tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17751074342752941902024-02-19T18:46:36.855+08:00Ustaz Ahmad AwangUstaz Ahmad Awanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06200168252646821612noreply@blogger.comBlogger157125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1775107434275294190.post-7403826678466167692018-04-02T18:16:00.001+08:002018-04-02T18:16:58.597+08:00Bab AlHuffaz 30 Juz in 40 Days Our first hafiz.<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6idlRmCmEZs" width="480"></iframe>Ustaz Ahmad Awanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06200168252646821612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1775107434275294190.post-75188787548532882622015-11-17T17:07:00.001+08:002015-11-17T17:24:05.795+08:00Kunjungan Pimipinan Pakatan Harapan Ke Rumah Duta Perancis - 17 Nov 2015Menyampaikan rasa simpati atas kejadian di Paris, pimpinan Pakatan Harapan diketuai oleh Presiden PKR, Datuk Seri Dr. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, telah membuat kunjungan kepada Duta Perancis, Christophe Penot, di rumah beliau.
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Ustaz Ahmad Awanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06200168252646821612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1775107434275294190.post-57794060609418440922014-02-19T23:12:00.002+08:002014-02-19T23:12:34.309+08:00Dr Mahathir berbohong tentang Kassim Ahmad, kata bekas ketua Persatuan Ulama<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;">Kassim Ahmad sebelum diserahkan kepada </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;">The Malaysian Insider. – Gambar The Malaysian Insider, 19 Februari, 2014.</span></div>
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Bekas Perdana Menteri, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad didakwa berbohong apabila berkata para ulama di negara ini gagal melawan Dr Kassim Ahmad dengan hujah, lalu melabelkannya sebagai 'anti-Hadis'.</div>
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Bekas Presiden Persatuan Ulama Malaysia (PUM), Ustaz Ahmad Awang berkata, ketika kejadian pertama Kassim membawa teorinya pada tahun 1986, beliaulah ketika itu Pengarah Penyelidikan Pusat Islam (kini Jakim) yang berdepan dengan Kassim.</div>
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"Atas kapasiti sebagai Yang di-Pertua PUM, kami berdepan dengan Kassim di Masjid Seksyen 16, Petaling Jaya. Beliau meminta kami dengarkan dulu dia bercakap, selepas dia bercakap, masa habis, dan dia pulang ke Pulau Pinang.</div>
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"Dia berjanji akan bertemu semula. Namun selepas itu, sampai sekarang dia tidak mahu bertemu kami. Ia berakhir dengan dia sahaja yang bercakap dan kami hanya mampu mendengar dan tidak boleh berhujah balas bagi menjawab dakwaan beliau," cerita Ahmad Awang kepada The Malaysian Insider, mengingati kembali kejadian hampir 30 tahun lalu itu.</div>
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Tidak lama selepas pertemuan itu, katanya, Kassim pergi ke akhbar Watan ketika itu (walaupun berjanji tidak ada sebarang laporan media berkaitan majlis itu) dan memaklumkan akhbar tersebut para ulama gagal berhujah dengan beliau.</div>
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"Jadi, bukan sahaja Dr Mahathir sahaja yang berbohong dalam hal ini, Kassim Ahmad yang menjadi rakan Mahathir sejak di Universiti Malaya Singapura juga berbohong," kata Ahmad.</div>
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Dr Mahathir berkata, Kassim sering dilabel anti-Hadis kerana pihak yang menuduhnya gagal berhujah dengannya mengenai isu agama.</div>
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"Dia dilabelkan sebagai anti-Hadis sebab orang tidak boleh jawab apa yang dia katakan. Kita lihat di sini, label digunakan sebagai alat untuk mematahkan pendapat orang lain," katanya selepas Majlis Pelancaran Kursi Keamanan Global Tun Mahathir di Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia, kelmarin.</div>
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Katanya, sama seperti Kassim, beliau juga sering dilabel dengan pelbagai gelaran selepas hujahnya tidak diterima pihak tertentu.</div>
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"Saya juga dilabel sebagai anti-Cina, dituduh rasis dan macam-macam. Jadi walaupun saya berkata benda yang benar, saya tetap dianggap rasis," katanya.</div>
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Kassim adalah junior Dr Mahathir di Universiti Malaya Singapura.</div>
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Kassim juga pelopor Kelab Sosialis UM Singapura yang banyak mengeluarkan kenyataan menggunakan tulisan warna merah.</div>
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Pada 18 September 1986, Majlis Fatwa Kebangsaan mewartakan fatwa bahawa buku tulisan Kassim bertajuk "Hadith: Satu Penilaian Semula" adalah haram.</div>
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Fatwa yang dibuat oleh Majlis Fatwa Sabah itu diterima pakai oleh Majlis Fatwa Kebangsaan.</div>
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Antara lain, fatwa itu menyebut, "Pengarang buku itu termasuk dalam golongan orang yang murtad, sekiranya undang-undang murtad dikuatkuasakan di Negara ini, maka pengarang buku itu wajib dibunuh."</div>
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Menurut Ahmad Awang, Kassim didakwa anti-Hadis apabila beliau mencadangkan umat Islam hanya merujuk kepada Al Quran semata-mata dan menolak hadis Rasulullah sebagai sumber hukum dalam Islam.</div>
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Ia bermula apabila beliau selaku Pengarah Penyelidikan Pusat Islam menerima lima buah buku tulisan Rashad Khalifa dari Tucson Arizona, Amerika yang ditahan oleh Jabatan Kastam daripada diserahkan kepada Kassim yang sepatutnya menerima buku-buku itu.</div>
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Buku-buku itu adalah:</div>
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1) Miracle of the Quran: Significance of the Mysterous Alphabets</div>
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2) The Computer Speaks: God's Message to the world.</div>
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3) Quran: The Final Scripture</div>
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4) Quran, Hadith and Islam, dan</div>
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5) Authorized English version Translated from the Original.</div>
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Selepas dikaji, kata Ahmad, ia bertentangan dengan Islam dan Majlis Fatwa Kebangsaan yang bersidang di Johor Bahru pada tahun 1986 yang mengharamkan buku-buku itu.</div>
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Ahmad yakin, walaupun buku itu berjaya disekat, tetapi Kassim menerima juga buku itu melalui cara lain.</div>
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"Hampir kesemua teori Kassim Ahmad tentang Hadis datang dari buku-buku ini," kata Ahmad.</div>
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Ketika memberikan ucapan dalam seminar pemikiran Kassim Ahmad di Putrajaya pada 15 dan 16 Februari lalu, yang dianjurkan Yayasan Kepimpinan Perdana, Kassim berkata, umat Islam sepatutnya menjadikan Al Quran sahaja sebagai sumber rujukannya hukumnnya.</div>
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Beliau juga berkata, frasa kedua dalam dua kalimah syahadah mendewakan Nabi Muhammad.</div>
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Beliau juga berkata, rambut bukan aurat wanita.</div>
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"Menutup rambut dengan bertudung bermakna udara bersih tidak dapat memasuki rambut. Dengan itu rambut menjadi busuk.</div>
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"Dengan lain perkataan, ia tidak sihat. Anehnya, wanita yang bertudung menganggap diri mereka lebih suci!" kata Kassim dalam ucapannya itu.</div>
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Ekoran itu, pelbagai pihak membantah Kassim, termasuk badan yang selama ini menyokong Umno, seperti Isma. – 19 Februari, 2014.</div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">OLEH ZULKIFLI SULONG</span></i><br /><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Taken from : <a href="http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/bahasa/article/dr-mahathir-berbohong-tentang-kassim-ahmad-kata-bekas-ketua-persatuan-ulama">http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/bahasa/article/dr-mahathir-berbohong-tentang-kassim-ahmad-kata-bekas-ketua-persatuan-ulama</a></span></i><br />
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Ustaz Ahmad Awanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06200168252646821612noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1775107434275294190.post-64135657252876238332014-02-16T00:21:00.002+08:002014-02-16T00:26:09.722+08:00[Video] The Syrian Opposition, Explained<i>Source:</i> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/video/world/middleeast/100000002694572/the-syrian-opposition-explained.html?playlistId=100000001997657"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The NY Times</span></a><br />
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By Reem Makhoul and Liam Stack. February 7th, 2014</span></span><br />
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There are believed to be hundreds, if not thousands, of groups fighting in Syria. These opposition groups are fighting the Assad regime, but recently turned on each other with increased ferocity.<br />
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<i>Source:</i> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/video/world/middleeast/100000002694572/the-syrian-opposition-explained.html?playlistId=100000001997657"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The NY Times</span></a></span>Ustaz Ahmad Awanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06200168252646821612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1775107434275294190.post-16790398728311982722014-02-16T00:15:00.001+08:002014-02-16T00:15:26.987+08:00As Hate Crimes Rise, British Muslims Say They’re Becoming More Insular<i>Source:</i> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/14/world/europe/as-hate-crimes-rise-british-muslims-say-theyre-becoming-more-insular.html"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The NY Times</span></a><br />
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By STEVEN ERLANGERFEB. 13, 2014</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white; font-size: 85%;">Schoolchildren on a field trip to the Central Mosque in Birmingham. The city, in the Midlands, is about 20 percent Muslim. Andrew Testa for The New York Times</span><br />
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BIRMINGHAM, England — Alum Rock, a neighborhood of Birmingham, looks the way Pakistan might, if Pakistan were under gray northern skies and British rule.<br />
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The streets are lively but orderly, with shops that provide the largely South Asian population with most of its needs. The huge Pak Supermarket, with its 10-kilogram bags of spices and rices, is matched by the nearby Pak Pharmacy. Nearly every face is South Asian, and people wear a vibrant mixture of clothing, from Western styles to head scarves, knitted caps and full-face veils, or niqabs.<br />
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But the Muslims of Alum Rock, Washwood Heath and Sparkbrook, who make up most of the more than 21 percent of Birmingham’s population who declare Islam as their religion, are newly uneasy, they say. The backlash from the killing of a white soldier, Lee Rigby, in London in May by two fanatical young British Muslims, combined with anxieties about the flow of jihadis between Britain and Syria and the sometimes harshly anti-immigrant tone of leading British politicians have combined to create a new wariness among British Muslims.<br />
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“It is a less comfortable country than it used to be,” said Sadruddin Ali, 35, born and raised here.<br />
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Anti-Muslim hate crimes are up, the police and Muslim advocacy groups say. In response, many British Muslims say they are becoming more insular and more reluctant to leave their areas of Britain’s big cities, where they are among other Muslims and South Asians.<br />
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To many Muslims and non-Muslims, that is a worrying trend in what is considered to be a generally tolerant country as it heads toward the 2015 general election. A divided Conservative Party has a populist, anti-immigration party to its right in the U.K. Independence Party, and even the opposition Labour Party is supporting restrictions on benefits for immigrants.<br />
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“There is more hostility and more aggression,” Mr. Ali said.<br />
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He mentioned the firebombing of a nearby mosque after the Rigby killing, as well as the fatal stabbing in April of Mohammed Saleem, 82, as he left a local mosque. His attacker was a recent Ukrainian immigrant, who also placed three small bombs outside mosques. In June, a police officer and three other people were stabbed outside another Birmingham mosque.<br />
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In other parts of Britain, Mr. Ali said, “I feel a bit intimidated and don’t feel welcome, to be honest.” When he travels, he is often pulled aside at the airport for special questioning, he said, adding that this happened “even when I was cleanshaven.”<br />
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Mohammad Naseem, chairman of the Central Mosque in Birmingham, one of Britain’s largest, is 89. Born under British colonialism, he served as a doctor in the British Army and came here in 1959. He said he understands why Muslims are uneasy and defensive these days.<br />
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“When you go outside the boundary, you’re not sure where you stand,” he said. He said he sees the new fashion for Islamic head covering and veils less as religious than as a reaction to outside pressure. “When you’re being downgraded or threatened,” he said, “there is a natural reaction to hit back and say, ‘This is my identity.’ ”<br />
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In London, anti-Muslim episodes rose from 318 in 2011 and 336 in 2012 to 500 by mid-November in 2013, the police reported. The Greater Manchester Police recorded 130 offenses in 2013 compared with 75 in 2012. The West Midlands Police force, which covers Birmingham, reported in response to a freedom of information act request that there were 26 anti-Islamic hate crimes in 2011, 21 in 2012 and 29 through October 2013.<br />
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Tell MAMA, an advocacy group that monitors anti-Muslim episodes nationwide (MAMA stands for “measuring anti-Muslim attacks), said that such episodes had almost doubled in a year, with a surge after the Rigby killing, to nearly 1,000 cases. But the group does not separate online attacks from physical ones.<br />
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<span style="color: white; font-size: 85%;">Birmingham Central Mosque with the city skyline in the background. Muslims here, who make up a little over 20 percent of the city’s population, say they are newly uneasy. Andrew Testa for The New York Times </span><br />
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<span style="color: white; font-size: 85%;">Women walking their children home from school in Alum Rock, a Pakistani neighborhood in Birmingham. Anti-Muslim hate crimes have increased, the police and Muslim advocacy groups say. In response, many Muslims say they are becoming more reluctant to leave their enclaves in big cities. Andrew Testa for The New York Times </span><br />
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It is not clear how the current tensions will affect what some analysts say has been a slow but gradual trend of greater racial understanding in Britain, though periodically interrupted by racial and ethnic eruptions of hostility. News media attention to immigration from within the European Union has also helped dilute the focus on Muslims.<br />
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“Islamophobia intensifies after big events like 9/11, 7/7 and the Lee Rigby murder, and anti-Muslim hate crimes spike,” said Humayun Ansari, a professor of Islamic history at Royal Holloway, University of London, referring to the July 7, 2005, bomb attacks in London. “Then it actually fades away and dies down to a much lower level of intensity.”<br />
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But younger Muslims, like Sameera Hussain, 19, a student who wears a head scarf, said she sometimes got insulting or aggressive comments when she traveled outside her community, things like, “We’ll take your scarf and wrap it around your neck.”<br />
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Mohammed Wagas, 18, said he feels he is treated differently by the police, who in his opinion stop Muslim drivers “with nice cars” more often than other people. “Oh, you know, he’s brown, he’s going to be doing drugs, that’s why he’s rolling in a big car.”<br />
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Somaya Cheraitia described moving to a predominantly white area; casual insults intensified when she started to wear the niqab two years ago. “I was very different to what they knew, and I was an easy target,” she said. Stones were thrown at her family house and lit firecrackers put through the front mail slot teenagers grabbed her mother’s groceries and spilled them on the ground, yelling: “You’re rubbish anyway.”<br />
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Then a group of young women attacked her, she said, some trying to untie her niqab while another set her dog on Ms. Cheraitia, saying, “You’re both of the same breed.” When they managed to uncover her face, she remembers, one said: “Oh, she’s ugly anyway, look.”<br />
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She was shaken, and decided to stop wearing the niqab. “It was too much,” she said. “I felt like I didn’t belong, even if it’s your home. It was emotionally draining.” She said: “I wasn’t safe anywhere. I wanted to be strong in my worship to Allah,” but her fear “was too strong,” and she moved back to more comfortable East London less than a year ago.<br />
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Mr. Naseem noted that anti-Muslim fear and hatred went back to the Crusades, with pubs called “Turk’s Head” or “Saracen’s Head,” but he attributes most anti-Islam and anti-immigration commentary to political language devised to win votes.<br />
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But for all the problems, he said, Britain is seen by many Muslims as offering security and liberty.<br />
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“Here, there is a trust in the law, and it is a lawful country, no matter how deceiving the government may be,” he said.<br />
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Muhammad Shakeel, 29, is among the many Muslims who are happy to be here. He came from Pakistan five years ago and works in a chicken factory alongside other immigrants, mostly Asian and Polish. Married to a Pakistani woman who has been here 10 years, he thinks Britain is fine.<br />
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“It’s not safe in Pakistan,” he said. “It’s very dangerous.” Here in the “Balti triangle,” as the neighborhood known, he feels he can construct a decent life. “There are good rules in this country,” he said. “Some people have prejudice, but mostly they are very nice. This is a safe country.”<br />
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<i>Source:</i> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/14/world/europe/as-hate-crimes-rise-british-muslims-say-theyre-becoming-more-insular.html"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The NY Times</span></a></span>Ustaz Ahmad Awanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06200168252646821612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1775107434275294190.post-3027966208424849282014-02-16T00:05:00.001+08:002014-02-16T00:05:31.646+08:00Jewish Hospital a Fixture in Tehran<i>Source:</i> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/10/world/middleeast/jewish-hospital-at-home-in-iran.html"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The NY Times</span></a><br />
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By THOMAS ERDBRINKFEB. 9, 2014</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white; font-size: 85%;">The Dr. Sapir Hospital and Charity Center on Mostafa Khomeini Street is the only Jewish hospital in Tehran and sits across from a Shiite seminary. Morteza Nikoubazl for The New York Times</span><br />
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TEHRAN — Sitting in his office at Tehran’s only Jewish hospital, Ciamak Morsadegh lit another cigarette and reminisced about how his wife left Iran for the United States after he insisted on staying.<br />
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Dr. Morsadegh, the director of the Dr. Sapir Hospital and Charity Center here, said that unlike thousands of other Jews he has never thought about leaving the Islamic Republic, for the simple reason that Iran is his home.<br />
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“I speak English, I pray in Hebrew, but I think in Persian,” said Dr. Morsadegh, a surgeon who is also a member of Parliament. “I am Iranian. Iranian-Jewish.”<br />
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Many were surprised last week when the government of President Hassan Rouhani donated $400,000 to the Dr. Sapir Hospital, but Dr. Morsadegh was not among them.<br />
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“We Jews are a part of Iran’s history,” he said. “What is important is that Mr. Rouhani makes big news out of supporting us. He is showing that we, as a religious minority, are part of this country, too.”<br />
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Situated on Mostafa Khomeini Street — named for the son of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini — the hospital sits across from the Imam Reza Seminary school, one of the oldest Shiite seminaries in Tehran. White-turbaned clerics pass by, talking in hushed tones with their students. Though the hospital might seem out of place, local people do not seem to think so.<br />
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<span style="color: white; font-size: 85%;">‘I speak English, I pray in Hebrew, but I think in Persian.’ CIAMAK MORSADEGH Director of the Dr. Sapir Hospital and Charity Center in Tehran. Morteza Nikoubazl for The New York Times</span><br />
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“When I am sick I go across the street,” Mohammad Mirghanin, a seminary student, said as he rushed to class. “They might have a different religion, but they are fellow Iranians. I do not see why I should not go to the Jewish hospital.”<br />
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On Saturday, a woman in a traditional black chador approached Khoddad Asnashahri, the hospital’s managing director and a Muslim, and asked for help.<br />
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“I went to the Iman Khomeini hospital with my daughter who needs a sonogram, but over there it costs 500,000 toman,” or roughly $200, said the woman, Zahra Hajabdolmaleki.<br />
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“We will help you here for half that amount,” Mr. Asnashahri pledged.<br />
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Named after a Jewish doctor who died in 1921 while trying to cure patients during a typhus epidemic raging through Tehran, the hospital started out as a clinic where all Iranians could come for medical care at vastly reduced rates. For more than 50 years it has been a meeting point for Iranian Jews and Muslims and the most prominent Jewish charity in the capital.<br />
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Mr. Asnashahri, who has worked at the hospital for nearly 48 years, praised the “good atmosphere” while also noting that only five Jewish physicians remained. “Many have migrated and others have bought shares in more modern hospitals,” he said.<br />
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About 96 percent of patients are Muslim, like most of the hospital’s employees. But what mattered most, he said, was the message that “here all people can come, no matter what religion, color or race.”<br />
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<span style="color: white; font-size: 85%;">Launch media viewer
An Iranian orderly at the pharmacy counter in Dr. Sapir Hospital. The hospital began as a clinic with reduced rates for care. Morteza Nikoubazl for The New York Times</span><br />
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Though the Jewish population of Iran is dwindling — now at about 9,000, according to an official census by the Statistical Center of Iran, though other estimates range to 20,000 — the country has the largest number of Jews in the Middle East after Israel.<br />
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Dr. Morsadegh, the surgeon, has devoted his life to that diminishing community. He was a leader of the Tehran Jewish Committee, a group that supports synagogues, schools and other facets of Jewish life in Iran, and in 2008 was elected as the Jewish representative in Parliament, where five official religious minorities have a permanent seat.<br />
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He will not say that the situation for Jews and the other official religious minorities — Christian Armenians, Assyrians, Chaldeans and Zoroastrians — is perfect in Iran. The five minorities would like to see an Islamic law changed that allows one of their faith who converts to Islam to get the entire inheritance of his or her non-Muslim family, for example. Yet things are worse for evangelical Christians and Bahais, who can face prison sentences and in many cases exclusion from higher education.<br />
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Dr. Morsadegh said former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s repeated Holocaust denials left psychological scars, as well. “Look, all Jews believe in the Holocaust,” he said. “It would have been much better if the former president had not raised that issue.”<br />
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President Rouhani has remained silent on the Holocaust, and in September his social media team wished Jews around the world a happy Rosh Hashana.<br />
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“It has gotten a lot better,” Dr. Morsadegh said, recalling how thousands of Jews left the country after the 1979 revolution. Many more have emigrated since then, often because of Iran’s bad economy.<br />
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Though Dr. Sapir Hospital is Jewish owned, there is not much that would remind one of Jewish heritage. On the wall of Dr. Morsadegh’s office are two portraits of Iran’s past and current supreme leaders, facing a painting of Moses holding up the Ten Commandments.<br />
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In September, Dr. Morsadegh joined President Rouhani on his trip to the United Nations in New York. Some in Iran have hinted at a connection between the president’s financial donation to the hospital and Dr. Morsadegh’s enthusiastic defense of Iran and the position of Jews in the country.<br />
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But the doctor is not bothered by those questions. “I helped out in the war with Iraq for this country, as a first aid doctor,” he said. “And I’d do it again tomorrow.”<br />
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<i>Source:</i> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/10/world/middleeast/jewish-hospital-at-home-in-iran.html"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The NY Times</span></a></span>Ustaz Ahmad Awanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06200168252646821612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1775107434275294190.post-87050470166329120972014-02-15T12:42:00.003+08:002014-02-15T12:44:20.120+08:00Iran Delivers Surprise, Money, to Jewish Hospital<i>Source:</i> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/07/world/middleeast/iran-delivers-surprise-money-to-jewish-hospital.html?_r=0"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The NY Times</span></a><br />
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By THOMAS ERDBRINKFEB. 6, 2014</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white; font-size: 85%;">President Hassan Rouhani’s approach toward Jews differs from that of his predecessor. Behrouz Mehri/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images</span><br />
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TEHRAN — The brother of Iran’s president walked into Tehran’s only Jewish hospital on Thursday, delivering a surprise donation along with the message that the Health Ministry would give more attention to hospitals that traditionally serve Christian and Jewish Iranians.<br />
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“We are very happy,” a nurse there said by telephone. “This is a good sign.”<br />
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The hospital, the Dr. Sapir Hospital and Charity Center, received $400,000 from the government of President Hassan Rouhani, the semiofficial Mehr News Agency reported. Another Iranian source, the semiofficial website Tabnak, said that the amount was $200,000, but that a second installment in the same amount would be coming.<br />
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The leader’s brother, Hossein Fereydoon, who goes by Mr. Rouhani’s original family name, was quoted by Tabnak as saying, “Our government intends to unite all ethnic groups and religions, so we decided to assist you.”<br />
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Since taking office in August, Mr. Rouhani has embarked on a campaign to engage the world after years of isolation under his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who never missed an opportunity to denigrate Israel and deny that six million Jews had died in the Holocaust.<br />
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Mr. Rouhani’s approach toward Jews and the care he takes when mentioning Israel form a central part of his effort to undo some of the damage — international censures and sanctions — from Mr. Ahmadinejad’s two terms.<br />
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The gift to the hospital comes after the president’s social media team wished Jews around the world a happy Rosh Hashana, in September. In stark contrast to Mr. Ahmadinejad, Mr. Rouhani rarely mentions Israel and avoids talking about the Holocaust.<br />
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While the Islamic republic’s ideology prescribes that Israel — “the Zionist regime,” as it is referred to here — is a mortal enemy, never to be recognized, Iran is also home to the largest population of Jews in the Middle East after Israel, though that number is dwindling. Jews are an officially recognized minority, with a population of about 9,000.<br />
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“We can clearly see that Mr. Rouhani is trying to take distance from Mr. Ahmadinejad’s Holocaust-denial policies,” said Farshad Ghorbanpour, a political analyst close to the government.<br />
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Some are interpreting Mr. Rouhani’s gentler approach toward Israel as a policy change, pointing to several Middle Eastern meetings to which both countries sent representatives, even though Iran does not officially recognize Israel.<br />
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During the Munich Security Conference last Saturday, the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, gave an interview in which he was reported to have said that Iran could consider recognizing Israel someday.<br />
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“After the problem with the Palestinians is resolved, the conditions that will enable recognition of the State of Israel will be established,” he was quoted as telling a German television station, Phoenix.<br />
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In a separate speech at the conference, Mr. Zarif said the Holocaust was “tragically cruel and should not happen again.”<br />
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On Thursday, Mr. Zarif denied the comments attributed to him during the interview, saying his words were distorted. He did not deny his comments about the Holocaust.<br />
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Meir Javedanfar, an Iranian-Israeli who teaches Iranian politics at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel, said Mr. Rouhani’s gestures were “rare for recent years,” and described Mr. Zarif’s remarks about an Iranian decision regarding relations with Israel in the event it finalizes a peace deal with the Palestinians as “a first in itself.”<br />
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“They may or may not decide to recognize Israel,” Mr. Javedanfar said in a telephone interview, “but to say that they will decide on it is unprecedented.”<br />
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<i>Source:</i> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/07/world/middleeast/iran-delivers-surprise-money-to-jewish-hospital.html?_r=0"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The NY Times</span></a></span>Ustaz Ahmad Awanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06200168252646821612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1775107434275294190.post-73542402474725266522014-02-09T13:43:00.000+08:002014-02-09T13:43:01.466+08:00Are You Suffering With Joint Discomfort?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.smarterlifestyles.com/wp-content/uploads/shutterstock_137023319.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.smarterlifestyles.com/wp-content/uploads/shutterstock_137023319.jpg" height="291" width="320" /></a></div>
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If you’re suffering from joint discomfort you’ve probably tried a variety of supplements. Tedious gels, pills, powders, and creams. But how well do they really work?</div>
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It seems like every year joint companies tout the next big thing. Revolutionary… ground breaking… shocking. But it seems like the only change is bigger pills and more talk.</div>
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That’s why it’s so exciting to see real evolution in the joint market. Two new ingredients in particular have been causing shockwaves in the joint market. UC-II® and patented Aprèsflex.</div>
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UC-II® is a new form of denatured type II collagen. Interest in collagen use began 20 years ago when researchers discovered positive results with un-denatured collagen. More recently researchers discovered that denatured collagen is more concentrated and thus more powerful. A recent Harvard University study showed that people with rheumatoid arthritis who took undenatured type II collagen experienced significant relief. UC-II is a patented, highly concentrated type II version of collagen.</div>
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Aprèsflex is a highly concentrated form of boswellia serrata, a rare tropical plant. Boswellia serrata has been shown to ’switch off’ the pro-inflammatory cytokines and mediators that often lead to joint discomfort.</div>
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These highly concentrated ingredients are found in the new proprietary formula: "Beneflex".</div>
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Beneflex is a powerful alternative to more traditional joint products. The entire compound fits into a single, tiny capsule taken once-daily. No more horse pills. Tedious gels, powders, drinks, or creams.</div>
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And Beneflex can provide relief from joint discomfort in just 7 days…</div>
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Suggested benefits include:</div>
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• Fast relief from joint discomfort</div>
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• No glucosamine or chondroitin</div>
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• New patented ingredients</div>
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• Safe and drug-free</div>
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• Gluten free!</div>
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• Shell-fish free!</div>
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To boost the effectiveness of the UC-II® and Aprèsflex, the nutritional researchers included two additional ingredients: Hyaluronic Acid and Turmeric. Hyaluronic Acid is found in healthy joints; it forms protective structures around the cells in joints. Turmeric is used in Asian cooking and provides additional joint relief by lowering histamine levels and increasing production of a natural cortisone that helps with joint discomfort.</div>
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<a href="http://web.adblade.com/two_clicks.php?ca_app_id=2082&fc_id=59768&sc_id=59758">Beneflex</a> is made in US Laboratories and is carried in GNC stores nationwide. And while Beneflex is a new product, it’s already a national sponsor of the Arthritis Foundation.</div>
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If you have joint discomfort and other products have failed to help you in the past, try Beneflex. Due to popular request, the manufacturer has made samples available online to qualifying customers. You can also find Beneflex in GNC stores nationwide.</div>
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<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Taken from: <a href="http://www.smarterlifestyles.com/2013/06/27/are-you-suffering-with-join-discomfort/">http://www.smarterlifestyles.com/2013/06/27/are-you-suffering-with-join-discomfort/</a></span></i></div>
Ustaz Ahmad Awanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06200168252646821612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1775107434275294190.post-50508948484664538432014-02-09T13:40:00.003+08:002014-02-09T13:44:00.558+08:00How To Lose Weight<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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More than one-third of adults in the United States are obese. In fact, the furor over obesity, which some have termed an “epidemic,” has reached such proportions that one big-city mayor has gone about banning large-sized, sugary soft drinks and the First Lady has been on a crusade to control the dietary offerings in public schools.</div>
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Even many adults who do not fit the clinic definition of obese are still overweight, and a large percentage are looking for the best ways to lose weight.</div>
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Shedding pounds largely comes down to the two-pronged factors of diet and exercise. Not modifying the first one enough, and not getting enough of the second one, ends up giving the individual a recipe for being overweight. </div>
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Conditions related to obesity include heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and certain types of cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.</div>
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Counseling someone to eat less and exercise more might be the simplest advice possible, but it’s also, partially, an oversimplification. When it comes to diet, no one needs to starve themselves in order to lose weight. It has more to do with the types of food you eat than how much you eat.</div>
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Reduce the amount of red meat in your diet. If you don’t want to eliminate red meat altogether, choose cuts of meat with less fat content. Limit your intake of salt and starches. If you’ve got to have potato chips alongside your sandwich at lunch, opt for the baked potato chips that are less greasy and contain less fat than the deep-fried chips. You might find you’re really not sacrificing that much in terms of taste.</div>
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A diet rich in fruits, vegetables, egg whites, skinless poultry, fish and nonfat dairy products will certainly aid in the mission of losing weight. Drink more water and less sugary drinks. If you have to have a soda, a diet soda is a better option, but seltzer is an even better choice than that.</div>
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In terms of exercise, it’s important—if not always easy—to make sure you get at least some physical activity each and every day. Cardio and strength training burn lots of calories. If your feet or your stamina level won’t allow for a regular jogging regimen, then make sure you take lots of walks. Next time you need to mail a letter, walk to the mailbox instead of driving. Try to work in a daily walk in your neighborhood. And if you intend on more rigorous, formal exercising at the gym or fitness center, be sure to pace yourself and don’t build up to an overly ambitious workout agenda too quickly.</div>
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There are thousands of diet fads among us. However, sometimes the best advice is common sense. Work towards a healthy diet and integrate regular exercise. You would be surprised at the results small changes can make.</div>
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<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Taken from : <a href="http://www.smarterlifestyles.com/2013/07/02/how-to-lose-weight-2/">http://www.smarterlifestyles.com/2013/07/02/how-to-lose-weight-2/</a></span></i></div>
Ustaz Ahmad Awanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06200168252646821612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1775107434275294190.post-30310087751909986002014-02-09T13:20:00.004+08:002014-02-09T13:20:55.624+08:00Egypt's Military Denies Report Al-Sisi Announced CandidacyCAIRO, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- Reports Egyptian Army Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi told a Kuwaiti newspaper he would be a presidential candidate are false, an army spokesman said.<br /><br />Egyptian military spokesman Ahmed Ali said an article published in the daily newspaper al-Siyasa was conjecture, not a statement from al-Sisi, Ahram Online reported.<br /><br />"What was published in al-Siyasa is merely journalistic speculation and not a direct statement from Field Marshal al-Sisi," Ali posted on his Facebook page.<br /><br />In the article, al-Sisi was quoted as saying he "would fulfill the people's demands to run for president."<br /><br />"Egyptians have big dreams and in order to fulfill those dreams we need everyone to help and cooperate. Some rulers disturbed the country by using their position to serve their own interests," al-Sisi was quoted as saying in an apparent reference ex-President Mohamed Morsi, who was ousted in June.<br /><a name='more'></a><br />"We don't have a magic wand but we will not tamper with the people's dreams and aspirations," he was quoted in the article as saying. "Let's hold our hands together and work for the country."<br /><br />The military council recently gave al-Sisi, also Egypt's defense minister, the OK to run in Egypt's first presidential elections since Morsi was toppled in July amid anti-government protests.<br /><br />Ali's statement said the decision would be "personally taken [by al-Sisi] in front of the great Egyptian people, clearly and directly, without doubt or speculation."<br /><br />Al-Sisi, recently promoted to field marshal, is expected to leave his post before entering the presidential race, Ahram Online said.<br /><br />Presidential voting is expected to be conducted sometime between Feb. 17 and April 18. Interim President Adly Mansour decided to conduct the presidential election ahead of the parliamentary balloting, changing the transitional road map.<br /><br /><br /><br /><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Taken from : <a href="http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2014/02/06/Egypts-military-denies-report-al-Sisi-announced-candidacy/UPI-99201391690904/#ixzz2snc2asDs">http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2014/02/06/Egypts-military-denies-report-al-Sisi-announced-candidacy/UPI-99201391690904/#ixzz2snc2asDs</a></span></i><br />Ustaz Ahmad Awanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06200168252646821612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1775107434275294190.post-55975926212524350082014-02-06T19:03:00.005+08:002014-02-06T19:17:17.774+08:00Ukip MEP Who Supported Muslim Code Of Conduct Urged Halal Slaughter ban<div style="text-align: center;">
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Ukip MEP Gerard Batten in action in Strasbourg. Photograph: Jean-Marc Loos/Reuters/Corbis</span></i></div>
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A Ukip MEP who is under fire over his remarks about Islam also suggested banning halal and kosher slaughter of animals and outlawing the legal recognition of Islamic banking.</div>
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In 2011 Gerard Batten was the author of a four-page paper entitled "Confidential draft – Dismantling Multiculturalism", which was billed as a policy discussion document with "suggested policies that could be adopted by political parties and governments".</div>
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It was sent to members of Christian Concern, a group that believes that abortion should be illegal and homosexuality is a sin. Batten said he held a meeting with them and sent a document to some of their members.</div>
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The paper claims that multiculturalism has failed and offers a doom-laden warning about the threat of radical Muslims. "Islamic fundamentalism is the cuckoo in the western multicultural nest. We can either address it now or be destroyed by it in the course of time," he wrote.</div>
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A future government should also ban the religious slaughter of animals, he suggests. "Repeal the act of parliament that gives exception for ritual slaughter for religious reasons. These are outmoded and barbaric practices that have no place in the 21st century or in the light of humane animal welfare policies," he wrote.</div>
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Batten also suggested that Ukip might consider dropping any laws that recognise Islamic banking: "Repeal the Act (???) that gives official recognition to Islamic banking." There are no references to Islamic finance in UK legislation, according to the Treasury.</div>
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On Tuesday, the Guardian reported that Batten supported the creation of a code of conduct for British Muslims and argued for a ban on new mosques in Britain. Batten is an MEP representing London, and is top of the party's list for the city in the elections in May.</div>
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On Wednesday, before details of Batten's latest policy position emerged, the Ukip leader, Nigel Farage, was forced to disown the London MEP's call for a "charter of Muslim understanding".</div>
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Farage said: "This was a private publication from Gerard Batten in 2006 and its contents are not and never have been Ukip policy. No such policy proposals would have been accepted by Ukip in any case. Ukip believes in treating people equally."</div>
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The party is keen to shake off its image as a disparate group of eccentrics and to approach May's European elections as a serious electoral force.</div>
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David Cameron described them as "a bunch of fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists". Batten described the 2011 document as an "off-the-top-of-my-head draft of a document which was for a policy discussion which so far has never been published". He said it was "a rough draft which I would like to publish in due course but it's not one of my priorities at the moment. You can't hold me to anything in it."</div>
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He declined to say whether he supported banning religious slaughter, but added that he made those suggestions to ensure they had a lively discussion. "If you put a few off the wall things down it makes the conversation interesting, doesn't it?" he said. In the paper, under the heading "Policy suggestions", Batten also wrote that the government should consider dropping the display of languages such as Hindi, Urdu or Polish from public institutions.</div>
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"There must be one language used in national and political institutions and publicly funded places (excluding historical differences such a Welsh in Wales or Gaelic in Scotland). In England only English must be displayed in public buildings such as local and national government offices, universities, colleges, schools, hospitals, clinics etc" he wrote.</div>
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<ul class="article-attributes trackable-component b4" data-component="Article:byline" style="background-color: white; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-collapse: collapse; border-color: rgb(214, 29, 0); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.25; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 10px; min-height: 66px; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 0px 12px; position: relative; text-align: start;">
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<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span itemprop="author" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span itemprop="name" style="border-collapse: collapse; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Rajeev Syal</span></span>, <span itemprop="author" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span itemprop="name" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Rowena Mason</span></span> and Daniel Foggo</span></i></div>
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<li class="publication" style="border-collapse: collapse; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">The Guardian, <time datetime="2014-02-05T20:16GMT" itemprop="datePublished" pubdate="" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Wednesday 5 February 2014</time></span></i></li>
<li class="publication" style="border-collapse: collapse; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><time datetime="2014-02-05T20:16GMT" itemprop="datePublished" pubdate="" style="border-collapse: collapse; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Taken from : </time><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/feb/05/ukip-batten-muslims-halal-banned">http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/feb/05/ukip-batten-muslims-halal-banned</a></span></i></li>
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Ustaz Ahmad Awanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06200168252646821612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1775107434275294190.post-35975959987789784212014-02-06T18:43:00.000+08:002014-02-06T19:18:05.879+08:00Ukip MEP Says British Muslims Should Sign Charter Rejecting Violence<div style="text-align: center;">
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A Ukip MEP believes that British Muslims should sign a special code of conduct and warns that it was a big mistake for Europe to allow "an explosion of mosques across their land".</div>
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Gerard Batten, who represents London and is member of the party's executive, told the Guardian on Tuesday that he stood by a "charter of Muslim understanding", which he commissioned in 2006.</div>
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The document asks Muslims to sign a declaration rejecting violence and says parts of the Qur'an that promote "violent physical Jihad" should be regarded as "inapplicable, invalid and non-Islamic".</div>
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Critics said his comments represent the "ugliest side of Ukip" and "overlap with the far-right", in spite of the efforts of party leader Nigel Farage to create a disciplined election machine ahead of the European elections.</div>
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Asked on Tuesday about the charter, Batten told the Guardian he had written it with a friend, who is an Islamic scholar, and could not see why "any reasonable, normal person" would object to signing it.</div>
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Batten also repeated his view that some Muslim texts need updating, claiming some say "kill Jews wherever you find them and various things like that".</div>
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"If that represents the thinking of modern people, there's something wrong, in which case maybe they need to revise their thinking. If they say they can't revise their thinking on those issues, then who's got the problem – us or them?" he added.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Gerard Batten cuts a distinctive figure at the European parliament" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/2/4/1391538948217/Gerard-Batten-cuts-a-dist-011.jpg" data-pin-description="Gerard Batten cuts a distinctive figure at the European parliament, where he is an MEP for the UK Independence party. Photograph: Jean-Marc Loos/Corbis" height="276" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin: 0px auto; padding: 5px 0px 0px;" width="460" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; text-align: start;">Gerard Batten cuts a distinctive figure at the European parliament, where he is an MEP for the UK Independence party. Photograph: Jean-Marc Loos/Corbis</span></td></tr>
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Asked why Muslims have been singled out, rather than followers of other faiths, Batten said: "Christians aren't blowing people up at the moment, are they? Are there any bombs going off round the world claimed by Christian organisations? I don't think so."</div>
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In a separate video interview from 2010, Batten also proposed a ban on new mosques across Europe, suggested Muslim countries should not be "appeased" and warned of the threats of having "two incompatible systems living in the same place at the same time".</div>
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Farage's effort to rid the party of "Walter Mitty" types comes after a stream of controversies, including the party's suspension of a councillor for blaming flooding on gay marriage and the ejection of MEP Godfrey Bloom following comments about women and sending foreign aid to "bongo-bongo land".</div>
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With Ukip hoping to top the polls in May's European elections, Batten is top of the party's MEP candidate list for London, having passed a round of psychometric testing to make sure his views were acceptable.</div>
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However, Batten – Ukip's spokesman on immigration and a former candidate for London mayor – appears to have held some controversial positions on Islam for some time. His "proposed charter of Muslim understanding" was written in 2006 by Sam Solomon, a former Muslim who converted to Christianity, with a foreword by the MEP himself.</div>
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In a press release from the time, published on Ukip's website, Batten calls on Muslims to sign a five-point affirmation, in which they would promise to accept equality, reject violence in the name of religion, and accept a need to "re-examine and address the meaning and application of certain Islamic texts and doctrines".</div>
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Asked on Tuesday whether he still believed Muslims should sign the charter, Batten said: "I don't suppose the pope would disagree with it or the archbishop of Canterbury or anybody else. So why should they feel aggrieved that they might be asked to sign. They don't have to. If they don't believe in those five points, they don't have to sign it."</div>
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In the 2010 interview, Batten suggests a ban on new mosques in "our cities" and warns it was wrong to have allowed so many already.</div>
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"They don't allow Christian churches or Hindu temples to be built or any kind of non-Muslim place of worship in many of their countries and certainly not in the heartland of their religion," he said.</div>
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"Well, if they don't allow it, why can they expect to see their religion tolerated somewhere else?</div>
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Asked about his views on the building of mosques, Batten told the Guardian: "Why do we allow the wholesale building of mosques by a religion that refuses in its heartland to acknowledge other people's right to worship a different religion?"</div>
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And pressed on whether he was confusing individual Muslims with the actions of some Muslim states, he said: "They should be protesting about people being arrested in Saudi Arabia for carrying a Bible. Maybe that's what they should be getting upset about and protesting about. Showing they are in the same mindset as the rest of us."</div>
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Rehman Chishti, the Conservative MP for Gillingham and Rainham, said Batten's position was "shocking", particularly the "charter of understanding" suggestion that parts of the Qur'an should be rendered "inapplicable". "If Nigel Farage had any credibility, he would quite clearly not allow this individual to stand for office in Ukip," he said.</div>
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Sadiq Khan, Labour's shadow London minister, also said he was "appalled at the ignorance that Gerard Batten appears to have shown when speaking about the faith that I and hundreds of thousands of British Muslims practice".</div>
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Mary Honeyball, a Labour MEP for London, said that Batten "represents the ugliest side of Ukip". "Batten's views overlap with the far-right. The idea that Muslims should be singled out in the way he suggests is a relic from a darker, more prejudiced time," she said.</div>
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Some of Batten's other controversial views include bringing back the death penalty for certain crimes. He has also sought to highlight the issue of powerful politicians attending the secretive Bilderberg conference and immigration of Romanians and Bulgarians.</div>
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In a statement to the Guardian, Batten later said: "I would expect the fundamentalists to agree with me that democracy is incompatible with fundamentalist Islam. Moderate Muslims have to decide which side of the argument they are on.</div>
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"Who is in favour of jihad? Apart from the jihadists of course? I was, and still am, happy to speak out against it. It is amusing that the Guardian equates being opposed to extremism and jihadism as 'overlapping with the far-right'. So are left-wing liberals in favour of jihad? If not, do they overlap too?"</div>
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It comes the day after Ukip distanced the party from Mujeeb ur Rehman Bhutto, its former Commonwealth spokesman, who was revealed by BBC Newsnight to have once been part of a kidnapping gang.</div>
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<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/profile/rowena-mason">Rowena Mason</a>, political correspondent</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian">The Guardian</a>, Tuesday 4 February 2014</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Taken from : <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/feb/04/ukip-mep-gerard-batten-muslims-sign-charter-rejecting-violence">http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/feb/04/ukip-mep-gerard-batten-muslims-sign-charter-rejecting-violence</a></span></i></div>
Ustaz Ahmad Awanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06200168252646821612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1775107434275294190.post-28988361306779469612014-01-30T00:00:00.001+08:002014-01-30T00:03:54.574+08:00Erdogan Says Foreign Media, Business Groups Stoking Turmoil in Turkey<blockquote>
Comments Come Before Central Bank Meeting on Tumbling Lira</blockquote>
<i>Source:</i> <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303553204579348643653112388?KEYWORDS=erdogan&mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702303553204579348643653112388.html%3FKEYWORDS%3Derdogan"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Wall Street Journal</span></a><br />
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By Joe Parkinson, Updated Jan. 28, 2014 1:20 p.m. ET</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white; font-size: 85%;">Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan waves at members of the parliament from his ruling AK Party during a meeting at the Turkish parliament in Ankara on Tuesday. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images</span><br />
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ISTANBUL—Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday said that foreign media and business lobby groups were stoking political and economic turmoil in Turkey, as the nation's central bank prepared for a meeting to shore up the tumbling lira.<br />
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In a speech to lawmakers, Mr. Erdogan said foreign media organizations, including The Wall Street Journal and British Broadcasting Corp., as well as some of Turkey's biggest businesses, were seeking to exploit the country's difficulties.<br /><span class="fullpost">
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"My dear brothers these organizations have always stolen the national will in this country. They have pocketed the resource and energy of this country," Mr. Erdogan said. "Is it only BBC? Also The Wall Street Journal. Who are the bosses of these newspapers? Who own these newspapers?" he added.<br />
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The BBC didn't immediately respond to a call for comment.<br />
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"Our coverage of Turkey has been without bias, favor or agenda. We will continue to cover Turkey with the same fair and accurate focus that is the hallmark of all of our journalism around the world," said Gerard Baker, editor in chief of Dow Jones and managing editor of The Wall Street Journal. News Corp. NWSA -0.18% owns Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal.<br />
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Both news organizations have in recent weeks published interviews with a reclusive but influential Turkish imam whose supporters have become embroiled in a power struggle with the prime minister after a decadelong political alliance.<br />
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The Wall Street Journal published an interview with Fethullah Gulen on Jan. 20. The BBC broadcast an interview with the cleric on Jan. 27.<br />
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Mr. Erdogan has in recent weeks escalated criticism of foreign media coverage of Turkey, reiterating assertions that an "interest rate lobby"—alleged to include some business organizations, currency traders and foreign media—is seeking to profit by suppressing Turkey's economic growth and pushing up interest rates. The premier has previously singled out news organizations for criticism, including the BBC, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist magazine and Reuters news agency.<br />
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Some of Mr. Erdogan's critics say he is indulging in conspiracy theories in a bid to depict his government as being under siege from foreign enemies.<br />
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"Erdogan has used the strategy of blaming outsiders in the past but this has got much worse in recent times in terms of the amount of targets and the intensity. I think this is set to continue at the very least until the local elections and most likely longer," said Wolfango Piccoli, managing director of Teneo Intelligence, a political risk consultancy.<br />
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The prime minister—who is comfortably ahead in opinion polls ahead of local elections in March and presidential elections, in which he is expected to run, in August—is facing one of the greatest threats to his leadership after a sprawling corruption probe snared many of his allies, forcing a cabinet reshuffle. The political crisis has been aggravated by a darkening economic outlook for emerging markets, sending the lira tumbling almost 20% since the corruption probe became public on Dec. 17.<br />
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Turkey's central bank governor has given a strong signal that policy makers would significantly tighten monetary policy, including a hike in interest rates, to stop the plunge in the lira. The banks is holding an extraordinary policy meeting Tuesday evening.<br />
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Mr. Erdogan said Tuesday he opposes any interest rate increase, as his government is seeking to spur economic growth. "But I don't have any authorization to intervene with the central bank. It is not under my authorization, and responsibility belongs to them," Mr. Erdogan said.<br />
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In earlier remarks, Mr. Erdogan didn't directly address the extraordinary meeting, or the prospect of a tighter policy, but focused on the economic advances of the past decade.<br />
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"Turkey's economy has obtained a solid foundation in the last 11 years. It hasn't been driven away with domestic and outside sabotages … . Capital inflows will keep coming to Turkey," Mr. Erdogan said earlier.<br />
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<i>Source:</i> <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303553204579348643653112388?KEYWORDS=erdogan&mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702303553204579348643653112388.html%3FKEYWORDS%3Derdogan"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Wall Street Journal</span></a><br /></span>Ustaz Ahmad Awanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06200168252646821612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1775107434275294190.post-57702855584760402512014-01-29T23:54:00.001+08:002014-01-29T23:54:28.188+08:00Egypt Locks Morsi in Soundproof Cage During Trial <i>Source:</i> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/29/world/middleeast/egypt-morsi-trial.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The NY Times</span></a><br />
<span style="color: #33cc00;"><span style="font-size: 85%;">
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and MAYY EL SHEIKHJAN. 28, 2014</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white; font-size: 85%;">Mohamed Morsi, the president who was ousted by the military in July, on Tuesday in Cairo. Almasry Alyoum, via European Pressphoto Agency</span><br />
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CAIRO — Mohamed Morsi, the deposed Egyptian president, appeared in public on Tuesday for the second time since his detention after the military takeover in July, this time locked in a soundproof glass cage as the defendant at a criminal trial.<br />
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The installation of the cage, a novelty in Egyptian courts, underscored the extent of the effort by the new government to silence the former president and his fellow defendants, about 20 fellow leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood. It dominated the courtroom debate, with lawyers for the defendants arguing that it deprived the accused of their right to hear or participate in their own trial and supporters of the government crediting the soundproof barrier with preserving order in the court.<br />
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“The glass cage was the hero of today’s trial,” Egyptian state television declared.<br />
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For his first appearance, at another trial in the same makeshift courtroom in November, Mr. Morsi insisted on wearing a dark business suit instead of the customary white prison jumpsuit, and then stole the spotlight by disrupting the proceeding. He shouted from the cage, which was not soundproof, that he was the duly elected president and the victim of a coup, and his fellow defendants shut down the trial by chanting against military rule.<br />
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Appearing on Tuesday in ordinary prison dress, Mr. Morsi passed his cage angrily and bided his time for a chance to speak again. When the judge turned on the microphone so that Mr. Morsi could acknowledge his presence, he shouted out, “I am the president of the republic, and I’ve been here since 7 in the morning sitting in this dump,” according to an account on a Brotherhood website that was confirmed by people who had been present.<br />
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“Who are you?” Mr. Morsi asked the judge. “Do you know where I am?”<br />
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He insisted he did not recognize the court’s authority to try him, in part since it was outside the constitutional procedures for impeaching a president.<br />
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The judge, Shaaban el-Shamy, shot back, “I am the president of Egypt’s criminal court!” He turned off the microphone in Mr. Morsi’s cage, and the ousted president was silenced.<br />
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The other Islamist leaders on trial in the same case were kept in a separate glass cage, presumably to prevent communication. At times, they turned their backs to the court in defiance. When the microphone was on so the judge could ask a question, they returned to chanting against military rule.<br />
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Shortly before the session began, Egyptian state television canceled plans to broadcast it, ultimately showing only limited clips later in the day. No other news organization was allowed to report live from inside the court during the hearing, and many, including The New York Times, were excluded from the session altogether.<br />
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Mr. Morsi, who was chosen as Egypt’s first elected president in June 2012, was removed from office a year later in a military takeover after widespread street protests. The new government installed by Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi described Mr. Morsi’s removal as a second revolution, after the 2011 revolt that ousted President Hosni Mubarak.<br />
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The military held Mr. Morsi and his top advisers incommunicado for months after army removed him from office. Prosecutors later began filing charges against them, including several punishable by death. In his first trial, which began in November, Mr. Morsi and other Brotherhood leaders were accused of inciting their supporters to kill protesters in street fights against their opponents outside the presidential palace in December 2012. (The police had refused to protect the Brotherhood from attackers, and the Brotherhood asked its civilian supporters to do it themselves.)<br />
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On Tuesday, Mr. Morsi and the other defendants faced other charges related to his escape from prison during the 2011 revolt, when he and other Brotherhood leaders were held in extralegal detention because of their opposition to Mr. Mubarak. They are now accused of conspiring with foreign militant movements, including the Sunni Islamist Palestinian group Hamas and the Shiite Lebanese group Hezbollah, to break themselves out.<br />
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Many rights advocates consider the charges implausible, to say the least. None of the foreign militant leaders named in the case were present for the trial, and at least one of the defendants from Hamas was deceased at the time, while a third was in an Israeli jail, according to news reports from that time, as well as Hamas.<br />
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Allowed to speak briefly later in the afternoon, Mr. Morsi addressed the judges. “I have the utmost appreciation for judges, and I say to them: Stay away from politics,” he said, according to the website of the state newspaper Al Ahram.<br />
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“The procedures of my trial are invalid because I’m a legitimate president of the country,” he insisted.<br />
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After removing Mr. Morsi, the new government began a widening crackdown on his Islamist supporters. Security forces have killed more than a thousand people at protests against the takeover and jailed thousands more, including almost all of the Brotherhood’s top leaders. The government has shut down virtually all the Egyptian news media sympathetic to the group. In December, it banned the Brotherhood as a terrorist group.<br />
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In response to the takeover, there has been an escalating series of attacks on security forces, with two more in the capital area on Tuesday alone. Two gunmen on a motorcycle assassinated Gen. Mohamed Said, a senior Interior Ministry official, near his home in an area across the Nile River from Cairo, state news media reported.<br />
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Later, gunmen killed a policeman outside a Coptic Christian church in a suburb of Cairo, state news media reported.<br />
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In September, militants attempted to assassinate the interior minister, Mohamed Ibrahim, by detonating a car bomb near his motorcade. In November, gunmen killed Lt. Col. Mohamed Mabrouk, of the Interior Ministry division monitoring Islamist groups, in the Nasr City neighborhood of greater Cairo. And last weekend, on the eve of the anniversary of the uprising, four bombs exploded near police positions around Cairo, killing at least six people.<br />
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The Sinai-based militant group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis claimed responsibility for the killing of the general on Tuesday. It has claimed responsibility for most of the major attacks, including the biggest bombing over the weekend and the attempted assassination of the interior minister.<br />
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<i>Source:</i> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/29/world/middleeast/egypt-morsi-trial.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The NY Times</span></a><br /></span>Ustaz Ahmad Awanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06200168252646821612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1775107434275294190.post-17791125713156929672014-01-29T23:47:00.001+08:002014-01-29T23:47:17.160+08:00Egypt’s Ruler Eyes Riskier Role: The Presidency<i>Source:</i> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/28/world/middleeast/egypt.html?ref=todayspaper"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The NY Times</span></a><br />
<span style="color: #33cc00;"><span style="font-size: 85%;">
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICKJAN. 27, 2014</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white; font-size: 85%;">Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi may run to become Egypt’s president. Khaled Elfiqi/European Pressphoto Agency</span><br />
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CAIRO — When Egypt’s first freely elected president, Mohamed Morsi, named Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi defense minister, the officer pledged to keep the military out of politics and make way for civilian democracy.<br />
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A year later, General Sisi ousted Mr. Morsi, insisting the military was answering the people’s call to secure “their revolution.” Just three weeks later, he once again said he was turning to the people when he urged them to take to the streets to give him a personal “mandate” to crush Mr. Morsi’s base of support in the Muslim Brotherhood.<br /><span class="fullpost">
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Then on Monday, Field Marshal Sisi — he added the title the same day — took the first formal step to become Egypt’s next president, insisting he was yielding once again to “the free choice of the masses” and “the call of duty.” With that, he paved the way for Egypt to return to the kind of military-backed governance that was supposed to end with the Arab Spring of 2011.<br />
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In his two years in public life as defense minister and then de facto ruler, Field Marshal Sisi has combined the cunning of a spymaster with the touch of a born politician to develop an extraordinary combination of power and popularity not seen here since Col. Gamal Abdel Nasser ended the British-backed monarchy six decades ago.<br />
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<span style="color: white; font-size: 85%;">Marshal el-Sisi, center, with Egyptian generals on Monday after a meeting in Cairo. Egypt Military Spokesman, via Associated Press</span><br />
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But by moving to formally take the reins as head of state, Field Marshal Sisi is taking on a far greater and riskier challenge. Promoted by the state and private news media as a national savior, Field Marshal Sisi will have to manage an increasingly unruly domestic population, including an elite expecting a full restoration of its privileges; generals who may see him as only the first among equals; a broad section of the public that still feels empowered to protest; at least hundreds of thousands of Morsi supporters who openly reject the new government; and a terrorist insurgency determined to thwart any hope of stability.<br />
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“I think the economy eventually will be the undoing of anyone in that position, because all the same issues that led to the 2011 uprising are still there — the youth unemployment, their marginalization from politics, the overly bloated Civil Service, the unsustainable food and energy subsidies,” said Samer S. Shehata, a University of Oklahoma political scientist.<br />
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Now the continuing protests and violence have squashed any hope of a swift recovery of the crucial tourism sector, he said, and “no one has the will required to take the necessary and painful steps required to move the country forward.”<br />
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Field Marshal Sisi’s backers argue that his status as a charismatic national hero will enable him to break the logjam. “Those who love you will swallow bricks for you, and your enemies would wish you make a mistake,” Ahmed El Nagar, an Egyptian economist, declared in a recent television interview about the prospect of a Sisi presidency, quoting an Egyptian proverb. “No matter how bitter the prescription of reforming the economy is, if it comes from someone the people love, they will endure it.”<br />
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But Khaled Salah, editor of Youm el-Saba, a popular pro-Sisi newspaper, said that expectations were the problem. " ‘Let Sisi solve it’ — this idea is most dangerous in the public now,” Mr. Salah said. “The very big dreams and expectations won’t work.”<br />
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Field Marshal Sisi has given almost no indications of what policies or platform he might pursue as president. The most notable characteristic of his six months as Egypt’s de facto ruler since the takeover has been the often lethal and ruthless crackdown on the Brotherhood and, increasingly, liberal dissenters as well.<br />
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But the nearly universal expectation that he would run for president was confirmed Monday when he presided over a meeting of his top generals to bless his candidacy. In a statement, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces called his presidential campaign “an onus and an obligation,” and said that Field Marshal Sisi considered it “a call that demands compliance.”<br />
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Although at least two other candidates in the 2012 presidential elections have left open the possibility of running, few believe they might stop Field Marshal Sisi from becoming Egypt’s sixth president and its fifth from the ranks of the military.<br />
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Field Marshal Sisi has had harsh words for the United States over the Obama administration’s criticism of his removal of Mr. Morsi and the crackdown on his Islamist supporters. “You left the Egyptians. You turned your back on the Egyptians, and they won’t forget that,” he said in an interview with The Washington Post in August. “Now you want to continue turning your backs on Egyptians?”<br />
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But he has close ties with his Western military counterparts. He trained at military colleges in Britain and the United States, and as chief of military intelligence was a key conduit for communications between Egyptian and Israeli military leaders.<br />
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His military career began as an escape from hard circumstances. Born on Nov. 19, 1954, Field Marshal Sisi grew up in the overcrowded dirt lanes of the neighborhood of Al Gamaliya, in a district of Cairo. Military colleagues say his father ran a stall in the Khan al-Khalili market, the bazaar patronized by generations of tourists. He escaped that career by winning a place in a prestigious air force high school.<br />
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His military colleagues say he shares the dutiful piety of average Egyptians. He is up at 5 a.m. for dawn prayers. And his wife, unlike the spouses of any previous president except Mr. Morsi, covers her hair with a head scarf. Where Egypt’s previous military presidents sometimes incorporated Islam into their public personae or speeches — most notably Anwar el-Sadat — Field Marshal Sisi has displayed a more natural fluency in the verses of the Quran.<br />
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Before becoming defense minister, Field Marshal Sisi had risen through the ranks to chief of military intelligence, where, some scholars, say he may have cultivated his political wiles. As late as the spring of 2013, just months before he led Mr. Morsi’s ouster, he publicly reiterated his pledge to keep the army in the barracks, warning that military intervention in politics could drag the country backward.<br />
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As discontent with Mr. Morsi grew, Field Marshal Sisi suggested protests might nonetheless move him to intervene. And after millions turned out in response, he declared on July 3, 2013, that the armed forces were still “first to announce their need to remain distant from political action” but felt compelled by the public calls to save the country from ruin.<br />
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He spoke at a carefully choreographed news conference. But the first in a series of mass shootings at street protests by Mr. Morsi’s Islamist supporters took place the next week, and by the end of August security forces had killed more than a thousand, according to human rights groups.<br />
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As president, Field Marshal Sisi would have to manage a set of demands that are far more complicated than those he faced as the commanding officer in a period of crisis, and than those previous presidents encountered. The tumult of the revolt has highlighted the failings of a system in which each institution of government operates quasi-independently with a self-interest all its own. Then there is post-revolutionary public.<br />
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“It is a society in complete mobilization mode, totally restive,” said Mona El-Ghobashy, a political scientist at Barnard.<br />
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“It is not the monarchical presidency that Nasser created and Sadat and Mubarak inherited,” she said, making a reference to President Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted in 2011. “Sisi faces an entirely different setup than the autopilot Mubarak was on.”<br />
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<i>Source:</i> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/28/world/middleeast/egypt.html?ref=todayspaper"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The NY Times</span></a></span>Ustaz Ahmad Awanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06200168252646821612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1775107434275294190.post-69565956215768273672014-01-29T23:36:00.001+08:002014-01-29T23:38:05.956+08:00Egypt Sets Presidential Election, Amid Worry Over General's Power<blockquote>
Speculation Grows About Intentions of Army Chief</blockquote>
<i>Source:</i> <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304691904579344732203030174?KEYWORDS=egypt&mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304691904579344732203030174.html%3FKEYWORDS%3Degypt"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Wall Street Journal</span></a><br />
<span style="color: #33cc00;"><span style="font-size: 85%;">
By Tamer El-Ghobashy and Matt Bradley, Updated Jan. 27, 2014 4:49 a.m. ET</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white; font-size: 85%;">Egyptians gathered Saturday at Tahrir square in Cairo on the third anniversary of the Arab Spring revolt. Reuters</span><br />
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CAIRO—Egypt's military-backed government said it would hold presidential elections before a parliamentary vote, a reversal that stands to give the next president considerable legislative authority.<br />
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That next leader looks increasingly likely to be the military's chief, Gen. Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, who has indicated he is considering a bid for the nation's highest office, buoyed by massive popular and political support. Few other potential candidates have emerged.<br /><span class="fullpost">
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<span style="color: white; font-size: 85%;">On Sunday, people outside Cairo carry the coffin of a victim of clashes with the military a day earlier, the anniversary of Egypt's 2011 revolution. Agence France-Presse / Getty Images</span><br />
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Sunday's decision changes the electoral schedule set by the military after it ousted Mohammed Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president, in July. The new sequence will put the nation's next leader in a position to influence voters to back the parliamentary candidates he supports.<br />
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The decision sets the stage for more clashes with the Muslim Brotherhood, the now-outlawed Islamist group from which the deposed president hailed. The Brotherhood on Sunday called for more demonstrations.<br />
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On Saturday, the anniversary of the 2011 revolt that unseated former President Hosni Mubarak, clashes between security forces and protesters led to 49 deaths and more than 250 injuries, officials said. A coalition of independent rights groups said at least 60 people were killed. Security forces arrested more than 1,000 people, officials said.<br />
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A day earlier, several bombings in Cairo, for which an al-Qaeda-inspired group claimed responsibility, killed six people and at least 12 supporters of Mr. Morsi were killed when police dispersed protesters, officials said.<br />
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Saturday's violence exposed deepening rifts in Egypt over the military government's "road map to democracy," which set a path for civilian-led rule. Although they aren't allied, Brotherhood supporters and many secular-leaning activists oppose Gen. Sisi's growing profile.<br />
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Through antiprotest and antiterrorism laws, non-Islamist activists and some foreign and local journalists have been ensnared in the crackdown that rights groups have criticized as a campaign to suppress dissent.<br />
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Egypt's government says the measures are necessary in its "war against terrorism" and to bring calm to the nation's streets after three years of instability. "The preservation of the nation of Egypt is an awesome responsibility and a sacred trust, which we, god willing, will live up to," said President Adly Mansour. "We will not hesitate to undertake any exceptional measure, if necessary."<br />
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The Muslim Brotherhood on Sunday dismissed the government's recent moves. "We don't recognize a road map that was brought on top of military tanks against the will of the Egyptian people and in an environment of extreme repression unprecedented in Egypt's history," said spokesman Abdullah El-Haddad.<br />
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Saturday's violence came as a raucous event attended by thousands in Tahrir Square took on the appearance of a campaign rally for Gen. Sisi. Many of Egypt's political and business elites have called on Gen. Sisi to run for president.<br />
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But with thousands of leaders and members of the Brotherhood—the biggest opposition group—killed, arrested or cowed, few signs have emerged of a competitive election. Only Hamdeen Sabahi, a presidential candidate in 2012, has said he would run even if Gen. Sisi does.<br />
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In announcing the electoral schedule, Mr. Mansour said the government had met "with some of the major political stakeholders and representatives of the different political groups which indicated a majority in favor of holding presidential elections first."<br />
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Mr. Mansour, in a short televised speech, noted that the decision was a reversal from the military government's original road map. He announced no dates for the elections. Egypt's constitution calls for a vote within 90 days of the document's ratification.<br />
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Mohammed Abul Ghar, head of the left-leaning Egyptian Social Democratic Party, whose founders include the prime minister and deputy prime minister in the military backed interim government, said flipping the order of elections was necessary to bring order to a chaotic transition.<br />
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"We believed that it would quiet things in Egypt and the street would be…calm and this would be a positive signal if the elections are very fair and proper," he said. "This is a step toward democracy."<br />
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Egypt's amended constitution, overwhelmingly approved in a referendum with just over one third of the eligible voters, says that in the absence of a legislative body the next president would have complete legislative powers until a parliament is elected. Once seated, the body would have 15 days to ratify the laws enacted by the president in the interim.<br />
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Some observers said that having a president elected before parliament would give a popular leader heavy influence over the parliament's composition.<br />
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Given Egypt's political instability, Egypt's next president could lend considerable weight to friendly political forces in their bid for parliamentary seats, they said, resulting in a loyalist parliament—a hallmark of Mr. Mubarak's nearly 30 year autocratic rule, observers say.<br />
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"People are desperate for a leader, and a winning president would just say, anyone who accepts my presidency should vote for a certain alliance and it would be very easy for that alliance to get 50% of the seats," said Zaid Al-Ali, a constitutional expert with the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, a Stockholm-based intergovernmental group that promotes democracy. The approval of laws would be "just a formality if the president and parliament are of the same political color, and that's probably what is going to end up happening."<br />
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While that could help organize a more united and efficient legislative body, Mr. Al-Ali said, the parliament would become less diverse and it "would be easier to pass legislation that doesn't conform to best practices and fundamental rights."<br />
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<i>Source:</i> <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304691904579344732203030174?KEYWORDS=egypt&mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304691904579344732203030174.html%3FKEYWORDS%3Degypt"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Wall Street Journal</span></a></span>Ustaz Ahmad Awanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06200168252646821612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1775107434275294190.post-76098938499824439572013-12-20T15:00:00.001+08:002013-12-20T15:00:23.166+08:00Al-Azhar Takes Centre Stage in Struggle for Egypt<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">CAIRO — A venerable center of Islamic learning in Cairo has become a new battlefield in the Muslim Brotherhood's struggle to keep its battered cause alive against Egypt's army-backed rulers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">When General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi appeared on television in July to tell Egyptians he had deposed their first freely elected leader, the grand imam of al-Azhar was among those at his side.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, who looked on as the army chief of staff promised new elections, was falling in with al-Azhar's decades-long practice of lending its prestige to those in power.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">But Tayeb now faces a maelstrom of unrest at al-Azhar's main campus in Cairo, where students are demanding the reinstatement of President Mohamed Mursi, a Brotherhood leader.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"We find it dishonorable to have a grand imam who supports a bloody military coup," said Youssef Salahein, 21, an undergraduate in Islamic studies and English.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"We are not going to stop until he is out of al-Azhar and he is judged for his crimes alongside all the military leaders."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The anger on the once-tranquil campus contrasts with the pro-Sisi mood elsewhere in Egypt, where the Brotherhood has failed to mobilise widespread support via street protests.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Instead its cadres, vilified as terrorists by the media and the state, are once again in jail or underground, after leading the movement to one electoral triumph after another following the popular unrest that felled President Hosni Mubarak in 2011.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Now the bloodied Brotherhood appears to see al-Azhar as a potential weak point for the government, which like most of its predecessors is determined to ensure that Islamists do not use religious institutions to rally support against their rule.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Tayeb and Sisi remain allies, but pro-Brotherhood feeling among students and faculty at al-Azhar, whose renown spans the Sunni Muslim world, has put the government on the defensive.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">HUB OF REBELLION</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Entrenching dissent at al-Azhar would enable the Brotherhood to deprive the government of the Islamic credentials with which the institution cloaked Egypt's military rulers for six decades.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Beyond the campus, the authorities have tightened their grip since Mursi's ouster, violently dispersing Brotherhood rallies, outlawing the Islamist movement and arresting its leaders.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Rights groups say more than 1,000 Mursi supporters have been killed in the worst internal violence in Egypt's modern history.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As in Mubarak's era, the religious endowments ministry vets sermons and has shut down some small neighbourhood mosques where independent imams lead prayers. In November, a new law banned protests at places of worship.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The pressure has prevented the Brotherhood from keeping up mass street protests, but has not stopped the ferment at al-Azhar, whose campus lies near the military parade ground where Islamic militants assassinated President Anwar Sadat in 1981.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Students have spray-painted buildings, blocked college entrances and staged strikes, prompting the university president to request police intervention last month - fuelling the wrath of students and professors who say the campus is a sacred space.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Some professors who silently sympathized with the Brotherhood but never dared criticize al-Azhar's leadership in the past are now speaking out.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"In the end these students are the responsibility of Sheikh el-Tayeb and he should protect them," said Reda Ahmed, 38, a professor who was shot in the groin during an attack by security forces on Mursi supporters in July.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">SWELLING RAGE</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Despite the risks, more professors are quietly voicing support for the students, giving the Brotherhood political ammunition it can't seem to find outside the campus walls.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"I can't participate, but I'm with them in my heart," said a professor who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">He estimated that 80 percent of the faculty in his college were pro-Brotherhood, but said most feared arrest if they made their views public - Islamist-leaning professors say undercover state security agents attend and record their lectures.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Last month a court jailed 12 al-Azhar students for 17 years after they took part in demonstrations. Security sources say 88 students are still in detention after fierce clashes last week.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The campus reveals signs of rage against the government before January's referendum on a constitution that strengthens the army's hand and bans religious political parties.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Graffiti underscores a deep disdain for Sisi, and for the man who sat next to him when the army takeover was announced.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"(Sheikh) el-Tayeb is Sisi's dog," read graffiti in a courtyard. "Uprising of al-Azhar" is another tagline.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Nevertheless, not everyone at al-Azhar favors the student agitation in support of the Brotherhood.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"This is chaos," said Amna Nusseir, 70, a professor of Islamic Studies and Arabic who also sat on the committee that drafted the new constitution. "They (Brotherhood members) are liars, they don't feel shame. I hate them for this."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">On one afternoon this month, about 100 women students at al-Azhar chanted slogans against "military rule" on a busy street outside their dormitory complex, snarling traffic.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Some students complained that the daily disturbances were disrupting their studies. Summing up the mayhem, one said: "We have exams, but we don't have lectures."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;"><i><nyt_byline style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 15px;"><h6 class="byline" style="color: grey; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 2px 0px;">
By <span itemprop="author creator" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person">REUTERS</span></h6>
</nyt_byline><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 15px;"></span></i></span><h6 class="dateline" style="background-color: white; color: grey; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;"><i>Published: December 20, 2013 at 1:08 AM ET</i></span></h6>
<h6 class="dateline" style="background-color: white; color: grey; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px;">
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<h6 class="dateline" style="background-color: white; color: grey; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;"><i>Taken from : <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2013/12/20/world/middleeast/20reuters-egypt-politics-azhar.html?ref=world" style="background-color: transparent;">http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2013/12/20/world/middleeast/20reuters-egypt-politics-azhar.html?ref=world</a></i></span></h6>
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Ustaz Ahmad Awanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06200168252646821612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1775107434275294190.post-51090385565153289202013-12-20T14:42:00.001+08:002013-12-20T14:43:24.906+08:00Egypt Accuses Morsi of Vast Terrorist Plot<div style="text-align: justify;">
CAIRO — The military-backed government filed new criminal charges on Wednesday against Mohamed Morsi, the deposed president, accusing him of participating in an epic terrorist plot that involved killing protesters and leaking state secrets to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.</div>
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A statement from the chief prosecutor described the case against Mr. Morsi as the biggest of its kind in Egyptian history. Human rights groups strongly disagreed, calling the allegations preposterous, in part because of their vast scale and complexity.</div>
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Prosecutors accused Mr. Morsi, a former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, of having allied with the historic enemies of the security forces and the military. Prosecutors charged that, in addition to colluding with Iran, Mr. Morsi plotted with the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah and with the Palestinian Sunni group Hamas, and that he planned to work with extremists to declare an Islamic emirate in Sinai.</div>
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“They are pretty fantastical, to say the least,” Sarah Leah Whitson, the regional director for Human Rights Watch, said of the accusations. “Through both legal processes and their control of the media, the government has been trying to generate this notion that the Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist organization carrying out violent acts, with the absence of any evidence, and these charges really underscore the extent to which the government is focused on exterminating the Muslim Brotherhood as a political opposition. It is an all-out campaign to destroy it.”</div>
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In addition to Mr. Morsi, several of his top presidential advisers, the supreme guide of the Brotherhood and more than two dozen other Brotherhood leaders were charged with participating in the same collaboration. It was the first time the government announced any charges against several of the Morsi advisers who had been detained incommunicado since July 3, when Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi removed Mr. Morsi at the end of his first year in office.</div>
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Among the advisers charged for the first time was Essam el-Haddad, Mr. Morsi’s foreign policy adviser and a former physician and philanthropist who became a main contact with the United States government, meeting once in the Oval Office with President Obama.</div>
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If convicted, the defendants could face the death penalty.</div>
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Outlining the charges in only broad terms, the prosecutor’s statement said the scheme “to collaborate with foreign organizations to commit terrorist acts inside of Egypt” extended as far back as 2005. That was the year of former President Hosni Mubarak’s last re-election and the birth of the opposition coalition that ultimately brought down Mr. Mubarak in 2011. The prosecutors said the plot begun in 2005 was “completed” in 2011, when “security forces and citizens were assaulted with firearms in different places to further establish a state of chaos and damage Egyptian national security.”</div>
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The prosecutors said that the scheme involved smuggling arms through the country’s western borders, and that the plotters had arranged for Brotherhood members to obtain military training from Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Revolutionary Guards in Iran. The prosecutors also said that the Brotherhood had arranged for others to receive training in how to “launch rumors” and “direct public opinion.”</div>
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<br />Mayy El Sheikh contributed reporting.<br /><br /><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK<br /><br />Taken from : <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/19/world/middleeast/egypt-accuses-morsi-of-vast-terrorist-plot.html?ref=middleeast&_r=0">http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/19/world/middleeast/egypt-accuses-morsi-of-vast-terrorist-plot.html?ref=middleeast&_r=0</a></span></i></div>
Ustaz Ahmad Awanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06200168252646821612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1775107434275294190.post-2994755380788908132013-12-13T11:12:00.000+08:002013-12-13T11:13:09.818+08:00Dulu komunis, sekarang syiah, akan datang...?<i>Sumber:</i> <a href="http://bm.harakahdaily.net/index.php/kesatuan-fikrah/24176-dulu-komunis-sekarang-syiah-akan-datang"><span style="font-weight: bold;">HarakahDaily</span></a><br />
<span style="color: #33cc00;"><span style="font-size: 85%;">Dec 11, 2013 | MOHAMAD SABU</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #33cc00;"><span style="font-size: 85%;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-size: small;">Daripada saya bersekolah pada tahun 1961, kita mula ingat dengan
berbagai-bagai peristiwa sejak daripada darjah 3, 4, 5, 6 dan seterusnya
ke sekolah menengah, sampailah kepada institut pengajian tinggi. Cerita
yang popular pada waktu itu ialah kejahatan komunis, buruknya ideologi
komunis, iaitu komunis kerjanya ialah membunuh orang ramai,
menjahanamkan infrastruktur kerajaan, tidak percaya kepada Tuhan, mereka
adalah pengganas dan amat ganas.<br /><br />Melawan komunis adalah
merupakan satu jihad, kerana pada waktu itu British dan kuasa barat
mengahadapi komunis “insurgent” di Eropah, di Russia dan di Malaya.
Komunis dan rangkaiannya bangun menentang penjajah British dan juga
berusaha untuk menghalau British daripada Malaya dan tanah jajahannya.<br /><br /><span class="fullpost">Selepas
merdeka, kerajaan Malaya yang merdeka menghadapi serangan atau pun
penentangan daripada komunis yang berterusan. Di luar daripada Malaya
pula berlaku peperangan Vietnam. Vietnam Utara dengan ideologi komunis,
manakala Vietnam Selatan didokong oleh Amerika dan negara-negara barat.
Malaya atau Malaysia bersama dengan rangkaian Amerika dan negara-negara
barat menentang kemaraan regim komunis di Vietnam pimpinan Ho Chin Minh.<br /><br />Mao
Tze Tung yang berjaya membentuk kerajaan melalui “long march” yang
dibuat pada tahun 1949 memang menggegarkan kuasa-kuasa serantau, khasnya
Britain dan Amerika yang menguasai rantau Pasifik dan Asia Tenggara.<br /><br />Manakala
Russia pula, semakin hari semakin kuat menguasai negara-negara yang
sekarang disebut CIS, dan pada tahun 1978 telah menguasai Afganistan.
Oleh itu komunis, sosialis dan ideologi negara yang didokong oleh mereka
menjadi musuh yang amat sangat kepada Malaya (Malaysia) negara British,
Amerika dan sekutu Eropah Barat.<br /><br />Ribuan menjadi mangsa, bahkan
ratusan ribu telah menjadi mangsa hasil pertarungan komunis dan
non-komunis, sama ada di Malaya atau di negara-negara lain. Bahkan di
Vietnam sehingga jutaan rakyat telah terkorban.<br /><br />Di Malaya
(Malaysia) polis dan tentera dan orang ramai terkorban, begitulah juga
di pihak yang mendokong komunis terkorban begitu banyak dalam
pertarungan ideologi, pertarungan negara, pertarungan kuasa (adi-kuasa)
di atas muka bumi ini.<br /><br />Pada tahun 1975, peperangan di Vietnam
telah tamat, Vietnam Utara berjaya mengalahkan Amerika dan juga
sekutunya di Vietnam Selatan. Richard Nixon telah melawat China dan
membuat satu hubungan diplomatik baru di dunia ini. Russia pula membuat
pembaharuan di atas konsep “glasnost (openness) and perestroika
(restructuring)” menarik keluar tentera dan kuasa politiknya di
Afganistan dan di negara-negara CIS yang lain.<br /><br />Malaysia
menandatangani perjanjian damai dengan Parti Komunis Malaya pada tahun
1989 iaitu Rundingan Damai Haadyai. Pemimpin-pemimpin Parti Komunis
Malaya boleh pulang ke tanah air jika mereka mahu, kecuali Cin Peng dan
abunya tidak dapat kebenaran pulang, tetapi yang lain-lain boleh pulang
atau diusahakan untuk pulang.<br /><br />Selepas peristiwa Demontrasi Baling
pada tahun 1974, aktivis jalanan dan juga penunjuk perasaan yang
membela tunjuk perasaan di Baling diburu di bawah ISA, puluhan pelajar
dan juga pensyarah ditahan di bawah ISA termasuk Anwar Ibrahim, Syen
Husin Ali, Kamaruzaman Yaakob dan ratusan para pelajar dikejar di bawah
buruan ISA. Aktivis pelajar berhaluan kiri iaitu Hishamudin Rais
melepaskan diri ke luar negara hasil daripada buruan ISA. Selepas
perjanjian damai pada tahun 1991, aktivis pelajar dan juga pemimpin
kesatuan pelajar serta pemimpin Kelab Sosialis Universiti Malaya pulang
ke tanah air, dan kemudiannya menjalankan aktiviti sosial dengan begitu
hebat sekali.<br /><br />Pada tahun ini, apabila timbul cerita Aishah yang
kononnya di rekrut oleh komunis dan menganut fahaman Mao Tze Tung
diberitakan ingin dibawa pulang ke Malaysia. Aktivis sosialis dan
menjadi buruan ISA iaitu Hishamudin Rais ke England, dan beritanya ke
England disiarkan oleh berbagai media di Malaysia, bahkan beliau
dikatakan bersama dengan pihak kedutaan Malaysia mencari Aishah dan
berusaha menemubual Aishah, dan diberi publisiti tentang aktiviti
Hishamudin Rais di London untuk membawa pulang Aishah ke Malaysia.<br /><br />Apa
yang hendak saya tekankan di sini, ialah komunis yang menjadi buruan di
tahun 50-an, 60-an, 70-an dan 80-an, sekarang boleh pulang, bahkan
dipelawa pulang ke tanah air. Ertinya sesuatu ideologi yang diperangi
itu bukanlah kekal, di mana ia hanyalah sementara. Apakah giliran
memerangi ideologi Syiah ini berpanjangan atau sementara? Kita ikutilah
perkembangan seterusnya.<br /><br />Oleh itu permusuhan kepada komunis,
sudah menjadi reda. Sekarang China telah muncul sebagai negara ekonomi,
bahkan dua ke tiga tahun lagi akan menjadi kuasa ekonomi nombor satu
dalam dunia mengatasi Amerika Syarikat dan sekaligus Eropah Barat.<br /><br />Perdagangan
dengan China sudah menjadi rebutan, bahkan setiap negara menunjukkan
peningkatan angka “billion dollar” dalam urusan berdagang dengan China.
Presiden China ialah seorang komunis telah datang ke Malaysia dan
disambut dengan hamparan permaidani merah. Begitulah juga Russia muncul
sebagai negara yang kuat dengan ekonomi, dengan hasil minyaknya yang
begitu tinggi menguasai pasaran Eropah sekarang ini. Dan dianggap satu
negara yang kukuh dalam bidang ekonomi dan ketenteraan.<br /><br />Maka
permusuhan kepada komunis, seolah-olah tidak ada lagi, walaupun hanya
ada sentimen di sudut sejarah, apabila saya cuba menimbulkan isu Mat
Indera pejuang kemerdekaan, telah dimarahi oleh pemerintah di atas
sentimen lama, bukan pembaharuan untuk membenci dan menentang komunis
seperti yang berlaku di tahun 50-an, 60-an atau 70-an dahulu.<br /><br />Pada
tahun 1979, berlaku Revolusi Islam di Iran. Revolusi ini dianggap
mengancam kuasa barat dan kuasa Amerika di Timur Tengah. Yang dijatuhkan
ialah kerajaan Shah yang disokong dan didokong oleh Amerika dan Israel.
Oleh sebab Iran ialah sebuah negara Islam, maka pengaruh revolusi itu
boleh tersebar ke mana-mana dunia Islam yang lain, untuk rakyat membuat
penentuan supaya mereka tidak dikuasai oleh Amerika dan British. Maka
untuk menyekat kemaraan itu isu Syiah ditimbulkan.<br /><br />Sebelum itu
rakyat Malaysia, khasnya ketika zaman saya di peringkat persekolahan
rendah, menengah dan dikampus, tidak tahu apa itu Syiah. Datuk Mahfuz
Omar apabila dituduh atau ditanya “Adakah beliau seorang Syiah..?”
Beliau mengatakan “Syiah itu sejenis kuih kah?” Ertinya rakyat Malaysia
umumnya tidak tahu apa dia itu Syiah? Apa dia itu mazhab yang lain?
Mereka hanya tahu hanyalah Islam, dan bukan Islam.<br /><br />Kita tahu hal
mengenai Iran ialah kerana ia mempunyai atau memiliki permaisuri yang
jelita, iaitu Farah Diba, yang popularnya seperti Lady Diana di England.
Kita tahu Iran kuat dalam pasukan bola sepak. Kita tahu juga Iran
selalu menang dalam pertandingan ratu cantik di peringkat Asia dan di
peringkat dunia. Selain daripada itu kita tidak tahu.<br /><br />Tetapi
digelombangkan isu Syiah selepas revolusi pada tahun 1979, kemudiannya
diikuti oleh peristiwa-peristiwa yang berlaku di Teluk, khasnya apabila
kemunculan Hizbullah untuk menghadapi Israel dan kancah politik di
Lubnan. Maka isu Syiah itu disemarakkan lagi.<br /><br />Berlaku pula
pertembungan di Syria, di mana munculnya kumpulan FSA yang disokong oleh
pemain utamanya iaitu Saudi, Qatar, dan negara-negara barat seperti
Amerika, Perancis, British dan sebagainya. Kebetulan Basyar al-Asad
telah dikatakan bermazhab Syiah Alawi yang kita pun tidak tahu soal-soal
mazhab di Syria itu. Maka isu Syiah menggantikan tempat komunis yang
telah reda beberapa tahun kebelakangan ini.<br /><br />Jikalau pertarungan
hal komunis itu menyebabkan jutaan dan ribuan rakyat di kedua-dua pihak
terkorban dan menjadi mangsa, kita tidak tahu hal isu Syiah ini pula,
iaitu golongan yang pro dan yang menentangnya apa pula yang akan
dihadapi oleh pemerintah dan juga rakyat. Saya yakin peristiwa ini tidak
berpanjangan seperti isu komunis.<br /><br />Iran berusaha untuk menjadikan
negaranya, salah satu negara nuklear, di mana hujahnya untuk tenaga,
untuk penyelidikan kesihatan pada masa sekarang dan pada masa yang akan
datang. Barat cuba untuk memboikot perdagangan dengan Iran, sehingga
rakyat Iran yang berada di luar, yang berada di atas sekatan yang mana
mereka tidak boleh membuka akaun di mana-mana bank. Mereka hadapi
tekanan yang begitu dahsyat. Inflasi di dalam negara mereka naik seperti
roket. Tetapi kegigihan rakyatnya, akhirnya mereka berjaya mencapai
pengkayaan nuklear melebihi 20 peratus.<br /><br />Melebihi tahap 20
peratus, adalah satu tahap pada bila-bila masa boleh pergi kepada
membuat bom nuklear dan sebagainya. Yang sukar ialah daripada 5 peratus
sehingga kepada 20 peratus. Itulah yang diberitahu oleh IEAE kepada
masyarakat dunia.<br /><br />Mahu atau tidak mahu, Iran telah menjadi sebuah
negara nuklear. Pada dua minggu yang lalu, satu kejutan telah berlaku
di mana negara 5+1 bersetuju membuat perdamaian. Secara ringkasnya
dengan Iran, dan mengizinkan Iran meneruskan pengkayaan uraniumnya
(nuklear) tetapi tidaklah sampai kepada peringkat untuk menghasilkan bom
nuklear.<br /><br />Oleh itu, dalam masa 5 bulan lagi, jikalau perundingan
ini berterusan maka “sanctions” atau sekatan ekonomi, teknologi,
peralatan kepada Iran akan berkurangan ataupun akan beransur-ansur
pulih. Maka dianggarkan Iran akan muncul sebagai negara yang kuat dengan
ekonomi, kerana kekuatan minyak dan teknologinya yang ada sekarang ini.
Dan dengan Iran sekarang ini menjadi pemain utama di rantau Timur
Tengah sama ada di Iraq, di Syria, di Lebnon dan di Afganistan, sudah
tentunya ia akan muncul sebagai satu kuasa baru di Timur Tengah.<br /><br />Gendang
anti Syiah pada waktu itu akan berkurangan, Amerika dan sekutu baratnya
akan mengubah haluan serangan entah ke mana pula. Ideologi “Awang Liku”
mana pula akan menjadi ancaman pada waktu itu.<br /><br />Oleh sebab
itulah, saya berkeyakinan penuh isu Syiah yang dimainkan termasuk saya
sendiri yang menjadi mangsa dalam isu ini. Bagi pandangan peribadi saya,
ini hanyalah isu sementara, dan akan lebih cepat padam daripada isu
komunis yang berlarutan secara hebatnya iaitu jikalau di Malaya ini
semenjak dari tahun 1948 di zaman “emergency” sehinggalah perjanjian
damai pada tahun 1989, yang memakan masa yang panjang iaitu hampir 41
tahun. Tetapi isu Syiah ini akan berkurangan tidak lama lagi, apabila
negara barat mula bersahabat semula dengan Iran. Dan propaganda anti
Syiah ini akan berkurangan.<br /><br />Walau bagaimanapun dalam setiap
pertarungan ideologi ada yang akan menjadi mangsa, sama ada tuduhan itu
palsu, rekaan dan sebagainya untuk memperkuatkan sesebuah kerajaan itu,
atau sebuah parti politik itu, demi menunjukkan yang mereka “concern”
terhadap keselamatan negara, ataupun sebagai propaganda untuk mereka
meneruskan kuasa di suatu tempat. Pertarungan ideologi ini akan
berterusan.<br /><br />Walau bagaimanapun kita akan konsep keadilan sejagat,
ada jenayah universal yang tetap dianggap jenayah, seperti membunuh
orang tanpa sebab, memukul isteri, memukul anak, memukul menantu,
memukul bakal menantu yang tak jadi, menggunakan kuasa untuk melindungi
kesalahan, rasuah, mencuri wang rakyat, menindas rakyat, memakan riba.
Semuanya itu adalah merupakan kesalahan-kesalahan walau apapun ideologi,
ia akan tetap dianggap satu jenayah.<br /><br />Begitulah juga mereka yang
menolong anak yatim, membantu orang miskin, melawan rasuah, menentang
penindasan, menjaga dan kasihan kepada binatang dan tumbuh-tumbuhan,
alam sekitar, menggalakkan kehijauan, mewujudkan keharmonian antara
kaum, memperjuangkan kebenaran sejagat, ideologi apa yang berkuasa,
kumpulan apa yang naik, diterima umum sebagai perkara yang baik, yang
perlu ada.<br /><br />Oleh itu perjuangan hak dan batil akan berterusan “Ila
Yaumil Qiamah…” tidak kira samada ideologi apa, keadaan apa yang
berlaku di suatu tempat atau di sesuatu negara.<br /><br />Saya berpegang di
atas konsep perjuangan berdasarkan Islam, iaitu menegakkan yang ma’aruf
dan menentang yang mungkar, dan beriman kepada ALLAH dan berusaha untuk
mewujudkan keharmonian semua kaum di atas sifat apa yang diberitahu
oleh kitab suci Al-Quran.<br /><br />“Wama Arsalnaka ‘illa Rahmatal Lil Aalamin..” ,<br /><br /><i>“…Dan tidaklah Kami utuskan Engkau Muhammad kecuali untuk membawa kesejahteraan kepada sekelian alam…”.</i> Itulah pandangan saya untuk kali ini.</span></span></span> </span></span><br />
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<i>Sumber:</i> <a href="http://bm.harakahdaily.net/index.php/kesatuan-fikrah/24176-dulu-komunis-sekarang-syiah-akan-datang"><span style="font-weight: bold;">HarakahDaily</span></a></span>Ustaz Ahmad Awanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06200168252646821612noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1775107434275294190.post-70391383737699339142013-12-08T12:42:00.004+08:002013-12-08T12:46:17.020+08:00Promote unity among Muslims – Universal Justice Network<div style="text-align: justify;">
We regret the suggestion by the Umno deputy president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to amend the Federal Constitution to recognise that only the teachings of Ahli Sunnah Wal Jamaah is the faith of Muslims in Malaysia. We appeal to him to reconsider it because it has serious implications for Muslim unity and Malaysia’s international commitments.</div>
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We believe the suggestion is in response to the anti-Shia campaign currently being carried out by certain groups influenced and supported by extremist Salafi scholars.</div>
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Islam is one and there is no Sunni Islam or Shia Islam. There are different schools of jurisprudence (mazhab) and a Muslim is free to follow any of these mazhab. Any attempt to exclude a mazhab would only lead to disunity and conflict among Muslims and undermine any efforts to unite the ummah to face the daunting challenges coming from hegemonic powers, dictators and autocratic rulers.</div>
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In July 2005, based on the fatwas issued by 24 of the most senior Islamic religious scholars, including Sunni ulama, Shaykh Al-Azhar Dr Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, Shaykh Dr Yusuf Abdullah Al-Qaradawi, Pakistan Mufti Muhammad Taqi Uthmani, and Shia ulama Grand Ayatollah Al-Sayyid Ali Khameni and Grand Ayatollah Al-Sayyid Ali AL-Sistani, King Abdullah II of Jordan convened an international Islamic conference of 200 of the world's leading Islamic scholars from 50 countries and they issued the following ruling:</div>
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• Whosoever is an adherent to one of the four Sunni schools (Mathahib) of Islamic jurisprudence (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali), the two Shia schools of Islamic jurisprudence (Ja'fari and Zaydi), the Ibadi school of Islamic jurisprudence and the Thahiri school of Islamic jurisprudence, is a Muslim. Declaring that person an apostate is impossible and impermissible.</div>
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• There exists more in common between the various schools of Islamic jurisprudence than there are differences between them. The adherents to the eight schools of Islamic jurisprudence are in agreement with regard to the basic principles of Islam.</div>
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• All believe in Allah (God), Glorified and Exalted be He, the One and the Unique; that the Noble Quran is the Revealed Word of God preserved and protected by God, Exalted be He, from any change or aberration; and that our master Muhammad, may blessings and peace be upon him, is a Prophet and Messenger unto all mankind.</div>
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• All are in agreement about the five pillars of Islam: the two testaments of faith (shahadatayn); the ritual prayer (salat); almsgiving (zakat); fasting in the month of Ramadan (saivni) and the haj to the sacred house of God (in Mecca).</div>
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All are also in agreement about the foundations of belief: belief in Allah (God), His angels, His scriptures, His messengers, and on the Day of Judgment, in divine providence in good and in evil.</div>
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• Disagreements between the ulama (scholars) of the eight schools of Islamic jurisprudence are only with respect to the ancillary branches of religion (furu) and some fundamentals (usul) [of the religion of Islam]. Disagreement with respect to the ancillary branches of religion (furu) is a mercy. Long ago, it was said that variance in opinion among the ulama "is a mercy".</div>
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The ruling was unanimously adopted at the Organisation of the Islamic Cooperation summit in Mecca in December 2005, with Malaysia participating, and by six other international Islamic scholarly assemblies, culminating with Resolution 152 of the International Islamic Fiqh Academy of Jeddah in July 2006.</div>
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In total, more than 500 leading Muslim scholars and leaders worldwide endorsed the ruling and the Amman message. Endorsers from Malaysia included our former prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Prof Dr Kamal Hasan and Umno Youth leader Khairy Jamaluddin and Dato Seri Dr Shahidan Kassim.</div>
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Resolution 152 of the International Islamic Fiqh Academy, Islam and the One Ummah, and the Schools of Islamic Jurisprudence, calls for casting aside disagreements between Muslims, mutual respect for each other, strengthening the ties of brotherhood, and not to permit discord and outside interference.</div>
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It advocates teaching the fiqh pertaining to Islamic unity to university and secondary school students.</div>
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It recommends that relevant authorities in Islamic countries take steps to prevent the printing, distribution and circulation of publications that deepen division in the ummah.</div>
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Resolution 152 warns against blaming any of the eight schools of Islamic jurisprudence for the mistaken actions of extremists, such as killing of innocents, dishonouring the honourable and seizure of property.</div>
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There are extremist elements among both Shias and Sunnis who, in some countries, resort to violence, sometimes even inside mosques.</div>
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Such elements must be exposed and isolated as they breed disunity among Muslims and defame Islam. Dialogue between Shias and Sunnis must be promoted and encouraged, and differences discussed in an environment of brotherhood.</div>
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Sectarian conflicts among Muslims are being instigated by hegemonic powers who want to control the resources in Muslim states. Divide and rule has been their policy since World War 1. Certain despotic Arab rulers and dictators who fear an Islamic Awakening are being used as tools to divide Muslims along sectarian lines.</div>
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We appeal to the Government to implement the Amman message and the recommendations of the International Islamic Fiqh Academy to promote unity among Muslims. – Universal Justice Network (UJN), December 7, 2013.</div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Taken from : <a href="http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/print/sideviews/promote-unity-among-muslims-universal-justice-network">http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/print/sideviews/promote-unity-among-muslims-universal-justice-network</a></span></i></div>
Ustaz Ahmad Awanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06200168252646821612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1775107434275294190.post-88884744883655274892013-12-08T12:41:00.003+08:002013-12-08T12:55:51.713+08:00Pupuk perpaduan sesama Islam – SM Mohamed Idris<div style="text-align: justify;">
Kami dukacita di atas cadangan oleh Timbalan Presiden Umno Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin yang mahu meminda Perlembagaan Persekutuan untuk menjamin ajaran Ahli Sunnah Wal Jamaah sebagai kepercayaan umat Islam di Malaysia dan merayu supaya mempertimbangkan semula perkara itu kerana ia mempunyai implikasi serius ke atas perpaduan umat Islam dan komitmen antarabangsa Malaysia.</div>
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Kami percaya cadangan yang dibuat itu adalah respons kepada kempen anti Syiah pada masa ini yang sedang dijalankan oleh kumpulan tertentu yang dipengaruhi dan disokong oleh ulama Salafi yang bersikap melampau.</div>
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Islam itu satu dan tiada Islam Sunni atau Islam Syiah. Terdapat perbezaan mazhab dan orang Islam bebas untuk mengikuti mana-mana mazhab. Sebarang cubaan untuk menafikan hak sesuatu mazhab akan hanya membawa kepada perpecahan dan konflik dalam kalangan umat Islam dan melemahkan usaha yang sedang diusahakan untuk menyatupadukan umat Islam bagi menghadapi cabaran dari kuasa hegemoni, diktator dan pemerintah autokratik.</div>
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Pada Julai 2005, berdasarkan fatwa yang dikeluarkan oleh 24 ulama paling kanan dalam agama Islam termasuk Ulama Sunni, Sheikh Al Azhar Dr Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, Sheikh Dr. Yusuf Abdullah Al-Qaradawi, Mufti Pakistan Muhammad Taqi Uthmani dan Ulama Syiah Ayatollah Al-Sayyid Ali Khameni dan Ayatollah Al-Sayyid Ali Al-Sistani, Raja Abdullah II dari Jordan telah menganjurkan satu persidangan Islam antarabangsa yang dihadiri oleh 200 sarjana Islam terkemuka dunia dari 50 negara yang telah menerima fatwa tersebut, iaitu:</div>
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• Sesiapa sahaja yang patuh kepada salah satu daripada empat Usuluddin Islam mazhab Sunni (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafei dan Hanbali), dua Usuluddin Islam mazhab Syiah (Ja’fari dan Zaydi), Usuluddin Islam mazhab Ibadi dan Usuluddin Islam mazhab Thahiri adalah seorang Islam. Mengisytiharkan seseorang itu sebagai murtad adalah mustahil dan tidak dibenarkan.</div>
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• Terdapat lebih banyak persamaan antara pelbagai mazhab Usuluddin Islam berbanding dengan perbezaan antara mereka. Pengikut lapan mazhab Usuluddin Islam ini bersepakat dalam perkara prinsip asas Islam.</div>
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• Semua percayakan Allah (Tuhan), dimuliakan dan ditinggikan, esa dan unik; al-Quran itu suci dan wahyu yang dipelihara dan dilindungi oleh Allah, dimuliakan serta tiada sebarang perubahan dan pindaan; dan Muhammad SAW adalah Rasul dan Nabi untuk semua manusia.</div>
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• Semua bersetuju mengenai lima rukun Islam: mengucap dua kalimah syahadah; solat; mengeluarkan zakat; berpuasa di bulan Ramadan dan menunaikan haji ke Mekah. Semua bersepakat mengenai rukun Iman: percaya kepada Allah, Malaikat, Al-Quran, Rasul, Hari Kiamat dan qada dan qadar.</div>
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• Ketidaksepakatan antara ulama antara lapan mazhab Usuluddin Islam itu hanya pada cabang agama (furu) dan beberapa asas (usul) [agama Islam]. Ketidaksepakatan tentang cabang agama (furu) adalah satu rahmat. Lama dahulu dikatakan bahawa kepelbagaian pendapat dalam kalangan ulama adalah satu rahmat.</div>
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Fatwa itu diterima dengan sebulat suara di sidang kemuncak Pertubuhan Kerjasama Islam di Mekah pada Disember 2005 dengan penyertaan Malaysia. Enam perhimpunan ulama Islam antarabangsa lain juga menerima fatwa itu, kemuncaknya dengan Resolusi 152 daripada Akademi Fekah Islam Antarabangsa yang berpusat di Jeddah pada Julai 2006.</div>
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Jumlahnya, lebih 500 ulama Islam terkemuka, cendekiawan dan pemimpin politik dari seluruh dunia memperakui fatwa itu dan Mesej Amman. Mereka yang mengendors fatwa itu dari Malaysia termasuklah bekas Perdana Menteri Dr. Dato’Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Ketua Pembangkang Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Prof Dr. Kamal Hasan dan Ketua Pemuda Umno Khairy Jamaluddin dan Dato Seri Dr. Shahidan Kassim [Kunjungi laman sesawang rasmi Mesej Amman (Amman Message) untuk senarai lengkap mereka yang menerima fatwa itu].</div>
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Resolusi 152 Akademi Fekah Islam Antarabangsa, Islam dan Satu Ummah, dan mazhab Usuluddin Islam, menyeru supaya diketepikan ketidaksepakatan antara orang Islam, menghormati antara satu sama lain, menguatkan hubungan persaudaraan dan tidak membenarkan perpecahan dan campurtangan luar. Ia menasihatkan pengajaran fekah berkaitan perpaduan Islam kepada pelajar sekolah menengah dan universiti. Ia menyarankan pihak berkuasa berkaitan di negara Islam mengambil langkah untuk mencegah percetakan, penyebaran dan pengedaran penerbitan yang menambahkan lagi perpecahan ummah.</div>
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Resolusi 152 juga menekankan jangan menyalahkan mana-mana lapan mazhab Usuluddin Islam kerana tindakan yang salah daripada pelampau seperti membunuh mereka yang tidak bersalah, menjatuhkan maruah dan merampas harta mereka. Terdapat elemen pelampau dalam kalangan Syiah dan Sunni yang di beberapa negara menggunakan kekerasan, malah kadangkala di dalam masjid sendiri.</div>
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Elemen seperti ini perlu didedahkan dan diasingkan kerana ia menyemai perpecahan dalam kalangan umat Islam dan memperburukkan imej Islam. Dialog antara Syiah dan Sunni mestilah digalakkan dan disuburkan, dan sebarang perbincangan mengenai perbezaan mestilah dibincangkan dalam suasana persaudaraan.</div>
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Kita perlu menyedari bahawa konflik mazhab sebenarnya dicetuskan oleh kuasa hegemoni yang mahu mengawal sumber di negara Islam. Pecah dan perintah telah menjadi dasar mereka sejak Perang Dunia Pertama. Sesetengah pemerintah dan diktaktor Arab yang bersikap kuku besi yang takutkan kebangkitan Islam digunakan sebagai alat untuk memecahkan umat Islam mengikut garis mazhab.</div>
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Kami merayu kepada kerajaan supaya melaksanakan Mesej Amman dan cadangan Akademi Fekah Islam Antarabangsa supaya menggalakkan perpaduan di kalangan umat Islam. – 7 Disember, 2013.</div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Taken from :<a href="http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/rencana/article/pupuk-perpaduan-sesama-islam-sm-mohamed-idris">http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/rencana/article/pupuk-perpaduan-sesama-islam-sm-mohamed-idris</a></span></i></div>
Ustaz Ahmad Awanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06200168252646821612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1775107434275294190.post-9244173701778467762013-12-08T12:39:00.003+08:002013-12-08T12:52:35.255+08:00Putrajaya should reconsider Allah ruling as it goes against the Quran, says US scholar<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/assets/uploads/resizer/imam_shamsi_GLOBAL_PEACE_CONVENTION_061213_TMINAZIRSUFARI_009_540_454_100.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img border="0" height="269" src="http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/assets/uploads/resizer/imam_shamsi_GLOBAL_PEACE_CONVENTION_061213_TMINAZIRSUFARI_009_540_454_100.jpg" width="320" /></span></i></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: start;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Imam Shamsi Ali says the Allah ruling has reduced the greatness of God. - The Malaysian Insider pic by Nazir Sufari, December 7, 2013.</span></i></span></td></tr>
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A well-known New York-based Muslim scholar and community leader has urged Putrajaya to seriously look into the ruling prohibiting Christians from using the word Allah, saying that it is against the teachings of the Quran.</div>
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Imam Shamsi Ali told The Malaysian Insider that as a Muslim, he could not accept the Court of Appeal ruling as it "reduced the greatness of God".</div>
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"I cannot accept it because for me, it is a matter of faith.</div>
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"It (the ruling) is reducing the authority of God as the powerful, the creator, the God of All, to being the God of only 1.5 billion people in the world," said Shamsi, adding that the ruling was unfortunate as it had the tendency of limiting God to Muslims.</div>
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He was speaking to The Malaysian Insider on the sidelines of the 2013 Global Peace Convention.</div>
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Some 500 participants from 40 nations are attending the four-day convention titled, "Unity in Diversity: Building Social Cohesion for Sustainable Peace through Universal Aspirations, Principles and Values".</div>
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The topics of the convention include "Global ethic for inclusive and moderate societies", "How young people today shape the world tomorrow" and "How globalisation impacts the institution of family".</div>
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Commenting further, Shamsi said the first chapter of the Quran does not say the Lord of the Muslims, or the King of Muslims, it says the Lord of the Universe and the King of Human Beings.</div>
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"So when the government limits god to God of Muslims, basically that contradicts the teaching of the Quran, which is universal," he explained.</div>
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Shamsi said that in a previous interview with FoxNews where the topic was over the use of the word Allah by Christians, he had advocated that God can be called by any name as long as it was the proper name to refer to the Almighty God.</div>
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He added that during his time living in other Muslim countries, he had never come across attempts by Muslims to limit the use of the word Allah by other religions.</div>
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Shamsi also pointed out that the Allah issue in Malaysia was not merely a legal question, but one that was related to faith.</div>
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The Muslim scholar was commenting on the Court of Appeal ruling on October 14 where a three-member bench led by Datuk Seri Mohamed Apandi Ali allowed Putrajaya's appeal on the banning of the word from the Catholic weekly, Herald, as there was a 1986 directive by the Home Ministry which prohibited non-Muslim publications from using four words – Allah, Kaabah, Solat and Baitullah.</div>
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Apandi, in his judgment, said the prohibition was to protect the sanctity of Islam and prevent confusion among Muslims.</div>
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The decision sparked an outcry among Christians and other non-Muslims in the peninsula, Sabah and Sarawak.</div>
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On Thursday, Putrajaya and seven Muslim organisations said they are opposing the Catholic Church's leave application to appeal against the Court of Appeal ruling.</div>
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The eight respondents maintained that the Court of Appeal ruling was correct and that it was not worthwhile for the Federal Court to determine the question of law outlined by the church. - December 7, 2013.</div>
<br /><br /><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Taken from : <a href="http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/putrajaya-should-reconsider-allah-ruling-as-it-goes-against-the-quran-says">http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/putrajaya-should-reconsider-allah-ruling-as-it-goes-against-the-quran-says</a></span></i>Ustaz Ahmad Awanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06200168252646821612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1775107434275294190.post-35526177442147290812013-10-27T17:26:00.004+08:002013-10-27T17:26:48.459+08:00How The Sunni-Shia Schism Is Dividing The World<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The Muslim world’s historic – and deeply tragic – chasm between Sunni and Shia Islam is having worldwide repercussions. Syria’s civil war, America’s craven alliance with the Sunni Gulf autocracies, and Sunni (as well as Israeli) suspicions of Shia Iran are affecting even the work of the United Nations.</div>
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Saudi Arabia’s petulant refusal last week to take its place among non-voting members of the Security Council, an unprecedented step by any UN member, was intended to express the dictatorial monarchy’s displeasure with Washington’s refusal to bomb Syria after the use of chemical weapons in Damascus – but it also represented Saudi fears that Barack Obama might respond to Iranian overtures for better relations with the West.</div>
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The Saudi head of intelligence, Prince Bandar bin Sultan – a true buddy of President George W Bush during his 22 years as ambassador in Washington – has now rattled his tin drum to warn the Americans that Saudi Arabia will make a “major shift” in its relations with the US, not just because of its failure to attack Syria but for its inability to produce a fair Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement.</div>
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What this “major shift” might be – save for the usual Saudi hot air about its independence from US foreign policy – was a secret that the prince kept to himself.</div>
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Israel, of course, never loses an opportunity to publicise – quite accurately – how closely many of its Middle East policies now coincide with those of the wealthy potentates of the Arab Gulf. </div>
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Hatred of the Shia/Alawite Syrian regime, an unquenchable suspicion of Shia Iran’s nuclear plans and a general fear of Shia expansion is turning the unelected Sunni Arab monarchies into proxy allies of the Israeli state they have often sworn to destroy. Hardly, one imagines, the kind of notion that Prince Bandar wishes to publicise.</div>
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Furthermore, America’s latest contribution to Middle East “peace” could be the sale of $10.8bn worth of missiles and arms to Sunni Saudi Arabia and the equally Sunni United Arab Emirates, including GBU-39 bombs – the weapons cutely called “bunker-busters” – which they could use against Shia Iran. Israel, of course, possesses the very same armaments.</div>
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Whether the hapless Mr Kerry – whose risible promise of an “unbelievably small” attack on Syria made him the laughing stock of the Middle East – understands the degree to which he is committing his country to the Sunni side in Islam’s oldest conflict is the subject of much debate in the Arab world. His response to the Saudi refusal to take its place in the UN Security Council has been almost as weird.</div>
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After lunch on Monday at the Paris home of the Saudi Foreign Minister, Saud al-Faisal, Kerry – via his usual anonymous officials – said that he valued the autocracy’s leadership in the region, shared Riyadh’s desire to de-nuclearise Iran and to bring an end to the Syrian war. But Kerry’s insistence that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his regime must abandon power means that a Sunni government would take over Syria; and his wish to disarm Shia Iran – however notional its nuclear threat may be – would ensure that Sunni military power would dominate the Middle East from the Afghan border to the Mediterranean.</div>
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Few realise that Yemen constitutes another of the Saudi-Iranian battlegrounds in the region.</div>
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Saudi enthusiasm for Salafist groups in Yemen – including the Islah party, which is allegedly funded by Qatar, though it denies receiving any external support – is one reason why the post-Saleh regime in Sanaa has been supporting the Zaidi Shia Houthi “rebels” whose home provinces of Sa’adah, al Jawf and Hajja border Saudi Arabia. The Houthis are – according to the Sunni Saudis – supported by Iran.</div>
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The minority Sunni monarchy in Bahrain – supported by the Saudis and of course by the compliant governments of the US, Britain, et al – is likewise accusing Shia Iran of colluding with the island’s majority Shias. Oddly, Prince Bandar, in his comments, claimed that Barack Obama had failed to support Saudi policy in Bahrain – which involved sending its own troops into the island to help repress Shia demonstrators in 2011 – when in fact America’s silence over the regime’s paramilitary violence was the nearest Washington could go in offering its backing to the Sunni minority and his Royal Highness the King of Bahrain.</div>
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All in all, then, a mighty Western love affair with Sunni Islam – a love that very definitely cannot speak its name in an Arab Gulf world in which “democracy”, “moderation”, “partnership” and outright dictatorship are interchangeable – which neither Washington nor London nor Paris (nor indeed Moscow or Beijing) will acknowledge. But, needless to say, there are a few irritating – and incongruous – ripples in this mutual passion.</div>
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The Saudis, for example, blame Obama for allowing Egypt’s decadent Hosni Mubarak to be overthrown. They blame the Americans for supporting the elected Muslim Brother Mohamed Morsi as president – elections not being terribly popular in the Gulf – and the Saudis are now throwing cash at Egypt’s new military regime. Assad in Damascus also offered his congratulations to the Egyptian military. Was the Egyptian army not, after all – like Assad himself – trying to prevent religious extremists from taking power?</div>
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Fair enough – providing we remember that the Saudis are really supporting the Egyptian Salafists who cynically gave their loyalty to the Egyptian military, and that Saudi-financed Salafists are among the fiercest opponents of Assad.</div>
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Thankfully for Kerry and his European mates, the absence of any institutional memory in the State Department, Foreign Office or Quai d’Orsay means that no one need remember that 15 of the 19 mass-killers of 9/11 were also Salafists and – let us above all, please God, forget this – were all Sunni citizens of Saudi Arabia.</div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Taken From : <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/how-the-sunnishia-schism-is-dividing-the-world-8899780.html">http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/how-the-sunnishia-schism-is-dividing-the-world-8899780.html</a></span></i></div>
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Ustaz Ahmad Awanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06200168252646821612noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1775107434275294190.post-62997944716389731322013-10-18T20:36:00.001+08:002013-10-18T20:36:16.897+08:00Journey of a lifetime ends successfully<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>HAJ MABROOR: After arriving in Makkah
from Mina on Thursday, pilgrims circumambulate the Kaaba marking the
end of Haj. (AN photo by Khidr Al-Zahrani)</i></span></div>
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The once-in-a-lifetime journey of faith, endurance and determination for
hundreds of thousands of Muslims from nearly 200 countries came to a
successful end on Thursday.</div>
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Relief was writ large on the faces of pilgrims, many in the autumn of
their lives as was evident from the deep furrows on their brows. Here at
Mina, they were the personification of sheer determination.<br />
Many pilgrims woke up early on Thursday and straight after sunrise
began throwing seven pebbles at each of the three huge concrete
structures representing the devil.</div>
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Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal described this year’s Haj as an overwhelming success.<br />
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“All government institutions, security forces, volunteers, pilgrim
establishments and men on the ground worked as one team to ensure the
success of this year’s Haj,” he said. “You can call this a turning
point,” he said, and praised Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King
Abdullah, Crown Prince Salman and Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin
Naif.<br /> </div>
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“All the rituals were carried out in a calm atmosphere and free of any
political demonstrations, proving that Islam is a religion of peace,
civilization and progress,” he said.<br />
Outside the press conference venue, pilgrims echoed his words.</div>
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“With God’s help and the Saudi government’s excellent arrangements, we
could complete all the rituals,” said 69-year-old Athar Mohiuddin, from
Pakistan’s Hyderabad. “The rituals were not really easy for me,
especially because I had to push my wife in a wheelchair,” he said. “We
know Haj is hardship, but now that we have done it we beseech Allah to
accept it.”</div>
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Mohiuddin and his wife performed the stoning ritual at 2 p.m. on
Thursday before taking the bus out of Mina. “We are now heading to
Makkah to our temporary residence before heading to Pakistan next week,”
he said. “We want to rest now.”</div>
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Other pilgrims, after living in spartan conditions for the past week,
traveled to Jeddah to catch flights home or to Madinah. “This is a
miracle,” gushed Mohammed Quraishi, from Agra, India. During Haj
orientation camps in India, Quraishi was told that this year’s
pilgrimage was going to be hard because of the paucity of space at the
holy sites.</div>
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“We were mentally prepared,” he said. “However, everything went so smoothly, we could hardly have imagined it,” he said.</div>
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Quraishi’s acquaintance, Muhammad Farooq, nodded in affirmation. “Yes,
we are very happy at having completed the Haj,” said Farooq. “We come
from the city of Taj Mahal, but the real crown is here in this holy
Kingdom,” he said, playing on the Urdu word “Taj” which means crown.</div>
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Zafarullah Khan Faridi from Kabul was delighted at the completion of
the Haj. Flashing an infectious smile, he was more than willing to talk
to Arab News about his experience. “It was a great feeling to be part of
this vast multitude of pilgrims,” he said. “All the depression that I
found in my home country was washed away the moment I cast my eyes on
the Holy Kaaba. I don’t know what I asked of Allah. He knows what I need
and what's in my heart.”</div>
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On the outskirts of Mina, bus drivers shouted, “Haram! Haram!” the
Arabic name for the Grand Mosque as pilgrims piled aboard. Faridi
boarded one of them. “Haj Mabrook to all,” he said waving a final
goodbye.</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><br /><br />MINA: SIRAJ WAHAB <br /><br />Published — Friday 18 October 2013<br /><br /> Taken from : arabnews.com/news/468085 </i></span><div style="text-align: justify;">
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Ustaz Ahmad Awanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06200168252646821612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1775107434275294190.post-65660885224078772472013-10-18T20:27:00.003+08:002013-10-18T20:27:54.744+08:00The Revolution Egypt Needs<div itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Pasadena, California — When I was a boy in Desuq, Egypt, a city on the
Rosetta branch of the Nile, about 50 miles east of Alexandria, my family
lived steps away from the local landmark, a mosque named for a
13th-century Sufi sheik. Five times a day, we would hear the call to
prayer. Our imam encouraged us to study, telling my friends and me,
again and again, of the message revealed by the Prophet Muhammad: “iqra”
— read! Education was in the fabric of our culture and religion. </div>
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I left Egypt in 1969 for graduate school at the University of
Pennsylvania. I have been on the faculty at Caltech for 37 years and
carried dual citizenship for 31. But my commitment to the country of my
birth never wavered. Political tumult — two uprisings, and the overthrow
of two regimes, in the space of two years — has left Egypt in deep
political uncertainty. But what’s been lost in the deadly machinations
among both the secular liberals and political Islamists is what touched
off the revolution: the aspirations of Egypt’s youth. </div>
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Like many Arab societies, Egypt is young. The activists who filled
Tahrir Square in 2011 demanded liberty and social justice, valid ends in
themselves, but their ultimate goal, I believe, was social and economic
change — educational opportunities, leading to sound jobs and a decent
life — necessary to flourish in the modern world. As the first Egyptian,
and Arab, to be awarded a Nobel Prize in science, and a former special
envoy sent by the Obama administration to promote science in the Middle
East, this is my foremost concern. </div>
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Westerners often forget Egypt’s long history of educational
accomplishment. Al Azhar University, a center of Islamic learning,
predates Oxford and Cambridge by centuries. Cairo University, founded in
1908, has been a center of enlightenment for the whole Arab world.
Intellectuals pioneered Egypt’s first democratic elections in the 1920s
through the 1950s, under the monarchy that succeeded British rule. This
period of modernization, into which I was born, included the
establishment of scientific institutions and the emergence of modern
industries like banking, news media, textiles and motion pictures. </div>
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I grew up during the time of Gamal Abdel Nasser, who participated in the
1952 revolt that overthrew the monarchy and led the country until his
death in 1970. His was a state deficient in democracy, but not in
optimism. Science, engineering and technology were among the top-ranked
disciplines in the country’s universities, which attracted the best
students and scholars from the Arab world. Huge infrastructure projects,
like the high dam at Aswan and the nuclear reactor in Inchass, required
skilled engineers, which Egypt was able to provide. As an instructor at
Alexandria University, I did research that was published in
international journals. Although I left to pursue a doctorate in the
United States, it was not for want of a good life. </div>
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But in the past 30 years, roughly since the assassination of Anwar
el-Sadat, Nasser’s successor, the country deteriorated. During the rule
of President Hosni Mubarak, attention to schools and infrastructure gave
way to a focus on media and security, mega resorts and vanity projects,
even as a growing population produced intense — and unfulfilled —
demands for education. </div>
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It gives me no pride to note that in science and technology, Egypt, and
the entire Arab world, have made insignificant contributions. A part of
the world that pioneered science and mathematics during Europe’s dark
ages is now lost in a dark age of illiteracy and knowledge deficiency.
With the exception of Israel, the region’s scientific output is modest
at best. Turkey and Iran have made strides in technology; Egypt under
Mubarak, in contrast, depended on revenues from the Suez Canal, tourism,
gas and oil, with little contribution from high-tech industries. </div>
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After Mubarak was overthrown, Essam Sharaf, who was prime minister for
less than a year, called on me to establish what the government named
the Zewail City of Science and Technology, an educational and research
project I had proposed to Mubarak and a number of prime ministers for
nearly 15 years, without success. With immense public support, we raised
money to create the project on more than 100 acres on the outskirts of
Cairo. The leaders governing Egypt since the latest uprising, in June,
have continued to support it. Essam Heggy, a planetary scientist at the
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and an adviser to the interim president,
Adly Mansour, recently said that “education and science must be our
national priority.” </div>
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Research in biomedicine, solar energy, nanotechnology and other fields
is under way. Last summer, some 6,000 applicants applied for spots at
the university. I continue to support the project and to lead its board
of trustees, which includes six Nobel laureates, but violence must end
for the project to succeed. And high unemployment among young people,
who represent nearly one-third of Egypt’s population of 90 million, all
but guarantees instability. </div>
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Egypt is strategically vital for the United States, because of the Suez
Canal, its peace treaty with Israel and its cooperation with the
American military and intelligence agencies. But most of the discussion
about aid has focused on political leverage. America should instead
think of aid in new, apolitical ways. The U.S. gives about $1.5 billion a
year to Egypt and $3 billion to Israel; the former goes mainly for
military equipment, while the latter is more of a partnership that
includes not just military but also scientific and industrial
cooperation. </div>
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I call on Egypt’s leaders, of whatever religious or political
persuasion, to insulate education and science from their feuds. I also
call on great powers like the U.S. to support the development of human
capital. The aid America gave Japan, South Korea and Taiwan after World
War II, for example, enabled them to become economically vital. </div>
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I remain optimistic about Egypt, whose people will no longer settle for
the status quo of the past half-century. The question, one I cannot
answer as a scientist, is what will replace it, and how long it will
take. Egyptians are known for their patience, which derives, perhaps,
from the eternity of the Nile. But their patience has run thin, and
their aspirations are unmet. Any group hoping to authentically represent
the hopes of the Egyptian people must make educational attainment and
economic growth its priority. </div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">By AHMED ZEWAIL <br />Published: October 13, 2013 </span></i><br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Taken from : http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/14/opinion/The-revolution-Egypt-needs.html?emc=edit_tnt_20131013&tntemail0=y&_r=1& </span></i>Ustaz Ahmad Awanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06200168252646821612noreply@blogger.com0