Tag Archives: Freedom

“My definition of freedom takes account of every right mentioned in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations on December 10, 1948. I also include in this definition the freedom from sectarian blind faith. The rights and freedoms mentioned in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are the physical aspect of freedom and the freedom from sectarian blind faith is its psychological and academic aspect. The goal of physical as well as psychological and academic freedom can be reached right the way through the mysticism, that is to say the mystical experience of Ultimate Reality or the God Almighty..” – Amrit Pal Singh ‘Amrit’

Bring Back Our Girls

(Amrit Pal Singh ‘Amrit’)

Today is April 14, 2016. Exactly two years ago, on April 14, 2014, a terrorist group Boko Haram abducted 276 school girls, mostly aged between 16 and 18, from a secondary school in Chibok in northeastern Nigeria. About 50 of the girls escaped, but others were remained in captivity.

Most of the 276 girls taken from Chibok on April 14, 2014 were Christian. They are believed to have been forced to convert to Islam by their terrorist captors.

To demand the return of the girls, politicians, celebrities and the public globally united under the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls . The United States of America’s first lady Michelle Obama and Prime Minister of the UK David Cameron were among those, who joined the campaign.

Two years later, the girls are still missing.

Now, a video recording has emerged. CNN has obtained this video in which at least 15 of the kidnapped “Chibok Girls” are shown.

This video clip has proved that some of the kidnapped girls are still alive and in captivity of terrorists.

Kidnapping of 276 school girls from a school in Chibok was not the only incident in Nigeria, where students were kidnapped by Boko Haram. There are reports that about 2,000 girls and boys have been kidnapped by Boko Haram since the beginning of 2014. They could have been used as cooks, sex slaves, fighters and even suicide bombers.

International efforts should be made to rescue all these kidnapped girls and boys. The United Nations should do something concrete in this direction. Watching silently what is happening in Nigeria gives wrong message to terrorists everywhere. It is happening in Nigeria now. It can happen anywhere in the world, if international community does not care about it.

The List of Sympathisers of KKK Could Be Bogus

(Amrit Pal Singh ‘Amrit’)

The hackers’ collective Anonymous has shared details of hundreds of alleged sympathisers of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) on the internet. The list of alleged sympathisers appears to detail social media profiles of people who had joined or ‘liked’ KKK-related groups on Facebook and Google+.

People usually ‘Like’ FaceBook Pages of groups, politicians, or other individuals to get updates from those pages. It does necessarily not mean that they agree with views expressed on those Pages. Same is with FaceBook Groups. If someone is a member of a facebook group, it does not mean that he/she supports views of Admins of those groups.

By clicking the ‘Like’ button of KKK related Page, one does not become ‘member’ or ‘sympathizer’ of KKK.

For example, I have ‘Liked’ FaceBook Pages of politicians of different countries. I follow a few politicians on Twitter.com as well. It does not mean that I am member of their political parties or I am their supporter or sympathizer. 

So, it appears that a big part of the list of sympathisers of the Ku Klux Klan provided by the ‘Anonymous’ is bogus.

Related news: Anonymous posts Ku Klux Klan alleged sympathisers list.

Syrian President Is A Failure

(Amrit Pal Singh ‘Amrit’)

To protect the citizens is the main duty of government of any country. If people are not safe, the government is useless.

The government in Syria failed to protect its citizens. Now they have no moral right to stay in power.

With the help of Russian armed forces, Bashar al-Assad, the President of Syria can hold the power for more months or years, but it is clear that he is just a failure. He failed to protect his people. Now, he has no right to stay in the government.

Russian armed forces fighting against the Islamic State is fine, but it is the right of Syrian citizens only to decide who would rule the country. Fighting to protect a President who failed to protect his own people is not a good sign for a democracy.

Hungary Govt Takes Hard Stand On Mass Immigration

(Amrit Pal Singh ‘Amrit’)

Hungary government is the first in the EU to take a hard and clear stand on mass immigration. Prime Minister Viktor Orban is considered one of the EU’s loudest opponents of mass immigration.

Hungary government has closed the main land route for migrants into the EU. It means the government has taken the matter into its own hands to halt Europe’s flood of refugees, ignoring what other European leaders are planning.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that he is acting to save Europe’s Christian values by blocking the main land route used by refugees, mainly Muslims, who travel through the Balkans and cross Hungary to reach generally Germany or Sweden.

Hard stand taken by Hungary will persuade a few other European countries to speak out. Efforts by Germany government to force European Union member states to accept mandatory quotas of refugees have already failed in disagreement. Germany has called for financial penalties against countries that refused to accommodate their share of migrants. This has been taken as a threat by central European countries.

A Czech official has accused Berlin of making empty threats. Slovakia said that such penalties would bring the end of the EU.

Germany says that Europe has a moral duty to accept refugees, while Eastern European countries argue that a more welcoming posture encourages more people to make dangerous journeys, and risks attracting an uncontrolled flood of migrants that would devastate social welfare systems and weaken national cultures.

(Related News).

The Rising Numbers of Female Suicide Bombers

In the past, we have seen that hundreds of men became suicide bombers and killed thousands of innocent people. Now, the rising numbers of female suicide bombers in Nigeria must be a cause for concern for all of us.

When we see men as well women becoming terrorists and taking lives of innocent people, we need to realise that evil ideology can so easily rob people of their ability to think rationally.

~ Amrit Pal Singh ‘Amrit’

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http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/world/nigeria-attacks-kill-16-force-chief-vows-boko-haram-crush/113858.html

Kano (Nigeria), July 31

A female suicide bomber and Boko Haram gunmen killed 16 persons in Nigeria as the commander of a new multinational force tasked with fighting the Islamists pledged today to crush the insurgency “very soon”.

Major General Iliya Abbah’s appointment in an Abuja ceremony as chief of the 8,700-strong force came as a woman bomber on a tricycle killed six persons in a busy market in Maiduguri, the largest city in Nigeria’s restive northeastern Borno state.

The jihadists also struck neighbouring Yobe state, killing at least 10 people including two women on Wednesday evening in a revenge attack against local vigilantes, a local official said.

The suicide attack was the latest in a wave of Boko Haram bombings — often by female bombers — targeting markets in Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon that have killed and wounded scores in the past month. Boko Haram has kidnapped thousands of civilians, including women and children, with many either forced or indoctrinating into joining the extremists, official say.

“The attack (on the Gamboru) market happened around 6:30 am (local time) as the grocers were arriving,” said Babakura Kolo, a vigilante in Maiduguri. — AFP

European Leaders Do Not Know How To Deal With Migrant Crisis

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is absolutely right, when he says, “The reality is that Europe is threatened by a mass inflow of people, many tens of millions of people could come to Europe.”

“Now we talk about hundreds of thousands but next year we will talk about millions and there is no end to this.”

“All of a sudden we will see that we are in minority in our own continent.”

However, it is clear that European leaders have no idea how to deal with escalating migrant crisis…

~ Amrit Pal Singh ‘Amrit’
www.AmritWorld.com

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http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/world/new-refugee-proposals-after-photos-of-drowned-syrian-boy/128647.html

Brussels/ Budapest/Bicske/ Lisbon, September 4

European leaders, shocked by the horrifying image of a drowned Syrian child, rushed out new proposals to address the escalating migrant crisis despite deep divisions in the 28-member bloc. Hungary, however, hardened its stand, with its right-wing prime minister claiming the growing migrant crisis in Europe threatened to make Europeans a minority in their own continent after hundreds spent the night stranded on a train surrounded by police.

The heartbreaking images of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi lying dead in the surf after the boat taking his family to Greece sank brought home the horror of the refugee crisis — the worst of its kind since World War II.

With tensions growing in Europe over how to handle the situation, France and Germany said they had agreed that the EU should now impose binding quotas on the numbers that member states should take in, having failed to reach such a deal in June.

“We agree that… we need binding quotas within the European Union to share the burden. That is the principle of solidarity,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters during a visit in the Swiss capital.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker will next week unveil a plan for the relocation of at least 120,000 more refugees to ease the burden on frontline EU nations Greece, Italy and Hungary, a European source said.

EU president Donald Tusk also called on member states to share the resettlement of at least 100,000 refugees — far above the current agreement for 32,000.

In Britain, the Guardian newspaper reported that Prime Minister David Cameron was preparing to respond to growing pressure to accept a bigger share of refugees, by accepting thousands directly from UN camps on the border with Syria.

“Final details of the numbers, funding and planned location are being urgently thrashed out in Whitehall,” the Guardian cited government sources as saying.

Cameron earlier promised the country would fulfil its “moral responsibilities”, after having only accepted 216 Syrian refugees over the past year. He said the numbers allowed would be kept “under review”.

EU foreign ministers are set to meet in Luxembourg on on Friday to discuss the escalating crisis, after pressure for action was heightened by the images of the drowned child.

Kurdi was seen in photos in a red T-shirt, blue shorts and shoes and lying motionless on the seashore before a rescue worker picks up his limp body.

“I was holding my wife’s hand. But my children slipped through my hands. We tried to cling to the small boat, but it was deflating. It was dark and everyone was screaming,” his grieving father Abdullah Kurdi told Turkey’s Dogan news agency of the sinking. — AFP

Hungary’s Orban warns of ‘tens of millions’ of migrants

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said: “The reality is that Europe is threatened by a mass inflow of people, many tens of millions of people could come to Europe.”

Viktor Orban’s regular interview to a public radio came as hundreds of migrants, many of them refugees from the Syrian war, woke after a night on a packed train stranded at a railway station west of Budapest, refusing to go to a nearby camp to process asylum seekers.

“Now we talk about hundreds of thousands but next year we will talk about millions and there is no end to this,” he said.

“All of a sudden we will see that we are in minority in our own continent.”

Shouts of “No camp, freedom!” broke out; Using shaving foam, they wrote on the side of the train: “No camp. No Hungary. Freedom train.”

The migrants had wrestled with police on Thursday, some throwing themselves on the tracks insisting they be allowed to remain on the train bound for a border town near Austria.

The train had left Budapest on Thursday morning after a two-day standoff at the city’s main railway station as police barred entry to some 2,000 migrants. Hungary says they must be registered, as per European Union rules, but many refuse, fearing they will be sent back to Hungary if caught later in western and northern Europe.

Hungary has hit out at Germany, the most popular destination among the migrants, for saying it would accept asylum requests from Syria regardless of where they entered the EU.

Parliament in Budapest is expected to endorse on Friday a raft of measures to effectively seal Hungary’s southern border with Serbia to migrants, creating holding zones on the frontier where migrants will be held while their papers are processed and potentially sent back into Serbia.

“Hungary cannot ignore Schengen rules in its procedures,” said Orban, referring to Europe’s zone of passport-free travel.

“Migrants must cooperate with Hungarian authorities, with the German authorities and if Germany wants to admit Syrians, it should issue permission for them to go into Germany.” Orban said the new measures being debated by Parliament would be implemented from September 15.

“Everyone should be prepared for this: Serbia, Macedonia, the immigrants, the human traffickers. We ourselves will prepare for this, and a different era will start from September 15.”

UK to accept thousands more refugees from Syria: Cameron

Britain will take “thousands more” refugees from Syria, British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Friday.

Cameron said Britain had already accepted around 5,000 Syrians under its existing resettlement schemes, which would continue to take in more refugees.

“Given the scale of the crisis and the suffering of people, today, I can announce that we will do more in providing resettlement for thousands more Syrian refugees,” Cameron told reporters in Lisbon after meeting his Portuguese counterpart.

Britain’s government has faced calls to take in many more refugees after broad media coverage of the image of a dead Syrian toddler washed up on a Turkish beach. — Reuters

Social Welfare in the Netherlands

(Matthys van Raalten)*

European countries are known for their compromise with Socialism: the welfare or “nanny” states they are. It’s just a costly mistake to think that not working should be rewarded and working must be punished with heavy taxation to make that all possible. Let’s have a look how social welfare works in the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

A person can get social welfare in the Netherlands in many ways. The payments are all about the same, about 900 Euro per month for a single person. In addition he or she gets money to help in paying costs of rent and costs of health-care. The additional payments for these are about 150 Euro per month. Health care is almost completely covered for a monthly insurance cost of 100 Euro. Every year, people that do not work also get about 600 Euro to go on a holiday.

What are the costs of living for a single person? I have gone through this experience during the past 7 years. I spend 300 Euro on the rent of a small apartment, 200 Euro monthly on simple meals and a beer once in a while. The insurance for health care: as said above, 100 Euro per month. Then there is the bill for electricity, Internet, water and local taxes. They add up for another 150 Euro per month. I spend almost nothing on clothes, because I buy them wisely, so they stay good for a long time, but let’s say they cost me another 30 Euro per month on average. That means my total monthly costs are: about 780 Euro per month. That means I can save or spend on things that I do not really need: more than 300 Euro per month. Isn’t that pretty absurd??

The social welfare system of my country is thus way too costly. American politicians should tell their Dutch counterparts to make the necessary cuts and spend the money on Defense instead. As other European NATO allies, the Netherlands is not spending enough on its Military… just assuming that the United States will take care of all the security needs of the world for them.

* Matthys van Raalten is a conservative political activist from Amsterdam.

Encourage Marriages Among Pakistani, Afghanistani And Indian Hindus/Sikhs

(Amrit Pal Singh ‘Amrit’)

Many Pakistani and Afghanistani Hindus and Sikhs want to immigrate permanently to India. Many Indians are seen inciting Pakistani as well as Afghanistani Hindus/Sikhs to immigrate to India, though they are incapable to understand ground realities of immigration. Practically, Pakistani and Afghanistani Hindus and Sikhs are finding it difficult to settle permanently in India. That is why many Pakistani Hindus, who came to India, in due course went back to Pakistan. A few others left for western countries.

Thousands of Hindus and Sikhs were migrated from Pakistan to Indian Kashmir in 1947. Even after 67 years, they are not given basic citizenship of State of Jammu and Kashmir. They cannot vote for the state Assembly and local bodies’ elections but they are allowed to vote in Indian Parliament elections.

Those Hindus and Sikhs, who migrated from Mirpur and other areas of Pakistan occupied Kashmir to Indian Kashmir, have not given their due claims of final settlement even after 67 years. It is so easy for some Indian Hindus and Sikhs to incite Pakistani Hindus and Sikhs to migrate to India, but they never talk about these final settlements.

However, I have a suggestion for Indian Hindus and Sikhs, if they want to do something for the betterment of Hindus and Sikhs of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Hundreds of Pakistani Muslims are married to Indian Muslims. These matrimonial relations across the border are helpful to create pleasant and friendly relations between people of two countries. If there are strong people-to-people relations between two countries, it is beneficial for both the countries.

There are rare cases of cross-border marriages between Indian and Pakistani Hindus. Hindus and Sikhs should encourage matrimonial alliance between Indian, Afghanistani and Pakistani Hindus and Sikhs. By doing so, many Pakistani and Afghanistani Hindu/Sikh girls can easily be immigrated to India. This will be a slow but very effective process. Such marriages will bring Indian, Afghanistani and Pakistani Hindus and Sikhs close to one another. At present, it seems there is lack of coordination between Pakistani, Afghanistani and Indian Hindus/Sikhs.

Such marriages between Indian and Pakistani Hindus/Sikhs will help reduce tension between the two countries, which is generally caused by politicians.

Cross-border marriages between Indian, Afghanistani and Pakistani Hindus/Sikhs are possible in Punjabi, Kashmiri, and Sindhi as well as other cultural sub-communities.

Indian, Afghanistani, and Pakistani Hindus and Sikhs should think over this option.

Holocaust education in the Netherlands

(Matthys van Raalten)*

The Holocaust-lessons their primary goal should be that the youth reflects upon what has caused it. The ever-expanding presence of Muslim-youth will create more and more obstacles to honorably commemorating the event.

What the youth should get from it, is that it was the hatred of Jews, homosexuals, gypsies, evangelical preachers, communists and others that have put the murder machine in motion.

Thus not: criticism of a religion, denunciation of certain sexual behaviors, criticism of a nomadic way of life, criticism of communism or whatever. None of these, but the propagation of hatred against innocent human beings.

The Muslim youth must learn that whoever finds him- or herself on Dutch territory, should show respect for our tradition of speaking honorably about the Holocaust. And that means, that denial, putting the blame for the event on a Zionist conspiracy or disgustingly cheering that it happened can all lead to exclusion from our community: literally.

* Matthys van Raalten is a conservative political activist from Amsterdam.


Innocent Until Proved Guilty

(Amrit Pal Singh ‘Amrit’)

Article 11
(1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
(2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.

(The Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations)

The Part 1 of the article 11 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations says:

(1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.

Article 11 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in fact further expands the rights given in Article 10.

Even if a person is indicted with a penal crime, he has the right to be considered innocent until proved guilty.

It is possible that an innocent person is accused of punishable offences. If he is considered guilty even without trial, it is a violation of his basic human rights. One needs to understand the difference between an ‘accused’ and a ‘guilty’. The legal system is supposed to punish a ‘guilty’, not an ‘accused’. First, the offences made by an ‘accused’ should be proven according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence, and if he is proved ‘guilty’, he should be punished accordingly.

‘All the guarantees necessary for a defense’ has been mentioned in the 3rd point of Article 14 of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in these words: –

3. In the determination of any criminal charge against him, everyone shall be entitled to the following minimum guarantees, in full equality:

(a) To be informed promptly and in detail in a language which he understands of the nature and cause of the charge against him;

(b) To have adequate time and facilities for the preparation of his defence and to communicate with counsel of his own choosing;

(c) To be tried without undue delay;

(d) To be tried in his presence, and to defend himself in person or through legal assistance of his own choosing; to be informed, if he does not have legal assistance, of this right; and to have legal assistance assigned to him, in any case where the interests of justice so require, and without payment by him in any such case if he does not have sufficient means to pay for it;

(e) To examine, or have examined, the witnesses against him and to obtain the attendance and examination of witnesses on his behalf under the same conditions as witnesses against him;

(f) To have the free assistance of an interpreter if he cannot understand or speak the language used in court;

(g) Not to be compelled to testify against himself or to confess guilt.

The Part 2 of the article 11 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says:

(2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.

We need to understand this part carefully.

It is possible that an action is considered no crime at a particular time; however on a later stage the same action is considered a criminal act under any national or international law.

For example, according to the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, killing a tiger is a criminal offence.

However, if any person had killed a tiger before the passing of this law, he cannot be tried under this penal code.

According to the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, the minimum imprisonment prescribed is three years which may extend up to seven years.

Now, suppose a person kills a tiger in India. Maximum imprisonment prescribed is seven years according to the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. After he committed the crime, suppose the Indian government amends the law and extends imprisonment up to 14 years. The accused when proved guilty cannot be given imprisonment for 14 years. It is simply because when he committed the crime, the maximum punishment was seven years in prison.

In case, he is imprisoned for more than seven years, it is a violation of his basic human rights, according to the Article 11 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights.