Some background information on Mehdi's case:
'A gay teenager from Iran who fled the UK for the Netherlands last
year after his appeal for asylum was refused is expected to be
returned to the UK today by Dutch authorities.
London Liberal Democrat MEP Baroness Sarah Ludford has written to the
Home Secretary to request her to urgently review the case of
19-year-old Medhi Kazemi, who faces possible execution by stoning if
he returns to Iran.
Baroness Ludford, who is the Liberal Democrat European justice
spokesperson and a member of the European Parliament's Gay and Lesbian
Rights Intergroup, said:
"Jacqui Smith must recognise and act on the real threat of persecution
and even execution which Mr Kazemi would face if he was to be deported
to Iran.
"As with Ms Pegah Emambakhsh, an Iranian lesbian who was granted a
reassessment of her own asylum case after I and other parliamentarians
intervened, we need the Home Office to accept the facts and genuinely
consider the risks of deportation.
"We cannot on the one hand claim that we live in a modern and liberal
society if on the other hand we are willing to send asylum seekers
back to face stoning purely because of their sexuality."
At the end of last year a court in the Netherlands ruled Medhi must be
returned back to the UK.
He fled England last spring after his visa ran out and a Home Office
tribunal dismissed his appeal against deportation.
It is feared that if Medhi is ordered to be deported back to Iran he
may face execution for being gay.
Medhi left Iran in 2004 to travel to England on a student visa and
continue his education.
While he was in the UK he learned that Iranian authorities had
arrested his boyfriend Parham back in Iran, and that his boyfriend had
been forced to name Medhi as someone with whom he had had a
relationship.
Medhi's father had then received a visit from the Tehran police, with
an arrest warrant for his son as they wanted to put him on trial.
In late April, Medhi's uncle told him Parham had been put to death.
The Canada-based Iranian Queer Organisation, said:
"The European governments claim to be the champions of human rights
and democracy and condemn Iran frequently for its violation of human
rights; and yet they willingly pave the road for the government of
Iran to go ahead with its human rights abuses, and
arrest and execute an identified Iranian gay.
"Today, they sentence Medhi to torture and possible death by deporting
him to Iran, and tomorrow they issue statements commending this
violent and unlawful act of execution."
Human rights group EveryOne has started a campaign to save Medhi.
"We are asking the European Union to adopt a tough stance and overrule
the decision taken by Gordon Brown's Government," the group in a
statement.
"The United Kingdom is continuing undaunted to violate the
international conventions on human rights and the rights of refugees,
as well as the European directives and laws which determine the
requests for political asylum.
"They did it with the Iranian lesbian Pegah Emambakhsh, when they
refused her refugee status, claiming she was unable to prove her
homosexuality."
EveryOne is making an official appeal to the European Union and the UN
High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, to put an immediate
stop to the deportation and ensure Medhi is given refugee status.
On January 31st the European Commission said:
"Member states cannot expel or refuse refugee status to homosexual
persons without taking into account their sexual preferences, the
information relevant to the situation in their country of origin,
including the laws and ways in which they are applied."
Medhi will have to be repatriated to his country of origin because
according to the British government, he does not run any risk there.
Medhi fled in secret from England, intending to take refuge in Canada,
but was blocked by the German border police.
After hearing his story, he was sent to Holland, a country known for
granting refugee status to Iranian homosexuals, and again handed over
to the police.
However, the United Kingdom sent a formal request to Holland asking
for Medhi's return to Britain, in order to proceed with his
deportation to Iran.'
Showing posts with label Netherlands. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Netherlands. Show all posts
Friday, March 07, 2008
Friday, September 14, 2007
Dutch Muslim Critic Announces Film on Islam and Homosexuality
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/105105.html#
Dutch Muslim critic announces film on Islam and homosexuality
2007-09-10
Amsterdam - Muslim critic Ehsan Jami is working on a movie about homosexuality in Islam. On Monday his spokeswoman confirmed the rumours in an article about Jami published in daily newspaper NRC.next. She added 22-year-old Jami is currently working on the script. He wants to start filming next year. Several directors are reported to contribute to the film.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has formally protested Jami's yet to be produced film.
Jami's audiovisual project is the second movie about homosexuality and Islam in the making in the Netherlands.
Two years ago, former legislator Ayaan Hirsi Ali of the Liberal Party also announced she was preparing a film on this subject, Submission 2.
Her movie would be the second part of the production she made with the late Dutch director Theo van Gogh.
Van Gogh was assassinated by Muslim fundamentalist Mohammed Bouyeri in November 2004, only a few months after Submission had been released.
In the interview with NRC.next Jami is also quoted saying, "Radical Muslims who threaten others, who spoil the situation for gays, women and the unfaithful, need to be deported from the Netherlands right away."
On Tuesday September 11, the sixth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York, Jami and a number of committees of former Muslims from several European countries are due to sign a Declaration of Tolerance in The Hague.
Jami recently founded the Dutch committee of former Muslims as a means to overcome what he called "persistent taboos" in Muslim society about leaving the faith.
He is also a member of the city council for the Labour Party in Leidschendam-Voorburg near The Hague.
Jami lives in a so-called safe house in a secret location. He was placed under heavy personal security after being attacked for the third time on August 4.
Dutch Muslim critic announces film on Islam and homosexuality
2007-09-10
Amsterdam - Muslim critic Ehsan Jami is working on a movie about homosexuality in Islam. On Monday his spokeswoman confirmed the rumours in an article about Jami published in daily newspaper NRC.next. She added 22-year-old Jami is currently working on the script. He wants to start filming next year. Several directors are reported to contribute to the film.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has formally protested Jami's yet to be produced film.
Jami's audiovisual project is the second movie about homosexuality and Islam in the making in the Netherlands.
Two years ago, former legislator Ayaan Hirsi Ali of the Liberal Party also announced she was preparing a film on this subject, Submission 2.
Her movie would be the second part of the production she made with the late Dutch director Theo van Gogh.
Van Gogh was assassinated by Muslim fundamentalist Mohammed Bouyeri in November 2004, only a few months after Submission had been released.
In the interview with NRC.next Jami is also quoted saying, "Radical Muslims who threaten others, who spoil the situation for gays, women and the unfaithful, need to be deported from the Netherlands right away."
On Tuesday September 11, the sixth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York, Jami and a number of committees of former Muslims from several European countries are due to sign a Declaration of Tolerance in The Hague.
Jami recently founded the Dutch committee of former Muslims as a means to overcome what he called "persistent taboos" in Muslim society about leaving the faith.
He is also a member of the city council for the Labour Party in Leidschendam-Voorburg near The Hague.
Jami lives in a so-called safe house in a secret location. He was placed under heavy personal security after being attacked for the third time on August 4.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Ex-Muslim 'Apostates' Organize in Europe
http://www.crosswalk.com/news/11553910/
Ex-Muslim 'Apostates' Organize in Europe
By Patrick Goodenough
(CNSNews.com) - An Iranian-born Dutch politician under fire from Muslims for his dissenting views on Islam on Tuesday officially launched an organization to support people who have renounced the religion.
Ehsan Jami, a 22-year old Labor Party member elected to the council of a city near The Hague last year, announced at a press conference the establishment of an organization called the Committee for Ex-Muslims.
Similar groups have begun in recent months in Britain, Germany and Scandinavian countries.
According to leading Islamic schools of thought, apostasy is a crime, punishable by death in the case of a sane male who renounces his faith. Jami also is controversial for his strong public comments on Islam, including the view expressed last June that Mohammed, the Islamic prophet, was a "criminal."
At Tuesday's press conference, timed for the sixth anniversary of 9/11 and attended by leaders from the British and German organizations, Jami declared that Islam was not a religion of peace.
"It's a religion of submission ... of its followers, submission of Christians, Jews, Buddhists, atheists, infidels, the whole world," he was quoted as saying.
Last month, he was attacked by three men, in an incident believed to be linked to his views and the new organization. Although Jami was not hurt in what his spokesman said was the third such incident, Dutch law enforcement agencies decided to provide additional security for him.
Dutch critics of Islam have been targeted and threatened by radicals before. In 2004 a filmmaker was shot and stabbed to death by a Dutch-Moroccan extremist after making a provocative short documentary on violence against women in Islam.
The attack on Jami prompted a right-wing Dutch lawmaker, Geert Wilders, to pen an open letter calling for the Koran to be banned in the Netherlands. The call was widely rejected.
More than 80 leading figures in the Netherlands, including authors and leaders of several political parties - although not Jami's own Labor Party - have signed a declaration of support for him and the Committee for Ex-Muslims.
The declaration in Dutch, published in De Volkskrant newspaper on Tuesday, said that although the right to change religion is established in the Netherlands, it is "withheld from a substantial portion of the Dutch population, namely the Muslims."
About six percent of the Dutch population is Muslim.
Ex-Muslim 'Apostates' Organize in Europe
By Patrick Goodenough
(CNSNews.com) - An Iranian-born Dutch politician under fire from Muslims for his dissenting views on Islam on Tuesday officially launched an organization to support people who have renounced the religion.
Ehsan Jami, a 22-year old Labor Party member elected to the council of a city near The Hague last year, announced at a press conference the establishment of an organization called the Committee for Ex-Muslims.
Similar groups have begun in recent months in Britain, Germany and Scandinavian countries.
According to leading Islamic schools of thought, apostasy is a crime, punishable by death in the case of a sane male who renounces his faith. Jami also is controversial for his strong public comments on Islam, including the view expressed last June that Mohammed, the Islamic prophet, was a "criminal."
At Tuesday's press conference, timed for the sixth anniversary of 9/11 and attended by leaders from the British and German organizations, Jami declared that Islam was not a religion of peace.
"It's a religion of submission ... of its followers, submission of Christians, Jews, Buddhists, atheists, infidels, the whole world," he was quoted as saying.
Last month, he was attacked by three men, in an incident believed to be linked to his views and the new organization. Although Jami was not hurt in what his spokesman said was the third such incident, Dutch law enforcement agencies decided to provide additional security for him.
Dutch critics of Islam have been targeted and threatened by radicals before. In 2004 a filmmaker was shot and stabbed to death by a Dutch-Moroccan extremist after making a provocative short documentary on violence against women in Islam.
The attack on Jami prompted a right-wing Dutch lawmaker, Geert Wilders, to pen an open letter calling for the Koran to be banned in the Netherlands. The call was widely rejected.
More than 80 leading figures in the Netherlands, including authors and leaders of several political parties - although not Jami's own Labor Party - have signed a declaration of support for him and the Committee for Ex-Muslims.
The declaration in Dutch, published in De Volkskrant newspaper on Tuesday, said that although the right to change religion is established in the Netherlands, it is "withheld from a substantial portion of the Dutch population, namely the Muslims."
About six percent of the Dutch population is Muslim.
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