Thousands of residents in China’s Shanxi province have been evacuated as villages next to mines have started sinking, after decades of reckless coal mining
10 September 2016
Politico: The cleric, the coup and the conspiracy
Gülen’s followers call their movement Hizmet or ‘service,’ and they have focused largely on education. Gülenists have opened schools, charities and other institutions around the world, including in the United States, while also promoting interfaith harmony. Although some of his early sermons are reported to have contained some anti-Semitic tones, Gülen said his views have evolved, and that some of his words were taken out of context. Readers responding to a 2008 survey by Foreign Policy and Prospect named him the world’s No. 1 public intellectual.
Gülen said he doesn’t personally run the many institutions his followers have built, even if he is their inspiration. His movement is funded through donations from its members and by the profits from a range of businesses. Gülen himself is also believed to have a number of financial holdings and makes money through sales of his books. He firmly denies that he ordered, or even inspired, the July 15-16 coup attempt in Turkey, which left some 270 people dead and many more wounded.
This is not the first time that Gülen has been accused of trying to overthrow Turkey’s political leaders. Back in the late 1990s, he faced similar accusations under what was then a secular government. As an Islamist, albeit a relatively moderate one, Gülen’s teachings had long drawn the suspicions of Turkey’s secular elite. [...]
Some analysts describe this explanation as spin, noting that tensions between Gülen and Erdoğan appeared well before public discussion of a strong presidency. The analysts say Gülen, or at least his followers, and Erdoğan appeared to differ on an array of issues, including how to deal with Kurdish separatists and how to react to the tumult in a region following the Arab Spring revolutionary movements. “I’ve heard them complain about Erdoğan’s accumulation of power, and you can see it in Gülenist news coverage,” said Steven Cook of the Council on Foreign Relations. “But has it been a longstanding position? Nope.” [...]
At the same time, however, documents unveiled by WikiLeaks indicated that U.S. officials have had their own suspicions about Gülen’s goals. In a classified 2009 cable, then-U.S. ambassador to Turkey James Jeffrey noted that even other Islamists viewed the Gülen movement as “murky.”
9 September 2016
Social Europe: The Attacks On Poles In Britain Is Part Of A Rise Of Nationalism And Racism In Europe. Including Poland
These attacks have occurred in the context of a rise in racism and hate attacks after the Brexit vote in Britain. In the week before and after the referendum, over 3,000 hate crimes were reported to the police, an annual increase of more than 42%. The Leave campaign had focussed on the issue of immigration and in particular on the eastern European migrants who have arrived since EU enlargement in 2004. Pro-Brexit politicians fuelled the fears and prejudices of the British citizenry, spreading the populist idea that the country’s economic and social problems could be solved by ‘taking back control’ of its borders. And now, in the post-referendum reality of uncertainty and disappointment, these prejudices are spilling over into increased outright racism and hatred.
The Polish community is an established part of British society. A large section of the hundreds of thousands of Poles who moved to Britain have now settled long-term in the country. Poles are the largest immigrant group in Britain and Polish is the second most commonly spoken language in the country. Despite talk of immigrants coming to claim social benefits, Poles living in the UK are significantly more likely to work and pay taxes than their British counterparts are. One may have thought that all of this, coupled with the fact that the vast majority are also white and Christian, would have shielded them from such racism. But the Poles and other eastern Europeans living in Britain are now coming to realise that such xenophobia is not confined to those with a different skin colour or religion. [...]
Poland has also experienced its own surge in racist attacks, which grew by around 40% in 2015. This has been accompanied by the growing activity of far right organisations, such as the National Racial Camp (ONR), that lays claim to the traditions of the pre-war far right organisation under the same name. In recent months, the ONR has organised demonstrations against refugees and immigrants, attacked pro-democracy demonstrators, and even spoken in schools and Churches. The government’s attack on the independence of the Constitutional Tribunal, the closure of open debate on historical issues and the formation of a National Guard which is open to members of the far-right are all worrying political trends in Poland.
The Guardian: MPs accused of walkout ploy to stop vote on Saudi arms sales
The alleged ploy, revealed by a frustrated Labour MP opposed to the sales, suggests that high-stakes political manoeuvring is under way. Some MPs are seeking to water down the committees on arms export controls draft report and so preserve the current strong diplomatic UK relations with Saudi Arabia.
A strong call from the committee to suspend arms export licences pending an independent UN-led investigation of the Saudi bombing campaign in Yemen could not be readily ignored by the government, and would infuriate the defence industry. [...]
More than 130 amendments had been tabled by the pro-defence industry Labour MP John Spellar and Blunt, broadly designed to water down the original draft, and exclude any call for a UK suspension of arms sales. Both MPs, along with ministers, felt that the draft was one-sided in its criticism of Saudi Arabia, and did not take account of the conduct of Houthi militias in a bloody 18-month civil war.
Time: How Indiana’s Religious Freedom Law Is Being Used to Defend Child Abuse and Other Crimes
Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act—signed into law in 2015 by Republican Gov. Mike Pence—was initially viewed by some as a counterweight to the legalization of same-sex marriage across the U.S. because it would’ve allowed businesses in the state to deny goods and services to same-sex couples based on employees’ religious objections. That is no longer an issue since the law was amended to bar discriminatory behavior—but the act has since taken on an unexpected new life: as a defense for criminal conduct like child abuse and drug use. So far, at least four people in Indiana have used the law to argue that their religion excuses them from actions that would otherwise be considered crimes—and legal experts expect more cases to follow. [...]
“Ms. Thaing believed in the teachers of the Bible that state, ‘Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die. If you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol,’” a Hebrew word loosely translated as hell, Bowes said in court documents. [...]
Curry says his office has seen three cases involving the RFRA as a defense, including one challenging Indiana’s marijuana law by the First Church of Cannabis, which argues that its church members—”Cannaterians”—should be able to smoke marijuana as a religious sacrament. Indianapolis police have told churchgoers that they would be arrested if they did so. The lawsuit is pending. An additional case involving Curry’s office includes an Indiana resident who is arguing that his religious beliefs compel him to avoid paying income taxes.
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