Rudyard Kipling"
“When you're left wounded on Afganistan's plains and
the women come out to cut up what remains, Just roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains,
And go to your God like a soldier”
General Douglas MacArthur"
“We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.”
“It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.” “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.
“The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
“May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .” “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
“Nobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
The Soldier stood and faced God
Which must always come to pass
He hoped his shoes were shining
Just as bright as his brass
"Step forward you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?"
"No, Lord, I guess I ain't
Because those of us who carry guns
Can't always be a saint."
I've had to work on Sundays
And at times my talk was tough,
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.
But, I never took a penny
That wasn't mine to keep.
Though I worked a lot of overtime
When the bills got just too steep,
The Soldier squared his shoulders and said
And I never passed a cry for help
Though at times I shook with fear,
And sometimes, God forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.
I know I don't deserve a place
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around
Except to calm their fears.
If you've a place for me here,
Lord, It needn't be so grand,
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand."
There was silence all around the throne
Where the saints had often trod
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.
"Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burden well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell."
Malaysians should pay attention : Egypt’s Draft Constitution: Religious Freedom Undermined by Samuel Tadros
Friday, December 07, 2012
Cairo —Egypt’s
Islamist president Mohamed Morsi’s latest constitutional declaration
removing legal oversight and restraint on his powers has been met with a
storm of controversy and protests. He has decided to respond by pushing
for a hasty vote to adopt an equally contentious new constitution.
Even before the current turmoil began, representatives of
non-Islamist parties and the Christian minority had withdrawn from the
Constitutional Assembly tasked with writing Egypt’s permanent
constitution for the post–January 25 Revolution period. They cited the
non-representative nature of this body, specifically its marginalization
of non-Islamists, the absolute dominance of Islamists, and the
Islamists’ unwillingness to negotiate on the proposed articles.
Islamists had rushed to complete the draft constitution, rejecting
any and all compromise with non-Islamists, whose objections and fears
they impatiently dismissed. In less than two days, the Constitutional
Assembly, which at this point had few non-Islamist members remaining
within its ranks, hurried voting on the proposed draft and submitted it
to the president who then called for a national referendum on it for
December 15. The process leaves little room for serious public
discussion of the proposed articles or for the non-Islamist opposition
to build meaningful grassroots opposition.
While the draft is problematic on numerous counts, those articles
that pertain to religious freedom and the protection and rights of
minorities merit separate concern. The Islamist influence is readily
apparent when these articles are compared to the corresponding
provisions of the 1971 constitution which governed Egypt under Mubarak:
Article
1 drops reference to citizenship as the basis of Egypt’s political
order. The word “citizenship” in the Egyptian context has been
understood to mean equal rights for both Muslims and non-Muslims. It
also adds a further allegiance to which Egypt identifies, that of the
Islamic nation.
A
new Article 3 adds that non-Muslims are now governed in their
personal-status affairs and on issues pertaining to choosing their
religious leaders by the principles of their religious laws.
A
new Article 4 provides for an official role for al Azhar (the Sunni
university): It states that al Azhar is to give its opinion on all
matters pertaining to sharia. Since the unchanged language of Article 2
makes “the principles of sharia” the main source of legislation, this
new article places a non-elected, sectarian religious body above the
Egyptian parliament as arbitrator and explainer of state laws.
Article
5 removes the word “only” from the prior constitutional language
regarding “the sovereignty of the people.” This change was in response
to a key demand of the Salafis, who argue that sovereignty only belongs
to God and not to the people.
Article 6 adds the word “shura”
to the language about the basis of the political system; a shura is a
traditionally unelected, Islamist consultative process that Islamists
claim is equivalent to democracy. It also removes the existing
prohibition on the establishment of religiously based political parties,
asserting, instead, a prohibition on political parties based on
discrimination. This new language, thus, allows for the establishment of
purely religious parties as long as their stated goals do not actively
call for discrimination.
Article
10 adds that “society,” as well as the state, is now responsible for
protecting the already problematically vague phrase, “values of the
Egyptian family,” and provides them with the new role of “entrenching
its moral values and protecting them.”
A new Article 12 commits the state to the Arabization of education and knowledge.
Concerning
the prohibition on all forms of discrimination in Article 33, it drops
the words “on the basis of sex, origin, religion and creed.”
Article
42 drops language prohibiting forced evacuations within the country.
This change follows forced evacuations of Coptic Christians in four
instances since the revolution.
Article
43 limits the freedom to practice religion and build houses of worship
to “heavenly religions” (Islam, Christianity, and Judaism). This means
that Egyptian Baha’is and other groups who do not belong to the three
religions recognized as “heavenly” by the state will not have the right
to worship.
An anti-blasphemy clause was added as Article 44.
Article
54 drops “statutory bodies” from those allowed to petition in the name
of a collective. The Church is the target of this change.
Article
132 drops the protection of national unity from the duties of the
president (in the Egyptian context this meant unity between Christians
and Muslims within the nation).
A
new provision appears in article 212, dealing with endowments. Under
this article, a new body will be created and given far-reaching powers
for regulating and overseeing both public and private endowments. This
article affects Christian religious endowments too: It places Church
finances under the Islamists’ control, which as I explained a year agohas
been part of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party
political program. By taking control of the Church’s finances, the
Islamists aim to control the institution, and in turn use it to control
Christians, thus creating a national church along the Communist model.
A
new article 219 purports to define “the principles of sharia,” which,
according to Article 2, are the main source of legislation. It states
that “the principles of sharia” include: “its total evidence, its
fundamental and jurisprudence basis, its accepted sources in the
doctrines of Sunnis.”
While Egypt under Mubarak was no heaven for religious minorities, the
proposed constitution is a clear setback for religious freedom. Under
its articles the legal framework governing religious minorities and
their rights to equality and protection would be undermined beyond
salvage. National Review
— Samuel Tadros is a research fellow at the
Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom. He is the author of
the forthcoming book Motherland Lost: The Egyptian and Coptic Quest for Modernity.
Article
1 drops reference to citizenship as the basis of Egypt’s political
order. The word “citizenship” in the Egyptian context has been
understood to mean equal rights for both Muslims and non-Muslims. It
also adds a further allegiance to which Egypt identifies, that of the
Islamic nation.
