Habib Siddiqui

Here is an article by Dhoruba Bin Wahad on an important subject in relation to racial justice. Dhoruba Bin Wahad is a former leader of the New York Black Panther Party. He was imprisoned for 19 years for a crime he maintains was part of the FBI and New York Police Department's effort to target militant black leaders during the 1970s. New York Supreme Court Justice Peter J. McQuillan overturned Mr. Bin Wahad's conviction was last March, 1990, citing inconsistent and insufficient evidence. Mr. Bin Wahad presently works in New York with Freedom Now, a Chicago based organization which lobbies for the release of political prisoners being held throughout the U.S. The following text was extracted from a speech presented by Mr. Bin Wahad at Yale University on April 30, 1990 as part of a forum on Political Prisoners in the United States, sponsored by the Journal of Law and Liberation.

  PUTTANEE KANGKUN & JOHN UINLEY Tomorrow marks the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, but the governments of Southeast Asia have little to celebrate. Rohingya refugees, many of whom are survivors of trafficking and crimes of atrocity, continue to arrive on the shores of Thailand and Malaysia, where their arrival is met with a cold reception. Instead of protecting trafficking survivors and refugees, Thailand and Malaysia continue to propagate shameful policies of detention and refoulement and fail to hold traffickers accountable. We work closely with survivors of human trafficking and find that the best solutions to these problems are informed by survivors themselves. On World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, governments would do well to listen to survivors and work with refugees to best protect their rights. Instead, Thailand and Malaysia routinely violate the rights of trafficking survivors and refugees in three ways. First, Rohingya refugees are routinely arrested,...

by  Nadira Kourt July 28, 2020 (This article is part of a special  Just Security  forum  on the ongoing Gambia v. Myanmar litigation at the International Court of Justice and ways forward.) When it comes to  Myanmar , and the plight of its Rohingya people in particular, the international community has consistently  failed  to adequately respond when faced with serious risks, or even the actual commission of, mass atrocities. The words “prevention” and “never again” ring hollow when the world’s most powerful, including the United Nations Security Council, did little as a genocide against the Rohingya was unfolding in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. Most governments simply failed to act when action to prevent escalation and respond to atrocities was most needed. The only formal response of the Security Council to the genocide against the Rohingya was the adoption of a November 2017  Presidential Statement  – three months after the start of the Myanmar...

I am opposed to susan rice as a vp choice. she was a disaster in Obama administration, responsible for many wrong decisions.  ======= Barbara shares her thought below. =========== Barbara Boland Susan Rice, former national security advisor to President Obama, is reportedly under consideration for the vice presidential slot in presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s administration. Biden is currently considering four black women to be his vice president, among them Sen. Kamala Harris of California, Rep. Val Demings of Florida, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Rep. Karen Bass of California, and Rice.   Biden said he will make his final decision in early August ahead of the Democratic National Convention which will take place in Milwaukee from Aug. 17 to 20. All the women Biden is considering have had “some exposure to foreign policy and national defense issues,” Biden has said, and he wants someone who can serve as president at a “moment’s notice” and with w...

The former prime minister could now face decades in jail after being convicted on all charges in the case related to the looting of sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad. Malaysia's ex-leader Najib Razak Malaysia's ex-leader Najib Razak was found guilty today - Tuesday in his first trial over the multi-billion-dollar 1MDB scandal, two years after the fraud contributed to the downfall of his long-ruling government. The former prime minister could now face decades in jail after being convicted on all charges in the case related to the looting of sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad. Billions of dollars were stolen from the investment vehicle and spent on everything from high-end real estate to pricey art, while investment bank Goldman Sachs also became embroiled in the scandal. Anger at the looting played a large part in the shock loss of Najib's long-ruling coalition in elections in 2018, and he was arrested and hit with dozens of charges foll...

By Habib Siddiqui Earlier this month the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia declared that this year hajj – the annual pilgrimage to Ka’bah in Makkah – would be scaled down allowing only a thousand of local Saudis to observe it. No overseas Muslims, which accounted for a majority of some three million pilgrims in a regular year – would be allowed to perform hajj this year. The Saudi decision was taken to preserve global public health in the absence of any vaccine to fight Covid-19. The hajj event will start on July 29, corresponding to the 8 th day of Islamic calendar Dhul-Hijjah. It is the first time in the Saudi kingdom's nearly 90-year history that foreign Muslims have been barred from performing Hajj. No one over the age of 65 or with chronic illnesses would be allowed to perform Hajj. Pilgrims will be tested for the new coronavirus before arriving in the holy city of Makkah and will be required to quarantine at home after the ritual ends. Wearing face masks at all times will be...