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Suspension of Conscience
Slate ^ | February 15, 2010 | Christopher Hitchens

Posted on 02/17/2010 6:37:55 PM PST by Lorianne

Amnesty International has just suspended one of its senior officers, a woman named Gita Sahgal who until recently headed the organization's "gender unit." It's fairly easy to summarize her concern in her own words. "To be appearing on platforms with Britain's most famous supporter of the Taliban, whom we treat as a human rights defender," she wrote, "is a gross error of judgment." One might think that to be an uncontroversial statement, but it led to her immediate suspension.

The background is also distressingly easy to summarize. Moazzem Begg, a British citizen, was arrested in Pakistan after fleeing Afghanistan in the aftermath of the intervention in 2001. He was imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay and then released. He has since become the moving spirit in a separate organization calling itself Cageprisoners. Begg does not deny his past as an Islamist activist, which took him to Afghanistan in the first place. He does not withdraw from his statement that the Taliban was the best government available to Afghanistan. Cageprisoners has another senior member named Asim Qureshi, who speaks in defense of jihad at rallies sponsored by the extremist group Hizb-ut Tahrir (banned in many Muslim countries). Cageprisoners also defends men like Abu Hamza, leader of the mosque that sheltered Richard "Shoe Bomber" Reid among many other violent and criminal characters who have been convicted in open court of heinous offenses that have nothing at all to do with freedom of expression.

Yet Amnesty International includes Begg in delegations that petition the British government about human rights. For Saghal to say that Cageprisoners has a program that goes "way beyond being a prisoners' rights organization" is to say the very least of it. But that's all she had to say in order to be suspended from her job.

(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: ai

1 posted on 02/17/2010 6:37:55 PM PST by Lorianne
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To: Lorianne

Islamist = one who actively seeks to kill or harm for submission, the infidels.


2 posted on 02/17/2010 6:43:54 PM PST by exnavy (May the Lord grant our troops protection and endurance.)
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To: Lorianne

When he’s right, he’s very right.


3 posted on 02/17/2010 6:49:03 PM PST by sinanju
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To: exnavy

Mohammed could not form a serious army, so he enlisted gays and perverts. What is Obama doing today? Same thing.


4 posted on 02/17/2010 7:47:27 PM PST by JudgemAll (control freaks, their world & their problem with my gun and my protecting my private party)
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