From the BBC:
Spain is marking the second anniversary of the Madrid train bombings, in which 191 people were killed.The prime minister will attend a wreath-laying ceremony in the Forest of Remembrance at noon, which will be followed by a five-minute silence.
A delegation from Morocco - the country of origin of many of the suspects - has travelled to the city to join events.
Islamic militants with links to al-Qaeda said they carried out the attacks on the four commuter trains.
A number of key suspects killed themselves in a stand-off with police weeks after the bombings, but the investigation to find others involved has continued.
Twenty-five people are being held in jail pending trial.
Robert! Robert!
You have got to post this. Here is Marina Mahathir, the daughter of the former President Mahathir of Malaysia, criticizing Sharia law in Malaysia!
http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2006/3/10/lifefocus/13565323&sec=lifefocus
No cheer for Muslim women
By MARINA MAHATHIR
In 1948, one of humankind’s most despicable ideas, apartheid, was made into law in South Africa where racial discrimination was institutionalised. Race laws touched every aspect of social life, including a prohibition of marriage between non-whites and whites, and the sanctioning of “white-only” jobs. Although there were 19 million blacks and only 4.5 million whites in South Africa, the majority population were forced to be second-class citizens in their homeland, banished to reserves and needing passports to travel outside them, even within their own country. It was only in 1990 that apartheid began to crumble and South Africans of all colours were finally free to live as equals in every way.
With the end of that racist system, people may be forgiven for thinking that apartheid does not exist anymore. While few countries practise any formal systems of discrimination, nevertheless you can find many forms of discrimination everywhere. In many cases, it is women who are discriminated against. In our country, there is an insidious growing form of apartheid among Malaysian women, that between Muslim and non-Muslim women.
We are unique in that we actively legally discriminate against women who are arguably the majority in this country, Muslim women. Non-Muslim Malaysian women have benefited from more progressive laws over the years while the opposite has happened for Muslim women.
For instance, since the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act 1976, polygamy among non-Muslims was banned. Previously men could have as many wives as they wanted under customary laws. Men’s ability to unilaterally pronounce divorce on their wives was abolished and, in its place, divorce happens by mutual consent or upon petition by either spouse in an equal process where the grounds are intolerable adultery, unreasonable behaviour, desertion of not less than two years, and living separately for not less than two years. Compare that to the lot of Muslim women abandoned but not divorced by their husbands.
Other progressive reforms in the civil family law in the late 1990s were amendments to the Guardianship Act and the Distribution Act. The Guardianship of Infants Act 1961 was amended to provide for equal guardianship for both father and mother, rather than the previous provision where only the father was the primary guardian of the children. In contrast, the Islamic Family Law still provides for the father as the sole primary guardian of his children although the mother is now allowed to sign certain forms for her children under an administrative directive.
The Distribution Act 1958 was also amended to provide for equal inheritance for widows and widowers, and also granted children the right to inherit from their mothers as well as from their fathers. Under the newly proposed amendments to the Islamic Family Law, the use of gender-neutral language on the issue of matrimonial property is discriminatory on Muslim women when other provisions in the IFL are not gender-neutral. Muslim men may still contract polygamous marriages, may unilaterally divorce their wives for the most trivial of reasons and are entitled to double shares of inheritance.
These differences between the lot of Muslim women and non-Muslim women beg the question: do we have two categories of citizenship in Malaysia, whereby most female citizens have less rights than others? As non-Muslim women catch up with women in the rest of the world, Muslim women here are only going backwards. We should also note that only in Malaysia are Muslim women regressing; in every other Muslim country in the world, women have been gaining rights, not losing them.
(Spain): Madrid Train Bombers "Were Planning Further Attacks"
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.274473231&par=0
2nd Anniversary of 3/11 attacks; other attacks were planned - the cell'spossible future targets were an English school in Madrid, and the Avila and Toledo synagogues
And I am mourning the loss of Spain as a stalwart ally in the fight against Islamic extremism. The socialists all but encouraged the attack through their terrorist friendly US hostile policies... Now, Spain has chosen to help the world fight Islamic extremism in the following way:
www.paktribune.com/news/index.php?id=136572
entitled:
"Spain to support Pakistan for moving resolution in UN on blasphemous sketches issue"
Now that's an "anti-terror" ally you can count on!
(if you're a terrorist...)
http://www.paktribune.com/news/index.php?id=136572
Indeed, jsla. This was a major victory for the Ummah. Not only did Spain withdraw from the allies in Iraq, but today, with their support to Pakistan's blasphemy proposals, they have switched sides. Ferdinand & Isabella must be turning over in their graves.
My suggestion to Zapatero - change Spain's name from Espana to al-Andaluz. It matches a certain street in Jeddah on which the US consulate stands. Besides, it enables you to return to your glorious pre-inquisition past.