Category Archives: Government Oppression

Tuesday 11 January 2022 7:00 pm

HSBC should be hit with economic sanctions if it does not sever ties with a firm that is closely linked to the ethnic cleansing of Uyghur Muslims in China, according to senior Tory MP Sir Iain Duncan Smith.

City A.M. can reveal the former Conservative leader and a group of other MPs will write to the Treasury to ask them to take action against HSBC, after it was revealed the British bank is holding 2.2m of shares in a subsidiary of Xinjiang Tianye Group a paramilitary organisation involved in Beijings campaign of oppression against the Muslim minority.

The shares are in the organisations subsidiary Xinjiang Tianye a chemical and plastics company.

The group has been instrumental in helping the Chinese government monitor and detain Uyghurs in a campaign of ethnic cleansing which some international organisations have branded as genocide.

The firm has been hit with a series of sanctions by the White House, which make it illegal for US citizens to do transactions or services for Xinjiang Tianye Group.

This incudes American citizens who work for companies that are based in other countries.

The Sunday Times reports that HSBC makes money from the share holdings as it acts as a custodian for a client, however the bank disputes the value of the share holdings and says it is far below the reported 2.2m.

Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng addressed the issue in parliament today, saying the Treasury has direct ownership of that relationship and its something Im discussing with the chancellor of the Exchequer.

Duncan Smith told City A.M. that chancellor Rishi Sunak should tell HSBC that they must sell the shares, which are being held for an anonymous client, and sanction them if they refuse.

Weve had serious problems with HBSC and I believe they are behaving very badly, he said.

They are in breach of the modern day slavery rules and they are in breach of US sanctions.

There has been growing concern among UK human rights groups about HSBCs involvement with the Chinese government.

The bank supported China in imposing the National Security laws in Hong Kong, which effectively ended freedom of speech in the region.

A senior executive from HSBC which is headquartered in the UK, but does much of its business in Hong Kong explicitly and publicly supported the draconian new laws at the time.

HSBC executive Noel Quinn, shortly before the laws came into place, called for Beijing to stablise the security situation in Hong Kong after more than a year of local protests against the Chinese government.

The bank has also moved to freeze the accounts of pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong under command of local police.

An HSBC spokesperson said: We can confirm that HSBC has not invested in and does not have any proprietary holdings in Xinjiang Tianye Co. Ltd. Xinjiang Tianyes shares are listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and can be traded in Hong Kong through the Shanghai and Hong Kong Stock Connect.

Authorised participants in that system, including financial institutions like HSBC, are required to comply with the applicable rules relevant to the Shanghai and Hong Kong Stock Connect. HSBC complies with all applicable laws and regulations in the jurisdictions in which it operates.

Treasury was contacted for comment.

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Exclusive: Senior Tory calls for UK to mull HSBC sanctions over links to Uyghur oppression - City A.M.

What it took to get racial equity in front of voters and what's left to do.

If the municipal government of New York City got a grade right now for its contributions to racial equity, it would probably be a failing grade though, no worse than any other government.

I would venture to say, by a racial justice standard, the city is an abject failure as it is, says Lurie Daniel Favors, attorney and general director of the Medgar Evers College Center for Law and Social Justice.

As a member of the NYC Racial Justice Commission, Daniel Favors has spent the last several months helping to draft a set of three ballot questions that she believes would set the city on the path to improving that grade. She doesnt expect progress will come quickly or without some missteps along the way but thats okay.

We are currently in a state of perpetuating failure after failure, Daniel Favors says. So trying to get it right and perhaps not getting it perfect? Im okay with that as long as were moving from the level of sustained failure because the failures, so long as its borne by people who are not white, have always been a baked-in acceptable outcome of any calculus. Thanks to this work, it hopefully can no longer be that way.

Then-Mayor Bill De Blasio convened the NYC Racial Justice Commission last March, tasking it with drafting revisions to the city charter, which require final approval by voter referendum.

Given the pandemic and local elections that took up a lot of attention over the past year, there havent been ideal conditions for public engagement. But after months of public meetings, input sessions and occasionally heated deliberations, the commission submitted its three ballot proposals to the Office of the City Clerk just days before the administration ended at the close of 2021.

New York City voters will get to decide on those ballot questions this fall, in the general election set for November 8.

The first ballot question asks voters for approval to add a preamble to the city charter a broad statement of values and beliefs like that which opens the U.S. Constitution. New Yorks city charter currently doesnt have a preamble, which came as a surprise to members of the Racial Justice Commission.

The proposed preamble language declares the city to be a multiracial democracy, and that our diversity is our strength. It sets goals for the city government such as providing to each New Yorker a safe, healthy, and sustainable living environment, a resilient neighborhood, vibrant and welcoming public spaces, and resources necessary to prosper economically and build wealth.

But it also includes language acknowledging the grave injustices and atrocities that form part of our countrys history, including the forced labor of enslaved Africans, the colonialism that displaced Indigenous people from their lands, the devaluing and underpaying of immigrant workers, and the discrimination, racial segregation, mass incarceration, and other forms of violence and systemic inequity that continue to be experienced by marginalized groups.

If New York City voters approve the ballot question this fall, such a statement would be enshrined in their citys charter during a period when some across the country have been trying to silence any such discussion of that history and ongoing oppression.

I think therell be a great deal of reaction against it, and thats okay, says J. Phillip Thompson, a member of the commission and previously deputy mayor under the De Blasio administration. We need to have these conversations. Thats part of what it means to create a more just society. And, you know, its about time the city and our country faces up to our past. What weve done, the narrative of America, and the narrative of New York has mainly been told by people who are not of color, who have not borne the brunt of the injustices that were trying to address.

The second ballot question, if approved, would create a new Office of Racial Equity and require a citywide racial equity plan as well as agency-by-agency racial equity plans. There would be a requirement for annual reporting on progress or the lack thereof under those plans, and the plans would have to be updated every two years.

There would also be a new Racial Equity Commission consisting of city residents that would weigh in on racial equity plans, serve as a clearinghouse for complaints from the public about agency conduct that may be exacerbating racial equity, and offer recommendations for agencies to address those complaints.

Other local governments across the country have created racial equity offices in recent years, such as Los Angeles, San Jose, San Francisco, Marylands Montgomery County, or the District of Columbia. They range in function and power, and can evolve or expand over time, especially as racial equity data become more available or accessible.

Tacoma, Washington, established its Office of Equity and Human Rights in 2015. As I previously reported, since 2020, every city council action memo in Tacoma must include the citys equity index for any neighborhood involving the proposed action, as well as an analysis of how that action might affect the equity index score for that neighborhood or the city as a whole. Similarly, in D.C. since 2021 all local legislation has had to be assessed for racial equity, DCist reported.

The Office of Racial Equity that New Yorkers could approve this fall would have the power and duty to establish practices and standards for measuring and reporting racial equity data on the citywide and agency-by-agency level. Everything from each agencys hiring diversity, wages or promotions policies to its purchasing and procurement from the private sector to its primary functions would be considered under each agencys racial equity plan. While some goals like pay equity or equitable procurement might be similar across agencies, each agencys racial equity plan and how it measures progress would be specific to what that particular agency does. The Office of Racial Equity would be tasked with assisting agencies in crafting those plans and updating them every two years.

Commissioners intend annual reporting of racial equity data to help fuel outside organizers to push for continual change over time and institute ways to hold agencies accountable for poor performance on racial equity.

I would love to see successive generations of activists increase the penalties, increase the teeth, increase the pain that has to be borne by an agency when they do sit in that failure, Daniel Favors says. Theres a limit to what we could do with that in this round, but there are more rounds and many of us will still be here.

The proposed citywide racial equity planning process would align every other year along a timeline pegged to the citys annual budget process. Thats intentional, Thompson says, as a way of increasing the likelihood that the racial equity planning process can inform how the city spends money every year.

It will be more work in the beginning, but also, the results will likely be a lot more robust, Thompson says. I mean, the city spends a lot of money paying for social services and paying for jails because we didnt spend enough money actually making sure people had access to services and quality education or year-round opportunities to learn in the first place. I think, at the end of the day, these equity measures will make for more effective spending.

Thompson, also a professor of urban planning at MIT, counts himself among the small but growing camp of academics, analysts and even some investors who believe a more racially just budget is a more fiscally sound budget.

I really believe that to be the case, and I want us to rigorously track these programs and our spending so we can actually prove that, Thompson says.

The Racial Justice Commission did debate whether or not to require the citys budget be assessed for racial equity impact before passing. But in the end a majority agreed that the challenge of figuring out a methodology for such an assessment, never done before, posed too great a risk to getting the city through the budget process at all. Failure to pass a budget could risk having the state step in to manage the citys budget.

The third and final ballot initiative from the NYC Racial Justice Commission would mandate the city to create and annually publish a new cost of living measure as an alternative to federal poverty measures. It could potentially be used to help set eligibility for public benefits administered by the city. Commissioners heard from many residents and social service providers that the current federal poverty measures dont accurately reflect the true cost of living in New York, leaving too many families clearly in need but ineligible for public assistance.

If we do not center on what it truly costs to live in a city such as New York and we rely wholly on antiquated and outdated federal policy measures, than were undercounting the needs and experiences of people made vulnerable by structural racism, says Jennifer Jones Austin, who chairs the NYC Racial Justice Commission and also serves as CEO of the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies.

The commissions work isnt finished. It now has to take on the job of educating voters about the ballot proposals they have the chance to vote on this coming fall. Legally, the commission isnt allowed to advocate for voters to vote yes or no, it can only educate and explain what the proposals say and why they came up with them.

Legislation is not always binding in perpetuity, Jones Austin says. One legislative body may decide to advance and put into law and practice certain values beliefs but it can be upended and overturned. It is not as easy to overturn when you embed values and beliefs in the structural underpinning of the laws, and thats what the city charter is.

The commission recognizes that for these changes to the city charter to mean anything, they would need to start with an acknowledgement of history and an honest assessment of the citys current status with regard to racial equity which is not good, to put it mildly.

The people who live in this city, they know that things are bad, Thompson says. Its not gonna be a surprise to them.

Oscar is Next City's senior economics correspondent. He previously served asNext Citys editor from2018-2019, and was a Next City Equitable Cities Fellow from 2015-2016. Since 2011, Oscar has covered community development finance,community banking, impact investing, economic development, housingand more for media outlets suchas Shelterforce, B Magazine, Impact Alpha, and Fast Company.

Follow Oscar .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

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Racial Justice On the Ballot for New York City Voters This Fall - Next City

There has been a lot of news coverage and comments about Jisoo and Park Hae-ins latest Korean drama, Snowdrop. Before the K-dramas release in 2021, netizens petitioned for its cancellation over its controversial distortion of historical facts. Snowdrop uses South Koreas history of the Democratic movement of 1987 as a backdrop for its K-drama storyline.

Despite the K-dramas slight rise in ratings, South Koreans still see Snowdrop as an insult to the individuals who took part in paving the way for the countrys first democratic elections.

[Spoiler alert: This article contains mild spoilers forSnowdrop.]

The leaked synopsis online caused the spread of controversy concerning the K-drama. While the production company, JTBC, stated the storyline would differ while filming. After Snowdrops premiere, South Korean fans realized the story still had many elements of distorted history.

The Snowdrop K-drama entails a female freshman college student named Eun Young-ro (Jisoo). She meets an economics student from theUniversity of Berlin named Im Soo-ho (Jung Hae-in). They meet again under different circumstances when she finds him wounded, bloodied, and escaping from government officers in her room.

As the K-drama used the Democratic Movement of 1987 as a premise, Young-ro is under the impression that Soo-ho is a protestor. She and her friends help hide him from the government, who are, in reality, looking for a North Korean spy.

As Young-ro helps Soo-ho mend his wounds, they develop feelings for one another. But their love story becomes betrayal when Soo-ho is revealed to be the spy the government is after.

RELATED: 4 of Kim Seon-hos Most Recognized K-Dramas in His Career Alongside Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha

After the initial controversy over the leaked storyline for Snowdrop, JTBC claimed it would change as the K-drama aired new episodes. One fan on Reddit was disappointed in the cast agreeing to the original script before revisions.

Overall, this cast and crew has just been super insensitive to people whose struggle, fight, and loss all play a role in the freedom that they now experience, said the fan. The fan also noted Jisoos character in the K-drama and one of the reasons why the North-South Korean love story angered fans.

According to the fan, Jisoos character name was changed. But there was one major issue. Jisoos character name is also the name of a real-life protester whose husband got murdered ( yes murdered ) due to being imprisoned, tortured, and malnourished. The reason he was imprisoned was because he was falsely accused as an NK spy, said the fan.

South Koreans have shown their distaste toward using a romance story as the main hook in Snowdrop. In the K-drama, Young-ro, and Soo-ho fall in love at first sight. While the students and Young-ro are aware the government is looking for a spy, Young-ro still believes he is a protestor. As Soo-ho continues his assignment, Young-ros family backstory further complicates things.

RELATED: Snowdrop: Kim Mi-soos Most Profound K-Drama Roles Amid Her Death at Age 29

Besides the complex details of the romance story in Snowdrop, Korean fans showed their concern over another issue. They feared the K-drama showed certain characters in a different light. One fan on Reddit explained, To put it into context: What would be your reaction if you saw a romance Netflix Series that portrays the Nazis as somewhat likable and glorifies them?

The fan explained that the Central/government intelligenceagents tasked with catching North Korean spies in the drama are inaccurate.

They are a group who killed SO many innocent peopleespecially young students at the time who were protesting against the oppression, said the fan. Another fan added that the historical events resulted from college students protesting. The dictator at the time was jailing these students on the false reasoning that they were causing social unrests because they were North Korean spies.

As the petition to have Snowdrop taken off the air was denied by the Blue House, a new petition has surfaced. According to AllKPop, 30 professors and scholars have asked the president ofDisney+ Asia-Pacificto find experts to evaluate the misconstrued historical facts in the drama.

Follow this link:

'Snowdrop': Why The Controversial K-Drama Is Being Called 'Insensitive' Toward Koreans - Showbiz Cheat Sheet

ISLAMABAD: Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly and PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif on Sunday lashed out at the PTI-led government and held it responsible for the Murree tragedy that claimed the lives of more than 20 people after their vehicles ended up being stranded in heavy snowfall, Geo News reported.

In a statement, the Opposition leader said that the horrific Murree tragedy has proved that there is no functional government in the country.

"Only incompetency, impassivity, cruelty, and oppression are prevalent in this country," he maintained.

He urged the government to reveal the facts and figures about the deaths and inform the masses of the current situation of Murree so that a strategy could be devised accordingly.

Shahbaz expressed his concern over the reports of stranded tourists vehicles in snow and said that per the reports, thousands of vehicles are still stranded in Muree and Galiat.

"The government should ensure everyone stranded in Murree reaches their homes safely," he said.

The PML-N president criticized the government for issuing statements and holding citizens responsible for the incident.

He added that the government should perform its administrative responsibilities instead of shifting the blame on citizens.

He also lauded the local residents of Murree for helping the stranded tourists.

Shahbaz expressed sympathy with the families of those who lost their lives in the storm, adding that this tragedy has hurt the nation badly.

"If precaution were taken on time, it would not have been turned into such tragedy," he said.

It is worth mentioning that, according to official statistics, at least 23 people have died thus far as thousands of tourist vehicles ended up being stranded in Murree due to heavy snowfall and ensuing road blockage.

The federal government, on Saturday, deployed personnel of the Pakistan Army and other civil-armed forces for rescue operations in the hill station.

The Punjab government had declared Murree as a calamity-hit area after heavy snowfall wreaked havoc on the city. Taking notice of the chaos and emergency, Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar had directed to open the governments offices and rest houses for the stranded tourists.

According to the local administration of Murree, rain and blizzards were forecast around Murree, with thunderstorms at a speed of 50-90 kmph and heavy snowfall.

The administration had warned the citizens not to leave their homes in severe weather or drive towards Murree as severe weather conditions were forecast.

Thumbnail image: AFP

Continued here:

Murree tragedy proves incompetency, cruelty, and oppression prevalent in country: Shahbaz - Geo News

A Ukrainian opera director arrested in Italy at Russias request has pledged to continue his fight against the oppression of Vladimir Putins government as calls for his release mount from around the world.

Yevhen (Eugene) Lavrenchuk, 39, was detained in Naples on an international arrest warrant issued by Russia during a stopover in the city on 17 December.

Russia is seeking his extradition for financial crimes allegedly committed when he was director of the Polish Theatre in Moscow. Lavrenchuk left Russia for Ukraine in 2014 in protest at Russias annexation of Crimea that year.

Lavrenchuk told the court of appeal in Naples that he was being persecuted by Russia for publicly voicing his dissent. He claimed the persecution led to him being beaten up outside the Odessa opera and ballet theatre, where he was a director, in December 2020. He has refused extradition, saying that he feared being exposed to discrimination.

Lavrenchuk is being held at Poggioreale prison in Naples, where he was visited this week by Francesco Emilio Borrelli, a regional councillor for the Europa Verde party.

I spoke to him for about 15 minutes during a prison check, which we do periodically, Borrelli said.

He was calm and in good form; he came across as a person aware of living an injustice and that in the end he will be proven right. He said hes determined to return to his country to fight against the oppression of Putins regime.

Lavrenchuk had never been to Italy before landing at Capodichino airport on 15 December on a stopover in his journey between Tel Aviv, where he had been visiting his sister, and Lviv in Ukraine.

He was arrested at a hotel close to the airport after providing his ID at check-in. By law, hotels in Italy have to scan a copy of a guests ID document; the details are then sent to the local police for registration.

Police found his name had been inserted into an international search system with a mandate for his arrest, said Alfonso Tatarano, Lavrenchuks lawyer. He didnt know he was being looked for by Russian authorities or that his name was in this system.

The case comes as fears mount over the possibility of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Liudmyla Denisova, the Ukrainian parliamentary commissioner for human rights, said on Thursday that Lavrenchuks arrest was not made on the basis of a red notice by Interpol, as was originally reported, but on a circular note distributed to a limited number of countries.

This testifies to Russias abuse of the Interpol charter and its misuse as an instrument of hybrid warfare for the politically motivated persecution of Ukrainians, Denisova wrote on her Facebook page.

The warrant for Lavrenchuks arrest was issued by a Moscow court in July 2020. The accusations against him date back eight years, when he allegedly defrauded one of his students by asking for money to pay for repairs to the Polish Theatre.

However, it is not yet clear to Italian judicial authorities whether the court had issued a conviction for his alleged crimes or a preliminary injunction. The crime is punishable by 10 years in prison.

We dont yet have the complete records of the proceedings, said Tatarano.

Russia has 40 days, from the day it was notified of Lavrenchuks arrest, to send its formal extradition request and related documents. The case is being handled by Luigi Riello, the chief public prosecutor of the Naples appeals court.

He will evaluate on what basis the request for extradition is being made before submitting his evaluation to the court, said Tatarano. If there is concrete danger that Lavrenchuk will receive unfair treatment or that the accusations are based on political opinions, the court will reject the extradition request. But we have to prove this, and I think we can.

Tatarano will appeal for Lavrenchuk to be either released from custody or placed under house arrest pending the outcome of the legal process.

A Facebook page calling for Lavrenchuks release has attracted more than 1,400 followers while members of the Ukrainian community in Italy are planning to protest in Milan on Saturday. We are mobilising to show how the Russian regime exploits legal cases against Ukrainian citizens for its own political purposes, the protest organisers wrote on Facebook.

PEN America, the writers association, has also called for Lavrenchuks immediate release.

The circumstances of Lavrenchuks detention he was detained in Naples while transferring to a flight to Lviv after travelling from Tel Aviv are a disturbing echo of Belaruss move last year to force a Ryanair flight to land in order to arrest blogger Raman Protasevich, said Polina Sadovskaya, PEN Americas Eurasia director. In this case, Lavrenchuk is one of the most visible voices against the Russian annexation of Crimea in the Eurasian theatre community, and Russias extradition request against him bears the hallmarks of politically motivated repression.

See the article here:

Arrested Ukrainian opera director vows to fight Putin oppression - The Guardian

LONDON: In November 1914, Sheikh Khazaal, the last ruler of the autonomous Arab state of Arabistan, could have been forgiven for thinking the troubles of his people were over.

Oil had been discovered on his lands, promising to transform the fortunes of the Ahwazi people, and Britain stood ready to guarantee their right to autonomy. In reality, the troubles of the Ahwazi were just beginning.

Within a decade, Sheikh Khazaal was under arrest in Tehran, the name Arabistan had been wiped from the map, and the Ahwazi Arabs of Iran had fallen victim to a brutal oppression that continues to this day.

For centuries, Arab tribes had ruled a large tract of land in todays western Iran. Al-Ahwaz, as their descendants know it today, extended north over 600 km along the east bank of the Shatt Al-Arab, and down the entire eastern littoral of the Gulf, as far south as the Strait of Hormuz.

However, the independent status of Arabistan was struck a blow in 1848 by the geopolitical maneuverings of its powerful neighbors. With the Treaty of Erzurum, the Ottoman empire agreed to recognize the full sovereign rights of the Persian government to Arabistan. The Arab tribes whose lands were so casually signed away were not consulted.

Within 10 years, however, Sheikh Khazaals predecessor, Sheikh Jabir, had found a powerful friend the British Empire.

Trade in the Gulf was vital for Britains interests in India and Sheikh Jabir was seen as a valuable ally, especially after his support for the British during the short Anglo-Persian war of 1856-1857 in which Britain repelled Tehrans attempts to seize Herat in neighboring Afghanistan.

Keen to maintain Afghanistan as a buffer, the British had backed the emir of Herats independence. Now, it seemed, Queen Victorias government meant to do the same for the sheikh of Arabistan.

Read our full interactive Deep Dive on the Ahwazi Arabs and their traumatic history in Iran here

The British opened a vice-consulate at Mohammerah in 1888. By 1897, by which time Sheikh Khazaal had become the ruler of what the British referred to as the Sheikhdom of Mohammerah, imperial Britain was heavily invested in Arabistan.

As a British Foreign Office summary of dealings with Sheikh Khazaal put it, an essential part of British policy in the Gulf was the establishment of good relations and the conclusion of treaties with the various Arab rulers, and the sheikhs of Mohammerah, controlling territory at the head of the Gulf, thus came very prominently into the general scheme.

With the might of the British at his back, Sheikh Khazaal appeared to be steering Arabistan toward a bright, independent future.

But, in 1903, the Shah of Iran, Muzaffar Al-Din, formally recognized the lands as his in perpetuity. Then, in 1908, vast reserves of oil were found on the sheikhs land at Masjid-i-Sulaiman.

In 1910, after a minor clash between Arabistan and Ottoman forces on the Shatt Al-Arab, Britain sent a warship to Mohammerah, to counteract a certain amount of loss of prestige suffered by the sheikh and also to make a demonstration in face of the growth of Turkish ambitions in the Arabian Gulf area.

On board was Sir Percy Cox, the British political resident in the Gulf. In a ceremony at the Palace of Fallahiyah on Oct. 15, 1910, he presented the sheikh with reassurances of Britains steadfast support, and the insignia and title of a Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire.

In 1914, in a letter from Sir Percy, the sheikh had in his hand what amounted to a pledge by the greatest imperial power of the time to preserve his autonomy and protect Arabistan from the Persian government.

In the letter, dated Nov. 22, 1914, the British envoy wrote that he was now authorized to assure your excellency personally that whatever change may take place in the form of the government of Persia, His Majestys government will be prepared to afford you the support necessary for obtaining a satisfactory solution, both to yourself and to us, in the event of any encroachment by the Persian government on your jurisdiction and recognized rights, or on your property in Persia.

Read our full interactive Deep Dive on the Ahwazi Arabs and their traumatic history in Iran here

In fact, all of Britains assurances would prove worthless and, just 10 years later, Arabistans hopes of independence would be shattered.

The problem was oil. The Arabs had it, the Persians wanted it. And when it came to the crunch, the British, despite all their promises of support, chose to back the Persians.

Britains change of heart was triggered by the Russian revolution of 1917, after which it became clear that the Bolsheviks had designs on Persia. In 1921, fearing that the failing Persian Qajar dynasty might side with Moscow, Britain conspired with Reza Khan, the leader of Persias Cossack Brigade, to stage a coup.

Reza Khan, as a British report of 1946 would later concede, was ultimately personally responsible for the sheikhs complete downfall.

In 1922, Reza Khan threatened to invade Arabistan, which he now regarded as the Persian province of Khuzestan. His motive, as US historian Chelsi Mueller concluded in her 2020 book The Origins of the Arab-Iranian Conflict, was clear.

He eyed Arabistan not only because it was the only remaining province that had not yet been penetrated by the authority of central government but also because he had come to appreciate the potential of Arabistans oil industry to provide much-needed revenues, Mueller wrote.

Sheikh Khazaal asked for Britains protection, invoking the many assurances he had been given. Instead, he was brushed off, and reminded of his obligations to the Persian government.

Time was running out for the Arabs. In a despatch sent to London on Sept. 4, 1922, Sir Percy Loraine, British envoy to Iran, wrote it would be preferable to deal with a strong central authority rather than with a number of local rulers in Persia. This, he added, would involve a loosening of our relations with such local rulers.

In August 1924, the Persian government informed Sheikh Khazaal that the pledge of autonomy he had won from Muzaffar Al-Din in 1903 was no longer valid. The sheikh appealed to the British for help, but was again rebuffed.

Reza Khan demanded the sheikhs unconditional surrender. It was, the British concluded, clear that the old regime had come to an end and that Reza Khan, having established a stranglehold over Khuzestan, would be unlikely ever voluntarily to relinquish it.

Read our full interactive Deep Dive on the Ahwazi Arabs and their traumatic history in Iran here

The British government was now in an embarrassing position because of the services which the sheikh had rendered them in the past. Nevertheless, for fear of Russian incursion in Persia, Britain had now decided firmly to support the central government in Tehran.

The Ahwazi were on their own.

On April 18, 1925, Sheikh Khazaal and his son, Abdul Hamid, were arrested and taken to Tehran, where the last ruler of Arabistan would spend the remaining 11 years of his life under house arrest. The name Arabistan was expunged from history and the territories of the Ahwaz finally absorbed into Persian provinces.

Khazaals last days were spent in futile negotiations with Tehran, marked, the British noted, by a series of gross breaches of faith on the part of the central government, which had obviously no intention of carrying out the promises given to the sheikh.

The Persians, concluded the British, were obviously merely waiting for the sheikh to die. That wait ended during the night of May 24, 1936.

In the almost 100 years since the Ahwazi people lost their autonomy, they have experienced persecution and cultural oppression in almost every walk of life. Dams divert water from the Karun and other rivers for the benefit of Persian provinces of Iran, Arabic is banned in schools, while the names of towns and villages have long been Persianized. On world maps, the historic Arab port of Mohammerah became Khorramshahr.

Protests are met with violent repression. Countless citizens working to keep the flame of Arab culture alive have been arrested, disappeared, tortured, executed or gunned down at checkpoints.

Many Ahwazi who sought sanctuary overseas are working to bring the plight of the Ahwazi to the attention of the world. Even in exile, however, they are not safe.

In 2005, Ahmad Mola Nissi, one of the founders of the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz, fled Iran with his wife and children and sought asylum in the Netherlands. On Nov. 8, 2017, he was shot dead outside his home in the Hague by an unknown assassin.

In June 2005, Karim Abdian, director of a Virginia-based NGO, the Ahwaz Education and Human Rights Foundation, appealed to the UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.

The Ahwazi, he said, had been subjected to political, cultural, social and economic subjugation, and are treated as second and third-class citizens, both by the Iranian monarchy in the past and by the current clerical regime. Nevertheless, they still had faith in the international communitys ability to present a just and a viable solution to resolve this conflict peacefully.

Sixteen years later, Abdian despairs of seeing any improvement in the position of his people. I dont see any way out currently, he told Arab News, though he dreams of self-determination for the Ahwazi in a federalist Iran.

In the meantime, as an Ahwazi Arab, you cannot even give your child an Arabic name. So, this nation, which owns the land that currently produces 80 percent of the oil, 65 percent of the gas and 35 percent of the water of Iran, lives in abject poverty.

Read more:

How Iran's Ahwazi Arabs, betrayed, fell victim to oppression that continues to this day - Arab News

Of all the remembrances of January 6, the most searing for me was a simple tweet thread. It came from a Presbyterian pastor named Duke Kwon, and it was a photo compilation of Christian imagery on January 6. There were crosses, Bibles, public prayers, and Christian flags amid the tear gas. In fact, Christian flags and symbols were on the front lines of the fighting, carried like men used to carry regimental colors into battle.

Its hard to think of the worst image, but the picture belowwhich combines the Christian flag with an American flag and a Trump flagalmost perfectly captures the syncretism of Trumpist Christianity:

Ive written at length about Christian nationalism generally and the specific version of Christianity that was suffused throughout Trumps effort to steal a national election. But I want to write about something a bit different, about the definition of a Christian nation and the sense that America is (or was) a Christian nation that is now moving to a post-Christian future where it will become increasingly difficult for faithful Christians to find a home here and to feel welcome in their own communities.

This ideathat America is moving from a Christian past to a post-Christian futureisnt precisely Christian nationalism, but it does lend an enormous amount of emotional urgency to Christian political engagement. But lets unpack these thoughts for a moment. Is America a Christian nation? Has it been a Christian nation? And is it harder to live life publicly, openly, and authentically as a Christian than it used to be?

I know thats a lot to unpack. One essay can only scratch the surface. Books have been written on the subject. But lets have the conversation anyway. First, lets try to define what a Christian nation is.

We know that the United States does not meet one definition of a Christian nation. It does not have an established Christian church, and our Constitution explicitly rejects any formal religious establishment. There is nothing like the Church of England here. Our nations head of state is not also the defender of the faith.

But formal establishment is only one way to define a Christian nation, and its perhaps the least instructive. Theres the rather important matter of the religious faith and practice of its citizens. But does the mere fact that a majority of a nations citizens identify as Christian render a nation a Christian nation?

Id argue that a nations religious character is defined by the interaction between the individual faith of the citizens and the institutional expression of the nations values. A functioning Christian nation is going to combine both a robust private practice of faith with a government that is committed to basic elements of justice and mercy. In other words, when determining the identity of a people and nation, by their fruits you shall know them.

For example, Ive argued that American classical liberalism, at its best, not only respects and reflects the inherent God-given dignity of man by protecting our most fundamental human rights, it also recognizes and seeks to mitigate the inherent sinfulness of man by recognizing our capacity for tyranny and oppression. In other words, One way of reading American history is as a reflection of the central theological tension inherent in the gospel: the push and pull between humans as made in the image of God and humans still trapped in sin.

But we know enough about Americas experiment with classical liberalism that it has often fallen profoundly short of its professed values and has long engaged in behavior that its own founding declaration decisively rejects.

By this more exacting definition of Christian nation, which combines both individual faith identities and collective, national expressions of justice and mercy, then its far less clear that America has been a Christian nation or that our future looks to be more post-Christian than our past. In fact, a more fair reading of our history is one of conflict between Christians, where all too many times one set of believers sought to oppress others and used the power of government in the most profoundly un-Christian of ways.

In Lincolns second inaugural address, he famously said of the Union and the Confederacy, Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. That was true most dramatically in the Civil War, but its been true in countless conflicts before and since.

In fact, in the present day, its still true. As Republicans and Democrats hate each other with increasing ferocity, both parties utterly depend on the two most churchgoing demographics in America to attain and hold power. While Democrats are more secular than Republicans, its a rump party without the black vote, and black voters are among the most devout and churchgoing citizens in the United States of America. Republicans of course depend on the white Evangelical vote, and white Evangelicals attend church and believe in the God of the Bible at rates similar to black Protestants.

And what of Americas religious past, the good old days that so many Republican Christians seem to remember and long for? Reality is far more messy. One can make a good argument that white Protestant religious power may well have reached its American apex during Prohibition. A religiously infused temperance movement was so powerful that it succeeded in passing a constitutional amendment essentially imposing morals legislation throughout the United States.

Yet what else was happening in the United States during that era? Well, the entire southern United States (the Bible Belt, by the way) was essentially an apartheid sub-state within the larger United States. It brutally oppressed Americas black citizens, including its black Christian citizens. The Tulsa Race Massacre happened in 1921, at the peak of white Protestant power.

At the same time, white Protestants were also busy persecuting Catholics. The late 19th and early 20th centuries were the heyday of so-called Blaine Amendmentsstate constitutional amendments that were explicitly aimed at protecting Protestant political and cultural power against perceived Catholic political and cultural encroachment.

So do we want to claim America as a Christian nation in that period? Even though there were millions of American Christians who possessed and wielded power to an extent not seen before or since? Where was the justice? Instead a nation of Christian was proving that it could act in affirmatively un-Christianeven anti-Christianways.

And what about the idea that it is increasingly difficult to live out your Christian faith in this new, post-Christian era? I do think there are communities in the United States that are more hostile to authentic Christians expressions than in years past. I spent years of my life defending Christian liberty in higher education, for example, and I can give you chapter and verse on blatant anti-Christian hostility. Ive seen it. Ive experienced it.

There are influential people and institutions in this country whove taken the position that orthodox expressions of Christian sexual morality represent nothing more than bigotry and hatred.

But as much hostility as Ive seen and experienced from some secular leftists in response to the public expression of my Christian values, nothing compares to hostility Ive seen and experienced from self-identified Christians when I rooted my opposition to Donald Trump in the same Christian values that sometimes earned me scorn in the Ivy League.

In other words, Christians were more hostile to my public expressions of my values than the secular left ever was. And Im far from alone. Where does that cut on the question of whether its easy or hard to publicly and authentically live out your Christian faith? And whos hostile to that faith?

Lets think for a moment about the Bible Belt. Heres a pop quizwas it more or less difficult to be publicly and authentically Christian in the South in 2022 or 1952? The answer is easy. The South is far more welcoming of orthodox, authentic Christianity now. Why? Because orthodox, authentic public Christianitywhich would necessarily include opposition to the racial oppression of Jim Crowcarried profoundly greater risks even in the relatively recent past.

If you were black, it could get you killed. The Civil Rights Memorial lists the names of 41 martyrs of the movement, and the overwhelming majority are black. The victims include pastors and four young girls killed when white supremacist terrorists blew up the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham in 1963. These terrible losses represent a fraction of the thousands of black Americans lynched in the South after the Civil War.

If you were white, you could face economic retaliation and physical violence that could make modern cancel culture look tame. White Christian and Jewish allies also risked death. For example, segregationists beat a white pastor named James Reeb to death in Birmingham. An Alabama sheriffs deputy shot and killed an Episcopal seminary student named Jonathan Daniels. The infamous Mississippi Burning murders of 1964 claimed the lives of a black Mississippi man named James Chaney and two Jewish men from New York named Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner.

These men were just a few of the casualties of a movement that called for racial justice in the heart of one of the most Christian regions in the nation.

Heres a challenging reality: America has become more justand thus closer to the ideals one would expect of a Christian nationas white Protestant power has waned. The United States of 2022 is far more just than it was in 1822 or 1922 or 1952 or even 1982. And while white Protestants have undeniably been part of that storythey were indispensable to the abolitionist movement, for examplethe elevation of other voices has made a tremendous difference.

In the civil rights movement, the sad reality is that all too often the person wielding the fire hose and the person facing the spray both proclaimed faith in Jesus and both went to church, but only one of them was acting justly. And any account of American civil rights has to include the vital contribution of the American Jewish community.

Once again, the same theme pops up: Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other.

Even one of the most defining moral issues of modern Christian conservatismthe fight against abortionarose largely out of the Catholic Church, the same church that Protestants spent decades vigorously trying to suppress. The pro-life alliance between Evangelicals and Catholics is a relatively recent phenomenon.

I make this observation not to state that white American Protestants are uniquely problematic. The history of Christian power wielded by virtually any Christian faction anywhere is replete with examples of injustice and abuse. Nor are Christians uniquely terrible. Weve seen the awful consequences of corrupt religion throughout world history and throughout world religions. We still see it today.

The Christianity of the United States of America, both as a matter of individual expression and institutional justice, is an enormously complex topic, but one thing I can say with confidencethere was no golden age of American Christianity. And we cannot look back at any moment and say, this is when America was a Christian nation.

What conservative Evangelicals are losing today isnt so much liberty as power. Christians of all theological stripes enjoy more religious freedom now, in this nation, than virtually any group of believers anywhere in the world. Yet even so its always uncomfortable to lose power.

And that brings me to my last thoughtsince when is comfort our goal? The Kingdom of God is upside-down, remember. The last shall be first. To save your life you must lose your life. There is no higher calling than taking up your cross to follow Christ. If youre living a life where your Christianity is comfortable, and anything remotely resembling a cross is far, far from your experience, thats when we should wonder if weve conformed to the culture. Because we know the culture has not conformed to the cross.

There is a misplaced emotional urgency in parts of the church today. Theres a longing for a past we shouldnt seek to recover, panic over a present that is still laden with privilege, and fear of a future that is in the hands of a sovereign God. We saw that all on January 6. We see it still in rhetoric that blankets our Christian political discourse.

Yet if our history teaches us anything, it is that we cannot equate Christian power with Christian justice, and while weve always been a nation of Christians, we have not always borne Christian fruit.

One more thing

In the latest Good Faith podcast, Curtis and I talk about the relationship between justice and power and also about the relationship between Christianity and the American founding. We take the themes of this weeks newsletter and go deep.

Give it a listen. And please rate us! Were trying to get to 1,000 recommendations (then 2,000 of course). Your ratings make it easier for new listeners to find us and The Dispatch. Thank you!

One last thing

This is so good. Ive linked to Tenielle Nedas music before, and I listen to it all the time. This is a favorite. Enjoy:

Original post:

A Nation of Christians Is Not Necessarily a Christian Nation - The Dispatch

Boris Johnsons government has been of trying to subvert the justice system after the attorney general announced she could refer the Colston statue case to the Court of Appeal.

Lawyers, campaigners and opposition parties condemned Suella Braverman after she claimed the jury verdict which cleared four protesters of criminal damage after they toppled a monument of slave trader Edward Colston had caused confusion.

Speaking toThe Independent, Peter Herbert, retired judge and chair of the Society of Black Lawyers, described the attorney generals intervention as a disgrace.

The senior figure added: The Court of Appeal has no role to play in this acquittal Her involvement smacks of institutional racism, demonstrating the need to defend the narrative of slavery and oppression, the direct link to colonialism, and therefore to present day injustices.

Labour accused Ms Braverman of playing politics with the jury system, after Ms Braverman said she was carefully considering whether to refer the outcome to senior judges to give them a chance to clarify the law.

The attorney general has a duty to uphold democracy, the rule of law and the sanctity of the jury system not play political games when she doesnt like the results, said Emily Thornberry, the shadow attorney general.

The barrister defending one of the so-called Colston Four in Bristol told The Independent the attorney generals move amounted to Trumpian behaviour.

BarristerRajChada, who represented 33-year-old protester Jake Skuse, said: [Ms Braverman] is undermining public confidence in the criminal justice system by undermining the role of juries. Its Trumpian politics you dont like a decision then you seek to undermine it any way you can.

Nazir Afzal, former chief crown prosecutor for the northwest of England, also condemned the governments decision to interfere in the case.

The senior solicitor told The Independent: If the attorney general would like, I can refer several thousands of jury acquittals to her to consider. The case ends here, and to suggest otherwise is damaging to public confidence in the justice system.

If the Colston case is referred to Court of Appeal, the senior judges will not be able to overturn the jurys verdict, but they could potentially point out an error in law in directions that were given to the jury in the case.

The acquittal of the four activists who claimed the presence of the statue was a hate crime and was therefore not an offence to remove it has sparked an angry backlash among Tory MPs who warned it would allow mob rule and encourage the pulling down of more statues.

In a statement posted to Twitter on Friday, Ms Braverman said the jurys decision was causing confusion and she was able to refer matters to the Court of Appeal so that senior judges have the opportunity to clarify the law for future cases. I am carefully considering whether to do so.

But the defence barrister in the case insisted there was nothing to clarify. Our lawful excuse defences were reviewed by the judge and he sent robust directions to the jury, said Mr Chada. There was no suggestion by the prosecution the judge got it wrong.

Cabinet minister Grant Shapps suggested that the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill close a loophole limiting the prosecution of those who damage memorials. The bill, currently going through parliament, would move more cases into crown court and increase the maximum sentence in such cases to 10 years imprisonment.

But legal expert Prof Thomas Lewis, director of theCentre for Rights and Justiceat Nottingham Trent University, told The Independent that the bill could see more jury acquittals.

The bills seeks to give extra protection to memorials by moving these cases from low-level magistrates courts and putting them before a jury, he said. The point about juries, dating back to the Magna Carta, is that they are the voice of the ordinary people. You have to accept their verdict.

Zehrah Hasan a barrister at Garden Court Chambers and campaigner at the Black Protest Legal Support group, warned the government against questioning jury verdicts. Suella Braverman threatening to use her power to question the legal basis for the jury decision is ill-informed, and its another example of the Tory governments authoritarianism.

Grey Collier, advocacy director at human rights campaign group Liberty, added: This government has form for trying to overturn things it doesnt like. This looks like the government is trying to subvert the rule of law by going behind the systems we have in place.

Wera Hobhouse MP, the Liberal Democrats justice spokesperson, said it was unacceptable that politicians are trying to trespass into what should be left to our independent court procedures the Tories should step back from undermining our democracy.

Section 36 of the Criminal Justice Act 1972 allows the attorney general, following a submission from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), to ask a higher court to clarify a point of law. But it is not a means of changing the outcome of an individual case.

A CPS spokesman said: We are considering the outcome of the case but, under the law, the prosecution cannot appeal against a jury acquittal.

See the original post:

Government accused of subverting rule of law with Colston statue case appeal move - The Independent

Tesla has opened a new sales and service center in the Xinjiang region of China, home to a Muslim population known as the Uyghurs whom the United Nations and rights organizations have identified as arepressed ethnic group.

In 2021, theUnited States, United Kingdom and Canadasaid China engages in "forced labour, mass detention in internment camps, forced sterilisations" and other abuses against Uyghurs. Separately, theEU imposed sanctions on China for "arbitrary detentions"of Uyghurs.

China has repeatedly dismissed those claims as"lies and disinformation."

Tesla announced the move last week on Weibo, a popular social media platform in the country. The Wall Street Journal previously reported on Tesla's move into Xinjiang.

A Dec. 31 post on Tesla's Weibo account which was translated by CNBC said: "The UrumqiTeslaCenter officially opens #inanewdirection... As the firstTeslaCenter in Xinjiang, this location integrates sales, service and delivery. It will help Xinjiang users enjoy the experience of one-stop service, escortingTeslacar owners on their journey to the west."

Another Weibo post on that same date said: "#inanewdirection UrumqiTeslaCenter has officially opened! On the last day of 2021 we meet in Xinjiang. In 2022, let's begin Xinjiang's journey to pure electric [vehicles]! Encounter even more beauty!"

The hashtag phrases comprised wordplay in Chinese. The character that spells "new" is contained in the first half of the region's name, Xinjiang.

Tesla currently has one supercharger in Urumqi and another that's "coming soon," according to its website.

Many social media users in China expressed appreciation in response to Tesla's posts. But the move elicited outrage in the West.

As NBC News previously reported in June 2021, Amnesty International researchers found that "Chinese authorities in the western region of Xinjiang have been rounding up women and men largely Muslims from the Uighur, Kazakh and Kyrgyz ethnic minorities and detaining them in camps designed to rid them of terrorist or extremist leanings since 2017.

"More than 1 million Uighurs and other minorities from Xinjiang are believed to be held in internment camps, where they are forced to study Marxism, renounce their religion, work in factories and face abuse, according to human rights groups and first-hand accounts. Beijing says these 're-education camps' provide vocational training and are necessary to fight extremism."

In response, U.S. senators recently approved abill banning importsfrom China's Xinjiang region unless businesses can prove they were produced without forced labor.

The author of the bill, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), said of Tesla in a press statement, "Nationless corporations are helping the Chinese Communist Party cover up genocide and slave labor in the region."

Tesla did not respond to requests for comment. Tesla shares rose more than 13% on Mondayafter the company reported record vehicle deliveries for 2021.

Elon Musk's electric vehicle company and his re-usable rocket company SpaceX have both faced scrutiny in China.

For example, China sent a complaint to the United Nations last year revealing that SpaceX satellites had nearly collided with China's space station on two separate occasions in 2021.

With nearly 30,000 satellites and other debris believed to be orbiting the planet, scientists have urged governments to share data to reduce the risk of disastrous collisions. SpaceX has deployed nearly 1,900 satellites to serve its Starlink broadband network, and is planning to launch thousands more.

Before that, China mandated recalls of Tesla vehicles over quality defects, and the Chinese government restricted the use of Teslas by some state and military personnel citing security concerns.

But Tesla has also helped Beijing demonstrate that it is open to foreign businesses, and that a foreign company can thrive in its relatively closed market.

In 2019, when Musk broke ground on Tesla's Shanghai factory, the CEO said, "Somebody who joins today as a junior engineer in Tesla China could one day be CEO of Tesla worldwide...They could have my job one day maybe."

In July 2020, Musk posted on Twitter that "China rocks" while the U.S. is full of "complacency and entitlement."

Read the original:

Tesla opened a dealership in Xinjiang, China, despite widespread reports of Uyghur oppression there - CNBC

Several countries including the United States, Australia, Belgium, and the UK have already decided to boycott the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympic Games diplomatically in protest against Chinas repression of democracy and separatist movements in Hong Kong and Taiwan and not least the treatment of the Muslim minority of Uighurs in Xinjiang province.

But with under a month to go until kick-off, the Danish government has yet to make a decision and is under massive pressure,DR Newswrites.

Minister of Culture Ane Halsboe Jrgensen and Minister of Foreign Affairs Jeppe Kofod refuse to be interviewed on the very grounds that the government has not yet decided whether it wants to boycott the Games diplomatically.

To DR News, Eva Flyvholm, foreign affairs spokeswoman for the Unity List, says: Now the government must get together, they have had time to think about this for a long time and we must know where the country stands.

In relation to human rights, its really important that Denmark draws a line, both when it comes to China, but also when it comes to the World Cup in Qatar, she says.

Foreign policy spokesman from the Liberal Party, Michael Aastrup wonders why the Danish government has yet to decide and says, Almost every day we see that China takes new steps and crosses the line in relation to freedom of speech in Hong Kong, in relation to the aggression against Taiwan and in relation to the oppression of the Muslim minority in the country.

Michael Aastrup does not believe Denmark is risking more than 70 years of diplomatic cooperation with China. No, because now its very simple; we have to choose a side. The United States and a large number of our allies have made it clear that they want a diplomatic boycott. Since they made the announcement so clearly, we should also join them and stand on the right side, he says.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has said that the committee considers other countries governments presence to be a political decision that each country must make, which IOC in its political neutrality fully respects.

Several Danish political parties believe a diplomatic boycott is a good idea which they would rather see happen in cooperation with other EU countries.

Stanis Elsborg, a senior analyst from Play the Game, which works to promote democracy, transparency, and freedom of speech in world sport, has long followed the debate on the diplomatic boycott of the upcoming Games.

For me, it testifies that China is a major political power, and Denmark is in the process of a very, very difficult balancing act to figure out how to deal with the situation in China because the country is also a big and important partner, he says.

The Winter Olympics are scheduled to start on 4 February 2022 and end on 20 February 2022.

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Danish government under pressure to boycott the Beijing Winter Olympics - ScandAsia.com