World

Muslim Extremists Target Historic Buddha Statue

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A huge, centuries-old Buddhist statue in northern Pakistan has been badly damaged after it was attacked by Muslim militants, Asia Times reports. Spurred on by a former cleric known as the Radio Mullah, who broadcasts from a pirate radio station in the region, militants detonated explosives on the statute, destroying its face. The 23-foot-tall, 7th century Buddha of Jehanabad is the last remaining of many huge statues and carvings from the Gandhara civilization, which had its capital in what is now Pakistan’s Swat Valley. The attack was reportedly carried out by members of extremist group Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Sharia Muhammadia, after their leader, Maulana Fazlullah, used his radio station to call for the destruction of “un-Islamic” imagery. The attack echoed the Taliban’s 2001 destruction of Afghanistan’s equally historic Bamiyan Buddhas.

Democracy & Civics

Trouble at the Roof of the World

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Water rights and free speech are the latest sparks that have inflamed protests in Tibet against the Chinese government. Hundreds of nomads — yak herders and others whose way of life seems to exist outside of politics and time — fought with police last month after a disagreement involving three teenage Tibetan monks and Chinese shopkeepers. The incident, in Baikar (in Chinese, Baiga Shang), Nagchu Prefecture (China’s Naqu Prefecture), ended with the monks being detained, and one severely beaten by police, witnesses told Radio Free Asia. Afterward, nomads gathered outside to demand the monks’ release. The mob’s numbers rose to almost 1,000 a day later, witnesses said, and soon began to grow violent, attacking government offices.

Democracy & Civics

Judge SeeksTerror Trial Jury Blackout

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A federal judge in Miami ordered jurors to be selected anonymously in the upcoming retrial of an alleged terrorist cell, citing concerns about the potential for jury tampering. The move, which is sometimes made in organized crime trials, will mean that potential jurors in the closely watched case will be referred to by number instead of by name. Jurors will also be investigated and supervised by the U.S. Marshals Service in order to guard against any outside influence or attempts at intimidation. “I do find there is a strong reason to believe that the jury needs protection,” said U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard. She cited an incident in which a defense lawyer in the case handed a complete list of names from a jury to a client’s mother, so that she could pray for a not guilty verdict.

Environment

Fur Flies in Tiger Photo Fight

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When Chinese officials declared this fall that a rare South China tiger had been photographed in the wild, it appeared at first to be a story of nature’s powers of survival. But now the officials are defending the photos against claims that they are obvious fakes. The controversy began in October, when China’s official Xinhua news agency reported that a farmer had handed in photos he took of a tiger in a forest near his house in Shaanxi province. The South China tiger is critically endangered, and has not been spotted in the wild since 1964. Experts believe that if there are any of the animals left in their natural habitat, they number fewer than 30.

Democracy & Civics

Muslim Teen's Slaying Sparks Canada Debate

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The slaying of a 16-year-old Muslim girl, allegedly by her father, has sparked a furor in the Canadian press and beyond. Aqsa Parvez died in a hospital last week, hours after a man called 911, saying he had killed his daughter. Parvez’s father was arrested and charged in her death. One of her brothers was charged with obstructing the investigation. Parvez and her Mississauga, Ontario, family were immigrants from Pakistan, and early reports said that she had fought with her father over her refusal to wear the traditional Muslim head scarf.

Democracy & Civics

Afghan Reconstruction Faces U.S. Budget Cuts

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An innovative reconstruction program in Afghanistan has been praised for giving decision-making power to small villages and communities, but may be shuttered due to funding shortfalls. Washington Monthly reports that Afghanistan’s National Solidarity Program is a success across the country, even in unstable areas where the Taliban still holds sway. Originally developed by a “maverick” World Bank officer in Indonesia, advocates say the NSP ensures a sense of ownership by involving all community members in public meetings to determine what local needs are, and allows their direct participation in subsequent construction and development. It also enforces local accountability by requiring full, public disclosure of fund uses and project timelines by village leaders to their constituents. The magazine reports that small public works projects in, such as hydropower and irrigation development, tend to stay intact in “low-security environments.”

Democracy & Civics

Protestors say Israel will Exclude Ethiopian Jews

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Hundreds of Ethiopian Jews demonstrated in Jerusalem on Monday, alleging that as many as 8,500 of their family and community members have been cut from Israel’s immigration program. The Jerusalem Post reports that demonstrators displayed photos of loved ones still in Ethiopia, while Avraham Neguise, a leader of the protests, accused the Israeli Interior Ministry of reneging on its promise. Another protestor told the newspaper that the decision to end Jewish immigration from Ethiopia is “definitely rooted in racism.” An Interior Ministry spokeswoman confirmed that the immigration program would be terminated in January, and also said that Neguise’s claims were false. Source:
“Ethiopians protests plan to cut Aliyah”
Jerusalem Post, December 18, 2007

Nation

Iraqi Officers AWOL in U.S.

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At least five and as many as a dozen Iraqi officials have deserted U.S.-based military training, and are at large and unaccounted for, the Washington Times reports. Now, a pair of Texas Republicans are demanding answers from White House officials — more than a year after first inquiring about the disappearances. The desertions occurred between 2005 and 2007, and were reported to the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Neither agency would provide details on any investigations on the disappearances, and ICE said asylum requests were confidential. Meanwhile, Reps.

Democracy & Civics

The Stirrings of Islamo-Liberalism

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Plenty of media attention has been given to fundamentalist Islam and Taliban-style “Islamo-fascism.” But three recent articles bring to light the persistence of democracy movements in the Muslim world, and a tolerant spirituality in Islam’s Sufi tradition. The Netherlands-based academic Asef Bayat notes in a recent essay that democracy in the Middle East is impossible without the emergence of a new type of Muslim citizen — “teachers, students, the young, women, workers, artists, and intellectuals” — that can spur a “post-Islamist” interpretation of the Koran supportive of democratic ideals. Though oppressive governments and religious teachings have impeded “post-Islamism” thus far, Bayat says change can emerge through an informed citizenry that asserts its values through daily cultural practice and activism. In fact, youth throughout the Middle East and North Africa are coming together to achieve just that, reports Wiretap Magazine, under the banner of a “cyberdemocracy” Web site called Mideast Youth (www.mideastyouth.com/).

Democracy & Civics

Things Looking Up for the Poor Down Under

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When Australia’s conservative government was voted out of office last month, much of the world’s media emphasized the possible ramifications for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — or the fact that the former singer of politically charged rockers Midnight Oil is now the nation’s environment minister. But the changes go much deeper than that. The newly installed government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is acting quickly to reverse the policies of previous Prime Minister John Howard on a wide range of social justice issues. This week, the government announced that it would discontinue the controversial “Pacific Solution,” whereby Asian refugees seeking asylum in Australia were held in camps in Papua New Guinea. The program, instated by Howard in 2001, had been assailed by human rights groups and the United Nations.