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Geopolitics

Allegations Of Vote-Rigging As Sharif Looks Set To Lead Pakistan

DAWN, NATION, THE NEWS (Pakistan), BBC, THE GUARDIAN (UK)

Worldcrunch

ISLAMABAD - Following the contested Pakistani elections, marred by accusations of voter fraud, several candidates participated in nationwide sit-in protests Monday, writes The News.

Muslim League leader, Nawaz Sharif claimed victory in Saturday’s polls, but was short of a clear majority.

“There was total rigging. We are taking feedback from our candidates in the province and will present the evidence before the media soon,” secretary general of the Pakistan People’s Party, Sardar Latif Khosa told Dawn. The party, formerly headed by the late Benazir Bhutto, reportedly managed to only secure one seat in Parliament and are said to be meeting on Monday to discuss new leadership.

Although the final results are days away, projections by local television stations suggest that Sharif only requires the support of a handful of independent candidates, rather than rival parties, to secure a working majority in parliament, reports The Guardian.

Former cricketer Imran Khan, whose Movement for Justice Party (PTI) is in a close fight for second place, has promised to provide genuine opposition, says the BBC. He also added that his party was in process of collecting evidence of alleged vote-rigging.

Sharif has already been congratulated by many heads of state, including Barack Obama and neighboring Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh. Both have said they look forward to working with Sharif, writes Nation.

PM extends his congratulations to Mr. Nawaz Sharif and his party for their emphatic victory in Pakistan's elections.

— Dr Manmohan Singh (@PMOIndia) May 12, 2013

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Ideas

Turkey: The Blind Spot Between Racial And Religious Discrimination

Before the outbreak of the Hamas-Israel war, a social media campaign in Turkey aimed to take on anti-Arab and anti-refugee sentiment. But the campaign ultimately just swapped one type of discrimination for another.

photo of inside Istanbul's Eminonu New Mosque

Muslims and tourists visiting Istanbul's Eminonu New Mosque.

Levent Gültekin

-Analysis-

ISTANBUL — In late September, several pro-government journalists in Turkey promoted a social media campaign centered around a video against those in the country who are considered anti-Arab. The campaign was built around the idea of being “siblings in religion,” and the “union of the ummah,” or global Muslim community.

(In a very different context, such sentiments were repeated by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after the Israel-Hamas war erupted.)

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While the goal is understandable, these themes are highly disconnected from reality.

First, let's look at the goal of the campaign. Our country has a serious problem of irregular migrants and refugees, and the administration isn’t paying adequate attention to this. On the contrary, they encourage the flow of refugees with policies such as selling citizenship.

Worries about irregular migrants and refugees naturally create tension in the society. The anger that targets not the government but the refugees has come to a point which both threatens the social peace and brought the issue to hostility towards the Arabs, even the tourists. The actual goal of this campaign by the pro-government journalists is obvious if you consider how an anti-tourist movement would hurt Turkey’s economy.

However, as mentioned above, while the goal is understandable, the themes of the “union of the ummah” and “siblings in religion” are problematic. The campaign offers the idea of being siblings in religion as an argument against the rising racism towards irregular migrants and refugees; a different form of racism or discrimination.

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