RUTHFULLY YOURS

markdurie.com blog

Outlawry in Egypt: the disturbing case of Sayyid Al-Qemany, friend of freedom

Things are not going well for lovers of freedom in Egypt.
Egypt is under a moral and spiritual siege. Freedom of speech is deteriorating rapidly, because of rather than in spite of the ‘Arab Spring’. A recent incident illustrates the critical state of affairs for free-thinking Egyptians.

Sayyid Al-Qemany is a well-known 64 year old prize-winning intellectual and writer on religious and political topics who has emphasised the importance of critical thinking, and opposed Islamic radicalism. He has argued for the separation of religion and state and demanded the repeal of article 2 of the Egyptian Constitution, which stipulates that the Islamic sharia is the main source of the nation’s legislation.

Al-Qemany identifies as a Muslim, but believes the Islamic faith should apply to the domain of personal belief and sacred ritual, not politics. He has also pointed out that not all the verses of the Qur’an are applicable today – such as laws permitting slavery and concubinage – and some are not even followed in any Islamic jurisdiction in the modern world.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israeli-brothers-crowned-world-debating-champions-1.405442

Israeli brothers crowned world debating champions
Omer and Sella Nevo secure Israeli title at world university debating championships for third year in a row.

By Riva Gold

The Israeli team won the World University Debating Championships in the category of the English as a Second Language on Tuesday, securing the title for the third year in a row.Tel Aviv University students and brothers Omer Nevo, 26, and Sella Nevo, 22, traveled to Manila and brought home the gold as the first-place team and the first and second-place ESL speakers, respectively.

Israeli brothers, Sella and Omer Nevo, hold their trophy after winning the World University Debating Championships in Manila on January 3, 2012. Photo courtesy of the Nevo brothers

In their final round, the two mathematics and computer science students beat out teams from Malaysia, Berlin, and the Netherlands in a debate that was streamed live online.

In addition to winning the championship, the Nevo brothers broke a record by collecting the most points in the preliminary rounds and narrowly missing the non-ESL octofinal rounds.

KOSOVO WAS AN INTEGRAL AND ANCIENT PART OF SERBIA. THE INFAMOUS HOLBROOKE/ALBRIGHT DOCTRINE ABANDONED REASON AND INTEGRITY AND PRESSED FOR KOSOVO INDEPENDENCE LEAVING THE AREA IN THE HANDS OF JIHADISTS AND ORGAN TRAFFICKING HASHIM THACI. EVEN THE NYTIMES CARRIED THE SINISTER STORY: PLEASE READ THIS COLUMN AND THE PETITION FOR HELP…..RSK
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/world/europe/16kosovo.html?_r=1&src=twrhp

“PARIS — A two-year international inquiry has concluded that the prime minister of Kosovo led a clan of criminal entrepreneurs whose activities included trafficking in organs extracted from Serbian prisoners executed during the Kosovo conflict in 1999.The inquiry, prepared for the Council of Europe, names the prime minister, Hashim Thaci, as the boss of the Drenica Group, an organized crime network that flourished in Kosovo and Albania after the war and exerted control over numerous rackets, including the heroin trade, and six secret detention centers in Albania, some used in a black market in human organs.”

http://www.virtualjerusalem.com/blogs.php?Itemid=4925

WHEN DOES 1+1= 3?

When the subject is “Palestine,” and the Arabs and their assorted mouthpieces and rah rah squads are doing the counting.

After the centuries old Ottoman Turkish Empire was dismantled after World War I, many different long suppressed peoples had visions of freedom, self determination, and independence in the new age of nationalism emerging in the region. Diplomats like America’s President Woodrow Wilson, Great Britain’s Sir Mark Sykes, and others encouraged this with their “Fourteen Points” and statements such as “Arabia for the Arabians, Judea for the Jews, Armenia for the Armenians, Kurdistan for the Kurds,” etc. and so forth.

There was just one problem with this, however-and we are living with the tragic consequences of it to this very day…

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2012/01/to-reuters-they-arent-just-jewish.html

To Reuters, they aren’t just “Jewish settlers” anymore
First there were “settlers.”
But that wasn’t inciting enough.
So we then had “Jewish settlers.”
But with overuse, it didn’t bring in the hate that journalists wanted to bring across.
So then came “Right-wing Jewish settlers.”
But even that didn’t capture the seething disgust that objective journalists wanted to convey towards them.
So now we have, from Daylife/Reuters:

“Extreme right wing Jewish settlers, one of them injured from a rock hurled by pro-Palestinian activists during a weekly protest, stand in front of their house in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem December 30, 2011. Some 100 activists protested against the Jewish settlement in the predominantly Arab neighborhood and threw rocks towards a house occupied by the settlers leading them to confront the protesters, to minor clashes.

So people who live in a house in Jerusalem are “extreme right-wing Jewish settlers.”