Al-Azhar's Grand Imam declares support for a constitutional, democratic state
In a document that read more as a short constitutional declaration, Al-Azhar defends universal human rights and rejects 'the theocratic state' as un-Islamic and autocratic by nature
In a statement titled “Al-Azhar Document” and read on national television, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmed El-Tayeb, the country’s highest religious authority, outlined his institution’s vision on key political, social and economic issues that have been subject to raging debates across the country for months.
The product of a consensual agreement reached between Al-Azhar officials and numerous prominent intellectuals and religious figures following extensive discussions over the last few weeks, the Document contains 11 main articles and is meant to serve as a foundation for a new social arrangement in post-Mubarak Egypt.
The statement opens with a definitive and unequivocal position on the contentious debate taking place in society between liberal forces and religious currents on the nature of the relationship between religion and the state in a new Egypt.
In a clear rejection of the argument put forward by many Islamic Salafists, the Grand Imam laid out his support for a ‘democratic and constitutional’ state.
“Islam has never, throughout its history, experienced such a thing as a religious or a theocratic state,” El-Tayeb said. He added that theocratic states have always been autocratic and humanity suffered a great deal because of them.
Read more @ Ahram.org
Eco-friendly mosque planned for Germany
Norderstedt's Muslim community to build a £2m mosque with wind turbines in its minarets
A small Muslim community in northern Germany is pioneering renewable energy sources by planning to build a mosque with wind turbines in its minarets.
The €2.5m (£2.2m) project would see the mosque in Norderstedt, near Hamburg, become one of the first to turn the minaret, the place from which the muezzin called the faithful to prayer, into a wind-fuelled power source.
Read more @ Guardian.co.uk
"Gay Girl in Damascus" turns out to be "White married American dude in Edinburgh"
Now, who'd have thunk that?
A popular Syrian blogger that had been blogging the Syrian uprising "from the inside" actually turns out to be a 40 year old American studying in Edinburgh.
Syrian lesbian blogger is revealed conclusively to be a married man
Newsnight interview from last week of the woman whose picture was used.
Assad follows the Gaddafi method of survival
Very sad indeed.
Hopefully it will work even less successfully for him than it has been doing for Gaddafi.
He has had more than enough chances to do the right thing. I wonder if someone will exterminate this vermin... seems unlikely.
[Turkey] Election Time
It's election time. Probably the most important elections of your life and you're not invited.
Turkey goes to the polls on Sunday 12 June 2010 and if the governing party gets a big enough mandate, they could be unleashed to provide the country with a new constitution that helps the country jump a good distance.
Or the power could get into the heads of the government and they may become authoritarian and/or a part of the problem (that is always a risk).
This will shape the future of Turkey and also have repercussions on the wider region.
Time to keep watching what happens.
Government to attack "unbritish" Muslim behaviour
The last government had a "prevent" strategy to fight (mostly Muslim) extremism (which had some good goals but was also used to spy on the Muslim community and had a pretty negative image within the Muslim community).
Now this government wants to replace it with another one, but this instead of targeting violence or the promotion of violence, instead wants to focus on fighting what the government considers unbritish behaviour.
Yemen Falls?
Is this the end of the regime in Yemen?
The President who refused to release his grip on power - who has been in his position for 33 years - was injured in a rocket attack on Friday and has now left for Saudi Arabia "for treatment".
Saudi has been backing this president for a very long time, but since the president is now outside the country, his grip on his supporters will naturally loosen.
So is this the end of president Saleh's reign?
The people think so and are rejoicing.
Reports say that Saleh took 35 members of his family and a few other supporters with him.
Police who battered Babar Ahmed found "Not Guilty"
A jury at Southwark Crown Court has found four Metropolitan police officers not guilty of assaulting a terrorism suspect. But it has taken almost eight years for the story to be fully told in the British courts.
Channel 4 news piece from a month ago:
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Ratko Mladic arrested in Serbia
Fugitive Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic has been arrested in Serbia after 16 years on the run.
Gen Mladic, 69, was found in a village in northern Serbia where had been living under an assumed name.
He faces charges over the massacre of at least 7,500 Bosnian Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995.
2012 is turning into a remarkable year.