LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِJanuary 20/2010

Bible Of The Day
Isaiah 46:4: even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save".
N.B: We always wonder who will take care of us when we're old. Let us all have faith in Almighty God as clearly shown in this verse. He, our merciful Father, the same God who has cared for us all through of our lives will be also with us in our old age.

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
Lebanon enters a tunnel, the end of which can't be seen/By JONATHAN SPYER/January 19/11
Guest Editorial: Abrogation in Islam and The Persecution of Christians/By Gabriel Sawma/January 19/11
Look who is injecting politics into justice/By: Rayyan al-Shawaf/January 19/11
Lebanon as state open to UN sanctions if Beirut flouts Hariri tribunal/DEBKAfile Exclusive/January 19/11
Egypt's Copt crisis is one of democracy/By Omar Ashour/January 19/11

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for January 19/11
Riyadh Describes Lebanon Situation as 'Dangerous,' Announces End of Mediation /Naharnet
Nasrallah Meets Turkish, Qatari FMs after They Held 4-Hour Talks with Hariri /Naharnet
Ahmadinejad to the U.S., Israel: Lebanese Will Cut your Nasty Hand /Naharnet
Obama-Mubarak Discuss Tensions in Lebanon/Naharnet
Hizbullah stages show of force in Beirut/Daily Star
March 14 blasts Hizbullah's muscle-flexing/Daily Star
Washington: We Are Encouraging Syria to Respect Lebanon's Sovereignty /Naharnet
Report: Syria Rejected Egyptian Proposal to Form Arab League Committee on Lebanon/Naharnet
Cairo Laments Failure of Saudi Initiative but Says Lebanese Should Solve their Own Problems/Naharnet
Obama, Egypt's Mubarak discuss Tunisia, Lebanon/Reuters
Beyond Hezbollah: What's at Stake in Lebanon/New York Times
Davutoğlu: Hezbollah, Iran part of Lebanon settlement efforts/Today's Zaman
Fixing our strategy on Lebanon and Syria/Washington Times
Saudi ends Lebanon mediation efforts-Saudi formin/Reuters
Political chaos in Lebanon ravages economy, instills fear/Washington Times
'Stop sedition' in Lebanon: Iran warns West, Israel/iloubnan.info
Paris Rejects Political Exploitation of Tribunal, Says Not Enough Support for 'Contact Group' Yet/Naharnet
Lebanon Shows Shift of Influence in Mideast/New York Times
Marouni: Government Watched Silently at 'Farce' Street Gatherings  /Naharnet
Fatfat: Ball in Nasrallah's Court … Only Democratic-Based Solution is Acceptable /Naharnet
Jumblat Says Situation 'Very Bad,' Assad Gave him 'Freedom of Choice'/Naharnet


Lebanon as state open to UN sanctions if Beirut flouts Hariri tribunal
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report January 18, 2011,
The Special Lebanon Court registrar Herman von Hebel announced Tuesday, Jan. 18 that if things go well, "we may see the start of the trial toward September/October … with or without an accused." A day earlier, the STL prosecutor Daniel Bellemare submitted his draft indictment to the pre-trial judge Daniel Fransen in The Hague, thereby establishing three facts in the case of the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.
1. An approximate date has been set for the trial to begin, irrespective of the extreme upsets in Lebanon over the case.
2. The prosecution file includes names of accused individuals, members of Hizballah, who will be summoned to appear before the UN court. Bellemare stated in a video clip Tuesday that the accused he cited are presumed innocent even after they are confirmed by the judge – until the prosecution proves their guilt beyond reasonable doubt in court.
3. Any of the accused defying the court summons will be tried in absentia as debkafile reportedly exclusively first in its weekly edition on Dec. 24, 2010 and again in daily debkafile on Jan. 13. The registrar also stated Tuesday: "The pretrial judge is very keen to move the process forward as fast as possible."
This means that Fransen will make an effort to hand down his decision on the indictments within 6-10 weeks, much earlier than the several months originally reported, according to debkafile's sources. The court realizes that the longer the court process, the deeper Lebanon will sink into crisis.
Von Hebel also referred to the joint effort Syrian president Bashar Assad, Turkish premier Recep Erdogan and the Qatari emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa al-Thani were making in Beirut for a compromise that would free the Lebanese government of its commitment to honor the international tribunal's warrants and contribute to its funding. The registrar said: "We know for sure it is not easy to get accused persons arrested. The problem with international tribunals is that they do not have a police force. We are dependent on the cooperation of states."
He then remarked: "The tribunal's budget is $65.7 million for 2011 should not be affected by the collapse of the Lebanese government which is obliged to pay 49 percent. The obligation is for the state, not a government."
That comment is the key to the dispute – both over the tribunal's funding and its legitimacy which Hizballah challenges by refusing to hand over its officials for trial.
Von Hebel, the tribunal's registrar. made it clear that the Lebanese state, not its government, will be held accountable for upholding the UN court's decrees. In other words, the effort engineered from Tehran and Damascus to replace the Hariri government with an alternative will not get Hizballah off the hook. Indeed any administration in Beirut that defies the court lays Lebanon open to a complaint to the UN Security Council by the UN tribunal's judges and a demand for sanctions pending compliance.

Riyadh Describes Lebanon Situation as 'Dangerous,' Announces End of Mediation
Naharnet/Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said Wednesday that Riyadh has abandoned mediation efforts in Lebanon, where he described the situation as "dangerous."
Saudi King Abdullah and Syrian President Bashar Assad had been in contact "with commitment to end the whole Lebanon problem," said the foreign minister in an interview with Arab satellite TV network al-Arabiya. "When that did not happen, the custodian of the holy mosques said he was pulling his hand out" from the effort, he told the Saudi-owned TV channel.
Describing the situation in Lebanon as "dangerous," Faisal expressed fears of division in the multi-confessional nation.
"If the situation reaches full separation and (regional) partition, this means the end of Lebanon as a state that has this model of peaceful cohabitation between (different) religions and ethnicities," he added. Diplomats said that Abdullah told U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon and French President Nicolas Sarkozy earlier this month that he was halting his mediation attempt.
One diplomat had quoted the Saudi king, who is recovering from back surgery in the United States, as saying in one meeting: "It's over, I tried for several months to find an agreement between them but I couldn't, so it's over."(AFP-Naharnet) Beirut, 19 Jan 11, 10:50

Bellemare Probing 'Recent Unauthorized Broadcasts of Confidential Material'
Naharnet/Special Tribunal for Lebanon Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare is "very concerned with the recent unauthorized broadcasts on some Lebanese TV channels of what appear to be interviews conducted by officials of the United Nations International Independent Investigation Commission (UNIIIC)," the Office of the Prosecutor announced Tuesday in a statement.
"This material is confidential and protected information and was made public in breach of the law. The Prosecutor is exploring all possible avenues, in The Hague and in Lebanon, to determine how this confidential information came into the public domain and to prevent any further unauthorized disclosure," said the statement.
"The Prosecutor strongly condemns the disclosure of this confidential information and gives his assurance that his office will continue to spare no effort in the pursuit of justice," the statement went on to say.
In the past few days, Lebanese TV network Al-Jadeed has aired two audiotapes involving STL officials and caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri.
The first recording is of a meeting between Hariri, alleged "false witness" Mohammed Zuheir Siddiq, head of Internal Security Forces' Intelligence Bureau Col. Wissam al-Hasan and Gerhard Lehmann, an aide to former chief U.N. investigator Detlev Mehlis.
The second is of Hariri's testimony to U.N. investigators in 2007. The caretaker prime minister has confirmed the authenticity of both recordings.
Earlier Tuesday, Bellemare warned against speculation on the STL indictment and stressed that "while justice may be slow, it is deliberate." He filed the indictment for the 2005 murder of ex-premier Rafik Hariri on Monday. He said Tuesday that the document has to remain secret for now.
"Any speculation about the contents of the indictment would be counter-productive," Bellemare said in a video statement.
"Confidentiality is essential as I cannot presume that the pre-trial judge will confirm the indictment. If it is confirmed, the content of the document will be made public in due course."
But speculation was rife that it names Hizbullah members in connection with the massive car bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others on the Beirut seafront in February 2005.
According to its rules of procedure, the indictment will next be reviewed by pre-trial judge Daniel Fransen, who must confirm the charges before any arrest warrant or summons to appear can be issued. "Even if the indictment is confirmed by the pre-trial judge, the person or persons whose identity is contained in the document are still presumed innocent," Bellemare said Tuesday. The indictment marks the launch of the judicial phase of the tribunal's work and "represents the fruit of the hard work under challenging circumstances," he said.
Bellemare hailed the move as a landmark in efforts to end impunity for political slayings in the country and said the confidential indictment is important "for the international community and for those who believe in international justice." He said he had made good on a promise to the people of Lebanon to do "everything that is humanly and legally possible" to bring the assassins to justice. Addressing "those who did not expect or want this day to come," the prosecutor said: "I would say that while justice may be slow, it is deliberate." Bellemare also thanked Lebanese authorities for their support. "It has been essential."(Naharnet-AFP) Beirut, 18 Jan 11, 21:14

STL Registrar Rules Out Relaunching of Investigation into Hariri Murder
Naharnet/Special Tribunal for Lebanon registrar Herman von Hebel ruled out the relaunching of the investigation into the 2005 assassination of former PM Rafik Hariri.
"Even if pre-trial judge Daniel Frasen rejected Bellemare's indictment on the grounds of insufficient evidence, relaunching the investigation is not likely," Hebel said in remarks published Wednesday by the daily Al-Balad. In that case, Hebel said, Fransen would ask Bellemare to consolidate his indictment with further evidence. Beirut, 19 Jan 11, 07:27

Hezbollah source threatens escalation
January 19, 2011 /A source close to Hezbollah said Wednesday that the party has made the decision to implement “scenario plans” in Lebanon in the coming period.
“Only a few people in Hezbollah’s closed circle know the details of the party’s plans to escalate [the situation],” the source – speaking on condition of anonymity – told NOW Lebanon. “The zero hour for the post-Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) indictment phase has really begun.”The source said that Hezbollah’s next actions could target “every official or unofficial, domestic or international institution that is cooperating or even just in communication with the STL.”“Tuesday’s scenario [of crowds mobilizing in Beirut neighborhoods] does not necessarily have to be repeated, but each day will have a different scenario from the one that preceded it.”When asked about Hezbollah’s possible domestic use of arms, the source said that “the party considers that the tribunal’s indictment targets the Resistance and its arms, and its [Secretary General ] Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has already announced that the [use of] weapons protects [Hezbollah’s] weapons.”Crowds of young men gathered in some Beirut neighborhoods early Tuesday morning, causing some schools to close amid fears of potential violence. Parents were seen taking their children out of classes. STL Prosecutor-General Daniel Bellemare submitted his indictment on former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s 2005 assassination on Monday.
Hezbollah has demanded that Lebanon reject the tribunal and on January 12 withdrew from the cabinet with its allies, precipitating the government’s collapse.-NOW Lebanon

Nasrallah Meets Turkish, Qatari FMs after They Held 4-Hour Talks with Hariri
Naharnet/The foreign ministers of Turkey and Qatar met overnight Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah following four hours of talks with caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri to find ways to resolve the tribunal crisis. A statement issued by Hizbullah on Wednesday said talks late Tuesday with Nasrallah focused on "proposed solutions" to the political crisis.
An-Nahar newspaper on Wednesday said the FMs' talks with Lebanese government officials focused on two points: maintaining stability and preparing for binding parliamentary consultations to name the next prime minister. But the talks, according to An-Nahar, bumped into a set of conditions imposed by the Opposition as a result of the indictment which was submitted on Monday. The Special Tribunal for Lebanon, set up to try the killers of former PM Rafik Hariri, insisted Tuesday on keeping its first indictment under wraps as fears of violence rose on the streets of Beirut.  Bellemare warned that speculation on the indictment, which is widely believed to implicate Hizbullah, would be "counter-productive." On Tuesday, Turkey's foreign minister was traveling to Beirut in a coordinated visit with Qatar's prime minister to discuss the political crisis in Lebanon. Turkish FM Ahmet Davutoglu and Qatar's FM and Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani arrived in Beirut on Tuesday in a bid to find a solution to the Lebanon crisis. Davutoglu's trip to Beirut came a day after consultations with Iran's new acting Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi in Ankara. On Tuesday, Davutoglu and Sheikh Hamad meet President Michel Suleiman, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and PM Hariri. Local media said the two leaders are expected to meet on Wednesday with Lebanese politicians from both the majority March 8 coalition and the Hizbullah-led March 8 alliance. A meeting with Druze leader Walid Jumblat is also on their agenda. They said Davutoglu and Sheikh Hamad were shrouded in silence as they made no statements to the press following their Tuesday meetings. Berri, in remarks published Wednesday by An-Nahar said he has informed the visiting FMs that the majority March 14 coalition "missed a golden opportunity -- a guarantee out of this crisis." On Tuesday, Berri reminded the Lebanese that the Opposition had warned that its policy would change once the indictment was issued.
He said that policy "has entered the stage of implementation" as of Monday afternoon, when the STL announced that a confidential indictment had been submitted. Beirut, 19 Jan 11, 07:06

Ahmadinejad to the U.S., Israel: Lebanese Will Cut your Nasty Hand
Naharnet/President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday warned Iran's arch foes Israel, the United States and some European nations to stop their "sedition" in Lebanon or the Lebanese people would "chop" their hands. "You are on a rough downhill path that will take you into a deep valley and your actions show that your decline is on a fast track," Ahmadinejad, referring to the U.S., Israel and unspecified European nations, told a cheering crowd in the city of Yazd in a speech broadcast live on state television.
"With these actions, you are damaging your reputation. Stop your interference. "If you don't stop your sedition (in Lebanon), then the Lebanese nation and regional countries will cut your nasty, plotting hand," said the president. Iran, like Hizbullah, accuses the international tribunal of being influenced by the U.S. and Israel. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has already dismissed the much-anticipated findings of the court.(AFP) Beirut, 19 Jan 11, 12:27

Washington: We Are Encouraging Syria to Respect Lebanon's Sovereignty
Naharnet/The U.S. said it supports French President Nicolas Sarkozy's suggestion to form a contact group on Lebanon and stressed that it was urging Syria to respect the country's sovereignty. "We are supporting this process. But as to when diplomats get together, I can't project at this point," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said in his briefing on Tuesday about the French proposal. Asked if Syria had rejected the contact group, he said: "Syria … has an interest in Lebanon. We have been in touch with the Syrian government and are encouraging Syria and other countries to respect the independence and sovereignty of Lebanon." When asked about the collapse of the Lebanese government following the resignation of 11 Hizbullah-backed ministers from the cabinet, Crowley said: "I don't think that we challenge that in a parliamentary system, various ministers can either support or oppose a sitting government. That's not the issue. The issue really is what is the purpose." The resignations "are intended to force Lebanon to choose between justice and security. Now, that's a false choice," he said. "Our focus is on a sovereign, independent Lebanon," Crowley told reporters and hoped that politicians would continue to support the needs of the Lebanese rather than implement foreign agendas. Beirut, 19 Jan 11, 10:34

Marouni: Government Watched Silently at 'Farce' Street Gatherings
Naharnet/Phalange MP Elie Marouni on Wednesday described street gatherings in Beirut as a "farce" and said they were a "rehearsal" for a big show.
Marouni also accused the government of silently watching street gatherings which took place in several Beirut neighborhoods early Tuesday. "The Government silently stood watching at these farce gatherings," he told Future News television channel. "How did this farce pass so easily?" he wondered, adding that past experiences are not encouraging. Marouni said that in conjunction with the Beirut street gatherings, similar crowds deployed in Karak near Zahle. On Turkish-Qatar mediation, Marouni said no progress has so far been made in this regard.
Beirut, 19 Jan 11, 10:30

Fatfat: Ball in Nasrallah's Court … Only Democratic-Based Solution is Acceptable
Naharnet/Mustaqbal MP Ahmed Fatfat on Wednesday said the ball was now in Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's and March 8 alliance's court. "The doors are not closed on our part," Fatfat said in an interview with the Voice of Lebanon radio station He said March 14 insist that binding parliamentary consultations kick off next Monday, stressing that "only a democratic-based solution is acceptable." "Any postponement in this regard is aimed at crippling Government institutions and an attempt to create a power vacuum," Fatfat believed. He accused the Hizbullah-led March 8 coalition of "trying to impose a new political system in Lebanon." Beirut, 19 Jan 11, 09:45

Paris Rejects Political Exploitation of Tribunal, Says Not Enough Support for 'Contact Group' Yet
Naharnet/Paris urged all Lebanese parties to respect the independent work of the international tribunal and expressed regret that attempts to establish a "contact group" on Lebanon haven't so far garnered enough support. "France reiterates its continued commitment to international justice and the battle against impunity," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero.
Referring to U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon's statement on the court, the spokesman said: "Like the rest of international tribunals, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon is independent and unbiased."
"It should continue to operate without obstacles," he said in his briefing to reporters, urging all parties in Lebanon and the region "to respect the tribunal's independence."
"We reject any political exploitation of its work," said Valero. When asked about the situation in Lebanon following the collapse of the government, the spokesman said: "The initiative launched by France through President Nicolas Sarkozy's discussions with several countries to set up a 'contact group' on Lebanon, is aimed at establishing a joint effort to protect the stability of Lebanon.""However, Paris so far did not receive enough support for its initiative," he said. "The situation in Lebanon is dangerous and Paris aims at helping it to overcome this current stage," Valero told reporters. Beirut, 19 Jan 11, 10:05

Report: Syria Rejected Egyptian Proposal to Form Arab League Committee on Lebanon
Naharnet/Egypt has suggested the formation of an Arab League committee to follow up developments in Lebanon but Syria rejected, pan-Arab daily al-Hayat reported Wednesday.
Al-Hayat said the suggestion was made by Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit during the meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Sharm el-Sheikh on Tuesday.The newspaper quoted an Arab source as saying that Abul Gheit told the ministers it was not acceptable for the Arab League to be absent from initiatives aimed at ending the Lebanese crisis."That's why an Arab League committee should be formed," the Egyptian FM told the conferees. However, the Syrian foreign minister's deputy, Faisal al-Miqdad, rejected the proposal, asking for the support of the Syrian-Saudi initiative that collapsed this month leading to the resignation of 11 ministers from the Lebanese cabinet, the source said. Beirut, 19 Jan 11, 08:15

Cairo Laments Failure of Saudi Initiative but Says Lebanese Should Solve their Own Problems
Naharnet/Egypt lamented the failure of Saudi efforts to solve Lebanon's political crisis but said a solution to the deadlock should come through an inter-Lebanese settlement.
Cairo "highly appreciates the Saudi role … but this initiative did not reach the expected results," Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman Hussam Zaki told reporters in Sharm el-Sheikh on Tuesday. He said Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit discussed the situation in Lebanon with his Saudi counterpart Prince Saud al-Faisal in Sharm el-Sheikh.
"They mulled ways to preserving the stability and security of Lebanon and backing the state and its institutions in addition to protecting the course of justice" in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's assassination case, Zaki told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat in remarks published Wednesday. He said Egypt does not mind to participate in any international or regional effort to calm the situation in Lebanon. When asked about a proposal made by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to create a contact group on Lebanon, Zaki said: "This is still a suggestion. There is still no official move on it." Beirut, 19 Jan 11, 08:57

Obama-Mubarak Discuss Tensions in Lebanon
Naharnet/U.S. President Barack Obama on has consulted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on political tumult in Tunisia and tensions in Lebanon sparked by a U.N. probe into the killing of Rafik Hariri. Obama spoke to the Egyptian leader after U.S. officials said last week they were seeking to exert leverage in Lebanon though key regional players, and after the flight of ousted Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. The White House said Obama told Mubarak he was urging calm, an end to violence and free and fair elections in Tunisia, amid public rage at the continued presence of the ousted president's party on the political scene. Obama also told Mubarak he was grateful for his support for the U.N. probe in Lebanon, which has kept its first indictment in the killing of the former prime minister under wraps amid fears of violence in Beirut. The U.S. President also offered personal condolences to Mubarak and the Egyptian people for the "heinous" bombing targeting Coptic Christians on January 1 in Alexandria that left 21 people dead and wounded 79 others. The two men also discussed stalled efforts to advance peace between Israelis and Palestinians, the statement said.(AFP) Beirut, 19 Jan 11, 06:44

Look who is injecting politics into justice
Rayyan al-Shawaf, Now Lebanon/January 19, 2011
The Lebanese army stands outside of a mosque after deploying more heavily in Beirut. (AFP Photo/Joseph Eid)
When those opposed to caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri, unhappy with his refusal to disavow the as-yet-unannounced findings of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, toppled the government last week, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pointed out that no country should have to choose between justice and stability. Yet it is precisely that choice that Hezbollah has sought to foist upon Lebanon. The ensuing dilemma is painful, but also reveals two important things about the party.
First, a party renowned for its discipline and vise-like hold on Lebanon’s Shia is so desperate to scuttle the tribunal that it has been willing to pretend that it cannot control the members of its own sect, whom it portrays as liable to carry out acts of mass disruption should they take umbrage at the tribunal’s findings. Second, despite its claim to oppose the politicization of justice, that is precisely what Hezbollah is engaging in.
For all its supposed political savvy, Hezbollah is an ideological movement with a distorted and paranoid view of the world. As such, its members often straight-facedly hold forth on the alleged control and manipulation by the United States of the United Nations. (Never mind that conservative American politicians have been trying for years to get their country to pull out of the U.N., precisely because the US has repeatedly seen its aims frustrated by broad alliances of developing nations, such as the Group of 77.) Hezbollah’s frenzied denunciations of the Special Tribunal, given its mandate by the U.N., have often featured a strong dose of conspiracy mongering, of the kind that has the US and Israel running virtually the entire world – with a steadfast Iran and Hezbollah’s unofficial cantons in Lebanon the only arenas beyond their reach.
But in its more sober moments, Hezbollah (together with its junior partners Amal and the Free Patriotic Movement) has been surprisingly – almost refreshingly – blunt in explaining its opposition to the Special Tribunal. Rants against nefarious US-Zionist machinations are replaced by seemingly measured statements on the need to avoid sectarian discord. On several occasions Hezbollah warned Hariri that if he failed to dissociate himself from the tribunal, which is now reviewing a draft indictment that many expect accuses Hezbollah members, he would plunge the country into a sectarian conflict. The message was clear: supporting the Special Tribunal would unlock the gates of Shia fury and Hezbollah would be unable to rein in their coreligionists.
Yet this argument is weakened by the fact that some form of sectarian strife is almost inevitable either way. True, if March 14 goes along with the Special Tribunal, this would infuriate the Shia, who would view Sunnis as conspiring with the US and Israel against Hezbollah. But if March 14 and Hariri take their distance from the tribunal, Sunnis would become enraged and would regard Hariri as having sold out to Hezbollah.
The notion that the sectarian fallout would be worse if the Shia were the ones who considered themselves the aggrieved party defies common sense. Precisely because Hezbollah is a disciplined organization able to control the “Shia street,” it could prevent popular anger from disrupting public order. Hariri, on the other hand, could probably not control dangerously disaffected Sunnis, and would likely fail to prevent outbreaks of violence against Shia and even the state.
Even more worrisome than Hezbollah’s pretending to be unable to restrain Shia wrath has been the party’s cynical manipulation of the idea of sectarian dissension, so that an admittedly disturbing possibility has been transformed into a bogeyman to be avoided at all costs.
Depicting sectarianism in such an exaggerated manner obscures Lebanon’s priorities. The Lebanese must accept that true justice punishes the perpetrators of crimes without regard for sectarian sensitivities. This is crucial to the integrity of the judicial process, because once a tribunal issues its ruling, that ruling must be enforced. And in order to be enforced by the appropriate authorities in Lebanon or elsewhere, there must be firm recognition among citizens that the Special Tribunal ruling cannot be ignored because it is inconvenient for a specific group. “May justice be done though the heavens fall,” goes the saying. Indeed, callous as this may sound, the projected socio-political ramifications of the Special Tribunal’s findings are irrelevant. The irony here is that Hezbollah purports to oppose the politicization of the tribunal’s judicial process. Yet placing sectarian harmony over and above the institution’s findings would itself politicize the process irrevocably and subvert both the concept and the course of legal justice.
**Rayyan al-Shawaf is a writer and book critic based in Beirut.

Kataeb asks Sfeir to reverse his resignation
January 19, 2011 /A high-ranking Kataeb delegation met with Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir on Wednesday and asked him to reverse his resignation, NOW Lebanon’s correspondent reported. After the meeting, Patriarch Sfeir said that he had reached an age at which he should resign, but has “still not received an answer” regarding his resignation request.
However, he added that he will “stay beside the people and suffer what they suffer,” asking God to keep Lebanon and its citizens. Kataeb MP Sami Gemayel spoke on behalf of the delegation, saying that “the party supports Patriarch Sfeir and what he represents to the Christians and to the Lebanese people.” Gemayel also acknowledged the patriarch’s national stances, especially “over the last ten years, when he was the first to launch the journey towards independence.”Gemayel concluded that “Patriarch Sfeir took daring positions that any young man would not dare to,” commenting on the patriarch’s statement that he should leave his place to someone able to run the Maronite Patriarchate in a better way. Labor Minister Boutros Harb said on Sunday that Sfeir submitted a request to be relieved of his post to the Vatican months ago.-NOW Lebanon

Berri meets with parliamentarians
January 19, 2011 /NOW Lebanon’s correspondent reported on Wednesday that Speaker Nabih Berri is holding routine meetings with MPs in Ain al-Tineh, but March 14 MPs are not attending. The report did not elaborate any further. Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) Prosecutor-General Daniel Bellemare submitted his indictment on former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s 2005 assassination on Monday. Hezbollah has demanded that Lebanon reject the tribunal and on January 12 withdrew from the cabinet with its allies, precipitating the government’s collapse. Prime Minister Saad Hariri is currently heading a caretaker government pending the outcome of consultations that have been postponed to next Monday.
-NOW Lebanon

Lebanese stability is a red line, Khreiss warns
January 19, 2011 /Development and Liberation bloc MP Ali Khreiss said that “Lebanon’s stability and civil peace are a red line.” In an exclusive interview with NOW Lebanon published on Wednesday, Khreiss said that “[we] cannot in any way allow the deterioration of security” in the country. “Security tensions do not benefit any political party in Lebanon.” He also said that his bloc will keep “betting on the Saudi-Syrian [efforts] to find a solution to the current problem [in Lebanon].” The MP also said that his bloc welcomes President Michel Sleiman’s decision to postpone the consultations on the prime ministerial nomination to next Monday. Crowds of young men gathered in some Beirut neighborhoods early Tuesday morning, causing some schools to close amid fears of potential violence. Parents were seen taking their children out of classes. Lebanon’s government collapsed on January 12 after Hezbollah and its allies withdrew their ministers. Hezbollah has for months demanded that Lebanon reject the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), whose prosecutor’s indictment on former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s 2005 assassination was submitted Monday. Prime Minister Saad Hariri is currently heading a caretaker government pending the outcome of consultations that have been postponed to January 24 and 25. -NOW Lebanon

Lebanon enters a tunnel, the end of which can't be seen
By JONATHAN SPYER
01/18/2011 03:17
J.Post
Analysis: The irresistible force of Hariri's refusal to abandon UN Tribunal is set against the immovable object of Hizbullah's physical domination.
The political crisis in Lebanon precipitated by the resignation last week of ministers affiliated with the Hizbullah- led March 8 bloc is now entering its second stage. The countdown has already begun toward the issuing of indictments for the 2005 murder of former prime minister Rafik Hariri.
The indictments are expected to implicate Hizbullah members, including senior movement figures, in the killing.
Hassan Nasrallah, as indicated by his speech earlier this week, is desperately trying to build a Lebanese political fence around his movement, to protect it as much as possible from the impact of its members being indicted for the murder of a popular, mainstream Sunni politician. The March 14 movement of current Prime Minister Saad Hariri is seeking to frustrate this effort by Hizbullah.
At present, the focus of the action is on internal Lebanese political procedure. Hariri has been invited by President Michel Suleiman to stay on as a “caretaker” prime minister. Parliamentary consultations are set to begin to determine the make-up of the next Lebanese government. The result of these consultations is far from certain.
The Hizbullah-led March 8 bloc has made clear that it will be putting forward an alternative candidate for the prime ministership.
Omar Karami, the candidate of this bloc, is a former prime minister, the scion of a prominent Sunni political family in Lebanon, and is closely aligned with the Syrians. Hariri, meanwhile, is at the moment standing firm and looks set to contest the issue.
The March 8 and March 14 (pro-Hariri) blocs are roughly evenly matched in the 128- member Lebanese parliament.
At the moment, therefore, all eyes are on Druse strongman Walid Jumblatt, who controls 11 seats, and who has not yet clearly indicated which side he will support.
The indications are that he will favor Hariri’s leading a renewed “unity” government, although it is not clear if circumstances will make possible the formation of such a government.
If the current consultations fail to produce a quick result, with Hariri continuing as “caretaker” prime minister, then the prospect will open up for increased pressure on the government from Hizbullah. It is at this point that civil unrest, demonstrations and possibly sectarian violence will become a possibility, as Hizbullah seeks to raise the stakes and force Hariri to distance himself from the tribunal.
If, on the other hand, the new government is formed by March 8, this will represent an entirely new situation – namely, the rise to political power of the pro-Iranian and pro-Syrian bloc in Lebanon.
This, however, is widely considered to be a less-likely outcome.
Hizbullah and its backers have little to gain from an open seizure of power. As this issue is decided, international efforts of various kinds are frantically taking place to avoid renewed internecine conflict in Lebanon. Turkey and Qatar are among the regional states involved in these efforts. Saudi-Syrian contacts have not ended, and it is possible that they will yet produce some type of compromise formula.
With all the current maneuvering, two points need to be borne in mind.
First of all, this process is about Hizbullah’s legitimacy, not its physical power. What is at stake is the movement’s attempt to present itself as a patriotic, Arab movement engaged centrally in fighting Israel.
Should it be tainted with the murder of Hariri, the movement will instead come to be seen by millions across the Arab world as an alien, Shia force supported by non-Arab powers and engaging in activities that place it far outside the Arab political consensus.
Hizbullah dreads this outcome, and the possibility of it underlies its present obvious discomfort.
At the same time, what is not at stake is Hizbullah’s real-life dominance of Lebanon.
Whatever the outcome of the present crisis, the undeniable reality that the Iranian-sponsored Shia Islamist movement is the strongest force in the country will remain.
Hizbullah thus finds itself in the unfamiliar position of being without peer in terms of its physical strength, and yet unable to translate this reality at the present time into a situation to its liking politically.
The result is that the irresistible force of Saad Hariri’s (current) refusal to abandon the Tribunal tasked with finding his father’s killers is currently set against the immovable object of Hizbullah’s physical domination of the means of force in Lebanon.
What will be the outcome? As speaker of the Lebanese Parliament Nabih Berri put it in an interview with Asharq al-Awsat, Lebanon is currently entering “a tunnel whose beginning we know but whose end we don’t see.”

Hizbullah stages show of force in Beirut
Qatari, Turkish officials hold separate talks with Hariri and Nasrallah in bid to avert strife
By Hussein Dakroub
Daily Star staff
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
BEIRUT: Hizbullah staged a quiet show of force Tuesday that rattled nerves, hours before senior Qatari and Turkish officials began talks in Beirut in an attempt to contain political tension over a U.N.-backed tribunal probing the 2005 killing of statesman Rafik Hariri.
Hizbullah’s actions came hours before Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Bin Jaber al-Thani and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu began a series of talks with Lebanon’s political leaders aimed at preventing a slide toward sectarian strife.
As The Daily Star went to press early Wednesday, Sheikh Hamad and Davutoglu were in talks with Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut. The two officials will spend the night in the capital to hold further talks with other political leaders Wednesday.
In talks earlier with President Michel Sleiman, Speaker Nabih Berri and caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Sheikh Hamad and Davutoglu briefed them on the results of the three-way summit in Damascus. The Qatari and Turkish officials’ meeting with Hariri was the longest, lasting four hours. No statement was issued after the meeting.
Hizbullah’s move Tuesday was viewed by the March 14 coalition as a “rehearsal” to what might happen if the group is accused of any involvement in the massive bombing that killed former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 22 others in Beirut on Feb. 14, 2005.
It came a day after the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare handed a draft indictment to the tribunal’s pre-trial Judge Daniel Fransen. The indictment had been widely assumed to be set to implicate some Hizbullah members, raising fears of sectarian violence.
Hizbullah, which has repeatedly denied involvement in Hariri’s assassination, has dismissed the S.T.L. as an “American-Israeli tool” designed to incite sectarian strife in Lebanon.
Groups of Hizbullah members, clad in black uniforms, fanned out in several neighborhoods in West Beirut early Tuesday, creating panic among the residents and leading parents to pick up their children from schools, security sources and witnesses said. The unarmed men, carrying wireless sets and handy phones, were seen in areas from the southern suburb of Hadath to Beirut’s Downtown district.
The men appeared to be well-organized and trained for fighting, the sources said. The groups, which began fanning out at 3.00 a.m. Tuesday, disbanded at 7.00 a.m. after troops and security forces deployed in the areas, the sources said. No trouble was reported during the street gatherings which were apparently linked to mounting tension over the S.T.L.’s indictment.
Hizbullah has made no comment on Tuesday’s incident or on Monday’s indictment handover to Fransen. But a source close to Hizbullah described Tuesday’s public gatherings as “a small message to say that the time for talk is over.”
Nasrallah has warned the March 14 coalition that it would be too late to reach a solution for the Lebanese crisis once the indictment was issued.
As-Safir newspaper quoted Hizbullah-ally Berri as saying that the post-indictment stage would be different from the pre-indictment stage.
The Qatari-Turkish mediation bid comes after Lebanon’s political crisis deepened with the collapse last week of Hariri’s national unity Cabinet following the resignations of ministers of Hizbullah and its March 8 allies.
It also came a day after the leaders of Syria, Turkey and Qatar, who met in Damascus Monday, voiced support for the Saudi-Syrian efforts aimed at defusing tension over the indictment. Last week, the March 8 coalition declared that the Saudi-Syrian initiative to resolve the months-long crisis had reached a dead end.
Sleiman held “deep and useful” talks with Sheikh Hamad and Davutoglu, said a statement released by the president’s office in Baabda.
“The situation is still under discussion according to the Saudi-Syrian initiative,” Berri told reporters after meeting with the Qatari and Turkish officials, who did not make any statements after meeting the three leaders.
Before flying to Beirut, Davutoglu, who met Iranian officials Monday, said: “As countries in the region and allies, we can’t be observers to Lebanon being dragged into another political crisis. We will hold talks with all political actors in Lebanon, including Hizbullah, which is both a political party and an organization supported to a great extent by the people.”
A Lebanese political source close to the Qatari-Turkish talks said Sheikh Hamad and Davutoglu were trying to sort out some “vague ideas” related to the S.T.L. and based on the Saudi-Syrian settlement in their meetings with Lebanese leaders.
“The Qatari and Turkish officials are trying to reconcile the views of the March 8 camp and Prime Minister Hariri on the point relating to the tribunal,” the source told The Daily Star.
He said that the Qatari and Turkish officials would not mind a new postponement of the parliamentary consultations on naming a new prime minister, scheduled for Monday, should more time be needed to mediate a solution. “They are working to accomplish the work quickly. But there is no problem in postponing the consultations again if the need arises,” the source said.
A senior March 8 source said new elements had to be taken into consideration after the failure of the Saudi-Syrian efforts to forge a deal between the March 8 and March 14 camps. “Matters cannot go on as if there is no Cabinet’s resignation or no indictment has been issued. What was good until last Sunday cannot be good for now,” the source said.
“Although the March 8 camp’s next step has not yet been outlined, all possibilities are open. What happened today [Hizbullah’s show of force] was a message that another logic has entered the equation,” the source added.
Shortly after word spread about the public gatherings, some schools contacted parents to tell them to come and pick up their children “because the security situation is not good,” said a mother as she picked up her three children from a school in the Hamra area.
Several schools shut down as news spread about the street gatherings. Caretaker Education Minister Hassan Mneimneh urged parents to bring their children back to school. “Wednesday will be a normal school day,” he told LBCI TV.
Security forces did not intervene to stop the public gatherings. But a heavy army presence could be seen by midday in the neighborhoods where the gatherings took place. As an army spokesman told A.F.P, “We have taken measures to reassure citizens,” while a security official speculated to A.F.P. that, “The gatherings may signal preparations to mobilize in relation to the indictment being handed down.”
Hariri’s parliamentary Future bloc slammed Hizbullah’s gatherings as “a veiled formula for an armed coup” which the Lebanese would not accept. “The orchestrated gatherings carried out by members of Hizbullah and its allies for more than two hours … were aimed at sending a clear message to the Lebanese about preparations to stage riots and also a similar message to the Qatari and Turkish foreign ministers who are visiting Lebanon today,” said a statement issued after the bloc’s meeting.
Meanwhile, Lebanese Army Commander Gen. Jean Kahwagi met in Damascus with Syrian President Bashar Assad with whom he discussed “cooperation between the two armies of the two countries and the army’s role in consolidating security and stability in Lebanon, especially under the circumstances through which the region is passing,” Syria’s official news agency SANA reported.

March 14 blasts Hizbullah's muscle-flexing
By Elias Sakr /Daily Star staff
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
BEIRUT: March 14 parties described Hizbullah’s display of force Tuesday as a “masked rehearsal” of a possible armed coup in preparation against Lebanese state institutions and called on the Lebanese Army and security institutions to assume the responsibility of preserving security.
Caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s Future Movement parliamentary bloc said the Hizbullah orchestrated gatherings at key intersections in Beirut were masked and unsuccessful attempts in preparation of an armed coup against the Lebanese state.
“It became clear that the recent attempts are a masked and unsuccessful equation of an armed coup that the Lebanese will not surrender to or accept and attempts that will not alter our convictions but rather deepen our commitment to our principles,” a statement released by the bloc said.
While Hizbullah failed to comment on the organized gatherings mobilized as early as 3 a.m. Tuesday, a figure of the March 8 coalition confirmed that Hizbullah and its allies have decided to take their demands to the street.
The Future Movement bloc called on the Lebanese Army and security forces to assume their responsibilities and protect people against those threatening their security and safety.
Echoing the Future Movement, the March 14 Secretariat General said that the large-scale orchestrated deployment of Hizbullah members in Beirut violated constitutional norms and democratic values.
The display of force followed the adjournment of binding parliamentary consultations by President Michel Sleiman scheduled for last Monday to name a new prime minister to grant Syrian-Turkish-Qatari efforts a chance to break the deadlock over the disputed issue of the U.N.-backed tribunal.
The crisis over the U.N.-backed court has led to the collapse of Hariri’s Cabinet after he refused Hizbullah’s demand to halt cooperation with the Special Tribunal for Lebanon that is probing the assassination of his father, former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
A statement released following the meeting of the secretariat’s officials said the March 8 coalition resorted to such a step after realizing that Hariri still retained a parliamentary majority that would result in his re-nomination as prime minister. “Thus the pressure exercised to postpone binding parliamentary consultations,” it said in reference to reports that Progressive Socialist Party leader M.P. Walid Jumblatt’s parliamentary bloc would have granted Hariri its votes guaranteeing his re-nomination to head the new cabinet.
While Jumblatt’s position remains ambiguous, the P.S.P. said in a statement that its leader alone was entitled to decide upon his future political positions.
Lebanese Forces M.P. Antoine Zahra said the March 8 coalition should refrain from participating in the upcoming government if Hariri gains a parliamentary majority and is re-nominated as prime minister. “The gatherings in Beirut were organized and aimed at delivering a message that Hizbullah is ready to take the action to the streets to serve Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s belief that Lebanon be turned into a battlefield with Israel,” he told LBC TV station earlier.
Zahra told The Daily Star that the Hizbullah-led March 8 coalition could take to the street and resort to force to accomplish its political agenda.
Future Movement MP Oqab Saqr said “militia acts” carried out early in the morning were the first phase of a security operation aimed at intimidating the Lebanese as he warned Hizbullah against acting as an “organized gang.”
“This shameful behavior cannot constitute leverage to the resistance because it is impossible for those who block the way of Beirut citizens to lift the motto of the resistance in south Lebanon against Israel,” he said. Saqr added that Tawhid Movement Wi’am Wahhab’s statements aimed to undermine the authority of the Lebanese Army and security forces in a bid to guarantee a cover for “gangsters” to implement their plan. Wahhab warned security forces against intervening to confront any popular protests and threatened to retaliate against the posts of Internal Security Forces in such an event. “The situation is unstable and we will not allow anyone to tarnish our dignities, land and resistance,” Wahhab said.
“The S.T.L. will not enter Lebanon and whoever thinks he can bring it in will end up in The Hague,” he added.
But Hizbullah’s ally, Amal Movement caretaker Youth and Sports Minister Ali Abdullah, said the gatherings were spontaneous, unarmed and not politically motivated.

Egypt's Copt crisis is one of democracy
By Omar Ashour
Commentary by /Daily Star
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Its are the origin of this country … we treat the guests who came and lived here nicely … but we are ready to die as martyrs if anyone touches our Christian message.”
“The Coptic Church is not [merely] a parallel republic in Egypt … it is an empire.” These two statements do not come from Jihadist or radical Coptic Websites. Coptic Orthodox Archbishop Bishoy, the secretary of the Church Council and a possible successor to Pope Shenouda, made the first on Sept. 15, 2010. The second is a response from Dr. Mohammad Selim al-Awa, a moderate Islamist intellectual and lawyer, speaking on Al-Jazeera later the same day. The exchange shows the level of socio-religious polarization that plagued Egypt months before the Jan. 1 bombing of the Church of the Two Saints in Alexandria (killing 23 and wounding dozens) and the Jan. 11 shooting (killing one and wounding five) on a train in Upper Egypt. The sad story of unraveling social cohesion in Egypt goes back decades. Despite paying official lip service to “national unity,” rulers of Egypt since 1952 have had an uneasy relationship with religious minorities. The Arab-Israeli conflict had disastrous repercussions for the Egyptian Jewish community: an indiscriminate crackdown by President Gamal Abdel Nasser’s regime following the 1954 Lavon Affair (an Israeli operation involving Egyptian Jews) and the 1956 Suez crisis, leading to the migration of nearly all Jews from Egypt.
Then came the issue of the Baha’is, a tiny minority recognized as a distinct religion in 1924 during Egypt’s liberal era, before Nasser’s regime rescinded this in 1960. Baha’is have been struggling for legal acceptance ever since. And let us not forget Shiites, termed the “agents of Iran” in an infamous 2006 statement by President Hosni Mubarak.
The Coptic Orthodox Christians are by far the largest religious minority, and their relations with post-1952 Egyptian regimes have waxed and waned. Less explored but also relevant and complex is their relation with Egypt’s strongest opposition, the various currents of the Islamist trend.
The official stance of the Muslim Brotherhood is that the Copts are citizens with equal rights. Brotherhood leaders will eagerly remind you the only male attendee at founder Hassan al-Banna’s funeral aside from his father was Makram Ebeid, a leading Christian politician, and that the only Christian M.P. in the 1987 Parliament was elected on the “Islamic Alliance” ballot. There is a heated debate, however, within the Brotherhood on the Coptic question, which came out clearly in the internal struggle over the group’s 2007 political program; among the most controversial points was the Brotherhood’s position that a Copt was not eligible to become president.
The Copts’ perception of the Brotherhood likewise is not positive. In a series of interviews conducted in 2009 for a study on Coptic activism abroad, four ideological trends emerged: liberals, pragmatists, conservatives, and radicals. The liberals, the most tolerant of the four, view the Brotherhood with suspicion. The other three trends range from believing in a Brotherhood political conspiracy against Copts to believing in direct Brotherhood involvement in massacring Copts. Copts living inside Egypt tend to reflect a wider spectrum of views but worry about the Brotherhood is pervasive. When asked about the Church’s stance on the Brotherhood, Archbishop Bishoy said on September 15, 2010 “we love them because Jesus asked us to … but I would be happy if the Brotherhood started believing in human rights.”
Negative perceptions and mutual distrust also extend to Coptic relations with the second largest Islamist trend in Egypt. Salafists are much less politically active than the Muslim Brothers; they rally around certain imams and mosques and rarely involve themselves in demonstrations. But hundreds of Salafists and other apolitical Muslims took to the streets of Alexandria in October 2010 to demand the release of several female converts to Islam that the Coptic Church was reportedly holding against their will.
The relationship between the Salafists and the Copts was not always so hostile, despite Salafism’s negative perception of any “other.” In the late 1980’s, for example, Salafist sheikhs helped to de-escalate rising tensions between Coptic residents of the impoverished Shubra district of Cairo and the Islamic Group during its jihadist phase.
Media reports of female converts who were handed over to the Coptic Church by State Security or by their families have been around for years. Recently, the high-profile cases of Wafaa Constantine, Camilia Shehata, and Mary Abdullah Zaki – all three are wives of priests who allegedly converted to Islam, and were reportedly handed to the Church by State Security to be “advised,” never to appear in public again – have inflamed sectarian tensions and activated Egyptian Salafists as well as attracting the attention of Al-Qaeda in Iraq.
The government’s handling of these cases sheds light on a broader crisis within Egypt, where the rights of the individual enjoy the lowest priority – well below the rights of the ruler, the government, the religious group, the clan, the family, and other collectivities. Salafists who protested against the situation were not necessarily acting in defense of individual freedoms but of a perceived co-religionist.
In addition to this skewed approach toward freedoms, the Mubarak regime chooses to deal with sectarian tensions as a security threat separated from its social and political context, the same approach it has taken since the early 1980s. In Shenouda’s words, “[I]n times of tensions, we only see security men … and a complete absence of M.P.s and others.” When polarization is mishandled by coercive apparatuses and leads to violence, the regime quickly resorts to another level of indiscriminate repression, a formula used extensively in the 1990’s and resulted in five years of bloodshed in Upper Egypt. The case of Al-Said Bilal was a throwback to those ugly days; arrested in a sweeping crackdown by State Security on Jan. 5, his dead body was returned to his family 24 hours later.
Egypt’s sectarian crisis is rooted in the absence of four factors: equal citizenship rights (regardless of religion); a constitutional right to freedom of belief and worship; a transparent, accountable government; and a comprehensive, transparent strategy for promoting social cohesion. Such a strategy should avoid reliance on intervention by security forces, forced disappearances, torture, and other repressive methods, which seem to be the pillars of the current socio-religious “cohesion” strategy.
Copts and other Egyptians directed their anger after the recent Alexandria attack against the regime for reasons far beyond the fact that there were weak security arrangements around the Two Saints Church at a time of high tensions. Rather it was the unwillingness of the regime to uphold any of the aforementioned rights, even if such measures were rationalized as necessary to pre-empt terror. The unresolved crisis of Egypt remains one of democracy rather than of religion.
**Omar Ashour is the director of the Middle East Graduate Studies Program at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter in the United Kingdom He is the author of “The De-Radicalization of Jihadists: Transforming Armed Islamist Movements (Routledge, 2009).” This commentary is reprinted with permission from the Arab Reform Bulletin. It can be accessed online at: www.carnegieendowment.org/arb, © 2011, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Guest Editorial: Abrogation in Islam and The Persecution of Christians
By Gabriel Sawma*
http://www.aina.org/guesteds/20110118151407.htm
1-18-2011
(AINA) -- In the last few months, Muslim extremists attacked Christian worshippers in their churches: one in Iraq, the other in Egypt. These massacred resulted in killing innocent men, women and children while praying. Abrogation in Islam is one major cause for the atrocities that Muslim fundamentalists have against non-Muslims in general, and the Christian communities in the Islamic world, in particular. This article addresses the persecution of Christians under Islam within the doctrine of abrogation.
Introduction
The acts of pre-meditated massacres committed by Muslim extremists against Christians in the Muslim world, has become a phenomenon that needs to be addressed by the United Nations and the Arab League as well as the United States, Europe, and other nations.
We have seen the massacre of Christian worshippers by Muslim extremists in late October of 2010 in the church of Our Lady of Salvation in Baghdad. In the New Year, the world witnessed another massacre against Christians in the Church of the Saints in Alexandria, Egypt, committed by Muslim extremists.
In March 2010, Muslim men from the Fulani tribe in Nigeria, armed with swords and machetes, arrived at the Christian villages in the early hours of the morning killing several hundred of Christians.
There are 35-40 million Christians living in countries whose majority are Muslims. Some 15 million live in Indonesia; 12 million live in Egypt; 3 million in Pakistan; less than one million in Iraq and 2 percent in Jerusalem. In Turkey, the Christian population numbers around 1% of the total population of 75 million. In Syria, Christians count for less than 10 percent of the population. In Lebanon the number went down from about 55 percent 75 years ago to under 30 percent today. At present rate in the Middle East, the Christians will, in a decade, have been substantially reduced to the point that they will loose their cultural vitality and political significance. The exodus is a result of the unprecedented persecution of Christians by Muslim extremists as we have seen in the last few months.
Islamic Invasion of the Middle East in the 7th Century
On the eve of Islamic invasion of the Middle East in the seventh century, more than 95 percent of the population, not including Persia, was Christians. The rest were Jews, pagans and others. Back then, the Muslim attitude toward the People of the Book, as Christians and Jews are called in the Quran, does not entail any obligation on the part of the Muslims either to convert or to exterminate them.
Following the death of the Prophet of Islam in 632, the second successor, Calipha 'Umar, had a covenant with the Christian majority of the Middle East; it is known as the Covenant of 'Umar. The Covenant was in the form of a letter presented by the Christian community; it reads the following: "When you (i.e. 'Umar) came to us, we asked you for safety for our lives, our families, our property, and the people of our religion on the conditions: to pay tribute out of hand and be humiliated; not to hinder any Muslim from stopping in our churches by night or day, to entertain him there three days and give him food there and open to him their doors; to beat the 'naqus' (the wooden board which serves as 'bell' amongst the Eastern Christians) only gently.…and not to raise our voices in them in chanting;. . . .not to build a church, convent, or hermitage, or cell, nor repair those that are dilapidated; nor assemble in any that is in a Muslim quarter, nor in their presence; not to display idolatry, nor invite to it, nor show a cross on our churches, nor in any of the roads or markets of the Muslims; not to learn the Quran nor teach it to our children, nor to prevent any of our relatives from turning Muslims if he wishes it;. . . .Not to resemble the Muslims in dress, appearance, saddles . . .; to honor and respect them, to stand up for them when we meet together;… not to make our houses higher (than the Muslim houses); not to tip weapons or swords, nor wear them in a town or on a journey in Muslim lands;. . .not to strike a Muslim; not to keep slaves who have been the property of Muslims. We impose these terms on ourselves and on our co-religionists; he who rejects them, has no protections." (A.S. Tritto, The Caliphs and Their Non-Muslim Subjects, London, 1930).
Favorable Verses to Christians and Jews in the Quran
Many Muslim commentators tell half-baked explanations, often appeasing the Western audience, claim that Islam is a 'peaceful religion' or 'tolerant religion'. These terms are used to show that Islam and Christianity can 'co-exist' in harmony. Muslim writers quote the Quran to present the religion as 'peaceful'. They present verses from the Quran showing the peaceful, respectful and tolerant nature of the Quran; one verse reads: "You have your religion and I have mine" Quran 109:6, and "There is no compulsion in religion" (Quran 2:256).
Indeed, when you read the Quran, you come across verses that are tolerant to non-Muslims. One verse says: "If thy Lord had pleased, all those who are in the earth would have believed, all of them. Will thou then force them till they are believers?" (Quran 10:99). Another verse reads: "May thou will kill thyself with grief, sorrowing after, if they believe not in this argument (non-believers)" (Quran 18:6).
Some Muslim commentators defend the notion that Islam can 'co-exist' with other religions; they refer to a statement made by Ibn Ishaq, the biographer of Muhammad, who in the 8th century, stated that "The Negus of Abyssinia had given refuge to Muslim migrants to Ethiopia before they migrated to Medina." The biographer stated that "a Christian delegation from Najran (Yemen) met the Prophet inside the mosque at Medina and the Prophet treated them with respect and in friendly way. All these events, Muslim spokesmen say, show signs of tolerance in Islam.
Another verse says: "Those who believe (in the Quran) and those who follow the Jewish (Scriptures) and the Sabian (another sect lived in Arabia before Islam), any who believe in Allah and the Last Day, and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord: on then shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve" (Quran 2:62).
One verse refers to Christian priests and monks as humble and engage in worshipping God: "…Wilt thou find those who say, we are Christians; because amongst these are men devoted to learning and men who have renounced the world, and they are not arrogant" (Quran 5:8). Muslim commentators state that the Quran treats all human beings on equal plain, whatever their creed or color or nation or tribe. They refer to the following verse: "And surely we have honored the children of Adam, and we carry them in the land and the sea, and we provide them with good tiding, and we have made to excel highly most of those whom we have created." (Quran 17:70).
One verse exhorts the believers (Muslims) to uphold justice and treat non-Muslims generously: "Exempted are those who join people with whom you have signed a peace treaty, and those who come to you wishing not to fight you, nor fight their relatives. Had Allah willed, he could have permitted them to fight you. Therefore, if they leave you alone, refrain from fighting you, and offer you peace, then Allah gives you no excuse to fight them" (Quran 4:90).
Another verse reads: "For every one of you we appointed a law and a way. And if Allah had pleased he would have made you a single people, but that he might try you in what He gave you. So vie one with another in virtuous deeds" (Quran 2:148).
Muslim commentators state that Allah did not create all human beings as one community, but rather different sects, distinctively. They state that plurality of religions and ways of life and different laws co-exist peacefully with the Muslim community.
Anti Christian Sentiments in the Quran
But the same Quran calls Christians 'Dhimmi', an Aramaic word [DMM] means 'the insulted ones', who must pay "jizya" (a head tax for protection) and be humiliated (Quran 9: 29).
The Quran calls its followers to smite the necks of the unbelievers (non-Muslims): "When you meet those who disbelieve, smite at their necks until when you have killed and wounded many of them, then take them as captives, (Quran 47:4).
The Quran calls its followers to smite the unbelievers (non-Muslims) above their necks and smite their fingers; it reads: "Remember thy lord has inspired the angels with the message. Give firmness to the believers and instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers (non-Muslims). Smite them above their necks and smite the fingertips of them." (Quran 8: 12).
The Quran commands the believers (i.e. Muslims) to wage Jihad (holy war) on non-Muslims, it reads: "Warfare is ordained for you, though it is hateful unto you; but it may happen that you hate a thing which is good for you and it may happen that you love a thing which is bad for you. Allah knows you don't" (Quran 2:216).
The Quran says: "The only reward of those who make war upon Allah and His messenger (non-Muslims) and strive after corruption in the land will be that they will be killed or crucified, or have their hand and feet at alternate side cut off, or will be expelled out of the land. Such will be their degradation in the world, and in the Hereafter theirs will be an awful doom. . ." (Quran 5:33-34).
The Quran says: "These twains (the believers, i.e. Muslims and the disbelievers, i.e. non-Muslims) are two opponents who contend concerning their Lord. But as for those who disbelieve (non-Muslims), garments of fire will be cut out for them; boiling fluid will be poured down their heads. Whereby that which is in their bellies and their skins too, will be melted; and for them are hooked rods of iron. Whenever, in their anguish, they would go forth from thence they are driven back therein and (it is said unto them): Taste the doom of burning" (Quran 22:19-22).
The Quran says: "Lo! We have prepared for disbelievers (non-Muslims) chains, yokes and a blazing fire" (Quran 76:4).
The Quran says: "Therefore, when you meet the unbelievers (non-Muslims, in fight), smite them at their necks. At length, when you have thoroughly subdued them, bind a bond firmly (on them)" (Quran 47:4-6, 15).
The Quran says: "Verily Allah has cursed the unbelievers (non-Muslims) and has prepared for them a Blazing Fire to dwell in forever. No protector will they find, nor savior. That day their faces will be turned upside down in the fire; they will say: Woe to us! We should have obeyed Allah and obeyed the Messenger! (i.e. Muhammad), our Lord! Give them double torment and curse them with a very great curse!" (Quran 33:64)
In another verse the Quran says: "Truly Allah loves those who fight in His cause in battle, as if they were a solid cement structure . . . that you believe in Allah and His Apostle (Muhammad), and that you strive in the cause of Allah, with your property and persons. That will be best for you, if you but knew! He (Allah) will forgive you your sins, and admit you to gardens beneath which rivers flow, and to beautiful mansions in gardens of eternity. That is indeed the supreme achievement. And another (favor will He bestow), which you do love -- help from Allah and a speedy victory. So give the glad tidings to the believers (Muslims)" (Quran 61:4, 11-13).
The Quran calls Muslims not to befriend Christians and Jews; the verse reads: "O ye who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends and protectors; they are but friends and protectors to each other. And he amongst you that turns to them [for friendship] is of them. Verily Allah guides not a people unjust" (Quran 5: 51).
The Quran commands Muslims to fight a jihad against non-Muslims, it reads: "Let those fight in the way of Allah who sell the life of this world for the other. Whoso fights in the way of Allah, be he slain or be he victorious, on him We [Allah] shall bestow a vast reward" (Quran 4:74).
The Quran calls Muslims to kill the "mushrikeen" (those who associate gods with God, such as Hindus and Christians); it reads: "Seize them and slay them wherever you find them; and take no friends or helpers from their ranks" (4: 89).
The Quran calls the Jews "apes" (2: 62-65); and calls the Christians "swine" (Quran 5:59-60). The disbelievers (non-Muslims) are a folk without intelligence, (Quran 8: 65).
The Quran reads: "Say, Shall I tell you who, in the sight of Allah, deserves a yet worse retribution than these? They whom Allah has rejected and whom He has condemned, and whom He has turned into apes and swine (Jews and Christians) because they worshipped the powers of evil…" (Quran 5:60).
"And then, when they (the Jews) disdainfully persisted in doing what they had been forbidden to do, We [Allah] said unto them: Be ye apes. Despised and rejected." Quran 7:166, Yusuf Ali translation).
"And well ye knew those amongst you who transgressed in the matter of the Sabbath: We said to them: Be ye apes, despised and rejected" (Quran 2:65, Yusuf Ali transaltion).
The Doctrine of Abrogation in Islam
Faced with these contradictory verses from the Quran, and instead of explaining these contradictions, Muslim theologian started looking into another mechanism to solve these contradictions. They adopted a doctrine known as "the doctrine of abrogation", a legal method that allows annulment of seemingly contradictory verses from the Quran, without deleting them from the text.
When speaking in the West, Muslim commentators, deliberately hide this major Islamic doctrine, called in Arabic "Al-Nasikh wal-Mansoukh" (the abrogator and the abrogated). The Arabic etymology of the word is "naskh" means a legal method that allows annulment of certain verses from the Quran.
Abrogation is an integral part of Islamic Shari'a and is mentioned in the Quran. It simply means that in situations wherein verses conflict one another, the early verses are overridden by the latter verses. This means the abrogated verses remain part of the Quran, but are cancelled out by other verses; both, the abrogated verses and the abrogating verses are retained in the Quran. In Arabic the term used is: al-Nasikh wal Mansukh.
The concept of "abrogation" is stated in the Quran, it means that Allah chose to reveal verses that supersede earlier verses in the same Quran. The central Quranic verse that deals with abrogation is the following:
"None of Our revelations (verses) do We abrogate or cause to be forgotten, but We substitute something better or similar; knowest thou not that Allah hath power over all things? (Quran 2:106, Yusuf Ali translation). This means that when Allah decides to abrogate a verse from the Quran, He simply replaces the abrogated verse by a new and better one.
Since its inception, abrogation has been a central element in the Islamic religion. The Quran asserts the doctrine of abrogation in the following verses: "God abrogates or confirms whatsoever he will, for he has with him the Book of the Books (the Quran)" (Quran 13:39). The Quran further states that "If we [Allah] please, we could take away what We have revealed to you. . ." (Quran 17:86).
Apparently, Muslim theologians were unable to explain away the inconsistencies in passages from the Quran. Some believe that the language of the Quran is Aramaic, not Arabic. The earliest copies of the Quran were written, not in the modern Arabic script as most of the Arab speaking people believe, but were written in a script borrowed from the Aramaic script, and a language closely related to Eastern Syriac, the original language of Syria, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and parts of Egypt. This means that the alleged contradictions, claimed by Muslim interpreters of the Quran, may not, after all, be contradictions, if these verses were interpreted in Aramaic rather than Arabic. (For more on this subject, see The Qur'an: Misinterpreted, Mistranslated and Misread. The Aramaic Language of the Qur'an by Gabriel Sawma, available on amazon.com. http://www.syriacaramaicquran.com.)
Aramaic, not Arabic, was the language of the inhabitants of the Middle East in the seventh century. Even the Arab kingdoms of Palmyra in northeast Damascus, and the Nabataean kingdom of Transjordan had all their literature and epigraphic material written in Aramaic and Greek; not a single inscription of those Arab kingdoms was written in Arabic. The classical Arabic language of the modern Quran did not exist in the seventh century. http://www.syriacaramaicquran.com
But Muslim theologians consider the verses revealed to Muhammad in Medina contradict those verses revealed in Mecca and as a result, they established the doctrine of abrogation, whereby those verses revealed in Medina, would abrogate those revealed earlier in Mecca.
Nevertheless, Muslim jurists insist that the language of the Quran is Arabic and that the Arabic interpretation of the Quran renders these differences, and consequently, they use the doctrine of abrogation to take away divine verses revealed to the Prophet of Islam during his missionary. Abrogation allows the verses, which came late, to annul earlier verses. (John Burton, The Encyclopedia of Islam, vol. 7, s.v. "Naskh," p.1010.)
In addition to the Quran, the Hadith (sayings attributed to the Prophet) confirms the use of the doctrine of abrogation in early Islam. We see this doctrine being applied during the time of the third successor of the Prophet of Islam, 'Uthman ibn 'Affan. The doctrine is recorded in the second divine book in Sunni Islam, Sahih al-Bukhari, written more than two hundred years after the death of the Prophet, reads the following: "I said to 'Uthman bin 'Affan (while he was collecting the Qur'an) regarding the verse:--Those of you who die and leave wives…" (Quran 2:240) "This verse was abrogated by another verse. So why should you write it? (Leave it in the Qur'an)? 'Uthman said: "O son of my brother! I will not shift anything of it from its place." (Sahih al-Bukhari, vol. 6, book 60, number 53 See, http://www.wikiislam.net/wiki/Abrogation_Naskh)
Abrogation is shown in the most important and reliable source of Islam, second only to the Quran, Sahih al-Bukhari (846AD); it reads: "They had a choice, either fast or feed a poor for every day… and added, "This verse is abrogated." (Sahih al-Bukhari, vol. 6, book 60, number 33. See wikiislam.net. Abrogation)
Abrogation is attested in another important and reliable source of Islam, Sahih Muslim; it reads: "The Messenger of Allah (Muhammad) abrogated some of his commands by others, just as the Qur'an abrogates some part with the other." (Hadith, Sahih Muslim, Book 3, number 0675). See also, Muhammad Abu-al-Hussain Muslim bin al-Hahhah al-Nissapuri, Sahih Muslim, International Islamic Publishing House, 1971, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, book 003, no. 0675.
More testaments to the existence of the doctrine in early Islam is attested by Sahih Muslim; it reads: "…I recited to him this verse of Sura al-Furqan…And those who call not upon another god with Allah and slay not the soul which Allah has forbidden except in the cause of justice…He said: This is a Meccan verse (i.e.verse came to Muhammad in Mecca) which has been abrogated by a verse revealed at Medina…" (Hadith, Sahih Muslim, book 43, number 7173).
Another Hadith book in early Islam, the Muwatta, confirms the use of the doctrine of abrogation in early Islam; it reads: "Yahya related to me from Malik from Abdullah ibn Hazm from Amra bint Abd al Rahman that A'isha, the wife of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "Amongst what was sent down of the Qur'an …--then it was abrogated by…" (Hadith al-Muwatta, book 30, number 3.17b).
The doctrine of abrogation was taught for the judges in early Islam. This is attested by 'Ali ibn Abi Taleb, son-in-law of the Prophet of Islam and cousin, who later declared himself the fourth successor of the Prophet. 'Ali talked about the doctrine of abrogation as a precondition for qualifying an individual to be an Islamic judge, (He said to 'Abdul Rahman, can you differentiate between abrogating and abrogated verses? 'Abdul Rahman said, "no." Thereupon 'Ali said "You are damned and cause others to be damned." (Annashikh wal-Mansukh by Abul Qasim, published by Hindia Press, Cairo, p. 6. A similar saying is found in Al-Nasikh wal Mansukh by Abu Ja'far al-Nahhas, Beirut, 2003, p. 9).
One saying attributed to the Prophet in particular addresses abrogation; it cites Abu al-A'la bin al-Shikhkhir, considered by Muslim theologian to be a reliable source of knowledge about the Prophet's life, as saying, that "The Messenger (Muhammad) of Allah abrogated some of his commands by others, just as the Quran abrogates some part of it with the other." The Prophet of Islam accepted that Allah would invalidate previous revelations, often making ordinances stricter. (Anwar al-Tanzil wa-Asrar al-Ta'wil by 'Abdallah Ibn 'Umar al-Baydawi, published by Dar al-Tiba'ah, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 1997, pp.116-7).
In his book, Tafsir: The Commentary on the Qur'an, Abu Ja'far al-Tabari (d.923) a distinguished authority on Islamic history and one of the early interpreters of the Quran, confirms that abrogation can be used in connection with "commands and prohibitions," (Tafsir: The Commentary on the Qur'an by Abu Ja'far bin Jarir al-Tabari, Oxford University Press, 1987, pp. 471-2).
In the eleventh century, Muslim theologians insist that verses from the Quran may substitute other verses, (See for example, Al-Naasikh wal Mansukh by Ibn Hazim, Dar al-Kutub al-'Ilmiyyah, Beirut, 1986). They also agreed that the Prophet changed his rules according to circumstances, (Sahih al-Bukhari by Muhammad al-Bukhari, vol 6, Kazi, Lahore, 1979, book 60, p. 31; See also, Al-Kashshaf 'an Haqa'iq al-Tanzil wa-'Uyun al-Aqawil fi Wujuh al-Ta'wil, Dar al-Kitab al-Arabi, Beirut, 1967, part I, pp 337).
Modern Muslim commentators confirm the doctrine of abrogation; they state that the laws might differ across time but that there should be no shame in the same lawgiver replacing temporary law with permanent ones (i.e. abrogating). (Tafsir al-Qur'an by Abdul Majid al-Daryabadi, Idara Islamiyyat, Lahore, 1985, p. 36).
Muslim theologian divide the Quran into verses revealed to Muhammad by the Angel Jibril in Mecca when his community of followers was weak and more inclined to compromise with Christians, Jews and the pagans of Arabia. It is during this period in Mecca that the earlier, peaceful, compromising, and lenient verses were revealed to Muhammad. But as his authority grew strong after he and his followers migrated to Medina, other verses came down to him; it is those defiant, insulting, attacking, and calling for jihad against non-Muslims verses that abrogate the previous verses.
Muslim theologians insist that anyone who studies the Quran without mastering the doctrine of abrogation would be "deficient" (See Al-Nasikh wal-Mansukh by Abu al-Kasim Hibat-Allah Ibn Salama, Dar al Ma'arif, Cairo, 1966, pp. 4-5. On page 142-3, he lists the abrogated verses. See also pp. 7, 11, 26-27, 37, 46.).
Western readers may not have heard with this fundamental doctrine in Islam. Muslim commentators refer to the peaceful, compromising, and tolerant verses from the Quran; they do not tell their Western audience that these verses have been annulled and have been replaced by verses which are defiant, insulting, attacking and calling for jihad against non-Muslims. So far this tactic, used by Muslim commentators, has been successful in the Western media. Western journalists and scholars, although--some of them studied Arabic--are not capable of understanding the old Arabic language, in which the Arabic literature and history is originally documented, and they may not have access to these books which deal with abrogation. Muslim commentators avoid any discussion of the abrogation in the Quran.
Al-Suyuti, (1445-1505), an authoritative Muslim scholar said in his Al-Itqan fi Ulum al-Quran that everything in the Quran about forgiveness and peace is abrogated by verse 9:5. The verse orders Muslims to fight the unbelievers and to establish Allah's kingdom on earth. Verse 9:5 reads the following:
"When the sacred months are over, slay the 'mushrikoon' (those who associate gods with Allah) wherever your find them. Arrest them, besiege them, and lie in ambush everywhere for them. If they repent and take to prayer and render the alms levy, allow them to go their way. God is forgiving and merciful" (Quran 9:5).
Muslim theologians call this verse, "The Verse of the Sword." Some Muslim writers call it "the Ultimatum". Chapter 9 of the Quran, in which the Verse of the Sword is written, is the only chapter that does not begin "in the name of Allah, most benevolent, ever-merciful." All other chapters of the Quran begin with this opening statement. (See Al-Itqan fi 'Ulum al-Quran by Al-Suyuti, part 1, pp.60, 65, 164).
Muslim commentators confirm that the Prophet received this revelation (9:5) in the year 631, one year before his death, when he had returned to Mecca, triumphant. (See, The History of al-Tabari, vol. 8, pp. 160-87). The most reliable source in the Hadith collection of Sahih al-Bukhari, states that chapter 9 of the Quran was the last chapter revealed to Muhammad. (Sahih al-Bukhari, vol. 6, book 60, # 129).
Prior to receiving The Verse of the Sword, Muhammad had reached agreements with various pagan tribes of Arabia. But all these agreements were nullified after that verse. The Verse of the Sword creates license for Muslim extremists to kill non-Muslim, solely on the basis of their refusal to accept Islam.
Al-Dahhak Ibn Muzahim, an authentic transmitter of Hadiths, said that The Verse of the Sword "abrogated every agreement of peace between the Prophet and any idolater, every treaty, and every term. The Shafi'i School of Jurisprudence in Sunni Islam took this as a justification for killing anyone who abandoned prayer and for fighting anyone who refused to pay religious "Jizya" (head tax for protection paid to Muslims by non-Muslims)." (See Islamic Jurisprudence: Shafi'i Risalah by Khadduri, pp. 333-52, notes, pp. 33-9).
Muslim fundamentalists cite this verse to justify their violent jihad against non-Muslims. The Quranic term 'mushrikeen' or "mushrikoon" means those who associate gods with Allah; this applies to the Hindus and Christians. Christians' belief in the Trinity implies that Jesus is God. This has been interpreted by Muslim theologians that Christians believe in two Gods: God the father and God the Son. Such a belief is called, in Arabic, "ishrak", the etymology of the Quranic word, "mushrikeen".
Since Chapter 9 of the Quran came late during the life of the Prophet, therefore, it abrogates previous peaceful verses of the Quran. According to Sahih al-Bukhari, Allah revealed this chapter to the Prophet in order to discard any restraint on Muslims, and to command Muslims to fight against all the pagans as well as against the People of the Book (i.e. Christians and Jews) if they do not embrace Islam, or until they pay the "Jizya" (which is a religious tax). The verse says: "But if they (non-Muslims) repent and establish worship and pay the alms to the needy…" This is an ultimatum to non-Muslims to convert to Islam.
Al-suyuti states that one hundred twenty four verses in the Quran have been abrogated by "The Verse of the Sword". According to Shaidalah, a Muslim source of jurisprudence, the Quranic verse that we mentioned earlier which states: "You have your religion and I have mine" (Quran 109:6), and "Let there be no compulsion in religion" (Quran 2:256), both verses have been abrogated, long time ago. (See al-Itqan fi 'Ulum al-Quran by al-Suyuti, cited earlier).
A contemporary, Muhammad Sa'id Ramadan Al-Buti, a PhD holder from al-Azhar University in Egypt, and dean of the Faculty of Religion at Damascus University, Syria , wrote the following commentary: "Verse 9:5 does not leave any room in the mind to conjecture about what is called defensive war. This verse asserts that holy war, which is demanded in Islamic law, is not a defensive war because it could legitimately be an offensive war. That is the apex and most honorable of all holy wars. Its goal is the exaltation of the word of Allah, the construction of Islamic society, and the establishment of Allah's kingdom on earth regardless of the means. It is legal to carry on an offensive holy war." (Jurisprudence in Muhammad's Biography by Muhammad Sa'id Ramadan al-Buti, Dar al-Fikr, Damascus, 2001, pp. 323-4).
Western readers, who read the Quran, will not notice this distinction between the abrogated and non-abrogated verses. The abrogated verses were kept in the Quran. So, Western readers do not know that those verses, which are considered nice, peaceful, reasonable, loving and tolerant toward non-Muslims, are in fact abrogated, i.e. overridden and annulled by later verses which validate such things as terrorism, hatred and violence toward other religions.
Muslim commentators, who appear on TV programs or write essays on this subject, do not disclose to their Western audience that these verses are in fact abrogated and could not be used as a reference of Islamic peaceful dealings with other religions. Only the remaining verses which have threatening tones against non-Muslims are not abrogated, because they came to the Prophet at a later time.
The current phase of Jihad against non-Muslims stems from the doctrine of abrogation, which commands Muslims to "Fight those who do not believe in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which has been forbidden by Allah and His Apostle, nor acknowledge the religion of truth of the People of the Book (i.e. Christians and Jews), until they pay the Jizya (head tax for protection) with submission and feel themselves humiliated" (Quran 9:29). "And those who disbelieve (non-Muslims) will be gathered unto Hell" (Quran8:36). "If thou couldst see how the angels receive those who disbelieve (non-Muslims), smiting faces and their backs and (saying): Taste the punishment of burning" (Quran 8:50).
The Verse of the Sword abrogates the following verse: "We believe in Allah and what has been revealed to us and what was revealed to Abraham and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob and his children (i.e. the twelve children of Jacobs), and what is given to Moses and Jesus, and what was given to all other prophets from their Lord. . ." (Quran 2:257).
Abrogation has ramifications, one of which is manifested in the lack of condemnation by the Muslims in general to the persecution of Christians in Islamic countries. This explains why Muslims around the world have little or no enthusiasm to mobilize demonstrations in the streets of Washington DC, or Paris or London to condemn Muslim terrorists. The mild reaction by Muslims to the attack of September 11 on the United States is just one example of lack of interest in condemning Muslim terrorists. The attackers of September 11 did what they did in compliance with "The Verse of the Sword". The doctrine of abrogation drops any sense of remorse, or mercy by Muslim extremists towards non-Muslims. There is a popular saying in the Muslim world in Arabic: "You must defend your brethren (Muslim) under any circumstances, whether he is aggressor or victim" (Wansur akhaka idha kaana dhaliman aw madhluman).
The doctrine of abrogation creates hatred by Muslims towards non-Muslims. It is impermissible for a Muslim to attend the celebration of Christian festivals and congratulate them. Here is a Fatwa issued by Sheikh Muhammed Salih al-Munajjid; it reads the following: "…It is not permissible for the Muslims to attend the festivals of the mushrikeen (those who associate gods with Allah), according to the consensus of the scholars whose words carry weight . . .Do not enter upon the mushrikeen in their churches (i.e. Christians) on the day of their festival, for divine wrath is descending upon them. . .Avoid the enemies of Allah on their festivals. . .Whosoever settles in the land of the non-Arabs (non-Muslims) and celebrates their new year and festival and imitates them until he dies in that state, will be gathered with them on the Day of Resurrection" (http://islamqa.com/en/ref/11427) Last time viewed Jan. 5, 2011.
Treatment of Christians under Islam
The doctrine of abrogation gives license to Muslim extremists to persecute non-Muslims. From the beginning, Islam regarded both Christians and Jews as second-class citizens. Time and again, the Muslim texts, which are represented in the Quran and the second source of the Islamic law, known as the "Hadith" (sayings of the Prophet) and "Sunnah" (deeds of the Prophet), assert the intention of humiliating Christians and Jews. Never was a Christian or a Jew to be left in doubt about his inferior status. And it must be said that, on the whole, Christian communities were massacred and their churches were taken away and turned into mosques; to add insult to injury, Christian men and women were forced to wear special garments in order to identify themselves in public as "dhimmi", i.e. the insulted community.
History of persecutions of Christians and Jews under Islamic Sharia has been going on since the early Islamic invasion of the Middle East in the seventh century. During the reign of al-Mutawakkil (847-61), a wave of anti-dhimmi (anti-Christian) feeling swept the Middle East. The Calipha, Barhebraeus (d. 1286) reports, "was a hater of the Christians, and afflicted them by ordering them to bind bandlets of wool round their heads; and none of them was to appear outside his house without a belt and girdle. And the new churches were to be pulled down. And if they should happen to have a spacious church, even though it was ancient, one part of it was to be made into a mosque.
The Massacres of Armenians in 1915, which killed more than 1.5 million Christian Armenians in Turkey, in addition to half a million Syriac Orthodox, Syrian Catholics, Assyrians (i.e. the Church of the East), Chaldeans and other Christian minorities, who were massacred by the Muslim Turks and Kurds in the region of Tur 'Abdin in Southeast Turkey, is a reminder to what extent Muslim extremists can do to annihilate Christians, Jews and Hindus, if they have power and the upper hand.
In modern days, Pakistan's blasphemy law is one of the main causes of persecution against Christians and other religious minorities in that country. It was enacted into law during the Islamization process under the military dictatorship of General Muhammad Zia ul-Haq in the 1980s. Under the law, anyone who speaks ill of Islam and the Prophet Muhammad commits a crime and faces the death penalty. The law stipulates that "derogatory remarks, etc., in respect of the Holy Prophet either spoken or written, or by visible representation, or by any imputation, innuendo or insinuation, directly or indirectly shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine." (See the Blasphemy Law in Pakistan; http://www.rationalistinternational.net/Shaikh/blasphemy_laws_in_pakista
Christians who make up 4 percent of Pakistan's population have been especially concerned about the law saying it offers them no protection. Convictions hinge on witness testimony and often these are linked to personal vendettas. Under this law, a Pakistani court sentenced in November, 2010, Asia Bibi, a Christian mother of four to death, in a case that has exposed deep rifts in the troubled Muslim nation of more than 170 million people. On Tuesday, January 4, 2011, the governor of the most populous state of Punjab, Salman Taseer, who had strongly opposed the law and sought presidential pardon for the 45-year-old Christian woman, was gunned down by one of his bodyguards.
In Sudan, it is estimated that more than 1.5 million Christians have been killed by the Janjaweed, the Arab Muslim forces in northern Sudan since 1984. (Source, Wikipedia).
In Ghaza, under the auspices of Hamas, Christian citizens, Christian establishments and religious institutions are singled out and attacked by Muslim extremists belonging to the Islamic Hamas movement.
In 1999, anti-Christian violence erupted by local Muslims in Indonesia. Tens of thousands died when Muslim gunmen terrorized Christians who had voted for independence in East Timor. (See The Faith: A History of Christianity by Brian Moynahan, Random House, 2003, p. 728.)
Saudi Arabia regularly imprisons Christians from other nations. Christians are arrested and lashed for practicing their faith in public. No one is allowed to be a citizen in this nation unless he or she is Muslim. Prayer services by Christians are broken up by the police, and people who convert to Christianity are often arrested and may be sentenced to death.
Confiscation of Churches
The spread of Islam was always associated confiscating churches and turning them into mosques. One of the major shrines in Eastern Christianity was the Church of St. John the Baptist in Damascus, Syria. Pope John Paul II visited the Great Mosque of Damascus) popularly known as al-Masjid al-Umawi) in 2001; he was aware that he was visiting the site of the Great Church of St. John the Baptist.
Muslim Turks annexed the great church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, which became the principal mosque of the Ottoman Empire. The Church of Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom), constructed between 532 and 537 on the orders of the Byzantine Emperor, Justinianus. It was a former patriarchal basilica, later a mosque. It was officially turned into a museum in 1935 by Ataturk.
The great Jacobite Church of Amida (modern-day Diyarbakr in Southeast Turkey, became the courtyard of the Great Mosque of Diarbakr.
The tomb of a Jacobite Patriarch at Niveveh, near Mosul in Iraq, was confiscated and turned into the mosque of Jonah (Nabi Yunis). (See the Decline of Medieval Hellenism, by Speros Vryonis, 1899, p. 197.)
Th e Ottoman Empire never stopped confiscating churches and converting them into mosques. When they occupied Budapest, all the churches but one became mosques. In Cyprus, the Gothic Cathedral of Famagusta became the Turkish mosque of Lala Mustafa Pasha. Originally, it was known as the Saint Nicolas Cathedral, and later as Ayasofya Mosque of Magusa, the largest medieval building in Gamagusta. Built between 1298 and 1400, it was consecrated as a Christian cathedral in 1328.
A significant surge in churches converted into mosques followed the 1974 Turkish Invasion of Cyprus. Many of the Orthodox churches in Northern Cyprus were confiscated, and many are still in the process of becoming mosques.
The Armenian Cathedral of Edessa, which was lost during the 1915 massacres of the Armenians, Syrians, Nestorians (modern day Assyrians), and Chaldeans, became a mosques, with a mihrab (direction of prayer to Mecca) punched into the south wall to indicate the direction of Mecca. There are no churches in Edessa in use today.
In Egypt, the columns of an older Christian Church was confiscated by the Muslims of Egypt and converted into Ibn Tulun Mosque; considered one of the world's largest mosques.
In many instances mosques were established on the places of Jewish or Christian sanctuaries associated with Biblical personalities. The second Calipha 'Umar, laid down the foundation of al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Temple Mount is the most sacred site in Judaism. Its location was the site where Abraham offered his son Isaac in sacrifice. It was built by King Solomon in the tenth century BC.
Conclusion
To make things worse for the Christian communities throughout the Middle East, every single state in the Arab League, except Lebanon, inserted in their constitutions provisions indicating that "Islam is the religion of the state"; or " the laws of the state must be based on Islamic Sharia"; or the "president must be Muslim". All these provisions in the constitutions of the Muslim countries demonstrate disrespect and discrimination against the original Christian inhabitants of these states. Such provisions encourage Muslim states and individuals to commit acts of violence and murder against the Christian minorities. Such constitutional provisions make it possible for fanatic parties to flourish and instigate riots and violence against the Christian minorities as we see in Iraq, Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Indonesia, and other Muslim nations.
As if these discriminating constitutions are not enough, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), an international organization with a permanent delegation to the United Nations, with 57 member states is adding more troubles to the minorities in the Muslim states. While it attempts to safeguard the interests and ensure the progress and well-being of Muslims all over the world, not a single resolution taken by this organization addressed the status of the minorities in the Muslim states or condemning the massacres and violence against them. I might add that the U.S. has a permanent representative to this body. So far no meeting was held by the OIC to look into these massacres, or to condemn them.
The Arab league (consists of twenty-two Arab states) holds meetings to discuss issues related the Middle East, or involving Islam. The Arab league refuses to meet or discuss the execution of Christians and other minorities living in its Member States.
Arab Heads of States and their foreign ministers meet or a regular basis to discuss policies related to the Middle East. So far not a single meeting was held to discuss the persecution of the Christians living in their states.
**By Gabriel Sawma
Gabriel Sawma is professor of Middle East Constitutional Law, Islamic Sharia (law), European Union Law, Islamic banking and finance, Arabic and Aramaic. Consultant on Islamic divorce in US Courts. Consultant on recognition and enforcement of foreign divorce judgments in US courts. Author of a book titled, “The Qur’an: Misinterpreted, Mistranslated, and Misread. The Aramaic Language of the Qur’an.”