-By Warner Todd Huston
If it’s anti-west, anti-British, Anti-American, Anti-Israeli… well, be sure that Amnesty International supports it. Here’s another bit of proof for that bromide with AmNasty International’s suspension of human rights specialist Gita Sahgal. Why was Sahgal removed from her AI position? Because she criticized AI for supporting Moazzam Begg, Britain’s biggest supporter of al Qaeda, the Taleban and religious oppression against women.
Interesting to see the clash of political correctness here, isn’t it? They’ve booted a female, minority civil rights worker from her position because she came out against an Islamofascist that AI is in love with.
I am sure this had the PC heads at AI roiling in a tizzy. Their dilemma was do they support, a). the female, minority, civil rights worker, or b). the aggrieved Islamofascist that was once held at Guantanamo. What a dilemma for the politically correct, eh?
Tellingly Amnesty International chose to support the fanatic Muslim that supports al Qaeda and the Taleban.
Here’s what occurred: Last January Gita Sahgal, who was head of the “Gender Unit” at Amnesty International, became alarmed that AI was aligning itself with Moazzam Begg. At that time she sent a letter to her employers at AI saying in part, “To be appearing on platforms with Britain’s most famous supporter of the Taliban, whom we treat as a human rights defender, is a gross error of judgment.”
AI replied by suspending her and launching an “internal investigation.” This prompted Sahgal to release a public statement.
“Amnesty International has sanitised the history and politics of ex-Guantanamo detainee Moazzam Begg, and completely failed to recognise the nature of his organisation Cageprisoners.”
“The issue is a fundamental one about the importance of the human rights movement maintaining an objective distance from groups and ideas that are committed to systematic discrimination and fundamentally undermine the universality of human rights. I have raised this issue because of my firm belief in human rights for all.”
So, who is this Begg character? He runs an organization called Cageprisoners and has been an outspoken supporter of the Taleban and al Qaieda.
Originally from Birmingham, Mr Begg went to a training camp in Afghanistan in 1993 and then moved there with his family in 2001.
In his memoirs, he said the Taliban were “better than anything Afghanistan has had in 20 years.”
He was picked up by the CIA in 2002 after fleeing to Pakistan. The U.S. claimed he was a member of al-Qaeda who had helped recruit others and fund training camps.
Since his release, he has been a vocal campaigner for the rights of detainees and has been involved with Amnesty for several years.
Begg’s group has come to the aid of Islamic hate preacher al Al-Awlaki (linked to Major Hassan’s act of terror in Texas in late 2009) as well as 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the group has also given support to Abu Hamza, and Abu Qatada.
Sahgal says that Cageprisoners “‘actively promotes Islamic Right ideas and individuals.” Obviously she is right.
Yet she is the one that got canned by Amnesty International. AI claims they don’t support terrorists, but this action makes this claim very, very hard to believe.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, TheRealityCheck.org, RedState.com, Human Events Magazine, AmericanDailyReview.com, and the New Media Journal, among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. Warner is also the editor of the Cook County Page for RedCounty.com.
He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of PubliusForum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
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