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| Insults to Islam ignite violence in Pakistan, 15 killed Posted: 21 Sep 2012 02:42 PM PDT
(Reuters) - ISLAMABAD: Muslim protests against insults to the Prophet Mohammad turned violent in Pakistan, where at least 15 people were killed yesterday, the Muslim day of prayer, but remained mostly peaceful in other Islamic countries. In France, where the publication of cartoons denigrating the Prophet stoked anger over an anti-Islam video made in California, authorities banned all protests over the issue. "There will be strictly no exceptions. Demonstrations will be banned and broken up," said Interior Minister Manuel Valls. Tunisia's Islamist-led government also banned protests against the images published by French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo. Four people were killed and almost 30 wounded last week when the U.S. embassy was stormed in a protest over the film. Many Western and Muslim politicians and clerics have appealed for calm, denouncing those behind the mockery of the Prophet, but also condemning violent reactions to it. At street level, Muslims enraged by attacks on their faith spoke of a culture war against those in the West who put rights to freedom of expression before religious sensitivities. "They hate him (the Prophet Mohammad) and show this through their continued works in the West, through their writings, cartoons, films and the way they launch war against him in schools," said Abdessalam Abdullah, a preacher at a mosque in Beirut's Palestinian refugee camp of Bourj al-Barajneh. Muslims consider any depiction of the Prophet blasphemous. Western diplomatic missions in Muslim nations tightened security ahead of Friday prayers. France ordered embassies, schools and cultural centers to close in a score of countries and Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said some would stay shut over the weekend. Cut him in pieces In Pakistan, tens of thousands of people joined protests encouraged by the government in several cities including Islamabad, Karachi, Peshawar, Lahore, Multan and Muzaffarabad. The bloodiest unrest erupted in the southern city of Karachi, where 10 people were killed, including three policemen, and more than 100 wounded, according to Allah Bachayo Memon, spokesman of the chief minister of Sindh province. He said about 20 vehicles, three banks and five cinemas were set on fire. Crowds set two cinemas ablaze and ransacked shops in the northwestern city of Peshawar, clashing with riot police who fired tear gas. At least five people were killed. In Mardan in the northwest, police said a Christian church was set on fire and several people hurt. Mohammed Tariq Khan, a protester in Islamabad, said: "Our demand is that whoever has blasphemed against our holy Prophet should be handed over to us so we can cut him up into tiny pieces in front of the entire nation." Security forces fired in the air in Peshawar and the eastern city of Lahore to keep protesters away from U.S. consulates. Police fired tear gas at about 1,000 protesters in Islamabad. The US embassy in Pakistan has run television spots, one featuring Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, saying the government had nothing to do with the film about Mohammad. Pakistan had declared Friday a "Day of Love" for the Prophet and Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf said an attack on Islam's founder was "an attack on the whole 1.5 billion Muslims". The Foreign Ministry summoned the US chargé d'affaires to lodge a protest over the video posted on YouTube, the latest in an array of irritants poisoning US-Pakistani relations. In neighbouring Afghanistan, police contacted religious and community leaders to try to prevent bloodshed. Protests in Kabul and the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif only attracted a few hundred people and no violence was reported, but a cleric told one crowd: "If you kill Americans, it's legal and allowable." About 10,000 Islamists gathered in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka after Friday prayers, chanting slogans and burning US and French flags and an effigy of US President Barack Obama. Peaceful protests Protests went off peacefully in the Arab world, where last week several embassies were attacked and the US envoy to Libya was killed in an initial burst of unrest over the film. Thousands of Libyans marched in Benghazi yesterday in support of democracy and against the Islamist militias that Washington blames for the attack on the US consulate last week that killed four Americans including the ambassador. Authorities said eight people in total had been arrested over the attack. Later, pro-government demonstrators stormed the headquarters of the Islamist Ansar al-Sharia militia, aiming to evict fighters from the site. A few dozen Egyptians protested near the French embassy in Cairo, but were kept away from the premises by police deployed in large numbers to avoid a repeat of violence at the US embassy last week. Mainstream Islamic leaders in Egypt, where Islamist parties have moved to the heart of government since Hosni Mubarak was toppled, have expressed outrage, but urged a peaceful response. In remarks to Reuters, the leader of the Nour Party, one of the biggest ultraorthodox Islamist parties in Egypt, echoed calls for the criminalization of insults to religions including Islam. But he said it was important to separate between an offender and an entire society. "The reasonable people in the West outnumber the thoughtless," said Emad Abdel Ghafour. "Contact should be kept up with the reasonable people," he added. "It is unreasonable that reactions come through arson and killing. We all suffer and are affected by these acts," he said. In Yemen, where the US embassy was stormed last week, several hundred Shi'ite protesters chanted anti-American slogans, but riot police blocked the route to the embassy. Anger over the film brought several thousand Shi'ites and Sunnis together in a rare show of sectarian unity in Iraq's southern city of Basra, where they burnt US and Israeli flags. Thousands marched against the film on Thursday in a district of eastern Saudi Arabia where members of the Shi'ite Muslim minority have staged anti-government demonstrations since last year, a local activist said. Photographs of the march showed protesters burning American flags. Lebanon's Hezbollah-run al-Manar television showed thousands of people waving Lebanese and yellow Hezbollah flags as they marched past the Roman ruins of Baalbek and shouted slogans such as "Death to America, death to those who insult the Prophet". Several hundred people demonstrated peacefully in the southwest German city of Freiburg. Some carried placards reading "Our Prophet Mohammad is taboo". "Both the film and the cartoons are malicious and deliberately provocative. The film particularly portrays a disgracefully distorted image of Muslims," Rupert Colville, spokesman for UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, told a news briefing in Geneva. He said Pillay upheld people's right to protest peacefully, but saw no justification for violent and destructive reactions. "In the case of Charlie Hebdo, given that they knew perfectly what happened in response to the film last week, it seems doubly irresponsible on their part to have published these cartoons," Colville said of the French magazine.
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| Sabah opposition in dogfight for seats Posted: 20 Sep 2012 04:25 PM PDT
Latest developments in Sabah's political scene are an indication of the failure by PKR's top leaders to unite the people in support of a cohesive Pakatan Rakyat coalition. Joseph Bingkasan, FMT KOTA KINABALU: The already muddy political scene in the state is getting dirtier as the general election looms and the battle for candidacy heats up. The switch by former Barisan Nasional loyalists to the opposition is threatening to upset the delicate balance between the newcomers and the old hands, with both claiming they are the legitimate first-choice contenders for any seat. Until a few weeks ago, PKR was the main opposition party that was seen as being able to topple BN's Maximus Ongkili from his parliamentary seat in Kota Marudu where he is considered an interloper as his family is from Tambunan. Support for popular local-born Anthony Mandiau, a PKR candidate in the 12th general election, was rising even though he was defeated by Ongkili. The writing was on the wall when he polled a creditable 7,830 votes against the winner's 12,028. Mandiau did the same in 2004 as an independent candidate polling 7,268 votes against Ongkili's 10,457. However, with the entry of former United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (Upko) veteran leaders Wilfred Bumburing and Senator Maijol Mahap who quit their party and the ruling coalition to enter the fray, Mandiau may not get the chance to test the third-time-lucky game plan. Things were looking up for him when Mahap, the former Upko vice-president, quit BN to throw his support for Pakatan Rakyat. "The number of PKR supporters has increased close to 10,000 now compared to just 13 members when I joined the party in 2007," Mandiau told delegates of the divisional party's congress in Kota Marudu last week. However, the jump in the number of overt supporters is making him sweat rather than smile. "It now seems that my friend [Mahap] has his own plans. He quit BN so that he can contest in the coming election on a Pakatan ticket. "When I joined PKR in 2007, Upko leaders including Mahap laughed at me… they were telling the people of Kota Marudu that my move was wrong as I was joining a political party that had no following. Now they want to join us," he told the congress. 'Newcomers' stoking anger Mandiau, a two-time opposition candidate, views (Mahap's) move as unprincipled in the light of the newcomers' attempts to commandeer the process of nominating opposition candidates for various seats in the state. Mahap has joined Angkatan Perubahan Sabah (APS) headed by Bumburing, who is Tuaran MP. Bumburing has declared support for Pakatan and seems intent on stamping his mark on the question of candidacy. Mandiau disclosed that Bumburing was accompanied by Mahap and former senator Kalakau Untol last week to a gathering of PKR supporters in Kampung Marak Parak, a remote village in the Kota Marudu district. "It was during this gathering that the APS leader announced that Mahap will be the Pakatan candidate for the Kota Marudu parliamentary seat, contesting on a PKR ticket. "What is this? This is clear that Mahap resigned from Upko so that he can contest, which he would not have been able to do if he is still in BN," Mandiau said. He said he was only informed by Mahap about the function three hours before it began at 2pm and he was unable to attend. But said that he was with the senator the day before and there was no mention about the next day's gathering. "I am the Kota Marudu PKR head but was sidelined. This should not have happened," he said, adding that PKR leaders in the division are not happy about the new developments following APS' entry into the district. He also told the congress that due to APU's move and activities in promoting Mahap as the candidate, former MP George Sangkin and about 1,000 supporters had left PKR. But Sangkin had promised support if he (Mandiau) is the candidate. PKR leaders must listen to people Mandiau believes the same battle for seats is happening in other constituencies where those who left BN to join APS and Pakatan Perubahan Sabah (PPS) headed by Beaufort MP Lajim Ukin are expecting to be rewarded for the switch in allegiance.
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