Turkish leader calls Xinjiang killings "genocide": REALLLLY!

The tragic sectarian clashes in China between the Uyghur (Muslim Chinese who speak Turkish) and the Han (main ethnicity in China) are grabbing headlines all over the world. It is reported that 157 people are killed so far, the actual numbers are a mystery.

The interesting thing is that; today, the Turkish prime minister called the clashes "Genocide", REALLLY!!

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE56957D20090710
I will leave the experts decide if it is a genocide or not, but the fact that the first to call it a genocide is Turkey is puzzling me!!
For those who don't know, During WWI, the ottoman empire (the predecessor of the Turkish republic) massacred and transfered millions of Armenians and Assyrian, resulting in the death of 1 million Armenian and half million Assyrians. Many countries call what happened "the Armenian Genocide". Turkey refuses to confesses its crimes, ignoring the sufferings of millions of people. More interestingly, anyone in Turkey who mentions the Armenian Genocide is charged with treason if not killed by right-wing extremists.

Here is a link from the British National Archive about the Armenian massacre/genocide http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/firstworldwar/spotlights/armenian.htm

“How can you say to your neighbor, ‘Friend, let me take out the speck in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.” (Luke 6:42)

Contra Mundum: the Copts in Australia

I came across this very nice article in an Australia newspaper.

http://www.themonthly.com.au/node/333/page/2

Obama's speach in Cairo

Fareed Zakaria's interview with Gamal Mubarak

Watch the interview with Gamal Mubarak. Gamal is the son of the Egyptian president and a powerful figure in the ruling party. Many believe that the regime

in Egypt is preparing him to be the next president.

I like his political views, he speaks wisely as his father. I highly doubt his domestic agenda though!

Extreme Pilgrim in the Coptic desert

The Pilgrim of an English pastor, Peter Owen-Jones, in the Coptic Monastery of St Anthony! He spend 3 weeks in Fr Lazarus's cave in solitude. He experiences the solitude monasticism. The interesting part starts at minute 24 and it gets very interesting at the end :) Enjoy ;)

http://blip.tv/file/1762501/

Ayman Nour's release in return of Obama's visit to Cairo

Ayman Nour, the leader of El-Ghad (the Future) libral Egyptian party, who was the only serious contender in the last presidential election and finished in the second place, was released from jail today after being held for 4 years. He was accused with forging 1000 out of the 2005 signatures he provided to establish his party. The accusation was clearly false as he needed only 50 signatures and more than a million voted for him for president, thus there was no need for him to forge them. US pressured a lot for his release but Bush administration was in deep trouble in Iraq and can't afford offending the Egyptian regime that much.

It seems that Nour's release today for medical reasons was under pressure from Obama administration especially that Nour's health was very bad two years ago and his medical release was denied multiple times. We all know that Obama promised to address the Islamic world from an Islamic capital in his first 100 days in office. Cairo seemed a natural fit. The capital of the biggest Arabic state, the heart of the Islamic world and a strategic ally to US. The biggest hardle was human rights. Cairo has a very bad record, It seems that Nour's release was the price tag Washington put on Obama's visit. 

It is definitely good news though :)

Coptic at Harvard

So I started attending this Coptic class at Harvard School of Divinity. The instructor allowed me to attend the class on the condition of doing the HWs and the quizzes. They teach the Sahidic dialect which is the dialect of the ancient manuscripts. It is a bit different form the Boharic dialect which the church books use. From pronunciation point of view it is slightly different from Bohiric and a bit different from the Greeco-Bohiric which is chanted in the church. It is very interesting though. Now I have a better idea how the words originally sounded. Because the Coptic is basically the ancient Egyptian language written in Greek letters, the people of upper and lower Egypt wrote their pronunciation of the words in different ways resulting in two writings for the same word.For example, the word "and" in Bohiric is written "ouoh" but is sahidic it its written "ouw" which tells you that the original sound of the word has a slight "h" in the end of the word. As a result, people from the north wrote "h" and people from the south didn't write "h". I'm so excited about this class :)

Obama is the man!!

Since I moved to US, I haven't seen other presidents other than George W. Bush. Just seeing Obama handling stuff makes me optimistic. Nobody can deny Obama's eloquence, the question about him was always his ability to lead.

The decisions he made so far are amazing, although he is not sworn in yet. His Lincoln-style of handling rivals is astonishing. Today he met with McCain, I'm pretty sure he gave him the task of closing Guantanamo Bay detention center. This is a brilliant move, no one can accuse him of being lenient with terrorists for closing it, if the person in charge of doing that is a war hero and the former Republican party's nominee for president. He also pressures the Democratic senators to keep Lieberman as the Home Land committee chair. This way Obama guaranteed the loyalty of Lieberman and one more senator in the Democratic caucus, which could give him the magic 60 filibuster majority in the Senate floor. His offer for Clinton to be his Secretary of State is smart as well. I don't think she will be appointed at the end of the day because of the conflict of interest with Bill's interactions. But it shows that Obama is a strong leader who is not afraid of very strong people in his cabinet. Also this way he is making up with Clinton loyalists who is still mad of him for not vetting or offering Hillary the V.P. position.

This Auto-industry bailout shows that he is in top of his game, he is not waiting for the big three to collapse and then try to bail them out. His preemptive strategy will save the market another choke wave if one of the big three automakers fail.

The Modern Coptic Struggle (1) The State vs. the Church 1971-1981

Copts are the Christian Minority in Egypt. Historically they had their share of trouble as a subdued minority for two thousand years. This article focuses on their modern struggle since the military took control of Egypt in 1952.
Before 1952, Egypt was a kingdom, the king rules but he doesn't govern. The elected prime minister governs, similar to the British royal system. In liberal Egypt, 1919-1952, Copts enjoyed one of their most peaceful and prosperous eras. They led the peaceful liberation struggle against the Brits with Saad Zaghloul (most of El-Wafd party leaders were Copts) and two of them became prime ministers.

Since the military took power in 1952, things began to deteriorate fast. When the government nationalized everything, from companies and banks to land. Copts lost their position as one of the wealthiest sects in Egypt. Before that, Copts were able to send their kids to private school, which they owned. The educated Muslim kids went to Coptic schools, so they were tolerant by nature. When Copts lost their wealth, a lot of them left Egypt. This was the first wave of Coptic exodus in the 1960's. The great relation between Pope Kyrillos and President Nasser, saved the Copts from sectarian violence though. But losing their financial status affected them badly.

In 1971 President Sadat followed President Nasser and Pope Shenouda followed Pope Kyrillos. The relation between the two new leaders was not at its best as Sadat wanted to attract the Political Islamists to his camp against the communists. Sadat tried to appeal to Muslim as the "Believing President", as he liked people to call him. He tried to force Shari'a law on the country in return of ruling the country forever. That initiated the epic struggle between the Church and the State, between Pope Shenouda and President Sadat.

The Struggle between the Pope and the President reached its hight in 1981 when the President revoked the executive order approving Pope Shenouda as a Pope for the Copts, denoting the State doesn't recognize him as the head of the Church anymore and appointed a 5-bishop committee to run the Church affairs. Putting the Pope under house arrest in one of the remote desert monasteries. Sadat was killed by Islamists less than two months after this incident leaving the pope under house arrest.

That was the first episode from the modern Coptic struggle. The State Vs the Church.
In the following posts I will discuss the (2) The Islamist militant against Coptic people and (3) The tensions between everyday Muslim and everyday Copt.

Whatever happened to commitment !?

"Instant gratification has us in a stranglehold. So much so that we don't want to fix things anymore. Just replace them. Don't like your nose? Get a new one. Don't like your job? Get a new one. Don't like your spouse? Get a new one. Whatever happened to commitment? To standing by our decisions."

Back in the days Greeks used to talk philosophy. "Why I'm here?", "What is justice?" or "Is it fate or choice?" were the kind of questions people were passionate about. Christian christianized them to; "What purpose I was created for?", "What is my responsibility to the less fortunate?" "What does God want from me now and how I can fulfill it?"
WAKE UP it is America!! welcome to THE Consumption Society. Gradually, ideas like "Instant Gratification" replaces "Respecting ones Legacy". Questions like "What is new?" replaced "How are you and how is your family?". We are pressured by peers, media and education to embrace consuming what is new. I hate it when people are identified like "The guy who owns a Lexus 2008?" or "The girl with iphone" as if the most interesting and fundamental characteristic of the person is his car or her phone!


So far I have been hammering the society left and right for being based on consumption, but what is wrong with that?
This will take us to a fundamental question. Am I defined by what I "consume" or defined by what I "produce"?. Is it what I "take" that adds value to me or what I "give" that adds value to me? Do I care for others or it is always me, me and me? building one's self on consumption makes one selfish. The more serious problem is making us perceive others as tools to fulfill our consumption desires. we don't value people for who they are, but for what they can offer to us. You can see that clearly in personal relations, a couple get together to fulfill some consumption desire, such as acquittance, sex or social appearance. Once the desire is fulfilled, there is no room for commitment or sacrifice.

Here is the irony, I got the first paragraph from a Hyundai commercial!
Think about it.

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