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Showing posts with label trade. Show all posts
Showing posts with label trade. Show all posts

Saturday, 1 May 2021

It's not cricket (2)


Oxford graduate Imran Khan was an international cricketer before he entered politics. Now as Pakistan's prime minister he has a plan which is definitely not cricket.

According to a report in MailOnline Imran Khan has a plan for Muslim-majority countries to force Western governments to criminalise insulting the Prophet Mohammed which he claims will work .

He said "lobbying Western nations, the EU and UN to adopt blasphemy laws with a warning of a trade boycott if they do not do so will be 'effective' in achieving their goal.

"He said leaders of Muslim-majority countries should call on the West to 'stop hurting the feelings' of Muslims across the world with their current freedom of speech laws, reports Pakistani newspaper Dawn." 

Britain's former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind told MailOnline that trying to force Western countries to bring in such a ban would be 'a pretty foolish decision. It is not countries that insult the Prophet Mohammed, it's individual citizens'.

Meanwhile, International Christian Concern highlights the case of "a Christian accused of blasphemy in Pakistan [who] was tortured into making a false confession while spending more than two months in police custody." 

Such reports are not uncommon.

In As Good as Dead, the impact of the blasphemy laws in Pakistan, Amnesty International concluded:

    "Pakistan’s blasphemy laws are routinely used to target vulnerable people on the basis of false accusations. There is broad scope for their abuse which means that anyone can level an accusation of blasphemy, which can lead to criminal charges. Inadequate safeguards then mean the accused have few means to defend themselves. In a perversion of the justice system, the accused are often presumed to be guilty, on the basis of little or no evidence.

    "As the accused struggle to establish their innocence, they often face serious threats to their lives. Many people have been threatened and killed in revenge attacks after accusations of blasphemy were made against them. As Pakistan’s Supreme Court has acknowledged, the majority of blasphemy accusations are false. However, this does not prevent angry crowds, aroused by clerics and their supporters, from taking the law into their own hands while the authorities routinely fail to prevent these abuses and, by doing so, enable a culture of impunity.

    "This report documents cases which illustrate the broad scope for human rights violations and abuses, in order to highlight the need for urgent repeal of the laws and – until their repeal – the need for effective procedural safeguards to be put in place."

Need one say more!

Saturday, 5 September 2020

Wokes target ex-Australian PM Tony Abbott


Tony Abbott at the 'wedding' of his gay sister.  She has defended her brother.     Source: Mail Online


We have left the European Union (EU) so we need trade deals.

Tony Abbott who was prime minister of Australia from 2013 to 2015 when they negotiated free-trade deals with Japan, China and South Korea has been appointed as an unpaid trade adviser to the UK government.

Mr Abbott happens to believe that 'marriage' is "the relationship of one man with one woman, ideally for life and usually dedicated to children". He is opposed to same-sex marriage which, he believes, 'would fundamentally change society'.

Regardless of his personal views he attended his gay sister's 'wedding' but because his values are unacceptable to LGBT activists he is stereotyped as a homophobe.

Never mind the facts. If you are not in agreement with woke culture you become the target of their  ordure.

Kay Burley of Sky News accused Mr Abbott of being a "homophobic misogynist", representing slurs as facts when she interviewed Health Secretary, Matt Hancock.

That was something Scotland's First Minister was happy to agree with, unlike former Australian PM Julia Gillard who declined to be led by Burley's wokery and spoke for herself.

Celebrity LGBT campaigner Sir Ian McKellen, among others, demeaned himself by urging the government to 'row back' its plans, ignoring the fact that Abbott is entitled to hold views contrary to those of the gay minority. 

Sadly for them Abbott's gay sister defended him against claims of misogyny and homophobia. She said: "As a woman who has always been part of his life and who came out to him as gay in my early 40s, I know incontrovertibly that Tony is neither of those things," she wrote on Twitter.

"In reality he is a man of great conviction and intellect; an unabashed conservative but with great compassion, respect for others, and an indelible sense of doing what is right."

Australia's longest serving female politician, Bronwyn Bishop, also leapt to Mr Abbott's defence stating he was a victim of 'disgraceful character assassination'. 

Good on you Bronwyn!