Archive for July 8th, 2013
Fadwa Suleiman, Syrian actress and a high-profile Alawite member of the Syrian revolution led by an opposition dominated by Sunni Muslims against the government controlled by Alawites, is saddened that the revolution is not going in the right direction.
Disillusioned at the level of state control over theater and films, Suleiman joined the popular protests last year, to become one of the most recognized faces of the violent uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.
She expressed resentment over her country’s peaceful demonstrations having turned into an armed conflict that was heading toward a sectarian war.
One of Fadwa’s friends told her: “Be very careful of how you behave: You are already a symbol of the Alawi actress revolutionaries…”
Fadwa replied: “I am not an idol. I am not Sunni or Alawit. The Syrian people is crushing all the idols in his country. I do fast and pray in my own way, and I may drink a cup of wine of what my granddad concocted… and from his wine, I’ll be drinking for victory and freedom…”
When the Assad regime pressured one of Fadwa’s brothers to disclaim her political attitudes and protest against Fadwa’s behaviors, which don’t match tradition and customs, She retorted:
“I have cut my long hair and everyone should be informed that, if I recant on the Syrian “World” channel, this should be your signal that I have been tortured to say what is contrary to my belief. Do not believe a word, do not believe what my family members might say that I’m a traitor. This is Bashar Assad system for coercion…”
In an interview with the AFP, Suleiman said she was saddened to see that the revolution is not going in the right direction, that it is becoming armed, that the opposition which wanted to resist peacefully is playing the game of the regime and that the country is heading for sectarian war.
I didn’t want to leave Syria but I didn’t have the choice. I was being threatened and I was becoming a threat for the activists who were helping me, she said.
Before she joined the protests, Suleiman was well-known for her roles in movies, theater, radio and television. She was drawn to the movement as part of the mobilization of the cultural elite of the country after the revolution erupted in March last year.
She is considered an anomaly in the revolution, largely attributed to being a woman belonging to Syria’s ruling Alawite minority taking part in a male-dominated Sunni rebellion, a Reuters report said.
Fadwa’s position has led to many influential Alawites disavowing her, including her brother Mahmoud, who declared on state-run television channel that Syria’s unity was more important for him than his sister.
Suleiman — who became a well-recognized representative of the Syrian rebels when she appeared in footage shot in the Sunni dominated rebel city of Homs that was broadcast on the Al-Jazeera television news network — said she wanted to stop the revolution, which was eventually sliding into a sectarian war, by being a part of the protests.
Everyone was saying that Salafist Sunnis were going to attack the Alawites, she said. So, in Homs last November, I, an Alawite woman, got up on the stage and declared that we were all united against the regime.
Suleiman is widely seen as the product of westernized and secular Syria, while her opponents are largely religious fanatics sponsored by Syrian supporters in the rest of the Arab world.
The actress, whose Alawite identity plays a major role in determining her place in the revolution rejects her own sectarian labeling.
On her Facebook page in December, Fadwa wrote: “I am not Alawite, and not an artist. I have actually been a rebel against all the obsolete values in our society since the day I was born.. .A rebel for freedom, and for people to be free to think, believe and love as they want, so long as that comforts them, even worshiping trees…So, down with the Alawites and long live their humanity…Down with the Sunnis, Druze, Ismailis, Muslims, Jews and Christians, and long live their humanity…Long live humanity in dignity everywhere, of whatever religion or affiliation.
US government to force-feed hunger strikers at Guantánamo Bay during Ramadan
Posted on: July 8, 2013
US government to force-feed hunger strikers at Guantánamo Bay during Ramadan
The US government has refused to stop force-feeding detainees on hunger strike at Guantánamo Bay during the holy month of Ramadan.
There are 166 detainees at Guantanamo, 106 of them are on hunger strike.
Of those, 45 of them are being fed through tubes directly into the stomach, according to the court papers.
In its court filing, the US Department of Justice also denied claims that it was giving the drug Reglan to the detainees.
In court papers rejecting a petition by four of more than 100 detainees said to be refusing food, the US said the feedings provided “essential nutritional and medical care” and would not interfere with religious observance of Ramadan, which begins on Monday.
Karen McVeigh published from New York in the guardian.co.uk this July 3, 2013
Observant Muslims fast daily from sunrise to sunset during Ramadan.
Lawyers for President Obama also said that the “public interest lies with maintaining the status quo“.
Last month, Obama gave a speech in which he promised to work towards closing the base, and to allow the release of many of the 86 prisoners held there who have been cleared for transfer.
Obama described the camp as a moral problem for the nation that had to be solved.
The feeding of detainees, via nasogastric tube, will be carried out by the facility “before dusk and after sunset in order to accommodate their religious practices”, they said, “absent any unforeseen emergency or operational issues”.
Colonel Greg Julian, director of public affairs for US southern command, said: “We do not force-feed observant Muslims during daylight hours during Ramadan. These policies have been in place for years, and are consistent with our mission to safely detain while supporting the religious practices of those in US custody. If told to do differently, we will do so.”
Government lawyers said that enteral or force feeding is authorized by federal regulations when a prisoner’s life or permanent health is in danger, and is related to “preserving order security and discipline within the detention facility“, according to court documents in the case.
US government lawyers also argued that the detainees bringing the case, Shaker Aamer, Nabil Hadjarab, Ahmed Belbacha and Abu Wa’el Dhiab, are not “persons” under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and are therefore not protected under it.
A group of detainees began a hunger strike in February this year, in protest at their detention. Some have been detained without trial for more than a decade.
It also highlights Obama’s failure to deliver a 2008 campaign pledge to close the camp.
Aamar, who has spent 11 years without trial at the camp, despite being twice cleared for release, recently spoke of increasingly brutal tactics being used in an attempt to break the strike.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization in the US, reiterated its call on Monday for the force-feeding of hunger-striking prisoners at Guantanamo Bay to stop.
Lawyers for the detainees described the tube feeding as “barbaric” and hit out at the failure of the US government to provide a specific guarantee that no feeding would happen during the day.
Cori Crider, counsel for the men and strategy director at Reprieve, said: “These are more weasel words from the Obama administration – they say they have ‘no plans’ to force-feed during the day in Ramadan, but give no guarantees. Meanwhile, on the eve of Independence Day, they ride rough-shod over the fundamental right of people to choose what goes into their bodies. ”
Jon Eisenberg, US counsel for the men, said: “The Obama administration argues here that ‘the public interest lies with maintaining the status quo’. The status quo is that these men are being held indefinitely without any sort of trial, even though they were cleared for release years ago.”
“Consider the irony of the Obama administration arguing here that the Guantánamo Bay detainees are not ‘persons’ within the scope of US law guaranteeing religious freedom, in a post-Citizens United world where even corporations are endowed with legal personhood.”
Adonis Diaries 