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June 2019
Spy Who Helped Princess Latifa Escape Dubai Seeks Legal Action
Herve Jaubert, the ex-secret service agent and captain of the Nostromo, has announced plans to file a lawsuit against PLC Satellite provider KVH, Rhode Island NY, who, he alleges in his latest book, Princess Latifa & the Spy, disclosed his position following the high-profile escape of Princess Latifa from Dubai back in March, 2018.The suit alleges potential violations of data privacy and undisclosed damages against KVH Satellite Provider, Inc. (NASDAQ: KVHI) (“KVHI”) and a number of its directors. The announcement is also seeking an inquiry into why the FBI have seemingly shelved their investigation into a case that saw a US vessel come under illegal attack in International waters. Jaubert said in his statement, “in the US we believe in freedom of speech, freedom of sovereignty and the unalienable right to protection in law. America has always championed the rights of men and women and yet these basic human rights were denied to an innocent young woman whose only crime was to reach out. Princess Latifa was given no assistance and denied her right to asylum.” Jaubert claims KVH, along with US agencies, divulged confidential information that led to a criminal assault that subjected Jaubert and his crew to torture by a country with a long history of human rights abuses. Jaubert seeks answers as to why the US has not thoroughly investigated the attack by Indian warships on a American civilian vessel; why no steps have been taken by the US to secure Latifa’s release; and why US entities assisted UAE/Indian forces to attack and seize a private US yacht. Radha Stirling, CEO of organisation Detained in Dubai who was telephoned by Princess Latifa during the attack on Nostromo and who has been campaigning for her release ever since, said “the militarised attack on a US flagged yacht by Indian & UAE forces was in clear breach of international law. The attack illustrates increasingly belligerent behaviour from forces in the gulf region. Not only did the UAE and India go unpunished by the USA, but this fact may have increased confidence in neighbouring countries like Saudi, who seem to believe they can act with impunity such as with the killing of Khashoggi in Turkey. With the kidnapping of Latifa’s sister Shamsa from British soil, the
assault on US yacht Nostromo and the murder of US journalist Khashoggi, we see a dangerous pattern that Western countries need to show will not be tolerated. “We note systematic abuses of Westerners both within the gulf borders and now, we see these same countries extending their human rights violations outside of their jurisdictions. “If indeed US company KVH did divulge the location of Nostromo and this led to an international incident, abduction and torture of a US citizen and the ongoing detention of Princess Latifa, this warrants serious investigation by US
Left - Princess Latfia with her best friend Tiina Jauhiainen authorities and the victims deserve answers”. Herve Jaubert has known Princess Latifa for over 7 years and continues to campaign for her freedom. He has established “The Latifa Trust”, a US charity in her name, to help the many women who are subject to abuse in the gulf region and has released “The Princess and the Spy” in hope to raise awareness of her plight and to help Latifa tell her story, a story the whole world needs to know.
San Diego Synagogue Shooting: Suspected Gunman The suspected gunman was a regular churchgoer John Earnest is suspected gunman who killed one woman and injured several others at Chabad of Poway, a synagogue in California. The suspect who fired at least eight rounds before leaving the synagogue is believed to be a right-wing Christian who attempted to justify his crimes by referring back to the Bible. In a letter, by John Earnest, he included several anti-Semitic references in an attempt to explain his motives, within these was the claim that Jewish people were held responsible for kill-
ing Jesus Christ, and also he enforced the belief in a white genocide conspiracy theory. In his first court appearance, he pleaded not guilty to murder and attempted murder. The suspect was a member of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church who commented on the attack stating, “We deplore and resist all forms of antisemitism and racism. We are wounded to the core that such an evil could have gone from our community. Such hatred has no place in any part of our beliefs or practices, for we seek to shape our whole lives according to the love and gospel of Jesus Christ.” The shooting has also alarmed members of other Presbyterian churches who were unable to comprehend the use of Christian theology in the letter. Reverend Duke Kwon, a pastor in a Presbyterian church in Washington, said, “John Earnest assented to and articulated
a Christian theology of personal salvation with a degree of clarity that should make us squirm. The problem is that what he believed about personal salvation, according to our tradition, could have been enough for him to be saved, but it wasn’t enough to save him from embracing anti-Semitic and white supremacist beliefs and perpetrating hateful violence and murder.” Pastor in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, Reverend Mika Edmondson, shared similar views and stated, “If the gospel we preach comfortably coexists with white nationalism, we are not preaching the whole gospel.” John Earnest’s letter had specified that this attack was planned following the Christchurch Mosque shooting, where 50 Muslim worshippers were killed. The letter also showed the shooter taking credit for a fire which was set at an Escondido mosque in the following weeks after the Christchurch shootings.
The suspects family spoke out and said they were “shocked and deeply saddened,” when commenting on his white supremacist views they stated that he was “informed by people we do not know, and ideas we do not hold.” “To our great shame, he is now part of the history of evil that has been perpetrated on Jewish people for centuries,” they continued. This shooting in Poway synagogue came six months after 11 worshippers were shot dead in a synagogue in Pittsburgh, believed to be the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the United States. The US have endured other attacks on religious communities including the shooting of 26 people at the First Baptist Church in Texas, 2017; nine worshippers at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Carolina, 2015; and six people at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in 2012. By Navkiran Bains
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June 2019
Pakistani Veterinarian Faces Anti-Blasphemy Protests
By Charlie Murray police to arrest the veterinarian, and it is said that they took him into custody to protect him. However, the situation was said to have later calmed down; Officer Javed Ahmad Baloch from the district claimed that the police gave a “timely response” which “helped maintain law and order” and resulted in at least 7 arrests. Furthermore, a Mirpur Kash police officer, Javed Iqbal, said that the rioters had “neither love for Islam nor for their neighbours.” It is therefore understandable that minority communities in Pakistan have begged the authorities to make more interventions to protect the safety of Hindus. A similar famous case is that of Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian who, after rowing with her neighbours and allegedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad, was sentenced to death in 2010. Islamic radicals wanted her hanged, but she instead spent 9 years in prison and was released in mid-May this year.
In the Sindh province of South-East Pakistan, a Hindu vet has been charged with blasphemy after allegedly wrapping a medicine for a customer with sick livestock, in paper bearing Islamic religious text. He has been accused of insulting religious beliefs and defiling the Qur’an.
The vet, Ramesh Kumar, has said that he mistakenly tore the paper from an Islamic studies school textbook without realising what the book was. However, the customer who received the medicine did realise what the medicine was wrapped in and told the head cleric of a local mosque in the district of Mirpur Kash. This cleric then told the police. The veterinarian now faces life in prison, although Pakistan’s blasphemy laws can sentence anyone to death if they are accused of insulting Islam. These laws have therefore been criticised by human rights groups, domestic and international alike, who are concerned that these laws could be misused to target a disproportionate number of people from religious minorities, as Islam is Pakistan’s national religion while the country’s Hindu community is a very small minority. This targeting has been displayed in the past, when people accused of blasphemy in Pakistan have become the victims of shootings, being burned alive or other attacks. There are dozens of similar cases every year, and this is not including any unregistered ones. This violent pattern has continued in this case; reports of the veterinarian’s alleged “crime” have sparked riots in Pakistan, including the veterinarian’s clinic being set on fire. Surprisingly, the province in which this happened has a Hindu majority. Following the incident, three other Hindu-owned shops were looted before being set on fire. The rioters demanded the
19
Is Bangladesh Not A Safe Haven For LGBT Advocates?
Two Bangladeshi LGBT advocates were murdered in 2016 and eight members of an al-Qaeda affiliated terrorist group have been charged with the killing. Xulhaz Mannan and Mahbub Tonoy, aged thirty-five died in April 2016 after an assault party gained entry into Mannan’s house in Dhaka by pretending to be parcel couriers. Mannan was the editor of Bangladesh’s first LGBT magazine Roopbaan. He was also predominantly responsible for organising the country’s first pride rally – the Rainbow Rally. The rally was organised as an annual protest for recognition of LGBT rights. Each of the eight charged men belongs to a militant group by the name of Ansar al-Islam. This militant group has carried out violent attacks on Bangladeshi civil society figures who it views as ‘enemies of Islam’. Its victims list included atheist journalists, members of religious minorities and even foreign aid workers. The LGBT community has experienced its most brutal side however. The group was also behind the murder of a secular blogger Avijit Roy in 2015. Avijit reportedly had published a book
in Bengali on homosexuality. It is also believed by many that the group were to be blamed for the murder of liberal writers namely Faisal Arefin Dipan and Shahjahan Bachchu. Ansal al-Islam is known to receive a good amount of financial and logistical support from al-Qaeda. It is also known that many of its original members were also trained by the group in Afghanistan. During the tenure of conservative Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina, the LGBTQ community in Bangladesh has been subjected to violent attacks. Al-Qaeda said it had encouraged the killings because Mannan and Tonoy – who both also worked for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) – aimed to ‘promote homosexuality’ in Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi government meanwhile has done little to protect its vulnerable
LGBT community. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is a staunch representative of the traditionally secular Awami League party and she has adopted a concrete religious policy. According to this policy, the Bangladeshi Prime Minister made her appeal to an increasingly Islamised electorate over the past decade. Her government despite so many years of attaining freedom from the British still upholds the colonial law which deems same-sex relationships illegal, and she has turned a blind eye to human rights abuses. According to Human Rights Watch, the harassment of the LGBT community by the Bangladeshi police is a common practice in the country. In one incident in 2017, 28 transgender citizens of he country, commonly known as hijra, were arrested and then paraded in front of the press. The current on-going hostile attitudes towards members of the LGBT community from both the religion and also the state have seen many activists flee the country and take shelter in other countries with lenient LGBT laws. Between 2015 and 2017, it has been found that Bangladesh had the second highest number of asylum applications to the UK due to sexual orientation. Looks like Bangladesh do not have a favourable environment for the LGBT community at all. By Priyanka Dutta
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