Shirin Ebadi

[Rasputin]

10 Questions For Shirin Ebadi

Iranian human-rights activist Shirin Ebadi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003. A judge who was dismissed from the bench after the 1979 Islamic revolution, she is now a lawyer who works to promote press freedom, spotlight gender inequity and child abuse, and defend dissidents against Iran's theocratic regime. Ebadi, 58, whose memoir Iran Awakening is out this week, spoke with TIME's Jeff Chu about the Nobel's impact, Iran's nuclear ambitions and her daily relaxation ritual.

Has the fame that came with the Nobel helped you in Iran? No, it has not helped at all. I published my memoirs outside Iran because I knew I would not get permission inside Iran. Also, from the time I won the Nobel, the authorities have tried three times to build a case against me. At the moment I have an open case against me. I have been accused of having taken money from the U.S. to give to Akbar Ganji, a journalist who is in jail, so he would go on a hunger strike and make Iran lose face.

You write about seeing your name on a death squad's hit list. Do you feel in danger? I still receive threatening letters and e-mails. A letter I recently received accused me of working against Islam and against Iran. Instead of a signature, [the writer] taped a dead roach to the bottom of the letter.

You discuss the strength of your Muslim faith in your book. Do you have a favorite Koranic verse? There is a verse that says God swears by time. Anything you gain in life, you pay for with your time. Time is the most important thing that has been given to man. This inspires me because it reminds me how short our time here is.

Where in the Muslim world can one see your model of how women should be treated? Let me answer this in another way: nowhere in the world is there a place where women are treated as they should be. Even in America you have not had a female President, and the number of women in the Cabinet is much lower than the number of men. Women are suppressed both in Islamic countries and in the West. But the reason they are more suppressed in Islamic countries is not because of religion but because of the patriarchal culture in Eastern countries.

You write about your responsibility for all domestic aspects of your household. Unfortunately, in the East women have to accept all the responsibility at home. Many husbands still complain when their wives work outside the house. My husband has the virtue of not complaining about my job. I divide my time so I can attend to both my profession and my work at home. Also remember that I am an Iranian woman. I have learned how to be patient.

You have described yourself as stubborn. Does your husband find it exasperating to argue with you? My husband and I rarely argue. I want to tell you something interesting: I believe so strongly in equality that I have even filled my family life with it. My husband and I have two daughters. The elder looks like her mother but has chosen her father's profession--she is an engineer. My younger daughter looks like her father, but her character is like mine. For this reason she is becoming a lawyer. So you can see we have divided our world equally. There is nothing to fight about.

[Rasputin]

10 Questions For Shirin Ebadi II

What should the West do about Iran's nuclear program? I can say what it shouldn't do. It should not attack Iran militarily. People may criticize the government, but if there is a military attack on Iran, they will defend their own country.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad seems to be using the issue to foster nationalism. A government that is in danger from the outside will take any chance to accelerate nationalism inside the country. But nuclear power is not a daily concern of the people. They want jobs, they want houses, they want health, they want more freedom.

What do you do to relax? Every night before I go to sleep, I read a novel for at least an hour. This is how I try to forget the aggressive work of the day. Right now I am reading The Zahir by Paulo Coelho. I like the way Coelho looks at world issues.

What else do you think the West needs to know about Iran? The West should realize that more than 65% of our university students are women. The West should understand that Iran has more than 2,500 years of civilization. The West should know that there are thousands of women like Shirin Ebadi.

[Rasputin]

Millions of Iranian women were sidelined by Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, but few fought back the way Shirin Ebadi did. She had become Iran's foremost woman jurist by the 1970s, but Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's theocracy stripped her of her judgeship in 1980. Her steely tenacity enabled her to take on a new role as a human rights lawyer battling for justice in Iran's revolutionary courts -- a fight that won her the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize and brought her face to face with the terror her clients confronted. In the fall of 2000, as she studied a dossier about the premeditated killings of dissidents that was made available after a judicial investigation, her gaze fell on a chilling sentence: "The next person to be killed is Shirin Ebadi."

Her new memoir, Iran Awakening , is a riveting account of a brave, lonely struggle to take Islamist jurists to task for betraying the promises of their own revolution. Life was supposed to improve for Iranians after the despotic rule of the U.S.-backed shah. But rather than protect its citizens, the new government set upon a cruel track. Ebadi's tale is told from the perspective of an ordinary mother and an extraordinary lawyer determined, despite the ruthless reign of the ayatollahs, to do what is right.

In her dealings with the grim and arbitrary judicial machinery in Islamist Iran, Ebadi demonstrates that her own patriotism is beyond reproach. She faces her foes with cunning and the quiet calculation of a superb chess player. The resulting book (written with the help of Azadeh Moaveni, a Time magazine correspondent) sometimes reads like a police thriller, its drama heightened by Ebadi's determination to keep up the quotidian aspects of her family life. She goes through the daily rituals of washing dishes and mincing fresh herbs before dinner, preparing meals ahead of time as she maps out her game plan to embarrass the regime.

Iran Awakening is not a literary work but an insider's view of the merciless daily grind that drives women to struggle, submission or suicide. Ebadi's reactions are sometimes movingly normal, as when she tries to insulate her two daughters from the terror by doing something as different as taking them skiing -- which, it turns out, requires this 40-something mom to get permission from her own mother.

The description of her own imprisonment -- she was jailed in June 2000 for videotaping the testimony of a key witness in the case of a young activist killed during the previous year's student riots -- offers a rare glimpse inside Tehran's notorious Evin prison. One guard, assuming that any female inmate must be a prostitute, asks the dignified dissident whether she is there "for a moral offense," which reduces her to hysterical laughter. Her mirth soon fades. "It was so odd to me, how the rhythm of prison life became familiar," she writes. "The personality quirks of the guards, the dank, dusty smell of the cells, even the howls of the addicts seemed normal to me after a couple of days."

Despite her opinion of the ruling mullahs, Ebadi continues to believe that Islam, or a progressive version of it, is compatible with modern democracy. Not everyone will agree with her, but her passion to prove the point is formidable.

Returning home three years ago as a Nobel laureate, she was greeted at Tehran's airport by a mostly female throng, including a group of students singing "Yar-e Dabestani," the adopted anthem of Iran's "young pro-democracy organizers," a sorrowful, bittersweet yet galvanizing song used to lift spirits at sit-ins and gatherings. Its lyrics ask, "Whose hands but mine and yours can pull back these curtains?"

Those curtains are far from lifted. "I am not free enough to write what I want to write," Ebadi said in a recent interview. But she adds: "I am willing to be tried in any court for what I said in this book." It is being published in 16 languages. But not Farsi, the language of Iran. ·

[Rasputin]

Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi bemoaned the conditions of her fellow women in the Islamic republic and its restrictions on civil rights.

"If I wanted to talk about all women's rights violations in Iran, it would take weeks, and it all begins with the law," she told a press conference.

"Where do these laws come from which are burdening women like this? A 12-year-old girl can go to prison but she cannot have a passport," said Ebadi, who is a lawyer.

Under the Islamic laws in force in Iran, the testimony of a woman is worth half that of a man, and she is subject to the criminal law from the age of nine as opposed to 15 for boys.

Ebadi, who was speaking at the Office to Consolidate Unity, a reformist student movement, condemned a police raid in Tehran last month to break up a women's demonstration calling for equal rights.

Seventy people -- including 42 women -- were detained during the June 12 protest, which demanded reforms in Iran's legal code and the removal of discriminatory clauses against women.

Rights organisations condemned the use of violence to suppress the demonstrators, some of whom were beaten up.

"The rally was peaceful. Is the duty of the police to restore order or to attack people? What would have happened if some innocent women could say what they wanted," asked Ebadi.

"The black stain in Iran is having so many political prisoners. The first step of democracy is freedom of expression. In no democratic country, are women looked at as a lesser being," she said.

Ebadi also condemned the continued detention of former MP Ali-Akbar Mussavi Khoini, who was arrested during the demonstration, and protested that she had not been allowed to see him as her lawyer.

She ridiculed official claims that intellectual Ramin Jahanbeglou, who was arrested in May, had been involved in a US-backed plan to launch a "velvet revolution" in Iran.

"They say he wanted to start a velvet revolution. Where are they selling all this velvet?" Ebadi asked, before winding up the press conference with the hope that "the victory of the feminist movement will open the way for democracy".

[Rasputin]

Iranian rights lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi has criticized the Islamic republic's judiciary for denying access to a detained former reformist MP.

Ebadi took the job of defending Ali-Akbar Mussavi-Khoini after he was arrested -- along with around 70 others -- for participating in a demonstration on June 12 calling for equal rights for women.

"As Mr Mussavi-Khoini's lawyer, I went to the Revolutionary Court where my client's case is being investigated in order to meet him. But I was denied access to him," Ebadi told the ISNA news agency Friday.

"According to the law, the attorney for the accused should be present during interrogation and investigation, so I hope (the authorities) pay more attention to the law and do not interrogate people without legal representation," she added.

Mussavi-Khoini is currently being held in Tehran's Evin prison.

According to Ebadi, Mussavi-Khoini has been without legal representation for nearly three weeks.

Ebadi also said that lawyers from the Defenders of Human Rights Center -- the group she runs -- were also following the cases of people allegedly beaten up by police during last month's demonstration.

[donsaeid]

[Rasputin]

Iran has declared as "illegal" a human rights group headed by Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi and vowed to prosecute its continued activities, local media has reported.

"As the group calling itself 'Defenders of Human Rights Center' has not obtained a permit from the interior ministry, its activities are illegal and the violators of this decision will be prosecuted," interior ministry was quoted as saying by the centrist Shargh newspaper Saturday.

But Ebadi, quoting Iran's constitution, responded that her center did not require a permit.

"Non-governmental organizations that observe the law and do not disrupt public safety do not need a permit. So the... Center does not need authorization".

She added the group had nonetheless applied for a permit, which the interior ministry would not issue and would not explain why it refused.

"We will protest the interior ministry decision and we will try all legal options to obtain our rights," Ebadi said, adding that this "move is not in Iran's national interest".

Formed by six prominent lawyers and headed by Ebadi, the group has been an active advocate of human and minority rights in the Islamic republic for the past four years.

Defending high-profile dissidents and prisoners of conscience, the group usually criticises the Islamic regime for what it sees as "violations of human rights".

One of the center's members, Abdolfattah Soltani, has been sentenced to five years in jail on charges of disclosing confidential information and opposing the regime.

Soltani represented journalist Akbar Ganji as well as the family of the Iranian-Canadian photographer Zahra Kazemi, who was killed in custody in 2003. Ebadi's group on Tuesday demanded an independent probe into the "suspicious" death of a jailed dissident, student activist Akbar Mohammadi, who died in prison on Sunday following a hunger strike.

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

Iranian lawyer and Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, who was dealt a serious blow earlier this month when authorities outlawed her legal center, has vowed to never give up her fight to defend human rights.

"When it comes to human rights, there is no victory," Ebadi, 59, told AFP from her small office in Tehran.

"The only thing that matters is to continue defending them. I will go on this way until the end."

On August 5, the interior ministry declared the Defenders of Human Rights Center outlawed because it had not obtained a government permit, saying "its activities are illegal and the violators of this decision will be prosecuted."

The group has advocated human and minority rights in the Islamic republic for the past four years, defending high-profile dissidents and prisoners of conscience, and often criticizing the Islamic regime for what it sees as "violations of human rights".

Ebadi, who founded the center in 2002 with four fellow lawyers, was unswayed by the regime's tough talk, vowing to "protest the interior ministry decision" and "use all legal avenues to obtain our rights."

The center's offices have not been shut down by authorities, and its lawyers have not yet reported any difficulties in operating due to the ban.

"We asked for registration as a legal organization four years ago. We have received no answer, no explanation, which is illegal," she said.

Resolute and self-confident, the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner has relentlessly pursued her vision of justice in the battle for human rights, even when solutions have appeared more distant than ever.

She is currently involved in five cases, among them the cases of women who say they were beaten and detained by police forces after demonstrations that the authorities said were illegal.

"None of the five cases have led to any definitive result yet. I do not have much hope in the Iranian courts," she said.

However, "the important thing is to file lawsuits to show that we care to follow law."

In 1974, Ebadi emerged as the first female judge in Iran, but after the 1979 Islamic revolution, the government decided that women were unfit to serve as judges. So, she chose to become a lawyer and devoted herself to human rights, women and children.

Gender equality is of paramount importance to Ebadi, who laments Islamic law which grants more importance to men than women in a number of areas.

"If I were run over by a car, I would receive half the compensation given to a man. In criminal cases, a woman's testimony is worth half a man's."

While she admits "our work was not easy under the presidency of Mohammad Khatami (reformist leader 1997-2005)," a period when she was imprisoned for defending students' rights, the rise to power of conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has not made her work any easier.

"Today, life is a little bit harder. Censorship is stronger, for example. Each time a new edition of a book is about to be published, it has to be submitted for approval by the authorities... the 'red lines' that the media are not allowed to cover have expanded."

Increased censorship coupled with the regime's lack of transparency means that even as she attempts to legally free political prisoners, she acknowledges that she does not know the span of the problem because she does not know the exact number of political prisoners in Iran.

"The government does not speak. Neither do the families, out of fear."

But she is all too aware that one of her fellow lawyers, Abdolfattah Soltani, is among them.

In July, Soltani received a five-year jail term on charges of disclosing confidential information and opposing the regime.

He had represented two defendants charged with spying on the country's nuclear program. Soltani's verdict was issued even though he and his lawyers were never informed of any hearing.

Ebadi says her Nobel award has "opened many international doors" to her and has "also added more value to my words abroad."

But in Iran, the prize "was not a particular help, because the government ignored it, but it has certainly become a means to protect me," she said.

Ebadi said she had survived two assassination attempts before receiving the prize.

"Now, the authorities know that they will have to pay a very high price if I am arrested or assassinated."

In one victory she cited since receiving the award, she was able to secure the amendment of a child custody law so that it now "gives the custody of children under age seven to the mother after divorce and allows the court to decided on the situation afterwards based on the child's interest."

Ebadi, a self-described optimist who thrives on small victories, expressed surprise when asked whether she still believed she could contribute to change in Iran.

"Do you ask a long-distance runner whether he or she plans to stop before the race ends?"

[Sepideh_UK]

No U Dont!!!
Becuase no matter how much u ask them or even tell them , is not going to have any effect, which i think is a great decision.

[Rasputin]

Urge Iran to reverse threat to Shirin Ebadi's human rights organization

Background
On August 3, 2006 the government of Iran declared the Center for the Defense of Human Rights (CDHR) illegal and threatened its president, Nobel Peace Laureate Dr. Shirin Ebadi, and her staff with prosecution if they continued their human rights activities. The CDHR reports on violations of human rights in Iran, defends dissidents and political prisoners pro bono and supports the families of such prisoners. Read more background here.

Take Action
Urge the government of Iran to reverse the threat to the CDHR and other human rights defenders and allow them to carry out their activities, free from intimidation and prosecution, according to Iranian and international law.

Send a letter to the government of Iran.

Visit Human Rights First Defender Alert to send a letter through their website, or see a sample letter below. Use it or better yet, adapt it and send one in your own words. Copy, cut and paste and edit it, then send it from your own email program. Send it to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and cc Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and Ambassador to the United Nations Javad Zarif.

Their email addresses are:
President Ahmadinejad : dr-ahmadinejad@president****
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki : matbuat@mfa.gov**** and Ambassador to the United Nations Javad Zarif: iran@un.int

[Rasputin]

Nobel Winner's Human Rights Center Banned by Iranian Government
Iran’s Interior Ministry has banned the country’s leading human rights group, the Center for the Defense of Human Rights, headed by 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi. This is an attempt to silence the Center's criticisms of the state’s arbitrary detentions and murders.

In a statement to the international community, Ebadi wrote: "of course me and other members of the center do not intend to shut down the center and we shall continue our activities. However, there is a high possibility that they will arrest us. The government's action in this regard is illegal."

The Center provides free legal representation to prisoners of conscience, supports their families, and reports on human rights violations occurring in detention facilities. Therefore, closing down the Center will have serious repercussions for all human rights defenders in Iran.

Please join us in demanding that the Iranian government allow Iran’s most prominent human rights organization to continue working without hindrance in compliance with its own Constitution, the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, and international treaties to which Iran is a state party such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

[Rasputin]

Nine Nobel Prize laureates have sent a letter to the Iranian government asking it to retract its threat to prosecute Iran's most prominent independent human rights organisation founded by Dr. Shirin Ebadi, winner of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize.

On Aug. 2, Iran's Ministry of Interior declared that Ebadi's Defenders of Human Rights Centre (DHRC) had failed to obtain a valid license and warned that the organisation would be prosecuted because its activities were "illegal." The DHRC has been a devoted and powerful voice for human and minority rights in Iran since its inception in 2001.

Two weeks later, the Dalai Lama (1989), Jody Williams (1997), Bishop Carlos Belo (1996), Wangari Maathai (2004), Betty Williams (1976), Rigoberta Menchú Tum (1992), Adolfo Pérez Esquivel (1980), Máiread Corrigan Maguire (1976), Elie Wiesel (1986), all Nobel Prize winners, sent a letter to Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki expressing their concern over the Interior Ministry's position.

"As we understand, the work of the DHRC, as a civil and peaceful association, is legal according to the Iranian Constitution," the letter said. "We urge you to reconcile the discrepancy of the 'permit' that the Iranian government declares is necessary for the organization to function yet seems inconsistent with the Iranian constitution which states that non-governmental organizations that observe the law and do not disrupt public safety do not need a permit."

Under the U.N. Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, individuals and associations have the right "to promote and to strive for the protection and realisation of human rights and fundamental freedoms," and to "complain about the policies and actions of individual officials and governmental bodies with regard to violations of human rights."

It further says that states "shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of [human rights defenders] against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary actions."

Ebadi's centre is a member of the International Federation for Human Rights and was awarded a prize by the Human Rights National Commission in France. In addition, Dr. Shirin Ebadi was recognised with a Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her work to protect human rights.

As a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Iran is obligated to uphold a commitment to freedom of association. The DHRC has made every effort to be in compliance with Iranian law and applied for a permit in 2002, which Iran's Ministry of Interior would not issue or explain why it refused.

Hadi Ghaemi, a Human Rights Watch researcher, told IPS that the Iranian government's threat to arrest Shirin Ebadi and lawyers associated with her centre is a serious attack on fundamental rights in Iran. "The government is basically demonstrating its intolerance of independent advocates who are trying to promote and protect human rights under the law," he said.

"It can also be viewed as an attempt to undermine the country's legal system, because if the government disallows human rights lawyers from public advocacy and threatens them with prosecution, then the lawyers have no security in defending their clients in the courtroom," he added.

A few days after the government's announcement, Ebadi sent an email message to human rights activists and media correspondents, asking them to publicise the government's threat and gather public support for her centre.

"The Government of Iran announced that this Center is illegal and provided we continue our activities, they shall arrest us," she wrote. "Of course I and the other members of the center do not intend to shut down the center and we shall continue our activities. However, there is a high possibility that that they will arrest us."

"The government's action in this regard is illegal," she wrote. "This Center has been established and working for more than four years now. I believe this decision of the government has been triggered by my memoir being published. In any case, I am happy that my memoir has been published, for the truth must be told."

Mohammad Seyfzadeh, Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, Mohammad Sharif, and Abolfatah Soltani, all well-respected lawyers in Iran, are among the co-founders of the DHRC.

Over the years, Ebadi and her colleagues have taken on prominent cases like that of Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, who was murdered while in prison in 2003; killings of dissidents and writers in 1998; the student uprising in 1999; arrests of bloggers and journalists in 2004; and the imprisonment of Iran's most prominent dissident, Akbar Ganji.

Ganji, who spent six years in jail and was released only recently, told IPS that it is unlikely that the Islamic government would actually arrest Dr. Ebadi.. However, he said that threatening human rights organisations into silence is part of the government's goal to create a monolithic society.

"They are against any kind of critical voices. They perceive opposition voices as part of an attempt to create a Velvet Revolution (like that in Czechoslovakia in 1989, as well as Ukraine and Georgia). For this reason, the Islamic regime is trying to shut down non-governmental organisations (NGOs) such as DHRC," said Ganji, who was represented by Ebadi for the six years of his detention.

"Everybody involved in political and social activism is facing the risk of arrest and prosecution in Iran today. Dr. Ebadi and her colleagues should continue their activities. They do not need governmental license for their peaceful activities since it's not against the constitution," he said.

Ganji emphasised that activists around the world can support Ebadi and her colleagues by condemning the government's action against human rights NGOs. Such condemnations would make it harder for the government to impede the work of social activists within Iran.

Hussein Bastani, an Iranian journalist and political activist, worked with Dr. Ebadi in 1993, when they were both members of the Association for Defending the Rights of the Child. He told IPS that Dr. Ebadi was mostly engaged in non-political cases, yet even so she was threatened from time to time by anonymous callers who considered her position on the discriminatory laws regarding women and children to be "anti-Islamic".

"During the years I worked with Shirin Ebadi, I have two memories that never leave my mind. First, when it was proven that her name was on the 'list of terror'. This was a list of Iranian intellectuals who were killed in 1998 by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence," he said.

"Four were murdered before this list came to light. Second, when, during a telephone conversation in 2000, she told me she was summoned to court, and would probably be sent to prison the next day. I didn't agree with her. I couldn't imagine that someone like her would be arrested... but the day after; I heard the news of her imprisonment."

The restrictive policies against human rights NGOs mean that journalists and political and social activists are now more vulnerable in the face of government charges. The premature death of Akbar Mohammadi, a student activist who died in Evin prison in July, and the recent threats against Dr. Ebadi's centre are an ominous sign for those who fight for human rights in Iran today.

*Omid Memarian is an Iranian journalist and civil-society activist. He has won several awards, including Human Rights Watch's highest honour in 2005, the Human Rights Defender Award.

[Rasputin]

Denied potential
Winning a Nobel prize is the last thing on mind of a person whose country has been attacked and exploited, either ideologically or physically, by internal and external forces for centuries
I have to say that quite simply, you cannot compare apples with oranges! Any qualitative or quantitative comparison has to be made in its appropriate context or else it is bound to fall short of achieving the very purpose that it was created for and as such, I found your comparison to be at the very best naïve, superficial and one-sided.

Surely, based on the statistics that you have provided the Jewish population have made higher academic achievements than Muslims, but if one closely examines the data, one would realize that most of the achievements have been made after World War II, when most of the Jewish population had migrated to America, Australia or western European countries and as such have had the opportunity to flourish their talents and abilities in peaceful and “democratic” countries, free from conflict, poverty and other impediments that prevent a person, being a Jew, Christian or Muslim, from fully realizing their true potentials.

That does not mean Muslims are less capable and/or have a genetically predisposition gene for being violent. Contrary to the Jewish population, most Muslims do not live in peaceful countries, as they have live in extreme poverty and other horrific situations which leave little or no room for flourishing one’s true potentials, let alone winning a Nobel prize!

This, of course, by no means justifies and/or excuses Muslims from not doing anything to improve their conditions. Undoubtedly Muslims could and should learn a lesson or two from Jews, namely internal solidarity and economic empowerment. But doing so requires a moment of peace and this, unfortunately, is a luxury that most Muslims have not had the opportunity to experience.

A political and historical analysis of Muslim nations would reveal that historically most Muslim countries either though existence of internal enemies –namely having dictator and totalitarian regimes ruling their everyday lives- or external enemies - namely foreign exploitation and colonialism- have had little chance to flourish their talents.

Further, you mentioned earlier, the Muslims constitute 20% of the world’s population, as opposed to Jews who only contribute 0.02%. Just because there are more Muslims than Jews, it does not mean that they should have more Nobel winners! Winning a Nobel prize is the last thing on mind of a person whose country has been attacked and exploited, either ideologically or physically, by internal and external forces for centuries.

The right to self-determination and autonomy is a very basic Human Rights, which most Muslims do not enjoy. Most Muslim nations, for the reasons mentioned above are not powerful economic players in the global market, they do not have the world’s biggest share of GDP, they do not control media ownership and most importantly they do not have highly “sophisticated” and “presentable” spoke-people articulately defending them in front of cameras to provoke sympathy. Hence they resort to “yelling and chanting in streets” as you have mentioned – but it is the only way that they can project their voice and be heard. Powerless and desperate people, resort to powerless and desperate means.

At the end of the day, we are all, regardless of our religions, humans, and not members of different species. Surely, everyone loves to live in a peaceful county where they can fully realize their true potentials and win as many Nobel prizes as possible, but the reality is that most people do not enjoy such luxuries and until they can acquire that, they will and should do all they can to achieve autonomy, peace, respect and equality in a global scale. I am certain, that everyone else would have done the same, if placed in a similar condition, regardless of their religion and faith.

[Rasputin]