Headlines 22/06/2016

Headlines

• Pakistan Identity Crisis

• Terrorism, without being called it.

• Jewish entity Admits Cutting Water Supplies to Palestinians in West Bank

Details

Pakistan Identity Crisis

Pakistan's blasphemy laws have again come under scrutiny as a shopkeeper from Sindh has been arrested for selling shoes containing what appears to be the Hindu symbol "OM". Jahanzaib Khaskhili, the shopkeeper, was arrested on Monday in the southern town of Tando Adam and the shoes, which carried the "Om" symbol, were confiscated, said Farrukh Ali, the district police chief. Pakistan's blasphemy laws make it a crime to insult any religion and have specific sections for defiling the Quran or insulting Islam's Prophet Muhammad that carry a life sentence and mandatory death sentence, respectively. The law was only introduced as a result of public pressure from the Muslim majority population. Despite the Islamic sentiments of the people the blasphemy law is not Islamic in practice, but instead a law to protect liberal freedoms but given an Islamic undertone. A mismatch between Islamic sentiments and liberal law making has resulted in increased pressure being applied by the global community on Pakistan for upholding this law, with it being labelled backward and in need of modernisation.

Terrorism, without being called it.

On Thursday 16th June, Labour MP Jo Cox was murdered by Thomas Mair from West Yorkshire who shouted "put Britain first" before the act. This has come just a week before the Brexit vote the world is in anticipation off. In reality, this was a politically motivated murder which was undertaken by Mair and is described as terrorism according to all international definitions. Despite this, only one newspaper reported it as a terrorist incident with the government being silent on the matter. Despite the government treating it as a terrorist case, this has been kept on the low and has not received any attention if compared to incidents involving Muslim personnel. Whilst the world points to the double standards, it has become apparent that this is in fact an intentional policy by Western nations to marginalise the Muslim community and force them to compromise on their values.

Jewish entity Admits Cutting Water Supplies to Palestinians in West Bank

The Jewish entity Water Authority has confirmed reports that the state-run water company had dramatically cut water supplies to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, saying the hot weather is leading to a localized “shortage.” At the same time, spokesman Uri Schor sought to blame the Palestinians for the problem, saying they hadn’t approved the “additional water infrastructure” and that the shortage only developed because of the limited pipes in the region. The Palestinian Water Authority denied that there were any problems with the pipes, saying USAID had just finished installing new pipelines to serve the population in Hebron and Bethlehem, but that Israel wasn’t sending anywhere near enough water into those areas. Tens of thousands of Palestinians in the area haven’t had running water in over a month and a half how, and many have had to draw from agricultural water sources just to survive. The Jews maintain settlers have complained of “shortages” as well, but indications are that consumption rates within the settlements have simply gone up because of the heat, and it’s not a question of them not having any water.