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Nupur Sharmas comments against Prophet Mohammed brought condemnation from many Islamic countries, forcing the BJP to suspend its national spokesperson

Nupur Sharmas comments against Prophet Mohammed brought condemnation from many Islamic countries, forcing the BJP to suspend its national spokesperson

BJP MP and former cricketer Gautam Gambhir on Sunday extended support to suspended party leader Nupur Sharma against threats to her following her insulting remarks against Prophet Mohammad, and hit out at "secular liberals" for their "silence".

He tweeted, "Silence of so called 'secular liberals' on the sickening display of hatred & death threats throughout the country against a woman who has apologised is surely deafening."

People belonging to Muslim community, holding placards, stage a protest over the controversial remarks by two now-suspended BJP leaders against Prophet Mohammad, after the Friday prayers at Jama Masjid, in New Delhion June 10, 2022.| Photo Credit: PTI

Ms. Sharma's remarks made in a TV debate last month had drawn condemnation from many Islamic countries and sparked protests from Muslims in different parts of India.

The BJP had suspended her in its bid to defuse the row which, however, continues to simmer, with some extremists issuing death threats to her. An AIMIM MP, Imtiaz Jaleel, recently demanded that she be hanged.

Continued here:
Gautam Gambhir targets 'secular liberals' for silence on threats to Nupur Sharma - The Hindu

The WA Liberal Party has pledged to change in the wake of the party's disastrous federal poll results that followed years of poor performance at the state level.

Among the changes announced was reform to the preselection process for candidates, which comes after a leaked review of the party's membership records in WAthat revealed apparent branch stacking and manipulation.

The report identified multiple party memberships being paid for using a single credit card as a widespread issue, with 29 credit cards on file funding more than 10 memberships each.

In one instance, a single card was used for 66 transactions.

WA Liberal Party president Richard Wilson said the proposed changes would help address the issues raised in the review by putting the control in the hands of many instead of just a few.

"The reforms we discussedwere a broad range of constitutional and rule changes that will ensure that the rules can be updated to enfranchise every member of the Liberal Party having a vote in their local preselection," he said.

The pledge to change came after a closed door State Council meeting, the party's first since the federal election that saw significant swings away from the Liberals in what had traditionally been blue-ribbon heartland.

And it is no better at a state level in fact, it is much worse with the Liberals barely existing.

The party held on to just two lower house seats in the 2021 election, forcing them to hand leadership of the opposition to the Nationals.

Given these poor performances at the polls at both the state and federal level, the Liberals appearmotivated to demonstrate change was possible.

"We need to demonstrate to the Australian public that we are a party that is modern and that we can reform ourselves and make ourselves more electable in the future," federal shadow defence minister Andrew Hastie said following the meeting on Saturday.

WA Liberal Party leader David Honey said he hoped the reforms would not only send a message to members, but to all West Australians.

"We have to have the affairs of the party in good order and the community has to see that the party is managing itself well," Dr Honey said.

It understood the party's state executive also indicated theirintention to raise a complaint about Perth property developer, Nigel Satterley.

The Liberal member has been a vocal critic of the party's direction and the perceived influence of religious conservatives.

In a tweet posted last month, Mr Satterley was scathing of the party's recent poor performances, again pointing towards issues with 'The Clan'an informal group of conservatives, including former federal finance minister and WA MP Matthias Cormann, upper house MPs Peter Collier and Nick Goiran, and Ian Goodenough, who narrowly retained his seat of Moore.

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In his Tweet, Mr Satterley said, "If the party decides to expel me I will wear it as a badge of honour for someone who, like other well respected liberal members, believes in the core ideals and values of the Liberals that we believe are no longer being represented by powerful interests unwilling to face the current negative trajectory they have created for the party."

WA Premier Mark McGowan condemned the discord within the Liberals.

"They're so heavily factionalised, so outside the mainstream now, they're not really fit for government," he said.

The proposed reforms are set to be debated at the Liberal party's state conference next month.

PostedYesterday at 12:16amSun 12 Jun 2022 at 12:16am, updatedYesterday at 1:19amSun 12 Jun 2022 at 1:19am

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WA Liberals pledge change including a shake-up of the preselection process after election wipe-out - ABC News

Sussan Ley, deputy leader of the Liberal Party and shadow minister for women, has been given a difficult task: bring women voters back to the Liberal Party. This will be no mean feat, given widespread acknowledgement they played a significant role in the Morrison governments defeat.

Ley has assured women that we hear you. She has also promised to travel widely throughout Australia to listen to women.

Ley is a very appropriate choice for the task. She was shadow minister for women in 2007-8. She was also the responsible minister for women in the House of Representatives in the last government, given that the minister for women, Marise Payne, was in the Senate.

Ley identifies as a feminist. She has long argued the Liberals should seriously consider candidate quotas for women a position that Liberal leader Peter Dutton opposes.

Read more: Quotas are not pretty but they work Liberal women should insist on them

Ley is not a conventional Liberal woman politician. Born in Nigeria, she lived part of her early life in the Middle East, where her father worked for British intelligence. After the family migrated to Australia, she embraced punk culture in her youth. Ley also added an extra s to her first name after dabbling in numerology.

She went on to work as an air traffic controller, aerial stock musterer, shearers cook, farmer and for the Australian Tax Office. She holds a bachelor of economics, master of taxation law and master of accounting. She also holds a commercial pilot licence.

Ley has argued her unconventional childhood not only facilitated her diverse career choices but also

helped me accept a lot of differences in people and cultures, and I think its also helped me become less stressed than I might otherwise be about things when theyre completely outside the square.

She may well need that capacity and flexibility when it comes to understanding the nature of the woman problem the Liberals face.

There are parts of the Liberals woman problem that Ley will understand. Unlike Scott Morrison, she would not need Jenny Morrisons advice on how to respond to a woman who alleged they had been raped in Parliament House. Unlike Morrison, she is not influenced by the US religious rights anti-transgender strategies that underlay his electorally disastrous endorsement of Warringah candidate Katherine Deves.

However, unfortunately for Ley, the Liberals woman problem has deeper roots than those more obvious manifestations. It also has roots in the contemporary Liberals economic ideology, particularly their embrace of free markets and reluctance for governments to intervene in the economy.

As I demonstrated in an academic article published earlier this year, the partys woman problem is not due to the Liberals being hostile to gender equality. Recent Coalition governments have introduced some worthwhile gender equality measures, including in the area of domestic violence. The problem is in economic frameworks that limited their gender equality policy.

Read more: Politics with Michelle Grattan: Sussan Ley on being a woman in politics

Liberals tend to believe the market is gender-neutral and could be relied on to improve womens equality. Making the case that gender equality was good for business was seen as the key to ensuring better pay and conditions for women workers.

Consequently, the Morrison government rejected more interventionist equal pay measures such as those introduced by the previous Labor government. Policies targeted at key female-dominated industries were not introduced in the governments pandemic budget measures because of beliefs the market would soon ensure womens employment recovered.

Similarly, the large number of women in precarious work wasnt addressed because this wasnt seen as a result of structural disadvantage in the labour market. Rather, it was argued many women choose to work in casual jobs. Implementing the Respect at Work report recommendation that employers have a positive duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment was seen as an unnecessary intervention by government in the private sector.

No wonder many feminists criticised the government for having inadequate policies in regard to women.

Ley was among those who failed to understand the basis of criticisms being made. For example, Labor politicians complained the Morrison government hadnt adequately supported female workers during the pandemic, including those in the childcare industry. Ley replied:

What you hear from the opposition is this long, ongoing, bleak, dreary narrative about entrenched disadvantage. And, you know, its just so last century.

She went on to highlight the opportunities for women in the modern world and the increased choices they would have.

Leys dismissal of the entrenched disadvantage of many women less fortunate than herself is definitely premature. The Australian governments own Workplace Gender Equality Agency provides copious statistics on womens continued unequal position.

Importantly, it wasnt just Labor or the Greens that argued the Morrison governments policies were inadequate in regard to women so did the teal independents who defeated prominent Liberal politicians.

For example, Monique Ryan, who defeated Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, supported implementing all the Respect at Work recommendations. So did Zoe Daniel, who defeated Tim Wilson, and Allegra Spender, who defeated Dave Sharma. All three emphasised the importance of ensuring equal pay for women.

Ryan supported reforming the Fair Work Act to include an equal remuneration objective and stronger gender pay gap reporting provisions. The Liberals had opposed both measures.

The teals support for such measures owes more to social liberalism than neoliberalism. Social liberalism allows for a more active ethical role for government in furthering equal opportunity, while still supporting a strong private sector. Neoliberalism advocates restricting government intervention, particularly in the economy.

Social liberalism played an important role historically in the development of the Liberal Party. However, its influence has been sidelined as the party has become more conservative. So the teals held great appeal for moderate former Liberals who felt the party had lost its way.

Ley seems genuinely puzzled as to why so many women considered the Morrisons governments gender equality policies to be insufficient. The question is whether she can think sufficiently outside of the neoliberal square to hear what they are saying.

More:
Sussan Ley says she is listening to women who rejected the Liberals. But will she hear what they are saying? - The Conversation

Islamists and liberals have now flocked to the defence of Javed Ahmed, the alleged mastermind of the Prayagraj riots, whose unlawfully constructed residence is set to be razed as per the competent authorities directives. Self-proclaimed intellectuals and activists like Sharjeel Usmani and Suchitra Vijayan stood up to the defence of Javed Ahmed, who has been arrested by the police over his role in the violence in Prayagraj on Friday.

Sharjeel Usmani resorted to Twitter to defend the riot-accused Ahmed whose unlawfully constructed home is being razed by authorities. Usmani defended the accused in a series of tweets. He even mentioned Javeds daughter, Afreen Fatima, who has beena JNU student and has periodically defended terrorists.

Usmani characterised the entire investigation and action by the Prayagraj Development Authority as revenge. In a tweet, he wrote, Afreen Fatima and her family is paying a price for who they are. This is dangerously cruel. This is a witch hunt. May Allah have his mercy on all the families who keep the wheels of struggle moving despite huge personal risks. May Allah protect them and all families. Ameen.

Similarly, intellectual Suchitra Vijayan came to Twitter to express her solidarity with Afreen Fatima and Javed Ahmed. Suchitra posted a tweet with the hashtag #StandWithAfreenFatima and a picture urging people to storm Twitter with additional hashtags such as #MuslimLivesMatter.

Rana Ayyub, a Washington Post columnist accused of financial fraud, also joined in to defend the family accused of instigating riots. Rana employed the same strategy to play the victim when wrongdoing is unearthed. Labeling the action by the authorities as oppression, she tweeted, Another day of Oppression in India. The injustices against #AfreenFatima ; the teenagers who were murdered for protesting, the brazen demolition of houses. Muslims in India are being made to pay for the international outrage.

Javed Ahmed, the accused mastermind of the riots in Prayagraj on June 10th, was detained by the Uttar Pradesh Police. On June 10, the Prayagraj Development Authority served hima notice to abandon the premises of his illegally constructed residence by 11 AM on June 12.

The notice was issued by the zonal officer of the Prayagraj Development Authority. According to the notice, the property in the Kareli Police Station area was erected illegally and without the consent of the competent authorities. A show-cause notice was issued in this regard on May 10 of this year.

As per the notice, Javed Ahmed failed to appear before the authority, thus the authority issued orders on May 25for the house to be self-demolished by June 9th. However, the authority discovered that the orders had not been observed and that the house had not been demolished, thereafter the authority issued this notice to evacuate the premises by June 12.

Go here to read the rest:
Islamists and liberals rally behind Prayagraj riots accused Javed Ahmed, call demolition of illegally constructed house vendetta - OpIndia

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Bill C-18 would force Google and Facebook parent Meta to share revenue with news publishers for their content

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Google discussed funding a lobbyist to represent a coalition of independent news publishers to help them push for changes to the Liberal governments Online News Act, the National Post has learned.

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Google and Facebook parent-company Meta, the companies targeted by the Liberals Bill C-18, the Online News Act, are opposed to the bill. The legislation would force them to share revenue with news publishers for making news content available through their platforms. Google has publicly criticized the bill.

The coalition of smaller publishers, which says it represents more than 100 independent outlets, has raised its own concerns about the act, which is supported by many large, mainstream news organizations, including Postmedia, publisher of the National Post. The coalition last week issued an open letter outlining its concerns with the legislation, proposing several changes to the bill, including a transparent, universal funding formula and for compensation to be based on metrics such as direct editorial expenditures or number of journalists employed.

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Independent publishers began discussing forming a coalition in response to Bill C-18 at the Google-hosted Newsgeist industry conference in Montreal last month, according to notes from that conversation circulated among coalition members.

It was at that same conference that the possibility of Google providing funding for a lobbyist for the group was discussed, the notes show.

Google has offered to fund a government relations consultant to help us have a voice at the table, the notes read. A majority of the group was in favour of accepting the funding at that first meeting, the notes indicate.

Googles offer to pay for a lobbyist was again discussed a few days later at a May 18 meeting of the coalition, where participants suggested approaching the independent-journalism advocacy group Press Forward to work with Google to hire a lobbyist and administer the funding. At least two participants expressed some doubts or opposition to accepting the money, according to the notes.

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A majority of Press Forward members are also affiliated with the independent publishers coalition.

Press Forward ultimately declined the idea of accepting lobbyist funding from Google. Some members of the coalition asked Press Forward if it was interested in considering funding from Google to pay for a lobbyist, Press Forward chair Mike De Souza explained in an email response to a National Post inquiry. The board of Press Forward discussed this and rejected this proposal.

The Liberal government is fast-tracking Bill C-18 through the House of Commons. Google has reached out to each MP individually to express its concerns over the bill, as reported by The Canadian Press last week.

The notes from the first meeting also state that Aaron Brindle, a former Google executive, had offered to advise the independent publishers on a government relations strategy. Brindle, who now heads public affairs for investment firm Radical Ventures, was previously head of public affairs for Google Canada.

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Brindle said in an email he has no formal role advising the coalition but noted that he is a former journalist and a close friend of one of the coalition members. I care deeply about the health of Canadas news ecosystem and support the coalitions calls for a more transparent and equitable version of Bill C-18. For this reason, I was happy to offer the coalition advice on how best to amplify their message.

The National Post contacted four members of the independent publishers coalition to ask about the Google funding proposal. In an emailed joint response from those four members, (and noting she was not speaking on behalf of other publishers or the coalition as a whole) Erin Millar, CEO of Discourse Media, said there was no formal offer from Google, but there was an informal discussion between two coalition members and Google about whether our coalition needed funding to support our efforts.

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Asked whether the group is still considering accepting funding from Google, Millar said the coalition is a group of independent publishers who are free to make their own decisions about how best to represent their voices in the ongoing debate surrounding C-18. So we cant speculate about whether some may still be considering working with Google or not.

Millar said, there is no current proposal being considered that we are aware of.

Google argues that by requiring digital platforms to compensate news publishers for linking to their content, the bill would violate critical principles of the internet. The ability to link freely between websites is fundamental to how the internet works, Google said in a blog post last month, which also argued the bill gives the CRTC too much power over the news industry and that C-18 could create a lower standard for journalism in Canada.

Google had some conversations about supporting smaller publishers efforts on the bill, according to the company, but there was no formal offer from Google to the coalition and the company isnt currently providing any support to the coalition.

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Originally posted here:
Google offered to fund lobbyist for small publishers unhappy with Liberals' online news bill - National Post