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Glen Varghese

Article | First Things - 0 views

www.firstthings.com/...he-dangers-of-anti-sharia-laws

Sharia Law victims US

shared by Glen Varghese on 17 Apr 13 - No Cached
  • Yet some religious Americans have come to fear that “creeping Sharia” threatens our legal system and our freedoms. Proposals to legislate against Sharia’s use in the courts have been offered in dozens of states. This attack on the ancient system of Islamic law, a broad and diverse legal code that, like Halakhic law, governs everything from how to contract a marriage to how to prepare a meal, imperils the religious liberty of all Americans.
  • One commonly cited case, for example, was brought by a Moroccan woman in New Jersey who sought a restraining order against her husband for repeatedly assaulting and raping her. The state court judge denied the request, finding that the husband lacked the required intent because he believed that his wife’s compliance with his demand for sex was mandated by Islamic law.
  • Sharia means “the way to the watering place.” It has come to refer to the correct way of practicing religion—in particular, the rules that govern the lives of Muslims
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • The amendment was doomed by its singling out of Muslim citizens. It banned legal reference to Sharia but not to comparable systems like canon law or Jewish law. The Tenth Circuit observed that “if a law discriminates among religions,” it can pass constitutional muster only if it is closely fitted to a compelling state interest. The lack of such an interest was underscored by the defendants’ admission “that they did not know of even a single instance where an Oklahoma court had applied Sharia law or used the legal precepts of other nations or cultures, let alone that such applications or uses had resulted in concrete problems in Oklahoma.”
  • The federal district court issued a preliminary injunction against the amendment’s enforcement, a decision upheld by the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this year.
  • Muslim Americans who seek to use Sharia are not asking the American legal system to adopt Islamic rules of conduct, penal or otherwise. Muslims have introduced Sharia in court not in an attempt to establish a freestanding source of law binding on litigants but rather in recognition of the norms to which the litigants have already agreed to be bound.
  • “Sharia Islam and all other anti-woman, anti–human rights forms of totalitarian control,” and Bachmann explained that “Sharia law . . . certainly does not have a place in a United States courtroom, nor should it be followed by United States judges.” Even Mitt Romney felt obliged to insist that “we’re not going to have [Sharia] law applied in U.S. courts.”
  • Gingrich has described Sharia as “a mortal threat to the survival of freedom in the United States and in the world as we know it.”
  • The law in several states now requires pro-life pharmacists to dispense the morning-after pill, Christian adoption agencies to place children with same-sex couples, and religious entities to pay for their employees’ contraceptives
  • states
  • Glen Varghese on 17 Apr 13
     
    Speaks about foreign countries being affected by Sharia especially judiciary
Liam K

From civilians to soldiers and from soldiers to civilians - mobilization and demobiliza... - 2 views

books.google.com.sg/books

SPLA soldiers government Sudan child soldiers war recruitment postwar demobilization PTSD

shared by Liam K on 17 Apr 13 - No Cached
  • Liam K on 17 Apr 13
     
    A very long ebook regarding the soldiers of Sudan. A pain to search through, but it gave me exactly what I needed to write about the soldiers of the civil war. Useful to learn about the SPLA, government, and child soldiers to some extent. Very in-depth, you'll want to skip to whatever section you're concerned with.
Glen Varghese

Sudan's haphazard sharia legal system has claimed too many victims | Nesrine Malik | Co... - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...sudan-sharia-legal-system

Sharia Law victims sudan

shared by Glen Varghese on 15 Apr 13 - No Cached
  • This is the latest instalment in a random application of an Islamic law that governs the country in principle, but very rarely in practice. Like many Arab countries, Sudan has a constitution that is not purely based on sharia law, but has some language to indicate that religious law is the basis and guiding spirit. In effect, this is a way of paying lip service to religion for the government to gain legitimacy, while avoiding accusations of secularism in a conservative society.
  • it is a potent tool that allows the government to apply punishment harshly (but inconsistently) whenever it feels the need. It also empowers individual members of the security forces and ordinary citizens who may be motivated by personal reasons to invoke the emotive power of religious offence.
  • In the case of Intisar Abdullah, her lawyer told me there are at least five clear legal violations of sharia law that the court committed, the most serious being that her poor command of the Arabic language invalidated her confession.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • In the Lubna Hussein case, the (eventually commuted) sentence of lashing was for wearing trousers – an offence that not even the Qur'an or other sources of religious law had foreseen and legislated against.
  • With regard to the actual sentence, Islam outlaws the execution of nursing mothers.
  • Glen Varghese on 15 Apr 13
     
    This article depicts the opinion of many victims who ahev been executed by the Sharia Law.
Rohan Jain

Sudan-Civil War - 4 views

www.globalsecurity.org/...sudan.htm

sudan history war Dinka culture people tribes news

shared by Rohan Jain on 11 Apr 13 - Cached
  • Rohan Jain on 11 Apr 13
     
    This is a fantastic article that should give a lot of information.
  • Jabiz Raisdana on 12 Apr 13
     
    Rohan, don't just say there is good information. Annotate the facts you need for later use. DIIGO should be were you take your notes. Telling people to come here, does no one any good. Write the facts here, so you don;t have to go back to the article later. Squeeze it dry now.
Rohan Jain

Sudan Profile - 2 views

www.bbc.co.uk/...world-africa-14094995

sudan news

shared by Rohan Jain on 11 Apr 13 - No Cached
  • Rohan Jain on 11 Apr 13
     
    This is an excellent page set up by the BBC, so that you can find some stats and information about Sudan, that you could use as background information.
James L

Religion in Sudan - Regionalism and Ethnicity - 1 views

atheism.about.com/...bl_SudanRegionalism.htm

civil war world SPLA contemporary crisis causes root facts religion ethnicity Dinka war culture slavery people history news lost tribes

shared by James L on 28 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • James L on 28 Mar 13
     
    Some facts on the ethnic tensions in Sudan
lembongjd

South Sudan's Army Promises to Release Child Soldiers - 2 views

learningenglish.voanews.com/...608797.html

child soldiers spla war people news

shared by lembongjd on 28 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • lembongjd on 28 Mar 13
     
    SPLA promise to release child soldiers that they have kept hostile for decades with order of the UN 
lembongjd

South Sudan's Red Army comes of age | Global development | guardian.co.uk - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...south-sudan-red-army-comes-age

war sudan people army

shared by lembongjd on 28 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • lembongjd on 28 Mar 13
     
    Tells about how Child Soldiers were created by the South Sudanese and how they were used in the SPLA and the Red Army
James L

Quotes of the Month | Kakuma News Reflector - A Refugee Free Press - 0 views

kanere.org/...quotes-of-the-month

civil war world SPLA contemporary crisis causes root facts quotes month reflector refugee free press sudan history Dinka war culture slavery tribes people lost news

shared by James L on 27 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • James L on 27 Mar 13
     
    A bunch of quotes from people in Kakuma. Great for picking your characters. 
James L

Resource Access: A Major Cause of Armed Conflict in the Sudan -- The Case of the Nuba M... - 0 views

srdis.ciesin.org/...Sudan-Paper.html

civil war world SPLA contemporary crisis causes root facts

shared by James L on 25 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • James L on 25 Mar 13
     
    "In the web of causes that collectively precipitate violent conflicts in the Sudan, scarcity, resulting from denying or limiting access to renewable natural resources and from growing environmental degradation, stands out as probably the most important factor. That is: violent conflicts arise mainly out of economic and ecological distortions. The traditional assumption that violent conflicts in Africa emanate from ethnic, religious or cultural differences is seriously limited. Except for 'old' conflicts, ethnic dichotomies appear to be rather a consequence than a cause of violent conflicts. However, ethnic, religious and cultural dichotomies are very potent as people's perceptions of conflict -- perceptions held by many fighters on both sides of the conflict divide. The longer, however, a conflict persists, the more these ethnic, religious and cultural factors come into play. In an old conflict, when even the initial causes have petered out or died away, that 'abstract' , ideological ethnicity, becomes an active material and social force. Denying or Limiting Access to Natural and Social Resources Recent research (Beachler 1993; Homer-Dixon 1994) has shown that ecological degradation can act as a cause or catalyst of violent conflicts. Greater emphasis, however, has been given, in some of this research, to the impact of ecological degradation than to the implications of denying or limiting access to natural resources. The focus on the degradation of the natural resource base imparts by default greater significance to the causes of environmental degradation, namely, land-use, human and animal population growth, climatic variations and so on. Such conflict analysis tends to limit conflict resolution to tackling the causes of ecological degradation. The proposed conflict resolution mechanisms are thus more technical than economic or political. For example, better water management, soil conservation, reforestation, family planning to curb population growth, etc. The
lembongjd

From child soldier to role model - 3 views

www.christianaid.org.uk/...soldier-turned-role-model.aspx

child soldier sudan lost war

shared by lembongjd on 25 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • lembongjd on 25 Mar 13
     
    Another Former Child Soldier. Peter Bay, quit the army and escaped the war once his comrades died. He had issues catching up with education and now, he is the Principle of Mundri Relif and Development Association. 
James L

The Root Causes of Conflicts in South Sudan - 0 views

www.southsudannewsagency.com/...es-of-conflicts-in-south-sudan

civil war world SPLA contemporary crisis causes root facts international war south sudan culture tribes slavery Dinka history lost news people

shared by James L on 25 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • I wish to inform all of you that the root causes of internal conflicts among Southern Sudanese from the past governments to this present government of Southern Sudan are based on an unfair allocation of positions (question of power) and resources on geographical and ethnical basis. One single tribe has always maintained a dominant role over other tribes. South Sudan; as it’s known locally and internationally, is a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society with more than sixty (68) ethnic groups. If the majority do not consider the importance (or role) of minority groups, then problems or tribal conflicts shall always be on the rise until this question of power and or resources is addressed accordingly, and in a pragmatic manner.
lembongjd

Former Sudan Child Soldier Emmanuel Jal to Speak Out on Global Arms Trade Treaty with A... - 2 views

www.amnestyusa.org/...ade-treaty-with-amnesty-intern

sudan child soldier former

shared by lembongjd on 25 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • lembongjd on 25 Mar 13
     
    Emmanual Jal, a former child soldier talks about is horrors of being a front line soldier and always depending on his ak-47 which is taller than him and the harsh trip without any supplies. 
Connor R

'I was a child soldier in Sudan - I suffered' - The National - 1 views

www.thenational.ae/...ld-soldier-in-sudan-i-suffered

child soldier

shared by Connor R on 22 Feb 13 - No Cached
  • describes being emotionally scarred after spending three years toting an assault rifle, witnessing atrocities and watching his comrades get shot and killed during his time as a child soldier in a Sudanese resistance army.
  • put his past behind him and assist children who remain enlisted in the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) to ditch their Kalashnikovs and embrace civilian life.
  • the SPLA evacuated Mr Achiek, aged 12, to a refugee camp in neighbouring Ethiopia for schooling before he was trained to use an AK47 among various assault rifles and weapons and returned to his war-torn region as a 16-year-old soldier
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • "I have suffered beyond description and it required great personal effort to come out of that and be able to talk today," said Mr Achiek. "These are situations that somebody cannot recover from. They are among the worst things that can happen to human beings. But life continues and you have to struggle and see things positively.
  • lembongjd on 22 Feb 13
     
    A 34 Year Old Officer, working for the UN Agency has been a child soldier in Sudan for 3 years. Holding his assault rifle watching his comrades die, emotionally scarred him.
  • Connor R on 25 Feb 13
     
    Former child solider who suffered from war is now working with UN to stop children becoming soldiers. 
Connor R

Former Boy Soldier Turns Olympian | Care2 Causes - 1 views

www.care2.com/...oy-soldier-turns-olympian.html

child soldier sudan causes turns soldier war news

shared by Connor R on 01 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • a group of soldiers stormed a church service he was attending with his family and snatched him away to become a child soldier.
  • All around me, other soldiers herded boys and girls and teenagers toward the trucks while yelling for everyone to speed up. I turned around. My mother and father were off of the ground, chasing after me. Tears ran down their faces. They were not alone. All across our church, parents chased their children, weeping and wailing. “Please do not take our children,” they begged. One especially giant soldier swung back around toward our crying parents. He waved his gun in the air and screamed, “One more step closer and we will open fire!”
  • Connor R on 01 Mar 13
     
    This article tells the story of a former child soldier who became an olympian for the US
lembongjd

2 000 child soldiers in South Sudan - UN | News24 - 0 views

www.news24.com/...ers-in-South-Sudan-UN-20120316

child soldiers spla

shared by lembongjd on 22 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • lembongjd on 22 Mar 13
     
    Talks about the 2000 child soldiers still roaming around and the SPLA on the UN's black list.
Sarah G

Lost Boys- They poured fire on us from the sky - 1 views

www.npr.org/...story.php

lost boys Stories sudan journey desert trek

shared by Sarah G on 22 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • The war, which began in 1983, pitted the country's Arab and Muslim northern government against the largely Christian and animist black tribes of the south.
  • The conflict displaced an estimated 5 million Sudanese. Of these, about 20,000 were young boys orphaned by the war who trekked barefoot across the country to refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia. Without parents to care for them, they banded together to survive — and are known as the "lost boys of Sudan."
  • n late 2000, a group of 4,000 lost boys were relocated to the United States.
  • ...20 more annotations...
  • In the days after we crossed the River Nile, water became precious. It was the dry season: the grasses were brown and the rivers dry with dust. Nearly all the animals were gone except lions, snakes and the vultures that always hovered above, waiting. If you sat in the grass to rest, they thought you were dying and they'd come down and sit close by because they were used to finding corpses in the grass.
  • When I wanted to forget walking and sit down, someone would say, "Carry on. I can hear a cock crowing from the next village." I'd force my eyes wide open but all I could see were little boys like me, only heads and hips, staggering along.
  • We passed through a village one afternoon and came upon a little boy sitting under a tree crying miserably.
  • "Who is this little boy crying?" Kuany asked a soldier standing nearby. "He wants to go to Ethiopia with the other boys. He has nobody to look after him." "Where are his parents?"
  • "Two years ago a bomb blasted his house. Both his parents were killed but we pulled him out of the burning house and brought him to this village. He was so small he could not yet talk. He doesn't know the name of his parents or if he has brothers and sisters."
  • Kuany bent down to the little boy. "What is your name?" "Monyde," he sniffled. "I come with you?" "We can't look after him," the soldier said. "We're leaving here and he's too little to walk into the desert." "I can go," insisted Monyde. "I want to go." I was surprised at his boldness for such a young boy. "He's not taken care of in this village," said the soldier. "He's always beaten by other kids who have parents. He's tried to leave with a lot of passersby, but they said he was too young to survive the journey across Ajakageer. He's been left in the world without hope of anyone caring for him."
  • He made people laugh with childish questions. He was a little comedian.
  • Everything around us looked ugly and wild. We couldn't find happiness in ourselves, and no one could put it in us.
  • That day I became exhausted and fell back. I couldn't keep up, although there were still many people behind me. From out of nowhere many antelope ran toward me in a cloud of dust. I was scared and stood still, not knowing what to do. A voice behind me yelled, "Move out of there." But it was too late to move. As they were about to run me over, the leading antelope saw me standing there in my red underwear and skipped aside just before knocking me down.
  • "That leading antelope saved your life," said a soldier. "They could have danced all over you." "Go after them," I told him. "Shoot us some animals with a fire eye from your gun. Even monkeys. Go shoot."
  • The only talk among us became the huge desert that lay ahead. More than halfway to Ethiopia, everyone feared and dreaded this most dangerous part of our journey, the desert of Ajakageer.
  • The youngest boys were selected to ride on the tanker. I had never ridden on a vehicle before. The first one I saw in the village came so noisily, running fast and raising clouds of dust, that I ran from my goats. I came out of hiding after the dust clouds subsided, having forgotten my goats, and printed my feet along the tire tread marks. I kept my eyes on where the vehicle had gone, amazed by how fast it ran and knowing that if it returned, I couldn't outrun it and that it might knock me up into the trees.
  • When the tanker started moving, I saw that the trees were running backward. I was so scared from the rocking about that I grabbed a soldier's clothes to keep myself from falling, which annoyed him.
  • That night, in the desert of Ajakageer, Benjamin and Emmanuel fell off the tanker and we had to shout loud to get the tanker to stop so they could climb back on. An hour later Monyde fell off. We shouted again but this time our weak voices from the back of the tanker were not heard by the driver, who was plunging in and out of the desert holes made by the mud during rainy seasons. The soldiers banged and banged on the cab, but the driver was drunk and he did not hear for a very long time.
  • That evening the driver let me back on the truck because there was a night and a half day's walk until the next village where we might find water. The road narrowed and the driver had difficulty following what was a footpath. Sometimes he lost his way. Then he would turn round to find the track again and begin following it once more.
  • In the middle of the night we ran into three lions. The driver blew the horn to scare them, but they didn't move until the soldiers fired their guns. They ran into the grass, but a few minutes later one lion jumped onto the tanker and nearly pulled a boy off.
  • Monyde, who had been given a bowl of water, brought it to me so that I could drink and wash my eyes. I was so grateful for that.
  • At night I usually slept on the gravel road because the wet grass made my skin itch. When we were told we had to walk three more days to reach the last town in Sudan on the border of Ethiopia, I fell asleep wondering if I could make it through the rest of the desert, or if I would be one of the ones to end up under a skulls tree.
  • After Monyde gave me water at the river we became best friends and traveled together in the following days. I believed that he would be a good leader when he grew up because even though he was very young, I got courage from him because he never complained of any difficulties.
  • At Pochala, after walking three days, Monyde suddenly became sick. They said it was yellow fever. Kuany did everything he could to help Monyde, but he died in only two days. He'd crossed that whole desert, even though they said he couldn't do it. He'd survived when many big people died. But we buried him just a half mile from safety. I was so sad to lose my brave friend. I knew I would never forget him. We suffered another sadness in Pochala when the SPLA conscripted Kuany, who had been caring for us. Without our uncle, it was really not safe for us, little boys alone. Without Monyde and Kuany, I was beginning to give up hope that we could survive.
  • Sarah G on 22 Mar 13
     
    This is an excerpt from the book 'They poured fire on us from the sky' written by Alephonsion Deng (a lost boy) and Judy Bernstein. The excerpt features the personal thoughts and experiences of Alephonsion Deng, and his walk across the desert. Good if you're researching or looking for the stories of the lost boys.
Yi Ting

John Bul Dau - National Geographic - 0 views

www.nationalgeographic.com/...john-bul-dau

sudan Dinka John Bul Dau lost boys lost_boys information facts escape walk ethopia humanitarian national geographic

shared by Yi Ting on 22 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • In 1987, at age 13, Dau fled his home in southern Sudan, narrowly escaping troops sent to exterminate all black Christian males. As his village was burned, women raped, children enslaved, and young men shot, Dau began a perilous journey spanning more than 1,000 miles and 14 years.
  • but when the government was overthrown, they fled across the Gilo River back to Sudan.
  • "Rebels were shooting at us, so we had to dive into water infested with crocodiles," Dau recounts. "Thousands of boys were eaten, drowned, shot, or captured."
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • "When the bombardment became unbearable we moved south." Many were killed or abducted before reaching a refugee camp in Kenya, where Dau spent the next ten years. "There, at age 17, I started my formal education, writing letters and numbers with sticks in the dirt."
  • "We chewed tall grasses and ate mud to stay alive," Dau remembers. "I was barefoot and wearing no clothes; at night the desert was so cold. We thought about our parents all the time."
  • "I feel I survived because God wants to do something with my life," Dau shares. "I don't want to waste any of the time I have left. So many people are still in Sudan needing clinics, schools, and churches. I cannot forget them."
  • "On my first trip to the supermarket I couldn't believe there was an entire aisle of food for cats and dogs. At home, even people have no food."
  • My family in Sudan thought I was dead and I feared they were dead, but 20 years later we were reunited. You can't give up."
  • "With peace everything is possible, but it must be protected, not just for Sudan but for all peace-loving people in the world. Hope must not be lost. All those miles in the desert, I always said maybe tomorrow will not be like this."
  • Yi Ting on 22 Mar 13
     
    John Bul Dau is an emerging humanitarian who had joined the thousands of boys in their journey across Sudan on foot. There are several quotes in this that will offer a Lost Boy's perspective.
lembongjd

Darfur Child Soldiers - Sudan - YouTube - 0 views

www.youtube.com/watch

child soldiers sudan war

shared by lembongjd on 22 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • lembongjd on 22 Mar 13
     
    This video talks about children's lives as child soldiers and their  own perspective on what happened. This video interviews the people who take care of former child soldiers and people who witnessed the child soldiers in actions. 
Glen Varghese

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights - 0 views

www.un.org/udhr

UN Human Rights Freedom

shared by Glen Varghese on 22 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
  • Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
  • Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
  • Glen Varghese on 22 Mar 13
     
    These are the Human Rights laid out by the UN and they demand that these rights have been given to the people.
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