Two Egyptians arrested at bookfair for selling Bibles

The Egyptian State Security Investigations arrested yesterday Sunday two Christian men. Mina Adel Shawky, a Pharmaceutical student and Essam Kadis Nassif, at the Cairo International Book Fair. Both were charged with proselytizing.

According to a Press Release received from Dr. Naguib Gabraeel, President of the Egyptian Human Rights Confederation, that he called upon the State Security Investigations to rapidly release the two detainees, as their action would escalate religious tensions.He added that there is no such thing as "crime of proselytizing " in the law, for which a person could be penalised for.He also said that arresting those two men is against the principle of equality, and questioned what would have happened if these two men were Muslims distributing the Koran?!

Especially there are whole wings at the Fair, full of Islamic books and the Koran, which are distributed for free.Dr. Gabraeel assured that should the State Security not release them, he would call for a sit-in, to embarrass the Authorities by not treating its citizens equally.

Arab World - battleground for Anglican Communion

The Archbishop of Sudan, the Most Reverend Daniel Deng, is in Alexandria at the moment. He again called for the resignation of the Right Reverend Gene Robinson, the openly gay bishop of New Hampshire, and of the clergy those who consecrated him. Deng last summer shocked Anglicans by issuing a statement condemning the 2003 decision to consecrate Robinson, a non-celibate gay man, and the US bishops responsible for his appointment.

The position was supported by the Episcopal Church of Sudan, which with has four million followers, 300 primary schools and 24 dioceses. It had previously remained neutral on the issue of homosexuality. The unexpected statement was of special concern for the US Episcopal Church, which enjoys close ties to the African country.

On the penultimate day of a meeting between the world's archbishops and senior bishops to address regional and international concerns, Deng was asked whether he had changed his stance on Robinson and the US Episcopal Church.

He replied: "We are asking that within the primates meeting and the situation on the statement remains the same. We have not deviated. What is needed is for churches in the Anglican world to wrestle with these issues so it comes to an end."

His comments could cast a shadow over the candid, yet cordial conversations that have been taking place between primates during the week.

Delegates have described the atmosphere as constructive and collegial and a contrast to the rancorous and confrontational nature of their 2007 meeting in Tanzania.

Deng's comments will disappoint those who were keen to minimise public comments on homosexuality; he is the first primate to break ranks and reiterate the unresolved differences between some Anglican provinces and his response overshadowed his other appeal - for fellow primates to lobby their governments to press for peace and reconciliation in Sudan.

He said: "I strongly ask the Anglican Communion not to abandon the people of Sudan in this time of danger and uncertainty.

"I appeal to to above all do something so that the Comprehensive Peace Agreement may not slip away."

Signs of strain are beginning to show. The archbishops of Nigeria and Uganda failed to appear for a group photograph in the hotel grounds, nor did they materialise for a high-profile visit to the prestigious Alexandrian Library.

See Guardian

"Islam Has Distorted the Concept of Honor"

Wafa Sultan: "If Islam really treated women with honor, we would see the positive consequences of that honor over the course of the past 14 centuries. Islam did not treat women with honor. On the contrary, it has distorted the concept of honor.

"My brother Rashid, I can call this pen a knife for 14 centuries, but it will never become a knife. It will remain a pen. Islam has turned these concepts upside-down, and has forced its followers to see things as their opposites – to view killing and beheading as an act of tolerance, to view taking a woman captive as an act of compassion, to view the plundering of spoils of war as their right, and to view masturbation against a little girl's thighs as marriage.

"Thus, it has destroyed the intellectual structure of the Arabic-speaking nation, and has produced people who cannot distinguish between things and their opposites – people with distorted thinking and warped mentality, as infertile as barren land, which cannot yield a thing.

"The best proof of this is the reality of Islam. When the Prophet Muhammad married the child 'Aisha, this was not an act of honor toward her childhood. When Muhammad married Zaynab, the wife of his adopted son, after seeing her naked and desiring her, this was not an act of honor toward married women. When Muhammad married the Jewish woman Safiya, upon his return from a raid in which he killed her father, brother, and husband, this was not an act of honor toward her. The same goes for all his marriages."

"The Subjugation of Women Reduces Them to a Level Lower Than Beasts – Not to Mention the Laws of Inheritance, Testimony in Court, The Beating Of A Wife Who Refuses to Go to Bed With Her Husband, And 'Honor' Crimes"

"Accusing women of being 'lacking in brains' is not an act of honor toward her. Human beings – whether male or female – are the property of their Creator. No human being has the right to own another. The subjugation of women reduces them to a level lower than beasts – not to mention the laws of inheritance, testimony in court, the beating of a wife who refuses to go to bed with her husband, and 'honor' crimes.

"Muhammad said in a hadith: 'Three things spoil one's prayer: a woman, a black dog, and a donkey.' Do they ever give this any thought? Do they realize that Allah chose the female body for his greatest invention – creation itself? Wouldn't it be moral to bestow upon the female body a certain holiness, instead of viewing it as impure?" [...]

"In The Arab Countries In Particular, You Cannot Say That the Status of Women Has Nothing to Do With Islam... Islam is An All-Embracing Faith, Which Intervenes in the Smallest Details of a Person's Life"

"As for the intellectuals who claim that Islam honors women, they remind me of someone trying to catch two rabbits, which are running in opposite directions, and never catching either one. On the one hand, they try to convince the reader or the viewer that they are 'liberal' and progressive, and support women's rights, while on the other hand, they try to please the clerics and their followers by claiming that Islam honors women. History will show that they were deceivers, not intellectuals''.

"In my opinion, in the Arab countries in particular, you cannot say that the status of women has nothing to do with Islam. You cannot deny that there is a connection between the two. Islam is an all-embracing faith, which intervenes in the smallest details of a person's life – beginning with the way he should enter the toilet, and ending with – excuse my language – the way he should wipe his behind.

"Since Islam is an Arab religion, it has succeeded in erasing the culture, customs, and traditions of the Arabic-speaking peoples, more than in Islamic nations that are not Arabic speaking. Therefore, in the Arab world in particular, the status of women is an inevitable outcome of the Islamic teachings." [...]

"I Firmly Believe That the Islamic Faith Was Created to Serve Muhammad, and to Legitimize His Desires and Urges"

"I firmly believe that the Islamic faith was created to serve Muhammad, and to legitimize his desires and urges. As evidence, we have 'Aisha's words: 'I see that your Lord hastens to satisfy your desires.' These words, which she said with innocence and spontaneity, embody the goal for which the Islamic faith was formed.

"Islam allowed men to marry infants in order to justify Muhammad's marriage to 'Aisha. Islam forbade adoption in order to justify Muhammad's marriage to the wife of his adopted son – a thing forbidden by the pre-Islamic moral values of the Arabs. Islam permitted taking women captive and violating their honor in order to justify Muhammad's marriage to Safiya, after killing her husband, her father, and her brother that same night. Can you imagine any woman on the face of this earth witnessing with her own eyes the killing of her husband, her father, and her brother, and accepting the religion of their killer on the spot, and sleeping with him?! Can the human mind possibly accept such a story?" [...]

"I Have Witnessed Many Crimes Against Women Perpetrated Within My Extended Family and In the Framework of My Work"

"I personally did not suffer, but I have witnessed many crimes against women perpetrated within my extended family and in the framework of my work. As a doctor, I have entered homes that have not seen the light of day, and I have witnessed many crimes against women, perpetrated under the influence of Islamic teachings.

"In my family – at the age of 12 at most, my sister's daughter was forced to marry her cousin, who was over 40 years old. Her life with him was an intolerable hell on earth. When she felt there was no escape from this hell, she committed suicide. She set fire to herself, and within minutes she became ashes, leaving four children behind."

excerpts from an interview with Arab-American psychiatrist Wafa Sultan, which aired on Al-Hayat TV on December 4, 2008.

Rami Khouri: Three demons plague the Arab World

The stark juxtapositions within the Arab world and the wider Middle East-South Asia region were brought home to me one morning this week in Kuwait, where I am participating in a global gathering that seeks to increase the production of indigenous research in the Middle East in order to better influence policy-making. This noble endeavor contrasts sharply with the morning newspaper headlines of suicide bombings in Somalia and Afghanistan, continued military strikes in Israel and Palestine, and the provincial elections in Iraq that happened during a lull between a string of suicide bombings in that country.

Where, in this range of events, is the center of gravity of the Arab world? It is simultaneously in none and all of these developments, for the Arab world is defined both by rampant violence (home-grown and foreign-instigated) and a deep desire to become democratic, productive, and intellectually and culturally vibrant. A key to moving in that direction is understanding the main constraint and the common denominator in all these events. I believe it is the legacy of autocratic, top-heavy, centralized Arab governments that veer into gentle monarchies on the one hand and hard police states on the other.

Read more in The Daily Star - hey! they were broke! nice to see them back again.

Copts asking their government for censorship

A controversial movie still in production about a Coptic Christian woman in Egypt who has a baby out of wedlock after the church’s refusal to grant her a divorce has come under fire from Coptic activists who are seeking to ban the movie for insulting Christianity. Coptic lawyer and activist Nabil Ghobrial warned in an official filing Monday that the Coptic church would sue those involved in the film as well as governmental authorities if production was not halted or the film censored.

But brothers, wait! You are so often suffering from the government's censorship. Why now ask for its application! I really do not think the Copts are wise to do this. Much better, they shoud demand a total lifting of all censorship. That is the direction Arab countries should go. Not backward into asking the government to function as the thought-police.

For more on this issue, see www.watan.com.

Homosexuality a great taboo in the Arab World

A talk show episode on the Lebanese satellite TV channel LBC has caused a stir with Lebanon’s LGBTQ (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer) community for what activists call a “furthering of misconceptions” about gays in the Arab world. On Wednesday, January 28, four “gay guests” from different Arab countries took their seats on the set of “The Bold Red Line - A7mar bil Khat I 3areed” with talk show host Malek Maktabi (picture) to discuss the issues of homosexuality in the Arab world.

“Everything made me angry about that show. They victimized every single guest. The whole thing actually made me scared,” 28-year old Dalia, a member of Lebanon’s lesbian community told MENASSAT.

A flurry of comments have popped up on websites and blogs alternatively praising the show for tackling a taboo subject in the Arab press and vilifying it for the show’s choice of guests.

There was 30-year old Hanan from an unspecified Arab Gulf country. Covered in a niqab, a black veil covering her entire face except for the eyes, she told the audience in effect that she wasn’t gay.

In her own words, she said she was having sexual relations with women out of convenience and that she actually preferred men to women despite what she called “their betrayal nature.”

More on Menassat.

Egypt: Pope Shenouda receives Anglican primates in Alexandria

Following a private meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, the Coptic Pope, received the Primates of the Anglican Communion at the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate in Alexandria on Saturday evening, 31 January.

The Primates are meeting in Alexandria in the latest of their series of regular meetings.

In thanking Pope Shenouda for his warm welcome and hospitality the Archbishop of Canterbury drew attention to the significance of meeting together in the city where many of the universal doctrines of the Christian faith were formed and where the seeds of the Christian monastic movement had been sown in the third century.

Pope Shenouda welcomed the Primates. Bishops, he said, had a special responsibility to guide their people in the path of holiness. Engaging with the young was particularly important. The Coptic Church in Cairo alone was providing Sunday school education to between 30 and 40,000 children. He also gave an account of the resurgence of the Coptic monasteries in Egypt. There were more than twenty communities with over 100 monks each.

Bishop Mouneer Anis, Anglican bishop in Egypt and Primate of the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East thanked Pope Shenouda for his generosity and paid tribute to his extraordinary teaching ministry based at the Coptic Cathedral in Cairo.