While the conflict in Egypt has largely been portrayed as a conflict between secular Egyptians -- or "moderate Muslims" who oppose full-blown Sharia -- and Islamists, led by the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis, who want a Taliban-style Sharia to govern the nation, largely missed have been the people in the middle, the Christian Copts, who find themselves in an especially awkward position.
Moderate Muslims are still capable of offering the requisite lip service to Islam -- saying "prayers and peace upon Muhammad" and all the other Muslim blessings -- even as they reject the full application of Sharia. This makes it more difficult for their radical brethren to portray them as infidel enemies. Moderate Muslims can resist Sharia, but in subtle ways, arguing over Islamic exegesis, calling for ijtihad [modern interpretations, questioning], and so forth.
But when Egypt's Christian Copts resist Sharia -- as dhimmis [religious minorities who are second-class, "tolerated," members of society] -- pro-Sharia Muslims retaliate with a vengeance, portraying them as infidels who reject the law of Allah.
This has been truer than ever in recent days, as President Morsi and his Islamist and jihadi allies push for a Sharia-based constitution, and Egypt's secularists resist this. The Copts, trapped in the middle, are aware their suffering is only about to begin.
A video from Egypt that recently surfaced shows Salafi Muslims holding a man, his hands tied behind his back, in an alley. They grab him by the collar, interrogate and threaten him, humiliate him by poking and slapping him in the face and calling him "boy"-- as they try to determine if he is a Christian. "No, I'm a Muslim!" he insists. One of his captors can be heard saying, "Can you imagine if he turns out to be a Christian?" -- implying that would be the end of him.
The video ends with him sobbing and saying, "Have mercy," followed by, "There is no god but Allah," the first half of the Islamic shehada, or profession of faith, which, unlike the second half -- "and Muhammad is his prophet" -- Christians in Egypt are only too happy to declare.
The poking, throttling and slapping is a reminder of the Islamic textbook way of treating dhimmis. Such degradation appears regularly in the commentaries of Islam's doctrines, so that in the Medieval Islamic Civilization Encyclopedia one can read that Muslim "jurists came to view certain repressive and humiliating aspects of dhimma as de rigueur. Dhimmis were required to pay the jizya [obligatory tithe, or extra tax] publicly, in broad daylight, with hands turned palm upward, and to receive a smart smack on the forehead or the nape of the neck from the collection officer." Islam's jurists mandated a number of humiliating rituals at the time of jizya payment, including slapping, choking, and pulling the beard of the paying dhimmi.
Such hostility for Christian minorities is not surprising considering that Safwat Hegazy, a longtime Muslim Brotherhood figure and popular preacher, just went on record formally threatening every Coptic Christian who votes against the Sharia-laden constitution. In a video speaking before a throng of Muslims, he said:
A message to the church of Egypt, from an Egyptian Muslim: I tell the church -- by Allah, and again, by Allah -- if you conspire and unite with the remnants [opposition] to bring Morsi down, that will be another matter [screams of "Allah Akbar!" ["Allah is greater!"] followed by chants of "With our soul, with our blood, we give to you, O Islam"]... We say and I say to the Church: yes, you share this country with us; but there are red lines -- and our red line is the legitimacy of Dr. Muhammad Morsi. Whoever splashes water on it, we will splash blood on him" [followed by more wild shouts of "Allah Akbar!"]
Then of course there was the case of Mina Philip, one of the protesters who was stripped of his clothes and beat into a bloody pulp by the Egyptian president's Islamic supporters. OnTube, the Egyptian Internet channel complementing ONTV, recently showed the gruesome images of Philip's torture, including, in the host's words, how "Mina Philip was dragged through the streets by a Muslim Brotherhood mob who took off his clothes and beat him, accusing him of being a thug, while in fact he is an engineer who works for an international telecommunications company."
In the video, Mina continuously pleads with his tormentors, "please, I didn't harm anyone." The mob can be heard cursing and threatening him, and demanding his name -- probably to determine whether he is Muslim or Christian -- which he insists he "forgot." ("Mina Philip" is a distinctly Coptic name.)
Philip provided more information in another interview. He was coming back from work when he stopped to see what was going on with the protests:
As I watched, a group of Muslim Brotherhood men dragged me with others... they surrounded me and started beating me while others took my clothes off so I was topless; they took my wallet and keys and dragged me. They beat me with rocks and rods; I kept on saying that I didn't touch anyone and they would reply with curses, calling me a "secular dog."
He then told the same story recorded by many others -- including Muslims who were also attacked by the Muslim Brotherhood: "They later questioned me, asking who was paying me and threatened to leave me for the rest of the Brotherhood's men to kill me if I didn't confess that I received money from Hamdin and Baradei [opposition candidates]."
Egyptian's moderates and radicals battle it out; Christian minorities are trapped.
What’s worse than unjust and ineffective laws like the failed War on Drugs and the failed sanctions on Iran?
Unjust and ineffective laws that apply to ordinary folks, but not to banksters:
When the Justice Department announced its record $1.9 billion settlement against British bank HSBC last week, prosecutors called it a powerful blow to a dysfunctional institution accused of laundering money for Iran, Libya and Mexico’s murderous drug cartels.
But to some former federal prosecutors, it was only the latest case of the government stopping short of bringing criminal money laundering charges against a big bank or its executives, at least in part on the rationale that such prosecutions could be devastating enough to cause such banks to fail.
They say it sounds a lot like the “too big to fail” meme that kept big but sickly banks alive on the support of taxpayer-funded bailouts. In these cases, they call it, “Too big to jail.”
This stings. It should sting anyone who cares about the idea of equality in front of the law, anyone who cares about the basic rule of law, anyone who doesn’t want to see their society devolve into a festering pool of feudalism.
According to the most recent data, there were 197,050 sentenced prisoners under federal jurisdiction of which 94,600 were serving time for drug offenses.There were 1,362,028 sentenced prisoners under state jurisdiction of which 237,000 were serving time for drug offenses. That’s over 300,000 individuals serving time currently for drugs offenses, in addition to over one million currently on probation. Now I don’t agree with the War on Drugs at all. But big banks are deemed too “systemically important” to be held to the same standard as the huge and disproportionately black population of low-level drug users.
If the Drug War laws don’t apply to the big banks — if Wall Street bankers who have broken the law can’t go to prison too — then how is incarcerating low-level drug users really much different to chattel slavery?
And not only do private prison companies pocket massive profits from the taxpayers’ purse for running the prisons, but prisoners are a pool of ultra-cheap indentured labour.
As Todd Curl notes:
Prisons in the United States used to be institutions of actual reform and rehabilitation. Men who entered a prison, would often learn a trade and have a usable skill to earn a legitimate living upon release. The recidivism rates have sharply increased as job and education programs within prisons–especially private prisons–have steadily declined. This is not to say that skills are not acquired in these private prisons, quite the contrary. In many of these private prisons, inmates are contracted as telemarketers, among other things, for many large corporations. These prisoners can earn as much as 75 cents an hour for their job–sometimes under 40 cents. What’s the payoff one might ask? For one, corporations get very cheap—third world cheap—labor that cannot unionize, cannot call in sick and cannot complain without fear of time added to their sentence or retaliation from guards who overworked and underpaid themselves, and risk losing their livelihood if an “uppity” prisoner refuses their indentured corporate servitude.
The War on Drugs is descending from tragedy into farce. Poor black drug users are fair game for the slave labour business. Rich Wall Street bankers who launder drug money? Nope.
In May I asked:
Have the 2008 bailouts cemented a new feudal aristocracy of bankers, financiers and too-big-to-fail zombies, alongside a serf class that exists to fund the excesses of the financial and corporate elite?
Only time will tell.
Time is telling.
Once a certain segment of society becomes protected from criminal liability, that society has travelled a long way down the road to feudalism, to a caste system, to serfdom.
Congressman Allen West, a Republican from the state of Florida, has warned that the state of Israel could become the site of a second Jewish Holocaust if the United States does not take further actions to protect the Jewish state against Iran. West, who is a veteran of the Iraq War, also warned that the current political turmoil in the Middle East could lead to a number of Arab and or Islamic states engaging Israel in a full blown Middle Eastern war.
Congressman West said that creation of a Hamas led Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders is the most egregious foreign policy decision that's ever been made and could lead to the beginning of the end for the Jewish state of Israel.
Jimmy's Prophetic Prospective on the News A warning from a United States Congressman that Israel could face the beginning of the end for the Jewish state and a second Holocaust is a page out of Bible prophecy for the last days.
United States Congressman Allen West, from the state of Florida, has issued a warning to the world that Israel could be in danger of a second Holocaust. This warning from West is based on the foreign policy decision of the present United States Administration and what seems to be a lack of support for Israel in its position in the Middle East. Iran has made numerous threats to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. Israel retreating to the pre-1967 borders would only enhance the Palestinian terror organization Hamas in their plan to use armed resistance to eliminate a Jewish state from the Middle East.
I mentioned that this report is like a page out of Bible prophecy for the end of times which is evident to a student of Bible prophecy. Ezekiel 38:5 says that Iran will be a member of a coalition of nations who want to rid the world of a Jewish state. Ezekiel 35. Malachi 1, and the little prophetic book of Obadiah also foretold of the Palestinian people i.e. Hamas in the last days moving to eliminate Israel from the Middle East.
As it relates to the second Holocaust, the Bible does describe a time in the future when the Jewish people will face a second Holocaust. This end time scenario is found in Zechariah 13:8 where the ancient Jewish prophet pre-wrote history and revealed that 2 out of every 3 Jews will be killed during the Time of Jacob's Trouble in the future.
Congressman West has indeed warned of a future for the Jewish people that will happen. Bible prophecy will be fulfilled.
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin hopes to conclude deals on the sale of fighter jets and aircraft engines to India next week which could be worth more than $7.5 billion, defense industry sources said on Wednesday.
Putin, who visits India on Monday, has his sights set on selling 42 Sukhoi SU-30MKI fighters and on the long-term supply of 970 warplane engines, one of the sources said.
The source did not put a value on the deals because, he said, the size of the orders had not yet been agreed.
"There is no total figure for the volume of engine contracts. It depends on what they (India) order," he said.
But another industry insider said the contracts could bring in at least $7.5 billion for Russia, one of the world's largest arms exporters.
"The deals are expected to be announced during Putin's trip to India," said Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Russian defense think-tank CAST. "The price for everything together will be between $7.5 billion and $8 billion."
The Russian Defence Ministry and the Kremlin declined comment.
If concluded, the deals would boost a Russian industry whose export market has shrunk since last year's Arab uprisings.
India, cautiously watching regional rival China's growing military might, has been the top importer ofRussian weapons.
The Russian arms industry, nurtured under Putin's first presidency from 2000 to 2008, has sold weapons to post-Soviet states and Cold War allies for decades on the strength of Soviet-era technology.
But the industry has largely stagnated due to a lack of funding since the collapse of the Soviet Union, leaving weapons manufacturers dependent on outdated designs.
At the center of the rebel base where Luke Skywalker took off to destroy the Death Star and save his people from the clutches of Darth Vader, Guatemala is preparing for another momentous event: the end of an age for the Maya.
Deep inside the Guatemalan rainforest stand the ruins of the Maya temples that George Lucas used to film the planet Yavin 4 in the movie "Star Wars," from where Skywalker and his sidekick Han Solo launched their attack on the Galactic Empire's giant space station.
This week, at sunrise on Friday, December 21, an era closes in the Maya Long Count calendar, an event that has been likened by different groups to the end of days, the start of a new, more spiritual age or a good reason to hang out at old Maya temples across Mexico and Central America.
"If it is the end of the world, hopefully Luke will come and blow up that Death Star," said Alex Markovitz, a 24-year-old consultant and Star Wars fan from Philadelphia, looking out over the site of Skywalker's rebel base. "I see why they shot here. It doesn't look real. It looks like an alien planet."
Once at the heart of a conquering civilization in its own right, the ancient city of Tikal is now a pilgrimage site for both hard-core Star Wars fans and enthusiasts of Maya culture eager to discover what exactly the modern interpretations of old lore portend.
In the 1960s, a leading U.S. scholar said the end of the Maya's 13th bak'tun - an epoch lasting some 400 years - could signify an "Armageddon," though many people trekking to the old temples believe it could herald something wonderful.
Discovered in 1848 when locals unearthed human skulls whose teeth were studded with jade jewels, Tikal draws tourists from around the globe. Visitors this week said they felt a powerful presence in the blue skies above them.
"The force is strong here," said Jimena Teijeiro, 35, an Argentine-born self-help blogger. "The world as we know it is coming to an end. We are being propelled to a new age of light, synchronicity and simple wonderment with life."
Maya scholars and astronomers have dismissed the idea the world is on the brink of destruction but mystics and spiritual thrill-seekers have flocked to feed off Tikal's energy. Park guards said they had to throw out 13 naked women who were dancing and chanting around a fire pit near the temples last week.
"Something big is going to happen," said the president of Guatemala's Star Wars fan club, entrepreneur Ricardo Alejos. "The Maya were an incredibly precise people. Something big is going to happen and we'll find out what in a few days."
Surrounded by thick jungle home to jaguars, monkeys and toucans, the view of Yavin 4 from the top of Tikal's Temple Four, known as the temple of the double-headed serpent, has changed little since Lucas filmed here in 1977.
CIVIL WAR
Lucas chose Tikal when he saw a poster of the site at a travel agency in England during the production of the original "Episode IV: A New Hope" film, and sent a crew to Guatemala in March 1977 to shoot during its 36-year civil war.
His team hoisted bulky camera gear and heavy lights to the top of the 210-foot-high (65-metre-high) Temple Four with a pulley system and paid a guard with six-packs of beer to protect the equipment with a shotgun for four nights, locals said.
A year after the shoot, the wooden huts where Lucas' film crew camped were burned to the ground by leftist rebels fighting against a right-wing military government.
Extending for 222 square miles (575 square km) through Guatemala's sweltering north, Tikal is one of the largest pre-Colombian Maya sites and known by some as the New York City of Maya ruins because of its high temples that climb toward the heavens.
The peaks of the limestone structures pierce the dense, green canopy of the jungle and howler monkeys wail at sunrise.
Yavin 4 and the rebel base return to the Star Wars plot in the forthcoming Episode VII, announced in October by the Walt Disney Co, in which Skywalker comes back to the planet to build a Jedi Knight academy. However, fans said that Disney will likely film those scenes in a studio rather than return to Tikal.
The shrines, believed to have been used mainly for worship, also appeared in the 1979 James Bond movie "Moonraker" in which 007 was lured through the jungle to the lair of his enemy Hugo Drax.
Local guides are expecting a rush of visitors this week and the Guatemalan government forecasts a record 235,000 foreign tourists for December. Hotels in Tikal are fully booked.
"There are passionate groups that come," said tour guide Gamaliel Jimenez. "One group told me 'If you don't take us to where they filmed Star Wars, we aren't going to hire you.'"
Israel's Antiquities Authority (IAA), in a joint venture with Google, has launched the Leon Levy Online Library, a free online digitized virtual library featuring the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The launch comes some 11 years after the completion of the publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls, initiated by the IAA, and 65 years after the first scrolls were unearthed in the Caves of Qumran.
The library contains over 5,000 scans of sections of the scrolls, exhibited in optimal resolution. For the first time, anyone can have full access to these scrolls which were, until now, almost inaccessible. The documentation process took two years, and included the usage of advanced software initially developed for NASA's use.
The library includes some 1,000 new scans of the scrolls, 3,500 scans of the negatives taken of the scrolls in the 50s, and a data bank of 900 manuscripts. The documents are displayed on a 1:1 scale, identical to the original in quality.
One can find in the library the oldest existing copies of the Hebrew Bible. Fragments of every book of the Hebrew Bible (except the Book of Esther) were found in the Qumran caves, the most famous of the Dead Sea Scrolls sites.
In addition, the library features passages of Tefillin from the Second Temple, letters and documents and hundreds of additional 2000-year-old texts.
Fragment of Psalms (Photo: Shai Halevi, courtesy of Israel Antiquities Authority)
Zev Erlich, a historian, told Tazpit News Agency that several versions of the Bible were discovered in the caves. Some of the versions are identical to the modern accepted version, others are closer to the Septuagint, and others are close to the version of the Torah retained by the Samaritans. There were probably several versions of the Bible in circulation at the time.
As for the source of this vast collection of manuscripts, this question is still open to speculation and research. They were probably brought there from several locations.
Why? Again, the questions remains unanswered, possibly hidden for safekeeping by refugees fleeing the Roman army during the Bar Kochba Revolt. These findings provide answers and clarify some points, but also raise many other questions about life and belief during the times these documents were written.
Strenuous lab work (Photo: Shai Halevi, courtesy of Israel Antiquities Authority)
The IAA is currently marking the 65th anniversary of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The scrolls were discovered in 1947 by a Bedouin shepherd in search of a runaway sheep. He entered a cave and discovered earth-ware containing documents thousands of years old, which were preserved thanks to the hot and dry climate in the Dead Sea area.
Since this initial discovery, archeologists have uncovered hundreds of other ancient documents in other caves in the area. The scrolls expose a unique variety of beliefs and concepts retained by Jewish sects during the turbulent period of the Second Temple, sharpening academia's understanding in biblical studies, the history of Judaism and the origins of Christianity.
The finding of the Dead Sea Scrolls is considered one of the most important archeological findings in the 20th century.
MOSCOW, December 19 (RIA Novosti) – The Russian Defense Ministry and the Irkut aircraft maker have signed a contract on the delivery of an additional 30 Su-30SM multirole fighter jets to the Russian Air Force by 2016.
The first contract between the Defense Ministry and Irkut for the delivery of 30 Su-30SMs was signed in March. The Russian Air Force received the first two Su-30SM aircraft on November 22.
“In line with the new contract, Irkut will build 30 additional aircraft of this type for the Defense Ministry by 2016,” the ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Su-30SM is the latest development of the twin-seat Su-30 jet fighter family, itself a derivative of the long-serving single-seat SukhoiSu-27, one of the air force's most important warplanes.
The new aircraft has an improved radar, communications and identification-friend-or-foe system, new ejection seat and new weapons. It also has thrust-vectoring engine nozzles and canard foreplanes, providing supermaneuverability at low airspeeds.
