Year: 2005

Taysir Alluni Sentenced to 7 Years in Jail

A Spanish judge sentenced Al-Jazeera’s correspondent Taysir Alluni to seven years in prison for what they called “collaborating with al-Qaida”.

Alluni, who has insisted on his innocence throughout Europe’s biggest al-Qaida trial, interviewed the group’s leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan weeks after the 11 September 2001 attacks in the United States.

Accused of acting as a financial courier to the group while in Afghanistan, Alluni, who had faced a maximum nine-year term, said in testimony he was only doing his job as a journalist.

A spokesman for the Arab Human Rights Committee confirmed that heavy political pressures were imposed on the court to issue such a sentence and said “There is no single evidence that may lead to such a sentence.”

I think this is totally absurd!
The guy was doing his job as a good journalist who got a chance to interview one of the hottest personalities on earth at that time.
Where is the freedom of press that the West pride themselves of?
Would we have seen the same sentence given out against Christian Amanpour from CNN for example?! I really doubt it!!

An Islamist threat like the Nazis?!!

An Islamist threat like the Nazis

In the September 19th edition of The Washington Times, an article by Tony Blankley, the editorial page editor of, and a weekly columnist for, The Washington Times, claims that the threat of Islam is like that of the Nazis.

He writes:

The threat of the radical Islamists taking over Europe is every bit as great to the United States as was the threat of the Nazis taking over Europe in the 1940s.

Beyond the growing number of Muslims committed to terrorism is the threat from the Islamic diaspora’s growing cultural and religious assertiveness — particularly in largely secular Europe, where Muslim cultural assimilation has not occurred.

…the overwhelming political fact deriving from the ferment in Islam is that, to some degree, some percentage of Muslims are prepared to murder — and are murdering — great numbers in what they feel is their religious duty.

Many more Muslims are, to some degree, supportive or protective of these killers. Even more Muslims, while not supportive of such tactics, share many of the terrorists’ religious convictions and perceptions.

The articles goes on painting muslims as murderers, likening muslims to nazis, and stressing their threat to the US and Europe, then urging Europeans to struggle for survival against Islam even in vigilante ways.

This is totally wrong, unacceptable and racist!
This man should not be allowed to ever write again and should be prosecuted for this article.

Is this the solution the “land of the free”, “the land of democracy, civilization and human rights”, has in mind?
Fight Islam, exterminate all muslims and get rid of them?!
Liken them to nazis and then commit another holocaust against them?! Who’s the nazi then?
And then who’s next, as Mohsan wonders, the Chinese?

[Via: Je Blog]
[Article: ‘An Islamist threat like the Nazis’]

Tunisian Handicrafts

I really admire handicrafts and think they’re marvellous works of art.

I remember when I was a kid, after school, I’d go to my grandmother’s house where I’d have lunch then go for my Arabic lessons. After I was done with my Arabic lessons, I’d just go wandering around discovering new places in the city.

One of the places I discovered and loved passing by every now and then was a little workshop where a number of men would be sitting on stools working on these beautiful copper plates. With a small hammer and chisel, they tapped away, carving all these amazing shapes and texts with magnificent calligraphy.

I’d just say hi and stand there watching and admiring their work. It was really so inspiring.
To this day, whenever I pass through the souks in the old medina of Tunis and see all the copper plates with their different designs, my memories take me back to that little workshop where I saw that art being created.

Copper Plate

President Bush Drinking Again

Faced with the biggest crisis of his political life, President Bush has hit the bottle again, The National Enquirer reveals.

Bush, who said he quit drinking the morning after his 40th birthday, has started boozing amid the Katrina catastrophe.

Bush is under the worst pressure of his two terms in office and his popularity is near an all-time low. The handling of the Katrina crisis and troop losses in Iraq have fueled public discontent and pushed Bush back to drink.

A Washington source said: “The sad fact is that he has been sneaking drinks for weeks now. Laura may have only just caught him

Soccer World Cup Qualifier Tickets Online in Tunisia

Next month, October 8th, will witness one of the hottest soccer games of the year which is the match between Tunisia and Morocco, where both teams will be fighting for the qualification to the World Cup 2006.

Tunisia needs one point to qualify, so a draw is fine. Morocco on the other hand need to win to qualify.

Tickets still aren’t on sale for now at the regular outlets, but 10000 tickets were released for sale online on the site of the Tunisian Football Federation, using the Tunisian Post’s e-Dinar solution, and they all dissapeared in a few hours.
The pressure was so big that the web server was brought down to it’s knees and the site crashed.

I think these soccer match tickets must be the most successful e-commerce effort in Tunisia to this day, as other e-commerce sites haven’t been successful at all.

Maybe sports can make people trust buying online more and fuel a growth in e-commerce in Tunisia. I certainly hope so.

links for 2005-09-23

Bahrain Ends Israel Trade Boycott

Bahrain took the decision to end the boycott of Israeli goods because it is one of the conditions of the free trade agreement with the United States.

Bahrain, which hosts the base of the US Navy’s 5th Fleet, signed the free trade deal with the United States last year, becoming the first Gulf state to do so.

The move makes Bahrain the first of the six Arab states of the Gulf to abolish its trade boycott of Israel, although others, such as Qatar and Oman, have taken limited steps in that direction.

The repeal coincides with signs of a thaw in relations between Israel and Arab and Muslim states following its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

I personally think it’s too early for Arab countries to rush into lifting trade boycotts, building diplomatic relations and being friendly with Israel just because it withdrawed from Gaza.

Things are still not clear enough and a process towards a lasting solution isn’t on track yet.
Until that happens, I think it’s still premature to take any steps towards full normalization with Israel by the Arab countries.

Handbook for Bloggers & Cyber-Dissidents

Reporters Without Borders released a Handbook For Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents yesterday (in English, French, Chinese, Arabic and Persian). Click here to download the full booklet.

The Handbook for Bloggers is for people who want to be serious participants in the emergent online global conversation: How to set up a quality, credible blog. How to get it noticed. And.. if you