Saturday, February 17, 2007
China executes Muslim ‘extremist’
Jane Macartney in Beijing
China has executed a Muslim activist for attempting “to split the motherland” and possessing firearms and explosives.
The death by firing squad of Ismail Semed was criticised by human rights groups, who claimed that there was insufficient evidence to justify the sentence.
Semed, an ethnic Uighur, was deported from Pakistan in 2003 and convicted two years later. During his trial he said that he had been forced to sign a confession. He was executed on Thursday in Urumqi, capital of the mainly Muslim region of Xinjiang, northwest China.
Semed’s wife, Buhejer, told Radio Free Asia that she had been informed only on Monday that her husband was to be executed and she was allowed to see him briefly that day.
She said: “It was only for ten minutes, we didn’t have too much time to talk . . . Previously, he had said his leg hurt, and his stomach hurt, and other parts of his body hurt, and that he needed medicine.” He told her to take care of their son and daughter and to make sure they received a good education.
She said: “When the body was transferred to us at the cemetery I saw only one bullet hole, in his heart.”
The charge of attempting to split China stemmed from the allegation that Semed was a founding member of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, outlawed by Beijing as a terrorist group. Turkic-speaking Muslim Uighurs account for 8 million of the 19 million people in Xinjiang and have taken part in several uprisings against Chinese rule.
Nicholas Bequelin, a Hong Kong-based China researcher for Human Rights Watch, said: “The death penalty was widely disproportionate to the alleged crimes . . . his trial did not meet minimum requirements of fairness and due process. We don’t think there was sufficient evidence to condemn him.”
The exile group, the World Uighur Congress, also said the prosecution had presented no credible evidence for a conviction. It said: “His trial, like most Uighur political prisoners’ trials, was not fair.”
China has waged a campaign in recent years against what it says are violent separatists and Islamic extremists attempting to set up an independent “East Turkestan” in Xinjiang, which shares a border with Afghan-istan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia and Mongolia.
Semed had previously served two prison sentences for taking part in an uprising in 1990 in the town of Baren in which 22 people were killed. Uighurs said the clash was instigated by the Government’s closing of a mosque, while Chinese police said locals were trying to establish an Eastern Turkistan republic. He fled to Pakistan after a Chinese government crack-down in 1997 that was prompted by violent protests in Yining, near the Kazakhstan border.
Two other Uighurs who testified against Semed were also executed.
The courts in Urumqi are currently considering the case of another Uighur activist accused of terrorism. Hussayin Celil fled China in the 1990s and travelled last year to Uzbekistan, where he was detained and then extradited to China on terrorism charges.
Divided past
Xinjiang — or East Turkestan — has been part of China periodically, with the latest “occupation”, as many of the Uighurs see it, beginning in the 18th century. The Uighurs claim that thousands of years of history separate them from China
Much of their culture is shared with the nearby Turkic nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan — whom they refer to as West Turkestan
They developed their own script, before adopting Arabic after conversion to Islam in the 10th century
For a brief period in the early 20th century parts of the region reportedly declared independence
In 1949 Uighars comprised 96 per cent of the Xinjiang population. They are now outnumbered by the Chinese Source
China has executed a Muslim activist for attempting “to split the motherland” and possessing firearms and explosives.
The death by firing squad of Ismail Semed was criticised by human rights groups, who claimed that there was insufficient evidence to justify the sentence.
Semed, an ethnic Uighur, was deported from Pakistan in 2003 and convicted two years later. During his trial he said that he had been forced to sign a confession. He was executed on Thursday in Urumqi, capital of the mainly Muslim region of Xinjiang, northwest China.
Semed’s wife, Buhejer, told Radio Free Asia that she had been informed only on Monday that her husband was to be executed and she was allowed to see him briefly that day.
She said: “It was only for ten minutes, we didn’t have too much time to talk . . . Previously, he had said his leg hurt, and his stomach hurt, and other parts of his body hurt, and that he needed medicine.” He told her to take care of their son and daughter and to make sure they received a good education.
She said: “When the body was transferred to us at the cemetery I saw only one bullet hole, in his heart.”
The charge of attempting to split China stemmed from the allegation that Semed was a founding member of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, outlawed by Beijing as a terrorist group. Turkic-speaking Muslim Uighurs account for 8 million of the 19 million people in Xinjiang and have taken part in several uprisings against Chinese rule.
Nicholas Bequelin, a Hong Kong-based China researcher for Human Rights Watch, said: “The death penalty was widely disproportionate to the alleged crimes . . . his trial did not meet minimum requirements of fairness and due process. We don’t think there was sufficient evidence to condemn him.”
The exile group, the World Uighur Congress, also said the prosecution had presented no credible evidence for a conviction. It said: “His trial, like most Uighur political prisoners’ trials, was not fair.”
China has waged a campaign in recent years against what it says are violent separatists and Islamic extremists attempting to set up an independent “East Turkestan” in Xinjiang, which shares a border with Afghan-istan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia and Mongolia.
Semed had previously served two prison sentences for taking part in an uprising in 1990 in the town of Baren in which 22 people were killed. Uighurs said the clash was instigated by the Government’s closing of a mosque, while Chinese police said locals were trying to establish an Eastern Turkistan republic. He fled to Pakistan after a Chinese government crack-down in 1997 that was prompted by violent protests in Yining, near the Kazakhstan border.
Two other Uighurs who testified against Semed were also executed.
The courts in Urumqi are currently considering the case of another Uighur activist accused of terrorism. Hussayin Celil fled China in the 1990s and travelled last year to Uzbekistan, where he was detained and then extradited to China on terrorism charges.
Divided past
Xinjiang — or East Turkestan — has been part of China periodically, with the latest “occupation”, as many of the Uighurs see it, beginning in the 18th century. The Uighurs claim that thousands of years of history separate them from China
Much of their culture is shared with the nearby Turkic nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan — whom they refer to as West Turkestan
They developed their own script, before adopting Arabic after conversion to Islam in the 10th century
For a brief period in the early 20th century parts of the region reportedly declared independence
In 1949 Uighars comprised 96 per cent of the Xinjiang population. They are now outnumbered by the Chinese Source
A History of Violence
Syria reminds Lebanon of their "special relationship."
by Lee Smith
02/15/2007 11:00:00 AM
BIKFAYA, where three people were killed and many others injured earlier this week by a bomb planted on a bus, is in the Christian heartland of Mount Lebanon, and has hosted a large Christian community since well before the time of the Islamic conquests. In the past, the high mountain passes surrounding the area, with their breathtaking views, served to protect the Christians from intruders. During the Ottoman era, imperial administrators rarely braved the region at the risk of being cut to ribbons along any steep approach.
Bikfaya is also the hometown of the Gemayel family, and posters of the late President Bashir Gemayel decorate street signs, homes, shops, and cars almost a quarter of a century after his assassination at the hands of Syrian operatives. It's difficult to pinpoint a specific motive for the murder, but his mulling over a deal with Israel was likely a major factor, and now there are Americans and even Israelis who say that Bashar al-Asad, the son of the man who murdered Bashir, is mulling over his own deal with Israel. But Bashar al-Asad must have the Golan Heights back, first, and those Americans pushing for diplomatic engagement with the regime are keen to negotiate just such a deal. Still, Bashar may place a higher priority on maintaining its influence in Lebanon.
The most recent bombing is just another thread in a long family narrative about the Asads and Gemayels. Bashir's nephew, Pierre, a minister in the Siniora government, was gunned down in a Christian suburb
of Beirut in November of last year. Pierre's father, Amine, another former president of Lebanon, was in Washington last week, where he heard strong words of support for Lebanon from President Bush, the vice president and the secretary of state.
The attack, says Tony Badran a fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, may have been a warning to Gemayel. "It may be that the Syrians thought Gemayel was going to Washington to campaign to replace Lahoud as president, and Damascus showed they would literally kill to stop it," says Badran. "It wouldn't be the first time. Remember that in 2004 Asad reportedly threatened Hariri that 'only he appoints the Lebanese president.' If not, as he told Hariri, 'he would break Lebanon over his head."
Since the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri two years ago, every single attack in Lebanon has targeted either a Christian or a Christian area. Lebanon was once a country known as a refuge for minorities. And yet, Christians have been singled out for attack by a Syrian regime that is itself run by another Middle Eastern minority, the Alawis.
Before Hafez al-Asad made a deal of political convenience with Imam Moussa al-Sadr to acknowledge the Alawis as real Shia Muslims, their blood was believed to be licit, by both Shia and Sunni. The fourteenth century jurist Ibn Taymiyya ruled that the Alawis were "more infidel than Jews or Christians, even more infidel than many pagans."
That fear of being swept along in a current of their own blood, as they themselves are letting Christian blood, is what keeps the Alawi regime from being able to negotiate or make peace with Israel, or indeed anyone, and it is why they embraced Arabism and became more "Arab" than even the Sunnis. It is also why they must be flexible enough to incorporate Islamism as well. As a minority sect running a Sunni majority state in a Sunni majority region, they have no choice but to follow regional trends. And they have no legitimacy except for what they can establish through violence. That is how things work in Syria. In Lebanon, there is an agreement between minorities, however difficult, to share power. It's not surprising that Syria's ally in Lebanon, Hezbollah, would prefer to play by Syrian rules.
Source
by Lee Smith
02/15/2007 11:00:00 AM
BIKFAYA, where three people were killed and many others injured earlier this week by a bomb planted on a bus, is in the Christian heartland of Mount Lebanon, and has hosted a large Christian community since well before the time of the Islamic conquests. In the past, the high mountain passes surrounding the area, with their breathtaking views, served to protect the Christians from intruders. During the Ottoman era, imperial administrators rarely braved the region at the risk of being cut to ribbons along any steep approach.
Bikfaya is also the hometown of the Gemayel family, and posters of the late President Bashir Gemayel decorate street signs, homes, shops, and cars almost a quarter of a century after his assassination at the hands of Syrian operatives. It's difficult to pinpoint a specific motive for the murder, but his mulling over a deal with Israel was likely a major factor, and now there are Americans and even Israelis who say that Bashar al-Asad, the son of the man who murdered Bashir, is mulling over his own deal with Israel. But Bashar al-Asad must have the Golan Heights back, first, and those Americans pushing for diplomatic engagement with the regime are keen to negotiate just such a deal. Still, Bashar may place a higher priority on maintaining its influence in Lebanon.
The most recent bombing is just another thread in a long family narrative about the Asads and Gemayels. Bashir's nephew, Pierre, a minister in the Siniora government, was gunned down in a Christian suburb
of Beirut in November of last year. Pierre's father, Amine, another former president of Lebanon, was in Washington last week, where he heard strong words of support for Lebanon from President Bush, the vice president and the secretary of state.
The attack, says Tony Badran a fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, may have been a warning to Gemayel. "It may be that the Syrians thought Gemayel was going to Washington to campaign to replace Lahoud as president, and Damascus showed they would literally kill to stop it," says Badran. "It wouldn't be the first time. Remember that in 2004 Asad reportedly threatened Hariri that 'only he appoints the Lebanese president.' If not, as he told Hariri, 'he would break Lebanon over his head."
Since the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri two years ago, every single attack in Lebanon has targeted either a Christian or a Christian area. Lebanon was once a country known as a refuge for minorities. And yet, Christians have been singled out for attack by a Syrian regime that is itself run by another Middle Eastern minority, the Alawis.
Before Hafez al-Asad made a deal of political convenience with Imam Moussa al-Sadr to acknowledge the Alawis as real Shia Muslims, their blood was believed to be licit, by both Shia and Sunni. The fourteenth century jurist Ibn Taymiyya ruled that the Alawis were "more infidel than Jews or Christians, even more infidel than many pagans."
That fear of being swept along in a current of their own blood, as they themselves are letting Christian blood, is what keeps the Alawi regime from being able to negotiate or make peace with Israel, or indeed anyone, and it is why they embraced Arabism and became more "Arab" than even the Sunnis. It is also why they must be flexible enough to incorporate Islamism as well. As a minority sect running a Sunni majority state in a Sunni majority region, they have no choice but to follow regional trends. And they have no legitimacy except for what they can establish through violence. That is how things work in Syria. In Lebanon, there is an agreement between minorities, however difficult, to share power. It's not surprising that Syria's ally in Lebanon, Hezbollah, would prefer to play by Syrian rules.
Source
Thwart "sex maniacs" with chastity belts: Malaysian Muslim advisor
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - A respected Malaysian Muslim religious advisor has suggested that women wear chastity belts to thwart "sex maniacs" who rape and commit incest, according to a report.
Abu Hassan Din Al-Hafiz said cases of rape and incest were rampant and that chastity belts would help reduce sex-related crimes, the Star daily reported.
"We have even come across a number of unusual sex cases, where even senior citizens and children were not spared. The best way to avert sex perpetrators is to wear protection," he was quoted as saying in the newspaper.
"My intention is not to offend women but to safeguard them from sex maniacs," he said.
Elaborating on his idea, he said there would be other positives to donning the belts.
"Husbands could also feel more secure, if you know what I mean," he said, adding chastity belts were worn as recently as the mid-1960s.
Abu Hassan has served as a religious advisor to Malaysia's king and written books on Islamic studies.
Source
Abu Hassan Din Al-Hafiz said cases of rape and incest were rampant and that chastity belts would help reduce sex-related crimes, the Star daily reported.
"We have even come across a number of unusual sex cases, where even senior citizens and children were not spared. The best way to avert sex perpetrators is to wear protection," he was quoted as saying in the newspaper.
"My intention is not to offend women but to safeguard them from sex maniacs," he said.
Elaborating on his idea, he said there would be other positives to donning the belts.
"Husbands could also feel more secure, if you know what I mean," he said, adding chastity belts were worn as recently as the mid-1960s.
Abu Hassan has served as a religious advisor to Malaysia's king and written books on Islamic studies.
Source
The Sun Online - News: Muslim fanatic works on trains
A MUSLIM fanatic who dressed as a suicide bomber at a rally threatening terror attacks has got a job on TRAINS.
Sick Omar Khayam cleans carriages unsupervised for rail giant First Group.
And he has even got keys to onboard electrical cupboards.
Furious train drivers last night claimed the safety of staff and passengers is being put at risk.
One driver added: “It’s an astonishing security breach.
“We cannot believe this man is employed in a job giving him access to locked places on trains where bombs could be hidden and never be found.
“He has keys that could be passed on to others for the electrical cupboards in carriages. It is a risk too far.”
Convicted drugs dealer Khayam, 22, had been filmed dressed as a bomber at the controversial demonstration outside London’s Danish Embassy last year.
He wore a sinister camouflage outfit with a black vest.
Extremists around him — protesting at cartoons of the prophet Mohammed — waved placards supporting the 7/7 London bombings and calling for new UK terror attacks.
Khayam was sent back to prison after officials ruled he had broken the terms of his early release.
He was due to stay behind bars until August 2007 but was AGAIN released early.
He now works nights at First Group’s huge depot in Bedford. When challenged about his job, he said: “So what? I’ve not committed a crime. If there is a concern, that’s what the police are there for. That’s what security services are for.”
First Group runs trains to London from Cambridge, Bedford and Brighton, under the name First Capital Connect.
The scandal comes as 29 suspected terrorists go on trial in Madrid over train bombs that killed 191 rush-hour commuters nearly three years ago.
And just days ago a Muslim man who used the embassy demo to whip up race hate was warned he faces jail. Abdul Saleem, 31, was convicted of stirring up racial hatred. He will be sentenced in April.
Last night First Group spokesman Robert Beahan said: “We are subject to UK employment law and carry out all necessary employment checks. The safety of customers and employees is our main priority.”
Source
Sick Omar Khayam cleans carriages unsupervised for rail giant First Group.
And he has even got keys to onboard electrical cupboards.
Furious train drivers last night claimed the safety of staff and passengers is being put at risk.
One driver added: “It’s an astonishing security breach.
“We cannot believe this man is employed in a job giving him access to locked places on trains where bombs could be hidden and never be found.
“He has keys that could be passed on to others for the electrical cupboards in carriages. It is a risk too far.”
Convicted drugs dealer Khayam, 22, had been filmed dressed as a bomber at the controversial demonstration outside London’s Danish Embassy last year.
He wore a sinister camouflage outfit with a black vest.
Extremists around him — protesting at cartoons of the prophet Mohammed — waved placards supporting the 7/7 London bombings and calling for new UK terror attacks.
Khayam was sent back to prison after officials ruled he had broken the terms of his early release.
He was due to stay behind bars until August 2007 but was AGAIN released early.
He now works nights at First Group’s huge depot in Bedford. When challenged about his job, he said: “So what? I’ve not committed a crime. If there is a concern, that’s what the police are there for. That’s what security services are for.”
First Group runs trains to London from Cambridge, Bedford and Brighton, under the name First Capital Connect.
The scandal comes as 29 suspected terrorists go on trial in Madrid over train bombs that killed 191 rush-hour commuters nearly three years ago.
And just days ago a Muslim man who used the embassy demo to whip up race hate was warned he faces jail. Abdul Saleem, 31, was convicted of stirring up racial hatred. He will be sentenced in April.
Last night First Group spokesman Robert Beahan said: “We are subject to UK employment law and carry out all necessary employment checks. The safety of customers and employees is our main priority.”
Source
Polio cases jump in Pakistan as clerics declare vaccination an American plot
The parents of 24,000 children in northern Pakistan refused to allow health workers to administer polio vaccinations last month, mostly due to rumours that the harmless vaccine was an American plot to sterilise innocent Muslim children.
The disinformation - spread by extremist clerics using mosque loudspeakers and illegal radio stations, and by word of mouth - has caused a sharp jump in polio cases in Pakistan and hit global efforts to eradicate the debilitating disease.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) recorded 39 cases of polio in Pakistan in 2006, up from 28 in 2005. The disease is concentrated in North-West Frontier Province, where 60% of the refusals were attributed to "religious reasons".
"It was very striking. There was a lot of anti-American propaganda as well as some misconceptions about sterilisation," said Dr Sarfaraz Afridi, a campaign manager with the WHO in Peshawar.
The scaremongering and appeals to Islam echoed a similar campaign in the Nigerian state of Kano in 2003, where the disease then spread to 12 polio-free countries over the following 18 months. Pakistan is one of just four countries where polio remains endemic. The others are Nigeria, India and Afghanistan.
The North-West Frontier Province government made strenuous efforts to counter talk of an "infidel vaccine". Health workers fanning across the province last month were equipped with copies of a fatwa, or religious order, endorsing the vaccinations and signed by Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Qazi Hussain Ahmed, the leaders of Pakistan's most powerful religious parties.
The move reassured many doubters. More than 5.7 million children were vaccinated in January, with another 3 million targeted in a second round due to start next Tuesday. "The elephant is over. We are left with just the tail," said Dr Afridi.
But the tail has a deadly sting. Even though only 24,000 children missed the vaccine, the WHO officials said failure to vaccinate in small pockets of the country gave the virus a fresh toehold to spread.
The vaccination struggle is entangled with the confrontation between the government and powerful militants in the tribal areas. Refusals were highest in areas where conservative clerics and self-styled "Pakistani Taliban" fighters hold sway, flouting government authority and making their own strict laws.
Almost 2,000 children were not vaccinated in Bajaur, a tribal agency on the Afghan border where US warplanes bombed a house last year in the hope of killing al-Qaida's No2, Ayman al-Zawahiri. The jets missed their target but inflamed extremist sentiment. Recently militants ordered Bajaur's barbers to stop shaving beards on the grounds that it was "un-Islamic". The barbers complied.
In nearby Swat Valley, a young firebrand cleric, Maulana Fazlullah, denounced the polio campaign through a local FM radio station. His brother was killed in a Pakistani army attack on a madrasa, or Islamic school, late last year. Almost 4,000 children were not vaccinated in Swat.
Imran Khan, of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said: "Some people feel they are under attack here ... That is clouding their attitudes."
Demands for "assistance" from local officials and elders was the other major factor behind the refusals. In the Mohmand tribal agency, policemen demanded their salaries before allowing vaccination to proceed. Other villagers asked for money or the release of criminals from jail.
"Demand" refusals accounted for about one-third of cases, the WHO said.
But some brave women were uncowed by the extortion or demagoguery. Up to 200 babies a day are vaccinated at the Khyber teaching hospital in Peshawar, where burka-clad women arrive with children in their arms. Some arrive in secret, slipping into the clinic in defiance of male relatives who oppose vaccination. "One woman told me, 'My husband is illiterate. He has no idea how important this vaccine is,'" said Muhammad Islam, a male nurse.
Aid workers fear they are being pushed into the frontline of the struggle between the government and tribal militants, some linked to the Taliban and al-Qaida. Last weekend a grenade was lobbed into a Red Crescent compound in Peshawar, damaging vehicles but killing nobody.
Some linked the attack to a fatwa issued in Dara Adam Khel, a lawless town famous for its gunsmiths, just before Christmas. A cleric named Mufti Khalid Shah declared a fatwa on employees of the UN, WHO and all other foreign organisations. "Killing their employees is in line with the teachings of jihad in Islam," said a notice.
"We are very worried," said Mr Khan, of the Human Rights Commission. "You have to be very careful about admitting to working for an NGO these days."
Recently aid workers in Bannu, near North Waziristan, were sent a letter and a 500 rupee (£4.50) note, he said. "The letter said they had a choice. They could either stop work or buy their own coffin."
Backstory
Poliomyelitis is an acute viral infection of the nervous system. Worldwide more than half of infections are in children under five. One in two hundred infections leads to permanent paralysis, usually in the legs. In 5-10% of these cases the victims die when the breathing muscles are paralysed.
Since the launch of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988 the number of reported cases worldwide has fallen from 350,000 to 1,968 - a decrease of over 99%. Today it remains endemic in four countries: Nigeria, India, Afghanistan and Pakistan. In 1988 affected countries numbered 125. While there remains no cure for polio the progress towards its eradication is due to widespread use of polio vaccines. By 2002 the WHO had certified 124 countries polio-free.
More than 2 billion children have been immunised against the disease since 1988. The WHO estimates that because of the initiative five million fewer people have been paralysed by the disease.
Source
The disinformation - spread by extremist clerics using mosque loudspeakers and illegal radio stations, and by word of mouth - has caused a sharp jump in polio cases in Pakistan and hit global efforts to eradicate the debilitating disease.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) recorded 39 cases of polio in Pakistan in 2006, up from 28 in 2005. The disease is concentrated in North-West Frontier Province, where 60% of the refusals were attributed to "religious reasons".
"It was very striking. There was a lot of anti-American propaganda as well as some misconceptions about sterilisation," said Dr Sarfaraz Afridi, a campaign manager with the WHO in Peshawar.
The scaremongering and appeals to Islam echoed a similar campaign in the Nigerian state of Kano in 2003, where the disease then spread to 12 polio-free countries over the following 18 months. Pakistan is one of just four countries where polio remains endemic. The others are Nigeria, India and Afghanistan.
The North-West Frontier Province government made strenuous efforts to counter talk of an "infidel vaccine". Health workers fanning across the province last month were equipped with copies of a fatwa, or religious order, endorsing the vaccinations and signed by Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Qazi Hussain Ahmed, the leaders of Pakistan's most powerful religious parties.
The move reassured many doubters. More than 5.7 million children were vaccinated in January, with another 3 million targeted in a second round due to start next Tuesday. "The elephant is over. We are left with just the tail," said Dr Afridi.
But the tail has a deadly sting. Even though only 24,000 children missed the vaccine, the WHO officials said failure to vaccinate in small pockets of the country gave the virus a fresh toehold to spread.
The vaccination struggle is entangled with the confrontation between the government and powerful militants in the tribal areas. Refusals were highest in areas where conservative clerics and self-styled "Pakistani Taliban" fighters hold sway, flouting government authority and making their own strict laws.
Almost 2,000 children were not vaccinated in Bajaur, a tribal agency on the Afghan border where US warplanes bombed a house last year in the hope of killing al-Qaida's No2, Ayman al-Zawahiri. The jets missed their target but inflamed extremist sentiment. Recently militants ordered Bajaur's barbers to stop shaving beards on the grounds that it was "un-Islamic". The barbers complied.
In nearby Swat Valley, a young firebrand cleric, Maulana Fazlullah, denounced the polio campaign through a local FM radio station. His brother was killed in a Pakistani army attack on a madrasa, or Islamic school, late last year. Almost 4,000 children were not vaccinated in Swat.
Imran Khan, of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said: "Some people feel they are under attack here ... That is clouding their attitudes."
Demands for "assistance" from local officials and elders was the other major factor behind the refusals. In the Mohmand tribal agency, policemen demanded their salaries before allowing vaccination to proceed. Other villagers asked for money or the release of criminals from jail.
"Demand" refusals accounted for about one-third of cases, the WHO said.
But some brave women were uncowed by the extortion or demagoguery. Up to 200 babies a day are vaccinated at the Khyber teaching hospital in Peshawar, where burka-clad women arrive with children in their arms. Some arrive in secret, slipping into the clinic in defiance of male relatives who oppose vaccination. "One woman told me, 'My husband is illiterate. He has no idea how important this vaccine is,'" said Muhammad Islam, a male nurse.
Aid workers fear they are being pushed into the frontline of the struggle between the government and tribal militants, some linked to the Taliban and al-Qaida. Last weekend a grenade was lobbed into a Red Crescent compound in Peshawar, damaging vehicles but killing nobody.
Some linked the attack to a fatwa issued in Dara Adam Khel, a lawless town famous for its gunsmiths, just before Christmas. A cleric named Mufti Khalid Shah declared a fatwa on employees of the UN, WHO and all other foreign organisations. "Killing their employees is in line with the teachings of jihad in Islam," said a notice.
"We are very worried," said Mr Khan, of the Human Rights Commission. "You have to be very careful about admitting to working for an NGO these days."
Recently aid workers in Bannu, near North Waziristan, were sent a letter and a 500 rupee (£4.50) note, he said. "The letter said they had a choice. They could either stop work or buy their own coffin."
Backstory
Poliomyelitis is an acute viral infection of the nervous system. Worldwide more than half of infections are in children under five. One in two hundred infections leads to permanent paralysis, usually in the legs. In 5-10% of these cases the victims die when the breathing muscles are paralysed.
Since the launch of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988 the number of reported cases worldwide has fallen from 350,000 to 1,968 - a decrease of over 99%. Today it remains endemic in four countries: Nigeria, India, Afghanistan and Pakistan. In 1988 affected countries numbered 125. While there remains no cure for polio the progress towards its eradication is due to widespread use of polio vaccines. By 2002 the WHO had certified 124 countries polio-free.
More than 2 billion children have been immunised against the disease since 1988. The WHO estimates that because of the initiative five million fewer people have been paralysed by the disease.
Source
Love rumour sparks Muslim-Christian clash in Egypt
CAIRO, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Groups of Egyptian Muslims set fire to Christian-owned shops in southern Egypt after hearing rumours of a love affair between a Muslim woman and a Coptic Christian man, security sources and a witness said on Tuesday.
Eight Muslim men were arrested in the town of Armant, around 600 km (375 miles) south of Cairo, on suspicion of taking part in arson attacks on four stores and a mini-van owned by Coptic Christians, the security sources said.
The rumours began on Saturday and calm was restored by Tuesday, with security forces deployed in the town as a precaution, one security official said.
Traditional Islamic law allows Muslim men to marry Christian women but not Christian men to marry Muslim women. Romances across the divide are one of the main sources of tension between Egypt's two main religious communities.
Hala Botros, a Christian blogger from the region, said Copts in Armant were still scared to leave their homes.
"The situation has improved slightly but people go out only if they really have to," Botros, who regularly reports attacks on Christians on her blog under the name Hala el-Masry, told Reuters by telephone.
Coptic Christians make up to 10 percent of the about 75 million Egyptians, most of whom are Sunni Muslims.
Relations between the two communities are usually peaceful but there are sporadic outbreaks of violence. In 1999, 22 people were killed in communal strife in southern Egypt.
In April, a 45-year old Muslim man stabbed a Coptic Christian in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, sparking three days of sectarian clashes. Egypt ruled in June the man was mentally ill after a medical evaluation without a trial.
Source
Eight Muslim men were arrested in the town of Armant, around 600 km (375 miles) south of Cairo, on suspicion of taking part in arson attacks on four stores and a mini-van owned by Coptic Christians, the security sources said.
The rumours began on Saturday and calm was restored by Tuesday, with security forces deployed in the town as a precaution, one security official said.
Traditional Islamic law allows Muslim men to marry Christian women but not Christian men to marry Muslim women. Romances across the divide are one of the main sources of tension between Egypt's two main religious communities.
Hala Botros, a Christian blogger from the region, said Copts in Armant were still scared to leave their homes.
"The situation has improved slightly but people go out only if they really have to," Botros, who regularly reports attacks on Christians on her blog under the name Hala el-Masry, told Reuters by telephone.
Coptic Christians make up to 10 percent of the about 75 million Egyptians, most of whom are Sunni Muslims.
Relations between the two communities are usually peaceful but there are sporadic outbreaks of violence. In 1999, 22 people were killed in communal strife in southern Egypt.
In April, a 45-year old Muslim man stabbed a Coptic Christian in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, sparking three days of sectarian clashes. Egypt ruled in June the man was mentally ill after a medical evaluation without a trial.
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