Egypt in Flux: A young pacifist versus the Egyptian army

Egypt in Flux: A young pacifist versus the Egyptian army

By OREN KESSLER

04/22/2011
Branded a traitor and Zionist, Maikel Nabil Sanad, a pro-Israel blogger, was sentenced to three years in jail by Egypt’s ruling military council.


Hopes that post-Hosni Mubarak Egypt would be a beacon of free speech suffered a blow last week when the country’s ruling military council sentenced a well-known blogger to three years in prison. Maikel Nabil Sanad is many things that set him apart in his native country: an atheist of Coptic origin, a pacifist, and – in a country where “normalization” is often a dirty word – unabashedly pro- Israel.

Detained March 30, Sanad was given a quick show trial without his lawyers present and convicted of “insulting the military establishment” and “spreading false information.” The information he posted on his blog – on the army’s use of violence against protesters and its torture of detainees – had already been widely publicized by human rights groups like Amnesty International.

Sanad is a 25-year-old unemployed veterinarian from Asyut, a Nile-side city in Egypt’s interior near Gamal Abdel Nasser’s home village. Sanad’s blog, “Son of Ra,” can be viewed in English, Arabic and Hebrew (the last of which the blogger was studying prior to his incarceration). Reader comments in English and Hebrew gush with appreciation for the blogger’s liberal, conciliatory ideals. Those in Arabic are almost uniformly pejorative.

IN OCTOBER, Sanad announced he would refuse to serve his mandatory military service.

“Recruitment goes against my conscience,” he wrote. “I don’t want to point a weapon at a young Israeli, recruited into obligatory service, defending his state’s right to exist. I think obligatory service is a form of slavery, and I have worked for years for my freedom.”

The next week he gave an interview to the Ynet news site on how he came to be, in his own words, Egypt’s “only” pro-Israel activist.

“From a young age I read a lot about the Israeli-Arab conflict. I understood the Arab media hid facts that support Israel,” he said. “I tried to contact Israeli activists and started asking them questions, such as, ‘Is it true that Israel is a militaristic state?’ or, ‘Is it true that Israel wants to expand and reach the Nile?’... Many Arabs living in Israel told me how they are really treated and how much they prefer living in Israel above any Arab state.”

He added that “if the Palestinians had a democratic leadership, everything would be solved. Take the war on Gaza for example – Hamas started it. They refused to hold elections in Gaza and took control of the regime. They planned a dictatorial and fundamentalist regime. They refused to speak to Israel, fired rockets at it and caused it to defend itself.”

The interview set off a flurry of criticism in Egypt, with mainstream and Islamist media outlets decrying Sanad as a traitor, a heretic and a Zionist.

Worst of all, the presumptuous Copt had dared defame the military in which he refused to serve. For years, the blogger had maintained that Egypt’s real problems lay not only with Mubarak, but the army establishment from which he and presidents before him had sprung. The army, he wrote prophetically at the start of anti-government protests, would be just as brutal as Mubarak in cracking down on dissent.

On February 4, Sanad posted a video clip to his blog pleading with Israelis to support the movement to oust Mubarak – a long-time ally of Jerusalem. “I’m calling for solidarity from my Israeli friends with the Egyptian revolution. I believe that democracy and human rights and women’s rights are basic Israeli values,” he said.

Mubarak, he said, was never a real friend to Israel, encouraging anti- Semitic incitement in schools and the media that raised young Egyptians to hate the Jewish state. “This is a chance to end the cold peace between the two states and to bring an era of real peace,” he said.

RANDA EL TAHAWY, an Egyptian journalist and blogger who focuses on women’s issues, said Sanad’s arrest set a dangerous precedent.

“This is an attempt to violate freedom of speech,” she said by phone from Cairo. “It’s very sad because it feels like we didn’t achieve anything when we tried to overthrow the previous regime that was always putting constraints on our freedom. It’s a step backward from what we’re trying to achieve, and that’s freedom and democracy.”

Tahawy is the cousin of Mona Eltahawy, a prominent New York-based Egyptian columnist and blogger. A former Reuters correspondent, Eltahawy was the first Egyptian to live and to work for a Western news agency in Israel, and now writes in a number of international news outlets including The Jerusalem Report. Like Sanad, Eltahawy supports normalizing Egypt’s ties with Israel. Her younger cousin is more conflicted.

Tahawy, 23, visited Eilat for several days nine years ago with an Egyptian friend whose father was stationed at the consulate in the city. She recalled the visit fondly.

“The people were just like us. They were very friendly, even if one or two people were reluctant [to talk] because I’m Egyptian,” she said. “I know a lot of people who would really frown upon the fact that I’ve been to Israel, but I really don’t think it’s a problem. We criticize Israel, we say it’s our enemy, we say we want to help Palestine, but we don’t really know anything about Israel.”

Her visit to the country seems to have opened her eyes to Israelis, if not Israel itself.

“When you grow up in Egypt, you grow up to feel that Israel is the enemy. But it’s wrong to say that – a lot of Israelis do oppose [the government’s] policies and aren’t against the Palestinians,” she said, before adding, “Sixty years of occupation – it’s just a tragedy and an injustice for the Palestinian people... If the [Israeli-Palestinian conflict] were resolved and all of the Palestinians’ demands were met, I think we’d be less reluctant to open our doors to Israel. But at the same time I don’t think you can erase history.”

She continued, “We can’t say Israel will just disappear.

Israel is a fact, whether I see [its founding] as something that was illegitimate or unfair or unjust, that’s not the issue now, because it’s there. The issue now is to ensure that the Palestinians have their rights and that their demands are met and that they have a home.”

Tahawy’s willingness to visit Israel and consider its people on an individual basis sets her at odds with the vast majority of Egyptians – from intellectuals to fellahin (peasants) – for whom normalization with the Jewish state is all but unthinkable.

ON MARCH 25, three days before his arrest, Sanad wrote a blog post entitled “On Which Side is Israel standing?” “I declared that I want to visit Israel (for two weeks), to build bridges with Israeli activists,” he wrote. “For the last four months, Israeli officials are refusing to give me a visa to Israel. More than 10 activists in Israel is trying to get me one, and all of them failed... Israel wouldn’t refuse to give Mubarak a visa. So, the lesson which Israel wants me to learn, that I have to be an enemy of Israel to be welcomed.”

Sanad’s supporters say his pro-Israel sentiments made him an easy target.

“Contrary to what most people think, that Maikel’s imprisonment has nothing to do with his last article about Israel, I think that it was a great excuse for his imprisonment,” a friend who blogs under the name Kefaya Punk wrote in an email.

“It is becoming strikingly clear that our militarist leaders don’t want any normalization or peace activism with Israel.”

David Keyes, executive director of Advancing Human Rights and cofounder of CyberDissidents.

org, said Sanad “represents a small but growing part of the blogging community – pro-secular, pro-Western and even pro-Israel. He has more than 1,500 followers on Twitter and was active in the protests in Tahrir Square. He is attractive to many because he is utterly fearless: a staunch liberal in a deeply conservative society and a fierce critic of the military, an institution not known for its openness to alternative views.”

Sanad’s videotaped plea now seems prescient.

“I’m going now to join my friends in Tahrir Square. I don’t know if I’ll return home again,” he said. “It’s my duty to call for change and to demonstrate. I’m calling for solidarity from all our democratic friends all over the world, and especially our Israeli neighbors and friends. Goodbye.”

Iranian Regime Is not Able to Stop Conversion to Christianity

QUOTE: And Moslehi has admitted in public that he has failed to "crush" what he calls "attempts by Cross-Worshippers" to convert a growing number of Iranians to Christianity. He says the converts even include theology students from the Shi'ite "holy" city of Qom.


Christian missionaries of various denominations, collectively known as Tabshiris or "bearers of the good news," are active throughout the country. According to Moslehi, these missionaries are exploiting the growing disaffection for Islam in Iran.



http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/thugs_vs_thug_UUrQ5LDqUY5H8UsFpm7sSK

President Obama at the National Prayer Breakfast on Easter

President Obama at the National Prayer Breakfast

The President's comments at the National Prayer Brakfast did not get much coverage, perhaps because they were about religion. I have written on omission of religious coverage in the past). Yet, I thought these words were particularly newsworthy (but, again, received little coverage).

Here is what the President said:

We all live in the hustle and bustle of our work. And everybody in this room has weighty responsibilities, from leading churches and denominations, to helping to administer important government programs, to shaping our culture in various ways. And I admit that my plate has been full as well. (Laughter.) The inbox keeps on accumulating. (Laughter.)

But then comes Holy Week. The triumph of Palm Sunday. The humility of Jesus washing the disciples' feet. His slow march up that hill, and the pain and the scorn and the shame of the cross.

And we're reminded that in that moment, he took on the sins of the world -- past, present and future -- and he extended to us that unfathomable gift of grace and salvation through his death and resurrection.

In the words of the book Isaiah: 'But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.'

This magnificent grace, this expansive grace, this 'Amazing Grace' calls me to reflect. And it calls me to pray. It calls me to ask God for forgiveness for the times that I've not shown grace to others, those times that I've fallen short. It calls me to praise God for the gift of our son -- his Son and our Savior.

Chuck Colson on The Offense of the Cross

Chuck Colson

The Offense of the Cross

A Disturbing Precedent in Italy

April 20, 2011

Last month, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Italian public schools have the right to display crucifixes.

The case has been widely viewed as a crucial one. As Roger Kiska of the Alliance Defense Fund put it, "A loss in this case would have meant, in essence, that it would be illegal under the European Convention on Human Rights to have religious symbols in any institution anywhere in Europe."

Before you start celebrating, though, you ought to know that this may be a very mixed blessing. When you take a close look at the court's reasoning, it becomes clear that there are some disturbing implications to this ruling.

In the New York Times, Professor Stanley Fish, a liberal relativist, writes that the court based its decision largely on the idea that "the crucifix is really not a religious symbol." Fish justifiably asks, "Who knew?"

Who, indeed?

It seems the courtdecided that the crucifix is now an "identity-linked," "historical and cultural" symbol -- a symbol that stands for "the liberty and freedom of every person, the declaration of the right of man, and ultimately the modern secular state."

In other words, it stands for pretty much anything but the death of Christ for the redemption of fallen mankind.

For the Christian, that poses a real dilema: If the crucifix is to be stripped of its meaning like this, is it worth displaying in schools, or anywhere at all?

If "the offense of the cross," as Paul put it, is gone, what's the point?

And that's not all. The court went on to state, "In Christianity even the faith in an omniscient god is secondary in relation to charity," which makes the cross an inclusive symbol.

Even Stanley Fish, who's writing from a liberal, secular perspective, is driven to wonder about all this. "What we have here," he says, "is a union of bad argument and bad theology. As a Christian virtue, charity presupposes the God it is said by the majority [of the court] to transcend...Generous though it may be in many respects, Christianity is hard-edged at its doctrinal center and that center is what the crucifix speaks."

Fish may not be a Christian, but I think he's pretty much nailed it. Ironically, I think he might just understand it better than many in Italy, where the practice of the Christian faith has been steadily eroding for many years.

Christians believe that everyone is welcome at the foot of the cross -- but we also believe with German martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer that "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die."

That's why Stanley Fish is right in saying that a crucifix can never be what the court called "an essentially passive symbol."

On that point, I wholeheartedly agree with him. Religious symbols matter because they convey meaning, and that's why we Christians support the right to display them. Without that meaning, without Christ's death and resurrection, the cross doesn't matter -- and neither does our faith.

This is the liberal cause: strip all sacred symbols and words of their meaning.

The real lesson here is that before we take up the fight for the cross, we had better be sure we understand what it is we're fighting for.

Easter Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father,

As Easter Sunday approaches, let us take time to remember the events that took place leading up to this day so many years ago. We must not forget the anguish and pain that Jesus openly endured and welcomed, so that we may all be saved from eternal condemnation. Then three days later he rose from the dead, just as it was promised. His self-less act allows us to live knowing that we have received His promise of eternal life.

Dear Lord, this Easter please help us fully believe without any doubt. In the glorious Alleluias ringing out across the land, fill us with Your joy, O Risen Lord! Fill us with the certain hope that Jesus has overcome all evil, all sorrow, and all death. Let us bring the light and joy of our Risen Savior to the whole world!

Lord Jesus, You are the Lamb who laid down his life for us. You alone are our Victorious Redeemer!

Alleluia! He is risen as He said! If we have died with him,
then we shall also live with him.
2 Timothy 2:11


On behalf of Salam family we wish you a Blessed Easter!

Gifts made to CLMMA are Poblo- Chicago are tax-deductibl and could be mailed to the address below.
In God's Peace
Reaching Out and Reaching In By Reaching Up
Hesham Shehab
Pastor, Salam Arabic Fellowship
Missionary, POBLO- Chicago
21w500 Butterfield Rd
Lombard, IL 60148

Iran: Dog Ownership to Be Outlawed Under Lawmakers' Plan

Iran: Dog Ownership to Be Outlawed Under Lawmakers' Plan

Time.com


By AZADEH MOAVENI – Tue Apr 19, 2011

For much of the past decade, the Iranian government has tolerated what it considers a particularly depraved and un-Islamic vice: the keeping of pet dogs.

During periodic crackdowns, police have confiscated dogs from their owners right off the street; and state media has lectured Iranians on the diseases spread by canines.

The cleric Gholamreza Hassani, from the city of Urmia, has been satirized for his sermons railing against "short-legged" and "holdable" dogs. But as with the policing of many other practices (like imbibing alcoholic drinks) that are deemed impure by the mullahs but perfectly fine to many Iranians, the state has eventually relaxed and let dog lovers be.

Those days of tacit acceptance may soon be over, however.

Lawmakers in Tehran have recently proposed a bill in parliament that would criminalize dog ownership, formally enshrining its punishment within the country's Islamic penal code.

The bill warns that that in addition to posing public health hazards, the popularity of dog ownership "also poses a cultural problem, a blind imitation of the vulgar culture of the West."

The proposed legislation for the first time outlines specific punishments for "the walking and keeping" of "impure and dangerous animals," a definition that could feasibly include cats but for the time being seems targeted at dogs.

The law would see the offending animal confiscated, the leveling of a $100-to-$500 fine on the owner, but leaves the fate of confiscated dogs uncertain.

"Considering the several thousand dogs [that are kept] in Tehran alone, the problem arises as to what is going to happen to these animals," Hooman Malekpour, a veterinarian in Tehran, said to the BBC's Persian service.

If passed, the law would ultimately energize police and volunteer militias to enforce the ban systematically.

In past years, animal-rights activists in Iran have persuasively argued that sporadic campaigns against dog ownership are politically motivated and unlawful, since the prohibition surfaces in neither the country's civil laws nor its Islamic criminal codes.

But if Iran's laws were silent for decades on the question of dogs, that is because the animals - in the capacity of pet - were as irrelevant to daily life as dinosaurs.

Islam, by custom, considers dogs najes, or unclean, and for the past century cultural mores kept dog ownership down to minuscule numbers.

In rural areas, dogs have traditionally aided shepherds and farmers, but as Iranians got urbanized in the past century, their dogs did not come along.

In cities, aristocrats kept dogs for hunting and French-speaking dowagers kept lap dogs for company, but the vast majority of traditional Iranians, following the advice of the clergy, were leery of dogs and considered them best avoided.

That has changed in the past 15 years with the rise of an urban middle class plugged into and eager to mimic Western culture.

Satellite television and Western movies opened up a world where happy children frolicked with dogs in parks and affluent families treated them like adorable children. These days, lap dogs rival designer sunglasses as the upper-middle-class Iranian's accessory of choice.

"Global norms and values capture the heart of people all around the world, and Iran is no exception," says Omid Memarian, a prominent Iranian journalist specializing in human rights. "This is very frightening for Iranian officials, who find themselves in a cultural war with the West and see what they're offering as an 'Islamic lifestyle' failing measurably."

The widening acceptability of dog ownership, and its popularity among a specific slice of Iran's population - young, urban, educated and frustrated with the Islamic government - partly explains why dogs are now generating more official hostility.

In 2007, two years into the tenure of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, security forces targeted dog owners alongside a crackdown on women's attire and men's "Westernized" hairstyles. In the regime's eyes, owning a dog had become on par with wearing capri pants or sporting a mullet - a rebellious act.

The government's tolerance for this low-level lifestyle dissidence fizzled after Ahmadinejad's contested electoral victory in 2009, which sparked massive demonstrations and the most serious challenge to Islamic rule since the 1979 revolution.

In the aftermath of that upheaval, the state has moved to tighten its control over a wide range of Iranians' private activities, from establishing NGOs to accessing the Internet, to individual lifestyle decisions, according to Hadi Ghaemi, the director for the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

"No doubt such attempts are motivated by a desire to squash acts of criticism and protests, even if through symbolic individual decisions that simply don't conform to officially sanctioned lifestyles," Ghaemi says.

The criminalizing of dogs, in this context, helps the government address the legal gray areas concerning lifestyle behavior. When authorities found it difficult to police what it termed Westernized hairstyles worn by young men, it solved the problem last year by releasing a poster of specifically banned styles.

For many young people, these measures are a firm reminder that the government will brook no disobedience, whether it be chanting antigovernment slogans in the streets or sporting excessively long sideburns.

Dog owners in Iran, like much of the population, are mostly preoccupied these days with inflation, joblessness and the parlous state of the country's economy. But they will soon need to consider whether keeping their shih tzu or poodle is worth the added worry.

Their dogs may face the same fate as the hundreds of street dogs that the government regularly sweeps from the streets of Tehran.

"Many in Tehran and other big cities find the killing of street dogs offensive and cruel," says Memarian. "It's like the Iranian people and officials live in two different worlds."

Prison Epistles; An Afghan Christian's Testimony to the World during Nine Months of Imprisonment

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Prison Epistles; An Afghan Christian's Testimony to the World during Nine Months of Imprisonment

He was sentenced to death for converting to Christianity

By Aidan Clay

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN (ANS) -- "When they asked the question, 'Are you ready to become Muslim?' I refused it. They said that they cannot defend me in court because my fault is this: I have believed in God almighty and His only Son."


Said Musa
Said Musa wrote these words after being refused a lawyer on January 25, 2011.

Throughout his imprisonment and under constant threat of execution, Said's letters - written in a jail chamber and smuggled out of Kabul's prisons - boldly testify to his faith in the God who overcomes darkness and offers hope to the destitute and weary.

Refusing to die in secret, Said crafted his own defense in epistles inscribed in broken but legible English. As in the days of Paul, Said wrote so that the church - upon hearing of the perseverance of the saints - might be encouraged and led to prayer.

Taking up his cross

A fifteen year employee with the Red Cross treating victims of landmines, Said was known as a compassionate care-taker. Said himself is an amputee with prosthesis on his left leg - the result of a mine explosion 23 years ago when serving as a young officer in the Afghan Army. As a Red Cross employee, Said offered therapy to handicapped children and was greatly respected by the community. "He took care with compassion and great professionalism of the amputee or handicap children we used to bring him," said a westerner in Kabul.

Said was also known throughout the community as a Christian. A former Muslim, Said's curiosity about Christianity was aroused during the Afghan civil war when his neighbor's house was bombed. Two foreign women helped dig through the rubble when nobody else would. They managed to find one person still alive.

"Many tried to hide, but the women didn't," Said told the Associated Press. Said later found that the women were Christians, which prompted him to learn more about the faith. Eventually, a Christian convert from Iran led Said to Christ. Christianity was by no means the easy path to take, but Said knew that to follow Christ meant taking up the cross of Christ's sufferings (Luke 9:23).

Said's arrest came in late-May of last year after footage of Afghans being baptized was broadcast on national television and led to protests throughout the country. So enraged were some Islamic fundamentalist groups that a parliamentarian called for Afghan Christians to be executed. The national church in Kabul immediately fled the city. Said, however, was unable to escape. After having lunch with patients, Said was unexpectedly rounded-up by security officers working with the Ministry of Interior. Said's arrest was the first in what became a nationwide crackdown against Christians.

Christian world takes notice

International Christian Concern (ICC) visited Afghanistan just weeks following Said's arrest. After month of advocacy and awareness, the Christian world took notice. John Piper of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis and Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in Southern California were among other pastors who campaigned for Said's release through social media like Twitter and Facebook. Churches throughout Europe and North America made the cause their own by standing together, united in prayer, calling for Said's freedom.

"It's a sympathetic case," said Paul Marshall, senior fellow at the Center for Religious Freedom. "Here he is, himself an amputee who lost a leg, working with amputees for Red Cross. He has six children. One is handicapped. He's an appealing figure."

It was difficult not to take notice of Said. His humility, gentleness of spirit, and love for his people touched even the most anti-Christian critics. Secular media was also intrigued and could find no fault in him. Said's plight hit the New York Times, the Sunday Times of London, and other major news outlets, and Said soon gained international notoriety.


Said Musa working with the Red Cross in Kabul treating victims of land mines
It was through Said's letters, however, that he became a symbol of Christian suffering to the world. "Prisoners in jail did many bad behaviors with me about my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They did sexual things with me; beat me by wood, my hands, my legs. Nobody let me for sleep night and day. Every person spat on me and beat me. Please Pray and immediately help with me and rescue me from this jail. Otherwise they will kill me."

Said's letters expressed a broken heart crying for relief in a very real and terrifying way. But, Said's fear of death was soon overcome by a joyful and fervent desire to serve his Lord and his people. "Every day and night I pray and cry, 'O Lord, I want to display your name in Afghanistan,'" Said wrote on December 1. "I want to build up your church, for this is my purpose. I have in my heart a fire of Good News. It should be announced to the people. It's our mission in the world."

Said was exactly where God wanted him to be during his nine long months of imprisonment. In one of Said's most encouraging letters, dated December 16, 2010, he spoke of sharing the Gospel with a member of the Taliban in his prison cell.

"I want to tell you. A person who's accused of murder, he's sleeping in front of me in the corridor of jail," Said wrote. "He's a hundred percent extremist and has discrimination with my religion. He's a Talib person. One night he wants to suicide himself. I prayed for him more and more. I told him, 'Please be patient. Please believe in Jesus Christ, he's the only person to forgive you and save you and release you from this jail.'

The first time he began screaming and insulting me. He told me, 'You're not clean, you're not a Muslim.' But I told him, 'Oh my friend and brother, please think about my word.' Then I prayed for him since the middle of the night. He woke up from sleep. He came near my bed and sat and told me. 'Please forgive me brother. You're really true person. I have seen wonderful dreams. A very light person spoke with me. He was an amazing person. I fell down on my knees and to the ground. He told me, "Please believe in your friend Said Musa. I am Lord Jesus Christ. I forgive you now. I couldn't speak at that moment and was shaking from fear and then I woke up." He told me, 'Now I have believe in Jesus Christ.''"

In prison and in freedom, God has lifted Said up to minister to his people and be voice for Christian freedoms like no other Afghan has been able to accomplish in recent memory. Yet, humbly, Said knows little about his influence. Seeking God's protection and strength, and appealing to the church for help, Said signed his letter, "Your destitute brother in the world."

Said Musa has now been freed and has been safely transported out of Afghanistan, but what a legacy he has left behind him.

ICC (www.persecution.org) is a Washington-DC based human rights organization that exists to help persecuted Christians worldwide. ICC provides Awareness, Advocacy, and Assistance to the worldwide persecuted Church. For additional information or for an interview, contact ICC at 800-422-5441.