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In this mailing:
- Raymond Ibrahim: Pope Francis
Leading His Flock to the Slaughter?
- Majid Rafizadeh: The 40th
Anniversary of the Islamic Republic of Iran
- Amir Taheri: Syria: French
Count Returns as Russian Apparatchik
by Raymond Ibrahim • February 10,
2019 at 5:00 am
- The "Document
on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together"
is being portrayed as a "historic pledge of fraternity"
and applauded as a "historical breakthrough." The
problem is that one of the two men who signed it, Sheikh Ahmed
al-Tayeb, has repeatedly contradicted — when speaking in
Arabic and appearing on Arabic media — all the lofty
sentiments highlighted in it.
- Al-Tayeb's
predecessor, Egypt's former grand imam, Sheikh Muhammad Sayyid
Tantawi (d. 2010), had, "without even being asked,
removed all the old books and placed just one introductory
book, [but] when al-Tayeb came, he got rid of that book and
brought back all the old books, which are full of slaughter
and bloodshed." — Dr. Islam al-Behery, a popular Egyptian
theologian.
- "In March 2016,
before the German parliament, Sheikh al-Tayeb made
unequivocally clear that religious freedom is guaranteed by
the Koran, while in Cairo he makes the exact opposite
claims..." — Cairo Institute for Human Rights.
- It is difficult,
therefore, to see this document as anything more than a
superficial show, presumably for the West, and al-Tayeb's
signature on it unfortunately not worth all that much.
A new
document, signed by Pope Francis and Al Azhar Grand Imam Sheikh
Ahmed al-Tayeb, is being portrayed as a "historic pledge of
fraternity" and applauded as a "historical
breakthrough." But al-Tayeb has repeatedly contradicted — when
speaking in Arabic and appearing on Arabic media — all the lofty
sentiments highlighted in it. Pictured: Pope Francis and Sheikh
Ahmed al-Tayeb in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates on February 4,
2019. (Photo by Francois Nel/Getty Images)
The two foremost representatives of Christianity and
Islam, Pope Francis and Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb — the Grand Imam of
Al Azhar who was once named the "most influential Muslim in
the world" — just signed "A Document on Human Fraternity
for World Peace and Living Together." The Document
"forcefully rejects," to quote Vatican News, "any
justification of violence undertaken in the name of God," and
affirms "respect for believers of different faiths, the
condemnation of all discrimination, the need to protect all places
of worship, and the right to religious liberty, as well as the
recognition of the rights of women."
The Document is being portrayed as a "historic
pledge of fraternity" and applauded as a "historical
breakthrough." The problem is that one of the two men who
signed it, Dr. al-Tayeb, has repeatedly contradicted — when
speaking in Arabic and appearing on Arabic media — all the lofty
sentiments it highlights.
The Document, for example, asserts that,
by Majid Rafizadeh • February 10,
2019 at 4:30 am
- To harness both the
trust and the loyalty of the Iranian people, Ayatollah
Khomeini and his followers initially portrayed themselves as
spiritual people who had no desire to rule the country.
- One of the regime's
worst mass executions of political prisoners took place when
approximately 30,000 individuals, including children and
pregnant women, were executed within a period of four months.
According to a US congressional condemnation, "prisoners
were executed in groups, some in mass hangings and others by
firing squad, with their bodies disposed of in mass
graves."
- Even more surprising
than Iran's flourishing indifference to the rule of law is
that some Western politicians and governments have attempted,
and are still attempting, to appease this inhumane regime.
Iran's
Islamist regime, which is celebrating its 40th
anniversary today, scores highest in the world when it comes to
executing people per capita. Pictured: The execution of Kurdish men
and others by forces of Iran's Islamist regime, in 1979. (Image
source: Jahangir Razmi/Wikimedia Commons)
Today, February 10, the Iranian regime officially
celebrates the 40th anniversary of the day it seized
power. The fundamentalist and Islamist party of Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini surprised the international community and the Iranian people
when in 1979, it hijacked a revolution. The successful power-grab
sent waves through global politics.
Although some people were aware of the intentions of
the Islamist party, many underestimated the extent of its
organizational skills and power. To harness both the trust and the
loyalty of the people, Ayatollah Khomeini and his followers
initially portrayed themselves as spiritual people who had no
desire to rule the country. Many, including several political
parties, also believed that, during a transitional period, the
ruling mullahs would relinquish any power gained.
by Amir Taheri • February 10,
2019 at 4:00 am
- For Russia, Turkey
and Iran, the terrible troika, Syria is an ungoverned
territory, the future of which must be decided without its
"inhabitants."
- All three wish to
dilute the Arab aspect of Syria's identity. The official media
in the troika is full of supposedly learned papers claiming
that only 50 percent of Syrians are Arabs. All three oppose
naming the future state as "Arab Republic of Syria."
Iran is campaigning for the term "Islamic Republic,"
which is also used in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan and
Mauritania.
- The Russians want a
federal system that would enable them to hang on to their
enclave on the Mediterranean regardless of what happens to the
rest of Syria. The Turks and Iranians oppose federalism
because they fear Syrian Kurds might end up with an autonomous
state of their own.
- Syria isn't a blank
page on which the Russo-Turco-Iranian wannabe empire builders
could draw whatever they dream of. The international community
should not accept the re-emergence of a 100-year old colonial
monster.
For
Russia, Turkey and Iran, Syria is an ungoverned territory, the
future of which must be decided without its
"inhabitants." Pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin
meets with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Sochi, Russia, on November 22, 2017. (Image
source: kremlin.ru)
Had I believed in the transmigration of souls, I
might have thought that the spirit of a French aristocrat from some
100 years has slipped into the body of a Russian apparatchik today.
The Frenchman was the Viscount Robert de Caix de
Saint-Aymour. His Russian reincarnation is Alexander Lavrentiev,
Russia's Special Presidential Envoy for Syria. What links them is
Syria, a land under French occupation 100 years ago and now
partially occupied by Russia.
Caix was sent to Syria as Consul General with a
mission to decide what to do about a chunk of territory, some
200,000 square kilometers to be exact, snatched from the crumbling
Ottoman Empire.
Within weeks, Caix had concluded that the territory
in question had no distinct identity in terms of nationhood as
defined by the Westphalian Treaties that midwifed the birth of
modern European nation-states.
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