On A More Positive Note ... Thousands Of Muslims Become Human Shields For Coptic Christians In Egypt

While our "bought and paid for" main stream (or lame stream, to quote Sarah Palin) media hypes the ever (non) threat that Muslims are supposed to pose for we "freedom" (cough cough) loving Americans, Muslims in Egypt showed the world how to unite and deal with fundamentalism and tyranny from extremists.

On New Year’s Day, a devastating terrorist bombing at a Coptic church in Egypt killed 21 people and injured 79 others. Although the identity of the culprits was not known, it was assumed that they were Muslim extremists, intent on targeting those they saw as heretics.

[snip]

Egypt’s majority Muslim population stuck to its word Thursday night. What had been a promise of solidarity to the weary Coptic community, was honoured, when thousands of Muslims showed up at Coptic Christmas eve mass services in churches around the country and at candle light vigils held outside. From the well-known to the unknown, Muslims had offered their bodies as “human shields” for last night’s mass, making a pledge to collectively fight the threat of Islamic militants and towards an Egypt free from sectarian strife.

“We either live together, or we die together,” was the sloganeering genius of Mohamed El-Sawy, a Muslim arts tycoon whose cultural centre distributed flyers at churches in Cairo Thursday night, and who has been credited with first floating the “human shield” idea. Among those shields were movie stars Adel Imam and Yousra, popular preacher Amr Khaled, the two sons of President Hosni Mubarak, and thousands of citizens who have said they consider the attack one on Egypt as a whole. “This is not about us and them,” said Dalia Mustafa, a student who attended mass at Virgin Mary Church on Maraashly. “We are one. This was an attack on Egypt as a whole, and I am standing with the Copts because the only way things will change in this country is if we come together.”

Let there be peace on earth, please.

All God's Children - God Bless The Child

Song for the world, this Christmas time. Thanks, Shania!

So Much For Transparency Regarding Peace Between Israel And Palestine

Q: So why all these games of make-believe negotiations? It’s possible to announce that we will not reach an agreement, and that is all.

YA’ALON: Because in the political establishment there are pressures. Peace Now from within and other elements from without. So you have to maneuver. But what I’m saying now has to be given over to the Americans, and I hope that they will understand.

Some of what we have to do is maneuver with the American administration and the European establishment, which are also nourished by Israeli elements, which create the illusion that an agreement can be reached.

Got that? They only want to "create" an "illusion" that any meaningful peace accord can be reached. (Shaking head ... but hey, it's not like I have ever believed in Israel).

H/T to Think Progress.

It was refreshing to read about the snub that Obama gave to the PM the other night, walking out and leaving him high and dry, at the White House, instead of having dinner with him. Obama's parting words: "Let me know if there is anything new."

Nobody Listens, Nobody Cares

The Neda video.



I mourn for my brothers and sisters in Iran. As a Baha'i, Persia has a personal place hisorically for me in my life, and I have been surrounded by Persians and their culture for over 40 years.

Happy 50th Peace Symbol

Fifty years ago on a cold, grim Easter holiday, a protest was meant to be a watershed: a global call to ban the bomb.

People marched from London to a factory in the countryside where Britain built its atomic bombs. Pat Arrowsmith was among those early campaigners for nuclear disarmament.

"It was quite clear that we were not just against the tests, and we were not just against the British bomb," Arrowsmith said. "We were against the Soviet bomb and against the U.S. bomb."

The nuclear weapons industry at Aldermaston is still very much alive. But so is the spirit of that protest fifty years ago. It lives on in a symbol born here that became an icon.

Gerald Holtom was the artist and textile designer who created it.

A conscientious objector during World War II, he was driven to the nuclear disarmament campaign, he said, by a feeling of despair.

Many of us baby-boomers think it was born out of the Viet Nam war protests. Live and learn.