The Grand Mufti of Egypt, Ali Gomaa, issued a fatwa that may carry a portend of the future and one we should all atend to:
[From ABNA.co] Egypt's Grand Mufti, Ali Gomaa expressed that it is permissible to use Shia Jurisprudence which is useful for Islamic Ummah [complex meanings but perhaps "Commonwealth of the Believers . . . and thus the whole Muslim people"] and there should be no-blame for using it.
According to Egyptian News Agencies, Dr. Ali Gomaa issued a Fatwa (religious verdict) based on permissible use of Shia Jurisprudence and stressed: we should confess the progress of Shias and we can collaborate with each other. There is no objection to follow Shia school of thought because there is not any difference between Sunni and Shia.
The announcement of the fatwa carries this notation: "Date: 1388/00/00".
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Note the subtile putdown of Shias: ". . . we should confess the progress of Shias. . . ." Emphasis added
This fatwa should send a chill down Israeli spines. If you read, for example Vali Nasr's seminal The Shias Revival (2007), you will know that for 1,600 yeas Sunni have been bent on the destruction of the Shia, whom they despise ass apostate. Sunni and Shia are even now waring with each other in Iraq. If Egypt (Sunni) and Iran (Shia) are thought to now be members of the same community, where does that leave Israel?
Sunday morning, reporting on an interview in The New York Times with Egypt's president, Mohamed Morsi, Morsi asserted that the West must change, to respect Muslim customs, and the only specific he mentioned was compliance with the Camp Dvid Accords of 1976, which requires the Israeli military to withdraw from Palestinian lands, dismantling the many settlements that encroach on the South Hebron Hills, so that there may be the promised Palestinian State.
Morsi seemed adamant on the point.
The Grand Mufti echoed the same sentiments.
The present Israeli government is equally adamant about extending the settlements further into Arab lands, in violation of international law.
Russia alreaady sides with Iran in Syria, in part because it needs help with radical Islamists in the Caucasus. Egypt has already given Iran access to the Suez Canal. If now Russia were to side with Egypt, and Egypt and Iran are one people, then Israel is really in an Existential Crisis.
Time, I reckon, to make peace with Palestinians and get out of the West Bank. Time to focus on the threat that is not on the one that may be.
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Settlements in the South Hebron Hills:
That house is not in Mililani on Oahu, Hawaii,
but it looks like it is.
Except for the blast doors.
Evidence of the trust between Israelis and Palestinians:
A personal note: in the 70s a coalition of mostly country Hawaiians organized to stop the growing of houses on agricultural land on Oahu. We failed and failed completely; most ag land is gone and what is left is going; Many Hawaiians are forced into walk-up apartments or to move away, and the comfortable easy way of living that Hawaiians valued is almost gone. Stopping development is hard, unless you are backed by Egypt with Guns, and especially an Egypt allied with Russia and Iran.
