IRAN: Key cleric calls for more prayer, less Web surfing

An influential Iranian ayatollah is telling his students to spend more time praying and less time clicking through cyberspace.

Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi, a conservative Islamic cleric and chairman of the Imam Khomeini Research and Education Institute in Qom, said the Internet is rife with dangers and temptations that lead to family problems. He urged seminaries to be vigilant, according to the Mehr news agency.

"If a young student surfs the Internet until late in the night and is not looking for 'scientific subjects,' or if he watches movies and forgets his morning praying, he cannot become a pious man," the ayatollah said.

Mesbah-Yazdi's comments follow warnings last week by another important cleric, who said he worried about a "tremor of non-religiosity in Iranian society. ... The only way to stay safe is relying on the holy book, the Koran."

But Saeed Allahbedashti, an activist and son of a well-known reformist cleric, said: "Unfortunately, 32 years after the Islamic revolution, some top clergymen suppose there is conflict between prayers at night, remembering God and using the Internet. They do not want to realize that a new practicing Muslim generation has emerged in Iran and is using Facebook and other social networks."

He added: "This new generation remembers God at night and observes all Islamic rituals. The Islamic revolution occurred in the context of modernity in Iran, and any practicing Muslim can embrace all kinds of modern tools and technology while maintaining his or her faith in Islam."

-- Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran

Photo: An Iranian cleric in a courtyard of a holy shrine in Qom. Credit: Reuters 

WEST BANK: Olive Revolution seeks free access to East Jerusalem

 

 
 
When Israeli police and soldiers manning Qalandia checkpoint prevented West Bank Muslims under the age of 50 from crossing into Jerusalem to reach Al-Aqsa Mosque to perform the last Friday of Ramadan prayer, the dozens left behind decided to pray at the checkpoint.

When they finished, they, along with Israeli and international supporters from a movement called Olive Revolution, gathered facing Israeli police and soldiers separated only by cement blocks. They chanted anti-occupation slogans and demanded access to East Jerusalem, which Israel has occupied since June 1967.

Dressed in full riot gear, police and soldiers stood their ground, and so did the Palestinians and their supporters. Nothing happened for a short while until young Palestinians began to throw rocks.

Israeli forces responded with tear gas canisters and stun grenades. The crowds quickly dispersed. Shortly after, the situation at the checkpoint returned to normal with street vendors waiting for the thousands who had already crossed the checkpoint to Jerusalem to return to Ramallah in hopes of selling them something.

 

The Olive Revolution wants West Bank residents of all ages to have free access to East Jerusalem and its holy Muslim and Christian places.

“Our presence here is to challenge the concept that Israel has the right to deny people free access to Jerusalem,” said Jonathan Pollak, an Israeli activist and one of the organizers of the Olive Revolution protest.

“We want to create a popular movement that would challenge the system the Israeli occupation has created, and hopefully this will be the start of it,” he said.

Under the slogan “Knocking on Jerusalem’s Gates,” the Olive Revolution, which identifies itself as a popular, humanitarian, non-armed movement against the Israeli occupation, brought its supporters to Qalandia in an attempt to draw international attention to what happens at the checkpoint as people try to reach Jerusalem for worship.

It called on supporters to come to four different checkpoints in the north, south, east and west of Jerusalem to declare that East Jerusalem is part of the territories Israel had occupied in 1967 and that people should be able to reach it freely.

Abdullah Abu Rahmeh, a nonviolent activist who started the popular resistance struggle in his West Bank village of Bilin six years ago, was also at Qalandia.

Normally, he would be in Bilin on Fridays leading the weekly anti-barrier, anti-settlements protest in his village. This time he chose to be at Qalandia, advocating the same message of nonviolent popular resistance.

He did not even think of crossing the checkpoint to Jerusalem to pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque because, he said, he would not be allowed since he previously served time in Israeli jails for his role in resisting the occupation.

“The only way I can reach Jerusalem is if I force my way through the checkpoint, not wait for Israeli permission,” he said.

He and members of the Olive Revolution, who numbered in the dozens, tried to push their way through the Israeli police and army lines, but failed.

After the standoff, they called on their supporters to head back to the buses waiting for them to return to Bilin, about 15 miles northwest of Ramallah, to join the protest there.

But by the time they got there, the Israeli soldiers had already broken up the demonstration.

--Maher Abukhater in Ramallah, West Bank

Photos: (Top) An activist raising a sign as Israeli soldiers look on. (Bottom) The T-shirt of a member of Olive Revolution says,"No to Occupation."/ Credit: Maher Abukhater

ISRAEL: Arabic radio station campaigns against killing of women

A young woman turns up dead. Her husband is held for a few days, then released. Police have no other suspects. Murmurs of "family honor" are heard -- and the news races on, reluctant to deal with a painful issue: the killing of women in Arab society.

Until now.

A few years ago, Duah Fares was within reach of a dream as a finalist in a local beauty pageant. Not everyone was proud of the groundbreaking model who changed her name to the less ethnically conspicuous "Angelina." As the swimsuit stage of the competition neared, displeasure over the break from tradition became heavy pressure and Fares withdrew from the competition when it became clear that her life was in danger.

Her younger sister, Jamila, was also an aspiring beauty pageant contestant; she too changed her name to the more cosmopolitan "Maya" before taking a safer path of marriage and a job in a shop. It wasn't safer. Maya, 21, is the last statistic in a grim tally.

Most of the 35 women murdered in Israel since the beginning of 2010 were killed by close relatives. Sixteen of them were Arab women, sadly over-represented given that their community makes up 20% of Israeli society.

EGYPT: Christian tycoon faces wave of Muslim anger over bearded Mickey Mouse photo

A picture of Mickey Mouse with long beard and Minnie with a full-face veil posted on businessman Naguib Sawiris’ Twitter account has enraged Muslims and prompted 15 lawyers to file a lawsuit against him for blasphemy and insulting Islam.

The Christian Copt telecommunications mogul, who has emerged as a provocative voice in post-revolutionary Egypt, apologized on Twitter, saying that he meant the picture to be humorous, not an affront to the country's majority population of Muslims. "I apologize for those who don’t take this as a joke. I just thought it was a funny picture no disrespect meant! I’m sorry,” the magnate tweeted.

Nonetheless, Sawiris’ apology wasn’t enough to halt the fury and criticism from many Muslims, especially the ultraconservative Salafis, whose lawyers have already sued the billionaire. A Facebook group launched under the name “we are also joking, Sawiris” gathered no less than 90,000 members in recent days, calling for boycotting products or services sold by any of the businessman’s companies, especially the Mobinil mobile phone company.  

IRAN: Tens of thousands converge on Tehran shrine to commemorate the death of Ayatollah Khomeini

Dressed in black, they came by the tens of thousands from near and far, pouring into the streets of southern Tehran and massing at the Khomeini Mausoleum to commemorate the 22nd anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic on Saturday.

“I’ve walked almost 24 hours from the holy city of Qom to get here,” a 36-year-old cleric and father of two, who had walked barefoot to the capital to pay his respects, told the Times. “I am a pilgrim of the late great Khomeini's holy shrine. I am ready to sacrifice myself and my family for sake of the revolution and the current supreme leader.”

The ceremony, an annual event, was marked by tight security and attended by a number of high-ranking Iranian political and military officials, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Khomenei’s successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who called for unity among ruling conservatives and rapprochement among rival political factions in a speech he delivered at the shrine. It was his second major call in the last 10 days to heal the rifts between Ahmadinejad and Khamenei’s own conservative political allies.

"In the country there are different political views," he was quoted as saying by Agence France-Presse.

LEBANON: Hezbollah chief calls on Syrians to stand by Assad regime

You don't bite the hand that feeds you.

After heartily hailing popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt earlier this year, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has been unenthusiastic about the wave of anti-government protests in Syria, the Shiite militant group's close ally. 

In a speech late Wednesday, Nasrallah threw his full support behind the Syrian regime and denounced international sanctions slapped on Syria for an ongoing brutal crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators that human rights  activists say has left more than 1,000 people dead.

Speaking via video link before a large crowd of supporters in a Hezbollah stronghold in the Lebanese Bekka valley marking the 11th anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from south Lebanon, Nasrallah called on Syrians to stand by the regime led by president Bashar Assad and urged them to give the Syrian leadership a chance.

"We call on all Syrians to preserve their country as well as the ruling regime, a regime of resistance, and to give their leaders a chance to cooperate with all Syria's communities in order to implement the necessary reforms," he was quoted as saying in media reports.

KUWAIT: Lawmakers throw punches in parliamentary fight over Guantanamo prisoners

The Kuwaiti parliament became a scene of chaos Wednesday when a fistfight broke out between Shiite and Sunni Muslim lawmakers during a session about Kuwaiti detainees at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The brawl began after Shiite lawmaker Hussein Kallaf denounced a number of Kuwaiti detainees held at Guantanamo as Al Qaeda militants, according to local media reports.

Sunni lawmakers immediately fired back, with Muslim Brotherhood lawmaker Jamaan Harbash telling Kallaf that the aim of the debate was not to discuss Al Qaeda but Guantanamo detainees. 

Tumult then broke out, and fists began to fly among the lawmakers, prompting security guards to try to break up the fight. The pan-Arab news channel Al Arabiya reported that several lawmakers were involved in the brawl; other media reports said it involved two Sunni and two Shiite lawmakers.

IRAN: Court postpones eye-for-an-eye punishment for man who threw acid on woman

Iranian courts have delaying the punishment of a man who was sentenced to blinding by acid for his attack on a woman seven years ago.

Majid Movahedi, then 21, poured more than a gallon of sulfuric acid on Ameneh Bahrami in 2004 after she rejected his offer of marriage. 

Bahrami, who was a successful and ambitious engineer in Tehran, now lives in Spain where she has been undergoing a series of surgeries.

Movahedi, after Bahrami's relentless efforts to seek justice, went on trial in 2008 and was given the rare sentence of blinding. He was to have been placed under anesthesia and blinded at the Tehran prison where he is being held.

EGYPT: Police use tear gas, fire shots as protesters gather outside Israeli Embassy

Egyptian riot police fired tear gas and live ammunition at several hundred protesters gathered outside the Israeli Embassy in the Cairo suburb of Giza late Sunday.

At least two dozen protesters were injured, a health ministry official told Egyptian state television. A security official told the Associated Press that one of the injured was in critical condition Sunday.

The protest followed calls on Facebook for a march on Israel on Sunday in solidarity with Palestinians marking Nakba Day, the anniversary of the displacement of Palestinians with the founding of Israel in 1948.

EGYPT: New laws planned to fight sectarian violence

Clashes between Muslims and Coptic Christians that left a dozen people dead last week have led the Egyptian government to consider new regulations criminalizing sectarian violence.

A new committee will consider laws banning protests outside places of worship and prohibiting the use of religious slogans by political parties, as well as forming a unified law for building houses of worship, according to a statement released Wednesday by the Egyptian ministers' Cabinet.

Coptic Christians, about 10% of Egypt’s population of 80 million, have long complained that the Egyptian government forces them to overcome onerous bureaucratic red tape in order to build new churches, while Muslim counterparts have no difficulty constructing new mosques. 

Timeline: Revolution in Egypt

Tensions soared in Egypt on Saturday when several thousand conservative, or Salafi, Muslims rioted around a church in Giza, about 12 miles southwest of the capital, following allegations that a female Muslim convert was being held there against her will by Coptic priests.

Copts gathered around the church to prevent Muslims from entering. The confrontation that seemed inevitable was soon triggered as bullets and Molotov cocktails began flying.

More than 240 people were injured and a nearby church was torched.

The woman in question, Abeer Talaat Fakhry, broke her silence and spoke to Egyptian and Arab media on Monday, confirming that she converted to Islam last September and was abducted and held inside the Coptic church. She said she managed to escape amid Saturday’s violence.

While her story was disputed by a Giza priest, local news site Dostor.org published a purported copy of a certificate proving her conversion.

A number of Islamic clerics have argued that Fakhry converted to divorce her Coptic husband and marry a Muslim. Coptic Christians in Egypt cannot obtain a civil divorce.

Egyptian military authorities have detained more than 200 suspects in connection with Saturday’s violence, including a Salafi cleric accused of inciting hatred against Copts in a video streamed online before clashes erupted.

A fact-finding panel appointed by the National Council for Human Rights said Wednesday that "groups that can be described as thugs" and might be related to the regime of former President Hosni Mubarak may have played a role in igniting Saturday's clashes in order to disrupt Egypt's post-revolution progress.

Hundreds of Copts have been protesting outside Egyptian state TV headquarters in Cairo since Sunday, calling for the swift capture and trial of those responsible for the clashes and demanding better protection in their homeland.

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-- Amro Hassan in Cairo

Photo: A church burns during Saturday's clashes in Giza. Credit. Ben Curtis / Associated Press

EGYPT: Islamic leader condemns Osama bin Laden's sea burial

The head of Cairo's Al Azhar institution, the most influential seat of Sunni Muslim learning, said that the burial of Osama bin Laden at sea was a violation of Islamic tradition.

The action “runs contrary to the principles of Islamic laws, religious values and humanitarian customs," Sheik Ahmed Tayeb was quoted as saying by Associated Press.

The customary Muslim practice is to place the body in a grave with the head pointed toward the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Sea burials are permitted only when death occurs on a ship, and the body cannot be quickly brought to shore, religious scholars said.

U.S. officials said a burial at sea was chosen after Bin Laden was killed in a firefight in Pakistan because no country would accept the remains. They said Muslim tradition was followed, with the body washed, wrapped in a white sheet and buried within 24 hours.

— Alexandra Zavis

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IRAN: Cleric uses erotic poem to warn opposition in Friday sermon

A racy allusion in a Friday prayer sermon by Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati has become the talk of Iran.

He invoked a well-known poem about an intimate coupling between a maidservant and a donkey to issue a warning to opposition supporters.

"The foe always try to use psychological warfare against the Islamic regime to tarnish the image of the system inside and outside the country," he said (Persian link). "Therefore, I tell them, the enemies, to go and study the story of the pumpkin."

The "pumpkin" refers to a famous story by the 13th century mystical poet Rumi, "The Importance of Gourdcrafting," in which a resourceful maidservant who sleeps with a donkey uses a pumpkin as a marital aid.

When the lady of the house catches on, she decides to follow suit. But rather than consulting the maidservant she sends her away without obtaining the secret of the pumpkin, and is killed by the donkey.

The story is intended as a parable about the dangers of immoderation. At the end of the poem, the maidservant returns and chides the dead woman for her arrogance. "You opened your shop before a master taught you the craft," the poem reads.

Jannati's message to the opposition seems to be "Don't take on more than you can handle."

-- Los Angeles Times