IRFN (August 1-6): Charges Dropped Against Canadian Ezra Levant

Feature: Olympic athletes are voicing their opinions and concerns on religious freedom in China. The Washington Post has more.

Update:  The Philippine Supreme Court, acting on a petition by Christian politicians, on August 4 blocked the signing of a key accord granting an expanded southern homeland to minority Muslims as part of a deal to end decades of bloody Islamist rebellion.  AP has more.

 

Update:  Police in Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority state, opened fire August 4 on Hindu protesters angry over a government decision not to transfer land to a Hindu shrine, killing two.  BBC has more.

 

 

TEHRAN – According to the Iranian Resalat newspaper, seven detained Baha’i leaders have confessed to setting up an illegal organization run by Israel with the purpose of undermining the Islamic system in Iran, the National Post reported on August 3.  Six of the seven Baha’i leaders have been detained since May on false allegations of bombing a mosque.  There has been no official government response to the Resalat report.  The Baha'i International Community claims that hundreds of their faith have been jailed and executed since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution; however the government denies this.  

 

 

SWAT – Since August 1, ten girls’ schools have been destroyed by suspected pro-Taliban militants, the BBC reported on August 5.  Correspondents in Pakistan say that the destruction of the girls’ schools is the attempt by militant groups to enforce strict Islamic law.  On August 4, a girls’ school was burnt in Matta.  Violence in the Swat region has increased since the May peace accord between pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Fazlullah andthe government fell through. The government has put the Swat region under night curfew.    

 

 

DELHI – The Delhi High Court has ruled that a 2001 ban on the Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) will remain in place for three more weeks to allow the government time to provide proof that the movement has ties to militant organizations, BBC reported on August 6.  This suspension follows a high court ruling that determined that the Student Movement was not unlawful.  Correspondents in India say that the SIMI has been blamed by the government for most major bomb attacks in India, including one in the state of Gujarat in June which killed 45 people. 

 

 

ALBERTA – The Alberta Human Rights Commission has dismissed a complaint against publisher Ezra Levant for reprinting the controversial Danish Muhammad cartoons in his magazine The Western Standard in 2006, the National Post reported on August 6. Ezra Levant however is dissatisfied with the rational the Commission used in his acquittal. On his website he writes that, “my dismissal is not a victory for freedom of the press. Because Alberta’s press is not free — it is now subject to the approval of the government.” The complaint against Levant was filed by the Edmonton Council of Muslim Communities. The Western Standard is no longer in print. For more about the “defamation of religions” movement, see Macleans Magazine’s article.