Nemeton: bigotry

Showing posts with label bigotry. Show all posts

Monday, September 22, 2008

Stepping Stones Nigeria update

From Stepping Stones Nigeria:

Dear Stepping Stones Nigeria Supporter,

I just thought that I would take this opportunity to update you with some
of the exciting events of the previous few weeks. As you may know SSN has
been campaigning for the rights of so called child “witches” in Akwa Ibom
State since November 2006. This has been carried out through our Prevent
Abandonment of Children Today (PACT) campaign and has involved organising
two international symposiums, TV and radio adverts and regular visits to
government officials to advocate for the rights of the child. Most
recently SSN organised a child rights rally through the streets of Uyo,
which culminated in the children handing over a petition to the Governor
of the state demanding that he acted to protect the lives of these
innocent children. In addition to this SSN also paid UNICEF a visit in
order to make them aware of this terrible situation and request for their
assistance in the fight against child abandonment due to witchcraft
stigma.

One of the consistent demands that SSN has made is for the Akwa Ibom State
government to enact the Child Rights Act (CRA). Despite the Federal
Republic of Nigeria enacting the CRA at federal level in 2003, Akwa Ibom
was still one of the 22 states still awaiting to enact it. Without the CRA
in place it is very difficult to protect the rights of the children, many
of whom have been tortured in churches, abandoned by their parents, set on
fire, trafficked etc. Indeed through working with our Nigerian partner,
CRARN, we had tried unsuccessfully to prosecute a number of parents and
pastors. Without the legal framework to support us this was a seemingly
impossible task.

Thankfully on 6th September we received the news that the Akwa Ibom State
government has finally enacted the CRA. SSN sees this as a giant stride in
our efforts to protect, save and transform the lives of stigmatised
children in Akwa Ibom State. Whilst we cannot fully attribute the
enactment of this law to the efforts of SSN or CRARN, it is clear that we
have contributed a great deal to bringing about this positive change. As a
small charity, with limited resources, SSN feels very proud at this
accomplishment and now looks forward to working with all stakeholders to
ensure that the CRA is fully implemented and that parents or pastors that
are guilty of violating child rights are held to account. Please do visit
our website - www.steppingstonesnigeria.org/news - for the latest press
coverage of these issues.

In a separate development, whilst carrying out research into the needs of
abandoned children in Oron LGA, our sister NGO – Stepping Stones Nigeria
Child Empowerment Foundation (SSNCEF) – recently uncovered some very
disturbing findings. A shadowy religious group, known as the “peace
sisters”, had been found to have rounded up between 200-300 abandoned
children from the streets on the pretence that they were taking them to
their centre in Aba for “deliverance”. SSN and SSNCEF were already aware
that this group had been arrested in 2007 on suspicion of trafficking of
children and, as soon as we unearthed these findings, we quickly leapt
into action. Letters were sent and numerous calls were made to the federal
government anti-trafficking agency, NAPTIP, government, police and UNICEF
demanding that urgent action should be taken to investigate the “peace
sisters”. After two weeks of high level advocacy, SSN is happy to
announce that on 12th September 2008, 5 members of this group were
arrested and were found to be imprisoning 36 children in their “church”.
SSN and SSNCEF strongly believe that these children were destined to be
trafficked, although where exactly to we do not know. The investigation
into the “peace sisters” activities is still continuing and numerous
children are still unaccounted for. SSN sees this case as a huge success
for the work of SSNCEF and hopes that this will be the first of many
positive interventions carried out by our sister NGO.

SSN now feels that there is a great deal of positive momentum behind our
work and we very much look forward to working with key stakeholders, such
as government, churches and traditional rulers, in the near future to help
develop sustainable strategies to dealing with the child “witch”
phenomenon and ensuring that all children in Akwa Ibom state have access
to their rights. This momentum will undoubtedly continue with the
broadcast of the "Dispatches" documentary that SSN has been working on -
The Witch Children of Nigeria - on 12th November at 9pm on Channel 4.
International supporters may watch the film online at
www.channel4.com/watch_online.

We hope that you share our joy about these positive developments and wish
to thank you for your continuing support for SSN’s work.

With best wishes,

Gary Foxcroft

--
Programme Director

Stepping Stones Nigeria

www.steppingstonesnigeria.org

Protecting, Saving and Transforming the Lives of Vulnerable and
Disadvantaged Children in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria

Registered UK and Wales charity number 1112476
Company number 05413970

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Cowans sack "wizard"

Teacher Jim Piculas does a magic trick where a toothpick disappears and then reappears.

Piculas recently did the 30-second trick in front of a classroom at Rushe Middle School in Land 'O Lakes.

Piculas said he then got a call from the supervisor of teachers, saying he'd been accused of wizardry.

"I get a call the middle of the day from head of supervisor of substitute teachers. He says, 'Jim, we have a huge issue, you can't take any more assignments, you need to come in right away,'" he said.

Piculas said he did not know of any other accusations that would have led to the action.

The teacher said he is concerned that the incident may prevent him from getting future jobs.

SOURCES

Oh for goodness sake - when I was a teacher, I outed myself as a Wiccan, let students play on computers when they shouldn't, and definitely deviated from lesson plans (especially the time when I tried to get the kids interested in CAD by suggesting they design a weapon of mass destruction). It's obviously because Florida is the state where they want to stop teaching evolution and teach intelligent design instead, and they're so fundamentalist they even think conjuring is a snare of the devil. Er, hello, Land o' Lakes, this is the 21st century, not the 17th.

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

extreme bigotry

I was searching for information to verify this story about children's books about gay relationships being withdrawn from a school (which is bigoted enough), when I came across this story about a lesbian woman who was denied access to her dying partner by bigoted homophobic hospital staff.

The second story demonstrates why children need to be shown that there's nothing wrong with same-sex relationships, so they don't grow up to be the kind of bigot who would refuse to let a woman visit her dying partner.

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

would you Adam and Eve it?

Parents in Manchester have complained about naked swimming, claiming that it's unhygienic (though it's obvious that the complaint is really just motivated by prudery).

The naked swimming is taking place in a private, closed session in a public pool (so no-one actually sees the naked people in public). The group concerned book the swimming pool of an evening.

Parents have complained that their children subsequently have to swim in the same pool. Well, as various commenters on the story have pointed out, swimming trunks are not an impermeable membrane - people's naked tackle is touched by the communal water when they've got swimming trunks on as well. Besides, that's what chlorine is for.

It's just a small-minded response to the idea of nudity. Though I wonder if the fact that the naked swimming group also happens to consist of gay men might have something to do with it.

Monday, February 25, 2008

Save Fawza Falih: write a letter

The address to write to:

HRH King Abdullah bin Abd al-'Aziz Al Saud
Royal Court
Riyadh 11111
Saudi Arabia

Salutation: "Your Royal Highness"

See the letter from Human Rights Watch to King Abdullah.

Main points to include:

The religious police who arrested and interrogated Fawza Falih and the judges who tried her in the northern town of Quraiyat never gave her the opportunity to prove her innocence against absurd charges that have no basis in law.
The authorities failed to comply even with existing safeguards in the Saudi justice system.
The judges relied on Fawza Falih's coerced confession and on the statements of witnesses who said she had "bewitched" them to convict her in April 2006.
She retracted her confession in court, claiming it was extracted under duress, and that as an illiterate woman she did not understand the document she was forced to fingerprint.
She also stated in her appeal that her interrogators beat her during her 35 days in detention at the hands of the religious police. At one point, she had to be hospitalized as a result of the beatings.
The judges never investigated whether her confession was voluntary or reliable or investigated her allegations of torture.
They never even made an inquiry as to whether she could have been responsible for allegedly supernatural occurrences, such as the sudden impotence of a man she is said to have "bewitched."
They also broke Saudi law in multiple instances, ignoring legal rules on proper procedures in a trial.
The judges did not sit as a panel of three, as required for cases involving the death penalty.
They excluded Fawza Falih from most trial sessions and banned a relative who was acting as her legal representative from attending any session.
The Law of Criminal Procedure of 2002 grants defendants the right to be tried in person, to have a lawyer present during interrogation and trial, and to cross-examine any prosecution witnesses. The law obliges law enforcement officers to treat detainees humanely. Fawzah Falih was denied all these rights.
An appeals court ruled in September 2006 that Fawza Falih could not be sentenced to death for "witchcraft" as a crime against God because she had retracted her confession. The lower court judges then sentenced her to death on a "discretionary" basis, for the benefit of "public interest" and to "protect the creed, souls and property of this country."

Please write to King Abdullah and sign the petition.

Friday, February 22, 2008

Save Fawza Falih

HALT EXECUTION OF SAUDI WOMAN FOR "WITCHCRAFT" Petition

We are citizens of many countries appealing to you on behalf of Fawza Falih Muhammad Ali who has been sentenced to death by beheading for the alleged crimes of “witchcraft, recourse to jinn, and slaughter” of animals. The conviction of Fawza Falih for “witchcraft” is a travesty of justice.

BBC: Pleas for condemned Saudi 'witch'

The illiterate woman was detained by religious police in 2005 and allegedly beaten and forced to fingerprint a confession that she could not read.

This is like some medieval notion of justice, not what you would expect to be happening in the 21st century. I mean, I know Saudi Arabia is basically a medieval state, but I didn't even know they had the death penalty for witchcraft until I saw this. Please sign the petition. I am glad to see that people from lots of different faiths have signed the petition.

Friday, December 14, 2007

save the "witch children"

Children who are accused of witchcraft in Africa have been beaten, abused, abandoned and even killed. This scandalous state of affairs is exacerbated by the arrival of evangelical Christianity in Africa.

Now there is a charity which helps children accused of witchcraft, and gives them a new start in life. It's called Stepping Stones Nigeria, and you can donate via PayPal.

If you're having any sort of social event, please consider using it as a fundraiser for these kids.

I have created a facebook group to promote awareness of this issue.

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

prison for religious bigots

A pair of religious bigots who posted entirely false and unsubstantiated allegations of "satanic" child abuse on their web site have been given a nine month prison sentence in Australia.

Such allegations could have extremely serious consequences for the victims (and have had such consequences in the past), so it is only right and proper that the people making untrue allegations like this should be jailed. This case should also establish a precedent for clearing other bigoted and libellous nonsense off the internet, such as this list of supposedly dodgy organisations (some of which are not dodgy), which should be replaced with this list of how to spot the warning signs of a dodgy group (see the section 'Some danger signals to watch for').

Read the Australian OTO press release for more details. Also see the Wild Hunt for more background information.

Nemeton