QALQILIYA (Ma’an) -- Residents of a conservative northern West Bank city were surprised when security forces detained a controversial blogger whose postings on Facebook had infuriated Muslims.Arabs following my blog seem to feel the same way about the following statement as it sort of describes me rather well:
A high-ranking source in the general Palestinian intelligence services told Ma’an that the detainee, who was not identified, was arrested in Qalqiliya. He refused to give specific details and would not identify the detainee. However, Ma’an has learned from other security sources that the man “who claimed divinity” is a 25-year-old university student.
The sources say security services have pursued the man for more than two months until they finally caught him at an internet café in Qalqiliya while updating his Facebook profile on which he claimed he was God and that he was angry with his subjects.
Conservative Muslims had been angrily following the blogger's postings, many of them altered verses from the Koran, the Muslim holy book, as well as caricatures of the prophet Muhammad that had been published in Danish newspapers. Hundreds of Facebook groups had asked that the man's account be deleted. After Facebook closed his group, the young man started a blog, Enlightenment of Reason.
Although he had not been identified by the PA, supporters of the blogger have indicated that he is 26 years old. He has identified himself as Waleed Al-Husseini and, in an August blog post, defended his beliefs.
"Muslims often ask me why I left Islam," he wrote. "What strikes me is that Muslims can’t seem to understand that renouncing Islam is a choice offered to everyone and that anyone has the right to do so. They believe anyone who leaves Islam is an agent or a spy for a Western State, namely the Jewish State, and that they get paid bundles of money by the governments of these countries and their secret services. They actually don’t get that people are free to think and believe in whatever suits them."
He added: "I would like to emphasize that by writing this article, I did not mean to imply that Christianity or Judaism were better than Islam, and the reader should not fool himself into thinking that I only reject Islam among religions, all of which are to me a bunch of mind-blowing legends and a pile of nonsense that compete with each other in terms of stupidity.
Although secular political beliefs are not uncommon in the occupied Palestinian territories, the expression of views seen as hostile to the dominant religion is viewed by many as incitement rather than free speech."
The positions taken by the blogger were so out of the mainstream that many in Qalqiliya were surprised to learn that he was Palestinian.OK, so I'm not Palestinian...
The film is one big libel scene from start to finish, and is typical of new winds of Jihad and anti-Zionism blowing through Turkey.But not only did the activist try to trick people into believing that the photos were connected, the NY Times leaves out is that there are photos that the ISMer are publishing about Rachel Corrie that were simply photoshopped."The day that Ms. Corrie was killed, her fellow activists sent two photographs of her to news agencies that were then transmitted around the world. The first one showed her standing in an orange jacket with a bullhorn addressing an approaching bulldozer, and the second showed her crumpled on the ground, near death. The clear implication was that the two pictures were sequential, whereas the first was shot hours earlier with a different bulldozer. "
"The Israelis say the houses in question were the source of sniper fire and arms-smuggling tunnels. Ms. Corrie, by contrast, wrote e-mails home saying that the families she met were gentle people whose houses had been shot at and whose children were harassed for no reason."
Apparently the Corries have no problem with the way their daughter's memory has been "hijacked". Which is not surprising as they are doing the same.
"Asked what she thought of how her sister was viewed, she said her family did not consider itself anti-Israel and was not responsible for the way in which Ms. Corrie’s name had been used by groups and causes. "
Cindy Corrie, founder of Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace & Justice:
We at the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice salute the Olympia Food Co-op Board of Directors for their recent decision to institute a boycott of Israeli goods. We also applaud community and co-op members who have advocated on behalf of this measure.
The Rachel Corrie Memorial Committee of Victoria Invites you to a pancake breakfast at Denny’s Restaurant Sunday March 12 , 2006 10 am.
The Public is invited to a memorial pancake breakfast at Denny’s Restaurant on Douglas Street near Finlayson, 10 am, Sunday March 12, 2006 to celebrate the life and untimely death of Rachel Corrie, Peace Activist with the International Solidarity Movement.
There will be a reading of selections from Ms. Corrie’s letters and diary, followed by a ceremony at Topaz Park, where a stone cairn will be erected in her honour.
Attendees are encouraged to wear their keffiahs, and to dress in black.
No weapons, drugs, or alcohol please.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/
ISM offers many ways for you to get involved in the struggle for Palestinian freedom. Whether you’re thinking of traveling to Palestine to work with us, or you’d like to work to educate your community about the reality in Palestine, we welcome your involvement.
My friend RivkA's (from the coffeeandchemo blog) family is getting up from shiva today.
