Rilek1Corner

Tag: Egypt

  • Mufti Mesir Gesa Agar Cari Huraian Yang Adil Dan Elak Gunakan Keganasan

    Mufti Mesir Gesa Agar Cari Huraian Yang Adil Dan Elak Gunakan Keganasan

    Muslim yang berasa sedih dan terguris akibat penghinaan ke atas Nabi Muhammad saw menyusuli penerbitan karikatur di majalah Charlie Hebdo, diajak mencari huraian yang adil berdasarkan perundangan negara dan mengelak daripada menggunakan keganasan.

    Reaksi terbaik bagi umat Islam menangani kejadian sedemikian ialah mencontohi amalan Nabi Muhammad yang membalas setiap keburukan dengan sifat kebaikan.

    Demikian pesanan Mufti Besar Mesir Sheikh Dr Shawki Allam di Seminar Asatizah yang berlangsung di Hab Islam di Braddell Road semalam.

    Seminar anjuran Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura (Muis) yang dihadiri sekitar 200 peserta itu membawa tajuk Penguasa Agama dan Pembentukan Sebuah Masyarakat Harmoni dalam Dunia Majmuk.

    Antara yang hadir di acara itu ialah Ketua Eksekutif Muis, Haji Abdul Razak Hassan Maricar dan Mufti Dr Mohamed Fatris Bakaram.

    Di seminar itu, Sheikh Dr Shawki diminta mengulas tentang isu penerbitan karikatur yang menghina Nabi Muhammad saw oleh majalah Charlie Hebdo di Paris dan serangan oleh sekumpulan lelaki bersenjata ke atas pejabat majalah itu yang mengakibatkan 17 nyawa terkorban.

    “Kita rasa sedih dan terguris apabila kita mendengar atau melihat penghinaan ke atas Nabi Muhammad saw.

    “Namun kita harus mencari huraian yang adil kepada semua menerusi perundangan atau sistem negara,” kata Sheikh Dr Shawki.

    Sebagai anggota masyarakat yang bertanggungjawab, beliau menekankan individu tidak berhak menjatuhkan hukum dengan sewenang-wenangnya apabila berdepan dengan sesuatu yang tidak menyenangkan atau apabila menyaksikan sesuatu jenayah.

    Cara yang lebih berhemah menurut beliau ialah mencontohi amalan Nabi Muhammad saw yang membalas setiap keburukan dengan kebaikan dan cara yang berakhlak.

    Terdapat banyak contoh dalam riwayat Nabi yang mempamerkan sifat beliau yang berahlak.

    Sheikh Dr Shawki menukil kisah seorang jiran yang selalu membuang najis dan kotoran di hadapan kediaman Nabi Muhammad saw.

    “Suatu hari, Nabi Muhammad saw mendapati tiada kotoran yang dibuang di hadapan rumahnya dan beliau diberitahu jiran yang sering mengotori lamannya sedang sakit.

    “Nabi Muhammad bersifat mulia dan menziarahi jiran berkenaan,” kata beliau.

    Sheikh Dr Shawki berada di sini dalam rangka lawatan empat hari bermula kelmarin di bawah Program Pelawat Unggul (DVP) Muis.

    Ini kali pertama ketua agama itu, yang dilantik menjadi Mufti ke-19 Mesir pada 2013, mengunjungi Singapura dan rantau ini.

    Sheikh Dr Shawki seorang pemimpin Islam dan ulama yang dihormati dan dikenali kerana dedikasi dan usahanya ke arah keamanan menerusi pemahaman masyarakat yang pelbagai dan berbeza.

    Semalam beliau menghadiri jamuan malam bersama pemimpin berbilang agama.

    Hari ini beliau dijadualkan bertemu Presiden Tony Tan Keng Yam dan Perdana Menteri Lee Hsien Loong di Istana.

    Selepas itu beliau akan mengunjungi Pusat Sumber dan Kaunseling, Kumpulan Pemulihan Keagamaan (RRG) di Masjid Khadijah.

    Malam ini pula beliau akan menyampaikan Ceramah Muis di Hotel Orchard.

     

    Source: http://beritaharian.sg

  • 12 Dead After Violent Clashes Between Police And Islamist Protesters In Egypt

    12 Dead After Violent Clashes Between Police And Islamist Protesters In Egypt

    Authorities had tightened security in Cairo and other cities after Islamists called for protests against the government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the former army chief who ousted his Islamist predecessor Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

    Demonstrators, mostly Islamist backers of Morsi, clashed with police, leaving 12 protesters dead in Cairo and another in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, a health ministry official told AFP.

    Officials said the protester in Alexandria was shot dead by police after he opened fire on them.

    Hundreds of other protesters who denounced both Islamists and the government also clashed with police in central Cairo.

    The interior ministry said protesters shot dead a police conscript in the clashes in two north Cairo neighbourhoods that are strongholds of Islamist protests. Three other officers were wounded.

    At least 150 people were arrested across the country as police dispersed protests which saw many leftwing demonstrators also participating, security officials said.

    In downtown Cairo, police fired shotguns and tear gas against hundreds of protesters who tried to march on the central Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the early 2011 revolt that ousted Mubarak.

    Armoured vehicles were stationed around Tahrir, but despite extra security in the capital jihadists managed to set off a bomb in Cairo that wounded two policemen.

    The interior ministry said the bomb exploded in eastern Cairo’s Alf Maskan neighbourhood, where a similar blast on Friday wounded four policemen and a civilian.

    Jihadist group Ajnad Misr (Soldiers of Egypt) claimed both blasts.

    Two suspected militants were also killed when they mistakenly blew themselves up in an attempt to sabotage an electricity tower in the Nile Delta province of Baheira, the interior ministry said.

    Tensions had surged ahead of the anniversary, and a female demonstrator was killed in clashes with police during a rare leftwing protest in Cairo on Saturday.

    Shaima al-Sabbagh, who friends said was 34 and the mother of a five-year-old boy, died of birdshot wounds, a health ministry spokesman said.

    Fellow protesters said she was hit by birdshot when police fired to disperse the march. Prosecutors have launched a probe into her death.

    An 18-year-old female protester was also killed on Friday in clashes in Alexandria.

    Egypt has been gripped by political turmoil since Mubarak’s ouster, and by violent unrest since his successor Morsi was overthrown by then army chief Sisi.

    Sisi toppled Morsi in July 2013 and has since led a crackdown on his supporters that has left hundreds dead.

    Jihadist militants have in turn regularly targeted security forces, killing scores of policemen and soldiers.

    – ‘Funeral of the revolution’ –

    Ahead of the anniversary, police had warned they would “decisively” confront protests. Morsi’s supporters often hold small rallies that police quickly disperse.

    Cairo’s streets were largely deserted, although a few Sisi supporters gathered outside Tahrir waving Egyptian flags and chanting “Long Live Egypt!”

    Plainclothes police checked identity cards and stopped people from heading to the square.

    Security was beefed up elsewhere in the capital, with machinegun-wielding police deployed on key streets.

    “This is the funeral of the (2011) revolution,” Mamdouh Hamza, a prominent figure from the anti-Mubarak uprising, told an AFP correspondent in central Cairo.

    “The murderer kills, and then joins the funeral procession. Nothing has improved or changed since Sisi took over.”

    Activists, including those who spearheaded the anti-Mubarak revolt, have accused Sisi of reviving much of Mubarak’s autocratic rule.

    Sisi and his supporters deny such allegations, pointing to his widespread popularity and support in Egypt for a firm hand in dealing with protests, which are seen as threatening economic recovery.

    The revolt against Mubarak erupted on January 25, 2011, with hundreds of thousands of protesters taking to the streets across Egypt for 18 days until he stepped down.

    The anti-Mubarak revolt was fuelled by police abuses and the corruption of the strongman’s three-decade rule, but the police have since regained popularity amid widespread yearning for stability.

     

    Source: https://sg.news.yahoo.com

  • United Nations Suspends Distribution Of World Food Program Vouchers In Embattled Middle East Countries Due To Lack Of Funds

    United Nations Suspends Distribution Of World Food Program Vouchers In Embattled Middle East Countries Due To Lack Of Funds

    A lack of funds has forced the United Nations to stop providing food vouchers for 1.7 million Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Monday.

    “Without WFP vouchers, many families will go hungry. For refugees already struggling to survive the harsh winter, the consequences of halting this assistance will be devastating,” said the U.N. agency, which needs $64 million to support the refugees for the rest of December.

    Suspension of the assistance program comes as many vulnerable Syrian families enter their fourth bleak winter in difficult living conditions after fleeing a homeland racked by conflict since March 2011.

    “This couldn’t come at a worse time,” said U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres in a statement.

    The impact could be particularly devastating in Lebanon, where more than 1.1 million Syrian refugees — one-quarter of the country’s permanent population — are scattered across some 1,700 communities, according to the U.N. refugee agency. Many live in makeshift settlements, sheds, garages and unfinished buildings.

    The electronic voucher program has already injected about $800 million into local shops in the countries hosting refugees, and WFP will immediately resume it if new funding arrives, it said in the statement.

    It was not clear how hungry Syrian refugees might fill the gap left by WFP suspending its voucher program.

    WFP had warned last month that it might be forced to impose such a suspension and said it might have to announce a similar measure in January for people reliant on aid within Syria, where at least 7.6 million people are internally displaced.

    The Rome-based agency has already cut rations for 4.25 million people it is providing food supplies to in Syria.

    “WFP will not be able to continue its life-saving operations inside Syria in February without additional funding,” WFP spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs told Reuters on Monday.

    The U.N. refugee agency has said that a lack of cash has forced it to prioritize as it helps those in need prepare for winter, with preference for people at higher, colder altitudes and vulnerable refugees such as newborn babies. REUTERS

     

    Source: www.todayonline.com

  • Gaza: Where Have All The Activists Gone?

    Gaza: Where Have All The Activists Gone?

    I have always thought that those who resort to violence or those who go as far as exploding themselves are sick and inhuman. But now I know how it feels to have nothing to lose but your worthless life. I know how it feels to be so desperate that you literally cry from disappointment when you actually wake up in the morning, and to spend the night before asking God for a last favor … to take your life because you’re just too cowardly to take it yourself. #‎Gaza‬ is no longer a city or a territory. It is a disease. It is an unbearable pain, an un-treatable wound. Gaza is the opposite of life, but at the same time far beyond death.

    This is the Facebook post to which I woke up yesterday, written by Maisam Morr, one of the few Gazans who typically serve as my “rocks” – resilient spirits who never give up, and keep my hope alive that we can beat back the grinding, dehumanizing force that is the Israeli occupation. She is the one who dreamed up the Rubble Bucket Challenge (the Palestinian response to the ALS ice bucket), and who – in the midst of the unremitting “gray” of the destruction that is Gaza – asked for a pink laptop for her birthday. And yet now, she was succumbing.

    The breaking point for Maisam was the announcement Sunday that Israel had closed its two crossings into Gaza for all but the most critical humanitarian aid, in response to the firing of a single rocket fired.  No injuries or property damage resulted, and no groups in Gaza claimed responsibility or credit. According to Maisam, “almost all Gazans swear that it is some sort of a trick (a planned trap) to open another front with Israel.” F16s are now flying low over Gaza again, as if on cue.

    According to news reports, Israel had not decided how long the crossing would be closed. “It will depend on the security situation.” There’s that code phrase…”security situation” – a cover for just about any action Israel chooses to take, and which no one in the international community (in the West at least) is courageous enough to challenge. (Update: the crossings re-opened today, and Palestinian officials said 330 truckloads of goods, as well as one of cement, would be allowed in. Seriously? ONE truckload of cement? In a way, I think that’s how Israel uses closures – as a device to make Gazans happy for crumbs when they come.)

    Meanwhile, in the wake of the Oct. 24 attack on an army checkpoint in the northern Sinai that killed 31 soldiers, Egypt has emulated Israel. It declared a three-month lockdown in the area, including a dawn-to-dusk curfew, and indefinitely closed the Rafah crossing, Gaza’s only non-Israeli-controlled bridge to the outside world. Meanwhile, Egypt is demolishing an estimated 800 homes housing 10,000 residents to set up its own buffer zone along the border with Gaza (546 yards wide, 8 miles long). As with the Israeli rocket, no group claimed responsibility, yet the Egyptian government has been quick to implicate Hamas and other Gaza-based “terror groups.” In addition to slamming its doors shut to thousands of Palestinians seeking medical treatment or opportunities to study abroad, the Egyptian government canceled indefinitely the indirect talks between Israelis and Hamas on a long-term truce.

    “My dearest Egypt,” wrote Maisam on her blog. “You treat me like an infectious disease. You see me as a threat to your national security while all I ever wanted is to protect my life, my dignity and my very being. Forgive me for being so selfish and so blind for I simply cannot understand how come my call for freedom collides with your mighty security. Only few years ago, I thought we fought a shared enemy but it looks like that I AM the enemy.”

    Abu Marzouk, deputy chairman of Hamas’ political bureau and a member of the Palestinian reconciliation delegation, describes the closures as collective punishment, in contradiction of all understandings, agreements and international law, and adds that it will be impossible to sit idly by. And can you blame him? Since the ceasefire was announced on Aug. 26, two Palestinian rockets were shot by unknown parties. Israel, however, has violated it 19 times by shooting at fishermen and farmers, and opened the crossings on an extremely limited basis – far less than implied by the spirit of the ceasefire terms. (It doesn’t help that Israel wants the “civilian nature” of every project to be verified by Israeli and U.N. officials.) See my blog post for a complete listing of ceasefire violations and an overall status report.

    Yet, Nicole Ganz, spokeswoman for the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, says the Palestinian Authority has yet to file a complaint. And the international activist community? It sometimes seems it takes a war to mobilize us in mass numbers as well – which explains why we’re all focused on Syria and Iraq, with barely a mention or attempt to push back on the daily deteriorations in Gaza and the West Bank.

    “During the war, I was getting messages all the time from foreigners who wanted to help, who promised to help me get out for a bit after it was over,” recalls Maisam. “But now..nothing. Even during the war, I never felt like I wanted to die. This is new to me. I guess we’ll just keep breathing until we stop.”

     

    Source: http://mondoweiss.net

  • ‘Greater Israel’: Zionist Expansion Plans in the Middle East

    The Infamous Oded Yinon Plan

    Global Research Editor’s Note

    The following document pertaining to the formation of “Greater Israel” constitutes the cornerstone of powerful Zionist factions within the current Netanyahu government, the Likud party, as well as within the Israeli military and intelligence establishment.

    According to the founding father of Zionism Theodore Herzl, “the area of the Jewish State stretches: “From the Brook of Egypt to the Euphrates.”  According to Rabbi Fischmann,  “The Promised Land extends from the River of Egypt up to the Euphrates, it includes parts of Syria and Lebanon.”

    When viewed in the current context, the war on Iraq, the 2006 war on Lebanon, the 2011 war on Libya, the ongoing war on Syria, not to mention the process of regime change in Egypt, must be understood in relation to the Zionist Plan for the Middle East. The latter consists in weakening and eventually fracturing neighboring Arab states as part of an Israeli expansionist project.

    “Greater Israel” consists in an area extending from the Nile Valley to the Euphrates.

    The Zionist project supports the Jewish settlement movement. More broadly it involves a policy of excluding Palestinians from Palestine leading to the eventual annexation of both the West Bank and Gaza to the State of Israel.

    Greater Israel would create a number of proxy States. It would include parts of Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, the Sinai, as well as parts of  Iraq and Saudi Arabia. (See map).

    According to Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya in a 2011 Global Research article,   The Yinon Plan was a continuation of Britain’s colonial design in the Middle East:

    “[The Yinon plan] is an Israeli strategic plan to ensure Israeli regional superiority. It insists and stipulates that Israel must reconfigure its geo-political environment through the balkanization of the surrounding Arab states into smaller and weaker states.

    Israeli strategists viewed Iraq as their biggest strategic challenge from an Arab state. This is why Iraq was outlined as the centerpiece to the balkanization of the Middle East and the Arab World. In Iraq, on the basis of the concepts of the Yinon Plan, Israeli strategists have called for the division of Iraq into a Kurdish state and two Arab states, one for Shiite Muslims and the other for Sunni Muslims. The first step towards establishing this was a war between Iraq and Iran, which the Yinon Plan discusses.

    The Atlantic, in 2008, and the U.S. military’s Armed Forces Journal, in 2006, both published widely circulated maps that closely followed the outline of the Yinon Plan. Aside from a divided Iraq, which the Biden Plan also calls for, the Yinon Plan calls for a divided Lebanon, Egypt, and Syria. The partitioning of Iran, Turkey, Somalia, and Pakistan also all fall into line with these views. The Yinon Plan also calls for dissolution in North Africa and forecasts it as starting from Egypt and then spilling over into Sudan, Libya, and the rest of the region.

    Greater Israel” requires the breaking up of the existing Arab states into small states.

    “The plan operates on two essential premises. To survive, Israel must 1) become an imperial regional power, and 2) must effect the division of the whole area into small states by the dissolution of all existing Arab states. Small here will depend on the ethnic or sectarian composition of each state. Consequently, the Zionist hope is that sectarian-based states become Israel’s satellites and, ironically, its source of moral legitimation…  This is not a new idea, nor does it surface for the first time in Zionist strategic thinking. Indeed, fragmenting all Arab states into smaller units has been a recurrent theme.” (Yinon Plan, see below)

    Viewed in this context, the war on Syria is part of the process of Israeli territorial expansion. Israeli intelligence working hand in glove with the US, Turkey and NATO is directly supportive of the Al Qaeda terrorist mercenaries inside Syria.

    The Zionist Project also requires the destabilization of Egypt, the creation of factional divisions within Egypt as instrumented by the “Arab Spring” leading to the formation of a sectarian based State dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood.

    Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, March 3, 2013

    Source: http://bit.ly/1c4iWob