Fox News Channel: Rebels Threaten to Storm 2 Syrian Christian Towns
Jerusalem Post: UN confirms Hezbollah fighting for Assad in Syria
Hmm… With Sunni supremacists on one side, Shiite and Alawite authoritarians on the other, and the United States, Russia, and their separate allies off to the side, any Christians still trapped in the aforementioned towns are now facing another bloodbath that they must escape. Mahrada and Sqailbiyeh are the new towns targeted by the rebelling jihadists, who’ve coalesced around a new group calling itself the Syrian Islamic Front, and while Russia is avoiding actual shelter for Bashar Assad, it’s willing to welcome offers from other countries. For Assad’s part, now that Hezbollah has jumped into the fray, the shift toward sectarian fault lines appears to be complete in the consciousness of the Islamic Community. The Greek Orthodox Church has attempted to mediate between these two factions… to no avail. As for Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Guidance Office, and any allies throughout the rest of North Africa, they look set up to be the next likely focal point for religious turmoil, if of a slightly different kind.:
New York Times: As Charter Nears Passage, Egyptians Face New Fights
Forbes: Bill Frezza: Forget Sharia, The New Egyptian Constitution Enshrines Socialism
There’s a certain part of me that’s fighting down a temptation to wonder whether somebody in the Obama administration simply handed either Muhammad Morsi or any of his advisors some notes on ObamaCare or even Karl Marx’s writings. The margin as of now, with 60% of polling places counted, is somewhere around 70%, and the opposition is warning against consolidation between the Muslim Brotherhood itself and the country’s institutions. If it’s any help, one Mahmoud Mekki resigned from the vice-presidency due to a disagreement over his judicial position, but the turnout was fairly low. Al-Azhar University and the Coptic Orthodox Church are now arguing about the legislative arrangements, and it could only be a matter of time before their differences deepen even more. Some of the provisions through which they’ll be working may prove especially fun to examine.:
• Article 14: organization of Egypt’s national economy through “comprehensive, constant development plan” intended to “establish social justice and solidarity, ensure equitable distribution, protect consumer rights, and safeguard the rights of workers”
• Article 15: farmland protected and increased under national guidelines “to achieve social justice”, including crops and plants, animal breeds and fisheries, and basic food security
• Article 17: protection of strategic industries, support for industrial development, and importation of new technologies
• Article 18: natural resources collectively owned by people, utilized under government directives
• Article 27: management and profits shared with workers, represented in public sector units’ boards of director within 50% limit
• Article 28: safeguards for insurance and pension funds
• Article 58: guaranteed national coordination of “all educational institutions, public and private”, linking “education and the needs of society and production”
• Article 62: top-quality health care guaranteed through “sufficient percentage of the national revenue”, including supervision of health facilities
• Article 67: “national housing plan” to be set up, including “regulation of the use of national territory for the purposes of construction, in accordance with public interest”
Then again, instead of public legislation, it’ll be Sharia that’s supposed to be guiding these steps, but the results could be the same either way. If individuality really is considered nothing more or less than an illusion, then for all intents and purposes, I’d say the Muslim Brotherhood locked itself out of modernity with this constitutional referendum. At least President Barack Obama could find himself lurching toward encouraging an information society, and all of us will know that Egypt, among other segments of the Islamic Community, never had any viable options. Envy might be a wise word to keep in mind here.