7 - 13 June 2001
Issue No.537
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 7 - 13 June 2001 Issue No.537 |
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Mulid celebration
MARKING Mulid Al-Nabi, or Prophet Mohamed's birthday, on Sunday, President Hosni Mubarak delivered a speech emphasising how the Prophet's life and practices personified the humanitarian message and principles of Islam. Mubarak added that he was confident of the Muslim scholars' ability to cope with the requirements of modernity, while preserving the Muslim identity and the pillars of religion.
After delivering his speech at the concluding session of the 13th conference of the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs, Mubarak honoured eight prominent Muslim scholars, including two from Jordan and Pakistan. The rest are Egyptian. The president also presented prizes to 10 children and youths who won top positions in an annual cultural competition organised by the Ministry of Awqaf or Islamic Endowments.
In its concluding statement, the conference of the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs, attended by ministers from 65 Islamic countries and representatives of six Islamic organisations, affirmed that Muslims "do not live on an island isolated [from the rest of the world] and that there is no reason for them to fear the modernisation of their societies." The statement added that "modernisation does not imply undermining the pillars of religion, but it requires finding rational solutions to the problems of modern life."
The Islamic ministers also praised the Palestinian people's resistance of the Israeli occupation and their nine-month-old Al-Aqsa Intifada. They described the Intifada as a "legitimate means of self-defence," against the racist actions of the Israeli occupation army. They also called upon Islamic countries and organisations to provide all types of support to the Intifada and affirm occupied Jerusalem's Arab and Islamic identity.
The Islamic affairs ministers addressed the situation in Iraq, saying that Islamic organisations should play a positive role towards securing the lifting of UN sanctions and ending the sufferings of the Iraqi people. They asserted that only innocent civilians were paying the price for the stringent 11-year-long blockade.
Jordanian ties
DURING a two day meeting this week of the Egyptian-Jordanian Supreme Committee in Amman, Prime Minister Atef Ebeid and his Jordanian counterpart, Ali Abu Ragheb, signed nine agreements to buttress economic ties.
Ebeid delivered a message from President Hosni Mubarak to Jordan's King Abdullah on bilateral issues and the situation in the Palestinian territories. Following the meeting Ebeid told reporters, "His Majesty King Abdullah and President Mubarak are exerting efforts round- the-clock and consulting with other Arab leaders to help contain the crisis in the region."
The committee's final statement demanded that Israel put an immediate stop to its aggressions against the Palestinian people.
Visiting Ibrahim
AUTHORITIES on Sunday allowed a senior official of the US embassy in Cairo to visit sociology professor and human rights activist Saadeddin Ibrahim in prison where he is serving a seven-year sentence, reports Khaled Dawoud .
Ibrahim, 62, was sent to prison by the State Security Court on 21 May after he was found guilty of receiving a grant from the European Union without government permission and issuing reports on the status of Copts and elections in Egypt which allegedly tarnished the country's image abroad.
Randa Ibrahim, his daughter, told Al-Ahram Weekly that her family visited Ibrahim on 3 June, making use of exceptional visit permits to Torah Prison which authorities granted to all inmates to mark Mulid Al-Nabi or Prophet Mohamed's birthday. "He is fine, but we are concerned about his health," Randa said. She added that the head of the Prisons' Authority, Police Maj-Gen Hani El-Ezabi, also visited Ibrahim to make sure that he was receiving the medical care he requires. "He [El-Ezabi] ascertained that my father is getting everything he needs in terms of medical care," she added.
Ibrahim's personal doctor was also allowed to visit him in his prison cell on Saturday "and doctors said that he was generally stable, and that there was no urgent need to move him to hospital," Randa said. Ibrahim's lawyer, Ibrahim Saleh, requested that his client be moved to Qasr Al-Eini hospital, but no decision has been taken yet.
Ibrahim, who holds dual Egyptian-American nationality, will be allowed visits by US embassy officials like any American citizen, but the embassy has to obtain a permit each time a representative wants to see him, sources at the prosecutor-general's office said.
Ibrahim's family, his lawyers and human rights groups are waiting impatiently for the State Security Court to release the reasons behind its sentences against Ibrahim and 27 defendants involved in the same case. This will be crucial in starting appeal procedures with the Court of Cassation, the nation's highest court.
Dinosaurs' heaven
THE SECOND biggest dinosaur ever found has been unearthed in Bahariya Oasis in the western desert, reports Nevine El-Aref.
It seems that the oasis contains more treasures than the recently discovered gilded mummies of our ancestors, also containing remains of dinosaurs that pre-date ancient Egyptian civilisation by millennia.
While combing through the sand at Bahariya Oasis in search of the remains of dinosaurs, the geological mission of Pennsylvania University came across huge fossilised bones of what they say appears to have been one of the second largest types of dinosaurs ever to have lived.
According to a report issued early this week in the Journal of Science, the newly discovered skeleton is of a previously unknown species of Titanosaurid, a group of long-necked, long- tailed, plant-eating dinosaurs. Preliminary analysis suggests that the bones found are of a 25 to 30-metre-long beast that weighed as much as 70 tons. Large pieces of shoulder blades and vertebra support the estimates of the animal's size.
Arcadia again
THE CAIRO Court of Appeals quashed on Tuesday a move contesting the jurisdiction of a Criminal Court panel and requesting its replacement by another panel, made by the defence team of Omar El-Hawari, accused of killing Mahmoud Rawhi at Pomodoro restaurant at the Arcadia Mall on 12 April. El-Hawari's lawyers have accused the three-judge panel of bias and of "persistently rejecting the requests of the defence."
But the Court of Appeals did not agree. "It is evident from the official papers of the trial that the court responded positively to the majority of the requests. Moreover, the Criminal Court has the authority to respond to the defence's requests, positively or negatively," said Hamdi El- Shimi, presiding judge of the Court of Appeals.
The trial will resume next week, but the specific date has not been set.
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