From Human Rights Watch, May 2, via AllAfrica.com: A criminal court in Cairo today sentenced Huwaida Taha Mitwalli, a journalist for Al-Jazeera and the London-based daily Al-Quds al-Arabi, to six months in prison on charges of “possessing and giving false… Read moreEgypt: reporter gets prison for exposing torture
From Amnesty International, April 24: Amnesty International condemns the harsh sentence handed down today on human rights lawyer Anwar al-Bunni, following an unfair trial that appeared to be politically driven and during which he was not given full access to… Read moreSyria: rights attorney gets five years
Now that Iran has a nuclear program, other Middle East countries want nuclear power—potentially resulting in a nuclear arms race in the region, the New York Times reported April 15. “Two years ago, the leaders of Saudi Arabia told international… Read moreNYT: Mideast nuclear arms race seen
Chanting secularist slogans and waving Turkish flags, more than 300,000 from throughout Turkey rallied April 15 to discourage Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan from running for the presidency. The protesters marched to the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of… Read moreTurks rally for secular government
From The Guardian, April 9: Five Turkish punk rockers and their agent face up to 18 months in jail for insult after a bureaucrat took offence at their song criticising the country’s unpopular university entrance exam. The head of Turkey’s… Read moreTurkish punks jailed for social satire
Amnesty International condemns Egypt’s record on torture and illegal detention in a new report, and calls on other countries to abandon diplomatic “no torture” deals with Cairo. Egypt’s record on torture recently made headlines after police officers raped a 21-year-old… Read moreAmnesty International blasts Egypt, “rendition”
Fighting between the government and Sh’i’te insurgents in Yemen’s northern mountains has killed 25 soldiers and 20 guerillas over the last five days. The government has set up camps to shelter about 10,000 people displaced by the violence. Sporadic clashes… Read moreSectarian war rocks Yemen
Thousands of Turkish troops backed by helicopters battled Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) insurgents near the Iraqi border April 8, in clashes that left 10 soldiers and seven guerillas dead. The fighting was centered in the provinces of Tunceli, Bingöl, Bitlis… Read moreTurks charge US betrayal on PKK; Barzani threatens Turkey
As if the jihadis aren’t ticked off enough already. The opponents quoted in this story seem entirely legitimate, but this obviously serves as more grist for Osama’s propaganda mill. Talk about “jihad versus McWorld.” What can you say but a… Read moreStarbucks comes to Mecca
OK, Fox News may be touting this story for bad, Islamophobic reasons. One of the ironies of our times is that jingoistic propagandists like Fox are bashing US allies like Saudi Arabia, while “progressives” in the West are lining up… Read moreSaudi Arabia: woman sentenced to 90 lashes for getting raped
From Compass Direct News, Feb. 22. Compass Direct monitors global persecution of Christians, and likely has its own evangelical axes to grind. But nobody else is covering this. Police detained Christian families in Upper Egypt and forced them to deny… Read moreEgypt: growing violence against Copts in south
Freedom’s on the march in Washington’s top Arab client state, and the world’s second-largest US aid recipient after Israel. From the BBC News, Feb. 22: An Egyptian court has sentenced a blogger to four years’ prison for insulting Islam and… Read moreEgypt: blogger gets prison
