#Funeral:Pope Shenouda III Funeral in Cairo

Thousands of Egyptian Orthodox Christians are standing outside the St.Marks Cathedral. The traffic is blocked there. The Cathedral  gates have been closed , some are saying that it was closed because after the Cathedral was full and that you did not need to have invitation to have access in , in fact many of those who had invitations were not let in after the gates were closed.
Other people are saying that the military police have closed the gate because of the VIPs inside. From what I see on TV there is no place inside or outside for anybody. There have been several stampedes so far outside.  The mourners outside the church banged on the gates and even some tried to sneak in.

By friend Bel Trew

The funeral has started earlier than 11 AM CLT with the prayers from both the delegation of Ethiopian Church and Syrian Orthodox Church. The Ethiopian church's prayers delegation was headed by Patriarch Paulos while the Syrian Orthodox Church delegation prayer was head by Mar Ignatious Zakka I.
The funeral rites of the Coptic Orthodox Church started shortly after the two delegations’ prayers. The funeral rites’ prayers are led by Interim Pope Pakhomious of Behaira and Pentapolis.
Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris is seated in the first row in the Church , I see Abdel Hakim Abdel Nasser , the son of Gamal Abdel Nasser.

@11:05 AM

The prayers of the funeral rites are being read in Coptic language , some of the hymns are read in Greek. Some parts were shortly read in Arabic.
There are screens installed outside the Cathedral for the crowd standing outside it. Among those standing outside actress Elham Shahin “Muslim”
Among the attendees inside the church I spotted so far Potential Presidential Abdel Moneim Abu El Fatouh, Ahmed Shafik and Hisham Bastawisi , Al Wafd party lead Siyad Badawy and secretary general Fouad Badrawy are there.

Potential presidential candidate Abu El Fatouh

Lt. General Mahmoud Hegazy of SCAF has arrived is seated besides other army officers and generals.
You can watch the funeral online here.
There are Muslim Sheikhs from Al Azhar as far as we can see on TV. There are representatives from Catholic Church and Anglican Church. Famous Islamic preacher Amr Khalid is there.

Click for live updates blow after the break

The Pope’s Funeral :Wait for another big Egyptian funeral

Pope Shenouda III’s funeral will be held tomorrow starting at 11 AM Cairo Local time at the Saint Marks Cathedral in Cairo.
The Pope has been already taken from the Papal Seat and was put in his coffin which arrived from Rome as a gift from the Vatican if I was not mistaken.

Al Masry Al Youm :Transferring Pope Shenouda III to a coffin

According to the Holy Synod the funeral of the Pope will be by invitations only , of course many Christians are angry for that decision yet others understand it. The angry Christians are sad that only prominent figures , foreign and Egyptian officials will let in while they are left outside.
Of course God knows how the streets surrounding the Cathedral will be packed with sad mourners tomorrow.

Outside the Cathedral "Getty"

Here is a map with the directions for the area , to be honest I did  not understand much from it !!

This is one hell of elections year !!

2012 is just as interesting as 2011 as it seems.

We are going to have :

• We are going to have a new president through presidential elections.
• We are going to have a new constituent assembly.
• We are going to have a new constitution through a referendum
• We are going to have a new Pope for the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria through Papal elections as well.
• We are supposedly going to have new government

This is the official elections year in Egypt and honestly we should be worried and concerned because we are speaking about the fate of this nation.

By the way the Orthodox Church of Alexandria announced that the Papal elections and process of choosing a new pope can be adjourned till after the presidential elections. We can be speaking now of more than 4 months of Papal seat’s vacancy.

Still this is not the first time in the Egyptian history or the history of the Church that the Papal seat will be vacant for several months , already in the past 3 centuries the papa seat was vacant for couple of years from time to time.

Al Jazeera Documentary : Pope Shenouda III “in Arabic”

This is a documentary about Pope Shenouda III was produced by Al Jazeera documentary from a year ago.

Al Jazeera documentary : Pope Shenouda III

Unfortunately it is Arabic. I am currently working on some sort of a profile for the late pope.

Technorati Tags: Citizen journalism,Documentaries,Pope Shenouda III,Video,Egypt,Media,History Religion,Christianty,Arab,Egyptians,Egyptian Orthodox Church,Mideast

Christians have one last look at Pope Shenouda

Pope Shenouda III on the papal Chair

Thousands of Egyptian Orthodox Christians have head to the Saint Mark’s Cathedral in Abassiya to have one last look at Pope Shenouda’s body since early morning.
According to Christian Orthodox rituals the late pope after death will be seated on his papal chair or as it is called “The patriarchal throne” wearing his full papal golden robe for three days before the funeral. His body is being prepared for this through some sort of mummification I suppose.
Bishoprics across the country and globe are preparing delegations to head to Cairo starting from today.
Bishop Pachimous , the Bishop of Behaira is appointed as the interim Pope for two months starting from today till the Papal elections. He held a meeting this morning with the rest of the Church men and the Holy Synod in order to prepare the funeral of Pope Shenouda that will be held on Tuesday ISA.
Bishop Pachimous is the second oldest Bishop in the Church after Bishop Mikhail who declined the position due to health reasons.

How Will the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria Choose its Pope ?? “Coptic Papal Conclave for dummies”

How will the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria choose its next Pope after the death of Pope Shenouda III earlier on Saturday ? How will one of the powerful and oldest Churches in the world choose its leader , the Pope of Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria ?? 
The System in the Coptic Orthodox Church is different than the Catholic Church and its papal conclave as follows based on the patriarchal elections law issued in 1957:

• After the death of the Pope , the Holy Synod of the Coptic Orthodox Church will call the oldest bishop in the church within 7 days of the Pope’s death to choose a temporary pope “I do not know the correct term in English” till electing a new pope.
• A committee will be formed with inone month of the Pope’s death from temporary pope and 14 members of the Holy Synod of the Coptic Orthodox Church in order to prepare a list of candidates for the papal position based on recommendations.
• The list of candidates should be published in 3 major Egyptian newspapers in Arabic.
• The process or rather this stage should take 3 months. 

Egyptian Constitution : 50%-50%

And the parliament “Upper and lower houses” members reached out to the best of form of membership for the constituent assembly after receiving suggestions from the parties and members : 50% of the constituent assembly’s members will be from the members of parliament and other 50% will be from outside the members from prominent personalities , representatives from syndications and unions.

I hate lying and liars Freedom and Justice party as you can recall suggested that the constituent assembly would be consisted of 40% of the MPs and 60% from outside the parliament. Most of the liberal parties and non Islamist parties in the parliament supported this suggestion. From two days ago I remember that I read a statement for one of the MB/FJP leaders in the media saying that the constituent assembly may end to be 30% from MPs and 70% from outside !!

Now earlier today FJP shocked us all by choosing that 50%-50% plan !! So what made them change their mind at the last moment !!?  Already this was not the only shock  of the day the biggest shock is that the 40% MPs-60% from outside suggestion only got 20 votes !!

Now there is an assumption that if the Islamists in the parliament “FJP & Al Nour” are going to be represented in the 50% or rather in the 50 seats , they will take at least 31 seats according to their percentage in the parliament. This is just an assumption.

It is worth to mention that that MB is already controlling several syndications and unions so the MB will have more than share in the constituent assembly , we want a constitution that represents all Egyptians and not only the members of the Muslim brotherhood.

Technorati Tags: Citizen journalism,Egypt,Politics,National,News,Egyptian Constitution,Constitution,Freedom and Justice party,Al Nour Party,MENA

Breaking News : RIP Pope Shnouda III "Updated"

Just from moments ago it was announced online through MP Marianne Malek that Pope Shenouda III , the head of the Egyptian Orthodox Church has passed away from couple of hours ago.

فقدت مصر اليوم رمانة الميزان الباباشنودة الثالث عزاء الى كل شعب مصر والى الشعب المسيحى فى كل العالم
— marianne malak 84 (@MarinneMalak84) March 17, 2012

Pope Shenouda III was 88 years old and he was suffering from several health problems. He has been sick for the past few week.s
Marianne Malek’s father was the legal adviser of Pope Shenouda III

Pope Shenouda III (1923-2011) 

Few moments ago also it is was confirmed Egypt’s general consul in NYC who received a confirmation from Cairo Coptic Church.
My condolences to the Egyptian Orthodox Christians all over the world as well to all Egyptians , we lost not only a religious icon but as well an Egyptian with a long history.

Updated :

It is 7:20 PM and the Egyptian TV has not announced the breaking news !!!!! They did not have got the permission

Updated @7:46 PM :

Prime minister has presented his condolences to the Egyptian Orthodox Church and Egyptian Christians for the death of the late Pope.

Late Pope Shenouda III passed away at 1 PM , he suffered from sudden heart attack. The updates about his funeral will be announced later today. Some sources say that the funeral will be held on Tuesday.

The Supreme

The leader of Freedom and Justice party Mohamed Morsi has presented his party’s official condolences to the Church and to the Egyptian Christians.

د.مرسي: أتقدم بخالص التعازي لإخواني وأخواتي أقباط مصر في وفاة البابا شنودة الثالث
— حزب الحرية و العدالة (@FJparty) March 17, 2012

Here is a photo shown a kid called Ayman blindfolded while choosing a paper with the name of Pope Shnouda III from 40 years ago to head the church.

Mixed thoughts : Regarding the Al Nour Party and its members

These are mixed unarranged thoughts which I am writing down and sharing in order to clear my mind.

• The Protesters angrily headed to the MOI after the Port Said Stadium massacre , some of Al Nour party members of the parliament shout in the people’s assembly and accuse the protesters of being thugs and agents paid LE 200 and Tramadol pills !!

Then Al Nour party spokesperson Nader Baker apologized saying that Al Nour party MPs did not mean any offense to the protesters or the revolutionaries.

MP Mostafa Bakry speaks about agents working for the States and the Israel then accuses Dr. ElBaradei of supporting these agents , Al Nour party MPs cheer for him.He defends himself later in front of people’s assembly and speaks about foreign funding , conspiracies and ElBaradei and yet again Al Nour party MPs cheer for his pseudo victory.

Then Al Nour party Spokesperson Nader Baker apologized

MP Anwar El Balkimi does a nose job that costs him his political career and Al Nour Party spokesperson yet apologizes once again to the public announcing that the party decided to fire El Balkimi. “There is recent rumor that they did not”

After weeks of apologizing for the behavior of Al Nour party members in the parliament , Bakr seemed to be the Party’s official apologist and not the official spokesperson !!

• For weeks now it seemed that there is no real synchronization between the party and its MPs and of course if you raise this point , you will find someone telling you that it is a new party and the Salafists are still learning politics and are gaining political experience unlike veteran Muslim brotherhood.

Well it is true that Al Nour party and Salafists are not that experienced like the Muslim brotherhood but this is no time for experimentation and  trial and error way of learning unfortunately.

Already it seems to me that from political point of view that Al Nour party did not screen its members well at least those whom it pushed to the parliament , in fact it seems to me that the only common factor between its members is Salafist way of thinking !!!!

This is not enough for political party. The Muslim brotherhood has got a political project to revive the Islamic Caliphate based on their ideas , other than implementing the Islamic Sharia according to their Ultra conservative understanding I do not know what Al Nour party’s real goals are.

• It is well known that the Salafists were enforced and supported by the State security during Mubarak’s time as Islamist force against the Muslim brotherhood. It is the like the same game Sadat did in 1970s and blew up in his face. Of course up till now I feel that security apparatuses whether SCAF or the MOI are still allies to the Salafist movements and parties in Egypt.

The famous Sheikhs of Salafist movements were totally against any revolution or political activity against Mubarak. “I have not forgotten how they stood against #Jan25 protests.”

After the revolution also I will not forget how the Salafist Sheikhs in Alexandria approached the families of the martyrs and convinced some of them to withdraw their cases against the ministry of interior.

• I am against the exclusion of the Salafists on the contrary I wish and hope that from that movement a new party or group that represents the Salafists and does not refuse the other.

Technorati Tags: Citizen journalism,Mixed thoughts,Salafists,Al Nour Party,Politics,Parties,Nader Bakr,Egypt,National,Muslim brotherhood

Aswan Chronicles : Day Two “Part two-Edfu”

You can check my second Day Aswan chronicles earlier in Kom Ombo here. This chronicle was written on February 9,2012 in Aswan.
Hours later we headed to the magnificent temple of Edfu in the city of Edfu , the biggest city in Aswan.You go to the temple in carts. The city is calm , clean and quiet as I can tell. The Muslim brotherhood has got a headquarter in the heart of the city's market ,the most active part in it.


The Edfu temple is the second biggest and most preserved temple in Egypt after the Karnack temple in Luxor , again it was built by the Ptolemaic in Egypt "check the crown at the top of its pillars , they are different than each others unlike in Egyptian temples.
Below over 100 photos for the amazing temple , I swear if I had had more time , I would have taken more pictures.

#Syrian Revolution : Regarding Israel

" Israel’s neighbor is burning” is an Op-ed published in Haartez by Gideon Levy about what Israel can do to help its neighbor Syria and Syrian people. Levy knows very well that Israel can’t intervene directly because any action will unite the Syrian people against it “As if uniting the people of Syria was a bad thing , I stood in front of this phrase a lot t be honest”. This op-ed is very interesting on many levels because it made me think about the Israeli position in the Syrian crisis.

There is no doubt that Israel is worried about the future of its neighbor in the North , the Israelis do not want El Assad and his Pro-Iranian Hezbollah regime but they also do not want a radical Islamist rule or radical nationalist rule to replace El Baath rule especially with the rise of the Islamist powers in the region.

The Israeli military generals want to neutralize if not to weaken the Syrian Arab army , they will welcome something like the new Syrian army indeed with no rockets arsenal or air forces “like what happened in Libya”. You must know according to military experts El Assad has not yet used the full power or capacity with all the brutality we are witnessing .

#Syrian Revolution : One Year later

And one year later has passed so quickly in Syria since the start of the amazing protests that evolved in to an uprising that is evolving in to a revolution.
One year and I thank God that I have been there documenting in Cairo what was taking place.
Unfortunately Syria turned to be more complicated than any other country in the region and this is because of the importance of Syria. One year has passed and I have learned by heart the names of towns and cities in Syria , one year has passed and the flame of the revolution moved from the city of Daraa to Hama to Idlib to Reef Dimshaq and to Homs  the great Homs. Over 8,000 have been reportedly killed , over hundreds of thousands were injured and thousands are missing either detained or killed in one year. Thousands of Syrians  fled their homes heading to neighbor countries as refugees whether in Jordan or Lebanon or in Egypt.
In One year a revolution in Syria turned in to a cold game between international and regional powers where the players do not care or give a damn for all those people getting killed or the fact that the country is on a verge of civil war.
I do not know what to say except that I do not shocked anymore from the scenes of blood and disfigured human bodies because of El Assad regime’s brutality. I feel that I am not shocked anymore as a human and I know it is bad.
Anyhow Cairo celebrated the Syrian revolution in its own way , its own elegant way with a special cultural evening at the Cairo Opera house’s summer theater where Egyptian and Syrian artists lined up to celebrate one year of Syrian revolution.
I do not know how to celebrate something when blood is still warm in the street but I know that hope is important in this struggle , if Syrians lose hope , they will lose their battle for free united Syria.
I will leave you with Hope by Malek Jandali of Homs.

Malek Jandali : Hope

Here is another amazing musical piece by Jandali dedicated to martyr Ibrahim Qashoush.”May Allah bless his soul” This small symphonic piece is inspired from Qashoush’s famous anthem “Come on, Bashar Leave”

#UA07_March : The Ultras anger that paralyzed Cairo

If you are wondering what caused the traffic in Cairo especially in Downtown area to be such a pain today , well the reason is the Ultras huge march to the public prosecutor office since early.

At the entrance sixth of October bridge "Mohamed Ruby"

On sixth of October bridge by Sherin T

Thousands of Ultras Ahlaway fans are marching to the office of the public prosecutor at the cessation court Downtown Cairo along with the families of the martyrs of the Port Said stadium massacre demanding justice for the victims of the massacre.

In Zamalek By Rou Tarabishy

At Ahly Club By Omar Abu Yazeed

Now the Ultras Ahlaway aka UA07 has announced that they will start a sit in at the Cessation court till the retribution for the victims. It is expected that Ultras White Knights “Zamalek SC” and Ultras Ismaili “Ismaili SC” to join the sit in.