Displaying items by tag: Discrimination

The persecution against Christians is worse today than in any period of history, said a report by Aid to the Church in Need. The great rabbi of France, Haim Korsia, made an urgent request to Europe and the rest of the West to defend the non-Muslims of the Middle East, whom he compared to the victims of the Holocaust. A new human rights report has revealed that Iraqi minorities such as Christians, Yazidis and the Chabaqui people are victims of a ‘slow-motion genocide’ that is destroying their ancestral communities to the point of disappearance. 81% of Iraq's Christians have disappeared. For the Sabians, the devout community of San Juan Bautista, the number is even worse: 94%. As for the Yazidis, 18% have died or left the country. Another human rights organisation, Hammurabi, reports that there were 600,000 Christians in Baghdad, but there are only 150,000 now.

Ken Livingstone's suspension from the Labour party over anti-Semitism claims has been extended indefinitely pending the outcome of an internal investigation. The former London mayor's suspension had been due to expire on 27 April, but in his last official act as Labour general secretary, Iain McNicol signed off on an indefinite extension, the Huffington Post UK has revealed. Mr McNicol employed a rarely-used procedure to impose an ‘administrative suspension’ on Mr Livingstone. Mr Livingstone said he had been ‘suspended for stating the truth’.

Ex-UKIP chief Nigel Farage has accused London mayor Sadiq Khan of hypocrisy for attacking US President Trump’s travel ban while inviting ambassadors from countries which refuse entry to Israeli citizens. At a meeting in City Hall on Tuesday night, Khan condemned Trump’s so-called ‘Muslim ban’ for being a ‘cruel, prejudiced and counterproductive’ policy. Also present at the reception were diplomatic representatives from eleven of the sixteen countries which do not allow entry to Israelis. Farage took to Twitter to call the London mayor a hypocrite. However, LSE professor and Middle East expert Fawaz A Gerges told the Independent that the two situations are totally different. ‘Trump’s ban is a Muslim ban, based on religious discrimination and racial discrimination. The relationship between Israel and its Arab neighbours is one of war since 1947 - for the last 70 years. By trying to force comparison, it just flies in the face of reality, it’s apples and oranges, sky and sea,’ he said. ‘What Trump has done has undermined America as a moral voice in the world.’