Fatwas of 2011

The first mention of the year 2011 would automatically bring to mind revolutions, ousted regimes, and disgruntled people. However, a closer look would reveal that another different feature distinguishes 2011: a whole spat of peculiar fatwas that swept through different countries in the region.

One of the weirdest and most controversial fatwas in 2011 was one issued by an Islamist preacher who lives in Europe. According to this preacher, women are prohibited from eating phallic-shaped fruits and vegetables like cucumbers, bananas, and carrots. Touching or consuming those, he argued, are bound to turn women on and make them engage in sinful fantasies.

In Morocco, the head of the Moroccan Association for Jurisprudence Research stirred both outrage and controversy when he issued a fatwa allowing Muslim men to have sex with their just-deceased wives under the pretext that nothing in Islam prohibits sex with corpses. This fatwa followed a series of sex-related ones issued by the same cleric.

 In Somalia, the ultraconservative al-Shabaab al-Mujahedin Movement issued a fatwa during the holy month of Ramadan prohibiting the consumption of sambousak, a triangular pastry stuffed with meat, cheese, or vegetables. The popular snack, they explained, is a symbol of the Trinity in Christianity and is therefore not to be consumed by Muslims.

In Egypt, religious edicts were in most cases mixed with politics. Sheikh Amr Sotouhi, head of the Islamic Preaching Committee at al-Azhar, issued in November a fatwa prohibiting fathers from marrying their daughters to members of the formerly ruling National Democratic Party owing to their “corruption.”

A similar fatwa was issued by the late Sheikh Emad Effat, shot this month during recent clashes between Egyptian protestors and the army. Effat’s fatwa prohibited Muslims from voting for members of the same disbanded party and cited the same reason: corruption.

Mohamed Abdel Hadi, deputy chairman of the Salafi al-Nour Party in the governorate of Dakahliya went as far as saying that the results of the parliamentary elections, in which the party scored an unexpected victory, were mentioned in the holy Quran.

The most outrageous fatwa in Egypt was one that came out last June and in which Egyptian preacher Mohamed al-Zoghbi said eating the meat of the jinn is permissible in Islam and left everyone wondering how anyone can get hold of them in the first place, let alone eat their meat.

SOURCE

Boot Hezbollah from Twitter or we sue, group says

An Israeli law center said Thursday it is threatening to sue Twitter unless the social network cuts off access to groups, including Hezbollah, that are considered terrorist organizations by the United States.

The law center, Shurat HaDin, describes itself as being “dedicated to enforcing basic human rights through the legal system,” and says it has represented “victims of terrorism in courtrooms around the world.”

In a letter to San Francisco-based Twitter, attorney and Shurat HaDin executive director Nitsana Darshan-Leitner wrote that “it has come to our attention that Twitter, Inc. provides social media and associated services” to such groups as Hezbollah and the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Shabaab — labeled as “foreign terrorist organizations” (or FTOs) by the United States.

“Please be advised that providing social media and other associated services to terrorist groups is illegal and will expose Twitter, Inc. and its officers to both criminal prosecution and civil liability to American citizens and others victimized by terrorisms carried out by Hezbollah, Al-Shabaab or other FTOs.”

Lots of Qassams exploding – in Gaza

“You mean you didn’t hear about the UNRWA school being hit by a Palestinian Arab rocket? Or the injuries that Gazans have had, or about their property damage? You missed the angry condemnations by UNRWA officials? Or by Palestinian Arab “human rights” groups?  You missed the story this morning about a Gazan being injured by a Qassam rocket?”

Journalism, Al Jazeera style

There’s more than one way to lie. The Gentile at Clay and Water exposes the bald-faced lies as well as information the Jew haters at Al Jazeera conveniently omit.

Attempted Jew massacre of the day

4 rockets, ho hum.

Clerics fight at Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity

Merry Christmas!

Chavez: Could US Have Technology to Cause Cancer?

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is questioning the rash of cancer cases among Latin American leaders and asking if somehow the U.S. might have a way to induce the illness.

Egyptian Socialists and Islamists on verge of war in Alexandria

Sameh Naguib, a leader in the Revolutionary Socialists movement, has been accused of attempting to topple the state

Have at it, assholes:

“Ongoing squabbles between different political factions in Egypt might seem ordinary in the light of the radical changes the country has been witnessing since the ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak.

What makes the matter more complicated, though, is the religious factor that seems to have become an integral part of any political discourse whether it is for or against it. The recent standoff between the Revolutionary Socialists movement and Islamists in the coastal city of Alexandria offers a good example.

The story began when members of the Revolutionary Socialists movement launched a campaign on social networking websites to call for banning Islamic preacher and Imam of Alexandria’s al-Qaed Ibrahim mosque Sheikh Ahmed al-Mahalawi from delivering the coming Friday’s sermon and suggested replacing him with a moderate preacher from al-Azhar. Members of the movement also called for a massive rally on Friday morning in front of the mosque to prevent Mahalawi from entering.

On the other hand, supports of Mahalwai declared their intention to form human shields to protect the sheikh and allow him to take the podium and deliver the sermon. Mahalawi and his supporters had earlier described members of the movement as “apostates” and accused them of implementing foreign agendas.

Sheikh Ahmed al-Mahalawi, born in 1952, is a graduate of al-Azhar and worked as preacher at the Ministry of Endowments, then moved to Alexandria and took charge of al-Qaed Ibrahim mosque.

Mahalawi was one of many opposition figures arrested by late Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in September 1981, a month before Sadat was shot dead. In a speech he gave right after the arrests, Sadat made a famous disparaging remark about Mahalawi.

“The man who slandered me and my family… is now thrown in jail like a dog.”

Mahalawi was also among Mubarak’s staunchest opponents and had since 1996 been banned from giving sermons at the mosque. He came back only after the January 25 Revolution. He is seen as one of the symbols of the revolution in Alexandria.

In a sermon he gave last Friday, Mahalawi accused the Revolutionary Socialists movement of planning to bring down the state, sow the seeds of sedition between Muslims and Christians, and apply a communist system like the one in the former Soviet Union.”

Read the rest.

Breaking: Major new crisis in the Middle East

Zionist writing instruments discovered in Saudi kingdom.

Severe violations of religious freedom and related human rights in 2011

“USCIRF documented severe violations of religious freedom and related human rights over the past year. Three weeks before the UN Human Rights Council’s action concerning blasphemy, Shahbaz Bhatti, a Christian who was Pakistan’s Minister for Minority Affairs and a longtime champion of religious freedom for all people, was assassinated for opposing his own country’s blasphemy law. Bhatti’s murder followed the assassination in January of another Pakistani government official, Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, a Muslim, for similar opposition.

These terrible murders signify an alarming rise in religiously-related violence that governments have failed to redress through effective investigation, prosecution, and punishment of the perpetrators.  Fueled by blasphemy laws that encourage vigilante attacks on perceived violators, this problem of impunity has shown no sign of subsiding over the past year, and, in many places, it has worsened considerably.”

Arab League monitors in Syria: “Nothing frightening”

Phew! And here we all thought thousands have been massacred:

“Some places looked a bit of a mess but there was nothing frightening,” Sudanese General Mustafa Dabi, chief of the monitoring contingent, told Reuters by telephone from Damascus.

About those crazy religious Jews in Israel

They’re actually ANTI-ZIONISTS, not much different than the Neturei Karta freaks pictured here. The same brand of mental cases who march at anti-Israel protests all over the world – including here in Canada – and who team up with racist Islamists attempting to destroy the state of Israel.

Sultan Knish claims the latest crisis involving these mental defectives is the handy-work of radical lefties from the other end of the spectrum.

Online database helps ‘hidden Jews’ find roots

They were dispersed across the globe more than 500 years ago and took great pains to hide their true identities, but now, thanks to a new online database, Anusim, hidden Jews whose ancestors were forced to assimilate or convert during the Spanish Inquisition, might be able to trace their Jewish past.

With backing from a group of anonymous donors, NameYourRoots.com was launched last week amidst little fanfare. Thanks to an extensive database of Sephardic Jewish names and meanings, anyone who suspects that they might have links to Judaism can begin their research by looking up the origins of their surname.

Who Bombed Damascus?

Members of almost every group can be found on both sides of the conflict.

Rabbi Reuben J. Poupko vs. David Solway on the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs

Frontpagemag.com:

In our Dec. 5, 2011 issue, we published David Solway’s article, “These Shoes Were Made for Walking,” which criticized Canada’s “Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs” for surrendering to the Islamist agenda. Rabbi Reuben J. Poupko, of the Beth Israel Beth Aaron Congregation in Montreal, Quebec, takes issue with Solway’s arguments in the letter below. Solway’s response to Rabbi Poupka follows.

Gaza Christians long for days before Hamas cancelled Christmas

Via The Guardian

When the Latin patriarch came to Gaza’s Holy Family church to celebrate Christmas mass last week, he instructed a full house of Catholic and Orthodox families to pray for reconciliation. As the archbishop, Fouad Twal, stood at the lectern in Gaza City, Fatah and Hamas leaders were meeting in Cairo attempting to mend differences that have divided the Palestinian factions for four years and rendered Gaza a besieged Islamist enclave.

Of the 1.5 million Palestinians now living in the Gaza Strip, fewer than 1,400 are Christian and those who can are leaving. The church hopes reconciliation will bring them back.

There hasn’t been a Christmas tree in Gaza City’s main square since Hamas pushed the Palestinian Authority out of Gaza in 2007 and Christmas is no longer a public holiday.

Imad Jelda is an Orthodox Christian who runs a youth training centre in Gaza City. With unemployment hovering at 23%, he has seen young Christian men leave to study and work abroad in their droves. “People here do not celebrate Christmas anymore because they are nervous,” Jelda said. “The youth in particular have a fear inside themselves.”

Karam Qubrsi, 23, and his younger brother Peter, 21, are the eldest sons in one of Gaza’s 55 remaining Catholic families. Both wear prominent wooden crucifixes. “Jesus tells me, ‘if you can’t carry my cross, you don’t belong to me,'” Peter explained. It’s a demonstration of faith that has caused him some trouble.

He describes being stopped in the street by a Hamas official who told him to remove the cross. “I told him it’s not his business and that I wouldn’t,” Peter said. After being threatened with arrest he was eventually let go, but the incident scared him.

The brightly decorated tree in the Qubrsis’ living room sits at odds with the sombre mood. Their sisters Rani, 29, and Mai, 27, left Gaza in 2007 when the 30-year-old manager of Gaza’s Bible Society bookstore, where their husbands worked, was shot dead, having been accused by radical elements of proselytising. They now live in Bethlehem.

Their parents are currently in Israel where their mother is receiving treatment for pancreatic cancer. Israel applies strict restrictions to Palestinians hoping to leave the Gaza Strip, meaning the brothers are unable to join them. A quota of 500 applicants will be given permission to enter the West Bank this Christmas but only people younger than 16 and older than 35 will be considered.

“Christmas for us means going to Bethlehem, being with family. This year we’ll do nothing,” Karam said.

The Qubrsi brothers hold out little hope for Gaza. They agree that life would be better for the Christians here if the Palestinian Authority were to return but they doubt any factional peace would last.

“Many people want the Palestinian Authority to come back just so they can take their revenge,” Peter said.

“This is not a Christian environment. There are no good universities, there is no opportunity to work, no apartments to rent and so no way we can get married. We have no future here.”

 

Merry Christmas!

Pete the monkey washes dishes

Kim Jong-Il’s last ‘loving’ gift — fish

Kim Jong-Il’s “loving care” for the North Korean people lingers even beyond his death, with residents in the capital enjoying a special treat of fresh fish, official media reported Saturday.

The late leader took steps on the eve of his demise to supply the rare luxury, and his son and successor Jong-Un ensured the fish was rushed to the people while in mourning, the ruling communists’ Rodong Sinmun daily reported.

“Salespersons and citizens burst out sobbing at fish shops in the capital city on Friday,” it said.

The newspaper carried pictures of housewives shedding tears of gratitude at shops in front of large plastic basins filled with what appeared to be pollock. Fish is a luxury in the hunger-stricken country.

Commercial sector officials in Pyongyang pledged their loyalty to the successor, “saying the history of loving care for the people continues and no people on Earth are as blessed with leaders and generals as the Koreans,” it said.

It said the deceased leader worked with his “heart and soul” to supply the people with fresh fish all year round, giving tireless field guidance.

Kim presided over a 1990s famine that saw hundreds of thousands of people die, and there are still chronic food shortages in the impoverished communist state.

SOURCE

Canada Announces New Series of Sanctions on Syria

Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird announced Friday the freezing of assets of more Syrians loyal to President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, as well as a beefed-up trade ban.

Breaking: World Jewish population way, WAY higher than previously thought

The Cabal would have you believe there are only 13 million Jooos in the world. This left many wondering, how could so few people actually control the planet? Now, new research indicates that the world Joooish population is actually 120 million. Finally, it all makes sense!

Egyptian Islamist party’s plan for the Pyramids? Cover them in wax

Members of the Nour (The Light) Salafist party, which won 20 per cent of the vote in recent elections, are talking about putting an end to the ‘idolatry’ represented by the pyramids.

This means destruction – along the lines essayed by the Afghan Taliban who blew up the Banyam Buddhas – or ‘concealment’ by covering them with wax. Tourists would presumably see great blobs rather than the perfectly carved steps.

Meanwhile, in Jordan….

Jordanian police on Friday fired tear gas to break up clashes between pro-reform Islamist demonstrators and government loyalists in the northern city of Mafraq after clashes broke out.

“Police had to fire tear gas after around 300 Islamists clashed with thousands of members of the Bani Hassan tribe,” police spokesman Mohammad Khatib told AFP.

Christmas 2011: The Plight of the Palestinian Christians

The Arabic school textbooks which show children how to chop off hands and feet under Sharia law

Barbaric textbooks handed out in Saudi Arabian schools teach children how to cut off a thief’s hands and feet under Sharia law, it has emerged.

The shocking books, paid for and printed by the Saudi government, also tell teenagers that Jews need to be exterminated and homosexuals should be ‘put to death’.

On the Holiness of Jerusalem in Judaism and in Islam

These days, the never-ending cry for a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital surely contains a trace of the claim that the city is holy in Islam.  But, essentially, the historic record shows that the actions and circumstances on which the claim is based aren’t very holy at all.  In fact, by any standard of religious values in any society in the world, artificially imbuing a place with holiness, through wordplay and administrative sleight of hand, constitutes the very opposite of holiness.

‘Nature mourns’ North Korea leader

The 69-year-old had led North Korea since the death of his father in 1994 and an elaborate personality cult, involving multiple stories of alleged miracles or astonishing deeds, has been built up around him.

Even nature is mourning, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported on Thursday.

A snowstorm hit as Mr Kim died and ice on the volcanic Chon lake near his reported birthplace at Mount Paektu cracked, it said.

Following the storm’s sudden end at dawn on Tuesday, a message carved in rock – “Mount Paektu, holy mountain of revolution. Kim Jong-il” – glowed brightly, it said. It remained there until sunset.

On the same say, a Manchurian crane also apparently adopted a posture of grief at a statue of the late leader’s father in the northern city of Hamhung.

“Even the crane seemed to mourn the demise of Kim Jong-il, born of Heaven, after flying down there at dead of cold night, unable to forget him,” KCNA reported officials as saying.

Hitler admired in PLO youth magazine because he murdered Jews

Hitler and the Mufti of Jerusalem

Hitler tells a Palestinian girl in her dream:
“I killed them [the Jews] so you would all know
that they are a nation
which spreads destruction all over the world.”

Human Wrongs: The Worst of Amnesty, HRW, and others in 2011

With 2011 concluding, NGO Monitor today released a list of the most outrageous and absurd NGO actions from the past year, demonstrating the political nature of NGOs involved in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Prof. Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor, commented, “This shows how the NGO network consistently fails to uphold universal human rights, while also distorting international law beyond recognition.”

“Palestinian” terrorist skank of the day

This will make you sick.

Disgusting: Video of Arab desecrating Jewish graves at the Mount of Olives

Full story here.

Peace partner: Abbas Meets Sadistic Female Terrorist

The head of the Palestinian Authority (PA), Mahmoud Abbas has held a meeting Tuesday with Amna Muna, a female terrorist released in the Shalit deal.

Muna tempted a Jewish boy, Ofir Rachum, to meet her in Ramallah in January of 2001. Several other terrorists awaited him there and murdered him. Muna never expressed regret for her deeds and she reportedly had a habit of imitating the screams Rachum uttered before his death.

5 Iranian technicians abducted in Syria

Eight technicians working in Syria, including five Iranian electrical engineers, were abducted on Wednesday by unknown armed gunmen in the city of Homs, Iran’s Press TV reported.

The technicians were reportedly part of a team contracted to build a local power plant. They have been stationed in Syria for over the past two years.

Happy Hanukkah!

Europe’s Judenrein Universities

Jews are being expelled from academia, just as they were in the 1930’s. Is Europe going to let this happen again barely 70 years later?

The Communist Party of Canada is deeply saddened

OMFG.

Ladies and gentlemen, The Communist Party of Canada:

“The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) is deeply saddened to inform you of the untimely death of Kim Jong Il, leader of the Korean people and General Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea, Chairman of the National Defence Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army.

On this occasion, Comrade Sandra L. Smith, First Secretary of the Central Committee of CPC(M-L) sent a letter to the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea expressing the deepest condolences of the Party and its members. CPC(M-L) also extends deepest condolences to his successor Kim Jong Un, Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party of Korea and now the Supreme Leader of the Korean People.

The death of the leader of the Korean people, Comrade Kim Jong Il, is a great loss to the Korean nation to whom he dedicated his life and work. To fullfil the striving of the Korean people to control their own destiny, he worked tirelessly for Korean reunification and to achieve the prosperity of the DPRK. His death comes at a time when the DPRK is achieving important economic developments to improve the people’s well-being and standard of living. The untimely passing of Kim Jong Il is also a great loss to the world anti-imperialist and democratic forces and the world communist movement in which the role of the DPRK to uphold principle and oppose preparations for imperialist war has been decisive to ensure peace in the region.”

More here.

Jewish Defence League Open letter to the Jewish Community

For Immediate Release:   Jewish Defence League Open letter to the Jewish Community

The following article  written by Bernie Farber  Hateful words can hurt is a misguilded attempt to defend the terrible law known as Section 13.   The article placates the false left and the author lacks a clear understanding of the new anti Semitism as explained in  pipeline_of_hatred  .  Section 13 is not an effective measure to use against the new anti Semitism but has been used to silence many  pro Israel supporters.

The Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism and Racism at Tel Aviv University, in a new report released in cooperation with the European Jewish Congress, establishes that 2009 was a record year for anti-Semitism. “The year in the wake of Operation Cast Lead was the worst since monitoring of anti-Semitic manifestations began two decades ago in terms of both major anti-Semitic violence and the hostile atmosphere generated worldwide by the mass demonstrations and verbal and visual expressions against Israel and the Jews,” note the institute’s scholars.  The anti Jewish campaign was lead by so called ‘progressive’  left wing and radical Islamic groups.The total number of “violent anti-Semitic incidents” was 1,129, compared to 559 in 2008. That does not include threats, insults, graffiti signs, slogans, “and demonstrations featuring virulently anti-Semitic content.”

What’s more, the institute documents only cases that show “clear anti-Semitic content and intention.” Also, many Jews, fearful of reprisal or skeptical about the outcome, prefer not to file complaints.

“Thus, the number of incidents, both violent and verbal, might actually be far higher than the figures presented here,” write the researchers.

The Roth Institute report is one more worrying reminder that anti-Semitism, the congenital disease afflicting the Jewish people, has metastasized. This new strain is particularly conducive to the currently dominant multicultural environment, especially in western Europe.

As Melanie Phillips reported in The Spectator of London, the key motif in the ³new antisemitism² is ³Holocaust inversion, with the Israelis being demonized as Nazis and the Palestinians regarded as the new Jews. Israel and the Jews are being systematically delegitimised and dehumanized ­ a necessary prelude to their destruction ­ with both Islamists and Western media using anti-Zionism as a fig leaf for prejudices rooted in both medieval Christian and Nazi demonology. This has produced an Orwellian situation in which hatred for the Jews now marches behind the Left¹s banner of anti-racism and human rights, giving rise not merely to distortions, fabrications and slander about Israel in the media but also to mainstream articles discussing the malign power of the Jews over American and world policy.² The Portuguese Nobel prize-winning author Jose Saramago’s suggestion that Israel was guilty of recreating Auschwitz in Ramallah is symptomatic of the current mood. Indeed, comparing the actions of Israel to those of Nazi Germany has become almost de rigueur in Europe. Demonstrators marching through the streets of European capitals and North America  today routinely carry placards that label Israeli Leaders as “the new Hitler”, and call the Israeli response to the terror inflicted on its citizens “genocide”.It is no coincidence that the present spate of anti-Semitism was triggered by Operation Cast Lead. Nor is it a surprise that the most violent incidents – where identification was possible – were perpetrated by Arabs or by Muslims and that these attacks took place in western Europe, the bastion of multiculturalism.

It is the position of the Jewish Defence League that Section 13 has become an aggressive tool for radical Islam which follows the dictates of the OIC (Organization of Islamic States).  In effect, the article written by Bernie Farber does not help the Jewish community defend against the new anti Semitism but rather offers a tool to the OIC in its goal to rid the world of Israel.

The Jewish community needs strong leadership prepared to fight back with new tools against the new form of anti Semitism.  This leadership must never placate those very groups that seek to promote the agenda of radical Islam.

With love of Israel,

Meir Weinstein

National Director Jewish Defence League of Canada

www.jdl-canada.com

Prof. Alan Dershowitz On Human Rights and Israel

Merry Christmas fornicators!

Occupy Olympia takes over building, names it after squished pro-pali activist

Send in the bulldozers!

Giant Rabbits and Double Rainbows: The 10 Most Insane Delusions of Kim Jong-il

With the death of Kim Jong-il, the world loses one of the greatest self-aggrandizing fantasists of all time. Here are ten of the craziest Jong-il stories floating out there.

Dead

That’s a shame. Click the image.

Meanwhile, in Egypt…..

EU trying to teach Israel how to integrate Muslims

Yes, really.

“The European Union has done such a good job integrating its own Arab and Muslim minorities – British mass honor attacks being covered up by the BBC, German multiculturalism bring declared a failure by Chancellor Merkel, Belgian schoolgirls being beaten to cries of “dirty Jew” by Moroccan girls, etc. – that they’re seeking to offer their expertise to Israel.”

Report: Hezbollah in dire financial straits

French daily Le Figaro says Lebanese terror group hit hard by civil uprising in Syria, sanctions against Iran.

Federal judge: Iran shares responsibility for 9/11 terror attacks

In an historic hearing in the federal courthouse in Manhattan on Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge George Daniels said he planned to issue a ruling in the coming days declaring that Iran shares in the responsibility for the 9/11 terror attacks.

“The extensive record submitted to this court, including fact witnesses and expert testimony, is satisfactory to this court,” Judge Daniels said. The court “accepts as true” the various allegations of the plaintiffs and their experts, he declared, and “will issue an order” in the coming days that Iran bears legal responsibility for providing “material support” to the 9/11 plotters and hijackers.

The Russian Spring Has Begun

There is a remarkable consistency over the course of Russian history: Every authoritarian regime perished not because of destiny’s blows or enemy onslaught but because of internal disease. In the 20th century, it happened twice: the February Revolution of 1917 and Mikhail Gorbachev’s Perestroika.

 The slow-motion collapse of Vladimir Putin’s regime is no different. After more than a decade of authoritarian rule, Mr. Putin’s self-described “glorious deeds” have become the object of contempt not just on opposition websites but increasingly on the streets of Moscow and in the mainstream media.

Son of Iranian Supreme Religious Leader Ali Khamenei arrested for planning to assassinate his father

Does Mojtaba Khamenei want his daddy dead?

Iran urges UN to investigate conditions of Canada’s First Nations

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ramin Mehmanparast on Friday called on the United Nations to appoint a special rapporteur to investigate the violation of the rights of the indigenous people of Canada.

Mehmanparast criticized the Canadian government for failing to abide by its commitments to the terms of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, condemned the inhumane conditions that the indigenous people, who are called First Nations in Canada, are experiencing, and expressed sympathy with these people.

Turkey warns France over Armenian “genocide” law

Turkey warned France on Friday their political and economic relations would suffer grave consequences if the French parliament passed a draft law making it illegal to deny the 1915 mass killing of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire was genocide.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, a vocal critic of Turkey’s long-standing, but slow-moving bid to join the European Union, told Turkey in October that unless it recognized the killings as genocide, France would consider making denial a crime.

The draft law, put forward by a deputy from Sarkozy’s party, is due to go before parliament next Thursday and proposes a one-year prison sentence and 45,000 euro ($58,500) fine for denying the killings constitute genocide.

“This proposed law targets and is hostile to the Republic of Turkey, the Turkish nation and the Turkish community living in France,” Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan wrote in a letter to Sarkozy.

“I want to state clearly that such steps will have grave consequences for future relations between Turkey and France in political, economic, cultural and all areas and the responsibility will rest with those behind this initiative,” said the letter quoted by the state-run Anatolian news agency.