[Al Ahram] Yet again news comes of Coptic familiesexpelled from their villages, this time in Beni Soueif and Minya, part of the terms of customary reconciliation agreements reached in meetings of local residents,holy mans, and state representatives.
I'm beginning to think the Middle East would be better if it had a dedicated land for Christians the way it has for Jews. Perhaps a big chunk of the Sinai could be set aside for the Copts. Get the other Christians in the region to move there -- they have to move anyways. Put the new nation next to Israel; I'm sure the two would work out mutual self-defense. Then watch the Christians make the desert bloom same as the Israelis have done. We'd have to do our part by giving them enough arms to defend themselves.
The locals and holy mans who take part in these sessions believe they're doing the right thing because it protects families and villages in Upper Egyptby preventing a small-scale dispute from degenerating into a violent sectarian conflict. So they choose flawed solutions to ward off what they see as the greater evil. That's why I don't blame those who infraught circumstances seek to defuse sectarian tension and shut down the strife before it begins.The state, however, is something else. State institutions should be censured for sanctioning the outcome of a customary reconciliation that compels a family to leave its village because one of its members may have done something shameful, provocative, or illegal.
Expulsion from one's village is not a penalty recognized by law. In fact, the Constitution considers it a crime so serious that it is not subject to a statute of limitations.Banishing an entire family because one of its members may have infringed social or moralcodesor even committed a crime is also a flagrant violation of the constitutional principle of personal criminal liability.
Expulsion is collective punishment levied on people who did nothing wrong, assuming that an actual crime was even committed. The reality is that most of these incidents begin with no more than rumors, innuendo, or a foolish indiscretion, which religious zealots exploit to inflame strife and settle old accounts.But either way, the state should not participate in,sanction, recognize, or implementany decision to expel any citizen from his hometown. Doing so is tacit recognition that the principle of citizenship is meaningless and that the state's authority to protect its citizensis powerless before social pressure and hardline religious currents.
These evictions are nothing new in Upper Egypt, although they have increased since the revolution due to the security vacuum, the spread of weapons, andthe rise of religious extremists who feel empowered to enjoin the good and forbid the evil. The state often yields to reconciliation deals involving evictions to avoid confrontations, though in rare instances it has implemented the law, brought offenders from both sides to justice, and protected those who are not directly involved in the dispute.
Currently, few Christian Egyptians doubt that the state and its institutions stand against the return of religious rule, or question the state's zeal to protect the rights of Copts and their place in society.This was symbolized by the president's greatly appreciated visit and speech atthe St. Mark's Cathedral in Abbasiya during the last Christmas mass. But prevailing media and official discourse views any criticism of the state as an attempt to undermine and destabilise the regime, support the Brotherhood,or weaken popular support for the president and the government.
As a result, any talk of the failure to uphold citizenship or to protect Christians is viewed with apprehension - liketalk of the constitution, justice, and liberties -and liable to draw accusations of sowing discordorbreaking with the national consensus. Sadly, those who pay the higher price of this silence are poor residents of villages located far from the centers of government, power or influence.
Sectarian tension exists and can flareup at anymoment, fed by existing economic and cultural conditions. The gap between Moslems and Christians is real and has been fostered by decades of suspicion, superstition, and the conflict over limited resources. But the problem cannot be dealt with by remaining silent about violations or by relying on state agencies alone to manage the issueusing the same means that created the problem in the first place.
Society must confront the issue. Laws protecting equality and prohibiting discrimination must be issued, and the state must allow civil society toplay its role in raising awareness, building bridges of trust, and creating early-warning systems that can monitor imminent sectarian conflict, address the root causes, and deal with its consequences.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/06/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Here in Amerrikka, "society" is being groomed (yes, in the British vernacular fashion) to be accommodating to the sexually non-straight and the legally non-citizen. At the expense of all those who pay the bills. It will end poorly...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/06/2015 11:13 Comments ||
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[ARA] Subsequent to the recent gains by the opposition forces in various parts of Syria, the regime officially acknowledged the deployment of 7,000 Iranian and Iraqi fighters around Damascus in order to protect the capital.
"The goal is to deploy 10,000 Iranian and Iraqi fighters to support the Assad army and its allied militias," a source close to the Assad regime said in a statement to AFP.
According to the same source, who conditioned anonymity, these fighters will also work on regaining the strategic city of Jisr ash-Shughur in Idlib province, as it forms the first defense line in the coastal region for the Assad army.
In the meantime, the Iranian state agency "IRNA" quoted the commander of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, saying that the Iranians prepare a "surprise" along with the Assad regime in battles against enemies.
For years, the regime in Damascus has taken a decision not to acknowledge dependence on Iranian logistical and military support.
However, you can observe a lot just by watching... the regime's losses in Idlib, Jisr ash-Shughur, and Ariha, in Syria's north, led Assad regime to reconsider the degree of military cooperation with Iran, according to reports by the Lebanese As-Safir newspaper.
Over the past few days, more than 20,000 Shiite fighters from Iran, Iraq and Leb fluxed into an area near Idlib, on Jorin front (only six km from Jisr ash-Shughur), As-Safir reported.
Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force, accompanied by units involved in Iraq as part of the joint forces, arrived in Syria to prepare for the counter-attack against opposition fighters in Idlib.
A coordination mistake between pro-Assad forces and militias in Idlib led to the loss of the strategic province to rebel fighters.
Last week, Syrian army, supported by Hezbollah militia, foreign Shiite volunteers and Iranian forces launched a major offensive in southern Syria aimed at clearing rebel forces from the border areas near Jordan and the Israeli-held Golan Heights.
Rebel forces, acting with unprecedented harmony, took advantage of the Syrian concentration to launch simultaneous attacks elsewhere in the country, including the suburbs of Damascus. Thrown off balance, Assad and his Iranian advisers were forced to suspend intensive operations in the south and confront the new challenges in the north.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/06/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
20,000 troops are hardly enough to face ISIS.
Although admitably they will be better armed and have air support.
[NATION.PK] On Thursday, influential sheikhs and tribal leaders from the mostly Sunni province of Anbar released a statement condemning the Iraqi government and pledging their allegiance to Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (IS); calling them the only realistic opportunity for the region to achieve peace.
The Iraqi forces, which recently lost control of Ramadi, capital of Anbar province, to IS now face an even steeper task; which requires them to not only combat the terrorist group, but the local population as well.
Elsewhere, this feeling of disenchantment with the US led collation's actions has led to political infighting between the members.
On Tuesday, foreign ministers and representatives from the 24 nations that make up the coalition met in Gay Paree to discuss the future of this never-ending war, and the discussion regressed to a blame game between the Iraqi delegation and the US; both of whom accuse the other of not doing enough -- far cry from the optimism that filled the ranks after the initial victories against IS at Sinjar and Tikrit.
Has the western policy against IS failed? Does it require a major overhaul? The present situation in Iraq and Syria suggests that it does.
Fortunately the fault doesn't lie in the coalition's model of warfare -- which uses local ground forces and provides intelligence, air support and weapons to them -- it lies in the political handling of the situation.
The use of Shia militias has been effective, yet the Iraqi government and the coalition has failed to politically own up to these militias; prompting Sunni quarters to grow suspicions of their role and to view them as the bigger threat -- a narrative Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... had a huge hand in building.
Linked to this, the coalition has also failed to effectively oversee the activities of the myriad of militias that support it, allowing their wonton atrocities to damage Iraqi state credibility.
The Kurdish forces are content to patrol the borders of Kurdistan while The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... languishes at its own border, ignoring the chaos beyond.
The coalition needs to exert greater political ownership to make these various cogs work smoothly together.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/06/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Time for us to start using the B-52 instead of the Piper Cubs we have been using.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
06/06/2015 11:52 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[NATION.PK] On Thursday, influential sheikhs and tribal leaders from the mostly Sunni province of Anbar released a statement condemning the Iraqi government and pledging their allegiance to 
