Free Zara Kay
This happened.
She hasn’t been heard from since.
URGENT ACTION: Tanzanian government must drop all the politically-motivated charges against @zarakayk immediately and unconditionally#JusticeForZara #ReleaseZara #FreeZaraKay
@MagufuliJPhttps://t.co/kgKmyY2yFG pic.twitter.com/jMJdWXHriW— Maryam Namazie (@MaryamNamazie) December 30, 2020
@DeBalie @YoeriAlbrecht @sophierutnfrns @Ianth
Our activist friend @zarakayk who spoke at #CelebratingDissent event last year is in trouble.Please join international coalition of #ExMuslims in calling for her release. #JusticeForZara #ReleaseZara #FreeZaraKay https://t.co/cRPKiBxRtL
— Halima Salat #FreeZaraKay (@halimasalat) December 30, 2020
Drop all charges against @zarayk, they are politically motivated. #JusticeForZaraKay ,#JusticeForZara, #Tanzania, don't persecute @zarakayk https://t.co/kfItT7EbUq
— Gita Sahgal (@GitaSahgal) December 30, 2020
Fuck.
So long as religion holds sway over any government, there will always be Zara Kays, Raif Badawis, et al.
Out with the paint pot and paint brush; and which way to the Tanzanian Embassy?
DOWN WITH ISLAM…!!!
As Zara is an Australian Citizen I have emailed both the Prime Minister and the Minister for Foreign Affairs (who is also the Minister for Women) asking they intercede with Tanzania and insist this Australian should be permitted to leave Tanzania, without conviction or charge.
Well done.
Thanks OB, but the real tragedy is that I only know of this via your blog, not via any of the Australian media I read/watch/listen to. Sad.
@Roj Blake #4
If she’s an Australian citizen, why does she have a French flag in her Twitter handle?
I don’t know, nor am I her spokesorc, so I guess you need to address Zara directly.
That said, Australian citizenship does not require permanent residence in Australia.
I lived and worked in NZ for 11 years and often used NZ motifs in my social media posts. On some blogs I am still known as 1fugleykiwi and my avatar is https://i.postimg.cc/T1DPP0js/may-4th-kev.gif
Just checking around on the Internet about the history of blasphemy in Australia. Apparently, it is still on the books as a crime, as a hangover from earlier and more religious times, though I suspect that the next attempt to enforce it will be the last. Ever.
In the US, blasphemy is not a crime, thanks to the First Amendment.
Wikipedia has a lot of useful information, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blasphemy_law#United_Kingdom
That article does not just cover the UK, and has an interesting section on Tanzania.
Omar, as far as I can tell, the last prosecution was 100 years ago. It is one of those laws that seem so insignificant there is no rush to repeal it, however, like a snake in the grass, it is there to trip the unwary and be abused by theocrats.
Our current Federal government is anxious to pass a “Religious Freedom law” which is less about freedom, and more about returning the power and privilege secularism stripped from religion. And make no mistake about it, there is only one religion they want to be free.
Roj:
Given the recent and not so recent history of sectarian strife in Oz: from conservative Senator George Brandis maintaining peoples’ right to be bigots, the fight within the ALP between the Catholic Right of Santamaria and Archbishop Danny Mannix, and right back to the colonial days of the Reverend Samuel Marsden (‘the flogging parson’) there has been a sort of ongoing religious war, which was won by none of the sectarian players, because they were too suspicious of one another. (The mutual hostility of the Right and the Fairfax press arguably goes back to Prime Minister Bob Menzies’ over-fondness for the press baron’s wife.)
So do you have a link or two to criticism of the draft legislation? I would be most interested to read it.
On the face of it, it seems OK to me. eg “This provision ensures that the expression of certain beliefs, which are inconsistent with Australian values and would cause harm to individuals or the community at large, is not protected by anti-discrimination law.”
That is at the government site below,and I take it to mean that where the Koran urges the likes of Abdul Nacer Bembrika to ‘kill all infidels’ or whatever it does, he can’t plead ‘religious discrimination’ when he gets trodden on by the cops.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-10/high-court-to-consider-indefinite-detention-of-abdul-benbrika/12967414
https://www.ag.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-03/religious-freedom-reforms-outline-of-the-bills.pdf
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-24/brandis-defends-right-to-be-a-bigot/5341552?nw=0
The French flag in the Twitter handle references the murder of Samuel Paty and solidarity with Macron in trying to do something to decrease the influence of Islamists in France.
Ah thank you.