Category Archives: Freedom

ROANOKE, VA --

Columbus Day for many means a day off from work, but for some local bankers it was a day spent volunteering in the community.

The sound of a sidewalk edger isn't typically what Freedom First Credit Union Employees hear at work, but on a bank holiday they're spending their day off with tools in hand.

Teams were out across the Roanoke and New River Valleys, but there's a particular interest at the West End Center.

This is actually not our first year serving in this area and so we're seeing each year a little bit more towards this improvement and then we're also able to see what the vision is for 5-10 years down the road, explained Sarah Andrews, COO of Freedom First Credit Union.

That vision includes a new community center with a Freedom First Credit Union inside helping spark economic development in the area.

The goal with the revitalization project in West End is to connect it to the growth that's happening in the Grandin Village area to the growth that's happening down the road in downtown Roanoke.

My hope is this is a place that people want to come. That as we kind of plant a branch here and development starts to happen economically with businesses starting to pop up in this corridor that this could be a place that in 8 to 10 years where people come to do shopping, to go to restaurants, to go to a coffee shop, to get everything that they need done, said Rod Nunez, Freedom First Credit Union Vice President of Community Development.

Getting employees out in West End allows them to see firsthand the area their company is investing in.

I think that the employees that are new to the company really begin to see that we're not just about lip service that we actually come out and serve in many capacities, Andrews said.

More here:
Freedom First Credit Union employees clean up West End area

Its time to speak out against religious freedom.

Or, to be precise, against its promotion and the way its used. To those of us who believe freedoms should be absolute and robust, and are ardently opposed to the persecution of people for their beliefs, this might sound like an odd proposition. What could be more benign than another freedom?

2012: Tainted

But Canada is within days of opening a federal Office of Religious Freedom (within the Department of Foreign Affairs), and its becoming apparent that this isnt a good idea for our country or the world. In fact, its very likely to contribute to the very problems we hope it might help solve.

We might as well face it: When groups of people exercise their self-proclaimed religious freedoms, terrible things tend to happen. The phrase religious freedom is evoked by Hindu nationalist parties in India to justify killing rampages in Muslim neighbourhoods, by the Buddhist-majority government of Sri Lanka to imprison members of the countrys Hindu minority, by Jewish religious parties in Israel to call for the denial of Israeli Muslims full citizenship rights, and by crowds of Salafists and Islamists in Egypt bent on ruining the lives of Coptic Christians.

For the ardent religious believer and the organized, hierarchical religious organization, religious freedom often refers to the right to restrict the freedoms of others, or to impose ones religion on the larger world.

Thats why the most important religious freedom is freedom from religion. This applies not just to those without religion. Its even more important for believers, who are most often persecuted by other faiths. In those examples of persecution listed above, its protection from a religion not more freedom for believers thats needed.

The problem is that religious freedom is deliberately vague. Does it refer to the freedom of individuals to hold religious beliefs of their choice, to speak and write openly of those beliefs without penalty, and to partake in religious rituals on private property and at places of worship?

Those are fundamental rights. Theyre already protected in constitutional freedoms of speech, thought, conscience, assembly and basic equality. That our Constitution specifies a separate freedom of religion is redundant. That we would use a government office to promote religion above other freedoms is dangerous: It implies that theyre less important.

While Canadas Office of Religious Freedom will certainly be capable of defending people against the forces of religion (and Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird mentions this possibility in his speeches), it appears to be hard-wired to do something far less benign. Its advisers and board members appear to be mainly religious believers and leaders of religious congregations.

See more here:
Doug Saunders: ‘Religious freedom’ sends the wrong message to the wrong people

As November's general elections approach, Freedom Township Board of Trustees candidates are all going in uncontested.

Freedom Township Supervisor Dale Weidmayer, Clerk Jennifer Alexa and trustees Dennis E. Huehl and Daniel L. Schaible are incumbents and are running for their respective positions without opposition.

Treasurer candidate Rudy T. Layher is the only non-incumbent on the ballot. He won his place on the ballot during the primary elections in August by ousting then-incumbent Ken Siler.

All five candidates will likely take office after the elections unless Independent or write-in candidates come forth to gain the majority of votes.

Heritage Media emailed a questionnaire to each of Freedom Township's candidates. Weidmayer, Alexa, Layher and Schaible did not respond.

Name and city or township of residence: Dennis Huehl, Freedom Township

Occupation and educational background: Dairy and cash crop farmer and high school graduate.

Office you are seeking: Township trustee

Political affiliation: Republican

Age: 57 Continued...

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ELECTION PREVIEW: Freedom Township candidates running uncontested

ANHRI's Report on the Freedom of Expression During Mohamed Morsi's Rule

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information "ANHRI" exposes the absence of the regime's political will in Egypt, under the rule of the first civilian-elect president, to respect the freedom of opinion, expression and freedom of the press after three months of Morsi's rule. Egypt had experienced most of the violations against the freedom of expression, with its all branches, starting from the physical assaults against the critics and media-staff, legal prosecution, Hisbah cases and censorship and confiscation. Such violations arouses a lot of huge concerns regarding the future of the freedom of expression and democracy in the near future.

Despite that Dr. Mohamed Morsi did not guarantee the freedom of expression or the freedom of the press among the issues of which he promised in the first 100 days of his rule, but we know and understand that. Such understand stems from that the freedom of expression needs a long time to reconsider the importance of it. In particularly, after long years of the tyrant military rule or its a value considered by the Islamic trend, of which Morsi belongs to, as a synonymous with insolence and insult to the leaders and the rulers of the country.

Therefore, the report issued today entitled (we do not hostile or care about it: Freedom of Expression in the Rule of the First Civilian-elect President, After Three Months).

It cares primarily, despite it monitors some of the violations against freedom of expression, about

search for any indicator or evidence related to the availability of the political will to respect the freedom or expression and the freedom of the press. ANHRI did not found any of these indicators or evidences.

Today and before the first end of the 100 days of Morsi, as the first civilian-elect president after the popular revolution that was respected by all over the globe, we found ourselves in the position, with deep sorrow, to declare that what have conducted against freedom of expression does not need time to wait more, but it needs to set the alarm strongly and quickly!!

Freedom of expression, with all of its branches, is in danger in Egypt;

cases, physical assaults, confiscation, censorship, Hisbah and blockade to creativity!!

Egypt had witnessed all kinds of violations. As any progress, development in the standard of living of the citizen or protecting his civil and political rights will be counted in the favor of the president so any deterioration or violation will be counted against the president as well. The serious violations suffered by the writers, journalists and critics will be counted against the Morsi and declare the absence of the political will to respect these rights; freedom of expression on the top of it.

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Egypt: Freedom of Expression Is in Danger and the Coming Is the Most Dangerous

Thursday, October 4, 2012

The 14th annual Freedom Sings concert last night at the Bluebird Caf in Nashville celebrated the thought-provoking music of the early 1970s.

Freedom Sings, a First Amendment Center program that strives to educate the public about First Amendment freedoms through topical and often controversial songs, began in 1999. It has since branched into a touring company that appears on college campuses, but the original concert remains an annual event.

Among the performances at this years concert, dubbed The Watergate Years:

Former Beatles were well represented, including songs by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Lari White performed Woman is the Nigger of the World, explaining that Dick Cavett had to apologize for the song on his television show before Lennon and Yoko Ono were allowed to sing it. The song is recognized as one of the earliest pop songs about equal rights for women. Paul McCartneys Hi Hi Hi, banned by the BBC because a censor misunderstood the word polygon as body gun, was performed by Gordon Kennedy.

Other performers included Don Henry, Mark Volman, Bill Lloyd, Gretchen Peters, Suzi Ragsdale, Seth Timbs, Jason White, Craig Krampf, Dave Pomeroy and Walter Egan.

The evening closed with Jonell Mosser leading the assembled performers and audience in a rousing version of the OJays Love Train.

Tags: Freedom Sings, music, music censorship, music lyrics

Excerpt from:
Freedom Sings rocks Bluebird with ‘Watergate Years’

In the last few weeks the world has witnessed the response to an evil, insulting and abhorrent movie that atbodyted to malign the noble character of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Such insult to a religious icon has brought about overwhelming condemnation, and we believe that the vast majority of Americans disapprove of such atbodyts to sow seeds of hatred among people of different faiths and ethnic backgrounds. We would like to help our fellow citizens understand the complicated yet extremely sensitive nature of the whole situation. This in no way should be seen as condoning any violence in the name of our religion. There are approximately 1.6 billion Muslims in the world today, representing different ethnicities and speaking different languages.

The American Muslim population is estimated to comprise almost every ethnicity of the world. What unites them is their faith in God Almighty and their belief in Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) as the last Prophet of God.

Muslims all over the world love the Prophet (pbuh). This love for him takes precedence over the love of their own families and even love for themselves. They regard him as a man who, through amazing moral strength and absolute commitment to the Message of God, brought about a revolution in the deserts of Arabia. A revolution that spanned the entire world in less than 100 years, liberating humanity from the tyranny of the few and liberating man from the servitude of the creation to the servitude of the Creator.

God Almighty declared Muhammad (pbuh) a Mercy to the Worlds (Quran: Chapter 21 Verse 107). He was known as The trustworthy and The one who always speaks the truth, even among his enemies. He was the man who gave the honor of making the very first call to prayer to a former black Abyssinian slave while the rich and the aristocrats of Arabia stood watching by. His noble character is described in the Quran as one with exalted standard of character (Quran: Chapter 68, Verse 4).

Muslims believe that the message of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was the same as the message brought by previous Prophets like Abraham, Moses and Jesus (peace be upon them). They also love and respect these Prophets of God, because the Quran says: Insult to any of these religious icons is an insult to their belief system itself. (Chapter 6 Verse 108)

When someone insults a messenger of God, it hurts all Muslims. The Muslim community has always welcomed intellectual and scholarly discourse on Islam, and history is witness to the fact that Muslim scholars debated in a civil manner with scholars from other faiths. But there is a difference between an intellectual and scholarly criticism and distasteful, cheap and offensive talk.

As Americans, we understand the importance of the right to free speech and freedom of expression. American Muslims value this right on behalf of every American citizen and would never shy away from ever defending this right. We also feel that this right to free speech should be seen as a great responsibility. Freedom of expression and willful provocation will have different outcomes, and such is the case of free speech and hate speech. The right to freedom of expression should not be an opportunity to spread hate and pass insults on sacred religious icons. American society is mature enough to recognize that hate speech is not acceptable.

The Bible says: There is one who speaks rashly like the thrusts of a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. (Proverbs 12:18, New American Standard Bible 1995)

Let us all as Americans unite in bringing about the healing that is desperately needed in our global village today.

The above statement is made by the Islamic Circle of North America on the anti-Islam film vis--vis freedom of expression.

Original post:
Freedom of speech is not a license to spread hatred

OCT 5 Malaysia and Libya have the same Internet freedom ranking, which is 23 out of 47 countries. We trail behind countries such as the Philippines, Ukraine, Georgia, Uganda and Kyrgyzstan.

This is according to a recent study done by Freedom House, an independent watchdog organisation that monitors freedom around the world, called Freedom on the Net 2012.

In fact, the report even puts Malaysia under its list of countries at risk, which consists of another five countries (Russia, Sri Lanka, Libya, Azerbaijan, Pakistan and Rwanda).

Malaysia definitely didnt start out this way when it came to Internet freedom. It started with former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamads declaration that the country would never censor the Internet.

Fast forward about a decade later, Malaysia has sort of still stayed true to the promise made by the old man even if he has retired from office.

But I guess the powers-that-be didnt anticipate the good that would come to the Malaysian people and its society with having an Internet that is free.

The 12th general election in 2008 was proof of this as many believed that Internet freedom was what caused Barisan Nasional to lose four states and its two-thirds majority in Parliament.

And so, they started devising about a gazillion other strategies that they could use and manipulate to slowly curtail that promised freedom.

And these same gazillion strategies are what Freedom House says is affecting Malaysias Internet freedom ranking adversely this year.

Section 114A, which I have written about, is at the top of the list. It basically means the owner of the computer or even a wifi network can be liable for content posted by others.

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Internet freedom: It’s not that bad lah!

Opthalmic products developer Freedom Meditech Inc. of San Diego plans to use a recently secured $2 million line of credit from Silicon Valley Bank to ramp up manufacturing and distribution of its ClearPath DS-120 Lens Fluorescence Biomicroscope.

The ClearPath DS-120, which is currently under regulatory review in the U.S. and European Union, is designed to evaluate the crystalline lens of the human eye in order to detect chronic disease such as diabetes.

SVBs due diligence on our ClearPath DS-120 showed a strong mix of proven technology, market opportunity and just how far we have come in reducing manufacturing, regulatory and marketing risk for the product, said Craig Misrach, chairman and CEO of Freedom Meditech. The financing provided by SVB is a springboard to launch this new and exciting product in the global health care marketplace.

Terms of the credit facility include an initial disbursement with additional funds available upon attaining certain milestones. The transaction comes as the company waits for its Series B financing round to close.

Freedom Meditech said in a statement that it plans to launch the ClearPath in international markets with an initial focus on countries that accept the CE Mark and CSA Certification Mark. The CE Mark is required to sell in the 27 countries that comprise the European Union and is a gateway to other nonregulated markets. CSA certification is required to sell in Canada and is an entre to certain Latin American markets. The product is also under FDA 510(k) review.

The ClearPath DS-120 incorporates the use of proprietary biophotonic spectroscopy to detect autofluorescence of the crystalline lens of the eye. The ClearPath non-invasively scans blue light into the lens of the eye in less than six seconds and produces a result immediately at the point of care. The company says the test is painless, requires no special preparation such as fasting, and produces no bio-hazardous waste or disposal cost.

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Freedom Meditech Forges Ahead With New Credit Line

An Australian customs official with Sri Lankan refugees on board the Oceanic Viking. Photo: Reuters

MY feelings are dead. I have my body and my soul only. All my parts of the body are now stopped working properly. Hearing, looking, tasting and all the feelings are gone and I am living without anything. So says Arjuna.

Arjuna writes to stay sane, but feels like he is losing the battle. He survives on a diet of sleeping tablets and tries to keep thoughts of self-harm at bay by thinking of the wife and child he was forced to leave behind in Sri Lanka.

He wrote the words above on the eve of a court decision that will determine his fate and that of more than 50 asylum seekers, most of them Tamils like himself who have been found to be refugees but face the prospect of a life without liberty. They are owed Australia's protection under international law, but have been deemed threats to national security by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation.

Ranjini

This afternoon, the High Court will hand down its decision on a challenge by Arjuna to ASIO's refusal to spell out why they say he is a security threat, and the Gillard government's decision to detain him indefinitely.

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Arjuna (not his real name) is 36 and has been in detention in Australia for three years. The others are being held in detention centres as remote as Port Augusta in South Australia, and in Broadmeadows, Maribyrnong and Sydney. They include Ranjini, the pregnant mother of two young boys, and two other family groups with small children.

Arjuna fled his homeland in 2006 and registered his name with the United Nations' refugee agency in Indonesia in July, 2009. After four months of inaction, he paid a people smuggler to take him by boat to Christmas Island and, with 80 others, was taken on board a customs vessel, the Oceanic Viking, on October 18 after the boat was intercepted.

When the Oceanic Viking took them to an Indonesian port, the asylum seekers refused to disembark and a month-long stand-off ended only after a commitment that those found to be refugees would be resettled within another month.

See the article here:
Freedom or a life without liberty

Democratic governments must protect the freedom of the internet - even when it provokes crises like the recent anti-Islamic video, Foreign Secretary William Hague said.

Addressing an international cyberspace conference in Budapest, he said states should always "err on the side of freedom", even when they found online content offensive or objectionable.

Mr Hague acknowledged the difficulties caused by postings such as the amateur trailer made in the United States which portrayed the Prophet Mohammad as a womaniser and a fool. It was, he said, a "contemptible piece of work" and he deplored the deaths which occurred in the riots which it provoked across the Muslim world.

He warned, however, that attempts by governments to block access to such material were counterproductive and doomed to failure.

"We believe that efforts to suppress the internet are wrong and are bound to fail over time," he said. "Governments who attempt this are erecting barricades against an unstoppable tide, and acting against their own long-term economic interests and their security.

"Democratic governments must resist the calls to censor a wide range of content just because they or others find it offensive or objectionable. If we go down that path, we begin to erode the hard won rights of freedom of expression. We will always argue that is its necessary to err on the side of freedom."

At the same time, Mr Hague announced the UK was establishing a 2 million cyber security centre offering advice to countries on how to protect their systems against online criminals who threaten the future economic well-being of states and major companies.

It will draw on the expertise of a network of eight universities currently conducting cutting-edge research on the issue and act as a forum to draw together initiatives from around the world.

"Cyber criminals and terrorists should have no refuge online, just as they should have no sanctuary offline," Mr Hague said.

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Hague champions internet freedom