LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِFebeuary 23/2011

Bible Of The Day
The Good News According to Matthew 5/13-16: "You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its flavor, with what will it be salted? It is then good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under the feet of men. 5:14 You are the light of the world. A city located on a hill can�t be hidden. 5:15 Neither do you light a lamp, and put it under a measuring basket, but on a stand; and it shines to all who are in the house. 5:16 Even so, let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven".

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
Muslim Brotherhood: Christians and Women Unsuitable for Presidency/AINA/February 22/11
Death to Apostates: Not a Perversion of Islam, But Islam/By Andrew C. McCarthy/February 22/11
Reconciled By the St. Gabriel Assyrian Monastery in Turkey/By Baskin Oran/February 22/11
Egyptian Christians Enraged Over Court Acquittal in Christmas Eve Massacre/By Mary Abdelmassih/February 22/11
War Crime in Cairo/By Phyllis Chesler/February 22/11
Iran, Syria and Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood/By Huda Al Husseini/February 22/11
Secularism is what the Arab world needs/By: Hussein Ibish/February 22/11

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for February 22/11
As his regime crumbles, Qaddafi tightens his grip with tribal, army backing/DEBKAfile
Peres: Ahmadinejad and Nasrallah Will be Toppled by Own People/Naharnet
Lieberman Meets Miqati, Jumblat: Ties with Cabinet are Linked to its Commitment to STL/Naharnet
No Cabinet this Week as Suleiman Travels to Rome, Kuwait/Naharnet
Iranian warships reach Mediterranean/Now Lebanon
Beydoun: Shia council�s Monday statement was politicized/Now Lebanon
Reports: Hezbollah Sent to Iran; Mercenaries Quash Libya Protests/The Israel Project (press release)
Hezbollah might attack Israeli target to help Iran/J.Post
'Israel showed us n o proof of Scuds to Hezbollah'/J.Post
Syria Reportedly Steps In to Facilitate Govt Formation Process/Naharnet
Miqati: Lebanon Holds Onto Justice, International Resolutions/Naharnet
Iran Warships Enter Suez Canal on Syria Trip, Egypt State-Run Agency Says/Bloomberg
Beirut denies permission for private Libyan jet to land in Lebanon/Monsters and Critics.com
Syrians protest in Lebanon, call for re-occupation by Syria/Ya Libnan
Paris Has No Problem with Miqati: He Faces Difficult Dilemma with STL/Naharnet
Berri: This Week Will See the Beginning of the Final Stage of Cabinet Birth/Naharnet
Denial of Syrian Interference to Solve Lebanon Cabinet Dispute/Naharnet
Beirut Refuses Libyan Jet Entry in Lebanon/Naharnet
Higher Shiite Islamic Council Considers Tribunal as Null, Rejects Cabinet Cooperation with it/Naharnet
Hariri Meets U.S. Senators, Says Tribunal is 'Just Cause'/Naharnet
UNIFIL: Demarcating Maritime Border Requires Agreement from All Concerned Sides/Naharnet
Miqati Says he Won't Give up the Task of Forming the Cabinet/Naharnet

Iranian warships reach Mediterranean /Naharnet
February 22, 2011 /Two Iranian naval ships crossed the Suez Canal on Tuesday into the Mediterranean Sea, the Suez Canal authority said, on a training mission that Israel calls a provocation. "They are now in Mediterranean waters," an authority official said. The patrol frigate Alvand and support ship Kharg are reportedly bound for Syria, a destination that would take them near Israeli waters.-AFP/NOW Lebanon

Peres: Ahmadinejad and Nasrallah Will be Toppled by Own People
Naharnet/Israeli President Shimon Peres has said Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah would be overthrown by their own people. Peres made the remark on Monday at the headquarters of the Jewish community in Spain. He said he believed Libyan leader Moammer Gadhafi's reign was nearing an end. The current events in the Middle East were "full of hope," Peres said, that "the moderate, the young, those who want democracy will win, and not the tyrants, the dictators, nor the corrupt."
The official part of Peres' visit, which will mark the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Spain and Israel, will begin on Tuesday. During the trip, Peres was to hold talks with King Juan Carlos, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez on a visit aimed at strengthening and expanding strategic, diplomatic, and economic ties between the two countries. "The president is expected to discuss with his hosts the dramatic events that have taken place recently in the Middle East, the Iranian nuclear threat, their attempts to strengthen terror organizations like Hizbullah and Hamas, and to dominate the Middle East," a statement from his office said. Beirut, 22 Feb 11, 07:37

Paris Has No Problem with Miqati: He Faces Difficult Dilemma with STL
Naharnet/French diplomatic sources stressed on Monday that Paris has no problems with Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati "who had a successful run as prime minister in 2005."
They told Akhbar al-Yawm news agency that Paris noted that some MPs were pressured to nominate Miqati to his position, "but it is awaiting what will come of the government formation and the establishment of the ministerial statement � in order to determine its position in these affairs."They reiterated French Ambassador to Lebanon Denis Pietton's statements that France is seeking to bolster Lebanon's international ties, emphasizing that the new government should commit to international resolutions. In addition, the sources denied allegations that France is seeking to speed up the formation of the new government. Furthermore, they noted that Hizbullah has made its point clear in opposing the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, adding that Miqati had repeatedly stated that he will respect international commitments. "However, Miqati is facing a difficult dilemma, especially regarding the STL," they concluded. Beirut, 22 Feb 11, 16:28

No Cabinet this Week as Suleiman Travels to Rome, Kuwait
Naharnet/President Michel Suleiman traveled to Rome on Tuesday to participate in a ceremony that would unveil the St. Maroun Statue at the Vatican, further delaying the formation of the government. The ceremony will take place at the St. Peter's square on Wednesday and will be attended by Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir, Lebanese expatriates and representatives of political parties.The president will meet with Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday morning, his office said. Suleiman is scheduled to return to Beirut on Thursday but will make a one-day official visit to Kuwait on Saturday. This means that Premier-designate Najib Miqati's cabinet will not witness light this week. Despite pessimism that the government will not be formed anytime soon, this week is decisive for Miqati who will intensify consultations with different parties to overcome obstacles over Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun's demand to get the interior ministry portfolio. Suleiman's visitors told An Nahar that the cabinet formation efforts have hit snags over Aoun's demand. However, they stressed that the doors were still open for the premier-designate to reach a solution although they ruled out government formation this week. Suleiman stressed in a statement released by his press office "the importance of dialogue and rejection of violence in resolving problems." "Repression makes things worse," he said about the latest turmoil in Libya. Beirut, 22 Feb 11, 08:57

Berri: This Week Will See the Beginning of the Final Stage of Cabinet Birth
Naharnet/This week should be decisive for Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati's attempts to form a new government, Speaker Nabih Berri told the English-language The Daily Star newspaper. "This week will be decisive. It will see the beginning of the final stage of the birth of the new government," Berri said in the remarks published Tuesday. "Consultations and contacts will be intensified in an attempt to overcome the last remaining hurdles standing in the way of the government's formation," he added. Despite Berri's remarks, no cabinet is looming in the horizon -- Miqati is still in contact with different parties to solve the main deadlock of Free Patriotic Movement leader's insistence to get the interior ministry and President Michel Suleiman is traveling to Rome and Kuwait this week. Beirut, 22 Feb 11, 09:10

Higher Shiite Islamic Council Considers Tribunal as Null, Rejects Cabinet Cooperation with it
Naharnet/Lebanon's highest Shiite religious authority has slammed the international tribunal as a political tool designed to target Hizbullah and urged Premier-designate Najib Miqati's cabinet not to cooperate with it. The Higher Shiite Islamic Council's religious and executive committees said in a statement following a meeting on Monday that the council considers the Special Tribunal for Lebanon as "null and void." The meeting was chaired by the council's deputy chairman Sheikh Abdul Amir Qabalan. The statement stressed that the resistance-army-people equation proved its capacity to protect Lebanon. It said continued Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace proved that Lebanon was still in the circle of Jewish targets. "This calls for the Lebanese to hold onto the army-people-resistance equation which proved its capacity to protect Lebanon."
Beirut, 22 Feb 11, 09:44

Beirut Refuses Libyan Jet Entry in Lebanon
Naharnet/Lebanese aviation authorities have reportedly refused to give the permission for a private Libyan jet with 10 people on board to land at Rafik Hariri international airport. As Safir daily said Tuesday that the plane was due to take off from Tripoli's airport before midnight but Lebanese authorities asked Libya to unveil the identity of the 10 people before allowing the jet to land in Lebanon. When the Libyans ignored the Lebanese request, authorities in Beirut ordered airport officials to ask the pilot to divert the plane to a nearby country, either Syria or Cyprus. Libya is boiling in turmoil as protesters overran several cities and regime insiders quit, shaking the foundations of Moammer Gadhafi's 41-year rule.
International outrage over Libyan security forces' brutal crackdown deepened and the U.N. Security Council prepared to meet in crisis session. Beirut, 22 Feb 11, 08:01

Beydoun: Shia council�s Monday statement was politicized
Now Lebanon/February 22, 2011 /The Higher Islamic Shia Council�s Monday statement condemning the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) was politicized, former minister Mohammad Abdul Hamid Beydoun said on Tuesday. �Many Shia community members are upset by the council�s [biased] statements,� Beydoun � who is Shia � told Akhbar al-Yawm news agency.
Beydoun voiced hope that the situation will not develop into an sectarian exchange of statements between religious councils.
The Higher Islamic Shia Council on Monday described the STL as �a tool to settle political scores,� saying that STL is �void� and called on the Lebanese to �refuse to cooperate with it since it violates the state, the constitution and the people.� Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati was appointed to the premiership on January 25 with the Hezbollah-led March 8 coalition�s backing. He is currently holding talks to form a new cabinet. His appointment followed the January 12 collapse of Saad Hariri�s unity government due to a long-running dispute over the STL, the international court probing the 2005 assassination of former PM Rafik Hariri. -NOW Lebanon

Secularism is what the Arab world needs
Hussein Ibish/Now Lebanon
February 22, 2011
The wave of anti-government protests sweeping through the Arab world, which has already toppled governments in Tunisia and Egypt, raises very serious questions about religion and politics in the Middle East, and reinforces the need for Arab secularism.
The most fascinating thing about the largest and most important of the protests, in Egypt and Tunisia, is that the animating spirit that brought millions of ordinary Arab citizens out into the streets was not religion or any version of religious politics, but nationalism and a broad-based social consciousness. The country-specific and broader Arab nationalist sentiments that brought such huge crowds together had long been considered dead, or at least moribund, by many observers. Had one predicted the outpouring of anti-government anger across the region six or eight months ago, most observers would have anticipated an Islamist ideological tinge to the revolts.
The governments, of course, have all tried to blame the uprisings on Islamist plots (as well as that old stand-by �foreign meddling�), but the symbolism and rhetoric behind the protest movements have disproved these allegations irrefutably. In Tunisia, one of the most powerful chants was �Tunis huwa al-hal� (Tunisia is the answer), a clear-cut retort to the Muslim Brotherhood slogan �Islam huwa al-hal� (Islam is the answer). In Egypt, a striking feature of the protests was not only its secular but also ecumenical character, with Muslims and Christians joining and protecting each other during prayer, and the devout mingling comfortably with the skeptical.
That Egyptians came together across these potential or presumed dividing lines was a clear recognition that in order for the society to be united, in this case against the presidency of Hosni Mubarak, it had no choice but to push religious identity into the background. In other words, the diversity of Egyptian society meant that the Islamist approach, ideology and symbolic repertoire would have been more of an obstacle to than a vehicle of success against the regime.
It�s true that the Muslim Brotherhood is the largest and best organized opposition party in Egypt, and that Islamists are the key opposition parties in most Arab states. It�s true that they participated, in some cases significantly, in the protest movements, and that they are no doubt counting on being primary beneficiaries of an opening up of Arab political space, especially through elections. The Egyptian Brotherhood, for example, was wise not to overplay its hand by thrusting itself and its ideology into the forefront of a movement for which it was not responsible and which gained its power by bringing a huge number of people together across religious and other divides.
The Islamist message is, by definition, divisive. By staying in the background its adherents have implicitly recognized that it has deep limitations when the entire society needs to be mobilized � in this case for purposes of overthrowing the government. That means the same limitations apply any time an Arab society needs to be successfully mobilized, although this obvious point will probably remain largely unarticulated. So while Islamists may be looking forward to trying to exploit new Arab political openness, they must have noted with dismay that it was not their ideology but a secular and ecumenical nationalism that animated the most important of the Arab revolts.
The Bahraini case also demonstrates the dangers of Arab sectarianism and the need to move quickly toward a secular order in which the state is neutral on matters of religion, and religious constituencies are treated equally by the government. In the kingdom, a ruling Sunni minority royal family and elite are facing what they, probably correctly, perceive as the latest round of efforts by the Shia majority to confront its marginalization and disenfranchisement.
In Egypt, the secular and ecumenical nature of the protests was a major factor in its size, power and success, whereas in Bahrain sectarian divisions are at the heart of the instability of the government and the anger of the disempowered majority.
All societies are heterogeneous, and therefore only a secular approach involving government neutrality on religious matters can have any chance of producing fairness and equality. Most Arab societies are strikingly heterogeneous � in many cases a mosaic of sectarian, cultural, ethnic and other diversity. Only secular governance can genuinely express the legitimate rights of a majority while successfully protecting the rights of minorities and individual citizens.
Even though they have not been at the forefront of the most important Arab protest movements, Islamists are no doubt waiting on the sidelines, hoping and preparing to benefit from new political space. But the new Arab order, especially since it is being born in such a strikingly secular and ecumenical spirit � and if it is to have any hope of providing democracy, good governance, equity and human rights � cannot be defined by religious politics. As the Iranian experience so bitterly shows, such a definition would only set the stage for more oppression, division and civil conflict down the road.
**Hussein Ibish is a senior research fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine and blogs at www.Ibishblog.com

Salim Sayegh
February 21, 2011
On February 20, the Lebanese National News Agency carried the following report:
Minister of Social Affairs in the caretaker government Dr. Salim al-Sayegh, inaugurated a developmental services center in the town of Bouar� He expressed his gratitude toward the love of the people of this town whom he met in 1975 when they were getting ready to come down from Kesrouan to Beirut �to keep Lebanon�s head high, to protect the presidency of the republic and maintain what was left of the principles of sovereignty and dignity.� He then recalled how �they used to ride the Bouar tank which used to carry the wounded, the combatants, the doctors and the medications to cross the Karantina Bridge, back when the Palestinian bullets were severing the different parts of the country. At the time, the Bouar youth kept the Lebanese flag held high, right where it should be. This is our natural position, whether we are in the Cabinet, at university or on the street. This is our cause wherever we are, i.e. the freedom cause in Lebanon...
�It is our duty to talk to each other, as it is our duty to say to all those concerned and all those who are not concerned by the formation of the government that there will be no government in Lebanon as long as it is under threat. Immunizing Lebanon at this point in time would be by sending a clear message to all the politicians, whether the prominent ones or the less influential ones, saying that the people no longer tolerate the slogans and the speeches they are hearing via the media outlets. We can no longer underestimate the intelligence of the people who now must hold the officials accountable, from the head of a municipality and up. The Lebanese people are the only ones who - during the days of the Ottoman Empire � were described by Lamartine as being the only people living without a state. They are a lively people who are worthy of life and they will continue�
�Therefore, we must give a clear signal to the politicians, today and not five years from now. We must ask them where are you taking us. We gave you our votes in the elections, what did you do with them? Once we ask these questions, we would have regained our role� However, if we fall asleep while waiting for what will happen to us, we will lose� No one has the right to compare us to the Christians of Syria, Egypt or Iraq. We, the Christians of Lebanon gave the country its meaning, and if we do not raise our heads, clearly say what we want, hold the officials accountable and exclude the bad among them, we would have broken the pledge we made to our forefathers, lied to our children and buried our martyrs twice.� He assured: �The current circumstances we are going through in Lebanon are not normal. We do not know what we will be doing in one week from now. I, as a minister in this government, do not know what will happen in three or four days and do not know why I have become a member of a caretaker government� I do not know where Lebanon is heading or how I will tell my son to continue studying in Lebanon, to invest in the country and to found a family in it�
�I, as a minister, do now know how the new government will be formed. If I cannot give an answer to the people, how will the country proceed? What will change in the future if we cannot eliminate the international tribunal or Hezbollah�s arms? We cannot, as Lebanese people, do that because it requires a major regional equation between Israel and the Arabs. Therefore, we can merely testify for what is right and say that there can be no state unless the arms are monopolized by the army, that we cannot stop the international tribunal and that the Lebanese judiciary cannot do anything� There is no doubt that the decision, regardless of the side which issues it, will have a strong impact. However, this can be resolved domestically and not through the annulment of the other opinion. We must talk about the issue without lying. If our unity is the source of the truth, this does not mean it should be based on lies�
�The political programs of all the parties are in agreement over the necessity of developing the state and its institutions, of fighting corruption and promoting development and decentralization. There are many common points between them, but they are in disagreement over certain issues. If were to put these issues aside, i.e. the tribunal and the arms, would there be a reason for the dispute? Why are we issuing threats while half of Lebanon is afraid of its other half? One half is afraid of the indictment and the other half of Hezbollah�s weapons, knowing that all of this can be resolved in one session during which we would draw up a roadmap that would allow us to live in this country without any fear�� He continued: �We are entitled to a strong state and a strong army that can achieve victory over the terrorists in Donniyeh and Nahr al-Bared, not an army afraid to pull out from Shiyyah, officers shot at in Shiyyah while we conceal the issue, demote them, oppress them and place them in the barracks without anyone being entitled to defend them, and while those who killed Samer Hanna were released on bail after several months�� He then concluded by expressing his pride for being a Maronite minister in this government and for �living based on Christian principles and beliefs. A Maronite minister is not just so based on identity, but also on his work� We therefore hope that the Maronite ministers in the next government which could see the light next week, will be chosen based on their application of their Maronitism in their lives [end of statement]��

Reports: Hezbollah Sent to Iran; Mercenaries Quash Libya Protests
�1,500 Hezbollah fighters suppressing opposition
�Qaddafi�s son: �We will fight to the last drop�
�Libya and Iran are OPEC members; oil prices on the rise
Jerusalem, Feb. 21 - While Iran has been touting its support for protests around the Arab world, 1,500 Hezbollah fighters are working to crush the opposition in Iran, according to the London-based Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat.
Iran�s opposition leaders are still calling for continued grassroots protests but Tehran is trying to discredit the demonstrations by saying they are foreign-born ideas that are intended to spread chaos through the country.
Hired killers from African countries were also allegedly �shipped in or flown into Libya over the past few days� to fight protesters, Al Jazeera News TV reported.
Human rights groups estimate that more than 200 people were killed and 1,000 wounded. But the exact number is hard to determine because Tripoli is severely restricting reportage in the country. The government has also cut electronic communications
Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi�s son, Saif al-Islam, warned of civil war and said people would suffer if the protests continue. The armed forces will �fight to the last drop� will quash the uprising, he said in a speech reported by Al Jazeera TV.
In Bahrain, Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa said reform is imminent. Yet people on the streets of the Bahraini capital Manama told opposition members not to enter dialogue with the royal family because they have �blood on their hands,� Al Jazeera reported.
Oil Impact
Rising food prices have been a theme of concern among protesters in the region.
Meanwhile, workers in southern Libyan oil fields, such as Al Nafoora, went on strike today, according to Al Jazeera TV.
Oil prices are on the rise due to unrest in North Africa and the Middle East. Oil prices rose to nearly $104 a barrel for Brent crude on Monday, Bloomberg reported.
Libya has one of Africa�s largest reserves of crude oil, representing about two percent of world oil production.
Libya and Iran are OPEC members.
Bahrain and Yemen, which are also facing unrest, border Saudi Arabia, the world�s largest petroleum exporter.
Each day some 17 million barrels of oil pass through The Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, which forms the narrow entryway into the Gulf between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.
The unrest in the Gulf region could potentially cause disruptions to the flow of oil exports

Syria Reportedly Steps In to Facilitate Govt Formation Process
Naharnet/Syria has moved from the stage of urging premier-designate Najib Miqati to speed up the process of cabinet formation to the stage of trying to facilitate his mission, the Central News Agency reported Monday.The Syrian leadership has started trying to resolve the dispute over shares in the new cabinet "between its new and old allies, and between President Michel Suleiman and Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun," Damascus visitors told the agency. "Damascus will try to find a solution to the dispute over the interior portfolio," CNA quoted Damascus visitors as saying. The visitors attributed Syria's new approach to its "decision to confront the international community."
Damascus has asked its friends, especially Speaker Nabih Berri, to seek solutions that would preserve its good ties with both Suleiman and Aoun, the sources added.
Berri dispatched his political aide, MP Ali Hasan Khalil, to Rabiyeh in a bid to "soften Aoun's stance and curb his demands, whether regarding the interior portfolio or the number of portfolios he is seeking to obtain," said Damascus visitors. "Regardless of ongoing speculation on when would the new cabinet see light, the process of the distribution of portfolios or the names of the new ministers, Damascus visitors believe that the new cabinet line-up might start materializing in early March � after the return of the (Lebanese) president from the Vatican and Kuwait," CNA said. Damascus visitors refused to link between the indictment that will be issued soon by the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon and the process of cabinet formation, noting that the upcoming government "will confront the indictment and the STL." On January 12, Hizbullah and its allies toppled Saad Hariri's cabinet in a long-running feud over the U.N.-backed STL, which the party believes will accuse several of its members of being involved in the 2005 murder of former premier Rafik Hariri.
Hizbullah-backed Najib Miqati was then appointed to form a new government, which Hariri's alliance has refused to join and has labeled "Hizbullah's government".
Hariri has refused to join Miqati's government unless he guarantees his cabinet will see the tribunal through. Hizbullah meanwhile is demanding Lebanon end all cooperation with the court, which it says is a U.S.-Israeli conspiracy.

Egyptian Christians Enraged Over Court Acquittal in Christmas Eve Massacre
http://www.aina.org/news/20110220184547.htm
GMT 2-21-2011 0:45:59
Assyrian International News Agency
(AINA) -- The Egyptian Emergency State Security Court in Qena acquitted today two of the three suspects in the Christmas Eve Massacre in Nag Hammadi in January, 2010, where six Coptics, between the ages of 16 to 23, were shot and killed by Muslims in a drive-by shooting. The Copts were killed as they filed out of Church after celebrating the Coptic Christmas Eve midnight mass in Nag Hammadi, 600km south of Cairo A Muslim bystander was also killed and nine Copts were seriously injured (AINA 1-7-2010).
The three Muslims accused of the shootings were Mohamed Ahmed Hussein, more commonly known as Hamam el-Kamouny, Qurshi Abul Haggag and Hendawi Sayyed. Mohamed Ahmed Hussein, 39, was sentenced to death by the court on January 16 and the other two were acquitted today. The defendants were charged with using force to disrupt public order and intimidate citizens, with the premeditated murder of seven people, illegal possession of fire arms, the attempted murder of nine others, and voluntarily damaging fixed and liquid assets.
Bishop Cyril, the Coptic Orthodox bishop of Nag Hammadi, said "The court imposed one death sentence because one Muslim was killed, and the Egyptian judiciary wasted the blood of the six murdered Copts, who are of no value to the society. This verdict saddened all Christians worldwide because it means that the State is applying Islamic Sharia on all Christians in Egypt." He explained that according to Sharia the blood of one Muslim, victim Ayman Hisham, is paid for by the blood of one Muslim, Al-Kamouny; since one Muslim died, one Muslim got the death penalty.
Bishop Cyril said that according to the law an accomplice to a crime is on equal standing to the person who committed the crime. "So where is this law and why has it been by-passed in this case and why have the two accomplices been an acquitted?" He said that this verdict brought back sadness and pain to the families of the victims who expected the second suspect to have been sentenced to life imprisonment -- if not the death penalty -- and the third at least fifteen-year imprisonment, but not an acquittal. "This is why we know that in Egypt the blood of a Christian is worth nothing."
Bishop Cyril accused the judge of being unjust and said he is contacting the lawyers to discuss the possibility of presenting an appeal to the military governor. "Had I not reported seeing killer Al-Kamouny he would have been acquitted like the rest of the previous acquittal cases."
According to the Bishop, Pope Shenouda III is very sadden by this verdict.
Mr. Kamal Nashed, father of 19-year-old law student Abanob, who died in the massacre, told Coptic activist Mariam Ragy "The ruling shocked us and was unjust. If the three participated in the killing they should all have received the same verdict." Nashed said that today's verdict was unjust. "I want justice for my son and will go after it till my very last day whether in Egypt or abroad."
Attorney George Sobhy, one of the Coptic lawyers in charge of the case, said the verdict was unjust "to the blood of the youth that was shed on the streets of Nag Hammadi." He said that investigations confirmed the second and third suspects were accomplices of Al-Kamouny, even the court described them as such . "We were shocked that the court acquitted them, we expected life imprisonment for the second accomplice and 15 years for the third. "Today's court looked as if it had the intention of giving acquittals to all the accused. I believe that had Al-Kamouny not been already given the death sentence on January 16, the court today may have given him also an acquittal."
Sobhy said that due to the present circumstances of lack of adequate security, none of the accused were brought to court, and families of the victims and the media were absent. "The court seized the opportunity of the present circumstances and quickly handed down this verdict, as if it was a normal criminal case."
Since the court is a State Security Court, only the prosecution has the right of appeal, but they would apply to the Prosecutor General to appeal this verdict. "People think the police is corrupt," she said, " but after 20 years of practice as a lawyer, I can confirm the most corrupt organ in the system is the Egyptian judiciary."
Sobhy said that he received hundreds of calls from people disappointed with the verdict. "Most comments I got from those people were that everyone thought that after the January 25 Revolution things would change, but unfortunately corruption is rooted to the core everywhere. This verdict only proves that what is being talked about lately of equality, justice and freedom of religious belief is just empty talk. If our constitution has sharia law embedded in it, then the bitter truth is that as Christians we have no place or value in this country."
By Mary Abdelmassih

Death to Apostates: Not a Perversion of Islam, But Islam
By Andrew C. McCarthy
Copyright (C) 2011, Assyrian International News Agency. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use.
http://www.aina.org/news/20110221111019.htm
Posted GMT 2-21-2011 17:10:19
On NRO Friday, Paul Marshall lamented the Obama administration�s fecklessness, in particular the president�s appalling silence in the face of the death sentence Said Musa may suffer for the crime of converting to Christianity. This is in Afghanistan, the nation for which our troops are fighting and dying � not to defeat our enemies, but to prop up the Islamic �democracy� we have spent a decade trying to forge at a cost of billions.
This shameful episode (and the certain recurrence of it) perfectly illustrates the folly of Islamic nation-building. The stubborn fact is that we have asked for just these sorts of atrocious outcomes. Ever since 2003, when the thrust of the War On Terror stopped being the defeat of America�s enemies and decisively shifted to nation-building, we have insisted � against history, law, language, and logic � that Islamic culture is perfectly compatible with and hospitable to Western-style democracy. It is not, it never has been, and it never will be.
This is not the first time an apostate in the new American-made Afghanistan has confronted the very real possibility of being put to death by the state. In 2006, a Christian convert named Abdul Rahman was tried for apostasy. The episode prompted a groundswell of international criticism. In the end, Abdul Rahman was whisked out of the country before his execution could be carried out. A fig leaf was placed over the mess: The prospect of execution had been rendered unjust by the (perfectly sane) defendant�s purported mental illness � after all, who in his right mind would convert from Islam? ; His life was spared, but the Afghans never backed down from their insistence that a Muslim�s renunciation of Islam is a capital offense and that death is the mandated sentence.
They are right. Under the construction of sharia adopted by the Afghan constitution (namely Hanafi, one of Islam�s classical schools of jurisprudence), apostasy is the gravest offense a Muslim can commit. It is considered treason from the Muslim ummah. The penalty for that is death.
This is the dictate of Mohammed himself. One relevant hadith (from the authoritative Bukhari collection, No. 9.83.17) quotes the prophet as follows: �A Muslim . . . may not be killed except for three reasons: as punishment for murder, for adultery, or for apostasy.� It is true that the hadith says �may,� not �must,� and there is in fact some squabbling among sharia scholars about whether ostracism could be a sufficient sentence, at least if the apostasy is kept secret. Alas, the �may� hadith is not the prophet�s only directive on the matter. There is also No. 9.84.57: �Whoever changes his Islamic religion, then kill him.� That is fairly clear, wouldn�t you say? And as a result, mainstream Islamic scholarship holds that apostasy, certainly once it is publicly revealed, warrants the death penalty.
Having hailed the Afghan constitution as the start of a democratic tsunami, the startled Bush administration made all the predictable arguments against Abdul Rahman�s apostasy prosecution. Diplomats and nation-building enthusiasts pointed in panic at the vague, lofty language injected into the Afghan constitution to obscure Islamic law�s harsh reality � spoons full of sugar that had helped the sharia go down. The constitution assures religious freedom, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice maintained. It cites the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and even specifies that non-Muslims are free to perform their religious rites. ;
Read the fine print. It actually qualifies that all purported guarantees of personal and religious liberty are subject to Islamic law and Afghanistan�s commitment to being an Islamic state. We were supposed to celebrate this, just as the State Department did, because Islam is the �religion of peace� whose principles are just like ours � that�s why it was so ready for democracy.
It wasn�t so. Sharia is very different from Western law, and it couldn�t care less what the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has to say on the matter of apostasy. Nor do the authoritative scholars at al-Azhar University in Cairo give a hoot that their straightforward interpretation of sharia�s apostasy principles upsets would-be Muslim reformers like Zuhdi Jasser. We may look at Dr. Jasser as a hero � I do � but at al-Azhar, the sharia scholars would point out that he is merely a doctor of medicine, not of Islamic jurisprudence.
The constitution that the State Department bragged about helping the new Afghan �democracy� draft established Islam as the state religion and installed sharia as a principal source of law. That constitution therefore fully supports the state killing of apostates. Case closed.
The purpose of real democracy, meaning Western republican democracy, is to promote individual liberty, the engine of human prosperity. No nation that establishes a state religion, installs its totalitarian legal code, and hence denies its citizens freedom of conscience, can ever be a democracy � no matter how many �free� elections it holds. Afghanistan is not a democracy. It is an Islamic sharia state.
To grasp this, one need only read the first three articles of its constitution:
1. Afghanistan is an Islamic Republic, independent, unitary, and indivisible state.
2. The religion of the state of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is the sacred religion of Islam. Followers of other religions are free to exercise their faith and perform their religious rites within the limits of the provisions of law.
3. In Afghanistan, no law can be contrary to the beliefs and provisions of the sacred religion of Islam.
Need to hear more? The articles creating the Afghan judiciary make higher education in Islamic jurisprudence a sufficient qualification to sit on the Afghan Supreme Court. Judges are expressly required to take an oath, �In the name of Allah, the Merciful and Compassionate,� to �support justice and righteousness in accord with the provisions of the sacred religion of Islam.� When there is no provision of law that seems to control a controversy, Article 130 directs that decisions be in accordance with �the Hanafi jurisprudence� of sharia.
Moreover, consistent with the Muslim Brotherhood�s blueprint for society (highly influential in Sunni Islamic countries and consonant with the transnational-progressive bent of the State Department), the constitution obliges the Afghan government to �create a prosperous and progressive society based on social justice� (which, naturally, includes free universal health care). It commands that the Afghan flag be inscribed, �There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is His prophet, and Allah is Great [i.e., Allahu Akbar].� The state is instructed to �devise and implement a unified educational curriculum based on the provisions of the sacred religion of Islam� and to �develop the curriculum of religious subjects on the basis of the Islamic sects existing in Afghanistan.� In addition, the constitution requires the Afghan government to ensure that the family, �a fundamental unit of society,� is supported in the upbringing of children by �the elimination of traditions contrary to the principles of the sacred religion of Islam.� Those contrary traditions include Western Judeo-Christian principles.
Was that what you figured we were doing when you heard we were �promoting democracy�? Is that a mission you would have agreed to commit our armed forces to accomplish? Yet, that�s what we�re fighting for. The War On Terror hasn�t been about 9/11 for a very long time. You may think our troops are in Afghanistan to defeat al-Qaeda and the Taliban � that�s what you�re told every time somebody has the temerity to suggest that we should leave. Our commanders, however, have acknowledged that destroying the enemy is not our objective. In fact, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the former top U.S. commander, said what is happening in Afghanistan is not even our war. �This conflict and country are [theirs] to win,� he wrote, �not mine.�
It�s not our war, nor is it something those running it contemplate winning. �We are not trying to win this militarily,� the late Richard Holbrooke, President Obama�s special envoy to Afghanistan, told CNN�s Fareed Zakaria last fall. Indeed, the administration had concluded � upon what Ambassador Holbrooke described as consultation with our military commanders � that the war could not be won �militarily.� So the goal now is not to defeat the Taliban but to entice them into taking a seat at the table � in the vain hope that if they buy into the political process they will refrain from confederating with the likes of al-Qaeda.
Afghanistan is not an American war anymore. It�s a political experiment: Can we lay the foundation for Islamic social justice, hang a �democracy� label on it, and convince Americans that we�ve won, that all the blood and treasure have been worth it? The same thing, by the way, has been done in Iraq. Ever since the Iraqis adopted their American-brokered constitution, Christians have left the country in droves, and homosexuals, similarly, have been persecuted. And the Iraqis are so grateful for all the American lives and �investment� sacrificed on their behalf that, just this week, the capital city of Baghdad demanded that the U.S. apologize and fork up another $1 billion in reparations. For what? Why, for �the ugly and destructive way� the American army�s Humvees and fortifications have damaged the city�s aesthetics and infrastructure. Yes, a brief time-out from the usual serenity of life in a sharia state to chastise Americans for their �deliberate ignorance and carelessness about the simplest forms of public taste.�
In 2006, promoters of Islamic democracy � having dreamed that this chimera was not merely plausible but a boon for U.S. security against terrorists � were stunned upon awakening to the reality of �democratic� Afghanistan�s intention to execute Abdul Rahman for apostasy. This was an �affront to civilization,� we at NR said at the time. As Samuel Huntington explained, however, there are two senses of �civilization.� One assumes that all human beings, all cultures, are essentially the same and share the same concept of the higher form of life � that there is only one real civilization. The other holds that different cultures have very different ways of looking at the world � that there are several different civilizations, and what is an affront to one may be a convention to another.
The underlying premise of the democracy project is the former sense of �civilization.� As I argued at the time, the real world is the latter. And now, five years removed from the Abdul Rahman case, five more years of intensive, costly American entanglement with Afghanistan, Paul Marshall gives us the harrowing plight of Said Musa. When he told the Afghan court he was a Christian man, no Afghan defense lawyer would have anything to do with him � except the one who spat on him. He was thrown in jail as an apostate among 400 Afghan Muslims, and he has since been beaten, mocked, deprived of sleep, derisively referred to as �Jesus Christ,� and sexually abused. And just as no Afghan lawyer was willing to aid an apostate, the Afghan sharia state declined to aid him � refusing him access to foreign counsel. We think of this as an affront to civilization. They, on the other hand, think they have their own civilization, and that our civilization and Said Musa are affronts to it.
The affront here is our own betrayal of our own principles. The Islamic democracy project is not democratizing the Muslim world. It is degrading individual liberty by masquerading sharia, in its most draconian form, as democracy. The only worthy reason for dispatching our young men and women in uniform to Islamic countries is to destroy America�s enemies. Our armed forces are not agents of Islamic social justice, and stabilizing a sharia state so its children can learn to hate the West as much as their parents do is not a mission the American people would ever have endorsed. It is past time to end this failed experiment.
By Andrew C. McCarthy
National Review Online
Andrew C. McCarthy, a senior fellow at the National Review Institute, is the author, most recently, of The Grand Jihad: How Islam and the Left Sabotage America.
� 2011, Assyrian International News Agency. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use.

Muslim Brotherhood: Christians and Women Unsuitable for Presidency
Posted GMT 2-20-2011 21:6:57
http://www.aina.org/news/20110220150657.htm
"Political parties have the right to nominate women or Copts for the presidency," said Muslim Brotherhood leading figure Mohsen Radi. "But we find it unsuitable. Perhaps they should be nominated only for ministerial positions."Radi also said the group would not play any role in the caretaker government. "The government went down with the fall of the previous president," he said.The group had welcomed the establishment of the moderate Al-Wasat Party and expressed its willingness to cooperate with its leaders, adding that it would file for establishing its own party once the relevant law has been amended. In related news, Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat, founder of the Reform and Development Party, said the new trend now is to give a chance to all parties that were rejected by the Party Affairs Commission of the previous government.
www.almasryalyoum.com
� 2011, Assyrian International News Agency. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use.

War Crime in Cairo
By Phyllis Chesler
http://www.aina.org/news/20110221110158.htm
Posted GMT 2-21-2011 17:1:58
Something is very wrong with the mainstream American media. By now, we all know that CBS did not find it newsworthy that, on February 11, 2011, their own chief foreign correspondent had been gang-raped by a mob of 200 men on the Muslim "Sabbath"--on the very day that President Mubarak stepped down. Instead, they spent four days continuing to celebrate the freedom fighters in Tahrir Square.
Only after CBS finally broke this story did other American media networks come forward with news of their own: Apparently, CNN's Anderson Cooper had also been beaten up by the brave pro-democracy freedom fighters in Tahrir Square and ABC's Brian Hartman had been threatened with beheading in that same allegedly pro-democracy uprising. Even Christian Amanpour had to be hustled away to safety by her handlers.
Clearly, the American media is so invested in its own political "narrative" (Muslims are a peace-loving people, Americans are brutal invaders and occupiers, Palestinians are the innocent injured parties, Israelis are the brutal aggressors) that they are willing to blindly sacrifice themselves and their staffs to cover events in the Arab, Muslim, and Islamist world.
Before I discuss the war crime committed against Lara Logan--a war crime very similar to those that have been committed against black girls and women by ethnic Arab Muslims in Darfur--I want to pose some harsh questions.
Why did Daniel Pearl (may he rest in peace) think that the kind of Islamists whom Al-Jazeera had normalized, even glamorized, would not kidnap and behead him? In 2002, why did Pearl, and for that matter, Nicholas Berg (may he also rest in peace), the young American entrepreneur who was also beheaded in Iraq in 2004, believe that they could "follow the yellow brick road" to The Story or to The Fortune--without becoming the story themselves? Why did they believe that American Jews could safely travel to Islamist war-zones in the 21st century? Why did three American hikers in Iraq and Iran (Shane Bauer, Josh Fattal, and Sarah Shourd) believe that, post-9/11, indeed, in 2010, that central Asia was a beautiful backpacking kinda place? Bauer and Fattal remain imprisoned by the Islamic Republic of Iran, which has accused them of "espionage." Shourd was released after fourteen months.
Here is what I am saying. Infidels (non-Muslims) and women (both Muslims and infidels) are treated this way, both now and historically. Non-Muslims, both men and women, were and still are persecuted, tortured, and murdered by Muslims; Muslim women were and still are routinely and publicly stoned or flogged to death, routinely, normatively, and widely battered and honor murdered; and routinely and publicly gang-raped.
In 2001, egged on by their imam, and also on the Muslim "Sabbath," hundreds of men in Hassi Messaoud, Algeria physically and sexually attacked (raped, gang-raped) any woman they could find. They also cut off breasts and genitalia; buried some women alive; murdered some. What crime had these women committed? According to the imam, they had been bussed in to work for a foreign company and thus were seen as both whores and traitors.
Lara Logan also worked for a foreign company. She was a blonde infidel and a woman.
But let's return to Cairo. In the fall of 2006, (at the end of Ramadan), perhaps a thousand men conducted a "sexual wilding." They surrounded individual girls and women who were fully veiled, partly veiled, and unveiled, and "groped and assaulted" them. (They probably raped and gang-raped them too but the media was too�polite to say so). Individuals tried to help these women -- who escaped from the male crowds naked and half-naked. The police refused to make any arrests and the Egyptian media did not cover it. I and others only learned of this incident because some foreign journalists blogged about it -- and because one brave Egyptian woman spoke about it on a live Egyptian television program.
Journalists are incredibly endangered in the Islamic world. There were more than 140 incidents of journalists being physical attacked in Egypt alone during the so-called 18-day "revolution" in Cairo. Western human rights workers have been kidnapped, held for ransom, tortured, and murdered in Iraq and Afghanistan.
As I suggested previously, the kind of Egyptians in Tahrir Square are not pro-western, pro-modern, pro-democracy, pro-human rights activists; they are Islamist revolutionaries or, if you will, Islamists who wish to "reform" the secular state. The minority of women in the Square are wearing serious hijab and face-veils.
None other than Egyptian Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, a profoundly and classically anti-Semitic preacher who has an audience of 40 million viewers on Al-Jazeera, preached today in the Square to hundreds of thousands people. Yes, he actually says things like: "Oh Allah, take the Jews, the treacherous aggressors. Oh Allah, take this profligate, cunning, arrogant band of people. Oh Allah, they have spread much tyranny and corruption in the land. Pour Your wrath upon them, oh our God." He also approves of female genital mutilation and "light" beating of women. Actually, he is a�moderate. He is also a long time member of the Muslim Brotherhood and has twice turned down offers to be its leader.
According to a number of journalists and scholars who have been covering the Logan atrocity, the jeering, leering, Egyptian gang-rapists kept cursing her as a "Jew." Then again, this crowd also called Mubarak a "Zionist" and had stars of David/Jewish stars scrawled over his face on countless placards.
President Obama has demanded that the Egyptian police hunt down the gang-rapists. This is a laughable request. It will either lead to nothing--or the Muslim Brotherhood will use his demand as the excuse to murder two hundred of their political opponents--the truly secular pro-individual rights activists--and then say that they were the attackers.
President Obama: If you want to do the right thing, bring the Muslim Brotherhood and the interim military government of Egypt to the International Criminal Court in Holland.
Organized feminist groups: Bring some international lawsuits on behalf of Logan, demonstrate outside the Egyptian Embassies, revise your views of how both Muslim and infidel women are viewed and treated in the Islamic world. This barbarism is endemic to the culture, the region, and the religion, it is not caused by American or Israeli wars of "aggression." By the way, the National Organization for Women's website does not mention Logan's gang rape. While they do discuss violence against women, and oppose female genital mutilation, their focus remains largely on abortion, employment, and lesbian rights.
I am not saying that journalists should flee the field. I am not denigrating their choice to bring us the news at considerable danger to themselves. I am suggesting that they start to think realistically, clearly. One does not venture into Islamist mobs without a full platoon of Marines by your side to protect each and every journalist.
And I worry: Who will protect the Marines?

By the way: Many Islamist (and uneducated, illiterate, religious) Muslims view raped women as adulterers who should be stoned to death; or as prostitutes who should be flogged, often unto death. In 2008, a 13 year old girl in Somalia was raped by three men and then stoned to death by a crowd of 1000. In 2011, in Bangladesh a 14 year old girl was raped by her cousin, then sentenced to 100 lashes. She died after receiving 60 lashes.
Perhaps Logan got off "easy." I say this with irony, bitterness, and rage, both on her behalf and on behalf of all the Muslim and Christian women who are also raped, traumatized, shunned, dishonored, jailed, and sometimes also murdered.
By Phyllis Chesler
Frontpage Magazine
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Reconciled By the St. Gabriel Assyrian Monastery in Turkey
Posted GMT 2-20-2011 20:35:6
http://www.aina.org/news/20110220143506.htm
The struggle between the Government and the High Judiciary has frightened everybody. This won't be so anymore; they have reached an agreement now. Established in AD 397 in the district of Midyat there is the Mor Gabriel Monastery (Deyrulumur) of the Syriacs -- the calmest and the most oppressed people of the Middle East. The Government and the High Judiciary have decided to get together to "Turkify" the lands which have belonged to Mor Gabriel for centuries.
The whole thing ended with me getting into trouble, though. I had written an article entitled "the Syriacs have had enough" in the 21 November 2008 issue of Radikal-2 [Sunday supplement of an important Turkish daily newspaper: ed.]; I had mocked the petitions of the Kurdish villagers of Midyat, who had undertaken the mission of occupying Syriac lands by then. I had done this because odd things were written in the petition: "We don't claim that you should cut off the head of this bishop, but you should prevent his illegal occupation and looting." Or: "The Christian clergy is here to agitate and provoke the public. They are engaging in all kinds of activity to harm the spirit of national unity and solidarity." Whoa! So these Syriacs have not only apparently saved themselves from getting their heads cut off, they are also agitating the public. Or "Where have these priests come from? What kind of education are they getting there and for what purpose?" Whoa! This Monastery has been there for almost 17 centuries. Now I come to understand that the petition was not for nothing; the petitioners apparently knew well what they were doing. In fact, now, with all its grandeur, the State has made its entry onto the scene.
How the State confiscates
The number of court cases opened against the Syriacs -- this people on the verge of disappearing from their ancient homeland in the Mardin-Midyat region (they now number no more then 3000) -- is now approaching 300. The AKP government is blaming the EU on the one hand, saying, "We will not pull the plug out; you do it!"; on the other hand it is getting many government institutions to go to court against the 1,644-year old Mor Gabriel Monastery in order to destroy it, despite the fact that the whole world is watching closely. Do you know when this process speeded up? The moment that the Syriacs started to return from abroad and wanted to resettle back in their villages.
The State uses two methods: 1) According to the Court of Cassation interpretation of the Cadastral Law no. 3402 and the Forest Law no. 6831, arid land not used for agricultural purposes for more than 20 years becomes "State property." 2) According to the Forest Law, land which looks green in aerial photography is registered by the State as forest. (For an example of this application see the case the Court of Cassation, 20th Civil Chamber, E. 2009/15971; K. 2009/18101; T. 07.12.2009). How many people, have you heard of, against whom these "Laws of the Turkish Republic" have been implemented so far? As a result of these Mor Gabriel is now struggling with 5 lawsuits:
The two neighboring Kurdish villages of Yayvantepe and Eglence litigate against the Monastery in 2008. The reason: "Our lands, when the Cadastre was here, were officially left within the territory of the village of G�ng�ren, and thus of the Monastery." The tribal chief of these two villages is S�leyman �elebi, an AKP deputy for Mardin. This case ends with the Midyat Cadastral Court approving the decision of the Cadastre, that is, in favour of the Monastery.
Upon this decision the villagers start occupying the land of the Monastery. The villagers of G�ng�ren, the village within the administrative boundaries of which the Monastery stands, having had good relations with the Monastery for centuries, litigate to determine the administrative boundaries. They win at Midyat Court of First Instance. But, when the case goes to the Court of Cassation, the latter overrules it. Reason: "This lawsuit is within the jurisdiction of the administrative court; not within the jurisdiction of the general court". The case is now to be sent to the Administrative Court. The best of luck!
If it is deserted, confiscate it; if it is green, still confiscate it
There are 260 acres of land within and 60 acres of land immediately outside the outer walls of the Monastery. All of it has been in the possession of the Monastery for centuries. During the cadastral survey, these lands were registered as Treasury lands. The reason: "The land constitutes forest land." The Monastery had once planted trees there, and as you know, forests belong to the State. Upon this, in October 2009, the Monastery Foundation litigates against Forest Administration at the Midyat Cadastral Court. Result: "Denied." The reason: "In aerial photographs of the 1950s the land looks green." The foundation appeals against this decision. The file is now at the Court of Cassation. The best of luck!
Upon the complaints of village chiefs of Eglence, Yayvantepe and Candarli the Chief Prosecutor of Midyat starts a criminal lawsuit against Kuryakos Erg�n, chairman of Mor Gabriel Foundation. Subject: "Illegal occupation of forest land." The reason: "The Monastery's outer wall is partially within this 276-acre area of forest land." The old wall was reinforced when clashes in the region and attacks against the Monastery multiplied in the 90s. This case still continues, dependent upon the result of the lawsuit opened by the Foundation against the Forest Administration. If the Court of Cassation approves the decision of the Midyat Cadastral Court against the Foundation, K. Erg�n will be penalized and the wall will be demolished.
Most important of all: on 29 January 2009the Treasury starts a lawsuit against the Foundation at the Midyat Cadastral Court. What it wants is the 12 plots, 244 acres, which were registered as Monastery land during the cadastral survey. The Court denies the case of the Treasury. The latter goes to the Court of Cassation which quashes the decision and asks for the land to be registered as belonging to the Treasury. The reason is very interesting: "According to the Cadastral Law Art. 14, when a plot of non-registered land is claimed by someone who can prove that he has been its de facto possessor for at least 20 years, this land cannot exceed 100 acres in dry places, whereas the land registered here is 244 acres."
Does the Supreme Court Recognize Legal Documents?
I said "interesting" because Art. 14 continues: "In case one of the following documents is submitted, more than 100 acres can be registered." The first document in the list is: "Tax records prior to 31 December 1981." In accordance with the Land Registry Law the Monastery has been paying taxes on this land since 1st September 1937. Based on this very fact, the Midyat Cadastral Court decided in favour of the Monastery. But the Court of Cassation did not accept this as a document. Moreover, let me add this: The Monastery had mentioned this land in the well-known 1936 Declaration [for this concept see box at the end of this article: ed.] The present situation: the Monastery will apply to the same chamber of the Court of Cassation. The best of luck!
Our State does not even allow the Syriacs to benefit from the minority protection clauses of the Lausanne Treaty, just because these people are located in a distant corner of Anatolia. But the European Court of Human Rights does not differentiate between villagers and the people of the cities. Whatever it requires for the compensation of real estate in Beyoglu [central Istanbul: ed.], it will require the same for the Monastery lands. This, of course, is of no concern either to the Government or the Court of Cassation, because the public will pay for it with their taxes. Good, but, what about the honour of our State?
My word to AKP: This time, it will be difficult to save yourselves by saying "There is nothing we can do about it; that's what the High Judiciary has decided." Who is in command of the Treasury, anyway?
My word to the State: Since 1915 capital accumulation in Turkey has been accomplished by "Turkifying" non-Muslim property. Are we still continuing? Haven't we exhausted it all?
By Baskin Oran
www.radikal.com.tr
Baskin Oran is Professor Emeritus of International Relations, University of Ankara, Turkey.
Translated from the Turkish original by Reyhan Durmaz.
� 2011, Assyrian International News Agency. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use.

Iran, Syria and Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood
21/02/2011
By Huda Al Husseini
Asharq Alawsat
A race has reached its peak in Iran, between plots hatched by the Iranian regime to form a regional alliance under its leadership, and the ability of the Iranian opposition - with its various divisions � to destroy such plans and expose the Iranian regime.
Before Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was overthrown, two counties publicly and officially welcomed what was happening in Tahrir Square. In Iran, the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, together with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, considered what was happening in Egypt to be a continuation of the Iranian Islamic Revolution. In Syria, immediately after Mubarak was overthrown, President Bashar al-Assad said "the Egypt of Camp David has gone"(although the Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem stated last Monday that "the Egyptian military leadership's decision to continue adhering to its international and regional treaties is a purely Egyptian decision").
Anyone observing the Iran's way of thinking would realize that Iran is insistent on implementing its expansionist plots, even if it is forced to resort to violence against its own people. The change that has occurred in Egypt will strengthen Iran's conviction that it is now on the verge of success. In January 2010, Iran and Syria had initiated a plan of coordination between them, relating to Egypt in the "post-Mubarak era". The two countries began to take early steps to influence the election of a successor to Mubarak, after they became convinced that he would step down due to ill health.
After the outbreak of the Egyptian revolution in Tahrir Square, Syria considered its own state of affairs to be stable, and predicted that Mubarak's regime would inevitably fall, expecting other Arab countries to follow it. Thus, this was an opportunity for Syria and Iran to exploit, in order to strengthen their radical alliance.
Therefore, senior Syrian officials from Ministry of Foreign Affairs presented a report to their top political representatives, detailing the situation in Egypt as well in other Arab states. They proposed to accelerate the implementation of the Iranian-Syrian agreement, aiming to pressure Egypt to join their anti-American alliance. The report also highlighted the need for senior officials from both countries to discuss the state of affairs in other Arab countries.
The report emphasized that there was no current danger to stability in Syria, whilst recommending that several secret precautions be taken. If precautions were taken overtly, they might be misinterpreted, giving the impression that the regime was greatly concerned, and this would prompt the opposition in Syria to provoke the regime. In the end, access to Facebook and Youtube was permitted, as the internet is not widespread in Syria.
The report's authors believe that what happened in Tunisia has no precedent in modern Arab history, although the Arab region is accustomed to military coups or foreign interventions, when regimes are overthrown. Yet they alluded to the possibility of repeated cases of collapse regarding Arab regimes, "especially in Egypt." The report's authors used Iranian intelligence regarding the decline of the Egyptian regime's ability to deter [civil unrest], in the face of educated young people who suffer from poverty, unemployment, deplorable living conditions, and a political regime beset by corruption. Hence, it was impossible for the Egyptian regime to neutralize the popular uprising, because it did not have solutions to the economic problems inherent in Egypt, and was cautious about resorting to violence to confront the demonstrations, because of [the presence of] Arab satellite channels, especially "al-Jazeera". The report indicated that a study is currently being conducted to gauge this channel's policy towards Syria, and to try to reach an agreement with it, as Iran did during the demonstrations that erupted after the 2009 elections, when Ahmadinejad was declared victorious.
Analysts from the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs concluded that the incidents in Egypt do not concern Iran greatly, because it has been successful in the past 18 months in establishing a considerable deterrent force against Iranian opposition. Those opposition members who suffered at the hands of the regime will not contemplate challenging it again. In addition, following the demonstrations that marred Ahmadinejad's electoral victory, Iran carefully studied the modus operandi of the opposition, and is now capable of besieging all opposition movements and preventing future demonstrations.
Regarding the likely implications of the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions - which according to the report would become realities � it was claimed that both revolutions further confirmed the weakness of the US, Britain and France in the region, and that what happened would tarnish the image of the West, which used to support such regimes, yet failed to stand up for them when they encountered crises. The report regarded this as a significant development, and urged Syria to establish its position in the Arab world and the region, building on the victories it achieved recently in Lebanon.
The Syrian analysts who drew up the report believe that although the Islamists were not behind what happened in Tunisia or Egypt, Islamist movements will soon be in control of both countries, and will act to bring them closer to Iran and Syria. Accordingly, both Syria and Iran should accelerate their implementation of what was previously agreed between the two countries, with regards to "the post-Mubarak era". Most importantly, the report stressed the need to establish permanent relations with the Muslim Brotherhood, so as to ensure a common strategy with the aim of controlling the [Egyptian] regime.
Iran was the primary advocate of this idea, as expressed by Iranian President Ahmadinejad on the 25th February 2010, when he visited Damascus. He emphasized the need for Iranian-Syrian intervention in Egypt, at a time when the country was preparing to elect a president to replace Mubarak. This was such a rare opportunity to influence Egypt, and bring it towards the radical camp. Ahmadinejad added that Iran and Syria must not waste time; for fear that Gamal Mubarak would be elected in the absence of any internal factors impeding his election.
Iranian opinion was settled on invoking the Muslim Brotherhood as a means to cause internal unrest in Egypt, in the period both before and after the presidential election. According to a reliable, informed source regarding this Iranian-Syrian plot, the Iranian proposal to involve the Brotherhood led to a disagreement between Tehran and Damascus, as the latter is known for its hostility towards the "Brotherhood", and their plans. The Iranians had initially proposed to hold meetings between them and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood on Syrian soil, yet they were only successful in obtaining Syrian approval once they declared that the negotiations would instead be held in Egypt.
Subsequently, the Syrians approved the proposal and the plot began to take shape. Security meetings between the two countries were held to monitor Mubarak's health condition, as well as Egypt's weakening influence in Africa and the Arab region.
Iran encouraged Syria to embrace Mubarak's likely successor - who would enjoy a prestigious status and influence in the region - so that Syria could later have the upper hand in Egyptian-Syrian relations, thus gearing them towards the radical alliance's interests.
It is worth noting that the Iranians highly commended Mohamed ElBaradei, and sought to find a way to help him attain the presidency. He was once the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Nobel Peace Laureate, and holds many significant relations with the West.
In Egypt, the Mubarak regime has been overthrown and the army has assumed responsibility for civil protection, until a new political leadership emerges. Everyone cherishes the Egyptians' joy, but what happened in Egypt was not a complete revolution, but rather a semi-revolution. This means that the country's future is the center of attention for many regional and international players.
Iran has been preparing for this moment for a year. If the Arab countries could only see what lies ahead for Egypt in the near future, then they would be able to change its course, for the benefit of Egypt firstly, and for a better future altogether.

As his regime crumbles, Qaddafi tightens his grip with tribal, army backing
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report February 22, 2011, Even after two pilots defected to Malta, the 22,000-man strong Libyan Air Force with its 13 bases is Muammar Qaddafi's mainstay for survival against massive popular and international dissent. debkafile's military sources report that 44 air transports and a like number of helicopters swiftly lifted loyal tribal militiamen fully armed from the Sahara and dropped them in the streets of Tripoli Monday, Feb. 21.
Qaddafi had mustered them to fill the gaps left by defecting army units and the large tribal militia which went over to the people.
One of the ruler's sons, Mutassim Qaddafi, is in command of the Tripoli crackdown. Air Force planes, mostly from the Libyan Air Force's inventory of 226 trainers, and helicopter gunships, bombed and fired heavy machine guns to scatter every attempt to stage a rally in the city's districts.
In their wake, Mutassim's "Libyan Popular Army" cleared the streets of protesters.
The tactics employed by Qaddafi and his sons was, first, to give the protesters free rein to rampage through the city, torch state TV and government buildings and so generate an impression among them and in the West that the Qaddafis were about to fall.
But when the demonstrators fanned out to seize the rest of the capital, they were bombed from the air and targeted by the tribal militias, who had no qualms about shooting directly at civilian crowds.
By the small hours of Tuesday, Feb. 22, when Qaddafi went on air to demonstrate he was still in Tripoli, he was again in control of the capital.
In a similar tactic, he first tried to gull his international critics by sending his urbane son, Saif al-Islami, who has convinced many influential people in the West that he is a moderate compared with his father, to state the Qaddafi case in a television interview Sunday, Feb. 20. Behind the scenes, another son, Mutassim, supreme commander of the Popular Army, designed a vicious crackdown in the capital. Deep in Sahara, their father raised a tribal army to fight for their survival.
When Muammar Qaddafi delivered his victory statement Tuesday, he sounded just like "the madman of the Middle East" � and epithet attached to him by the late Ronald Reagan. But in less than 60 seconds, he had conveyed his message that, although buildings were on fire in Tripoli, he was still standing and was determined to punish all his enemies, whom he dismissed scornfully as "foreign dogs" and "terrorist gangs of misguided youths, exploited and fed hallucinogenic pills."
Our military sources report his strategy for staying in power rests first on consolidating his grip on Tripoli and then using it as a base for military operations to regain control of the rest of the country, including Cyrenaica.
The Libyan ruler has not yet thrown all this military resources into the battle for survival. His navy is still in reserve. But his substantial air might well be crucial fro his fight to recover Cyrenaica's coastal towns of Benghazi and Tobruk from the rebels.
Qaddafi shows no sign of being cowed or deterred by international revulsion at his methods and the condemnations expected from the UN Security Council and the Arab League, both of which hold special meetings on Libya later Tuesday. Libya's deputy ambassador to UN accused the ruler of "genocide" and war crimes against his own people" and several ambassadors have quit or refused to represent his government any longer. But Qaddafi is very much on the warpath.