Five dead in Nairobi blast

Five people died and more than 70 others were on Sunday hurt after two explosions caused a stampede at a ‘No’ rally in Nairobi’s Uhuru Park. The explosions took place as a Nairobi preacher was conducting prayers after the main rally, which was otherwise peaceful.

The well-attended rally-cum religious crusade was addressed by religious leaders and politicians who are leading the campaign to have the draft constitution rejected.

The rally had ended and people had left, but one of the pastors had continued with prayers well beyond the 6pm permitted in law. It was not clear what caused the explosions that occurred 30 minutes apart as pastor James Ng’ang’a was conducting prayers after the end of the rally.

A witness, Ms Stella Wanjiku from Kiambu, said:“One person was brought to the dais. Pastor Ng’ang’a said he should be rushed to hospital but asked us not to fear but continue with the prayers.

The man had head and chest injuries.” “When the second bang happened people started to scamper. That is when many were injured. Others, including me, lost valuables. We thought it was a landmine planted by some people against our meeting ,” she said. Read more at the Daily Nation. Also read more at the Standard.

Update: President Kibaki has called a meeting of the security chiefs at his office at Harambee House. The Nation has it here. More at at Capital FM.

Mo Ibrahim prize goes to none

Mo Ibrahim
Judges for a $5m annual prize for good governance in Africa have decided not to give the award for the second consecutive year.

The organisers of the Mo Ibrahim Prize for African Leadership were expected to announce the winner of the award to a person who had set an example for honest, democratic governance on Monday.

But on Sunday, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, which is based in London, said that its seven-member prize committee, led by Kofi Annan, the ex-UN secretary-general, had not chosen anyone to win the award.

The foundation said that since last year's failure to select a winner, there had been "no new candidates or new developments".

No new candidates

"The standards set for the prize winner are high, and the number of potential candidates each year is small. So it is likely that there will be years when no prize is awarded," Mo Ibrahim, a Sudanese-born telecommunications billionaire, said in a statement.

"In the current year, no new candidates emerged," he said, adding that while many African nations are advancing economically and with regards to governance, more needs to be done.

Ibrahim created the award, the largest individual prize in the world, in 2007 to encourage good governance on a continent known for high levels of corruption and poor democratic standards.

The award can only be given to former democratically elected heads of state who left office within the last three years.

The $5m award is given over 10 years with a potential subsequent $200,000 annually for life for good causes. Festus Mogae, the former Botswana president, and Joaquim Chissano, of Mozambique, have previously won the award.

Source: Aljazeera

Kenya Muslims brand Higher Education Minister as an enemy

In a bold move, Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims (SUPKEM)'s weekly newsletter, the Friday Bulletin branded Higher Education Minister William Ruto (left) as an enemy of the Muslim community in Kenya and a bigot working in gloves with some Churches funded by the gospel of hate from America.

Ruto who leads the NO brigade that's fighting to defeat the proposed constitution slated for a referendum on August 4 was recently quoted in the local media as fanning hate against the Muslim community and urging Christians to vote against the draft because it favours Muslims.

Only last week, Muslims clerics told Ruto stop the incitement against Muslims. And yesterday, the Friday Bulletin was categorical that Ruto has crossed the line. Read more HERE.

Well, this means he has lost the support of Tourism Minister Najib Balala and Assistant Livestocks Minister Aden Duale who have supported him against Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

Ruto who has lost the friendship of almost every tribe in Kenya (and now Muslims) seems to be losing momentum. His hate politics won't go beyond his Rift-Valley hinterland. Though he aspires for national leadership, he doesn't have what it takes to lead Kenya. He can vie for Rift- Valley Governorship though and that's fine with many people who don't want to see this bigot at the national stage.

Update:

Kenya's leading Islamophobe Bishop Margaret Wanjiru says she has dedicated Ruto's soul to Christ since he was the Evangelicals Chief in his University days. The man and his hateful backers are coming out!

Evil Journalism: The Daily Mail

Prince Charles at Oxford Islamic Centre

I'm an armchair environmentalist (for now) though I would like to be part of those who fight for the environment in the future God willingly. Therefore it is natural that I follow news related to this subject and while reading a certain blog, I came along a link that points to UK's Daily Mail and you know what? It screamed: "Follow the Islamic way to save the world." Prince Charles urges environmentalists.

Well, the fact is that the Prince never said "Follow Islam to save the world", the Prince urged his audience made of scholars at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies to follow 'Islamic spiritual principles' to protect the environment. But the Daily Mail heard something else. Well, it didn't hear, but saw fit to twist what it heard and this is the same newspaper that warned "Jews bring disease, death and destruction" one hundred years ago on its front page. Today it is the Muslims. A history of perpetual evil.

It was only yesterday when the notoriously bigoted Daily Telegraph sexed up a story to produce a typical anti-Muslim piece. Allan Marshall, Area Bishop of Buckingham wrote about this nasty behaviour in his blog and thanks to him for being a righteous bishop. Read it HERE.

*Update*: Daily Mail columnist Peter Osborne warns against the unfair coverage of Muslims in British media at a conference on Islamophobia. Read it HERE.

Bigotry of the Catholic Church in Kenya claims it first victim

Prof. Joseph Omole, (left), a prof. of philosophy, ethics and social justice at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA) was fired last month for denouncing the bigoted position the Catholic Church of Kenya has taken vis-a-vis the new proposed constitution.

Mr. Omole's cardinal sin was that he warned against the demonisation of Muslims and urged the Church to drop its opposition to the historical Muslim courts that serve only Muslims in Kenya. The courts only handle marriage, inheritance divorce cases and between only Muslims.

The courts have been in existence even before the colonialists introduced Christianity into Kenya. The East African Standard has the story HERE.

The Evangelical Alliance of Kenya has been sending some demonic emails about the danger Kenyan Muslims pose (interestingly Islam was the first Abrahamic Faith to be practiced in Kenya and at no time did Muslims ever hurt a non-Muslim(s)-but they were hurt many times).

I have once received such an email from a good Christian friend of mine who was shocked that such hateful characters existed in our midst. I retorted that hate and particularly imported hate is the biggest danger that faces Kenya today apart from the negative ethnicity perpetuated by the ruling elite. He agreed.

A conscientious Kenyan blogger has responded in detail to one of the hate emails sent by Evangelical alliance, please read it HERE.

The dishonesty of Turkish Hurriyet English

I follow the Turkish political and social scene with interest. This may be due to the ruling Ak Party headed by the hotheaded but extremely popular Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan and may be due to my interest in pre- and post Ottoman Turkey and especially their architecture.

Anyway, there are only two English dailies in Turkey. One is the Hurriyet Daily News and the other, Todays Zaman. The later is owned by the Gulen Movement. The two are quite antagonistic in many ways. Todays Zaman is pro-AKP while the Hurriyet Daily News is viciously anti-AKP. It is quite easy to understand why!

Todays Zaman is owned by the conservative but very tolerant Gulen Movement and it is in their interest to support a government that doesn’t persecute them as was the case before AKP was elected in 2002. Hurriyet’s case is quite different. They were supportive of the Erdogan government for a while-not wholly, but somehow- when business deals were coming their way. It is owned by Turkey’s Robert Murdoch: Aydın Doğan who dominated the Turkish media scene like a colossus in the past.

Erdogan and Dogan have had a public spat and once their relations broke down, Dogan turned to his media empire for help. On the Turkish front: support the opposition and in particular the rigidly secular CHP. On the international front, use Hurriyet English to dish out extremely twisted information about Erdogan and his government. If you log on to the website and you are familiar with the region, you will think you are reading an Isreali conservative propaganda machine dishing out Hasbara.

I’m saying this because Haaretz, an influential Israeli newspaper is more nuanced and intellectual (despite it being a Jewish newspaper) than the Turkish Hurriyet English. But you can understand. No business deals, no good coverage. Only that in many instances, they are harming the strategic interests of their nation in their blind hatred for Erdogan.

But there is something else I want to talk about: selective editing, coverage and analysis and even comment moderation. Of course the target of their news is the Israeli and US establishment. Frighten them about Erdogan and his AKP government with supposedly Erdogan’s anti-Israel (or even US) stance and his rapprochement with radical groups in the Middle East.

Then the two are required to either help the opposition to come to power or even push the military to topple Erdogan, something that would have been possible a few years ago, but seems difficult today.

And it is not secret that Israelis (and Hurriyet) wish for Erdogan’s fall. The Israelis even want the military to topple Erdogan. And now Hurriyet says Israeli hawks wish for Erdogan’s government ouster. One of the hawks even responds immediately through a comment and it is published. It shows how much they are in league with Hurriyet English. their intense interest even in comments points to something one can imagine.

Though Hurriyet English has many columnists, most of them are quite pathetic and can be ignored. One of them is Yusuf Kanli, the old man is quite always angry though he likes to call Erdogan the angry man. You can’t find an intellectual input from him. However, it has two sparring colleagues. The conservo-liberal (does it exist?) Mustafa Akyol plus the ideologue of nothing except “down with AKP” Burak Bedkil.

I say the ideologue of nothing because the man has one topic to talk about: AKP and how bad, illiberal, religious, anti-Semitic, Hamas linked ect it is. Any other thing on earth doesn't matter. I have been following him since 2007 and I must say the only other subject he has written about (and only few times after PKK attacks come Turkish military outposts) is how Kurdish are terrorists and that even if they are given more rights, how that won’t work because they want an independent homeland.

Ironically, Burak who is blindly is pro-Isreal fails to convince his Israeli comrades about the transgressions of PKK. They believe PKK is fighting for their people's rights but not Hamas. Failed mission indeed.

Someone told me he is an atheist, I don’t know about that, neither do I care about it but his articles aren’t stimulating except for the “volunteer squad” at Israel’s Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Ministry which are supposed to post nodding comments to every pro-Israel article anywhere and run down the opposite.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry has a squad to do the same. Will Burak feel disturbed by this nation that survives through propaganda since he likes to call Erdogan and AKP supporters a bunch of fools influenced by propaganda?

Israel bloggers and the volunteers recruited by the Foreign Ministry and also Diaspora Ministry focus on Turkey and actively post comments below news, articles and discussions on Israel especially Hurriyet. And Hurriyet aids them. For examples, though both Mustafa and Burak’s latest articles were posted online at the same time (both touching on Israel, the Gaza aid flotilla etc), as usual, the daily regulated the comments and released one negative comment from an Isreali to Mustafa’s article. On the other hand, it released seven positive comments from Isrealis to Burak’s one and one mildly negative.

Now you may ask, how do I know the commentators were Israelis or supporters of Israel and that the comments were regulated. It is easy to know that. I have already given you links where the Israeli Foreign and Diplomacy and Diaspora Ministries have recruited talkbackers to focus on “problematic” countries. And Turkey, Israeli’s number one ally in the region is “problematic” for Israel today due to Israel’s continued humiliation of the Palestinians and Turkey's protestation against that. Furthermore the ones who either comment or make them are either known, or betray themselves to be known.

Secondly, it is easy to know how many comments have been posted even if they weren’t published. Releasing a negative comment while holding the positive ones to be published later is something we know about. It is intended to influence the latter commentators. See the negative (the opposite) one and take cue. Follow that line or…you will be run down later. It achieves some results.

It is intended to discourage the writer, because the more he sees negative and hostile comments about his articles, the more he will be forced (supposedly) to either tone down or change the subject altogether. The other is to brainwash the later commentators because they will have to take cue from the first one(s). It works. I have singled out this issue because it has become a norm at Hurriyet and shame on you for belittling the intelligence of your readers.

I have no problem with someone supporting Israel (or repeatedly running down Turkey and the Turkish people as Burak does to convince I don't know whom) but I have a problem with someone doing at the expense of his/her nation and this is what Hurriyet English is doing in its desperate attempt to besmirch Erdogan and his government.

At the end of the day, it is the Turkish voters who will determine who will sit in T.C. Basbakanligi and not what hasbaraniks whether Turkish or Israelis write in Hurriyet English.

*Update*: Pm Erdogan lashes out at ‘black propaganda' sources

The danger of exporting hate to Kenya

The Friday Bulletin, a small, weekly publication of Kenya's largest Mosque- The Jamia Mosque warned (pdf) on its latest editorial of the danger of exporting hate, in an apparent reference to the frenzied attacks on Islam and Muslims in Kenya by the Evangelical Alliance and other cults of hate over the inclusion of the already existing Kadhis Courts in the proposed constitution which is slated for a referendum on August 4 this year.

These cults of hate are being financed and aided by the world's leading religious bigot Pat Robertson's The American Centre for Law and Justice. Former Mandera Central MP Billow Kerrow, one of the most vocal Muslim leaders in Kenya too penned an article regarding the bigotry of some of the Churches. Read the article in the pdf link above.

The Nation wrote: "Mr Robertson and Mr Sekulow are behind the Washington-based NGO that has established a centre in Nairobi to work against the proposed draft and to develop a strategy for Christians to lobby Parliament over future law reforms." It is apparent that the Far-Right brigade in the US are determined to spread their religious bigotry and hate and export it to an innocent territory that has cherished its religious tolerance for ages.

It is upon Kenyans to say NO to this hate. It is upon Kenyans to stand up to the evil machinations of the bigotry brigade who are hiding behind the veneer of faith to cash on the anguish of an agitated crowd devoid of reason and human good.

Kenya Muslim leaders' warning to Higher Education Minister to stop trading in religious hate as he seeks to bolster his standing in the NO side of the referendum is encouraging and other good hearted Kenyans must not see this as a Muslim-Christian fight-it has never been anyway- but a battle between the nefarious gang of the status quo and the reformers who are fighting for a better Kenya