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Wednesday, November 18, 2015

'We're just as shocked' - Muslim messages going viral after the Paris attacks

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Screenshot of video by "Pakistani Comedians" condemning the Paris attacks — Image caption A video message from a group of Pakistani men has been viewed more than 2.5 million times on Facebook

Muslims around the world have been uploading videos and messages to condemn the attacks in the French capital.

As a clear picture emerged of the multiple attacks in Paris on Friday night, more than 90,000 people, many of them Muslim, revived the hashtag "Not in my name" which first emerged last year to denounce extremism that had been justified in the name of Islam. Hundreds of thousands have also used the tag "Muslims Are Not Terrorists".
But beyond this there were many personal messages from different parts of the world. Here are a few.
Pakistanis say: "We're just as shocked and horrified"
In a viral video from Pakistan, five young men say that they are not going to be "apologetic" about the Paris attacks and "cannot be held responsible for a few deranged individuals who somehow claim to be like us". They explain how they are no different from people elsewhere in the world: they get annoyed when they don't get their morning coffee and "the only thing they slice and roast is a gooooood piece of juicy steak".
But as John Lennon's Imagine plays in the background, they add in all seriousness: "We're the same people as you. We have the same fundamental problems as you have. We have the same hopes, dreams and ambitions as you." They say they can understand what the French are going through - last year, 132 schoolchildren were killed by the Taliban in Pakistan, prompting an outpouring of outrage and sorrow.

A protester holds a placard reading 'Not in my name' during a demonstration in Spain against the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris in January — Image caption The hashtag #NotinMyName has been mentioned more than 90,000 times since Friday

The five refer to Muslims as the "biggest victims of terrorism". They go on to say that "it is easy to blame the refugees" in Europe for the attacks, but they are also "running away from the same people carrying out these attacks".
Singaporean says ISIS "Islam's biggest enemy"
A Singaporean Muslim's Facebook post was addressed to those Muslims who he feels are too quick to disavow any connection between the Islamic State and Islam. "ISIS is Islam's biggest enemy, not the US, not Israel or France or Germany or the Russians," wrote Sulaiman Daud in a status shared nearly 40,000 times. "We have to own the problem. We have to admit that this is a religious problem, and we need to renew our commitment to a secular country which treats all religions equally."
"ISIS is a problem for Muslims. And if you can't admit that, you're not really a good Muslim either," he wrote.

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Muslim in Paris asks: "I trust you, do you trust me?"
A video of a blindfolded Muslim man in Paris asking for hugs from strangers has also gone viral. It seems that several people filmed the man, but the version uploaded by a programme which airs on Russia's international broadcaster RT has gotten the most hits. "I am a Muslim, but I am told I am a terrorist. I trust you, do you trust me? If yes, HUG ME," say the signs seen in the video which has been viewed more than 11 million times on Facebook and YouTube.

Screenshot of video posted by In the Now programme of a — Image caption The video says the event took place at the Place de la Republique, streets away from the site of Friday's attacks

Later in the video, the man, who remains unidentified, explains his message: "I deeply feel for all of the victims' families... A terrorist is a terrorist, someone willing to kill another human being over nothing. A Muslim would never do that. Our religion forbids it."
"Silence is our biggest weakness"
Several other messages, from both Muslims and non-Muslims, have warned against the danger of anti-Muslim prejudice rising. Earlier this week, a video purported to show London Muslims celebrating the Paris attacks - but it turned out to be footage after a cricket win in 2009.
On Tuesday, a man from London wrote about helping a woman on the tube who was wearing the hijab and was harassed about how "her people" murdered the Paris attack victims. "What happened in Paris this weekend was an atrocity. What happens every day in the Middle East is an atrocity. And the only way to move forward and to recover is in solidarity as one people who won't be terrorised," he said his Facebook status, liked more than 35,000 times. "Silence is our biggest weakness. We need to start speaking up and defending each other."
Another message shared widely has been a post by Australian musician Darren Hanlon about his conversation with this Muslim Uber driver "whose religion is being taken from him". Hanlon wrote about their discussion: "He quoted Koran verses often brandished by fundamentalists, robbed of their ancient historical context. We mourned the victims in Paris. We mourned the young martyrs whose minds have been brainwashed."
Blog by Samiha Nettikkara
Additional reporting by Aditi Mallya
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Thursday, September 3, 2015

Trump’s America

American politics

by Biodun Iginla, The Economist Intelligence Unit, New York

Why the Donald is dangerous

“THIS country is a hellhole. We are going down fast,” says Donald Trump. “We can’t do anything right. We’re a laughing-stock all over the world. The American dream is dead.” It is a dismal prospect, but fear not: a solution is at hand. “I went to the Wharton School of Business. I’m, like, a really smart person,” says Mr Trump. “It’s very possible”, he once boasted, “that I could be the first presidential candidate to run and make money on it.”
When Mr Trump first announced that he was running for president, he was dismissed as a joke. A wheeler-dealer with lots of experience of reality TV but none whatsoever of elective office wants to be commander-in-chief? Surely, sophisticates scoffed, no one could want this erratic tycoon’s fingers anywhere near the nuclear button. But for weeks now he has led the polls for the Republican nomination, despite saying things that would have torpedoed any normal campaign. Americans are waking up to the possibility that a man whose hobby is naming things after himself might—conceivably—be the nominee of the party of Lincoln and Reagan. It is worth spelling out why that would be a terrible thing. Fortunately, the Donald’s own words provide a useful guide.

Mr Trump is not in thrall to the hobgoblins of consistency. On abortion, he has said both “I’m very pro-choice” and “I’m pro-life”. On guns, he has said “Look, there’s nothing I like better than nobody has them” and “[I] fully support and back up the Second Amendment” (which guarantees the right to bear arms). He used to say he wanted a single-payer health service. Now he is much vaguer, promising only to replace Obamacare with “something terrific”. In 2000 he sought the presidential nomination of the Reform Party. A decade ago he said “I probably identify more as Democrat.” Now he is a Republican.

Blowing his own Trumpet

In an interview this week (see article) The Economist asked Mr Trump why Republican voters seem willing to give him a pass on so many issues they normally hold dear. He took this to be a question about religion, since he is not much of a churchgoer and struggles to cite a single verse from Scripture. “I’m strongly into the Bible, I’m strongly into God and religion,” he declared. But within a few seconds he appeared to grow bored with the topic and switched to talking about how he has “a net worth of much more than $10 billion” and “some of the greatest assets in the world”, including the Trump Tower, the Trump Turnberry golf resort, and so on.
On one domestic issue, to be fair, he has staked out a clear, bold position. Alas, it is an odious one. He wants to build a wall on the Mexican border and somehow make Mexico pay for it. He would deport all 11m immigrants currently thought to be in America illegally. Apart from the misery this would cause, it would also cost $285 billion, by one estimate—roughly $900 in new taxes for every man, woman and child left in Mr Trump’s America. This is necessary, he argues, because Mexican illegal immigrants are “bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.” Not only would he round them all up; he would also round up and expel their children who were born on American soil and are therefore American citizens. That this would be illegal does not bother him.
His approach to foreign affairs is equally crude. He would crush Islamic State and send American troops to “take the oil”. He would “Make America great again”, both militarily and economically, by being a better negotiator than all the “dummies” who represent the country today. Leave aside, for a moment, the vanity of a man who thinks that geopolitics is no harder than selling property. Ignore his constant reminders that he wrote “The Art of the Deal”, which he falsely claims is “the number-one-selling business book of all time”. Instead, pay attention to the paranoia of his worldview. “[E]very single country that does business with us” is ripping America off, he says. “The money [China] took out of the United States is the greatest theft in the history of our country.” He is referring to the fact that Americans sometimes buy Chinese products. He blames currency manipulation by Beijing, and would slap tariffs on many imported goods. He would also, in some unspecified way, rethink how America protects allies such as South Korea and Japan, because “if we step back they will protect themselves very well. Remember when Japan used to beat China routinely in wars?”

Towering populism

Mr Trump’s secret sauce has two spices. First, he has a genius for self-promotion, unmoored from reality (“I play to people’s fantasies. I call it truthful hyperbole,” he once said). Second, he says things that no politician would, so people think he is not a politician. Sticklers for politeness might object when he calls someone a “fat pig” or suggests that a challenging female interviewer has “blood coming out of her wherever”. His supporters, however, think his boorishness is a sign of authenticity—of a leader who can channel the rage of those who feel betrayed by the elite or left behind by social change. It turns out that there are tens of millions of such people in America.

Wisdom from The Donald: What might we expect from a President Trump?

The country has flirted with populists in the past, but none has won a major-party presidential nomination since William Jennings Bryan in 1908. The closest any true firebrand has come was in 1996, when Pat Buchanan, whose slogan was “The peasants are coming with pitchforks”, won the Republican primary in New Hampshire against a dull establishment candidate, Bob Dole. (Mr Dole later won the nomination.)
Mr Trump is far more dangerous than Pitchfork Pat, for two reasons. First, as a billionaire, he will not run out of money to finance his campaign. Second, he faces so many Republican opponents that he could grab the nomination with only a modest plurality of the vote. The smart money still says that Republicans will eventually unite behind a mainstream candidate, as they always have in the past. But the world cannot take this for granted. Demagogues in other countries sometimes win elections, and there is no compelling reason why America should always be immune. Republicans should listen carefully to Mr Trump, and vote for someone else.

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Somali MP Yusuf Dirir killed in Mogadishu attack

by Natalie Duval and Biodun Iginla, Reuters contributors and BBC News, Djibouti

14 minutes ago

A Somali member of parliament has been shot dead in Mogadishu in an attack by suspected Islamist militants.

Security officials said that Yusuf Dirir was killed when gunmen opened fire on his car.
Three workers from the Transport Ministry also died in a separate drive-by shooting on Saturday.
The attacks in the capital city came as a number of people were killed in clashes between al-Shabab gunmen and government troops in southern Somalia.
Police said that Mr Dirir had been killed when gunmen in a minibus blocked his route and sprayed the car with bullets.
"He was a man that has long served his country and wanted to see a united Somalia," said speaker of parliament Mohamed Osman Jawari.
Local media said that another MP had also been wounded in the incident and was in hospital.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the killings are the latest in a string of assassinations of politicians in the war-torn country.

Islamist militants from the al-Shabab movement shot dead Abdullahi Qayad Barre near the presidential palace in February by opening fire on his car.
At least five MPs were murdered last year and the group has said that it will continue to target MPs.
In another development, al-Shabab clashed with government troops early on Saturday in Awdigle district and Mubarak village, south of Mogadishu.
At least 17 people have reportedly been killed but the death toll has not been confirmed.
"We did not sleep last night because they exchanged shells and gunfire throughout the night," resident Afrah Hussein told Reuters news agency.
Al-Shabab, which is affiliated to al-Qaeda, was pushed out of Somalia's capital by African peacekeeping forces in 2011.
But since then, the group has carried out a series of gun and grenade attacks to try to overthrow the government and impose its strict version of Sharia law.

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Coroner: Death of Andrew Getty appears natural or accident

Apr 1, 1:09 AM EDT

by Rochelle van Amber and Biodun Iginla, BBC News, Los Angeles

AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu

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LOS ANGELES -- Los Angeles County coroner's investigators say the death of Getty oil heir Andrew Getty is most likely via natural causes or an accident.

Coroner's Assistant Chief Ed Winter says the death Tuesday at a home in the Hollywood Hills appears to be natural, but it has been tentatively ruled an accident because of medication found at the scene.

The coroner has not officially identified Getty, but his family confirmed in a statement that it was Andrew Getty.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. Earlier story is below.

Andrew Getty, the 47-year-old grandson of the late oil billionaire J. Paul Getty and one of the heirs to the fortune of one of the wealthiest and best-known families in American history, was found dead Tuesday in his Hollywood Hills home, police and family members said.

A woman calling to report that someone had died sent officers to the gated home on Montcalm Avenue shortly after 2:15 p.m. They found the man dead in a bathroom, police spokesman Jack Richter said.

Police didn't identify the man, but a statement from Andrew Getty's parents, Ann and Gordon Getty, confirmed it was him.

The statement provided no further details on the death and asked that the media and public respect the family's privacy. It said further statements will be issued as information becomes available.

Richter and other police officials would not immediately confirm media reports that the dead man was Getty.

Police Cmdr. Andrew Smith said the woman who had called police was cooperating with the investigation. Richter said she was not arrested and he did not know her identity.

Coroner's vans and news trucks were parked outside the century-old luxury home on one of the winding roads in the hills that are home to many of the film industry elite.

Getty is one of four sons of Gordon Getty, a San Francisco multibillionaire who is among the richest men in the United States.

Andrew Getty's grandfather J. Paul Getty was an industrialist who founded the Getty Oil Co. and was at one point named the richest living American by Fortune magazine. He had five sons and died in 1976 at age 82.

J. Paul Getty was an avid collector of art and antiquities, and the Getty name is best known in the Los Angeles area for the museum that houses much of it, along with many other high-priced artworks bought since his death.

Another Getty grandson, J. Paul Getty III, lost an ear in a grisly kidnapping in Rome when he was a teenager. The family reportedly stalled on paying a ransom, and the kidnappers cut off part of his ear, sending the severed organ to a newspaper to prove they had taken him captive.

The oil heir, then 16, was freed after five months in captivity and a payment of $2.7 million. He died in 2011 at age 54.