently launched blog that brings Islamic law to the forefront. The website addresses the role of sharia law in U.S. courts, which is becoming more and more prevalent. You can visit the blog at: www.shariaindex.com.
The goal of the blog is to report on U.S. cases that address Islamic law and comment on other, specific areas of Islamic law. Also on the website, there are multiple educational resources including articles about sharia law in the news, interviews, and lectures.
Sharia Index describes in its mission the goal of the blog: “To provide an objective resource and destination for lawyers, professionals and anyone who is interested in learning about sharia in America.” It further explains that sharia law is becoming more and more important in the American court system. Just as foreign courts refer to the United States Constitution and public policy to resolve American issues, the United States must reference relevant sharia law to govern certain disputes.
“In our global village, marriages, finance and commercial transactions are crossing borders. U.S. courts, therefore, must regularly interpret and apply foreign law – including Islamic law . . .,” says the website.
The website lists U.S. cases by name, by subject, or by state. Each link provides a compressed version of the facts, issue, and the ruling, created by lawyers or law students. The website provides no editorializing; the cases are summarized with objective facts.
Overall, the blog aims to clear up any confusion about sharia law and its role in the United States and the world. Some of the links are under construction, as the website is relatively new. It is a very useful blog for learning the basics of sharia law and its application in the United States. Again, the website is www.shariaindex.com.
By Carolyn Abdenour Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
ANKARA, Turkey – On Tuesday, 20 December, Turkish President Abdullah Gul asked France to drop a proposed parliamentary bill that criminalizes Turkey’s denial that the 1915 mass killings of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey was genocide. Turkey warned France would jeopardize the countries’ friendship for “small political calculations” if the French National Assembly passed the bill on Thursday. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe stated the countries’ ties “are sufficiently strong to overcome challenges.”
Presidents Sarkozy and Gul talking after a press conference on February 25, 2011, in Turkey. (Photo Courtesy of Today's Zaman)
The bill presented by the French lower house of parliament includes a one-year prison term and a $59,000 fine for Ottoman Turks who deny the Armenian killings. If the bill passes as expected, France would criminalize any genocide, war crime, or crime against humanity recognized by French law. This proposed legislation parallels how the French treated the denial of the Holocaust, which the French banned in 1990.
French spokesperson Valerie Pecresse stated the bill is “very broad in a way that it can apply to all genocide recognized by France in the future.” She added the bill includes slavery and does not target the Armenian genocide.
In October, President Sarkozy asked Turkey to recognize the Armenian genocide as part of its history as a “gesture of memory” similar to France’s participation in the Nazi deportation of Jews during the Holocaust.
President Gul stated, “It is not possible for us to accept this bill which denies us the freedom to reject unfair and groundless accusations targeting our country and our nation.” Last week, Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the French government the hostile bill targeted Turkey and Turks living in France. Turkey said it would pull its ambassador to France if the bill passes.
Turkish Members of Parliament (“MP”) and business representatives lobbied Juppe and Jean-David Levitte, President Nicolas Sarkozy’s diplomatic adviser, in France this week. The Turkish delegation desires to remove the bill from the National Assembly’s agenda. If the bill remains, they urge the upper house of parliaments not to pass it.
Armenia reports Turkey killed 1.5 million people during mass deportations, but Turkey claims only 300,000 people died. Turkey also asserts Turks died when Armenians fought against the Ottoman Empire and Russian troops invaded Turkey during World War I. Turkey refuses to call the deaths genocide. Rather, it asserts the people died during civil unrest when the Ottoman Empire collapsed.
During his visit to Yerevan, Armenia’s capital, in October, President Sarkozy commented, “Turkey, which is a great country, would honor itself by revisiting its history like other countries in the world have done.”
By Adom M. Cooper Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
IDLIB, Syria–Less than a week before the Arab League delegation is due to visit Syria as part of a deal hoping to end the bloodshed, as many as 200 individuals are reported to have lost their lives in the last two days across the country. There are various reports coming from Syria about the situations involving the death tolls.
Demonstrators holding placards against al-Assad's regime in Idlib. (Photo Courtesy of Reuters)
Activist groups have reported the deaths on Tuesday 20 December 2011 after heavy fighting had occurred primarily in the province of Idlib, near Syria’s northern border with Turkey. On Monday 19 December 2011, activists claimed that as many as 110 people lost their lives in fighting acorss the country, including 60-60 army deserters who were apparently gunned down by machine-gun fire close to a village called Kafrouaid in Idlib.
More violence was reported in the region of the Zawiya Mountains on Tuesday 20 December 2011, with the Local Coordination Committes stating that 25 individuals had died close to the same village by machine-gun fire and shelling.
Many of the towns and cities located within Idlib are without Internet and mobile phone connections. Others are with electricity.
Rula Amin, an Al-Jazeera correspondent reported from Beirut, shared these sentiments about the violence.
“Activists and opposition figures say killings in Idlib area are very large. Dozens have been killed but people differ who were among those killed; some say they were defectors, others say armed men who oppose the government.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British based organization, stated on Monday 19 December 2011, more than 60 army deserters had been shot and killed as their tried to flee their base. Also, it reported that al-Assad had decreed the death penalty for anyone caught distributing arms “with the aim of committing terrorist acts.”
The state news agency SANA reported that security forces in Idlib had killed at least one “terrorist” and wounded several others.
Wissam Tarif, a well-known activist based in Beirut, stated that accounts from hospitals and witnesses suggested that some 260 individuals had been killed in Idlib alone on Tuesday 20 December 2011. He said that most of these individuals were defecting soldiers but also included some 93 loyalist soldiers and six civilians.
In the town of Jabal al-Zawiya alone, Tarif claimed that more than 3,000 soldiers had defected and that 10,000 had defected across Syria.
The Syrian National Council (SNC), the opposition umbrella group, stated that 250 individuals lost their lives between Monday 19 December and Tuesday 20 December. It released a statement urged the international community to act against the “horrific massacres.”
A team of observers from the Arab League is scheduled to arrive in Damascus later this week, as part of a signed deal between al-Assad’s regime and the Arab League in order to end the violence. The team is comprised of security, legal, and administrative observers, with human rights experts expected to follow.
Nabil el-Araby, the Arab League chief, stated that the initial team would go to Syria on Thursday 22 December 2011 while the rest will arrive by the end of December. He also stated that the Arab League desires to have 500 monitors in Syria by the end of the month and shared these sentiments with Reuters.
“It’s a completely new mission and it depends on implementation in good faith. In a week’s time, from the start of the operation, we will know if Syria is complying.”
The US and the EU have already imposed sanctions upon Syria, which combined with the unrest itself has pushed Syria’s economy into a free-fall. The Syrian pound fell nearly 2 percent on Tuesday 20 December 2011 to over 55 pounds per dollar, 17 percent down from the official rate before the crisis erupted.
In response to this economic depravity, Al-Baath newspaper reported that Prime Minister Adel Safar had instructed ministries to cut their expenditures by 25 percent. These cuts affected spending on elements such as fuel, stationery, and hospitality. Arab League chief el-Araby stated that the sanctions would stand until the League’s monitors begin reporting back on what they have seen on the ground.
The Arab League has threatened to request the UN Security Council to adopt its peace plan for Syria. This would considerably broaden the chances for international action inside Syria.
Syrian opposition leader Burham Ghalioun was not enamored by the actions of the Arab League thus far by allowing al-Assad’s regime to sign a proposal to end the violence.
“The Syrian regime is playing games and wants to buy time. We are quite surprised that the Arab League is allowing this to take place. This regime had proven time and time again that it is a regime built on lies and force. We need a safety zone to protect and prevent efforts by the regime to transform the crisis into a civil conflict.”
The UN has claimed that more than 5,000 individuals have been killed in Syria since the ant-Assad demonstrations and protests began in March, not missing the opportunity to be part of the Arab Spring. The Syrian government has reported that more than 1,100 security personnel have lost their lives to foreign-backed “armed terrorist gangs.”
The ban on international journalist inside Syria still stands, preventing all casualty claims from being independently verified.
KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo – Etienne Tshisekedi, Congo’s opposition leader, has refused to acknowledge the results of last’s month’s elections to determine the president of the violence-torn central African country. Despite receiving just 32% of all votes cast, compared to 49% for incumbent Joseph Kabila, the 79-year-old declared himself the winner. Kabila, who succeeded his father in office ten years ago, is scheduled to be inaugurated Tuesday.
Opposition leader Etienne Tshisekdi, shown here while speaking on August 9, 2011, has declared himself the winner of Congo's second democratic vote despite losing to incumbent Joseph Kabila by a significant margin. (Photo courtesy of Radio Okap)
“I consider myself the president-elect of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and it is in that capacity that I address you this evening and thank the people for the confidence they have placed in me,” Tshisekedi said. He will hold his own ceremony on Friday.
The election results have drawn controversy from outside observers. Congo, which has vast mineral deposits but is near the bottom of the United Nations’ human development index, ran elections that the United States’ ambassador to the country viewed as “seriously flawed.” Several other countries and the European Union also considered the vote’s validity questionable.
Congo insists that the election is legitimate.
“We as a government have followed every step of the constitution,” Kikaya Bin Karubi, the country’s envoy to Great Britain, told Reuters.
In a December 10 press release, the non-profit Carter Center, which helped monitor the process, reported that the results “lack credibility.” In reviewing the election, it found that official procedures for handling materials were not always followed, which occasionally led to lost votes. An estimated 400,000 votes from more than 3,000 polling stations were lost due to these problems. The Carter Center also noted that the vote totals for some regions were highly unusual, such as one local compilation center which tallied over 227,000 votes for Kabila versus three for other candidates.
In spite of these clear problems, the Congolese Supreme Court upheld the election results, and therefore Kabila’s victory, last Friday. In response to the announcement, protests and looting swarmed the streets of the capital. Sunday, Tshisekedi called for more radical action, urging the country’s security forces not to follow orders issued by Kabila.
“I ask you to be calm and serene because a winner doesn’t get agitated, does not worry, to the contrary, he remains calm. As for those who are causing our troubles, starting with Mr. Kabila, I ask all of you to look for him, wherever he is in the country, and bring him to me alive. Whoever brings me Kabila here, handcuffed, will receive a very big prize,” he said. “Also, Mr. Kabila’s government is dismissed from this day on. All officers, lieutenants, caporals and soldiers of the Congolese armed forces, I order you to obey [] the legitimate authority. The same goes for the national and sovereign police force.”
Kabila’s group has, so far, not taken his language seriously. Though Tshisekedi’s comments were referred to as a “joke,” the president’s team still considers the ramifications significant.
“Mr. Tshisekedi is following a criminal logic,” said Kabila spokesman Aubin Minaku, who warned that the opposition leader could be arrested for his rhetoric. “Anywhere in the world, when an individual commits a crime, whatever his rank, even a presidential candidate, especially when he incites international crimes, the state must react vigorously, and the International Criminal Court should react vigorously too.”
November’s election was the first to have been organized and operated by the Congolese government, and only the second democratic vote in the country’s history.
By Adom M. Cooper Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
CAIRO, Egypt–For a third consecutive day, Egyptian soldiers armed with batons and guns have clashed with hundreds of protesters armed with stones, overshadowing the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak. Ten months after Mubarak’s regime was toppled, the aftermath is still causing violence and civilian deaths.
Egyptian soldiers beat a female protester in Tahrir Square.(Photo Courtesy of Reuters)
The violence began on Friday 16 December 2011 when one of several hundred peaceful protesters staging a sit-in outside the parliament building was reportedly beaten and detained by troops. According to Egypt’s health ministry, ten individuals have lost their lives in the continuous fighting while some 432 others were injured.
Demonstrations and protests began in Egypt earlier this February. A second round of voting served as the trigger for the latest occurrences of violence in Egypt. Many of Egypt’s ruling generals appear assured and confident that Islamist parties who swept recent elections will stay out of the fight while other pro-democracy protesters become increasingly isolated.
Al-Jazeera’s Sherine Tadros, whom is reporting from Cairo, shared these sentiments about the scene at Tahrir Square.
“What the military have essentially done is created a concrete barrier to block the entrance into that street to stop the protesters coming from Tahrir Square and continuing with their sit in. The protesters, of course, are not happy with the situation. They’re telling us they have a right to peacefully demonstrate in front of a government building. The skirmishes are taking place across that concrete wall between the military and the protesters.”
Security forces donning riot gear have been filmed in the past few days beating protesters with long sticks after they had fallen to the ground. On Saturday 17 November 2011, soldiers cleared the area around Tahrir Square as thick black smoke filled the skies following the eruption of a fire near Egypt’s upper house of parliament. Military police reportedly openly beat female protesters in the street, slapped elders in their faces, and pulled the shirt off of at least one veiled woman as she was wrestled down to the pavement. The AP news agency stated that witnesses confirmed that soldiers beat and gave electric shocks to men and women dragged into to detention. Many of these individuals were taken to nearby parliament buildings.
Several members of an advisory board resigned over concerns about how the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has dealt with the protests and the unrest. The board is made up of more than 30 political personalities, intellectuals, and businessmen. It was formed with the intention to be a consultative body that meets with the council regularly to discuss the development of the country.
The Institute of Egypt, which housed national archives dating back over 200 years, was set on fire on Friday 16 November 2011. The building has suffered catastrophic damage and a majority of the paper archives have been destroyed.
Ban Ki-moon, the UN general-secretary, released a statement on Monday 19 December 2011 condemning the actions of Egypt’s security forces.
“We are highly alarmed by the excessive use of force employed by the security forces against protesters and calls for the transitional authorities to act with restraint and uphold human rights, including the right to peaceful protest.”
Kamal el-Ganzouri, Egypt’s prime minister, addressed the violence at a news conference 17 November 2011. He branded the protesters as “counter-revolutionaries” and claimed that the attack was an attack on the country’s revolution.
“This is not a revolution, but a counter-revolution. Those who are in Tahrir Square are not the youth of the revolution.”
On Sunday 18 December 2011, political figures in Egypt announced that they are working on a truce between the protesters and security forces to end the bloodshed. Armr Hamzawy and Mustafa Al-Naggar, both potential members of parliament, are among those involved in the discussions surrounding the deal. Hamzawy has called the Supreme Council of Armed Forces to stop their violence and for an immediate investigation to point out the perpetrators. He also has called on all the elected members of parliament and prominent Egyptian figures for a national initiative towards peaceful protests.
Moatez Abdel Fatah, a political analyst and former military advisory council member, announced that on Monday 19 December 2011 he would be at Omar Makram Mosque to meet with youth in the square in an attempt to calm things down. He stated that a truce would certainly not mean that the protesters should give up any of their rights, but simply need to take a timeout to plan their next substantive move.
After Mubarak’s ouster, the army generals who replaced him have angered many Egyptians by seeming reluctant to give up their new power. For the sake of the civilians who came together and voiced their displeasures loud enough to inspire change, one can hope that the generals will not allow the violence against protesters to continue.
Toqa Nosseir, a 19 year-old student, expressed these words to a correspondent working for The Guardian about the military attacks on women during the protests.
“Do they think this is manly? Where is the dignity? No one can approve or accept what is happening here. The military council wants to silence all criticism. They want to hold on to the power. I will not accept this humiliation just for the sake of stability.”
