Happy Eid al-Adha everybody

Happy Eid al-Adha to all Muslims around the globe as well Happy Eid to all the World too from Egyptian Chronicles.
On Monday, over 2 Million Muslim Pilgrim descended from Mount Arafat in the climax of Muslim Pilgrimage “Hajj” while Million of Muslims fasted from dawn to sunset the day praying for whatever they wanted. Thankfully the Weather was stable in the Holy Land after two days of strong wind and rains.
Here are beautiful photos from the Holy Land.

Muslim pilgrims in the Holy Land on Arafat Day  "Reuters"

Muslim pilgrims in the Holy Land on Arafat Day  "Reuters"

Media Empires of Egypt : More shake ups , More layoffs

There is currently a complete reshuffle that is taking place in the Media City West of Cairo where once-successful TV channels have been shut down and once-famous TV hosts are forced to stay in their homes.
It is a reshuffle that nobody has cared to speak about or discuss or even follow. It started to happen in July during Ramadan and the World Cup.
Then as soon as the holy month ended and the World Cup was over, that media reshuffle began to began to be louder.

From Left to Right: Azmy Meghad, Amr El-Llissy and Tamer Abdel Moneim

On 27 July, Egyptian Media announced that it was restructuring ONTV Network and that it would close down ON Live, the Network News channel while launching a second sports TV channel.
In its statement about the decision, Egyptian Media said that it launched ON Sports 2 to serve the State’s policies to support youth and sports.
The Company also claimed that it saw it was best to close down ON Live giving no real or understandable reason behind that decision. “Its main audience from 25 January revolution supporters no longer watch it because their favorite stars like Liliane Daoud or even Amr Khafagy are not there and are not welcomed anymore”
That decision was accompanied with many layoffs among the network’s staff.
Unfortunately, the closure of ON Live meant for the Egyptian Media removing the channel’s archives on its YouTube channel.
I feel sad that ON Live archives documenting the 25th January revolution have been removed from YouTube.
Thankfully some friends at ONTV have got backup archives and hopefully, they will upload them once again when they are needed.
ON E, the network’s main TV channel also lost several top TV hosts above them Amr Adib who signed a new contract with Saudi-owned MBC.

Corbyn and Rabaa Salute misinformation : The sign's true story

On Tuesday, London-Telegraph published a news article under the title “Jeremy Corbyn condemned after image emerges of him making Muslim Brotherhood Salute” which claims that the leader of Labor in the UK was photographed with a man in an old photo making the famous four-finger Rabaa sign.

Jeremy Corbyn doing the famous Rabaa sign in 2017 "Telegraph" 

The Telegraph says in the report that Corbyn is under fire because he was doing the Salute of the Muslim Brotherhood, the group linked to terrorism in Egypt and the Middle East.
The news article is currently viral on main news websites and newspapers that can’t stomach the Labour leader like The Sun and The Metro.
That photo is making rounds on alt-rights and Islamophobia fanatics on social media.

Now there is a little misinformation here that needs to be corrected.

Jeremy Corbyn was doing Rabaa the sign which is not an MB salute.
The four-finger sign of Rabaa was made in 2014 by a Turkish graphic designer to commemorate the victims of Pro-Islamist president Mohamed Morsi’s sit-in's forcible dispersal in Rabaa and Nahda squares in Egypt on 13 August 2013.

According to the different human rights organizations, whether Egyptian or international, at least 600 human beings were killed on that day.
The numbers of the victims are still disputed but at least 600 victims have been officially confirmed by the semi-official National Council For Human Rights.
The Rabaa sign is associated with the Muslim Brotherhood because its members began to do it in their trials, rallies and protests in Egypt and around the world to commemorate the victims. The group indeed adopted it but it is not *their salute*

That sign is banned in Egypt and some have paid a heavy price because of doing it publicly even accidentally.

Filmed in Cairo : The return of a state-owned Press corporation CEO

A post shared by Zeinobia (@zeinobia) on Aug 13, 2018 at 4:14am PDT

Akhbar Al Youm press corporation is celebrating the return of its CEO and Journalist Yasser Rizk from abroad after having some surgery. Rizk is known to be among the very close journalists to the Egyptian Presidency and current President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi himself as well the army.

The state-owned press corporation had banners with his face with the cheesiest slogans ever all over its buildings in Downtown Cairo and even hired a DJ blasting songs since early morning.

When famous Journalist and Akhbar Al Youm founder Mostafa Amin was exonerated of espionage charges and was released from jail in 1974, he was not received like that !!!!!

Why does the Evangelical Right Wing in the United States support Israel so blindly ?

Why does the US Bible belt support the State of Israel ??
Why does the US right-wing support Israel as the Jewish nation when many of its followers believe that Jewish people control the world media and harass Jewish journalists online who do not have their same beliefs ??

Why do the US right wing’s super racists who support Neo-Nazis like Steven Bannon and Sebastian Gorka support Israel and consider themselves as “Christian Zionists” ?? 
The answer goes simply back to their understanding of their Evangelical Church’s beliefs.
Yes, religion plays a role here just like everything else related to the Middle East and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, unfortunately.

A Christian Zionist parade in Jerusalem in March 2012
"Activestills.org"

Originated in the 17th century as part of the Puritan movement, Christian Zionism believes that Jews “regardless of their nationality” should return to Palestine as their homeland to restore their kingdom.

Since the 1980s some Evangelical Churches began to adopt that theory based on the Book of the Revelation that when Jews restore their kingdom in Jerusalem, a huge battle aka Armageddon will erupt between them and their Muslim neighbors speeding up the second coming of Jesus Christ.

Now here is a short documentary by Vice presented by Thomas Morton who went on a tour with a group of Christian Zionists to the Holy Land in Palestine explaining all this in a simple way.
It is very important because many people ignore those simple fact whether in the West or the East.

International Cat Day : Meet an Egyptian Museum Cat

That cat is among the famous cats of the Egyptian Museum of Cairo 

One more photo to celebrate the International Cat day and a throwback to my visits to the Egyptian Museum of Cairo.

This was one of its famous cats wondering freely in its corridors and garden. 

Despite many will dislike having cats like that wondering freely in Egypt’s most important museum yet I can’t keep thinking that those cats were once worshiped by our Ancient Egyptian ancestors and the museum got tons of cat statues and mummified cats there.