MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

The Jewish Press – “For the first time in 2,000 years, there will be no Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur services at the Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue in Alexandria in 5773, reports Daniel Greenfield in ‘In The Point.’

This was the last active synagogue in Egypt. The Egyptian authorities’ excuse for the shut-down, effectively outlawing High Holiday services in the country, were ‘security’ reasons.

Levana Zamir, head of the International Association of Egyptian Jews in Israel, said: ‘It seems this is really the end of Jewish life in Egypt. The authorities have found a way to take over the last Jewish bastion, since all the remaining synagogues are already archaeological and tourist sites. It is very sad.’

This is yet another example of the fact that Jewish life is becoming extinct in the Muslim world.” Source – The Jewish Press.

BY ISSA YUSSUF, allAfrica – “DESPITE ongoing efforts to minimize domestic violence, promote gender equality and empower women, new study in Zanzibar indicates that many women are still beaten and bullied by men including Muslim clerics!

In its report, the Tanzania Media Women Association (TAMWA) – Zanzibar revealed that although men beat women, but the number of cases being reported to the police remain few, mainly because most women opt to tolerate violence in order to keep her family together. ‘Women have testified to have been bullied and beaten by men, but they think it is improper to report the case.

Some get hurt severely in the domestic violence, but treat themselves silently to save the husband or partner,’ the report says. The report says that women beating in Zanzibar are linked to love jealousy, disputes over wealth and family care, alcohol, neglect in marriage, and men superiority in the family. The report further says that most of the women asked during the survey held in ten districts of Zanzibar, agreed that beating and bullying is common but done under secrecy.

However, with the help from gender activists like the Zanzibar Female Lawyers Association (ZAFELA) and TAMWA through its programme of WEZA, many women in both urban and rural have been transforming gradually and can now at least argue with men and defend their rights. ‘In fact, the awareness about women rights, by TAMWA has helped me and other women. We can now dare to ask men when there is misunderstanding in the family.

We try to educate our husbands to respect our rights,’ Ms Khadija Hassan, 41, from Bumbwini village, North Unguja says. She said that most males are short-tempered and therefore disputes in families end in intimidation and beating. ‘It sometimes ends in divorce and split in family,’ she said. What if my wife is stubborn and intimidates me to either beat her or divorce her when she is angry?

The study has revealed that some husbands/men in Zanzibar, Muslim dominated islands, are violent and say that Islam through the holy book of Quran and Prophet Muhammad allows them to beat disobedient women.” Read more.

Muslim Cleric In Egypt: Islam Teaches A Man To Beat His Wife So That She’ll Treat Him With Kindness, Respect, And Know He Is Superior – “Islam instructs a man to beat his wife as a last resort before divorce, so that she will mend her ways, treat him with kindness and respect, and know that her husband has a higher status than her… Allah said: ‘Admonish those of them on whose part your fear disobedience, refuse to share their beds, and beat them.’ … A good woman, even if beaten by her husband, puts her hand in his and says: ‘I will not rest until you are pleased with me.’ This [is] how the Prophet Mohammed taught his women to be.” Watch Video.

Unfortunately, if this moderate Muslim continues to silence the voice of hatred and violence, violence and hatred may soon silence the voice of this Muslim moderate …

BY LINAH BENYAWA – “Sheikh Juma Ngao, a Muslim cleric, has accused his colleagues of fanning violence that rocked Mombasa since Monday.

Ngao said some clerics were preaching hate against Christians.

‘Using the killing of the preachers to burn churches, destroy property and kill innocent people is criminal. Why cause destruction in the name of Islam, which is against the teachings?’ said Ngao, chairman of Kenya National Muslim Advisory Council.

Ngao noted some priests have brainwashed youths making them attack churches and disregard Christians. Some of the alleged hate promoters, according to Ngao, are street preachers.

Meanwhile, a group of Muslim and Christians leaders appealed to parents to restrain their sons from violence.

They warned that large-scale demonstrations will spark more chaos and threaten peace.

The group known as Mombasa Peacekeeping Committee called for religious tolerance and urged preachers to refrain from incitement.” Read more.

Flashback: Russia: ‘Religion Of Peace’ Fighters Kill Imam For Preferring Peace – “A self-described guerrilla fighter urging strict adherence to Islamic law has claimed responsibility for the killing last month of one Muslim leader and the attempted murder of another, in Tatarstan, a region in central Russia that prides itself on a tradition of religious tolerance… The motive of the attacks appeared to be efforts by the two Muslim leaders to combat the spread of radical Islam in the region.” Read more.

Flashback: Dagestan: Imam Standing Up For Peace Is Violently Gunned Down – “An imam has been killed in a mosque in Russia’s southern Dagestan region, police said on Friday… The imam, Magomedkamil Gamzatov, was well-known for his rejection of ‘any form of violence and openly condemned the extremist insurgency,’ the National Anti-Terror Committee said in a statement.” Read more.

Flashback: Prominent Imam Speaking Out Against Violence is Sprayed With Bullets – “A prominent imam who discouraged youth from joining Islamic militants has been shot dead in his home… Magomed Saiputdinov was slain by automatic gunfire in a nighttime attack near the Chechen-border town of Kizlyar… ’He was widely known for his uncompromising stand against any forms of violence, condemning the murder of innocent people and other atrocities of the Chechen underground,’ …”  Read more.

Isn’t it comforting to know that Egyptian President Morsi has surrounded himself with such pragmatic free-thinking experts? …

By GREG TEPPER – “Egypt’s peace accord with Israel is ‘a mark of shame upon the Egyptian people’ and must be amended, a media adviser for Egypt’s Freedom and Justice Party, the political movement of Muslim Brotherhood, said Thursday.

Ahmed Subei told Al-Alam Iranian TV that Egypt should reexamine ‘everything to do with… sovereignty over its land,’ and claimed that increased instances of hepatitis, cancer and kidney infections in his country were are all results of the Camp David accords.

Subei made the comments in an August 22 broadcast, and his comments were translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute. He also voiced support for the liberation of Palestine and for Palestinian ‘resistance.’

The accords were the basis for the 1979 Israel-Egypt peace agreement and Israel’s subsequent withdraw from the Sinai Peninsula.

‘This agreement has been a heavy burden upon the Egyptian people, undermining Egypt’s sovereignty. It has even undermined projects for the development of the Sinai. Therefore, it is an unjust and unfair agreement, which has isolated Egypt from its Arab and Islamic environs, and from the pan-Arab effort to liberate the land of Palestine, and to support Palestinian resistance,’ Subei said.

Subei connected the peace agreement and Israel with ‘endemic diseases’ in Egypt.” Read more.

Flashback: ‘Egypt Will Never Be the Friend, Partner or Ally of the Zionist Entity, The First Enemy of Egypt’ – “It’s amazing what ‘freedom’ has brought to Egypt. Rejecting $1 billion in US aid would almost be laughable, if the possible implications were not so serious. Last month the Muslim Brotherhood had apparently come to the conclusion that it was Halal to extort the United States by threatening, for all intents and purposes, to wage war against Israel if America cut off aid to Egypt. Now they’re threatening to reject it all together, and all this while making it loud and clear that Egypt will ‘never be the friend, partner or ally of the Zionist entity’ …” Read more.

Qur’an Sura 4:34, “Men have authority over women because [Allah] has made the one superior to the other… Good women are obedient… As for those from whom you fear disobedience, admonish them and send them to beds apart and beat them. Then if they obey you, take no further action against them…”

Thank goodness the beating shouldn’t be rushed or done out of anger. I guess that makes it all perfectly ok in order to subdue the inferior gender …

Egyptian Cleric Abd Al-Rahman Mansour: “Islam instructs a man to beat his wife as a last resort before divorce, so that she will mend her ways, treat him with kindness and respect, and know that her husband has a higher status than her. I say to every husband: Do not rush to beat her whenever a problem arises. Oh servant of Allah, Allah said: ‘Admonish those of them on whose part your fear disobedience, refuse to share their beds, and beat them.’ One should not beat out of anger. This you must know: If the wife utters the name of God, the beating must stop… When ‘Aisha thought ill of the Prophet Mohammed, believing that he did not treat her the same as his other wives, and that when he left her room, he would go to another wife, she followed him and spied on him. Aisha said that when the Prophet found out about this, ‘He gave me a shove that was painful.’ This was done in order to discipline her, not because the Prophet enjoyed beating or inflicting bodily harm. The Prophet did this in order to discipline the woman… A good woman, even if beaten by her husband, puts her hand in his and says: ‘I will not rest until you are pleased with me.’ This [is] how the Prophet Mohammed taught his women to be.”