Missing from the reporting…
Tibetans target Muslims. Reporting that, of course, would ruin against “the narrative” of peaceful Buddhist monks being butchered by the evil communist monolith.
Police close off Lhasa’s Muslim quarter
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080328/ap_on_re_as/china_tibetLHASA, China – Police closed off Lhasa’s Muslim quarter on Friday, two weeks after Tibetan rioters burned down the city’s mosque during the largest anti-Chinese protests in nearly two decades. if(window.yzq_d==null)window.yzq_d=new Object(); window.yzq_d['wBCcAULEYpE-']=’&U=13but6roe%2fN%3dwBCcAULEYpE-%2fC%3d635972.12368924.12752169.1442997%2fD%3dLREC%2fB%3d5131439′;
Officers blockaded streets into the area, allowing in only area residents and worshippers observing the Muslim day of prayer. A heavy security presence continued in other parts of Lhasa’s old city as cleanup crews waded through the destruction inflicted when days of initially peaceful protests turned deadly on March 14.
It was not clear why the area was cordoned off, although rioters had targeted businesses belonging to Chinese Muslim migrants known as Hui, who control much of Lhasa’s commerce.
A surprisingly nuanced explanation of Shariah from the NYT
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In some sense, the outrage about according a degree of official status to Shariah in a Western country should come as no surprise. No legal system has ever had worse press. To many, the word “Shariah” conjures horrors of hands cut off, adulterers stoned and women oppressed. By contrast, who today remembers that the much-loved English common law called for execution as punishment for hundreds of crimes, including theft of any object worth five shillings or more? How many know that until the 18th century, the laws of most European countries authorized torture as an official component of the criminal-justice system? As for sexism, the common law long denied married women any property rights or indeed legal personality apart from their husbands. When the British applied their law to Muslims in place of Shariah, as they did in some colonies, the result was to strip married women of the property that Islamic law had always granted them — hardly progress toward equality of the sexes.
In fact, for most of its history, Islamic law offered the most liberal and humane legal principles available anywhere in the world. Today, when we invoke the harsh punishments prescribed by Shariah for a handful of offenses, we rarely acknowledge the high standards of proof necessary for their implementation. Before an adultery conviction can typically be obtained, for example, the accused must confess four times or four adult male witnesses of good character must testify that they directly observed the sex act. The extremes of our own legal system — like life sentences for relatively minor drug crimes, in some cases — are routinely ignored. We neglect to mention the recent vintage of our tentative improvements in family law. It sometimes seems as if we need Shariah as Westerners have long needed Islam: as a canvas on which to project our ideas of the horrible, and as a foil to make us look good.
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Thanks, Noah Feldman.
Fallout from The Prize Ass
No appeal for Sarabjit: Burney
KARACHI: Human Rights Minister Ansar Burney said on Monday that he would not seek mercy for Sarabjit Singh, an Indian convicted over a bombing that killed four people in Pakistan.
Sarabjit Singh has been in jail in Pakistan since 1990. The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal against his death penalty, while President Pervez Musharraf also rejected his mercy petition in March. Burney, who played a key role in the release of Kashmir Singh few days ago, said, “Sarabjit Singh’s case is different as he is charged with terrorism”.
Burney said he supported the release of Kashmir Singh because he had paid for his crime.
He said that Kashmir Singh’s confession of having spied for India was not surprising.
“This proves he was rightly charged and sentenced in Pakistan,” Burney said.
Today’s “Worst Person In the World”
This prize ass, Kashmir Singh, was an Indian who was in a Pakistani jail for 35 years. He steadfastly insisted that he was a simple farmer. Eventually, Ansar Burney convinced Musharaf to pardon him, and sent him off to India to receive a hero’s welcome.
Well, once he got to India he proudly admitted he was a spy, and claimed he’d done all sorts of great things for India and against Pakistan.
Not only does he make the lawyers and Musharaf look like fools, but he’s just made it much harder for other Indian prisoners seeking their release in Pakistani prisons to ever reunite with their families. Bravo, jack ass!
