Archive for the 'Civil Liberties' Category

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Babar, Blair and Extradition

Published on 18 June 2007 in Civil Liberties and Politics. 1 Comment

The Extradition Act 2003 was back in the news again last week. First the Law Lords decline to hear Babar Ahmed’s appeal against extradition, only for the European Court of Justice to order another stay of extradition [FreeBabarAhmed.com]. The ECJ will now consider the case. I wonder how many years will elapse before this is finally resolved? IIRC he has been in continuous detention since 2004 with no evidence yet presented in a court. In all that time the indictment against him has remained tenuous, at best.

Amusingly I came across Mr Blair extradited? Not as crazy as it sounds by William Rees-Mogg in the Times (via Craig Murray. I don’t personally see much prospect (nor a hard basis in law) for Mr Blair’s prosecution. Nevertheless it makes for interesting reading in bringing to our attention the full extent of the 2003 Act in subjecting British citizens to foreign laws and legal systems.

News International using copyright to intimidate blogger

Published on 10 May 2007 in Civil Liberties, Islam and Journal. 2 Comments

The infamous Sunday Times front page (Copyright: News International)I was somewhat surprised, and disappointed, to learn that blogger, Osama Saeed, has been forced by News International to remove an image of the front page of the Sunday Times. Apparently they claimed it was copyright infringement.

Now I don’t dispute that News International, as publishers of the Sunday Times, hold the copyright to any front page they produce. However, copyright law in most countries, makes provision for a concept known as “fair use” [UK Copyright Service]. Specifically, in the UK, copyrighted material may be used without infringement for the purposes of news reporting and criticism of the work. This is the same provision used by TV news broadcasters when they show pictures of newspaper front pages directly related to a story (or just reviewing the headlines on Newsnight). To illustrate the point take a look at this web page: Press declares wedding a success [BBC News].

Osama had used the image, shown above (as fair use), to illustrate a critique of it’s headline and leading article. Here’s a quotation (again as fair use of copyrighted work) from the blog:

The newspaper goes through some contortions to paint him [man pictured] as a national figure through the headline and calls him a “spiritual leader” in the article itself…

…The hype is needed to justify the front page billing but the fact is that once we read between the carefully drawn lines of the article, it says he is an imam, not the imam, in a local Beeston mosque.

Now I don’t see how his original use of the image constituted copyright infringement since he is entitled to show an image of what he is criticising.

Why have News International decided to pick on Osama? One can only assume they didn’t appreciate the criticism. Surely, a large multi-national media company ought to be thicker skinned than cry foul over the musings of a minor blog?

Islamophobia vs. Muslim discrimination – perspective of an Italian Muslim

Published on 29 March 2007 in Civil Liberties, Islam, Politics and Society. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

Friends will know that I am uncomfortable with the term “Islamophobia” and try to avoid using it. It seems to me to have become too conflated in popular parlance and different users of the word confuse too many concepts. Whenever anyone uses the term I’m never sure what I mean. Nevertheless I was intrigued to read an interview with Omar Camiletti [IslamOnline.net], Secretary of the Italian Branch of the Muslim World League, which covered the subject.

Camiletti argues that there is a “strong problem of Islamaphobia in Europe”. He fails to define “Islamaphobia” but implies that he talking about fear of Islam (as a religion) itself and argues that this is based on popular misunderstanding of Islam. I’m inclined to accept this but of more interest were his comments on discrimination.

From the article (my emphasis on bold):

IOL: There’s another study … which says that discrimination against Muslims in Europe ranges from verbal threats through to physical attacks on people and property.

Camiletti: This happened especially in England after 2001. I still insist though that Europeans don’t discriminate against Muslims. Moreover, it is the Muslims who have become more racist against Westerners because they feel the clash of civilization.

Woah! That’ll set the cat amongst the pigeons for some readers of this blog.

He goes on:

In England, I heard a Muslim say that all the English are “kuffar” (infidels). This is a person who has sought refuge in the UK and who is being given money from the English government to live. They don’t tolerate that Westerners drink alcohol, and many retain the idea that all Western women are immoral. Do you see the racism? A woman might be exposed because this is the fashion. In a few words, you can explain why you wouldn’t ever go out exposing your bellybutton but you can’t build walls.

Quite right!

Recognising his comments are a sweeping generalization, and accepting that as a proviso, I have to say that I agree with his general point: “Europeans don’t discriminate against Muslims. Moreover, it is the Muslims who have become more racist against Westerners because they [fear] the clash of civilization.”

Now, who’s going to be the first to take a bite? ;-)

Censored in China

Published on 16 March 2007 in Civil Liberties, Internet, Journal and Snippets. 1 Comment Tags: , .

This web site is banned in China [Great Firewall of China]. Like Elle Seymour, I can only wonder why.

Source: Ellee Seymour – live and dangerous [Tim Roll-Pickering]

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