Re: Resilient Iraqis ask what civil war?

Herbert Cannon wrote:

I do not condemn the Christianity, I condemn the behavior of
exploiting and perverting Christianity for political and economic gain
and the ensuing imperialism that comes from it.


I just love it when you do one of those crocus snocus of yours. Why no not me the Hal condemning Christians. I just condemn Christians.

and I was right, you don't even know what the word means.


It is not even part of your vocabulary you two faced weasel worder.


By Pascal Fletcher for Reuters:

NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) - They do not wear chains, nor are they branded with the mark of their masters, but slaves still exist in Mauritania.

In the Saharan Islamic state, a centuries-old system of bondage is resisting the rise of democracy in the largely desert former French colony.

Herding camels or goats out in the sun-blasted dunes of the Sahara, or serving hot mint tea to guests in the richly carpeted villas of Nouakchott, Mauritanian slaves serve their masters and are passed on as family chattels from generation to generation.

They may number thousands, anti-slavery activists say. A shocking anomaly in the 21st century, this is widely accepted in a racially diverse, hierarchical society dominated by a Moorish elite and a brand of Islam that preaches submission.

"It's like having sheep or goats. If a woman is a slave, her descendants are slaves," said Boubacar Messaoud, who was born a slave and is now his country's leading anti-slavery campaigner.

He says a 1981 decree outlawing slavery is a dead letter and slavery is alive in Mauritania, with all its manifestations of non-paid work, punishment, forced sex and other abuses.

Mauritania's military rulers, who are handing over to civilian rule in democratic elections, shy away from discussing the issue and prefer to talk of "vestiges of slavery."

Some members of the light-skinned elite which has traditionally ruled the country deny slavery exists at all. Questions about it can draw anger, mistrust and silence.

But anti-slavery campaigners say the master-slave relationship and its social repercussions are branded into the minds of all Mauritanians, just as class-consciousness still haunts social discourse in Britain and other European states....

Yes, just like that, I'm sure.

"There is slavery in our country, in all of our society. You need laws to eliminate it. The fact people try to hide what exists just complicates things," said Messaoud Ould Boulkheir, a black Mauritanian and descendant of slaves.

"It doesn't have to have chains to be there," added Boulkheir, who ran for the presidency in an election this month, finishing fourth out of 19 candidates.

"BORN A SLAVE"

In Nouakchott's sprawling, dirt-poor slums, most of whose inhabitants are black, the testimonies about enduring slavery are repeated, and heartfelt.

"Yes, it's true," said Abdarahman Ould Mohamed Abd, 52, a street vendor sitting outside his ramshackle hut. "In the interior of the country, it's the worst. You see it in the way some people treat others. Sometimes, they (the masters) have even killed children," he added.

His own surname means "son of Mohamed Slave" as "Abd" is the Arabic word for slave.

"It comes from a long way back. But it should end," he said....

Historians say slavery developed in Mauritania from the 7th century, when Arab invaders pushed south into Sub-Saharan Africa, bringing their Islamic religion which explicitly allowed the enslavement of non-believers.

This blossomed into a Trans-Saharan Slave Trade that captured black Africans several centuries before the peak of the European-run Atlantic Slave Trade. Some historians argue the practice of slavery already existed in black Africa.

This religious sanctioning of slavery -- and the establishment of Arabicised Berber ruling castes whose wealth was partially based on it -- has marked Mauritanian society.

"There is a racial policy here ... It's the politics of domination," said Boulkheir, adding that Islamic law and succession rights guaranteed the perpetuation of slavery, passing on ownership from master to son.

He said the 1981 ban "doesn't exist" in practice. "It gives the right of compensation to the master," he added.

"The state has never prosecuted anyone. We need a law that criminalizes slavery," Messaoud said.

The activists said they had asked the outgoing junta head, Col. Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, to include a prohibition of slavery in the constitution, but he rejected the idea.
---------------------
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Two Sudanese women have been sentenced to death by stoning for adultery after a trial in which they had no lawyer and which used Arabic, not their first language, the rights group Amnesty International said.

Sadia Idriss Fadul was sentenced on February 13 and Amouna Abdallah Daldoum on March 6 and their sentences could be carried out at any time, the London-based group said in a statement released late on Monday.

North Sudan implements Islamic sharia law.

"The women had no lawyer during their trial and were not able to defend themselves, as their first languages are those of their ethnic groups," Amnesty said.

Both women are from non-Arab tribes but the proceedings were in Arabic and no interpreter was provided, Amnesty said. Their trial took place in central Al Gezira state.

"One of the women, Sadia Idriss Fadul, has one of her children with her in prison," Amnesty said.

Faysal el-Bagir, a Sudanese human rights activist, said sentences of death by stoning were rare, "but we have heard that in this area there have been other such judgments."

The male accused in Fadul's case was let off because there was not enough evidence against him. Witnesses are usually required to gain a conviction and forensic tests are not normally used in such cases.

The testimony of four male witnesses is the standard for establishing guilt in sexual offenses under Sharia law, per Qur'an 4:15, 24:4, 24:6, and 24:13.

Under Sudan's penal code, anyone who is married and has sex outside wedlock shall be punished by execution by stoning. If they are unmarried, they are lashed, Amnesty said.

El-Bagir said that in another case in Sudan's western Darfur region about two years ago, a woman sentenced to death by stoning had her punishment reduced to lashing after a public campaign by rights activists.
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