‏إظهار الرسائل ذات التسميات BLOGGER. إظهار كافة الرسائل
‏إظهار الرسائل ذات التسميات BLOGGER. إظهار كافة الرسائل

10/04/2014

The Day of Arafat During Hajj, 2014

Hajj explained: your simple guide to Islam’s annual pilgrimage



Millions of Muslims this week flock to Islam’s holiest city of Makkah to perform the annual hajj pilgrimage.
Being the fifth pillar of Islam, hajj or the act of making a pilgrimage is a mandatory religious duty for Muslims.
Adult Muslims are required to perform hajj at least once in lifetime if they have the physical and financial ability.
In it, pilgrims follow the footsteps of Prophet Ibrahim and his family, said Ridwan al-Sayed, professor of Islamic studies at the Lebanese University in Beirut.
“Prophet Ibrahim preached the oneness of allha  , a message that was later revived and renewed by the last of all Prophets, Muhammad (peace be upon him),” 
“Ibrahim, along with his son Ismail built the Kaaba in the holy city of Makkah. And accordingly, this pillar reflects the notion of complete submission to Allah and the Abrahamic faith.”
For many pilgrims, hajj is perceived to be a journey of the body and the soul at the same time.
The first day of hajj is 8 Zil Hijjah, the last month of the Islamic calendar. The holy journey requires the pilgrim to perform ten rituals before and during hajj.
Here are the basic steps you may want to know about hajj:
State of Ihram: This is considered the first step for any pilgrim wishing to perform hajj. To enter the state of Ihram, a pilgrim has to recite an intention to perform hajj called the Talabiya. This is when a pilgrim prepares one’s soul, mind and body for journey to the Almighty God. Entering the stage begins from the Miqat, or a place that is outside the pilgrimage area.
Men and women going on hajj adhere to a specific dress code which is aimed at showing modesty and shedding all signs of wealth. Men don unstitched white garments, while women wear normal stitched clothes and a headscarf. Women are forbidden however from wearing the burqa or niqab.
In fact, the word Ihram originates from the Arabic term Tahreem, which means prohibited. Because the state is believed to have a special essence of spiritual purity, there are certain acts that are not allowed for pilgrims. Among them are using perfumes, cutting hair or nails, and slaughtering animals.
Makkah: The Saudi Arabian city is considered Islam’s holiest site, as it holds al-Masjid al-Haram or the Grand Mosque that surrounds the Kaaba, a cuboid shaped building which Muslims believe has been put up together by Prophet Ibrahim and his son Ismail almost 4, 000 years ago.























8/28/2014

#Egypt in 1911

Egypt in  1911






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7/28/2014

That how Egyptian (devils) kids Treatment of a lion #EGYPT



That how Egyptian kids of (devils) 
Treatment of a lion !!

In fact No words can explain! What the lion and his wife did for them,nothing ! 
why that happiness the kids of (devils) ? WHAT WRONG FUCKEN WITH THEM ! ;(

And that fucken garden watching them! sun of pitch  like nothing happened 

FUCK YOU AND FUCK HOW PUT TO WORK  THERE ALL OF YOU JUST FUCKEN SYS!!  



The Egyptians Eid al-Fitr #Egypt 2014





















4/30/2014

R.I.P Bassem Sabry (1982-2014)


Bassem Sabry, a voice of Egypt's 2011 revolution, dies in accident


Cairo-based journalist and strategist for liberal party Dostour was respected for his analysis of regional politics


http://anarabcitizen.blogspot.com/

One of the voices of Egypt's 2011 revolution and its aftermath, Bassem Sabry, has died in an accident aged 31.
A Cairo-based journalist and political strategist, Sabry rose to prominence during the Arab uprisings of 2011, achieving widespread acclaim for his analysis of regional politics in several local and global outlets, including al-Monitor and the Huffington Post. He was frequently cited in international media, including the Guardian.
For a period, Sabry was also a strategist for Dostour, a new liberal party founded by Mohamed ElBaradei, a figurehead of Egypt's 2011 uprising who is now in exile.
But whatever his formal affiliations, Sabry was admired for rarely letting his personal preferences skew his commentary. In a deeply polarised and often vicious political environment in which many others abandoned the centre ground, Sabry won respect across the political spectrum for his principled, fair and insightful analysis.
Paying tribute to Sabry, the Cairo analyst HA Hellyer said: "I was honoured to call Bassem Sabry a companion, a colleague and most of all, a friend. At a time when Egypt sorely needed voices that rejected destructive polarisation and mutual hatred, Bassem was one of the few that insisted on standing for far loftier principles. He believed in a better Egypt for all Egyptians – and worked tirelessly, often very quietly and without taking credit, in pursuit of that goal."
Zeinobia, another well-known Egyptian blogger, wrote on her website: "I know that he did his best to change the world around him to a better place."
Sabry's death also sparked a wave of emotion on social media. "Only the good die young," wrote Ragia Omran, one of Egypt's leading human rights lawyers. "What a great loss for those who still have hope for a better Egypt."
Sabry's cause of death could not immediately be verified. His funeral will take place at west Cairo's Mostafa Mahmoud mosque on Wednesday, with a memorial at the nearby Hamdiyyah Shadhiliyya mosque at sunset on Saturday.

last tweet form him was ask for blood for lil girl

2/21/2014

'The Square' Film On Egypt's Revolution Will Not Be Shown In #Egypt #Tahrir #25jan

There’s a lot anyone can learn from Jehane Noujaim’s Oscar-nominated documentary “The Square,” an examination of the 18-day uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak.




But Egyptians may be least able to benefit from its lessons. So far, the film has not been approved for screening here.
On the third anniversary of Mubarak’s ouster, which falls on Tuesday (Feb. 11), Egypt is more polarized than ever, largely between those who are sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood and those who support the military. The film is a reminder of what Egyptians share, regardless of religious or political beliefs.
“The Square” depicts the uprising through the eyes of six revolutionaries who lived in Tahrir Square during those historic weeks and follows them as Egyptians struggled to redefine themselves. Mubarak’s ouster ushered in a tumultuous period that saw clashes with the military, the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood, the return to the streets to demand the deposal of the Muslim Brotherhood’s President Mohammed Morsi, and the sit-ins that followed Morsi’s overthrow by the army.
The film, available to American audiences on Netflix and in theaters, ends with the clearing of the Morsi supporters’ encampment, which resulted in nearly 1,000 deaths. Since then, the Brotherhood has been outlawed and people have been arrested for simply possessing Brotherhood materials, now a crime.
Noujaim, 39, is an accomplished documentarian and TED Prize winner whose credits include “Startup.com” and “Control Room,” a film about the Al-Jazeera network. “The Square,” though, is not a film that intends to accurately and journalistically represent all factions. Noujaim, an Egyptian-American who spent much of her childhood in Egypt, lived on Tahrir Square with her characters during the revolution. In many ways, she is one of them, and “The Square” is her contribution to the revolution.
The film depicts those historic events from the revolutionary’s point of view. There were hundreds of thousands of people in the square; Noujaim chose to follow the ones she was intrigued by, trusting that viewers would do the same.
Two of the most captivating characters are Ahmed Hassan, a young street revolutionary, and Magdy Ashour, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and a father of four who, under Mubarak, was imprisoned and tortured. Despite their differing backgrounds and perspectives, the two become fast friends, and the exchanges between them provide some of the film’s most compelling moments.
Through Ashour viewers get a nuanced view of the Brotherhood and its army of foot soldiers, a stark contrast to the heavy-handed, black-and-white demonization of them in Egyptian media of late. Ashour had been a loyal member of the Brotherhood for decades, attracted to its religiosity and benefiting from its financial support. After it seized power, he began to question some of its decisions, which left him conflicted.
When Morsi was first elected, many Egyptians opted for Muslim rule. But that feeling didn’t last long. Only 150 days into his presidency, Morsi made a power grab that gave him even more authority than Mubarak.
The revolutionaries were upset with his autocratic maneuvers and with the new constitution that the Islamist-dominated parliament drafted, which they considered a betrayal of the ideals they had fought for. Noujaim said she spoke to many ordinary Egyptians during that time — many of them practicing Muslims — who were “deeply disturbed” that the ruling party was now determining who constituted a good Muslim.
Ashour is visibly torn in the film between the revolutionaries, whose principles he, too, had stood for, and the Brotherhood. He found himself increasingly at odds with Hassan and his other friends from the square.
“If there were an alternative, I wouldn’t want Morsi,” he says at one point in the film. “We’re afraid that if Morsi falls we’ll be taken back to prisons,” Ashour said.
One of the film’s most poignant moments comes a short time later when British-Egyptian actor Khalid Abdalla sits with Ashour and his son and shows them video of Muslim Brotherhood members attacking protesters outside the presidential palace, some of the very same people who had been in Tahrir with Ashour.
Ashour’s son had gone to the presidential palace that day, and was on the side of the Brotherhood throwing rocks at their opponents. Ashour looks mournful, and chastises his son for his actions: “You have to stand as an individual,” Ashour tells the boy. “You have to think for yourself.”
It is Ashour and his conflict that resonated most strongly with some of the film’s most conservative and religious audiences in the United States.
When Noujaim took the film to Sundance, some of the screenings were in downtown Salt Lake City and attended by Mormons and ex-Mormons. They, as well as evangelicals, came up to the filmmakers after showings and said that, despite initially thinking they had the least in common with Ashour, it was he whom they related to the most. They identified with his deep faith, his trust in the fledgling government, and his ultimate disillusionment. Those feelings transcended culture and creed.
“We are all confused sometimes, and we question our beliefs,” Noujaim said.
Once Morsi was overthrown and the Brotherhood was again the victim of state oppression, that changed.
“Once they were persecuted, Ashour was immediately back on their side,” she said.
His rueful words all those months ago now seem prescient. Authorities recently raided his house, and he is reportedly in hiding.
Noujaim said she is not one of those filmmakers who believes her work can change the world. Perhaps, though, it can make a difference in what’s happening in Egypt today. Noujaim, who is currently in the U.S., hopes to be able to bring the movie to Egypt.
But “The Square” has already thawed some icy relations in the places it’s been shown. Noujaim said she spoke to an Egyptian woman in the United States who had seen “The Square” on Netflix, and decided to bring her family to a screening.
Like many other Egyptian families, they were so divided over events that relatives weren’t talking to one another. Seeing the film together enabled them to find enough understanding for one another’s viewpoints to enable them to begin to communicate once again, the woman told Noujaim.
And therein lies perhaps the most salient lesson of the film, particularly for Egyptians.
“We are all human beings,” Noujaim said. “Reminding ourselves of our humanity is a very simple idea, but I think it couldn’t be more important right now.”

2/12/2014

Tomb of ancient #Egyp t's beer maker to gods of the dead discovered


Imagine a warm brew of lager so heady you had to plunge a straw through the thick surface scum to get to the fermented liquor a.



Welcome to the favored brew of ancient Egypt's New Kingdom; a 3,200-year-old barley beer that a new archaeological find this month is shedding new light on.
A Japanese team headed by Jiro Kondo of Waseda University stumbled on the tomb of ancient beer-maker Khonso Em Heb while cleaning the courtyard of another tomb at the Thebes necropolis in the Egyptian city of Luxor.
The tomb, replete with highly colored frescoes, is being hailed as one of the most significant finds of recent times.
Egypt's antiquities minister Mohamed Ibrahim described Khonso Em Heb as the chief "maker of beer for gods of the dead" adding that the tomb's chambers contain "fabulous designs and colors, reflecting details of daily life... along with their religious rituals."
One fresco shows Khonso Em Heb -- who apart from being a brewer, headed the royal storehouses during the pharaonic Ramesside period (1,292--1,069 BC) -- making offerings to the gods along with his wife and daughter.
The newly discovered tomb is to be placed under tight security until the excavation work is completed, the ministry said in a press statement.
According to Professor Poo Mun Chou, a leading Egyptologist at Hong Kong's Chinese University, the discovery is not only significant in terms of what it tells archaeologists about life during the New Kingdom period of Ancient Egypt, but marks a new direction for Egypt's beleaguered antiquities ministry.
Still reeling from a disastrous break-in at the Cairo Museum in 2011 --- when looters smashed two mummies and made off with more than 50 artifacts --- Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities had slapped stringent restrictions on archaeological digs.
For Professor Poo, the latest discovery is a sign that archeology in Egypt may be returning to normal.
"The significance in this find is that for quite some time archaeologists haven't been able to excavate an intact tomb," he said.
This is a new find and is quite unexpected.
Poo Man Chou, Egyptologist


"An intact tomb will give us a more complete view of the funerary customs which can be compared with other tomb paintings."
He said the frescoes were well preserved.
"The Supreme Council of Antiquities has for some time had a policy of not excavating new tombs but preserving those tombs that have already been excavated.
"This is a new find and is quite unexpected."
Apart from the recent political turmoil in Egypt, which has led to a surge in the number of illegal digs and antiquities damaged by looters, Professor Poo said the sheer speed with which new discoveries were being made had meant the government was having difficulty keeping up with logging and preserving the finds.

Excavation around Thebes could be returning to normal.
Excavation around Thebes could be returning to normal.


Add to this the problem of protecting ancient tombs, which begin to degrade the moment they are opened, and Egypt's antiquities authorities have their work cut out for them.
"In Egypt, of course, the dry weather means the danger of this is less, but still after some time the color of the painting begins to fade away.
"That is why Egypt now has a stricter policy."
While foreign archaeological teams are still operating in Egypt, the political climate has made it more difficult for them to do their work.
Even the International Association of Egyptologists (IAE) was told late last year that Egypt --- because of the political situation --- was unable to host the 2014 International Congress of Egyptologists.
The IAE is currently seeking bids for a second country to host the prestigious congress.
Meanwhile, historians and archaeologists are making use of the latest find while it is still available to be studied.
"Alcohol in ancient Egypt was very important -- not just in terms of daily consumption but also as an offering to deities. Beer, in particular was very important," said Poo.
"Beer during the New Kingdom period was probably one-fifth or even one-tenth the price of wine making it a very popular drink for people of all social strata."

While the appeal of beer across all social classes remains to this day, Professor Poo says the modern drinker might struggle to recognize the barley or millet-based beverage of ancient times.
"While it's a close cousin to modern beer, it's manufacture was more primitive and they had to use a tube to extract the liquid from below which would have had a fermented layer of substance floating on the top of the jar," he said.
"It would have had bubbles," he added.

2/09/2014

The Anti-Social Network

Bob Dylan once sang, “The times they are a changing.”
I once sang, “I’ve got a combine harvester, it’s made out of kitchen spoons, and that’s why you’re a poo.”

Despite Bob’s bad grammar, he had a point and, somewhere, so do I. Because if I was a 10 year-old 
in this day and age, I probably would have tweeted that beautiful nonsensical serenade, or uploaded a video of it onto Youtube.
The recent birth of my sister’s human child got me brooding over the time and age that we are in, and how, at no point in the history of our planet, have events ever been recorded 
with such personable accuracy.
I mean, if only we could look back on John Wilkes Booth’s tweets and read, “Lol your beard is well 
silly, man, Imma kill you.” Or see George Michael’s FB status as “Interested in: Men.” Everything 
would have been different.
My brother-in-law decided to set up a Facebook account for my baby niece on her first day of life, with the idea that at some point down the line – especially with the
 new FB timelines – they could pass on the account to her for her own use. She would have a log of her whole life, right there for her to see, from conception to inevitable dysfunction.
This got me thinking about one day when I poop out a little Timmy, or however that shit works. 
Would he not be curious about daddy’s wanderlusting? I dread the thought that someday, at the 
click of a button, he would know everything there is to know about me. How would my kid
 respect me after seeing me wasted in a pile of my own vomit on the floor, swearing at the camera 
with knickers round my face? “Mummy, Mummy who is that girl daddy’s with?”
I cringe at the idea of my kids going through my pseudo-diary Twitter account, piecing together who I was and who they may become. Thankfully, my tweets are made up of random, surreal thoughts 
and seem like gibberish to the naked eye so the worst they can think of me is that I had Aspergers 
or something.
But I’ve come to a little gem of a realisation. In 10 or 20 years time, when we’ve all grown up and
 had Facebook for most of our lives and then reproduce, does this mean the end of social networking? 
I mean unless you’re a fucking hippy, how do you expect to educate your kids about  right and 
wrong when their main influencers are seen doing and saying all the wrong things on a platform 
as accessible to them as a jar of cookies? This will probably lead, at some point within the next
 10 years, to a mass privatising of accounts. Once we’re done with airing our dirty laundry in our 
rebellious years, we’re going to want to neatly fold it and put it at the back of our closets, with a
 child-proof lock on the door. The less accessible information available, the less users will sign up and eventually it 
becomes the anti-social network.
Could that be the end of Facebook as we know it? Makes a bit of
 sense doesn’t it?
Then again, by then we may all be telepathically connected to the internet and each other, and you
 won’t even have to open your eyes to see my rendition of Combine Harvester.KitchenSpoons.Poo.

1/03/2014

11 Things You May Not Know About Ancient #Egypt

Ancient Egypt stood as one of the world’s most advanced civilizations for nearly 3,000 years and created a culture so rich that it has spawned its own field of study. But while Egyptian art, architecture and burial methods have become enduring objects of fascination, there is still a lot you probably don’t know about these famed builders of the pyramids. From the earliest recorded peace treaty to ancient board games, find out 11 surprising facts about the Gift of the Nile.
1. Cleopatra was not Egyptian.
Cleopatra
Universal History Archive/Getty Images
Along with King Tut, perhaps no figure is more famously associated with ancient Egypt than Cleopatra VII. But while she was born in Alexandria, Cleopatra was actually part of a long line of Greek Macedonians originally descended from Ptolemy I, one of Alexander the Great’s most trusted lieutenants. The Ptolemaic Dynasty ruled Egypt from 323 to 30 B.C., and most of its leaders remained largely Greek in their culture and sensibilities. In fact, Cleopatra was famous for being one of the first members of the Ptolemaic dynasty to actually speak the Egyptian language.

2. The ancient Egyptians forged one of the earliest peace treaties on record.

Hittite Peace Treaty
Giovanni Dall'Orto/Wikimedia Commons
For over two centuries the Egyptians fought against the Hittite Empire for control of lands in modern day Syria. The conflict gave rise to bloody engagements like 1274 B.C.’s Battle of Kadesh, but by time of the pharaoh Ramses II neither side had emerged as a clear victor. With both the Egyptians and Hittites facing threats from other peoples, in 1259 B.C. Ramses II and the Hittite King Hattusili III negotiated a famous peace treaty. This agreement ended the conflict and decreed that the two kingdoms would aid each other in the event of an invasion by a third party. The Egyptian-Hittite treaty is now recognized as one of the earliest surviving peace accords, and a copy can even be seen above the entrance to the United Nations Security Council Chamber in New York.

3. Ancient Egyptians loved board games.

Egyptian Board Games
Gianni Dagli Orti/Corbis
After a long day’s work along the Nile River, Egyptians often relaxed by playing board games. Several different games were played, including “Mehen” and “Dogs and Jackals,” but perhaps the most popular was a game of chance known as “Senet.” This pastime dates back as far as 3500 B.C. and was played on a long board painted with 30 squares. Each player had a set of pieces that were moved along the board according to rolls of dice or the throwing sticks. Historians still debate Senet’s exact rules, but there is little doubt of the game’s popularity. Paintings depict Queen Nefertari playing Senet, and pharaohs like Tutankhamen even had game boards buried with them in their tombs.

4. Egyptian women had a wide range of rights and freedoms.

Egyptian women
DEA/A. Dagli Orti/De Agostini/Getty Images
While they may have been publicly and socially viewed as inferior to men, Egyptian women enjoyed a great deal of legal and financial independence. They could buy and sell property, serve on juries, make wills and even enter into legal contracts. Egyptian women did not typically work outside the home, but those who did usually received equal pay for doing the same jobs as men. Unlike the women of ancient Greece, who were effectively owned by their husbands, Egyptian women also had the right to divorce and remarry. Egyptian couples were even known to negotiate an ancient prenuptial agreement. These contracts listed all the property and wealth the woman had brought into the marriage and guaranteed that she would be compensated for it in the event of a divorce.

5. Egyptian workers were known to organize labor strikes.

Egyptian labor strike
Werner Forman/Universal Images Group/Getty Images
Even though they regarded the pharaoh as a kind of living god, Egyptian workers were not afraid to protest for better working conditions. The most famous example came in the 12th century B.C. during the reign of the New Kingdom pharaoh Ramses III. When laborers engaged in building the royal necropolis at Deir el-Medina did not receive their usual payment of grain, they organized one of the first recorded strikes in history. The protest took the form of a sit-in: The workers simply entered nearby mortuary temples and refused to leave until their grievances were heard. The gamble worked, and the laborers were eventually given their overdue rations.

6. Egyptian pharaohs were often overweight.

Egyptian pharaohs
rob koopman/Wikimedia Commons
Egyptian art commonly depicts pharaohs as being trim and statuesque, but this was most likely not the case. The Egyptian diet of beer, wine, bread and honey was high in sugar, and studies show that it may have done a number on royal waistlines. Examinations of mummies have indicated that many Egyptian rulers were unhealthy and overweight, and even suffered from diabetes. A notable example is the legendary Queen Hatshepsut, who lived in the 15th century B.C. While her sarcophagus depicts her as slender and athletic, historians believe she was actually obese and balding.

7. The pyramids were not built by slaves.

Egyptian Pyramids
Peter M. Wilson/Corbis
The life of a pyramid builder certainly wasn’t easy—skeletons of workers commonly show signs of arthritis and other ailments—but evidence suggests that the massive tombs were built not by slaves but by paid laborers. These ancient construction workers were a mix of skilled artisans and temporary hands, and some appear to have taken great pride in their craft. Graffiti found near the monuments suggests they often assigned humorous names to their crews like the “Drunkards of Menkaure” or the “Friends of Khufu.” The idea that slaves built the pyramids at the crack of a whip was first conjured by the Greek historian Herodotus in the fifth century B.C., but most historians now dismiss it as myth. While the ancient Egyptians were certainly not averse to keeping slaves, they appear to have mostly used them as field hands and domestic servants.

8. King Tut may have been killed by a hippopotamus.

King Tut hippopotamus
Gianni Dagli Orti/Corbis
Surprisingly little is known about the life of the boy pharaoh Tutankhamen, but some historians believe they know how he died. Scans of the young king’s body show that he was embalmed without his heart or his chest wall. This drastic departure from traditional Egyptian burial practice suggests that he may have suffered a horrific injury prior to his death. According to a handful of Egyptologists, one of the most likely causes for this wound would have been a bite from a hippopotamus. Evidence indicates that the Egyptians hunted the beasts for sport, and statues found in King Tut’s tomb even depict him in the act of throwing a harpoon. If the boy pharaoh was indeed fond of stalking dangerous game, then his death might have been the result of a hunt gone wrong.

9. Some Egyptian doctors had specialized fields of study.

Egyptian doctors
Blaine Harrington III/Corbis
An ancient physician was usually a jack-of-all-trades, but evidence shows that Egyptian doctors sometimes focused on healing only one part of the human body. This early form of medical specialization was first noted in 450 B.C. by the traveler and historian Herodotus. Discussing Egyptian medicine, he wrote, “Each physician is a healer of one disease and no more…some of the eye, some of the teeth, some of what pertains to the belly.” These specialists even had specific names. Dentists were known as “doctors of the tooth,” while the term for proctologists literally translates to “shepherd of the anus.”

10. Egyptians kept many animals as pets.

Egyptians pets
The Art Archive/Corbis
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The Egyptians saw animals as incarnations of the gods and were one of the first civilizations to keep household pets. Egyptians were particularly fond of cats, which were associated with the goddess Bastet, but they also had a reverence for hawks, ibises, dogs, lions and baboons. Many of these animals held a special place in the Egyptian home, and they were often mummified and buried with their owners after they died. Other creatures were specially trained to work as helper animals. Egyptian police officers, for example, were known to use dogs and even trained monkeys to assist them when out on patrol.

11. Egyptians of both sexes wore makeup.

Egyptians makeup
The Art Archive/Corbis
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Vanity is as old as civilization, and the ancient Egyptians were no exception. Both men and women were known to wear copious amounts of makeup, which they believed gave them the protection of the gods Horus and Ra. These cosmetics were made by grinding ores like malachite and galena into a substance called kohl. It was then liberally applied around the eyes with utensils made out of wood, bone and ivory. Women would also stain their cheeks with red paint and use henna to color their hands and fingernails, and both sexes wore perfumes made from oil, myrrh and cinnamon. The Egyptians believed their makeup had magical healing powers, and they weren’t entirely wrong: Research has shown that the lead-based cosmetics worn along the Nile actually helped stave off eye infections.
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