Muslims Serve as Human Shields for Egyptian Christians
I expect to see this heartwarming holiday story on all the major American corporate news media... don't you?
Thanks to David Weintraub for pointing this out.
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.”
In the days following the brutal attack on Saints Church in Alexandria, which left 21 dead on New Year’ eve, solidarity between Muslims and Copts has seen an unprecedented peak. Millions of Egyptians changed their Facebook profile pictures to the image of a cross within a crescent – the symbol of an “Egypt for All”. Around the city, banners went up calling for unity, and depicting mosques and churches, crosses and crescents, together as one. Egypt's Muslims attend Coptic Christmas mass, serving as "human shields"
Thanks to David Weintraub for pointing this out.
posted by JimK at 3:17 PM
3 Comments:
WASHINGTON -- House Republicans cleared a hurdle Friday in their first attempt to scrap President Barack Obama's landmark health care overhaul. Further action is in states, where Republicans are using federal courts and governors' offices to lead the assault against Obamacare.
Republicans prevailed Friday in a 236-181 procedural vote that sets the stage for the House to vote next week on the repeal.
Shortly before the House vote, Republican governors representing 30 states opened up a new line of attack.
In a letter to Obama and congressional leaders, the governors complained the health care law will restrict their ability to control Medicaid spending, raising the threat of devastating cuts to other critical programs. It's ammunition for critics trying to dismantle the overhaul piece by piece.
Moreover, a federal judge in Florida is expected to rule shortly in a lawsuit brought by 20 states that challenges the law's central requirement that most Americans carry health insurance. A judge in Virginia ruled it unconstitutional last month and the Supreme Court will ultimately have to resolve the issue.
Republicans hope to get enough momentum going to force Obama and the Democrats into an early capitulation. "If you have to do an amputation, get it over with," Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, a repeal leader, said after the House vote. "We need to get this showdown over so we can go on to other issues."
During last year's election campaign, Democrats sought cover when the health care law would come up.
GOP governors, in their letter to Washington leaders Friday, argued the law is already limiting their options by requiring them to maintain certain levels of Medicaid coverage to continue receiving crucial federal money. Medicaid is a federal-state program that serves more than 50 million low-income people.
"The effect of the federal requirements is unconscionable; (they) force governors to cut other critical state programs, such as education, in order to fund a one-size-fits-all approach to Medicaid," wrote the governors, calling on Congress to lift the requirements. If the request advances, it would open the door to other attempts to change the law, or undermine it.
Voting with the Republicans on Friday were four Democrats who had opposed the law last year - Reps. Dan Boren of Oklahoma, Mike McIntyre and Larry Kissell of North Carolina, and Mike Ross of Arkansas.
"This was an attack on Egypt as a whole"
so obvious a truth
let's hope the Muslim street elsewhere will realize that the Islamic fundamentalists are not their friends
It looks like Bonehead was smart enough to cancel that purely political House vote to repeal Health Care Reform next week in light of the events in AZ. And it looks like Palin's chances in 2012 died along with the six dead in one of Palin's targeted districts.
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