الأقباط في مصر

شاهدوا هذا الفيديو عن الأقباط في مصر 

فيديو عن مخاوف الأقباط في مصر

The New IRAQ

A Note from the Author :
Dear Friends, I am Sharing with you this chapter five of the book i am reading , the title is : The New IRAQ. I hope you enjoy reading my 1st post on my Blog.

State – Building by the Book

Islamic leadership in the New Iraq

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Every few weeks since 1997, according to a friend in Iran, a mule ambles across the Iran- Iraqi border bearing a bearded rider, his water flask, some snacks, and a satchel. A short distance beyond the last Iranian town, the rider reaches the first Iraqi check point, where border guards ask a dozen tough questions peppered with two or three mortal threats. He slips them a generous bribe worth one or two American dollars and continues on his way. A few days later, he arrives at Najaf, the second holiest city to Shi’is, but he is no ordinary pilgrim.

         Najaf is not the pulsating center of religious traffic it used to be. Several holy places were destroyed by Saddam in the 1980’s. Some of the city’s religious authorities were arrested and tortured to death after the Shi’is uprising against Saddam in the after mat of the 1991 Gulf War. In the center of town in a two- story house adjoining a historic mosque, the highest- ranking shi’i cleric in Najaf is teaching a young student tajwid, a traditional style of chanting Qur’an. Sayyid Ali al-Sistani is the marja (religious authority), whose rulings on Islamic law are binding for millions of Shi’is in Iraq, the Gulf States, Lebanon, India, Pakistan, and elsewhere. He gets up to answer the knock on the door.

       The man from Iran greets him with kisses on both cheeks. The Sayyid’s eyes fall on the satchel. He sets it down on the table and removes the documents inside: dozens of e-mails in Arabic printed on A4 paper sheets. They are istifta’at, requests from Shi’is all over the world for a religious edict to answer a moral or religious quandary: Can I marry a Jewish girl? Should I settle a business dispute with my Muslim partner in a secular court? Will I suffer in the world to come if I fight in a war against a Muslim country?