Islamic Shariah court in Indonesia's Aceh province sentences 2 men to public caning over sexual acts
Aceh is considered more devout than other areas of Muslim-majority Indonesia and is the only province allowed to observe a version of Islamic Shariah law.
Monday's verdict was the fifth time that Aceh has sentenced people to public caning for homosexuality since the Islamic law was implemented in 2015 as a concession made by the government to end a long-running separatist rebellion.
Indonesia's national criminal code doesn't regulate homosexuality, and the central government doesn't have the power to strike down Shariah law in Aceh.
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Grave by grave, a new project in divided Cyprus tries to mend mistrust
TOCHNI, Cyprus -- On opposite sides of ethnically divided Cyprus, even the resting places of the dead haven't been spared the fallout of war. Shattered granite crosses are strewn about the weed-choked Greek Cypriot cemeteries in the island's northern third that's in Turkish Cypriot hands. In the Greek Cypriot south, Muslim headstones in Turkish Cypriot cemeteries are concealed by overgrowth. Until 2003, no one could cross a United Nations-controlled buffer zone to place flowers at loved ones' graves. In the five decades since a Turkish invasion, vandalism and the ravages of time have transformed hundreds of Cyprus' cemeteries into evidence of the geographic and political rift. But even as chances for bilateral talks to end the divide appear bleak, Greek and Turkish Cypriots have teamed up to mend mistrust and push for peace, one grave at a time. Restoration is underway at 15 civilian cemeteries on each side of the so-called Green Line cutting across the Mediterranean island. Expansion of the roughly 700,000-euro project ($815,000) to more cemeteries is being considered. 'The maintenance and restoration of cemeteries constitutes one of the most symbolic and morally pressing acts for a place that strives for reconciliation," said Sotos Ktoris, a Greek Cypriot member of the committee from both communities overseeing the work. Turkey's 1974 invasion, triggered when Athens-backed supporters of uniting Cyprus with Greece mounted a coup, prompted some 160,000 Greek Cypriots to flee their villages to safety in the south, where the internationally recognized government is seated. Some 45,000 Turkish Cypriots moved north, where authorities declared independence a decade later. To this day, only Turkey recognizes Cyprus' northern authorities. Among the displaced were the custodians of places of worship and cemeteries, both Orthodox Christian and Muslim. Churches in the north were vandalized and looted. Mosques in the south fell into neglect and decay. As part of U.N.-mediated efforts to achieve a peace deal, both sides have found ways to address past wrongs, including the restoration of churches, mosques and other monuments by the committee. Earlier this year, Greek Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar expanded the committee's work to cemetery restoration, with European Union funding and U.N. support and assistance. Work began in May. Greek Cypriot workers last month were rebuilding the 100-year-old stone wall at one Muslim cemetery in Tochni, a village nestled in hilly countryside near the southern coast. Turkish Cypriot residents had outnumbered Greek Cypriots here by nearly three to one until they were transferred north a few months after the Turkish invasion ended. Many Turkish Cypriots from the north are now visiting the village to reconnect with their past, find family homes and honor their ancestors, according to Tochni's Greek Cypriot community leader, Charoulla Efstratiou. 'Just as we demand that they respect us, our dead, our religion and so forth, I believe that we owe the same respect to them,' Efstratiou said. At the Tochni cemetery, a small patch of crimson flowers emerged from the parched soil atop the grave of a man who died 65 years ago, planted recently by his descendants. In the village of Palaikythro that Turkish Cypriots have renamed Balikesir, broken crosses at the Greek Cypriot cemetery have been set upright again until they're fully mended. Virtually nothing was left intact. Turkish Cypriot contractor Recep Güler said it wasn't easy to restore the external walls and gate. Mürüde Erzen, the village's Turkish Cypriot community leader, said the cemetery is part of shared cultural heritage. 'When I saw this place, I was very upset, wondering why it had become like this,' Erzen told the United Nations Development Program in footage shared with the AP. Turkish Cypriot authorities had denied the AP access. When Erzen became community leader, she resolved to do something about it. Sotiroulla Mina Iniati, the Greek Cypriot community leader of Palaikythro, said the cost of full restoration of crosses will be borne by families or the community council. Greek Cypriots continue to elect their own community leader to affirm their claim to their lost lands and preserve their memory. 'For us, this is a sacred place,' Iniati said. 'We feel that in this way, the souls of our dead who have for 51 years remain neglected, will be able to rest." The last major push for a peace deal in Cyprus collapsed in 2017. Today, the Turkish Cypriots and Turkey shun the U.N.-endorsed framework for reunifying Cyprus as a federation. They insist on a two-state deal that Greek Cypriots reject because they view partition as dooming the island to Turkey's influence, with its military hardware and troops stationed there in perpetuity. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has met Christodoulides and Tatar twice this year and is expected to meet them again in the coming months in a bid to keep peace talks alive.
New York Post
10 hours ago
- New York Post
How Hamas turned kids into terrorists with TV show featuring jihadi mouse, bloodthirsty bunny
American kids may have grown up with Mr. Rogers telling them, 'You are special just the way you are,' but for a child in Gaza there was Farfour—a plushy, genocidal TV mouse screaming 'Kill! Kill! Kill!' Farfour, a costumed Mickey Mouse knockoff, was co-host of a kid's program called 'Tomorrow's Pioneers' which aired on Hamas-affiliated television station Al-Aqsa TV from April 2007 to October 2009. For anyone wondering how the ideologically-crazed fanatical fighters of Hamas came to be, the show offers some answers. 15 Farfour, a homicidal Mickey Mouse ripoff who advocated martyrdom and Islamic world domination, was murdered on air by IDF soldiers in a skit. YouTube 15 Criminologists have identified the tactic of using 'the deviant peer' to recruit children into abusive situations. YouTube Billed as educational programming to teach Islamic values to schoolchildren — much like a 'Sesame Street' or 'Barney & Friends' for the Middle East — 'Tomorrow's Pioneers' was a colorful, sing-song blood orgy celebrating Jew hatred and martyrdom. The kids who grew up watching it are now fighting age men — like those who carried out the October 7 massacre of nearly 1,200 Israelis and abducted 251 hostages. On the show, Farfour promised the kids of Gaza that together they'd oversee Islamic world domination and liberate Jerusalem from the 'murderers.' He mimicked grenade-throwing and shooting an AK-47. 15 Nahoul, a killer bee, preached to the school kids: 'We will liberate Al-Aqsa from the filth of the criminal Jews,' referring to the fictional town where the characters lived. YouTube 15 Co-host Saraa Barhoum chats with Assoud the bunny, who promises kids, 'I will finish off the Jews and eat them.' YouTube Mia Bloom, professor of communication and Middle East studies at Georgia State University, remembers 'Tomorrow's Pioneers' well from her research into terror tactics. 'It's a constant stream of horrific propaganda that is almost impossible for a child to break out of. And so the kids grow up thinking that every Israeli should be killed because every Israeli is bad and evil,' she told the Post. The show's co-host, Gaza child star Saraa Barhoum — around ten years old when the show first aired and the daughter of a university professor mother and a Hamas spokesman father — said in a 2007 interview she wanted to be either a doctor or a martyr when she grew up. 15 11-year-old co-host Saraa Barhoum, who said she wished to be a doctor or a martyr when she grew up, stands outside the Al-Aqsa studio headquarters with producer Hazem Sharawi in 2007. Tribune News Service via Getty Images 15 Mia Bloom, a terrorism tactics researcher, says traumatizing children is a means of abusive control. Courtesy of Mia Bloom She also launched a singing career, recording pop songs with lyrics like, 'raise your sail for the sailors, and let your lighthouse illuminate the sea of blood.' 'There's a concept in criminology called a deviant peer. If I'm a recruiter—if I'm trying to get kids—I'm not going to use a 75-year-old man. I'm going to use a cool kid who's maybe a few years older,' Bloom says. 'Unfortunately, it's a common thing that happens within the child abuse space.' Disney, notorious for swooping in on copyright infringement, was aware of Farfour's Mickey Mouse likeness but chose to remain silent. They didn't have to for long: the network murdered Farfour on air during the first season. In the scene, the terror Mouse is being interrogated by IDF soldiers who beat him to death after he refuses to hand over documents. '[Hamas's] argument would be: 'These kids are already traumatized — this kid doesn't have a house, lost a sibling — the trauma is already there and the trauma is all around them.' 15 'This kind of layered trauma that you're deliberately exposing young Palestinian children to was not just a form of child abuse, but a long-term manipulation,' Middle East expert Bloom says. YouTube 15 The messages of 'Tomorrow's Pioneers' were reinforced relentlessly in Gaza society, through textbooks, news programs, and magazines. YouTube 15 Western children's shows like 'Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood' emphasize teaching tolerance and understanding, while children in 2000s Gaza were taught that Jews are descended from pigs. John Beale 'By traumatizing the children through the 'Pioneers' show, Hamas basically controlled the narrative and they could direct the trauma, instead of having this vague generalized trauma across society,' Bloom, author of the book 'Small Arms: Children and Terrorism' said. On the show, Farfour was replaced by a bloodthirsty bumblebee with a squeaky voice named Nahoul, who preached to the kiddos: 'We will liberate Al-Aqsa from the filth of the criminal Jews,' referring to the fictional town where the characters lived, and 'revenge upon the enemies of God, the murderers of the prophets.' In season two, Nahoul gets sick. The Israeli authorities won't issue him a travel permit to receive medical treatment in Egypt and he dies. Nahoul is replaced by his rabbit brother, Assoud, a mangy Bugs Bunny knockoff, who tells the tykes at home in one episode: 'A rabbit is a term for a bad person and coward. And I, Assoud, will finish off the Jews and eat them.' In another episode Assoud is tempted by Satan to steal money from his father and sentenced to have his hand cut off, 'as the Prophet Mohammed commanded.' Assoud later dies in an Israeli strike and is replaced by a bear. 15 In one episode, Palestinian children joined in for a sing along in-studio welcoming their own death. YouTube 15 Farfour was the first 'Tomorrow's Pioneers' co-host to be murdered on air. Each of his replacements were killed on screen by Israelis. YouTube 15 A still from Tomorrow's Pioneers showing Assoud the bunny and his young co-host. IMDb In another episode, children were invited into the studio to tell the hosts of their wish to die as martyrs, and then sing a song about it. 'This kind of layered trauma that you're deliberately exposing young Palestinian children to was not just a form of child abuse, but a long-term manipulation,' Bloom says. 'It relates to October 7th. To have those resources and instead of making things better, you've just made things so much worse.' 15 Farfour the jihadi mouse told Hamas children 'We will liberate Al-Aqsa,' referring to the mosque in Jerusalem. YouTube 15 On Oct. 7, 2003 roughly 3,000 Hamas terrorists attacked various points in Israel, killing 1,200 civilians. Many would have grown up watching 'Tomorrow's Pioneers.' 15 Bloom, author of the book 'Small Arms' compares Hamas' afterschool program to ISIS requiring children to attend public beheadings. 'It's a constant stream of horrific propaganda.' While little information is publicly known about the estimated 3,000 Hamas fighters who conducted the Oct. 7 slaughter, ages 16-35 are considered 'fighting age' for men—meaning many of those combatants grew up watching their favorite plushy woodland creatures get executed by Jews on afterschool television. 'It's not just the 'Pioneers' TV show. It was amplified and reinforced by the textbooks that the children would read in school that demonized Jews and basically referred to Jews as apes and pigs and other dirty animals,' Bloom says. A 2008 analysis of Palestinian schoolbooks found a passage comparing Jews to 'invading snakes.' In popular media, a late 1990s Palestinian magazine article explained that Jews are the actual sons of apes and, due to the shame felt by this, the 'Jewish ape Darwin' invented the theory of evolution and applied it to all humans. Bloom, who has studied genocide, extremist movements, and child soldiers across the world, says it reminds her of the Taliban and ISIS—both of whom held public beheadings and required children of the community to attend. 'It's not exactly the same because killing Farfour was fake. But it's this idea of exposing children to obscene levels of violence. And it creates a preparedness to justify violence and to choose violence over other options.'
Miami Herald
14 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Britain urges police to release nationality of suspects in some crimes
Aug. 13 (UPI) -- New national guidance in Britain said that police should consider releasing the ethnicity and nationality of suspects when they are charged in high-profile or sensitive cases. The guidance said that there must be a policing reason to release the information, such as to combat disinformation or improve public safety. The move was in response to protests after two men were charged with the alleged rape of a 12-year-old girl in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, outside of Birmingham, England. The two charged were reported to be Afghan asylum seekers. Warwickshire Police would not confirm the immigration status, which led Reform U.K. -- a right-wing populist party -- and its leader Nigel Farage to accuse the police of a cover-up. The police strongly denied this. Ahmad Mulakhil was charged with rape, and Mohammad Kabir has been charged with kidnapping and strangulation. Responding to protests last week, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper urged police to release the ethnicity, saying police should be more transparent. The National Police Chiefs' Council and the College of Policing said they support the new initiative, but it has also drawn criticism from some anti-racist activists, who have said that it could risk making violence against women and girls an issue of ethnicity instead of misogyny. The Home Office will decide if it is "appropriate in all the circumstances" to confirm immigration status of a suspect, the guidance said. Policing Minister Diana Johnson told Sky News, "We welcome the guidance. We want to be as transparent and as open as possible with the public," including releasing ethnicity and nationality unless there is "good reason not to." Police didn't share basic facts about the "Southport killer" last summer, which led to "dangerous fictions," an independent watchdog said. The attack took the lives of three girls, ages 6,7 and 9, at a Taylor Swift-themed party. Ten others were also injured. Attorney Jonathan Hall said it would have been "far better" for police to share more accurate detail about the arrest of Axel Rudakubana, the man later convicted of the killings. Far-right agitators wrongly claimed that he was a Muslim asylum seeker. Deputy chief constable Sam de Reya, NPCC spokesperson, told The Guardian, "We saw during last summer's disorder, as well as in several recent high-profile cases, what the major, real-world consequences can be from what information police release into the public domain. "We have to make sure our processes are fit for purpose in an age of social media speculation and where information can travel incredibly quickly across a wide range of channels. Disinformation and incorrect narratives can take hold in a vacuum. It is good police work for us to fill this vacuum with the facts about issues of wider public interest." Copyright 2025 UPI News Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
