 The first sign says it's a National Democratic Party (NDP) office. Another establishes it as a Ministry of Social Solidarity local unit. A third sign claims it belongs to "El Wayli Kindergarten." But really, the building is a synagogue, a Jewish house of worship. Curious pictures of this Cairo temple were first posted by Egyptian blogger Mostafa Hussein last year.
The photos, which showed a sign of the ruling NDP in front of the building's main door and a handful of employees working inside, generated a buzz in the Egyptian online social networks like Twitter and Facebook. The building, in the eastern Cairo neighborhood of Hadayeq el-Qubba, turned out the bygone synagogue that has been revived for different functions at different times. It consecutively became a public kindergarten, a local headquarters for the NDP, and a local administrative center for the Ministry of Social Solidarity. Signs remain from each of the three functions, suggesting a rather schizophrenic identity. People living in the area recall the building being a synagogue until the 1960s, but aren't entirely sure what has become of it since. "Our building used to be filled with Jews. But they all left. This synagogue used to function long time ago, but I don’t recall when it stopped. Now it has become related to the government," says Saleh Mahdy, a 72-year-old retired accountant who lives in the building adjacent to the synagogue. Equally visually confusing is the presence of a small mosque which has almost cordoned the synagogue with its freshly painted green fence. A men's prayer room stands to the right of the synagogue's main body and a women's prayer room is on the left. According to Mahdy, the mosque is only a handful of years old. “It looks ridiculous. I totally disagree with its presence there,” he says. At night, the synagogue looks like nothing but a distant relic of the past with its huge dark gates and walls with Hebrew inscriptions, run-down stairs, and ancient wooden chairs covered with cobweb. An old woman was seated on the stairs of the synagogue. When asked about it, she said she knew nothing. "My husband used to work as an office boy in the kindergarten. When he died, the [Ministry of] Social Solidarity people gave me a room to stay here," she said, pointing to a small wooden structure behind the synagogue. She had extended a laundry rope from the synagogue’s wall to her small house where she hung her clothes. During the day, the synagogue is the working space for about 30 employees who say they work for the Ministry of Social Solidarity. But inside lies a grandiose structure that features a central cupola, Hebrew inscriptions, spiral stairs, huge marble columns and tiles, and ancient wooden gates and chairs. The original stained glass panes, in the shape of the star of David and other geometrical formations, are mostly intact. In the eastern side of the interior architecture--pointing towards Jerusalem--sits the holy ark, otherwise known as the hechal, a curtained niche where the Torah scrolls were kept. The niche is now covered by a makeshift curtain, but the scrolls are long gone. Instead, a bunch of old government folders are scattered behind the curtain. Above the niche, an old Fatah poster of President Gamal Abdel Nasser fails to hide the faded but legible golden Hebrew letters, spelling "Gateway to the Righteous." Above those still are a pair of tablets, on which are inscribed the ten commandments. The "Eternal Light" that hangs above the niche, a common feature in all synagogues, has long been turned out. In stark contrast to the historical feeling of the synagogue are wooden partitions that divide the space into quasi-offices. Employees sit behind grey metal desks reminiscent of a 1960s and 1970s office style. When Al-Masry Al-Youm paid the office a surprise visit, the employees were having their usual breakfast of fuul and taamiya. "We’ve been here for the past 20 years. They keep telling us it’s a temporary location," said a female employee. "Didn’t they occupy Al-Aqsa mosque? We’re occupying them here," said another. Many complained that the synagogue is not the perfect working environment because it’s too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer. "It’s so old that I feel there are ghosts hidden somewhere in the walls," said another woman. Despite the seeming lack of local knowledge about the 400-square-meter synagogue, it does have a long history. It was built by an Egyptian Jewish family that resided in the neighborhood. “This temple was built by the Adda family,” says Carmen Weinstein, president of the Egyptian Jewish Community Council (JCC). "The Adda's were a Jewish Egyptian family of industrialists and bankers, who contributed to the growth of the Egyptian economy in the 1940s. I wish the state would preserve this temple, which is unique in this part of the city." For Jewish communities in Egypt before 1952 it was customary to erect neighborhood synagogues. "In each neighborhood, the local Jewish collectivity built a synagogue," says Weinstein, who also points out that while 29 synagogues once existed in Cairo, only 13 remain. When contacted for more information about the building, Cairo Governorate officials expressed surprise with respect to the building's unusual status, and gratitude that Al-Masry Al-Youm reporters brought the matter to their attention.
According to one governorate employee who wanted to remain anonymous, the building is recognized in the district's files, but has no licenses or ownership documents. Read more at almasryalyoum 
 By Alan Caruba When President Obama delivers a speech on why he is going to send more thousands of U.S. troops and spend more billions on the eight-year-old conflict in Afghanistan, it would be a good idea to better understand why so much of what is reported from the Middle East suffers a great disconnect from the truth.
In 1998, Joris Luyendijk , a Dutch student who had studied Arabic at Cairo University for a year, was offered a job as a Middle East correspondent for a Dutch news agency despite having no experience as a reporter. What followed was his real education about the Middle East and the way it is presented to the West by the news media.
His book about that experience, “People Like Us: Misrepresenting the Middle East” was initially published in the Netherlands in 2006 and has since then it has been translated and published in Hungary, Italy, Denmark and Germany. In October an English edition was published by Soft Skull Press, an imprint of Counterpoint, a Berkeley, California publisher.
Having begun my career as a journalist, I was interested to learn what Luyendijk had taken from his years hopping around the Middle East before and after 9/11 and during the two Iraq wars waged by the U.S. to resolve a problem called Saddam Hussein.
For anyone digesting the news from his morning newspaper or watching it on television, suspecting that it might be biased or wrong, this book that focuses on reporting from the Middle East is a revelation because Luyendijk strives mightily to expose the way the news is manipulated by all the parties involved.
Covering his experiences from 1998 to 2003, the author is refreshingly candid, admitting that, despite his student year in Cairo, he had little or no real understanding of Egypt or the rest of the Middle East.
There is, however, one thing that anyone can understand. The Middle East is composed of dictatorships and the sole purpose of each one is to survive. To do that, their people must be constantly indoctrinated and fearful. That is made possible by rendering them, individually and as a group, powerless. There simply is no such thing as justice or the opportunity to express an opinion in opposition to the leader.
Significantly, those living in the Middle East cannot make an informed judgment of what is occurring around them because they operate two points of view that are very real to them. First is a widely accepted sense of victimhood, and, second, they believe that Israel, ultimately, is manipulating the entire world!
Conversely, Americans who have no contact with the Middle East beyond the headlines and snapshots of bloodshed and warfare are comparably unable to make informed judgments about a people who differ among themselves in many ways.
The Middle East is very different from the West and Luyendijk believes that few in the West are even vaguely aware that those who live there live in a parallel universe; one that functions by the rules of ruthless dictatorships, by tribes, and by a religion that is hostile to all others.
Democracy is not likely to take root in the Middle East and this can be traced to the prevailing religion of the region, Islam. The only reason democracy occurred in Turkey is because the founder of the modern state, Ataturk, isolated Islam from the conduct of governance and that has been backed up by an army that has, thus far, ensured the separation.
 CAIRO — Developers unveiled the restoration of a 650-year-old mosque in Cairo's old city, part of an effort to revitalize the impoverished district and boost tourism to the country's treasure trove of Islamic sites. The three-year, $1.4 million project restored the Aslam al-Silahdar Mosque, built in 1344-1345 by Aslam al-Bahai, an amir or nobleman who rose to the position of "silahdar," or "swordbearer" for Sultan al-Nasir Mohammed, one of the most powerful of Egypt's Mamluk rulers. It is tucked into Cairo's al-Darb al-Ahmar district, a dense warren of narrow, dusty alleyways.
Many of its 92,000 inhabitants are among the poorest in Egypt, living on less than $1 a day, according to the Canadian Development Agency, which works in the community. The neighborhood is also packed with antiquities — an Islamic monument about every 20 yards, ranging from Cairo's early days in the 11th century to more modern times. The area is "comparable to Rome" in terms of monuments, said Luis Monreal, the general manager of the Agha Khan Trust for Culture, an agency of the Agha Khan Development Network, which directed the renovation of the Aslam Mosque, unveiled on Wednesday. A handful of American donors contributed to the conservation efforts, including the American Research Center in Egypt with a grant from USAID, and the U.S. Ambassador Fund. The Aslam Mosque was redone from floor to ceiling. Hanging lamps illuminate Islamic-style archways and smooth stone floors. On the exterior, elegant green and black Arabic calligraphy scrolls around the base of the mosque's prominent dome. A square adjoining the mosque was also renovated. Many of the mosques, mausoleums and Islamic schools in the district are dilapidated and crumbling after decades of neglect. Until recently, the Egyptian government also did little to encourage tourism to the area, and most foreign visitors ignored the area in favor of pharaonic sites such as the Giza Pyramids. Dina Bakhoum, conservation programs manager for AKTC's Egypt branch, said al-Darb al-Ahmar has "great potential to become one of Cairo's major attractions." The agency — funded by the Agha Khan, hereditary leader of the Nizari branch of Shiite Islam — is carrying out a wider urban renewal project in al-Darb al-Ahmar. In recent years, the Egyptian government also has carried out extensive renovations on mosques and sought to increase the amount of tourism to Islamic sites. Source: FoxNews
 Ali Waked Islamist group's spokesman claims his brother was tortured to death in Egyptian prison, says will pursue legal action in international courts Hamas Spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri threatened to file a grievance against Cairo with an international court for allegedly desecrating the remains of his brother, who died while serving a prison sentence in Egypt. Zuhri claims that his brother's death was a result of torture and that the body was not intact when it was returned to the family.
The brother, a known Hamas operative, died of what Egyptian authorities claimed to be natural causes, two weeks ago. Both the family and the Islamist group blamed Cairo for torturing him to death, further claiming that in the days prior to his death, he sent family messages begging them to help him before he succumbs to torture.
In a Hamas press conference held after the death was announced, the group slammed "the ugly crime," demanding Egyptian leadership "probe this grievous crime and prosecute the offenders." Zuhri rejected the Egyptian Prosecution's autopsy report as false: "Why was an autopsy performed without the family's knowledge or presence? Why were parts of the body taken before it was returned to us?
"Why did it take (Egypt) four days to inform us of the death? We learned of it from other inmates in the prison.
"The report will not close this case," he added. "We are gearing to address the situation through legal channels and international human rights organizations." Egyptian authorities rejected the accusations as baseless.
 Iran has denied newspaper reports that its officials held secret talks recently with their Israeli counterparts to explore the possibility of declaring the Middle East a nuclear-free zone. The Haaretz on Thursday reported that Meirav Zafary-Odiz, of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission, and Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), met several times on September 29 and 30 in Cairo, the Egyptian capital. But Ali Shirzadia, the spokesman for the Islamic Republic's atomic energy organisation, said there was no truth in the claim.
"This lie is a kind of psychological operation designed to affect the constant success of Iran's dynamic diplomacy in the Geneva and Vienna meetings," Shirzadia was quoted by Iran state television's website on Thursday as saying. The Haaretz report said that the talks in Cairo were the first direct meeting between official representatives of the two countries since the fall of the Shah in 1979. The meetings were held behind closed doors, and all participants committed to complete secrecy to allow a full and frank discussion, the paper said.
But it added that news of the talks was leaked by Australian sources to the Australian daily, The Age.
The reported meetings came amid controversy over Iran's nuclear programme. Western countries, notably the US, accuse Tehran of seeking to develop atomic weapons, but Iran insists its nuclear facilities are for non-military use.
Israel, which neither denies nor confirms possession of nuclear weapons, is said to have any where between 100 and 200 nuclear warheads, making it the sixth-largest nuclear power.
Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferataion Treaty (NPT), but Israel is not.
Haaretz reported the meetings were held at the Four Seasons Hotel under the auspices of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND). They were also attended by representatives of the Arab League, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, along with European and American officials.
During the meetings, Zafary-Odiz explained the Israeli policy of being willing, in principle, to discuss the Middle East as a nuclear-free zone, according to Haaretz.
The paper added that she detailed Israel's unique strategic situation, saying regional security must be strengthened, security arrangements agreed upon and a peace agreement sealed before Tel Aviv would feel at liberty to discuss nuclear disarmament. The exchanges between the two officials took place within three panel sessions, the paper reported. Each session dealt with one of the issues with which the ICNND is concerned - declaring the Middle East a nuclear-free zone, preventing nuclear proliferation in the region and matters of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Zafary-Odiz and Soltanieh did not meet or shake hands outside the sessions.
According to Haaretz, Soltanieh directly asked Zafary-Odiz in one of the sessions: "Do you or do you not have nuclear weapons?" Zafary-Odiz smiled, but did not respond. Source: Al Jazeera (English)
 CAIRO — Security guards thwarted an attempted hijacking Wednesday on an EgyptAir flight from Istanbul to Cairo by overpowering a man who threatened crew with a knife, a security official for the airline said. A Sudanese man used a knife from the in-flight meal to threaten crew members and demanded that the flight be diverted to Jerusalem, the official said.
Guards on the flight were able to detain the man and no one was hurt, he said. The flight landed safely at Cairo airport, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not an official spokesman. Turkish aviation authorities did not immediately have any information on the incident. Source: FoxNews
 DANIEL FLITTON Australia has helped accomplish the seemingly impossible - bringing Israel and Iran into the same room for high-level talks on nuclear weapons. The meeting took place with little public fanfare in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, last month as part of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament, an expert panel assembled by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to help rid the world of nuclear arms. Coming only days after Tehran revealed it had secretly constructed a uranium enrichment plant, participants said there was a ''very robust exchange'' between the Israeli and Iranian officials. Iran's suspected nuclear weapons ambitions have drawn widespread condemnation, while Israel is the only regional country to possess atomic weapons - a program Tel Aviv has never officially acknowledged. While careful not to claim any breakthrough at the talks, sources have told The Age both sides engaged in ''serious discussions'' and canvassed the idea of a nuclear-weapons-free zone in the Middle East. Contact between Israeli and Iranian officials is sporadic and only takes place at international forums - no formal meetings between the two countries have occurred since the 1979 Iranian revolution. Officials from Egypt, Jordan, Turkey and other regional countries also took part in the three-day meeting and it is believed the talks floated an idea for a further regional conference - possibly hosted by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon - to outline the broad aims of a treaty to create a Middle East nuclear-free zone. Similar ideas have stalled in the past over the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict and questions of security guarantees for Israel. But last month's talks in Egypt attempted to skirt such obstacles by focusing on proposals to safeguard any fissile material in the region that could potentially be used for nuclear weapons. Iran's senior envoy to the meeting was its ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ali Asghar Soltanieh. Israel sent the director of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission, Merav Zafary-Odiz. Israel's former foreign affairs minister, Shlomo Ben-Ami, was also at the meeting in a non-official role. The high-level representatives are believed to have impressed regional diplomats who observed the proceedings. A further meeting of the commission - jointly chaired by Australia and Japan - begins in Hiroshima at the weekend in advance of a final report expected at the end of the year. A Lowy Institute poll this week appeared to deliver strong backing for the Government's nuclear disarmament efforts, with 69 per cent of Australians rating their most serious international fear as the threat that unfriendly countries might obtain nuclear weapons. Source: The Age
 Muslim scholars have questioned plans by the head of Egypt's most famous university to ban female students from veiling their faces on its premises and affiliated educational establishments. Shaikh Ali Abu al-Hasan, the former head of the Fatwa Council at the Islamic Studies Institute (ISI) in Cairo, said although it was not required by Islam for women to cover their faces, Al-Azhar University should allow women to chose what they want to wear. "No official has the right to order a young lady to remove a form of dress that was sanctioned by none other than Umar ibn al-Khattab, except for the purposes of identification for security reasons," he said. "The niqab [face veil] is not in contravention of the sharia or Egyptian law." Shaikh Safwat Hijazi, a scholar and preacher, said he would personally sue anyone who prevented his daughter or wife wearing full niqab from going about her daily life, including entering government offices. "Preventing a woman from wearing what she wants is a crime," Hijazi said. "Whoever says the niqab is a custom is not respectable." Husam Bahgat, of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, said the series of government decisions against the niqab are "arbitrary" and while designed to combat extremism, only end up being discriminatory against women. "[Veiled female students] are barred from government subsidised housing and nutrition because they are considered extremists," he said. But other Egyptian scholars, such as the ISI's Abd ul-Hamid al-Atrash, said there would be nothing wrong with such a ruling at a time when the anonymity afforded by the face veil was being abused by people intent on causing trouble. "There have even been instances of men entering [schools for girls] under cover. So there is no reason why a ruling that benefits the people and the nation cannot be issued", al-Atrash said. And Abd ul-Moati Bayumi, a scholar in an al-Azhar affiliated research centre, said most scholars would back Tantawi if he issued the order. "We all agree that niqab is not a religious requirement," Bayoumi said.
"Taliban forces women to wear the niqab ... . The phenomena is spreading" and it has to be confronted. "The time has come." Read more here,,,, Source: Al Jazeera English
 Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister
Saud Al-Faisal walks in front
of flags of Arab countries as he
chairs an Arab foreign ministers
emergency meeting in CairoBy Salah Nasrawi Saudi Arabia's foreign minister on Wednesday blamed Palestinian divisions for Israel's onslaught on Gaza, a reflection of U.S.-allied Arab governments' anger at the Hamas militant group. Saud al-Faisal made the comments at an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers in the Egyptian capital, convened to try to put together a joint response by the deeply divided Arab nations to the Israeli offensive, which has killed more than 370 Palestinians and sparked outrage across the Middle East. Pro-U.S. Arab countries — Egypt, in particular — have come under heavy criticism in widespread street protests, as well as from Iran, Hamas, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, for allegedly not doing enough to stop Israel or help Gazans. Officials and pro-government media in Egypt and Saudi Arabia have responded by blaming Hamas for provoking Israel and accusing the militant group of being a proxy promoting the power of regional rival Iran. Saud's comments criticizing the Palestinians were notable because in past Israeli offensives against Arabs, Arab leaders would rarely voice anything but heavy condemnations against Israel. Saud stopped short of directly criticizing Hamas — but it was clear from his talk of "Palestinian divisions" that his words were directed at the militant group, which took over the Gaza Strip in 2007 in a battle against loyalists of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. "This terrible massacre would not have happened if the Palestinian people were united behind one leadership speaking in one voice," Saud said at the league meeting's opening. Read more ...Source: AP
 |
|
|
Copyright Muslims Against Sharia 2008. All rights reserved.
E-mail: info AT ReformIslam.org
|
|
|
The first sign says it's a National Democratic Party (NDP) office. Another establishes it as a Ministry of Social Solidarity local unit. A third sign claims it belongs to "El Wayli Kindergarten." But really, the building is a synagogue, a Jewish house of worship.
Posts
