Archaeology is great when stuff doesn't get destroyed, but stuff gets destroyed. You also can't dig up artifacts where there's been aircraft-dropped bombs. Even less so when the bombs dropped are atomic.
Shocked about what's being destroyed in Egypt? You should have noticed what antiquities were lost in Syria. The only hope that future generations have in looking into archaeological discoveries are the old books because any new book published beyond the year 2013 will not have that information.
In sha Allah, we have the current state of Egypt, we have the current state of Palestine, we have the current state of Syria, the current state of Tunisia, also in turmoil, and we have periodic insurgencies still in Libya. You'd think these guys would stop and think long enough to realize that any sort of God has anything to do with anything would have taken sides by now and settle things once and for all. He never does, does he. No one on any side has any favors from any God and hasn't for centuries, and what continues to happen in the name of deities is naught but man's own insanities.
In Egypt I have friends that are pro and anti Morsi, and I'd prefer not to take sides--but I can't remain silent, either. My heart is big enough to care about all of them, and all I wish would happen is that people would just come to their senses, how destruction solves nothing and causes more, not fewer, problems. If you believe in a God, recognize FIRST that the people you're fighting are his creation, too, and that either we're all God's chosen or none of us are, and that any God that plays favorites is too immoral to honor. Muslims who believe that no Muslim converts others to Islam, that it takes Allah to make a Muslim, know something about Islam that the Islamists don't--make the most of that where it counts.
Libyans are 'way ahead of Egypt on that count, and I have better confidence that Libya will recover well, although that will take time too. But the U.S. press isn't paying any more attention to Libya or Tunisia, or even Syria at this point and I suspect it's because of all the turmoil, Egypt will have the largest impact on the smallest elephant in the room: Israel. Both Israel and the U.S. are clutching at straws trying not to call Egypt's situation as a military coup because of the reliance of both on what was an ally under brutal Mubarak and continued commitment to those treaties by Morsi.
Continuing to fund the Egyptian military under the previous treaties amounts to basically whistling Dixie past the graveyard at this point, and Egypt, as an ally committed to previous terms, is now a proverbial straw man, and that includes Israel who should suddenly realize that those 1200 new "settlements" just throws gasoline on all fires.
As Mom would say: it's time for a time out. Everybody sit down, shut up, and cool off for a few months, and bring all that crap down to a screeching halt. And no, I don't expect anybody to listen. They're all nuts--3 journalists were killed today and this did not have to happen.
Report from Al Jazeera English
Reuters
Egypt Independent
Al Jazeera live blog: Cairo
BBC takes Bablowi's word on things
Pictures--The Week
Egypt-Tunisia connection
Don't you believe that Muslims are all about persecuting Jews and Christians--this just in via Twitter: Muslims putting a Christian church under personal protection:
Just heard back from a pro-Morsi friend and am glad she's alright. She appears to be better skilled at staying out of trouble than I ever was. Hoping the best for the rest.
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Regarding Obama's address regarding U.S. - Egyptian military exercises, my Egyptian friends would do well to note that no violence is justified, by either the military or the protesters. It must be acknowledged that while Morsi was properly elected, his conduct in office regarding Egyptian constitution was no better than Mubarak's, and that both the police and the military regarded the original anti-Morsi protest group, still the largest protest in history, is to be considered in addition to any protest group pro-Morsi people may muster, and its acceptance of Morsi as a commander in chief was untenable.
Rule by mob is not acceptable regardless of whose mob it is, and the point of a proper government requires these things:
1) civilian control of the military
2) a voice for all citizens whether in the majority or in the minority
3) every citizen and all branches of government be subject to a constitution, without any single part of the nation being the party which alters or creates it. A constitution is something that every citizen and every branch of government agrees to be governed and held accountable by as supreme law of the land
4) a justice system set up to insure no prejudice in its deliberation and determination of justice and compliance with the constitution, without religious or majority influence, with each side of an issue presenting its case to a panel of judges much like a fatwah is presented but it's the judges that arrive at the decision. Diversity is preserved when sharia does not exceed the boundaries of its neighborhood; Shiya sharia for Shiites; Sunni sharia for Sunnis, Christians ruled by their respective churches--but with fair, just secular law of the nation governing all.
In sha Allah Palestine: so far, Right of Return has been a failed battle, and blaming the U.S. and Israel for this is elevating them to the power of Allah, because this is the will that has prevailed. Recognize that every single time that Israel has been attacked by bombs and rockets, Israel is given an excuse to maintain whatever it does in the name of security. Recognize the contribution that attackers make toward the hostility claimed as just by Israel. Violence never gains anything--violence loses everything; in Egypt, it loses not only itself as its history but itself in the destruction of its centers of learning. Burning a university is inexcusable no matter who does it. Destroy your history and you destroy your identity.
Recognize the inextricability between history of record, of artifact, and identity. This is why there are so many history revisionists afoot, and throughout history. History is the argument for the identity regardless of how true the claimed history is. The two cannot be separated, and when you lose the proofs of your history, you lose the grounds for your identity.
UPDATE AUG 16:
I note with interest all the Republicans getting on talking head shows proclaiming that Obama should have declared this a coup and cut funding to Egypt's military long ago. What that does is throw Israel under the bus, as it's in Israel's interest to maintain pre-existing treaties and conditions particularly along the Egypt/Gaza border, and the Sinai. Here's a reminder that these are the same people who proclaimed that Israel would have a better ally in a Romney administration compared to an Obama administration. It's amazing. And yet--Israel is not only the elephant in the room, it also appears that it's the camel whose nose is under the Pentagon's tent, as it were.
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