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ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-203-2008

10 September 2008
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PAKISTAN: Two persons murdered after an anchor person proposed the widespread lynching of Ahmadi sect followers

ISSUES: Murder; religious discrimination; freedom of religion; media
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that an anchor person working for a prominent television channel has incited Muslims in Pakistan to kill - to devastating effect. The targets are followers of the Muslim Ahmadi sect, a group which has been declared non-Islamic under the constitution of Pakistan. The first killing happened within 24 hours of the broadcast, and just under two days later a district chief of the Ahmadi was murdered. Followers of the religion are understandably frightened, and many have left their homes and are taking shelter at their central mosque, the Rabwa.

CASE DETAILS:

In a program aired on 7 September 2008 the anchor of the religious program ‘Alam Online’, Dr. Amir Liaquat Hussain–also former federal minister for religious affairs–declared the murder of Ahmadi sect members to be necessary (Wajib ul Qatal) according to Islamic teachings, because its followers don’t believe in the last prophet, Mohammad, peace be upon him. Dr. Amir repeated his instruction several times, urging fundamentalists Muslims to kill without fear.

While on air the anchor person also pressured the other two Islamic scholars (from two different sects) on the program to support the statement. This resulted in a unanimous decision among the scholars, on air during a popular television show, to urge lynching with the intent to kill. This was not a one-off. On September 9, Mr. Hussain answered a query with the comment that blasphemers are liable to be put to death.

According to the information received, at 1:15pm on September 8, 18 hours after the broadcast, six persons entered the Fazle Umer Clinic, a two-story hospital at Mirpur Khas city and two of them went to the second floor and started pressuring 45 year-old Dr. Abdul Manan Siddiqui to come downstairs to attend to a patient in crisis. Dr. Manan left his office and descended into an ambush. He was shot 11 times and died on the spot. His private guard was also shot and is in a serious condition. A woman was also injured by firing. The killers remained at the hospital until the doctor was declared dead, then they walked out of the building’s front entrance. Police registered the killers as unknown.

On September 9, 48 hours after the broadcast, Mr. Yousaf, a 75 year-old rice trader and district chief of the Ahmadi sect was killed on his way to prayer in Nawab Shah, Sindh province. Yousaf was fired on from people on motor bikes, and sustained three bullet wounds. He died on the way to the hospital. The assailants had taken a route past a police station. No one was arrested.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

The Ahmadi sect was declared non-Islamic sect on September 7, 1974, through a constitutional amendment, and was labeled a minority sect. Since then, there has been open hatred of the sect by certain Islamic circles and fundamentalists across the Muslim world, and sect members suffer widespread discrimination. Ahmadi followers are not allowed to bury their dead in the ordinary grave yards of Muslims, and many of those buried before 1974 were shifted by fundamentalists.

Since 1984 (when statistics have been compiled) around 93 Ahmadis have been killed for their allegiance to their sect, with four killed so far this year, including Dr. Ghulam Sarwar on March 19 in Faisalabad, Punjab province and Mr. Basharat Mughal on February 24 in Karachi. The Dr. Siddiqui is the 15th medical doctor killed since 1984.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write to following authorities and urge them to appropriate actions in order to stop the killings of Ahmadi followers and recognized religious freedom. Please also demand them to prevent any religious hatred or discrimination from broadcasting through the media.

Please be informed that the AHRC has also written separate letter to the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief.

To support this appeal, please click here:

SAMPEL LETTER:

Dear _______,

PAKISTAN: Two persons murdered after an anchor person proposed the widespread lynching of Ahmadi sect followers

Details of victims:
1. Dr. Abdul Manan Siddiqui, 45 years old; shot dead in the Fazle Umer Clinic, a two-story hospital at Mirpur Khas city on September 8
2. Mr. Yousaf, 75 years old; rice trader and district chief of the Ahmadi sect; shot dead in Nawab Shah, Sindh province
Persons involved in broadcasting:
1. Dr. Aamir Liaquat Hussain, Anchor person of Alim Online, Geo Television, Karachi-Pakistan
2. The producer of Alim Online, Geo Telvision, Karachi-Pakistan

I am writing you to draw your attention to and request prompt action regarding the latest incident of Ahmadi lynchings, as urged on a popular and seemingly unregulated Pakistani television program. The Anchor person, also former federal minister for religious affairs suggested that the followers be killed as punishment for their religious views.

According to the information that I have received, Dr. Amir Liaquat Hussain declared the murder of Ahmadi sect members to be necessary (Wajib ul Qatal) according to Islamic teachings, in ‘Alam Online’, aired on September 7, 2008. Dr. Amir repeated his instruction several times, urging fundamentalists Muslims to kill without fear.

While on air the anchor person also pressured the other two Islamic scholars (from two different sects) on the program to support the statement. This resulted in a unanimous decision among the scholars, on air during a popular television show, to urge lynching with the intent to kill. This was not a one-off. On September 9 Mr Hussain answered a query with the comment that blasphemers are liable to be put to death.

The killings On September 8 at 1:15 pm, 18 hours after the broadcast, six persons entered the Fazle Umer Clinic, a two-storey hospital at Mirpur Khas city. Two of them went to the second floor and started pressuring 45 year-old Dr. Abdul Manan Siddiqui to come downstairs to attend to a patient in crisis. Dr. Manan left his office and descended into an ambush. He was shot 11 times and died on the spot. His private guard was also shot and is in a serious condition. A woman was also injured by firing. The killers remained at the hospital until the doctor was declared dead, then they walked out of the building’s front entrance. Police registered the killers as unknown.

On September 9, 48 hours after the broadcast, Mr. Yousaf, a 75 years old rice trader and district chief of the Ahmadi sect was killed on his way to prayers in Nawab Shah, Sindh province. Yousaf was fired on from people on motor bikes, and sustained three bullet wounds. He died on the way to the hospital. The assailants had taken a route past a police station. No one has been arrested.

It is the responsibility of a government to tackle religious hatred, yet in Pakistan it flourishes. That it can bloom so publicly and has results both bloody and unpunished, is an embarrassment to a country that hopes to be taken seriously outside of its borders. While religious persons can incite murder on mainstream television shows without restraint or legal consequence, a country cannot hope to be considered mature. Neither can its leaders.

In this context I demand that the government of Pakistan take immediate steps to stop further killings by other religious communities and to investigate the two cases reported above. Those responsible for the killings must be prosecuted and punished according to the law. Immediate measures to prohibit broadcasting and spreading religious hatred through the media.

I further urge you to investigate those responsible for instigating murders through media broadcast. I also demand for a genuine and humane effort to be made to reintegrate the Ahmadi community into the social fabric of Pakistan. Their civil, human and religious rights must be protected. The government must take the lead to create a space for dialogue between opposing religious communities in Pakistan there by bringing an end to religious and communal violence in the country.

Yours sincerely,

——

how many is that in the last 4 years now? 8?

who else has any need to do terrorism in Lebanon? cui bono?

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1221034884186&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Bomb kills pro-Syrian Lebanese politician east of Beirut

Sep. 10, 2008

Associated Press , THE JERUSALEM POST

A bomb tore through a car in the hills east of Lebanon’s capital on Wednesday, killing a Druse politician who recently helped reconcile rival factions within that minority community, police said.

The bomb that killed Sheik Saleh Aridi, a senior member of the Lebanese Democratic Party, was planted in his car in the village of Baissour, police said.

It was the first political assassination in about a year in Lebanon and came less than a week before planned reconciliation talks among rival Lebanese factions. Prime Minister Fuad Saniora contacted Druse leaders and joined them in calling for calm.

Six other people were injured in the blast, which went off as Aridi got into his Mercedes sedan in front of his house in the Druse-populated hills near the resort town of Aley, police said. Police said the charge was stuck under the car’s body, below the driver’s seat, and blew up as the car rolled. Officials believe it was triggered either by remote control or by a motion sensor.

The police officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of government regulations.

The bomb tore off the roof of the vehicle. Television footage showed investigators sifting through the blackened hulk of the vehicle with flashlights.

The bomb’s target was unusual. Aridi, like his party, was among those Lebanese politicians allied with Syria, a nation that had long dominated its politically fractured neighbor. A string of bombs have largely targeted politicians opposed to Syria’s influence in Lebanese affairs, starting with the Beirut truck bombing that killed former Premier Rafik Hariri in 2005.

Those attacks were blamed by many on Syria, though it has denied involvement.

Lebanon’s political standoff between pro- and anti-Syrian factions boiled over into fighting in Beirut and the Druse hills east of the capital in May.

During those clashes, Shi’ite fighters of the Syrian-backed Hizbullah overran Sunni pro-government strongholds and fought an anti-Syrian Druse faction in the region where the bomb went off Wednesday. An Arab-brokered agreement defused the tension, leading to the election of a new president and the formation of a national unity Cabinet that includes the two major blocs.

Nazih Abu Ibrahim, a colleague of Aridi in the party’s political bureau, said the aim of the assassination was to rekindle violence between rivals in the Druse-inhabited mountains. The area is controlled by two main Druse factions, the Lebanese Democratic Party led by Talal Arsalan and the Progressive Socialist Party of Walid Jumblatt.

“It was a bloody message,” Abu Ibrahim said on Hizbullah’s al-Manar television, noting that the conciliatory atmosphere in recent weeks prompted party officials to relax their security measures.

In addition to the historic rivalry between those two factions for control of the Druse community, the two parties are also on opposite sides of the divide over Syria. Arsalan is allied with the Syrian-backed Hizbullah and Jumblatt is a prominent leader of the anti-Syrian camp.

Since the May fighting, the two leaders reconciled and worked toward unity of the minority Druse sect and to prevent infighting. Aridi was a key liaison between the two sides and helped mediate an end to the fighting between Hizbullah and Jumblatt’s men in the region around his hometown.

The Druse are a secretive offshoot Islamic sect with communities in Lebanon, Syria and Israel.

Jumblatt went to the village after the explosion to express solidarity and attempt to defuse tensions. He said whoever was behind the bombing did not like the conciliatory air among political factions nationwide in recent weeks.

Arsalan was out of the country. His deputy, Ziad Choueiri, said the attack aimed at undermining security. “Stability and civil peace are red lines. We will not allow them to be crossed,” he said on al-Jadeed TV from the scene.

The bombing came amid efforts to cement reconciliation among the factions and defuse sectarian tension. In addition to next week’s conference called for by the president, Sunni and Alawite factions in Tripoli reached a truce and entrusted security in the city to the Lebanese army.

imagine if this was jew massacre..

given that they were behind 9/11 and other attacks on this country you’d think that’d be more justified than this… but they are the chosen people of course

wow.

http://www.muslimmassacre.com

speechless

the man’s telling them not to cry in pushto

click the links for video:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20705.htm

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20706.htm

Last night the Pentagon announced that it was reopening the investigation in the light of “emerging evidence” and was sending an officer to Nawabad to review its previous inquiry. Villagers and the UN insist that 92 were killed, including as many as 60 children. Locals say that the US and Afghan troops who came into the village looking for a Taleban commander, with US air support, used excessive force.

In the video scores of bodies are seen laid out in a building that villagers say is used as a mosque; the people were killed apparently during a combined operation by US special forces and Afghan army commandos in western Afghanistan. The film was shot on a mobile phone by an Afghan doctor who arrived the next morning.

Local people say that US forces bombed preparations for a memorial ceremony for a tribal leader. Residential compounds were levelled by US attack helicopters, armed drones and a cannon-armed C130 Spectre gunship.

However, US commanders and Pentagon officials have said repeatedly that seven civilians died alongside 35 Taleban militants during a legitimate combat operation, the target of which was a meeting of Taleban leaders.

The villagers’ accounts have been supported by separate investigations conducted by the UN, by Afghanistan’s leading human rights organisation and by an Afghan government delegation. Two Afghan army officers involved in the operation have been dismissed.

The Pentagon’s original investigation concluded last week that US forces used close air support after coming under heavy fire during a mission to seize a Taleban commander named Mullah Sadiq. They allege that he died in the operation.

The US military said that its findings were corroborated by an independent journalist embedded with the US force. He was named as the Fox News correspondent Oliver North, who came to prominence in the 1980s Iran-Contra affair, when he was an army colonel.

Sources close to one of the investigations said that a video film was shot by Afghan officials the morning after the attack. It corroborates the doctor’s footage but has not been made public.

In a statement released on Saturday, the commander of Nato forces, General David McKiernan, appeared to back away from previous US accounts. He said: “Following the recent operation in Azizabad, Shindand district, we realise there is a large discrepancy between the number of civilian casualties reported by soldiers and local villagers. I remain responsible to continue to try and account for this disparity in numbers, but above all I want to express our heartfelt sorrow to all families that lost loved ones in this firefight.”

A Human Rights Watch report due to be published today is highly critical of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan for the number of civilians killed in airstrikes. It gives warning that repeated instances of Western forces killing Afghan civilians have led to a collapse in popular support for the international presence.

Taking what it says are the most conservative figures available, Human Rights Watch has calculated that civilian deaths as a result of Western airstrikes tripled between 2006 and 2007 to 321. In the first seven months of this year the figure was 119. In the same period, 367 civilian deaths were attributed to Taleban attacks. It accuses US officials of routinely denying reports of civilian deaths.

Maulavi Gul Ahmad, an Afghan MP who was part of a government delegation that investigated the Nawabad attack, told The Times: “We are not only blaming America – this is destroying the reputation of the international community and undermining their presence in Afghanistan.”

Other Afghan investigators alleged that US forces had been duped into attacking the village by tribal figures involved in a local feud.

Civilian casualties in Afghanistan

December 2001
US aircraft attack a convoy taking tribal leaders to the inauguration of new Afghan Government. About 60 killed; US claims al-Qaeda leaders among them

July 2002
46 die, many from same family, when a wedding party in Uruzgan province is bombed in error

October 26, 2006
Between 40 and 85 civilians are killed in airstrikes and mortar bombardments around the settlement of Zangawat in Kandahar province

March 2007
19 people are killed and 50 wounded when US Marine Special Forces fire on civilians after a suicide attack in Shinwar, eastern Afghanistan. The US military apologises and pays compensation to the families

July 6, 2008
47 civilians, including 39 women and children attending a wedding party, are killed by a US airstrike in Nangarhar province, an Afghan government investigating team claims

this is your islam? this is how you behave? murdering muslims in ramadan?

May Allah guide the ignorant ones

http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2008/2999

Dear Friends,

After the inflammatory remarks of a Mullah in Pakistan who stated, “Ahmadi Muslims are worthy of death,” two Ahmadi Muslims were shot to death. One of them was a US Citizen doctor who had opened a clinic in an impoverished part of Pakistan to help those in need. Pakistan has passed constitutional amendments requiring Ahmadi Muslims to reject their faith if they wish to have equal rights in Pakistan.

Ahmadi Muslims have never once been associated with violence and categorically condemn and reject any notion of violence. They are peaceful, law abiding citizens with a motto of “love for all, hatred for none.” However, they are pursued and killed only for their peaceful beliefs.

Please take a moment to speak out against this atrocity as sadly, it has become a trend. Send a letter of protest of these atrocities to the Pakistani Government. Make them change these religiously discriminatory laws that violate basic and fundamental human rights. Note, GEO Television (Pakistans largest television station) broadcast the extremist Mullahs statements. These extremist statements were also Broadcast in the United States. Let’s work to stop this extremism dead in its tracks. You can send the letter by clicking on the below link. The letter will automatically be sent to top Pakistani Government officials. You simply need to enter your name and country of residence.

http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2008/2999

Let us pray for peace.

interesting… looks like the sides are being taken.. strategic NON-regional alliance:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-chavez8-2008sep08,0,7210282.story

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA — The Venezuelan government announced Sunday that four Russian naval vessels will participate in joint exercises in the Caribbean this year, a move that could heighten already strained relations between Washington and Moscow.

Venezuela’s naval intelligence chief, Adm. Salbatore Cammarata Bastidas, said in a statement that a task force including four Russian naval vessels and 1,000 Russian military personnel would take part in mid-November exercises with Venezuelan frigates, patrol boats, submarines and aircraft.

The announcement came shortly after Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s deployment of several warships to the Black Sea in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Georgia last month would not go unanswered. It was not immediately clear whether the two events were linked.

The Russian agreement to send ships also could be seen as part of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s campaign to build up his military, an effort that includes arms deals, a proposed hemispheric South American Defense Council and a recent decree that gives his armed forces a greater role in carrying out his social agenda.

Chavez, a strident critic of the United States, has said the actions are to ward off what he has described as U.S. imperialist designs on Venezuela and other Latin American countries. He has accused the U.S. of supporting a 2002 coup attempt against him.

Chavez particularly is unhappy with the re-formation of the U.S. Navy’s 4th Fleet, based in Mayport, Fla., which was disbanded in 1953 but is now patrolling the Caribbean.

Officials at the U.S. military’s Southern Command in Miami have said the 4th Fleet’s re-creation is organizational in purpose and is not a response to tensions with Chavez. It involves no addition to forces already stationed at Mayport, the Southern Command said.

The announcement of the November exercises did not come as a total surprise. Chavez said during a visit to Russia in July that its ships and airplanes were welcome in Venezuela. In Sunday’s statement, the Chavez government said an adjutant to Russian Adm. Popov Fedorovichhad been in Venezuela to plan the event.

Cammarata also said Russian vessels may appear in the region before the exercises.

Flush with oil revenue, Venezuela has spent $4 billion since 2004 on military hardware, purchased mainly from Russia, according to the Security and Democracy Foundation of Caracas. Those deals included the purchase of 53 Russian helicopters and 24 Sukhoi fighter jets. Venezuela is also buying rights and technology for a Kalashnikov assault rifle factory near Caracas.

During his visit to Russia, Chavez said that the two nations had formed a strategic partnership and that he was buying a Russian missile defense system to thwart a potential U.S. air attack.

In recent months, Chavez advisors have said Venezuela is considering buying as many as five diesel-powered Russian submarines. The deal would make Venezuela the region’s top naval force, said retired Gen. Alberto Muller Rojas, a Chavez confidant.

Venezuelan officials have justified arms purchases from Russia by noting the U.S. ban on all weapons sales by American companies to Venezuela, a mandate that extends to foreign manufacturers’ arms that contain U.S. components. Deals with Israeli, Swedish and Spanish manufacturers were scrubbed because the weapons included U.S. parts.

“The U.S. . . . has done everything to motivate Venezuela to seek a strategic military rapprochement with Russia,” said a former advisor to Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry who requested anonymity.

Disaster in Afghanistan

By John W. Warnock

It is difficult to find out what is really going on in Afghanistan. The focus of the mass media is almost entirely on the military activities of the Canadian and NATO forces. There is absolutely no coverage of political developments. The news on the economy is limited to the state of the poppy industry. This is no accident. The North American media, including the CBC, has strongly supported the U.S./NATO strategy and the administration of President Hamid Karzai. Contrary to the mainstream message, things are not going well.

Rise in civilian casualties

Over the past few weeks NATO forces have killed civilians in a number of incidents, and popular opposition to the western military effort is increasing. On August 22 the United States bombed the village of Azizabad in Herat province; the result was the death of 91 civilians, including over 60 children. Rockets and missiles were also used. Many homes were destroyed. Local citizens stoned the Afghan army when they tried to distribute supplies. NATO forces in Paktika province launched an artillery attack on a village on September 1 as part of a general sweep-and-destroy mission against Taliban forces. Three children were killed and seven injured. That same day U.S. and Afghan forces carried out an overnight raid in Hud Kheil, east of Kabul. A family of four, including two children, were killed when hand grenades were thrown into their house. In Kabul hundreds blocked the main road out of town protesting the military practices of the international forces.

Afghan government and NATO attacks In response to the steady increase of civilian deaths this year, the Afghan parliament passed a resolution in August calling on the Karzai administration to negotiate a new status-of-forces agreement with NATO and United States, making it consistent with Afghan and international law. President Karzai’s cabinet demanded “an end to air attacks in civilian areas, illegal detentions and unilateral house searches.” There is growing opposition to the presence of the occupying forces. The Senlis Council reported in June 2008 that in their most recent recent public opinion survey “more than six out of ten of those interviewed … said that foreign troops should leave.” This is the position taken by many of the democratic parties in Afghanistan. Malalai Joya, the outspoken critic of the Karzai government, has called for all foreign troops to leave the country. She argues that Afghans can settle this dispute better on their own.

The approaching famine

However, the most important current issue in Afghanistan is the drought, the crop failure, and the prospect of famine. This story has received no coverage in the North American media. Over the last winter Afghanistan received well-below normal rainfall and mountain snow pack. The spring runoff was light, and crop yields from irrigated agriculture have been significantly reduced. There are conditions of drought throughout the country. In many areas there are no crops and livestock has perished from lack of pasture. Wheat provides the staple food, and production is 60 percent below average. Recent rains have brought flooding, as the land has been hardened by the drought. Floods are more common because over the past few decades 60% of the woodland has been removed by the population seeking fuel for cooking and winter heating. The jump in fuel prices has raised the cost of the delivery of food from neighbouring countries. Food prices are rising. The price of a 50 kg bag of wheat flour is now $35. One half of the population in Afghanistan lives on less than $2 per day. The government of Afghanistan reports that 42% of the population lives in “extreme poverty”, defined as a per capita income of less than $120 per year. The United Nations Mission in Afghanistan reported in August that “at least four million most vulnerable people have already been pushed into the ‘high-risk food-insecurity ‘ category.” Children are the most vulnerable. One in five children die before the age of five, mainly due to malnutrition. In response, the United Nations and other food agencies have called for an emergency fund of $404 million in order to purchase food. To date less than 20% has been forthcoming from donor countries.

What is happening to women’s rights?

Supporters of the U.S. project in Afghanistan always point to how many girls are now going to school. But as Ann Jones points out, the number cited (5 million) is fewer than half the children of school age. In Kabul 85% are in school; in the Pashtun south, less than 20% and “near zero for girls.” Radio Free Afghanistan’s Jan Alekozai recently toured eastern Afghanistan. He noted that there were schools but no teachers, no chairs and tables, no electricity or water, no books, and no labs. “The participation of women is zero in the provinces,” he argued. While some are going to school “they cannot walk, for example, in a park - or with their families.” In February 2008 Womankind Worldwide (UK) released a survey of the status of women in Afghanistan. They found that 87% of Afghan women report domestic violence, 60% of all marriages are still forced, and 57% of all recent marriages involved girls under the age of sixteen, which is contrary to the law. Ann Jones, who spent a number of years in Afghanistan working for women’s rights, is not surprised. President Karzai’ wife is a qualified gynecologist but does not practice her skills. She remains locked up in the presidential fortress, the Arg, and is not seen by the general public. Since the onset of the 20th century, she is the first wife of a state leader who has not publicly championed women’s rights.

Change of regime in Afghanistan

Few Canadians would know that there is a presidential election scheduled for Afghanistan in 2009. Hamid Karzai has announced that he will run again. After his tour of eastern Afghanistan, Jan Alekozai reported strong opposition to the local warlords and the Karzai government. He judged that Karzai would have a hard time getting 20% of the votes in the 2009 election. The people blame the Americans and NATO for the increase in the power of the warlords. The main opposition to Karzai will come from the United National Front, which is largely a coalition of the warlords and Islamist leaders based in the parliament. They have demanded a change in the constitution to bring in a parliamentary system of government with political parties and elections by proportional representation. The Front is dominated by the Islamist forces from the Northern Alliance. The Front has called for a new international meeting to settle the ongoing civil war in Afghanistan. This would be hosted by the United Nations and include all neighbouring states as well as representation from Afghanistan’s political groups, including the armed opposition. In late August Fazel Sangcharaki, speaking for the Front, stated that many foreign envoys have supported this proposal. But the problem is the opposition of the U.S. government.

Canadian government stresses militarism

The policy of the Canadian government since 2001 has been to put the highest priority on its military role in Afghanistan. In support of the Afghan “war on terrorism”, the Canadian government has been spending around $1 billion per year on the military and only $100 million on humanitarian assistance and economic development. Much of the military budget has been spent on acquiring new military hardware, needed for counter-insurgency warfare.. Just before Stephen Harper forced a fall election, polls emerged which showed that Canadians remain skeptical of the role in Afghanistan. A poll by Ipsos Reid for the Department of National Defence revealed that the majority of Canadians still want Canada to emphasize peacekeeping. A CBC poll done by Environics reported that 56% of Canadians disapprove of Canada’s military role in Afghanistan. Since the March 2008 agreement by the Conservatives and Liberals to extend Canada’s mission to 2011, Afghanistan has largely disappeared from political discussion. The challenge for Canadians is to make this disastrous war in Afghanistan an issue in the current election.