Things We Learned on Twitter Today- Crackdowns in Egypt

This above image of a female Egyptian soccer fan with her head covered by a hijab undoubtedly reflect the cultural tensions in Egypt, where like fellow secular Muslim country Turkey, separation of mosque and state is always an issue.

But, perhaps surprisingly, the latest raids by Egyptian police in the capital city of Cairo have targeted Shia Muslims.

According to a tweet from Daily News Egypt, the police arrested four men, one of whom was Safaa Al-Awadi, 44, from Perth, Australia, as well as two Iraqi nationals for insulting and denying tenets of religion.

While many Christians, particularly fundamentalists, have emphasized the sometimes alleged, sometimes obvious persecution of Christian minorities in Muslim countries, many Sunni Muslim countries, such as Egypt, have strict laws regarding the practice of Shiia Islam.

Crackdowns of Shiias have been in place in both Egypt and Bahrain since the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, where the majority of Shiia Muslims live. The Shiia Muslims are also the majority in Azerbaijan, and they have a large minority in Iraq.

Traditional Sunnis believe Shiism is blasphemy because Shia Muslims believe the Prophet Ali should have taken Mohammad's place instead of Abu Bakr, which is what the Sunnis believe. And, alas many people have died in war and strife as a result of the long-standing rift.

SIDEBAR: Washington Park High School in Racine, Wisc., is yet another one of our 'High Schools of the Week.' The school's mascot is The Panther, which originated with the class of 1949, who are now entering their 80s! The school's traditional rival is William Harlick HS. Kevin Barry of the Green Bay Packers is among the school's famous alumni in recent years.

Things We Learned on the BBC Today- Turkish People to Make Important Decision

Turkey, my late father's homeland, should be a united country, at least for the next 24 hours. Thanks to a 19-point effort from Ersan Ilyasova, Team Turkey defeated Slovenia 95-68 to reach the semi-finals of the World Basketball Championships in Istanbul.

But, as the team faces Serbia on Saturday, the Turkish people will be getting ready to make a potentially historic decision at the ballot regarding the country's constitution.

According to the BBC, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is pushing the referendum, is in a virtual war of words with his political opponents, such as CHP (Republic People's Party) head Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

The CHP leader effectively says that Erdogan wants to take even more control of the central government in Ankara and the passage of the weekend referendum would allow him to appoint high-ranking federal judges and potentially trespass Turkey's long-standing policy which separates 'mosque and state.'

Erdogan has used arguments that the likes of Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich, who both ironically oppose the building of a mosque near Ground Zero in New York, have used in stating the religion is a vital part of political life in Turkey as it is in any country.

The vote also comes as the month-long Ramadan holiday is coming to a close, the ninth anniversary of September 11th, the 28th anniversary of the last Turkish coup in 1982 and the likely prospects of a crazy Florida preacher burning copies of the Koran.

The referendum has some secularist support since it would address concerns that the Turkish military has too much political control of government affairs, but for the most, this is essentially a vote that religious people in Turkey support and secularists strongly oppose.

Eda Utku, a woman who works for a Turkish fashion magazine, stated on a BBC message board that she is voting 'hayir/no' because she think the government has a hidden agenda.

I fully sympathize with her view.

SIDEBAR: While the whacko Rev. Terry Jones is getting ready for his Koran bonfire in Gainesville, Fal., that will assuredly assist radical jihadists in places like Yemen and Afghanistan, the liberal blog Jesus' General (http://patriotboy.blogspot.com) is reporting that Sept. 12 is supposedly Burn the Confederate Flag Day. Though we sympathize with that political viewpoint and one's constitutional right to take up such matters, we also don't recommend that one does that in Fort Mill, SC, or anywhere else south of Frederick, Md.!

Things We Learned on Twitter Today- Angelina Condemns Koran Burning Project

It may not be often that a liberal movie star like Angelina Jolie would agree with a leading member of the U.S. military brass like Gen. David Patraeus, but they are on the same page when it comes to being against the Rev. Terry Jones' dubious plans to burn copies of the Koran at his radical church in Gainesville, Fla., this weekend.

Jones has said that he is going to burn the Korans to protest Sept. 11th even though virtually the entire Muslim world, including an imam from Iznik, Turkey, who I spoke while visiting his historic village just days after the terrorist attacks, condemned the events of 9-11.

"The Gainesville Sun" (gainesville.com) tweeted that the star of "Salt" was agast with the news of Jones' proposition.

Jolie, 35, said the following to members of the media about the Koran burning project in Islamabad, Pakistan, where she is visiting after a trip to nothwest Pakistan where the movie star talked to refugees of the recent horrific flooding that occured in that region:

"I have hardly the words that somebody would do that to somebody's religious book."

Jolie's trip is part of her mission as a goodwill ambassador for The United Nations' refugee agency. The U.N. has issued a $460 million pledge to help the flood victims.

The Koran burning project, which has also been condemned by Vatican officials, has been the buzz of Twitter and other chatrooms/discussion boards.

On Twitter, Nathan Tabor, a Christian conservative activist in Winston-Salem, NC, asked his followers on Twitter if they thought the Koran burning project was a good idea or not.

The film critic Roger Ebert, also on Twitter, compared Rev. Jones to Satan for his actions.

I will simply add my two cents and say that as the son of a Muslim immigrant, I think Rev. Jones is a 'budala,' that's the Turkish word for idiot.

Rev. Jones is with the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, which contrary to its name is not a progressive religious organization. His efforts also come as Muslims around the world are concluding the month-long Ramadan holiday.

Ironically, the actor Terry Jones, as a member of Monty Python, appeared in the highly controversial 1979 satire film "Life of Brian," which was considered to be blasphemous by many Christian groups at the time.

Things We Learned From the BBC Today- Islamic Facebook Comes to Egypt

Those who attend services at The Mohammed Ali Mosque in Cairo, Egypt, (pictured here) may now have a way to socially network in a way that is suitable to Islamic principles, according to a report from Jon Leyne of the BBC.

The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's main government opposition group which is at times known to be a bit strict and radical (not the BBC's word) though it consists of more moderate factions as well, has launched its very own Facebook-style social newtworking media called Ikhwanbook.

The aim of the group, which is headed by Fareed Abdelkhalek, who is now 95 years old, is to spread Islamic values. The look of the site is similar to Facebook, but it will show more respect to Muslim values.

The group has proclaimed that the government in Cairo has not allowed it many other avenues of free expression or media communication. They added that the group has no desire to compete with Facebook, which is surprisingly popular in Egypt (as well as Turkey and Greece).

The Muslim Brotherhood started in 1928 as a way to rid Egypt of British control.

The BBC airs in North Carolina from WUNC 91.5-FM at 10 p.m. every night.

SIDEBAR- We have decided to add a special "High School of the Week" segment on both Tuesdays and Fridays until we have gone through high schools from all 50 states. So far, we have collectively mentioned the names of high schools from 26 states on our two blogs. Tomorrow, we will start with an entry for Madison Central High School in Richmond, Ky.

Thing We Learned on the BBC Today- Iranian Lawyer Trying to Defect to Turkey

The Iranian lawyer Mohammed Mostafaei is seeking political asylum Turkey, where he is now residing. Mostafaie has been a diligent human rights activists, and he has recently been defending Sakineh Mohammed Ashtiani, 43, (pictured here) who was initially sentenced to be stoned to death for adultery.

Ashtiani, a mother of two, still faces the possibility of execution by hanging. Her case has provoked international outrage which has even involved the president of Brazil, one of Iran's diplomatic allies. Protesters in Sweden have also petitioned for Ashtiani's release. The woman has already recieved 99 lashes from Iranian authorities.

Mostafei's asylum appears to be held up by Turkish bureacracy though human rights activists in Turkey are trying to expeditate the process.

SIDEBAR: (Editorial Comment) Personally, I think the Muslim group trying to build a controversial mosque at Ground Zero in New York should move the building thousands of miles away---to Wasilla, Alaska. Along with Newt Gingrich, former vice presidential candidate and Alaskan governor Sarah Palin has been the most vocal opponent of the move saying it would be a 'stab in the heart to all victims of
9-11.' The most irritating part of this bally-hoo is that people like Palin always seem to forget is that many 9-11 victims were in fact Muslims. And, though my late Turkish father was a Muslim, I say his as somehow who is a human secularist.

Special Quote of the Day--Happy Bastille Day!

France has been in the news quite a lot lately as the national soccer team openly feuded while competing at the World Cup, a controversial Islamic face garb ban was passed in the French Parliament yesterday and this year the country has been forced to scale back Bastille Day celebrations because of domestic economic problems.

Since today, July 14th, is Bastille Day, we are going to quote the great French noveslist/essayist/modernist Marcel Proust (1871-1922) who is frequently the subject of "Zippy the Pinhead" comic strips. Proust was also featured as the centerpiece in a Sunday "New York Times" article about Kindle last year.

We have to wonder if the likes of Robin Reed, a Channel-7 (Roanoke, Va.) meteorologist would agree with this sentiment from Proust:


"A change in the weather is sufficient to recreate the world and ourselves."

I must profess that my favorite thing about France, after cheese and Jean-Luc Godard movies, would have to be the great comic book character Asterix the Gaul.

Happy Bastille Day to everyone in France!

Quote of the Day- Mel Gibson

We continue our series of quotes from people associated with the 32 countries in the 2010 World Cup with a quip from controversial, out-spoken actor/director/right-winger Mel Gibson who was born in New York, but grew up in Australia where he made it big as "Mad Max" (the 1982 sequel "Road Warrior" is pictured here) in 1977 when he was just in his early twenties.

This quote is in reference to "The Passion of the Christ," a film Gibson directed which I saw as an interesting mess:

"Obviously, nobody wants to touch something filmed in two dead languages. They think I'm crazy, and maybe I am. But maybe I'm a genius."


Hmmmmm.......


SIDEBAR: Apparently World Cup fever is even spreading in countries which are not in the competition as the Tokyo, Japan-based Twitter site Weird News is reporting that government authorities in Bangladesh have asked factories, stores and shopping malls in the capital city of Dhaka to close down to prevent the city's limited power supply from getting jammed. Mohammad Afrazur Rahman, the minister of energy for Bangladesh, actually made a formal request of compliance to the people of Dhaka!

SIDEBAR TWO: Chile beat Honduras to win the country's first game in the World Cup since 1962. In today's match in South Africa, Chilean striker Jean Beausejour scored what became the game-winning goal in the 34th minute of the game.

NOTE: We had a technical glitch with our last entry on the Somali-American Yahya Wehelie, 26, who is trapped in Egypt as the FBI put him on a no-fly list as he was trying to board a plane to the United States from the Cairo Airport six weeks ago. The Washington, DC-area resident has spent 18 months in Yemen, where many jihadists have been working in terrorist camps. But, Wehelie's parents insist he is not involved in radical ideology. We were hoping to post labels for the post when the glitch occured so we will post those labels here instead.

Quote of the Day- Lars von Trier

Today's quip which is being done in conjunction with the World Cup in South Africa comes from Danish film director Lars von Trier whose most recent film "Anti-Christ" is supposedly the most controversial film since "Triumph of the Will" (forgive the film fanatic humor).

Alas, Denmark lost to Holland 2-0 yesterday (well we were actually rooting for the Dutch;nothing against the Danes but I suppose some folks from Turkey-my late father's country-would have a beef regarding those cartoons), but we're sure they will do better against Japan or Cameroon......well, maybe/maybe not!

But, here is our quote from Lars, who Nicole Kidman (he directed her in "Dogville") will apparently never work with again (there was tension on the set---to put it mildly!):

"Bascially, I'm afraid of everything in life except filmmaking."

Our Person of the Decade- Orhan Pamuk

Given that I am an American of Turkish heritage, the choice of Turkish author Orhan Pamuk ("Snow," "My Name is Red," "The Black Book") is a relatively easy selection for Person of the Decade.

Along with Turkish film director/photographer Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Pamuk has helped Turkey achieve a significant boost in its cultural image abroad at a time when the country is facing political upheaval, due in part to the election of an Islamic political party into office.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul have pledged not to undermine Turkey's secularism countless times, but there is still constant fear that their election does indeed threaten not only Turkey's long-standing separation of mosque and state since 1923, but also the nation's acceptance in the West.

Figures such as Pamuk, who is quite controversial in Turkey, are thus more important than ever.

Pamuk, who grew up and still maintains a partial residence in Istanbul (he splits his time with New York) was featured on a Dec. 28 broadcast of "The Charlie Rose" on PBS, which is available for streaming at Rose's web site: www.charlierose.com

Rather than give an exhaustive biography of Pamuk and his many achievements, including winning the Nobel Prize for literature, I thought I would profile him using his own quotes.

Here is a sample of them:

"I see Turkey's future as being in Europe, as one of many prosperous, tolerant, democratic countries."

"The secularists in Turkey haven't underestimated religion, they just made the mistake of believing that they could control it with the army alone."

"I think perhaps it is a generational thing. I talk to younger people and they say, 'Where is this melancholy city you talk about? My Istanbul is a sunny place.'"