by Natasha Tynes | Feb 7, 2006 | Jill Carroll
With actress Juliette Binoche and former French hostage Florence Aubenas attending, Reporters Without Borders staged a demonstration in Paris today in support of kidnapped American journalist Jill Carroll, exactly one month after her abduction in Baghdad. Thirty white balloons were released from the human rights esplanade at Trocadero, overlooking the River Seine, to mark each of the 30 days so far spent in captivity by Carroll.
Addressing the journalists present, Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard said it is essential to demonstrate: "The impressive show of solidarity that was maintained for Aubenas all the time she was a hostage should now be repeated for Carroll and for Iraqi journalists Reem Zeid and Marwan Khazaal, of whom there has been no news since they were kidnapped on 1 February," Ménard said.
Source: [RSF]
This is yet another wonderful gesture of support for Jill. I have always liked Juliette Binoche. This is yet another reason to respect her even more. Meanwhile, we are all praying and hoping here, hoping to see our Jill very soon. May God protect her and grant her the strength to endure this ordeal.
UPDATE: The Associated Press ran the story and included a nice quote from Binoche:
"We’re here to be with her, and to help her in a spiritual way," said Binoche, star of The English Patient. "I think our presence here is a way to sustain the possibility of freedom."
by Natasha Tynes | Feb 6, 2006 | Jill Carroll
Below is an Associated Press photo taken of a poster of Jill that was hung outside city hall in Rome. It will remain there until Jill is freed. Jill has been kidnapped for a month now but hope remains, and the prayers have never stopped! Don’t forget Jill.
In the mean time, via Xeni Jardin over at Boing Boing, I discovered that through their literary blogs a group of writers has organized a symbolic action and are sending books and journals filled with blank pages to Aljazeera television "in the hope that Jill might soon be able to fill [them]." With this blank book protest, participants are pressing the network to "do [its] best to convey this message to her captors: Let Jill Carroll go." Writer Abby Frucht explains further on her blog:
Hi. A few of us at readerville.com are initiating a gesture of support for Jill Carroll. We don’t harbor any illusions that by doing this we will effect her release….but we want her to know, when she is released, that she had the support of other readers and writers and that we didn’t forget her. Here’s how it goes. Send a blank journal, a blank notebook, or a small sheaf of blank papers [via Airmail ASAP] to: Al Jazeera International, P.O. Box 23127, Doha, Qatar. On the first page of the blank book, write this letter or one like it:
"To Al Jazeera News, I am one of a group of readers and writers sending you this blank book in the hope that Jill Carroll will soon be able to fill it. Please do your best to convey this message to her captors: Let Jill Carroll go, so that she might continue to write about the things that have made you so eager to claim our attention. Through Jill, and through the gesture that you will make by setting her free, we other writers, readers, and thinkers will better understand the differences, and the vast similarities, between our corners of the world."
by Natasha Tynes | Feb 5, 2006 | Jordan, my nation, Religion
The most upsetting thing to me about this whole cartoon fiasco is how some fundamentalists in the Arab world have decided to react to the offensive cartoons – caricatures which were drawn by Europeans on a different continent — by venting their anger against their fellow Christian-Arabs!
While the controversy continues to snowball, some extremists have and continue to harass Christian Arabs in places like Iraq, the Palestinian territories, where gunmen distributed a pamphlet at the European Union Headquarters threatening to harm churches, and most recently Lebanon, where demonstrators there threw stones at houses and churches in the Christian neighborhood of Al-Ashrafyeh! My good reporter friend who was there to cover the protest informed me that sectarian tensions in the country are very high, with Christians terrified and ready to take up arms.
This is terribly alarming! Besides Lebanon, I cannot remember hearing about significant sectarian incidents while growing up in the Middle East. As a Christian-Arab, I never thought I would live to see the day when Christian-Arabs are looked at with suspicion by their fellow Arabs for acts perpetrated by Westerners in another part of the globe! But then again, while I was growing up, the world was a different place and extremism was never so prevalent, so omnipotent.
by Natasha Tynes | Feb 4, 2006 | Religion
A New Zealand newspaper has published controversial cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Mohammed. The Dominion Post, a Fairfax-owned Wellington newspaper, published the cartoons today, saying its decision was in the interests of press freedom. "It’s important for our readers to see what the fuss is about and to make up their own minds. Ours is a secular society based on western ideals of tolerance and open debate, even if that may occasionally offend," said Tim Pankhurst, Dominion Post editor and Commonwealth Press Union chairman.
"We do not wish to be deliberately provocative but neither should we allow ourselves to be intimidated. If we allow Christianity and more particularly the Catholic Church and the Pope to be satirized, and we do, should Islam be treated differently?" he asked.
Source: [The age]
Ahh! Will this issue ever end? Enough! Both sides are taking it to extremes and simply taunting one another for what are surely ignoble ends! Stop the mayhem! Geez! Can’t we just all get along?
Meanwhile, the husband and I have aggregated a number of news items related to the cartoon controversy. They can be seen in one fell swoop here. One story of interest is the Newsweek interview with Jihad Al-Momani, the Jordanian editor who republished the infamous cartoons in Sheehan. Obviously, he gave the interview right before his arrest on Saturday. Apparently, last month’s campaign to end journalist imprisonment in Jordan has not been that fruitful.
by Natasha Tynes | Feb 4, 2006 | Religion
Egyptian blogger Big Pharaoh is asking a question that has been haunting me for the past couple of days. He wonders:
"A question to my fellow Muslims and Arabs: isn’t this picture more of an insult to Islam than the silly J-Posten cartoons? And don’t you think it can easily be an inspiration for similar future cartoons? Just 2 innocent questions here."
With all due respect, I have to agree with Big Pharaoh here. While I still regard the cartoons as offensive — exhibiting a terrible stereotype of millions of Muslims out there — some of the reactions to the cartoons, including, let’s see — the storming and torching of embassies, throwing grenades onto the grounds of a French embassy and harassing European nationals, and more — have caused more harm to the image of Muslims and Arabs than the actual publication of the caricatures did. Anyway, like fellow Jordanian blogger Naseem, I’m ‘sick of the word cartoon.’ Let’s hope this is the last post I write about this particular topic.
With actress Juliette Binoche and former French hostage Florence Aubenas attending, Reporters Without Borders staged a demonstration in Paris today in support of kidnapped American journalist Jill Carroll, exactly one month after her abduction in Baghdad. Thirty white balloons were released from the human rights esplanade at Trocadero, overlooking the River Seine, to mark each of the 30 days so far spent in captivity by Carroll. 
