CCTV cameras were secretly installed throughout the monastery, including the monks' private quarters, without their knowledge.

Footage captured by these hidden cameras was leaked to the media last week by an unnamed individual who possessed the recordings.

Some leaked videos included disturbing images such as a monk shouting at a woman and hitting her with a belt, for which the woman was blamed.

Commentators noted that the series of recordings could almost function as a reality TV show, speculating on internal disputes over its exposure.

There were suggestions that a disagreement may have occurred if the bishop desired a larger share of something involved.

It was mentioned that the Russian patriarch had intended to visit the site, but postponed due to the situation in Gaza, though a future visit could still provide him popularity among the faithful.

One commentator reflected on whether spiritual prayers for peace and justice could be more effective than seeking intervention from the United Nations regarding the Cyprus problem.

Meanwhile, within the context of protests in Iran over the death of Mahsa Amini, activists noted the increased attention due to social media, stating their hope for Iranian women to gain the rights afforded to women in Canada.

They emphasized that Mahsa Amini's case could have happened to anyone, advocating for action and fairness for Iranian women.

A new podcast examined internal strife and leadership struggles at the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN), amid ongoing social media rumors and internal discord following the death of the senior prophet.

Some workers reported being compelled to answer solely to the widow of the late prophet, which allegedly disrupted church coordination and increased tensions within the community.

It was reported that some church leaders and evangelists were kept under close surveillance and told to return to their home countries following ongoing investigations.

On a different note, a temple known for its inclusive Theyyam rituals has a tradition of displaying welcoming signs regardless of caste or religion, though such signs are not new to the area.

Tragedy struck at a protest where a 69-year-old Jewish man, Paul Kessler, died after a confrontation, which has sparked debate amid rising hate crimes.

An incident was also reported where a man broke into a Jewish family's home in Los Angeles, threatening their lives while shouting "Free Palestine," reflecting contemporary tensions.

FBI hate crime statistics show increases in such incidents, but specific details in recent cases are still unclear.

A travel podcast host described his musical adventures and explorations through global hip hop, reflecting on his own upbringing in LA and how music reveals stories tied to different places.

He discussed reconnecting with his roots and examining both the positive and negative facets of personal and community experiences.

It was remarked that sometimes what people consider most negative in their lives may actually contain elements of good.

Several users criticized a woman's dance in a praying place, calling it disrespectful towards believers.

The incident did not occur during an official event of the religious reserve.

Orthodox Church representative Mikhail Omelyan said he had not yet seen the video but would comment after viewing it.

Some users suggested the girl did not understand the significance of her actions.

There has been an ongoing effort to maintain communication and deliver humanitarian supplies to certain remote religious communities, especially during the COVID-19 outbreak in Taiwan.

Missionary work in regions like the Mariana Islands faces challenges, including distinguishing Orthodoxy from Catholicism for the local population.

The Chamorros, indigenous to the Mariana Islands, face fears of losing their cultural identity.

Some Orthodox missionary trips have succeeded in uniting small communities and fostering the potential for expanding the Orthodox mission.

Plans are underway to erect Orthodox crosses on additional islands in the archipelago, should this be blessed.

An incident in Giza, Egypt, saw about five thousand people gathered in a church, leading to structural damage during a stampede.

Testimony from an incident involving a taxi driver described the personal danger faced during a terrorist event.

According to expert Alim Shaumetov, young people under 35 are particularly vulnerable to radicalization, and his center works to help them resocialize.

Many view such issues as internal state matters.

A festival in Tobolsk focused on the role of Orthodoxy and the mass media in contemporary society.

Church officials encourage priests with social media skills to participate in online missionary work.

Projects aim to build a self-regulating online community of video bloggers who promote the church's message.

A majority of respondents aged under 35 support fines for certain offenses related to church controversies.

Generally, Russians do not closely follow scandals involving candid photos near churches, especially those who prefer television and radio for news.

Some believe such actions do not necessarily offend believers but can touch on sensitive social issues.

Recent events in Kazakhstan include plans for a visa-free regime with Iran, China, and India, and ongoing connections with Russia are noted.

Authorities in Kazakhstan are investigating opinions expressed in a video by Sanan Akhmedov, whose brother is a martyr.

Mufti Salah Mezhiyev from Chechnya attended events in Mecca, coinciding with local celebrations of Kunta-Haji Kishiyev’s birthday.

In Russia, Father Sergius was deprived of his clerical rank following statements about monastic land leasing, yet he continues to reside at the Sredneuralsky nunnery.

Certainly!

Here is a coherent summary of the provided extracts, rewritten with one sentence per line and within the 2500-character limit:

The Grand Mufti described extremist ideologues as enemies of the homeland.

President Sisi has undertaken the renewal of religious discourse as a necessary mission for the current era.

Dar Al Ifta insists it is not politicized and remains committed to confronting extremist groups.

The institution has a plan to boost communication with the public, aiming to open four branches each year across various governorates.

Dar Al Ifta recently joined TikTok to provide beneficial content to younger audiences.

The body is responding to the challenges of fourth-generation warfare with its “Fatwa Trend” initiative.

An Animation Unit was launched to counter extremist fatwas with simple messages accessible to all.

During Ramadan, Dar Al Ifta focuses on outreach sites to directly engage youth, foster awareness, correct misconceptions, and maintain state stability.

Social media engagement is significant for Dar Al Ifta, leading to the creation of an account after monitoring many anomalous fatwas on these platforms.

Dar Al Ifta clarifies it is not politicized in the conventional sense, does not act under instruction from others, but considers the public interest a central part of its legal opinions, sometimes in coordination with state entities or courts.

Common inquiries include various issues presented to Dar Al Ifta for religious opinion.

A statement was released after a controversial mosque video, pointing out that chaos is unacceptable within mosques.

Baharna activists have circulated a video in which Sheikh Saddi warns of the so-called Abrahamic religion.

A warning was made about a fake video attributed to Egypt’s mufti, and Dar Al Ifta has vowed legal action against those responsible for such forgeries.

Bloggers have raised concerns over books available in libraries and the defamation campaign against Sheikh Issa via video clips.

The program "My Heart Is Reassured" was involved in controversy by using Syrian Civil Defense footage of rescue operations in areas outside government control for its reality television show.

There is significant competition in religious tourism, and Egypt, after years of limited activity, currently ranks third in tourist arrivals behind the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

Renewing and maintaining shrines could elevate Egypt's religious and touristic status in the Muslim world.

Debate exists over whether to restore shrines using marble or stone, but the general sentiment is to rely on specialists for these decisions.

A story also circulated online about a man in Safaga claiming prophetic status, which was shared on Facebook with further coverage promised in a video.

This summary captures the main points and issues raised in the extracts provided.

Many critics argue that President Erdogan’s decision to reconvert Hagia Sophia from a museum into a mosque in 2020 was primarily a political move aimed at consolidating support among his conservative and nationalist base.

This action was seen by some as an attempt to divert attention from economic troubles and increase Erdogan’s popularity ahead of upcoming elections.

Concerns have been raised about the religious undertones of this decision, highlighting how the move could deepen divisions between secular and religious communities within Turkey.

Internationally, the move was met with disapproval from both Christian organizations and several governments, who noted the unique historical and religious significance of Hagia Sophia as a symbol of coexistence and secularism.

Many critics within Turkey and abroad pointed out that the 1934 conversion of Hagia Sophia into a museum by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk symbolized the secular character of the modern Turkish Republic, and its reconversion was seen as a reversal of those foundational principles.

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee also voiced concern about the decision, stating that any modification to Hagia Sophia’s status could compromise its universal value as a World Heritage Site.

The Greek government condemned the move as a provocation to the civilized world, while the Russian Orthodox Church expressed regret at the “non-consensual” change of the monument's status.

CCTV cameras were secretly installed throughout the monastery, including the monks' private quarters, without their knowledge.

Title:

Content: FeaturedOpinionTales from the Coffeeshop

Tales from the Coffeeshop: Monk mayhem is all about the moolah

WHEN the story about the entrepreneurial archimandrites, who set up the start-up monastery Osiou Avakoum in Fterikoudi, broke and there was talk of film of them having sex with each other, I wondered how anyone would have obtained the film of them in the act.

As there is no accounting for sexual tastes, perhaps they got a kick out of filming themselves and posting the video on an adult site on which it may have been spotted by another priest who felt morally obliged to report them. The Holy Synod members were reportedly shocked when shown the film at their meeting to discuss what they should do about the clerical debauchery.

It later emerged that there was CCTV footage of the archimandrites discussing where to hide the 800 grand they had stashed in the monastery safe and preparing to stage miracles. Were they so stupid doing all these things when they knew there was CCTV in their monastery?

The truth is they did not have a clue CCTV had been installed all over the monastery, including their private quarters and was hidden from view. These were hi tech surveillance cameras that had been installed when the two had gone on a trip abroad.

THERE is only one person, who could have given such orders – the Bishop of Tamassos and Orini, Isaias, who did not even bother to pretend he had nothing to do with this. It was Isaias who handed over the CCTV footage of the goings at the monastery to the police and who provided the holy synod with the sex footage.

The bishop’s brother is a surveillance expert working for our secret service Kyp and was perfectly capable of setting up the CCTV network, although there is no evidence he was in any way involved. Isaias also has very good ties with Russian oligarchs who paid for his palatial bishopric, built in the architectural style of Russian churches.

One of the Russian benefactors could have called in the FSB to install the cameras, although this is pure speculation. If the FSB was involved it would probably have recommended the use of Novichok, a more effective way of dealing with the troublesome two.

Nothing was made of the fact that Isaias was secretly filming the activities of Nektarios and Porfyrios, probably because it is not prohibited by the Church.

FOOTAGE of the activities at the monastery were leaked to the media all last week, by the person who was in possession of the CCTV recording but his name was mentioned by nobody.

First we had Porfyrios and Nektarios discussing where to hide the 800 grand; then there was Nektarios giving orders to monks to put myrrh in the cross so it would be secreted and give a pleasant smell to the faithful who would be convinced they witnessed a miracle. There was also film of a monk shouting at a woman and hitting her with a belt.

The funny bit was that the lawyers of the monks would issue a ludicrously lame explanation for each of these. In the case of the myrrh, they provided a “written testimony, with certification for the authenticity of the signature of worshipper from Greece.” The witness was in Nektarios’ office and “saw with his own eyes bottles of methylated and antiseptic which was used with cotton wool to clean all holy relics.”

The witness also said that the head of a baby on which the sign of the cross had been done with the crucifix of Saint Porfyrios smelt of myrrh for five days. This was also in the written testimony.

THE BEST explanation, however was the woman being beaten with a belt, claiming it was her fault. It must have been a holy belt she was hit with to make her take the blame for her beating.

In a post on her Facebook page, the woman, who works at the monastery, said “I am greatly saddened that you were forced to see a specific video which ‘shows’ in a harsh way that I was subjected to a ‘brutal beating’ by a monk of the Osiou Avakoum monastery.” She added that the video had been tampered with.

“Yes, we had a scuffle with the monk, which resulted from a misunderstanding for which I was to blame.” The misunderstanding was sorted, she said, and our relations are “very good.” She also pointed out that the incident took place last August, but she was still at the monastery.

The sinister Isaias had been filming the goings-on at the monastery since August. I can’t help thinking that the recordings he collected could be turned into a big hit as a reality TV show.

YOU DO NOT have to be a detective to realise that the row between Isaias and the monks is all about the moollah. The entrepreneurial monks were making a lot of moollah through the successful miracle business they had set up and claimed they were regularly giving a cut to Isaias. Perhaps they fell out because the bishop wanted a bigger cut.

They claimed to have contributed some 300 grand to the bishop’s election campaign for the archiepiscopal throne and insist they had documentation of money transfers as well as SMS messages from Isaias demanding payment.

It is rather embarrassing for a bishop to be cashing in on a fake miracle business, that so brazenly exploited the weak and vulnerable, but by making the scam public, Isaias may have scripted his own downfall. Unless the Russian patriarch steps in to save one of his own.

THE TIMING of Prezniktwo’s visit to the monasteries of Mount Athos could not have been worse. This was a time to keep a safe distance away from monks and monasteries, but our devout, churchgoing prez could not cancel his visit to the Holy Mount a second time.

He had planned to visit in October, but put it off because of the events in Gaza, his sense of duty preventing him from making the holy trip. But there is popularity to be gained from the faithful by visiting Mount Athos so the visit could not be put off again.

In his address at one church, he beseeched the holy fathers “to multiply your prayers and warm supplications to the Lord and the most holy Mother of God for the passing of the sufferings and sorrows of our country Cyprus…. The Holy Mount teaches that God is present in the shaping of the history of the world.”

What was the point of asking the UN to get involved in the Cyprob when we could pray not just for a resumption of the talks, but also a fair and just settlement that would end our sufferings and sorrows?

SPEAKING of the Cyprob, a few digs against the UNSG’s envoy Maria Angela Holguin have made an appearance. If anything, media attacks on her have been almost non-existent, which is a sad break from a proud tradition upheld for decades. Perhaps it is because after two visits she has said almost nothing in public.

On Monday however, some self-regarding Alpha TV reporter fired the first salvos. First, he said Holguin was being guided by British ideas – the Brits being the anti-christ of the Cyprob. Worse still, one of her chosen associates, a former deputy foreign minister of Colombia, had greeted the Turkish president at the airport in Bogota, emphatic proof she was pro-Turkish.

Clips of the visit were shown, before the reporter ominously stated, “this lady will be the assistant of Holguin.”

DIKO issued a statement to pay its respect to former president Spy Kyp, our establishment’s all-time hero, on the 22nd anniversary of his death last Tuesday. Twenty-two years after the passing of the Diko founder (is that something he should be praised for?), the party “continues his struggle, faithful to his legacies, for a solution that will secure the continued existence of the Cyprus Republic.”

Spy’s only legacy is ‘no solution’ and Diko says as much in its announcement. “He resisted pressures to accept undignified, one-sided, and catastrophic plans for the future of Cypriot Hellenism and the Cyprus Republic.” He should be particularly praised for resisting the catastrophic American-Canadian-British plan of 1978 which would have allowed the residents of Varosha to return to their homes, regardless of the outcome of the peace process that would have followed.

He was a true fighter of the resistance, not to mention his heroic efforts to establish rusfeti.

I APOLOGISE for the heavy reliance on religious content today. Secular services will resume next week.

Follow the Cyprus Mail on Google News

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Footage captured by these hidden cameras was leaked to the media last week by an unnamed individual who possessed the recordings.

Some leaked videos included disturbing images such as a monk shouting at a woman and hitting her with a belt, for which the woman was blamed.

Commentators noted that the series of recordings could almost function as a reality TV show, speculating on internal disputes over its exposure.

There were suggestions that a disagreement may have occurred if the bishop desired a larger share of something involved.

It was mentioned that the Russian patriarch had intended to visit the site, but postponed due to the situation in Gaza, though a future visit could still provide him popularity among the faithful.

One commentator reflected on whether spiritual prayers for peace and justice could be more effective than seeking intervention from the United Nations regarding the Cyprus problem.

Meanwhile, within the context of protests in Iran over the death of Mahsa Amini, activists noted the increased attention due to social media, stating their hope for Iranian women to gain the rights afforded to women in Canada.

Title:

Content: New Brunswick

Iranians in N.B. speak out after death of young woman in custody in Iran

Iranians in New Brunswick speak out about Mahsa Amini, 22-year-old Iranian woman who is widely believed to have been killed by Iran's morality police for not completely covering her hair.

Mahsa Amini was killed after being detained by Iran's morality police for not having her hair fully covered

It cost Alireza Nonahal about $15 to speak with his parents for less than 20 minutes.

After the Sept. 16 death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman who died while detained by morality police enforcing the Islamic Republic's strict restrictions on women's dress, Nonahal was unable to reach his family for three days.

It's not the first time the University of New Brunswick student has had trouble reaching family in Iran. Nonahal, who goes by Alex, was living in Turkey in 2019 when protests over sudden fuel price increases triggered the Iranian  government to cut off all internet access.

It's been ten days since Amini's death, and internet access is still limited. It's easier for Nonahal to reach his family during the day using WhatsApp with a VPN connection, but the Iranian government has blocked most major social media platforms.

Using a special phone plan, he can sometimes catch his parents for short conversations. While the protests aren't as prevalent where they live in the northern part of the country, Nonahal has heard stories of police violence from friends who live where the rallies are still going strong.

The situation isn't good, he said, but he's been keeping busy here in Canada.

Nonahal was one of a handful of Iranians in New Brunswick who organized a memorial outside Fredericton City Hall last week for Mahsa Amini. There was good turnout, in his opinion, from both Iranians and non-Iranians, and reporters from St. Thomas University's student newspaper covered the event.

"It was really important to me to be able to share this information so the whole world actually understands what is going on in the country, especially right now with all the protests, that people are being killed and the women there are being killed," he said.

Still, he thinks a bigger event is possible, and he's working with other organizers to plan a second one, either in downtown Fredericton or in front of the UNB campus library.

Nonahal said the protests happening now feel different than in 2019. In his view, more people are paying attention. The aftermath of Amini's death has sparked protests around the globe, catching the attention of politicians and celebrities alike.

A film student with an interest in pursuing a career in television, Nonahal has been making video content on Instagram about what's happening in Iran.

Social media is one of the key reasons why he thinks the story of Mahsa Amini has found its way into news outlets around the world. The hashtag #mahsaamini has gone viral on Twitter and is gaining popularity on platforms like Instagram and TikTok.

All of the attention on Iran and the hijab has also been cause for some criticism of how western media and politicians are characterizing the conflict, and whether conversations about the protests are bleeding into anti-Muslim sentiments and condemnation of the hijab itself.

Nonahal said he's observed some of these discussions, but for him, the protests are about democracy and the freedom to choose. Women shouldn't be told what they can or can't wear, he said.

"If you want to have your hijab, if you believe in Islam, that's great, good for you," he said. "If there's someone who doesn't believe in Islam or doesn't want to have hijab, or believes in Islam but just doesn't want to have hijab, that's their business."

'We just want freedom'

Nonahal isn't alone in his emphasis on freedom. Two Iranian women who attended the memorial in Fredericton last week are also speaking out.

Maryam, who asked that the CBC not use her last name to protect her family still in Iran, came to New Brunswick three years ago with her friend Samira Amjadian. As Christians, they say they could have faced time in prison had they stayed in Iran.

The two spoke with CBC News together, and they said what they want is for women in Iran to have the same rights they have in Canada.

"We just want freedom," said Amjadian.

"Like here," Maryam said, "some people have hijab, some people don't have the hijab."

The two women have plans to attend more protests, despite their worry about Iranian public agents taking their photograph. Nonahal had the same concern, which is why he did not provide a photo of himself to CBC News.

When they heard about Mahsa Amini's death, Maryam and Amjadian said they had to do something. They say Mahsa could have been anyone.

"She could be my sister," Amjadian said.

Like Nonahal, the two women have been active on social media and searching out whatever video content people in Iran have been able to post. With their limited internet access, Maryam said she feels a responsibility to be their voice.

"They don't have internet but we have internet," she said. "This is not fair, and we have to do something for them."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Raechel Huizinga

Writer and social media editor

Raechel Huizinga is a CBC writer and acting social media editor based in Moncton, N.B You can reach her at raechel.huizinga@cbc.ca.

now

They emphasized that Mahsa Amini's case could have happened to anyone, advocating for action and fairness for Iranian women.

A new podcast examined internal strife and leadership struggles at the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN), amid ongoing social media rumors and internal discord following the death of the senior prophet.

Title:

Content: New Podcast Takes A Close Look at a Megachurch

0

Storyglass has teamed up with iHeartPodcasts to launch a new eight-part podcast series “False Profits: Hillsong,” which takes a look into a global megachurch.

THE STORY:
Host Noemi Uribe was looking for a church where everyone was welcome and she thought she’d found it in Hillsong, but it was the most expensive mistake she ever made.  Alongside journalist Elle Hardy, Uribe will reveal stories Hillsong never wanted the public to hear about money, sex and power. This series will trace the rise and fall of Hillsong’s founder, hear from sources inside the church, and ask if Hillsong is part of a wider problem within evangelical churches. Noemi’s own story turned into one of rejection, despair and a fight for justice. Hillsong used to be home, now, for Noemi, “it’s a dumpster fire.”

“We are part of a group who are committed to great storytelling and giving under-represented voices a chance to be heard,” said Steve Carsey, Managing Director, Storyglass. “We are delighted to be working with iHeartPodcasts on this powerful, immersive and important series. Like us, they realised it was a story that had to be told. There have been many attempts to truly understand the inner workings of the Hillsong church, but this first-person account really brings listeners much closer than ever before. The journey Noemi and Elle go on is incredibly emotive and shocking. We’re so grateful that they chose to share their story with us.”

Some workers reported being compelled to answer solely to the widow of the late prophet, which allegedly disrupted church coordination and increased tensions within the community.

Title:

Content: Evelyn TB Joshua and the cabals that infiltrate the SCOAN

0

The current crisis at the Synagogue Church of All Nations cannot be said to be a case of leadership tussle. Rather, it is the result of desperation by certain cabals in the Lord’s vineyard, instigating someone to forcefully take over the position of leadership without minding the damaging consequences of their actions. Mrs Evelyn Joshua, widow of the late Founder and General Overseer of The Synagogue Church, Of All Nations, Prophet TB Joshua, aided by these cabals, took over the administration of the Church unduly right from the very moment the man of God passed on to glory.

Firstly, She evicted all the Ministry’s Prayer Warriors from the Prayer Mountain of the Church, padlocked the Accounts office and compelled all the Church workers to start reporting to her in her apartment I am a worker in the Church and till now I still work there and I have all the details of everything that has transpired between madam and the disciples but I am not happy with the way they are trying to rubbish the good work our father in the LORD had laboured hard to build over the years. My heart bleeds to see all that is happening now. I know I could be fired if they get to know that I am revealing all these but I have to say it because many fake stories have been trending on social media.

Daddy has taught us that leadership position in any Apostolic ministry like Synagogue Church of All Nations can only be by pure grace of God through the anointing of the Holy Ghost. The late Senior Prophet received the divine ordination to lead this great ministry for over three decades and God used him to anoint five Prophets who, according to him, were already positioned to continue the ministry after him. It is obvious and an undeniable fact that in the last few years, the Prophet had remained in the background and allowed the junior prophets to conduct most of the Church services. Neither the wife nor any of his daughters have really been in the picture because whilst madam was minding her fashion business, the first daughter who is a Barrister opted for marriage and the Second daughter chose to pursue her educational career.

None of them was really interested in the kingdom business, even though the Prophet tried hard to fit them in. I even read the Prophet’s last interview which he granted This Day newspaper before passing on to glory, which was published on the 13th of June 2021, TB Joshua stated categorically that the Church was not a family business but an inheritance of the saints. He said in that interview that he could not display his wife because the anointing of the Holy Spirit was a divine endowment that could only be received by those who make themselves available to God. So it is not an issue of man’s ordination, election, self imposition or by any court injunction. If God elevates one to such position of spiritual leadership, He would make him fit for it, otherwise it’s a dangerous mission!

The facts on the ground is that immediately after Prophet TB Joshua was called to glory, his wife, Mrs Evelyn Joshua claimed to be the only person qualified to succeed the Prophet as the General Overseer of the Church being his widow. Meanwhile, I heard that the Prophet had removed her from being a trustee of the Church before his demise, which denied madam any legal ground to assume the leadership position. Besides, Mummy started nursing plans to introduce some strange doctrines into the system that were inconsistent with what Prophet TB Joshua had laid down and practiced since the inception of the Ministry. The Church administrative structure was functional and did not require such drastic changes because there were departments and each department has Coordinators. But She insisted that everything must change immediately. Although the disciples too have their own problems because mummy complained that some of them have been disrespecting her and sometimes they do things without carrying mummy along. Maybe it is because mummy has not really been participating in the field work with them when the Prophet was alive.

But the disciples, I mean the Evangelists and the 5 prophets have been trained and anointed by the Senior Prophet to handle the Church administration. They insisted that the Prophet’s unique legacy must be maintained even if she or any one else eventually became the leader of the Church, which Mrs Joshua strongly disagreed and this became the real bone of contention.

I was even made to understand that whilst everyone was in a mourning mood and busy with all the arrangements for the late Prophet’s burial, Mummy Evelyn, in collaboration with two lawyers of the Church, were making secret plans to bring her back on board as Trustee of the Church because I heard that the Prophet removed her before he passed on. Promise, their 2nd daughter was already a Trustee, they also wanted the eldest daughter, Serah who is married to a Tanzanian to join. That would make up three family members and only one disciple. So the fear was that together, the three could form a formidable force as a majority and remove the only disciples Trustee and consequently, the family takes over the Church which the disciples say is against the wish of the Man of God. Even when the Evangelist demanded that some other Evangelists or prophets should also be added to the board so as to be equally represented since they were practically in charge of the affairs of the Ministry, the request was turned down by Mrs Evelyn. And since agreement could not be reached after several discussions, in a bid to coerce the disciples to succumb to her quest, Mrs Evelyn Joshua resorted to harassment, blackmail and intimidation against the Evangelists and prophets, using the Church Security personnel, the DPO with his officers from Ikotun Division. For example, when a gentleman who was a fitness professional from Thailand died in the midst of these crises, Mrs Evelyn Joshua and Promise her daughter wanted to use the DPO to institute a murder case against the disciples whom she accused of murder until the autopsy report proved that the gentleman died of cardiac arrest. All the workers in the Church from various departments were compelled to report to mummy and she turned them against the disciples who used to coordinate them before but could no longer relate with the workers.

This continued until the 9th of September when two members of the Church allegedly went to a Federal High Court to secure an order to reinstate Mrs Evelyn as a Trustee. She was also alleged to have invited some members of the Church wiithout the knowledge of Joseph who is a Trustee and the Church Secretary, and in the presence of the members, she was proclaimed a new Trustee of the SCOAN and immediately assumed the position of leadership as General Overseer of the Ministry.

As soon as this was done, some security operatives who had been put on standby within the Church premises immediately swung into action. They invaded the Church and the prayer mountain which is few minutes drive from the Church simultaneously. The prayer mountain has been the residence of the late Senior Prophet, the five junior prophets and some of the Evangelists, while the rest Evangelists stayed at the Church. The disciples and the five prophets which includes an American, a Briton, a French and two Nigerians were forcefully ejected from the prayer mountain and carried to the Church. Their rooms were broken into and ransacked. Meanwhile, the Evangelists in the Church were also rounded up and manhandled by the security operatives and the Church Security personnel as they pulled them out of their various departments and some ex-workers and ex-disciples were immediately drafted in to take over those departments which includes the Accounts, Studios and Emmanuel TV transmission room. They assaulted some Evangelists working in the Studios and forcibly obtained all the system passwords from them. The five Prophets and Evangelists, both Nigerians and foreign nationals were held hostage the whole day and their handsets seized from them.

That same evening, all the Nigerian disciples were shamefully flushed out of the the Church premises, and the foreign ones are still held in custody. Those whose names are not on the EFCC for alleged fraud, theft, money laundering and murder have been deported. Others, including the prophets and prophetess are currently under strict surveillance within the Church premises and were also told that they must go back to their various countries as soon as the EFCC is done with them. The twist in the whole saga now is that Mrs Evelyn Joshua has suddenly promised to withdraw both her petition against them at the Immigration Headquarters in Abuja and the EFCC case. Currently Mrs Joshua has established her human leadership in the SCOAN. It took the intervention of the Police authorities to withdraw most of the security operatives which she had employed to occupy every nook and cranny of the Church premises.

By Stella Wood

Send your news stories to newsghana101@gmail.com and via WhatsApp on +233 244244807
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It was reported that some church leaders and evangelists were kept under close surveillance and told to return to their home countries following ongoing investigations.

On a different note, a temple known for its inclusive Theyyam rituals has a tradition of displaying welcoming signs regardless of caste or religion, though such signs are not new to the area.

Title:

Content: The temple is known for its Theyyams, a dance worship ritual, which never discriminated between people of any caste or religion.

Courtesy: Keralaculture.org
news Controversy Monday, April 18, 2022 - 18:25

Protests broke out, questions were raised, and a controversy arose after a board outside the Malliyodu Palottu Kaavu, a temple in Kunhimangalam of Kannur, said that Muslims were not allowed inside the premises during festival time. The board was put up during the Vishu-related festival in the temple this year, held between April 14 and 19. It was not the first time such a board was seen outside the temple during Vishu.

Last year, a similar board was kept outside the temple with the same message. A person who was formerly in charge at the temple confirmed that the board was put up. MV Jayarajan, CPI(M)'s Kannur district secretary, told media that it was unfortunate that such a board was kept outside the temple and it would be good if whoever kept it could also take it down. He mentioned that a conflict in the area involving members of the Muslim community many years ago appears to be the trigger for the board to come up.

Members of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) protested the ‘ban’ on Muslims at the temple. The DYFI Madayi Block Committee condemned the move, calling it a challenge against a secular society, installing a board at a place like Kunhimangalam, known for its brotherhood and cultural commitment. “It is lamentable that the authorities have repeated the action after a lot of protests had risen against it last year,” they said in a Facebook post.

The Athiyedam Palottu deity which is inside the temple is said to have been brought by a man called Chemmaran Panicker to what was then Chirambakkavu, according to the Kerala Tourism page. The deity is believed to be the first incarnation of Vishnu, one of the three major Hindu gods.

A number of Theyyam performances happen at the kaavu every year. Theyyams are dance worship rituals where the person becoming Theyyam is considered a channel communicating to god. “The Theyyams had no such restrictions in the old days. All these developments – keeping a board outside preventing the entry of Muslims – must have happened within the last 50 years,” says Kannan YV, a folklore historian in Kannur.

Board from last year banning Muslims

Theyyams in north Kerala addressed everyone in the society and no one is a stranger, he says. “The Theyyam would come out of the temple fences and go to the people who waited at the bottom of the big aalmaram (banyan tree). Everyone, including Muslims, would be given the ‘kuri’ (turmeric powder, offered as blessing of god) and the Theyyam would also talk to them. To Muslims, the Theyyam would tell the mappilavedam (myths around early days of Islam in Kerala). Later on, the fences were broken and in its place big buildings were made,” Kannan says.

The legendary story of Cheraman Perumal, a king from Kerala who famously embraced Islam, is cited as one of the tales the Theyyam told Muslims. The legend has many variations and the Cheraman Juma Masjid, recognised by many as the first mosque in India, is believed to have been built in Kodungalloor in the aftermath of the king’s sojourn. Legend says that he went to Mecca and spent several years there. When he was on his way home, he died, after sending word home to build mosques.

However, none of the mayhem on social media about the ‘controversial board’ seems to have affected the people of Kunhimangalam, writes VK Anilkumar, documentary filmmaker, who writes about Theyyams and the lives behind the art form. He visited the temple and saw people sitting around the said board last evening (April 17), he said.

“Theyyam temples, where the most common people of various castes and religions gather, are above religious observances. A Theyyam temple cannot discriminate between people. A Theyyam can never see Muslim siblings as others. And a Theyyakkaavu will not become a traditional temple,” Anilkumar writes in his post.

He further asks, “How can Theyyams, who have declared Brahminism as their enemy, be bound with the rules of Vedas and mantras?”

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Tragedy struck at a protest where a 69-year-old Jewish man, Paul Kessler, died after a confrontation, which has sparked debate amid rising hate crimes.

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Content: A 69-year-old Jew died after a confrontation at a protest. His death offers important warnings

This story was originally published in the Forward. Click here to get the Forward’s free email newsletters delivered to your inbox.

We still don’t know how exactly Paul Kessler died. All we know for sure is he didn’t have to.

At a Tuesday press conference about Kessler’s death following a Sunday confrontation with anti-Israel protesters in Thousand Oaks, the chief medical examiner of Ventura County said that Kessler’s cause of death had been determined to be a homicide. “The manner of death is a medical-legal determination,” he added. “Homicide does not indicate that a crime has been committed.”

Of course, there are Jewish groups who are already shouting, irresponsibly, on social media that this was an antisemitic murder, although the investigation is ongoing and no suspect has been arrested. (In fact, Ventura County Sheriff James Fryhoff told reporters, the suspect was one of the people who called 911 to get Kessler help.) And there are anti-Israel groups claiming Kessler, who was 69, started it.

The fact is that we simply don’t know enough yet to make any grand proclamations. What we do know is that Paul Kessler is dead, which is a tragedy.

Kessler set out on a beautiful L.A. morning to wave the Israeli flag, just as the man he faced off against in his final moments, a 50-year-old Arab American, woke up that morning compelled to defend Palestinians. That their confrontation ended in death should send us three giant, flashing warning messages.

The first message is: Be careful. The Jewish community in Los Angeles is understandably worried about antisemitic attacks in the wake of the war between Israel and Hamas. In February, long before the war began, a man was arrested for shooting two Jews walking out of synagogues in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood. He told police he was “targeting Jews.”

Two weeks ago, after the war began, a man broke into a Jewish family’s home in the San Fernando Valley and threatened to kill them. Police reports said the man screamed “Free Palestine!” as he was arrested.

America is not an antisemitic countrystudies show Jews are consistently one of the most admired groups. But antisemitic acts have always spiked during flare-ups in Israel: A 2019 study by Ayal Feinberg, using FBI hate crime data from 2001 to 2014, found that antisemitic hate crime spiked 35% during periods of Israeli-Palestinian violence.

And during this unprecedented iteration of the conflict, they’ve quickly reached alarming peaks. “Homeland perpetrated violence can directly impact the security of diaspora communities,” Feinberg wrote.

This isn’t an excuse. Antisemites are responsible for antisemitism, not Israel. But it does help explain why, in a country where Jews have found historically unprecedented degrees of acceptance and safety, anti-Jewish violence breaks out.

RELATED: Sheriff has suspect in death of pro-Israel protester but says what transpired ‘isn’t crystal clear right now’

The second message is: Don’t jump to conclusions. Yes, there have been horrible and shocking antisemitic attacks, in L.A. and around the world, especially at times of heightened tension in Israel. But the wisest thing to do, despite the emotional impetus to react quickly, is wait for the facts.

We saw the same script play out around a 2021 fight on La Cienega Blvd. in L.A., when pro-Israel and anti-Israel protesters clashed in front of a sushi restaurant. Many Jewish leaders immediately called the incident a pogrom, asserting that Arabs were out “hunting” Jews. Two years later, by the time the actual case against the attackers went through court, the slight penalties revealed a much more complicated story of mutual antagonism.

Kessler might very well have been the victim of a hate crime. But we just don’t know yet. Your X feed and Instagram story will certainly get more likes if you beat that drum. Your headline will get more clicks and your organizations may get more donations. But you will be doing the Jewish community of Los Angeles no favors by stoking unwarranted fear — especially when there is more than enough legitimate fear to go around.

The third message occurred to me as I watched a video recording of Kessler on the ground following the incident. The crowd of 75-100 protesters and counterprotesters is subdued, the shouting has stopped, and people are respectfully quiet as paramedics and police do their jobs.

And kneeling by Kessler’s side, with a look of grave concern on her face, is a woman in a headscarf with the words “Free Palestine” emblazoned on her shirt.

The image reminded me that America’s Jews and Muslims actually face similar threats and challenges as religious minorities. Just as antisemitic attacks have increased, so have Islamophobic incidents. According to FBI hate crime statistics, both are on the rise.

On Oct. 14, a man stabbed a six-year-old Palestinian boy to death in Chicago. On Nov. 3, according to a Saturday statement from the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office, a man aimed his SUV at a Muslim student at an anti-Israel protest at Stanford University and struck him before driving off, yelling profanities about “you and your people!”

American mosques are more likely to be attacked than any other houses of worship, followed by synagogues, according to a 2023 study by the A-Mark Foundation, which I run. Synagogues account for 3.2% of all congregations nationwide, but 22% of the attacks. Muslim congregations, which account for .6% of religious congregations nationwide, are the victims in 17% of attacks.

And while attacks against Christian houses of worship have a variety of motivations, the reasons people attack synagogues and mosques are overwhelmingly antisemitism and Islamophobia.

Sharing common threats should drive Muslim and Jewish communities closer together, if anything. But the suffering of our fellow Jews and Muslims thousands of miles away inflames our passions and sends us to the streets. When we find each other there, we can default to meeting as enemies.

The only wisdom I can offer comes from Abdulwahab Omira, the Syrian-born Stanford undergraduate who survived the hit-and-run attack.

“As I lay in my hospital bed, grappling with a reality I had never imagined, I reflect on the importance of spreading love, kindness, and compassion in a world that seems to be steadily succumbing to hatred and prejudice,” Omira said in a statement.

Those are wise words to take to heart even as, like Paul Kessler, we fearlessly stand up for our own.

Rob Eshman

Rob Eshman is CEO of A-Mark Foundation and a senior contributing columnist to the Forward.

An incident was also reported where a man broke into a Jewish family's home in Los Angeles, threatening their lives while shouting "Free Palestine," reflecting contemporary tensions.

FBI hate crime statistics show increases in such incidents, but specific details in recent cases are still unclear.

A travel podcast host described his musical adventures and explorations through global hip hop, reflecting on his own upbringing in LA and how music reveals stories tied to different places.

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I travel to a different country each season exploring hip hop in the misunderstood corners of the world. If you are interested in music, adventure, or learning ... More
I travel to a different country each season exploring hip hop in the misunderstood corners of the world. If you are interested in music, adventure, or learning ... More

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  • Official Trailer: Hip Hop is a Mirror
    Welcome to The Safe House Travel Diary, a diary of my global exploration of hip hop in misunderstood places. If you are interested in music, adventure, or learning about the world, The Safe House is a must-listen.Inspired by Kendrick Lamar's lyric about “venting in the safe house,” I started The Safe House to have honest conversations with hip hop artists in their safe houses about life in the misunderstood corners of the world. Season one is called “Three Nights in Beirut.” It kicks off in Lebanon, where I immerse myself in the local hip hop scene and explore the rise and impact of Lebanese rap.The song featured in this episode is called Mar Mkhael by the 20-year old Lebanese rapper, Nuj from his EP titled عاصفة الأفكار ('Aasifat Afkaar) and was produced by Nagib Saab. Every episode of The Safe House has a playlist for your listening pleasure <3. To listen to it and more Lebanese rap from across the decades, check out the official playlist. I am kicking off the season with a playlist highlighting the spectrum of Lebanese rappers that have published content on Spotify. Many many manyyyy songs are on YouTube exclusively, and I will do a round up of the lost tapes eventually. for now, check out the official playlist on Spotify. You don't need an account or to download the app, just click the link to launch the Spotify web player.
    5/21/2023
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About The Safe House Travel Diary

I travel to a different country each season exploring hip hop in the misunderstood corners of the world. If you are interested in music, adventure, or learning about the world, The Safe House is a must-listen. I take you with with me as I explore the rise and impact of local rap, and what it says about life in that particular place. I'm Soha. I’m a mama, immigrant, and most of all, I'm curious. I grew up in LA, surrounded by hip hop culture during the era of Snoop, Dre, and Pac. That's where I experienced the ability of rap music to reflect, transmit, and shape culture. The Safe House is a personal journey that explores my curiosity about misunderstood places, starting in the Middle East/North Africa. I'm exploring where I'm from, what the music tells us about it, and where I fit into her story. Inspired by Kendrick Lamar’s lyric about “venting in the safe house,” I started The Safe House to have honest conversations with artists about their inner and outer worlds and understand what the music says about life where they're from. My journey starts in a place I have always struggled to understand, a place that’s going through an unprecedented crisis: the motherland, Lebanon. In a lot of ways, this season is about the adventure of going home.   You'll hear the sounds and conversations I recorded during my time in Lebanon, in places ranging from night clubs to refugee camps and everything in between. I pull back the curtain on the everyday lives of hip hop artists so you can see for yourself what life was like in Lebanon in the Summer 2022; two years after Covid, the Lebanese banking crisis, and the Beirut port explosion. You can listen to Season One of The Safe House for free on all the major platforms or at safehousepod.com. Episodes range from only about 8-12 minutes and will be released weekly starting this summer 2023. And you don't need to know Arabic; I translate everything that's important. In upcoming seasons I will expand my exploration to cities across the Middle East, North Africa, and the rest of the world. That’s where your support comes in: subscribe to The Safe House today and get ready to see the world together!
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He discussed reconnecting with his roots and examining both the positive and negative facets of personal and community experiences.

It was remarked that sometimes what people consider most negative in their lives may actually contain elements of good.

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Content: Friday, April 21st | 30 Nisan 5783

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April 21, 2023 10:27 am

If We Accept Lies and Half-Truths, Society Will Not Function

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by Pini Dunner

Opinion

A Torah scroll. Photo: RabbiSacks.org.

Benjamin Franklin declared that “half the truth is often a great lie.” Mark Twain put it slightly differently: “A half-truth is the most cowardly of lies.” And this, from Tennyson: “The lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies.”

Essentially, they were all saying the same thing — the lies that cause the most harm are the half-truths, which can ultimately cause far greater damage than outright lies.

A 2022 study issued by four academics at the University of Cincinnati — “The Half-Truth Effect and Its Implications for Sustainability” — identified what the authors referred to as the “half-truth effect.” Based on two carefully calibrated survey-based experiments, the study showed that people tend to believe a false claim more when it is preceded by a true claim, even if the claims are unrelated. On the other hand, when a false claim is presented before a true claim, it reduces belief in the entire statement.

Politicians are particularly bad when it comes to half-truths, and party affiliation is not a relevant factor — because they all do it. Two months ago, President Biden told an audience in Philadelphia that he had “created more new jobs in two years than any president did in their entire term.” But although it’s true that President Biden has recorded notable job gains in his presidential term so far, surpassing those of previous postwar presidents, the fact is that he took office just as the economy was recovering from a profound recession, which gave the job market a significant tailwind. So, a half-truth.

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April 21, 2023 10:17 am

Poisoning the American Mind: AJ+ Reimagines Violent Gaza Riot in Twitter Propaganda Film

A video recently posted by Al Jazeera’s US-based social media arm, AJ+, on Twitter posed what it presumably thought was...

Meanwhile, at the opposite end of the political spectrum, last week former vice president Mike Pence told an audience in Indianapolis that “liberals” emptied mental health hospitals in 1960s. He failed to mention that they didn’t act alone. Many fiscal conservatives, including several Republicans, were instrumental in shaping the key legislation that resulted in shutting down mental hospitals. Ronald Reagan, who served as both California’s governor and later as president, was particularly prominent; he signed landmark bills that left a significant impact. Another half-truth.

The Torah portions of Tazria and Metzora delve into an extinct condition known as “tzara’at,” which was characterized by discoloration of the skin, on clothes, or on the walls of a person’s home. The consequence of a positive diagnosis was quarantine outside community boundaries for someone with the skin discoloration tzara’at, or the destruction of clothes or a home that had been infected.

While not explicitly stated in the Torah, the Talmudic sages reveal that tzara’at was the consequence of wrongdoing on the part of the afflicted person. The Talmud (Arachin 16a), drawing on various Biblical sources, suggests different potential causes for tzara’at, with speaking ill of others behind their backs being the best-known cause.

The divergence of opinions regarding the cause of tzara’at suggests that by the time the sages of the Talmud were writing about it, the condition had either disappeared or become exceedingly rare, leading the sages to speculate on its causes. But the persistence of this idea that gossip and tittle-tattle were the main cause of tzara’at is intriguing, especially as the Talmud mentions six other potential causes.

The enigmatic nature of tzara’at leaves us grappling with uncertainties as we attempt to understand exactly what we are meant to learn from it. Why would God choose to punish individuals for a seemingly minor transgression such as engaging in gossip? The notion of quarantine and public humiliation is also puzzling. Why would isolation be the remedy? Why is the destruction of clothes and a person’s home the only solution?

The answer relates to the issue of half-truths vs. whole truths. I vividly recall a classroom discussion during my childhood, and although I can’t remember the exact topic, I do recollect our teacher posing the question, “What is your parents’ greatest source of pleasure?” My hand shot up. Smiling, I confidently responded, “Me, of course!”

But he had a follow-up question: “What’s your parents’ greatest source of pain?” I paused, briefly, and then I smiled again. “Me, of course!” I replied. And I wasn’t lying — although, to be fair, my siblings probably shared this distinction with me. Being the source of pleasure and pain was the whole truth; had I said that I was the source of just one or the other it would have been a half-truth that distorted the picture completely.

Many aspects of our lives are wonderful, but we are also all plagued by aspects that are distressing and disturbing. Curiously, if we analyze our lives and are brutally honest with ourselves, we might discover that it is often the same thing which causes joy that also causes us distress. Presented one way they are irredeemably negative, but presented in another they can be upliftingly positive. Our personal reality is complex, and life is complicated.

Modern psychology has come to the conclusion that depressed people aren’t lying when they say that there are things in their lives which are bad — it’s just that they fail to appreciate that there is good in their lives as well. And often, the good is in the very same aspects of their lives which they cast in the most negative light.

Society descends into dysfunction when one “truth” is chosen over another without considering the coexistence of multiple truths. This idea is exemplified by tzara’at and its treatment. Tzara’at was an affliction that befell those who refused to acknowledge that good and bad can coexist. They spoke ill of others, perhaps sharing a half-truth about them that cast their target in an entirely negative light without allowing the listener to consider the broader context.

Often, the greatest lie is the truth seen through a narrow lens. The gravest evil is the undermining of complex reality by cherry-picking truths to support or perpetuate a biased viewpoint. A person with tzara’at needs to be removed from society, so that they cannot destroy it, and the tzara’at itself must be destroyed, as a symbol of the destruction created by those who peddle half-truths.

The message of tzara’at is clear: half-truths wreak havoc. They erode the fabric of society, and those who perpetuate them must never be tolerated, or society will fall apart.

The author is a rabbi in Beverly Hills, California.

The opinions presented by Algemeiner bloggers are solely theirs and do not represent those of The Algemeiner, its publishers or editors. If you would like to share your views with a blog post on The Algemeiner, please be in touch through our Contact page.

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Several users criticized a woman's dance in a praying place, calling it disrespectful towards believers.

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Content: "This is a spit in all believers": because of the jumps of a woman in the Lavra, a scandal broke out
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In the refectory chamber of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra unknown jumped and danced, the video outraged the faithful.
In social networks, a new scandal broke out due to the stormy dances of an unknown girl on the territory of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, in the Refectory Chamber, which is located in the same building as the Refectory Church.
In the video, published in social networks, an unknown girl, on whose clothes it is written “Young years ”, performs a rhythmic dance, jumps in the middle of the room while other visitors are looking at her.
This video was watched by several thousand users, several thousand more commented on it.
At once, several users suggested that the girl does not understand what she is doing.
Most users were outraged by the fact that such a dance is performed in a praying place.
Because of dancing and jumping in the Lavra scandal broke out
In the National Reserve "Kiev-Pechersk Lavra" in the comments of TSN.ua reported that they have already seen this video.
“We can say that this was not an event of the reserve.
The dance performed by the visitor in the Refectory Chamber was her initiative, ” the press service of the reserve told us.
To this it was added that in the Refectory Church itself services are already being held by representatives of the ACU.
The representative of the OCU Mikhail Omelyan told us that he did not see the video of the dance of the visitor, but promised to comment on it later, after he viewed it.
However, commentators in the social network wrote that they were extremely outraged by the behavior of the girl.
"You are not ashamed.
Where you are.
This is a holy place, ” wrote user Irina.
Another user of the social network said: “Horror.
God, forgive us. "
As it turned out, several users wrote the following: "He does not know what he does," "This is sacrilege, spitting in all believers."
Earlier it was reported about the scandalous video concert from the Lavra.
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The incident did not occur during an official event of the religious reserve.

Orthodox Church representative Mikhail Omelyan said he had not yet seen the video but would comment after viewing it.

Some users suggested the girl did not understand the significance of her actions.

There has been an ongoing effort to maintain communication and deliver humanitarian supplies to certain remote religious communities, especially during the COVID-19 outbreak in Taiwan.

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“The Chamorros are trying to deprive them of the cultural code ”
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The rector of the parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church in Taiwan, Priest Kirill Shkarbul, has been engaged in missionary work on the islands of the Pacific Ocean for many years.
In previous years, he worked on the conversion to Orthodoxy of residents of Taiwan, the Philippines, East Timor, Papua New Guinea.
Recently, Father Cyril made a new missionary journey to an exotic land - to the Mariana Islands, where he preached to the locals.
In an interview with “Izvestia ” he told about his impressions received during his stay in the distant archipelago.
How did you get to the Mariana Islands?
To begin with, since the planet was quarantined, our ability to get anywhere with a missionary mission has been severely limited.
It became difficult to maintain communication even with the missions that we had established in previous years — in Papua New Guinea, in East Timor.
We are now forced to maintain, mainly, remote communication with them, from time to time it is possible to send some humanitarian supplies.
Photo courtesy of Father Kirill Shkarbul
I now pay a lot of attention to the development of missionary YouTube channels, where I talk about the Orthodox faith — videos are published in Russian, English and Chinese.
In May of this year, a new outbreak of COVID-19 began in Taiwan.
For the first time, a serious lockdown was introduced on the island - so severe that we were forbidden even to go to the temple, not that to conduct services and courses on Orthodoxy.
It all went online.
Then I remembered that there was a region where I was often invited to develop the Orthodox mission.
This is Oceania, and in particular the Mariana Islands — there is the approval of the Church to develop a mission in those parts of the Pacific region where there is nothing Orthodox yet.
Thus, the lockdown in Taiwan unexpectedly made it possible to make a new missionary journey.
As a result, I managed to visit the Mariana Islands and communicate with representatives of the local Chamorro people.
Before, I knew little about this archipelago, but during my trip there I managed to get acquainted with it closer.
— It seems that the history of the discovery of this archipelago was quite sad?
Europeans first arrived on these islands four hundred years ago, on March 6, 1521.
And they were the sailors of the world ’ s first round-the-world expedition.
According to the results of communication with the Chamorro, the head of the expedition Fernando Magellan gave the archipelago the unhonorable name Las Islas de los Ladrones ("Islands of Thieves") - the aborigines, climbing the ships, dragged from there everything that lay bad.
Much later, in 1668, the islands were named Mariana, after Mariana of Austria, widow of King Philip IV of Spain.
The Spaniards declared the archipelago their colony, but the Chamorros did not want to submit.
The war of conquest began, which lasted for many decades.
During this war, the Chamorros were almost completely exterminated - at one time their number decreased from the previous 100 thousand to just 3 thousand people.
In general, now the thoroughbred Chamorros are almost gone.
The islands are now inhabited by mestizos, leading their pedigrees from Chamorro marriages with peoples who came from other islands of Oceania, as well as with Filipinos, Japanese, Spaniards, Germans.
Who owns the islands now?
The Spanish lost the archipelago at the end of the century.
They lost the southern part of it as a result of the losing war with the Americans, and the northern part was bought from them by Germany.
After World War I, the League of Nations placed Mariana under Japanese control.
When a new world war broke out, the archipelago became the scene of fierce fighting.
The Americans took possession of the islands in 1944, it was from here that planes took off that dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki...
After the war, the United Nations instructed the United States to continue to administer these territories.
Since 1978, the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam have officially become “unincorporated organized territories of the United States ”, and eight years later, the Marians have received the status of US citizens.
The population of the islands, according to the latest census data, is decreasing - in 2010 it was 213,241 people.
The inhabited islands are Guam, Saipan, Tinian and Rota.
In fact, I visited them.
There are still many smaller islands in the archipelago, but due to volcanic activity, no one lives there on a permanent basis.
What do you remember most about your stay in the archipelago?
The first people appeared there two thousand years before the birth of Christ.
And the descendants of those aborigines, despite the increasing Europeanization, still managed to save much from the culture of their ancestors.
As for religion, they are mostly Catholics.
However, for many, Catholicism is purely formal, with extensive pagan inclusions.
I have encountered something similar before in the Philippines and East Timor, where people who call themselves Catholics continue to practice purely pagan rites, such as spirit worship, magic, and divination.
It seems that they go to a Catholic church, but there is no special sense...
Photo courtesy of Father Kirill Shkarbul
To be honest, I had to make a lot of effort to convey to them that Orthodoxy is not the same as Catholicism.
“What new can you tell us?
I read the Bible without you. ”
Before them, unfortunately, Christianity came in a very “dried ” form, and therefore could not supplant paganism, deeply rooted in their worldview and way of life.
The former preachers tried not so much to light the flock with the flame of faith as to entertain it.
Therefore, it turned out that many Marians only in the words of Catholic Christians, but in fact - polytheists animists (believe that each object has its own soul).
And how exactly did you preach?
I began missionary work with the Marians by distributing leaflets specially printed in English.
Immediately there was a question with mobility, as without a car it is difficult to work there.
As a result, I began to practice detour of villages and talk with their inhabitants.
The task was complicated by the fact that, unlike many other Pacific and Asian peoples, the Marians prefer not to gather in large groups.
They are by nature individualists, all on cars, do not experience much interest in visitors.
I want to emphasize that missionary work is first and foremost work on oneself.
You must clearly understand what the Good News you bring to the natives is.
He is obliged to burn himself with this faith in the Living Gospel, in the Apostolic Church, which has not lost its direct connection with Christ.
And those people in the Mariana Islands who, with my modest participation, converted to Orthodoxy, discovered something incredibly important in it.
We saw in Orthodoxy a new hope, an indestructible spiritual core.
After all, now — especially in the era of the pandemic — people are more eager than ever to find a reliable spiritual guide.
What impression did you have of the aborigines?
The Chamorros have always been a small but independent people with high self-esteem, and their modern descendants have inherited this quality.
At the same time, they are not belligerent, not arrogant, they are characterized by a naive-optimistic attitude to the world.
But, of course, they are much more educated than the Papuans I visited two years ago.
Despite the fact that Americanization is gradually doing its job, modern Chamorros still strongly felt such clannishness, which I have not yet seen anywhere else.
Photo courtesy of Father Kirill Shkarbul
Although Guam is home to about 160,000 people (of which only about a third are Chamorros), people identify each other by belonging to a particular clan and many are able to name the names of their ancestors, who lived two hundred and sometimes four hundred years ago, during the era of the arrival of Spanish colonists on the islands.
And people there are often judged not by personal qualities, but by family ties - from which clan you are, who your father, grandfather, uncle, and so on.
They have their own interesting mythology, epic tales, passed down from generation to generation.
What is the policy of the United States towards the population of the Mariana Islands?
In general, they have already managed to Americanize them, deprive the cultural and social elite and tear them away from their national roots.
True, in recent years, programs for the revival of the Chamorro language and culture have been implemented, but often they are of a bootleg nature.
Marian traditions and customs for American businessmen are just another potential tourist attraction, a way of earning.
In fact, the Chamorros are trying to deprive them of the cultural code.
However, the younger generation of natives is beginning to realize this, and therefore they are trying to revive their culture.
But the forces are initially unequal.
On one side is all the power of Hollywood, American show business, modern mass culture, and on the other is a relatively small community of Marians trying to find and revive their ancestral heritage.
Moreover, there are even fewer people in the archipelago who claim to call themselves “Chamorro ” than Filipinos living here.
How do you assess the results of the trip?
During my stay on the islands, I had a lot of conversations about faith — in homes, on the streets, on the beaches, in parks.
Told the Marians about Orthodoxy, and many managed to interest.
The foundation for the future development of the mission, it seems to me, is left good.
A great help was the fact that a small number of our Orthodox compatriots lived on Marians before my arrival, however, they were very divided.
There was no single Orthodox community as such.
When news spread among them that an Orthodox priest had come to the islands for some time, the co-religionists began to look for me (and I - them) to meet.
Photo courtesy of Father Kirill Shkarbul
I think that I managed to somehow unite these people, and their small communities can become the basis for the development of a further mission among those who do not yet belong to Orthodoxy.
Now there are centers of attraction — a circle of believers where people can pray and communicate together.
I hope that in the future these small islands will grow.
I must say that I was greatly helped by an Orthodox family living on the island of Saipan, they even conduct divine services in a secular order.
We are now holding regular online catechesis classes with them and with other volunteers, including converts.
That they may be engaged in the preaching work and that those who already wish to be baptized receive the necessary training to do so.
— Did you leave any visible traces of your stay in the Mariana Islands?
- Yes, on the way to the islands, it occurred to me that it would be nice to install Orthodox worship crosses on some of the islands of the archipelago, in order to thereby express our praise to the Lord and hope for the development and strengthening of Orthodoxy in these parts.
It turned out that the same desire had matured for many years in one of the Orthodox men living on Saipan.
The installation of worship crosses should also serve to further develop the mission and attract greater interest of local residents in the true Christian doctrine.
In addition, this inspired our believers living here, because they still do not have a temple, nor the opportunity to regularly attend Orthodox worship.
After obtaining permission from the local authorities, the initiative was covered by the local media, and its preparation and implementation took about four months.
In November, our volunteer Vladislav installed worship crosses on two island-volcanoes – Anatahan and Pagan.
Crosses with commemorative plaques were erected in accordance with all Orthodox canons, they are clearly visible from afar: both from the sea and from the land.
The Lord blessed to have time to carry out this first part of the project already this year, in November, despite the fact that the shipping season is already closed.
By God ’ s grace, the sea was still surprisingly calm.
This allowed a group of volunteers, having overcome a considerable distance, to swim to both islands and install crosses.
What are your further plans?
In the near future, it is planned to install a symbolic cross also on the northernmost island of the Mariana archipelago - Farallion de Pajaros.
There was hardly a human foot here...
In addition, if the Lord blesses, Orthodox crosses will be erected on some other islands of the archipelago.
But it is extremely important, of course, that a priest be sent to Mariana for the care of the Orthodox and, possibly, other missionaries.
I hope that in the foreseeable future it will be possible to build churches or chapels there for regular divine services.
I hope that I will be there again with a mission when this opportunity arises, because it is necessary to continue the work begun.
In my humble opinion, the Mariana Islands could become a convenient base for the development of an Orthodox mission throughout the Pacific region.
But, of course, the revival and development of the preaching of Orthodoxy here requires both prayerful and financial support from everyone for whom the Lord ’ s call “Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit! ” is important.
Read also

Missionary work in regions like the Mariana Islands faces challenges, including distinguishing Orthodoxy from Catholicism for the local population.

The Chamorros, indigenous to the Mariana Islands, face fears of losing their cultural identity.

Some Orthodox missionary trips have succeeded in uniting small communities and fostering the potential for expanding the Orthodox mission.

Plans are underway to erect Orthodox crosses on additional islands in the archipelago, should this be blessed.

An incident in Giza, Egypt, saw about five thousand people gathered in a church, leading to structural damage during a stampede.

Title:

Content: Fire in Egyptian church kills 35
In the church of the city of Giza in Egypt gathered about five thousand people, as a result of the stampede broke out wooden decoration of the walls.
35 deaths are reported.
At least 35 people were killed and 45 injured Sunday in a fire at a church in the Egyptian city of Giza.
This was reported in Jpost.
The fire broke out when about five thousand worshippers gathered for mass at the Abu Sifin church in the Imbaba district, causing a stampede.
The Egyptian newspaper reported that the church had a wooden wall trim, because of this, the fire could spread to a large area.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Khalil el-Sisi instructed local emergency services to localize the fire and provide assistance to the victims.
“Cursor ” reported that in Haifa the car flew into the supermarket.
This morning in Haifa, a car crashed into a supermarket window.
The driver was taken for treatment.
“Cursor ” wrote what the taxi driver who drove the terrorist said:“ I could have been killed with a shot in the head.
The taxi driver had no idea who he had picked up near the Shaare-Tzedek hospital and taken to the Moria police station in Jerusalem.
Now he believes that only a miracle did not hurt.
Our site informed about the scandalous video: the famous tictoker Daniel Amram insulted the people of Israel.
In social networks, there was a video of Daniel Amram, who blasphemes over the holy book of the Torah.
By his behavior, he tried to provoke hatred and earn millions of views.
Read the latest news from Israel and the world on the Kursor channel in Telegram.
Author of the material:
Orly Schendt
TAGS:

Testimony from an incident involving a taxi driver described the personal danger faced during a terrorist event.

According to expert Alim Shaumetov, young people under 35 are particularly vulnerable to radicalization, and his center works to help them resocialize.

Title:

Content: Young people under 35 most often fall under radical influence - Alim Shaumetov
Author:
Gulzat Sakhova
ALMATY.
KAZINFORM – The urgency of the problems of religious extremism remains acute.
Alim Shaumetov, Director of the Public Foundation “Information, Outreach and Rehabilitation Center“ Akniet ”, told in an interview with Kazinform correspondent what category radicals are represented in our country, and what works to convince radical segments of the population are used in Kazakhstan.
- Alim Fazylzhanovich, tell us about the activities of your center?
- Our center has been operating since January 2014, is a non-governmental organization, whose charitable orientation is clearly indicated by its name "Akniet", that is, "good intentions".
The team of our specialists carries out comprehensive rehabilitation of persons affected by the activities of destructive religious movements.
We help them to re-socialize and return to society.
By increasing religious literacy, we counteract religious extremism, as well as intolerance and the various forms of discrimination and extremist manifestations that arise against this background.
We are involved in conducting explanatory activities in the penitentiary system of Kazakhstan with persons convicted for committing crimes of a terrorist and extremist nature, as well as their relatives, relatives and persons who share their radical religious beliefs who are at liberty.
The Akniet Center operates from the positions of eighteen representative offices opened this year in all regions of the country.
- What specialists work in the center?
- Taking into account our specifics of work, the staff of the center "Akniet" is formed, as a rule, from theologians-Islamic scholars who studied in various theological higher educational institutions of Islamic countries.
The level of religious training of specialists allows them to discuss various topical theological questions with supporters of destructive religious movements, correct their erroneous ideas about the dogmas that formed their radicalism and intolerance, and provide them with comprehensively justified answers.
In order to achieve efficiency in our work, highly qualified psychologists, pedagogic historians and sociologists are also actively involved in our center.
- What outreach activities do you have?
- Guided by the principle "the adept of a destructive religious trend - first of all the injured person", in the process of rehabilitation, we try to provide any kind of support as far as possible.
For example, one of these victims – named Gulzhan, who in 2013, together with her husband and children planned to go to Syria, after conversations with theologians, underwent labor rehabilitation in the center “Akniet ”.
As a psychologist, she helps affected women.
In 2016-2017, we created and launched a sewing workshop in Zhezkazgan, where 27 injured women were trained in sewing skills for free.
As a result, almost everyone has formed a loyal attitude to traditional religious schools and an adequate perception of the secular reality of Kazakhstan.
Thanks to the successful results of work in this area, as well as the stage of theological and psychological rehabilitation of our citizens who returned from Syria in the framework of the unique operation “Jusan ” last year, representatives of a number of foreign non-governmental organizations and the United Nations were interested in our experience.
Of course, we are not limited to targeted preventive work.
The urgency of the problem of countering religious extremism has led to the need for educational work in various institutions of Kazakhstan.
For example, by invitation, we hold lectures and seminars in state and law enforcement agencies and national companies, as well as various institutions.
In general, the doors of our offices are open to everyone, we are ready to provide any theological and psychological assistance.
You can also find us on popular social networks in Kazakhstan, where information videos on relevant topics prepared by the center ’ s specialists are posted.
These materials can be found on our pages in social networks - https: / / www.instagram.com / aqniet.ortalygy /, https: / / www.youtube.com / aqnietortalygy, https: / / www.facebook.com / aqniet.ortalygy.
What age group is affected by radical movements?
The victims of destructive pseudo-religious movements are mainly young people aged 17 to 35 years, who practically do not know anything about religion or have superficial knowledge.
This category, according to our observations, includes primarily maximalist youths and socially vulnerable segments of the population.
Tell me about Operation Jusan.
Is there any plan to continue this operation?
- In 2019, 595 of our citizens were returned from the territory of Syria to Kazakhstan, including 156 women, 406 children and 33 men.
This action was unprecedented, was called “Jusan ”, as symbolizing the hope of returning home and reuniting with family and homeland.
Having been deceived by the ideologues of international terrorist organizations, the returned women and children had been in the war zone for a long time and needed to be rehabilitated after the horrors and hardships they had seen.
We implemented the stage of theological and psychological rehabilitation of the returned citizens, conducting individual preventive measures with them, revealing the fallacy of the ideology of terrorists, bringing the foundations of the Hanafi madhhab traditional for Muslims of Kazakhstan.
I cannot answer the question about the continuation of this operation, since it is under the jurisdiction of state bodies.
- What can you say about those countries that refused to return their citizens?
- It is very difficult to comment on such a question, primarily due to the lack of information for the analysis and the formation of any conclusions.
First of all, it is the internal affairs of the state itself.
However, it should be noted that the experience of Kazakhstan can serve as a positive example that foreign countries can adopt.
- Tell us about Kazakhstan ’ s experience, specially developed and applied methods, as well as opportunities to exert corrective influence on supporters of religious radical extremist movements?
- Our center has gained considerable practical experience in the prevention of religious extremism.
In the rehabilitation work, we try to provide a comprehensive approach, including religious education, psychological correction, social support, education and the revival of patriotism.
As a result, many of our rehabilitated citizens are abandoning their radical religious beliefs.
Such work is associated with the need for endurance and patience, because a person for several years was imbued with the ideas of radicalism, was subjected to suggestion, therefore, removing him from this “zombified ” state requires adequate measures and time expenditures.
For example, at the stage of theological and psychological rehabilitation of women returned as part of Operation Jusan, we most often practiced joint educational activities by theologians and psychologists.
Then the tandem allowed us not only to justify the theological fallacy of certain aspects of religion, but also, with the help of psychologists, to induce the rehabilitated to include critical thinking with the subsequent awareness and acceptance of their delusions and rejection of them.
In addition, at the request of the women themselves, we actively involve them in preventive work.
- What preventive work is being carried out in society, especially among young people, and what mechanisms have been created in our country to overcome the social, ethnic and religious tensions of conflicts?
- As I know, the state has adopted a program to counter religious extremism and terrorism, to the comprehensive implementation of which almost all institutions of civil society, from the muftiate and the Assembly of Peoples of Kazakhstan to socially-oriented and charitable non-governmental organizations, have been actively involved.
I believe that the measures taken have made it possible to significantly improve the religious situation in the country.
- What advice can you give parents to protect children from the harmful effects of radical ideas?
- In my opinion, which is shared by the majority of our fellow citizens, the family plays an important role in the religious education of children and adolescents.
Therefore, we would like to advise parents to talk to their children more often, not to leave them alone with problems and fears, to strengthen their emotional connection with them, to surround them with love and care, to eliminate the sources of problems that provoked or may provoke the entry of your child into religious sects.
We also consider it important to occupy the child and find him an alternative or activities that he will like.
I advise you not to become hostage to your problems.
Feel free to contact psychotherapists, theologians and psychologists, including the employees of our center.
You can also find us on social media.
Or call our office in Nur-Sultan: 8 (7172) 53-99-60.
- Thanks for the interview!
Partners news

Many view such issues as internal state matters.

A festival in Tobolsk focused on the role of Orthodoxy and the mass media in contemporary society.

Title:

Content: XX Interregional Festival-Contest “Orthodoxy and Mass Media ” takes place in Tobolsk
Festival “Orthodoxy and Media ” gathers secular journalists from different regions of Russia
TOBOLSK.
On June 21, 2022, the opening of the XX Interregional Festival-Contest “Orthodoxy and Media ” took place in Tobolsk.
The ceremony was attended by Metropolitan Dimitry of Tobolsk and Tyumen, Deputy Chairman of the Synodal Department for Relations of the Church with Society and Media V.V. Kipshidze, Head of the Department of Regional Relations of the Synodal Department I.V. Piskunov and Deputy Chairman of the Union of Journalists of Russia A.K. Vishnevetsky.
The Orthodoxy and Media Festival gathers secular journalists from different regions of Russia.
Within the framework of the festival there is a contest of journalistic works
In total, more than 120 applications were submitted from 37 settlements of the country.
More than 80 people take part in the festival.
This year, the 20th anniversary festival is dedicated to the 400th anniversary of the formation of the Siberian Diocese with its center in Tobolsk.
As Metropolitan Dimitry noted, the expansion of the Russian state in Siberia was largely due to the development of education, which spread along with the promotion of the Orthodox mission to the east.
The archpastor called on journalists to continue the work of education, to bring a good word to the world, ennobling society.
In turn, V.V. Kipshidze noted the importance and relevance of the festival, which gathers many caring secular journalists.
“We live in an era when the Church and the journalistic community are co-workers in the information ministry.
The journalistic word is an important means to protect what is sacred, dear and valuable to us, ” said the representative of the Department.
V.V. Kipshidze called the protection of traditional values by journalists a new form of confession in the modern world: “In modern society, the journalistic service of those who defend values, protect shrines, is, in my opinion, a new form of confession.
We know that confessors of the past defended their faith against pressure, against lies, against threats to their lives.
This is a time in many ways now.
And we must carry out our ministry exactly as confession, otherwise we simply will not be able to change the world and become consumers of information that is imposed on us by forces hostile to Orthodoxy, hostile to our country. ”
The Deputy Chairman of the Synodal Department for the Relations of the Church with Society and the Media also spoke at the round table with the participation of regional secular journalists held within the framework of the XX Festival-Contest “Orthodoxy and the Media ” in Tobolsk.
Opening the event, V.V. Kipshidze noted that the Church in its media presence tries to use all possible platforms, without limiting in this respect either official church institutions or individual initiatives of clergymen.
In particular, he drew the attention of journalists to the activity of a number of video bloggers, which is developing with the support of the Department.
“Priestly blogging today is developing exponentially.
There are a number of successful projects of priests, whose video blogs are comparable in terms of audience coverage with secular bloggers and some media.
Fathers-videobloggers find forms that are in demand in society, including among young people.
This activity enjoys the full support of His Holiness the Patriarch and the Department, ” said V.V. Kipshidze.
He told journalists about the Council of Priests and Video Bloggers that exists at the Department, which is a tool for coordinating the activities of priests who develop their video blogs in social networks, and a platform for discussing new ideas.
V.V. Kipshidze also told about the project of training priests and bloggers implemented by the Department.
According to the representative of the Department, this project is designed to scale the experience of successful clergymen in this area to the regions.
“We believe that priests who are able to work in social networks should be more.
The goal of our projects is to form an active self-regulating community of video bloggers who lead a mission in the media space, ” added V. Kipshidze.
At the same time, according to him, the result of the activities of video bloggers should be to attract their subscribers to the vaults of the temple, that is, activities in the virtual space should lead to the de-virtualization of people.
Speaking about the coverage of church topics by secular journalists, V.V. Kipshidze stressed that living this problem through personal experience increases the strength and persuasiveness of the material they create.
“The apostles recounted their personal experience of communion with Jesus Christ, and when they spoke of it, they experienced it anew.
That is why their testimony about Christ covered the whole world, ” concluded the representative of the Synodal Department.
The round table was attended by the Deputy Chairman of the Union of Journalists of Russia A.K. Vishnevetsky; the moderator was the Deputy General Director of the media holding "Sibinformbureau" and a member of the Board of the Union of Journalists of the Tyumen region S.G. Golyakova.
Forums

Church officials encourage priests with social media skills to participate in online missionary work.

Projects aim to build a self-regulating online community of video bloggers who promote the church's message.

A majority of respondents aged under 35 support fines for certain offenses related to church controversies.

Title:

Content: Poll: Russians against strict punishment for candid photos on the background of churches
Most Russians believe that the punishment for candid photos against the background of churches should be limited to a fine, according to a survey conducted by the Levada Center (recognized by the Russian authorities as a foreign agent).
More than half of respondents (51%) believe that the state should punish the publication of such images, but the punishment should be limited to a fine.
35% of respondents believe that the punishment should be more severe - up to imprisonment.
Another 10% believe that there should be no punishment for such an act.
Supporters of severe punishment most among respondents over 54 years of age.
In this age group, 43% of respondents support strict punishment for candid photos against the background of churches, while 47% of their peers believe that the punishment should be limited to a fine.
The least supporters of severe punishment (19%) - among respondents aged 18-24 years.
The penalty in the form of a fine is supported by 57% of respondents in this age group.
At the same time, 17% of respondents aged 18-24 believe that the state should not punish either the authors or the heroes of these photos.
In general, as follows from the survey data, residents of Russia are not inclined to closely follow the scandals associated with the publication of candid photos against the background of churches.
Every second respondent did not know anything about the publication of such pictures on social networks.
36% of respondents said that they had heard something about such publications, and only 14% said that they had heard a lot about scandals associated with frank photos against the background of Orthodox churches.
The respondents aged 18-24 years, as well as residents of the country older than 55 years - in these age groups, 53% of respondents know about scandalous photos.
Most of all about scandals with candid photos against the background of churches know those for whom telegram channels are the main source of information.
Among them, 28% of respondents are well aware of such scandals, 36% have heard something about it.
Respondents aged 25-54 years are less aware: 47% of them know about such scandals or have heard something about them, while 53% of respondents in this age group do not know anything about them at all.
Among those who prefer television and radio as the main source of information, most of those who have not heard anything about such publications (50 and 49%, respectively).
Cases due to provocative photos
Last autumn, because of photographs taken against the background of churches and the Kremlin, which the authorities considered provocative, several cases were opened at once - criminal and administrative.
One of the loudest - against blogger Ruslan Bobiev and his girlfriend Anastasia Chistova, who took a photo against the background of the temple of St. Basil the Blessed - on it the girl sits in front of the guy squatting, and he holds her by the hair.
On October 29, a court in Moscow sentenced them to 10 months in prison, finding them guilty of insulting the feelings of believers.
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On October 30, the St. Petersburg Department of the Investigative Committee announced that it had opened a case under the same article against the instagram model Irina Volkova, who starred in thongs against the background of St. Isaac ’ s Cathedral.
However, the court refused the investigation, which asked to assign the girl a measure of restraint.
22-year-old webcam model Lola Bunny (Lolita Bogdanova) was less lucky - she is under a travel ban.
On October 23, the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case against her about insulting the feelings of believers because of the video in which the girl shows her chest, standing near the same church of St. Basil.
On October 31, it became known that Moscow police are conducting an inspection because of the photos that porn actress Rita Fox (Ksenia Damova) posted on social networks.
On one of them, the girl stands against the background of the Kremlin tower, lowering her pants and exposing her buttocks.
As a result, a protocol was drawn up on Damova under the article on petty hooliganism and sent under administrative arrest for 14 days.
On November 18, it became known that in Kaluga, the police began an inspection because of a photo of a girl who raised her skirt against the background of the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord.
Later, the heroine of the photo said that she wrote a confession, and did it in the FSB.
Reaction to such cases
The autumn wave of cases of insulting the feelings of believers caused a resonance in social networks.
Users sharply criticized and ridiculed the actions of Russian law enforcement agencies.
So, the producer and blogger Yaroslav Andreev published on Instagram photos of singers Natalia Oreiro and Olga Buzova, who posed in open swimsuits against the background of Orthodox churches in Moscow and Volgograd.
Andreev noted that now very worried about the fate of the singers.
In the media there were also comments from representatives of various religious communities in defense of the authors and heroes of candid photo shoots against the background of the temples.
Rector of the Institute of Christian Psychology, Archpriest Andrei Lorgus suggested that such candid photo shoots against the background of churches are not intended to offend believers.
He said it could be a form of protest.
“Teenagers always arrange something provocative, they have such a need to go against everyone.
They choose the tools that will have the desired effect.
They hit a point, in a sore place, "he said in an interview with the radio station Govorit Moskva.
The head of the World Union of Old Believers Leonid Sevastyanov urged not to punish bloggers for photos with elements of nudity.
In an interview with RIA Novosti, he called the stories of the persecution of bloggers posing in underwear against the background of the temples, too bloated.
According to him, such actions can not offend the feelings of believers.
“Naked is also part of religious culture, not only in the Western tradition, where, for example, the Sistine Chapel is all decorated with bare bodies, but also in the Eastern tradition, where, for example, Christ is completely depicted naked both during baptism and in his underwear on the Cross, ” he noted.
Amendments to Article 148 of the Criminal Code, providing for criminal liability for insulting the feelings of believers, were adopted in Russia in 2013.
The need to tighten the legislation began to talk after the “punk prayer ”, which in 2012 was held by the members of the group Pussy Riot in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.

What kind of domestic reaction did Erdogan's reconversion of Hagia Sophia receive?

Generally, Russians do not closely follow scandals involving candid photos near churches, especially those who prefer television and radio for news.

Some believe such actions do not necessarily offend believers but can touch on sensitive social issues.

Recent events in Kazakhstan include plans for a visa-free regime with Iran, China, and India, and ongoing connections with Russia are noted.

Title:

Content: What worries the soul of the Kazakh at the end of June
Network media about the Kazakh press
Nazira DARIMBET – “Poet Baltabek from Aktobe wrote new poems about Tokayev ” – The young Kazakh poet dedicated new poems to President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, writes the Internet portal Adyrna.kz.
« Wise Kassym-Jomart Kemeluly,
He headed the kurultai in Ulytau.
Fulfilled my dream on the day of my birth,
My president is a great personality.
My greetings to New Kazakhstan,
I have proved my loyalty to him,
And in the creation of it,
There is my contribution and my work, ” the poem says.
Earlier, the poet also dedicated odes to Nursultan Nazarbayev and his family members - Sara Alpyskyzy, Bolat and Dariga Nazarbayev.
He compared the former president of Kazakhstan to the Almighty.
Later, he wrote new poems dedicated to Russia and Vladimir Putin.
In them, he called Russia the cradle of peace and expressed deep gratitude to the President of the Russian Federation.
* * *
Singer Moldir AUELBEKOVA told why she divorced her second husband, writes the online edition Stan.kz.
If in the collapse of the first marriage, the singer blamed the former mother-in-law, this time in the divorce she accused the former second husband.
According to Auelbekova, the father of her daughter was a believer, but, despite this, did not stop his night adventures.
Apparently, this was the reason for the collapse of the family, notes the publication.
“My second husband is a religious man who has died seven to eight times.
He also made a great hajj.
But, as they say, he “was an imam by day, and Ivan by night. ”
Therefore, for me it is no longer an authority if someone is either an imam or a believer.
My first husband was not a believer, he has just the opposite ”, — quotes the singer edition.
* * *
Maira KURMANGALIEVA, on which a criminal case was opened, arranged a celebration in honor of the 90th anniversary of her mother, Nege.kz reports.
The event was held last Saturday at the famous Jailau Shubartal in Rayymbek district of Almaty region.
One of the local residents told the publication that such a thing has not been seen here:
“From Friday in our area began to move in different expensive cars.
They were coming from Almaty.
Trailers brought horses, which were exhibited at the races, and as a prize - several cars. "
The publication notes that the akimat of Rayymbek district in every possible way contributed to the holding of this event.
“With what scope was that, you can see from the video and photos that were at the disposal of the editorial office.
There were high guests, entertainers performed.
For example, singer Madina Sadvakasova posted a video on social networks.
A few years ago, it was at this jailau that Bolat and Mayra Nazarbayevs celebrated the ceremony of circumcision of their son Khanbolat.
People still remember how then Bolat Nazarbaev scattered money from the helicopter.
Recall that a few days ago, information spread that a criminal case was opened against Bolat Nazarbayev and his ex-wife Mayra Kurmangalieva.
They are accused of raiding, ” the article says.
* * *
Victor MAYLIN – “Who is behind Tigran? ” – A certain boom and permanent flowering of Internet resources, which can be attributed to the media, to mass media in the Kazakh language, in the state language, seems to be beginning to fade to some extent...
It seems that some new Internet sites, portals are being opened.
But in the circle of those who have already been, who have become noticeable and worked for more than one year, and not two, but much more – stagnation seems to have begun there.
Some quite active resources noticeably slowed down, there is no update.
Although last year they not only “rewrote ” in full, but also issued their own information products.
For example, “Kala men Dala ”.
It was like a website of the newspaper of the same name – but it worked as a familiar now format of the information portal.
There are no recent updates...
Of course, something is born, something dies, someone “freezes ” – such impermanence happens in the Russian-speaking segment of virtual media, but it is still sad and alarming when the work of any media stops, the news feed is not updated, etc.
And what about those portals that continue to work at full capacity?
For example, the portal Dalanews has its own telegram channel, which is called “Dala Inside ”.
This telegram channel produces material that tells who is behind the family couple consisting of Margarita Simonyan and Tigran Keosanyan, who are one of the prominent propagandists of the Kremlin and its course.
Tigran Keosanyan is known for his public attacks on Kazakhstan, on the policy pursued by him, and Margarita Simonyan recently distinguished herself with “frank ” questions addressed to the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan K-Zh.
Tokayev...
T.me / dalainside points out that behind the above-mentioned gentlemen is a loyal Putin media manager and one of the main organizers of the Kremlin ’ s aggressive propaganda, the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation Alexei GROMOV, who is called the “Curator ” in well-known circles.
His nickname is "Prime Minister of Propaganda."
He is known for using a push-button phone (it is claimed that this man, who has been with Putin for 23 years, is not friends with new gadgets) and he is the first to receive a budget lowered for propaganda work on the outer perimeter.
And these are huge sums from which the same Tigran feeds and at whose behest he makes information attacks.
In a word, behind the Keosayan attacks is the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation and it is still unknown what provocations are waiting for us.
* * *
In the country again went fashion for the so-called “language patrols ”.
Remember the Youtube Channel Til Maidan ” – “Language Front ” and its creator Kuat Akhmetov?
Now quite actively, we can say aggressively (respectively, causes retaliatory aggressiveness and emotions) 32-year-old blogger from Pavlodar Dias Kuzairov just as nightmares those shops, cafes where there is no menu, various ads or advertising duplicated in the Kazakh language, referring strictly to the norms of the law on languages and the latest innovations in it.
But we are not talking about him, but about his followers, who really do not shoot commercials, but write in social networks, on websites.
The Adyrna website provides the following information.
The first is the story of the famous journalist (reprinted his post on Facebook) Aibar Olzhay.
He discovered a lagmankhana in his hometown of Almaty, which lacks a menu and other documentation in the state language.
He calmly explained everything to the waiter, who reported to his superiors and was promised that all this would be corrected within a week.
Adyrna did not lead the entire post - and in Facebook, the father of his native language even led a correspondence in which the employee of the lagmankhana reported that he contacted his superiors and indicated the timing of the correction of shortcomings.
Aibar himself is surprised by the fact that "in this" Lagmankhan No1 "all visitors are almost the same Kazakhs.
The staff is also full of Kazakhs.
Those who speak Kazakh.
And the menu is only in Russian...
Almaty is paradoxical.
The city is for the soul. ”
* * *
Aru TENTEKALI – “Kazakhs, as always, will remain hungry ” – On the portal Zhasalash.kz was published a statement by Aydin OLZHAI about the plans of the Kazakh authorities to open a visa-free regime for citizens of Iran, China and India.
“The authorities of Kazakhstan now plan to introduce a visa-free regime for citizens of Iran, China and India.
But in such countries as China, Iran, India, the welfare of the people is not at such a high level.
Our Kazakhstan is a very favorable place for those who are tired of a country with an excessively large number of people.
What if they come as tourists, and then get a job, get married and ask for citizenship?
It seems that our government, which is very proud of the fact that Kazakhstan is a multinational country, will simply give up its citizenship.
Or some corrupt official will sell the blue document, ” the author lamented.
According to him, the most developed countries in the world with the highest population do not allow people of a foreign country to enter their land.
They don ’ t even give citizenship.
In the United States, no foreigner can pass half a day unless he has a clear basis in accordance with the law.
In countries such as Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, the wealth and comfort of the country are intended only for the citizens of this country.
“Why don ’ t the Kazakhs have this?
If a Kazakh brings home expensive food, he will first treat her to a guest.
Globally, this cannot be done.
Otherwise, all the rest will be fed, and the Kazakhs, as always, will remain hungry, ” the author concluded.
* * *
On the portal Alashainasy.kz was published the statement of Bakhtiyar Khamit about the excessive use of Russian mat in the Kazakh language.
“Do you notice that lately it has become fashionable to write posts using mats.
Not some people from the street, but educated people are not able to convey their thoughts without obscene Russian words.
Long ago, when I went to Moscow, wherever they were, on the bus, the subway use it through every word, ” the author said.
According to the author, years later this habit has come to us.
“Dear ones, since you still swear, it is better to do it in Kazakh, ” Hamit wrote, stressing that our language also has a variety of words.
* * *
Kalmakhanbet Mukhametkali ’ s statement about Russian products on the market of Kazakhstan was published on the portal Alashainasy.kz.
The author noted that in fact he had to write about how “the Kazakhs were asked for forgiveness, don, and how we were recognized, don. ”
But when he visited one of the local supermarkets, he came to his senses.
“Even if it offends you, I will say: Kazakhstan is fed by Russia.
90% of the products of daily use come from Russia.
I will not make a fact-check, but it would be good if officials and politicians visited the nearest shops.
It seems that with such consumers, Russia can safely live, ignoring Western sanctions, ” the author lamented.
* * *
Dosymzhan NAUKHANOV – “Why was the Writers ’ Union stuck in the last century? ” – In the social network, the writer Arman ALMENBET raised the question of the future of the Writers ’ Union, writes malim.kz.
“One of the institutions that once had a huge influence, and now it is not clear what is happening there, is the Writers ’ Union.
If it includes compassionate and businesslike people, it will become an organization that creates conditions for both the people and the writers.
The Writers' Union is often criticized, and if it goes further, there is no future for this organization.
Our writers are not able to adapt to modernity, there is a share of the blame and the Union, ” says Armand Almenbet.
There were many opponents of this point of view, but enough were those who supported Almenbet.
For example, playwright Sultanali Balgabayev said that the Union needed new solutions.
* * *
“The Minister is asked to help the scientific library ” – the Mazhilis gave the first instruction to the New Minister of Science Sayasat NURBEK.
Makpal Tazhmagambetova addressed a deputy request to the Minister of Science and Higher Education.
It was about the scientific library, where the largest book fund in the country is stored, writes baq.kz.
In 1959, by special order of Kanysh Satpayev, the section “Rare books, manuscripts and national literature ” was opened, where valuable manuscripts and old books related to history and literature were collected.
The historical and cultural heritage brought by scientific expeditions led by academician A. Margulan has become the spiritual treasury of Kazakhstan, ” said Makpal Tazhmagambetova.
According to her, today the library has a total of six million publications, including more than one million in foreign languages.
“There is no such rich book fund in all of Central Asia.
There are many works in Arabic, Persian, Chagatai, Chinese and other languages.
Therefore, the Central Scientific Library deserves the recognition of the reader not only at the republican, but also at the international level. ”
* * *
© ZONAkz, 2022г.
Reprinting is prohibited.
Only hyperlinks to the material are allowed.

Authorities in Kazakhstan are investigating opinions expressed in a video by Sanan Akhmedov, whose brother is a martyr.

Title:

Content: As it was reported yesterday, the prosecutor's office is currently conducting an investigation in connection with the opinions voiced in the first video by Sanan Akhmedov, the brother of the martyr Sabukha Akhmedov.
According to the press service of the Prosecutor General ’ s Office, details that Sanan Akhmedov voiced in the second video distributed on social media are also being comprehensively investigated.
“The results will be reported to the public.
We ask media representatives and users of social networks not to spread unspecified information in connection with this sensitive topic, "the Prosecutor General's Office said.

Mufti Salah Mezhiyev from Chechnya attended events in Mecca, coinciding with local celebrations of Kunta-Haji Kishiyev’s birthday.

Title:

Content: 03 January 2022, 16: 54
Residents of Chechnya celebrated with mass events the day of memory of Kunta-Haji Kishiyev
THIS MESSAGE (MATERIAL) IS CREATED AND (OR) DISTRIBUTED BY A FOREIGN MASS MEDIA PERFORMING THE FUNCTIONS OF A FOREIGN AGENT, AND (OR) A RUSSIAN LEGAL ENTITY PERFORMING THE FUNCTIONS OF A FOREIGN AGENT AGENT.
Mass religious events were held in Chechnya on the occasion of the Day of Remembrance of Kunta-Haji Kishiyev.
Mufti Salah Mezhiyev and other pilgrims from Chechnya timed a visit to Mecca on this date.
According to the "Caucasian Knot", since 2009, on January 3, the Day of Remembrance of Kunta-Haji Kishiyev is celebrated in Chechnya.
On this day, religious rites and pilgrimage to the grave of the mother of Kishiev in the village of Ertan are performed in the republic.
In 2021, on this day, in the Vedensky district, the village of Pervomaiskoe, founded in the middle of the XIX century by Kunta Haji Kishiyev, was solemnly returned to the historical name of Haji-Evla.
Kunta Haji Kishiev was an Islamic preacher of the Caucasian War era, who belonged to the Sufi order of Qadiriyah, the founder of the Zikristov movement.
He is considered one of the 356 Muslim saints who live permanently on earth, according to a biography of Kishiev published on the "Caucasian Knot".
Among the followers of Wird Kunta-haji are Ramzan Kadyrov and most of the officials and religious figures of Chechnya.
In Chechnya today there are mass religious events dedicated to the Day of Remembrance and Veneration of Kunta-Haji Kishiyev, reports IA "Chechnya Today".
"In the cities and districts of the republic, to the 158th anniversary of the Sheikh's exile, the Holy Koran, the Mawlid (a gathering of Muslims dedicated to important events) and the Dhikr (a prayer with the repetition of the name of the Almighty) are read," the agency said in a statement.
In January 1864, Kishiev was arrested and imprisoned by the tsarist administration, and then sent into exile in Novgorod province along with a group of his associates.
At the same time, in Shali, the tsarist troops shot the procession of the sheikh ’ s Murids, who demanded his release.
Ramzan Kadyrov made today an appeal in connection with the Day of Veneration of Kunta-Haji Kishiyev.
“Kunta-Haji was a very peace-loving man.
He did not take up arms and did not call anyone to violence.
On the contrary, all his sermons were aimed at ensuring peace, unity and harmony.
Despite the exclusively peacemaking and creative activity, Kunta-Haji was arrested and sent into exile by the tsarist authorities.
This crime cannot be explained by anything other than the desire to plunge the people into bloodshed, "the head of Chechnya said.
He stressed that the repressions against believers were “a monstrous political mistake of the tsarist authorities. ”
“Instead of supporting a man who urged people to be patient and understanding, they sent him into exile.
With this step, they embittered people, "Kadyrov said to Grozny-inform.
The Mufti of Chechnya Salah Mezhiev and other pilgrims from Chechnya visited Mecca on the Day of Veneration of Kunta Haji Kishiyev, the Grozny State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company reported on January 2, publishing a report about this on its Instagram page.
“Now the Murids of the Chechen Ustaz are on pilgrimage to Mecca.
There they made a ziyarat on the mountain Jabal al-Sawr, on its top there is a cave in which during his hijrah the Prophet Muhammad (may Allah 's peace and blessings be upon him) spent three days together with his closest associate Abu Bakr.
On the report ChGTRK "Grozny" drew the attention of the reader of the "Caucasian Knot" with the nickname mika.
"What is most striking in this video is the words of Mufti Mezhiev of Chechnya, about the living Kunta-Haji, who is" in other lands ", and that participants in religious ceremonies in his honor prayed for his imminent return to his homeland," he wrote in a comment on the material about Magomed Daudov.
Recall that in January 2020, blogger Tumso Abdurakhmanov criticized Salah Mezhiyev for saying that Kunta Haji Kishiyev continues to preach Islam in the world.
“A person lived two or a half centuries ago, and he (Mezhiev) says that this person is alive to this day, ” Abdurakhmanov said.
He quoted in his video of Mezhiev ’ s speech, who repeatedly stressed that Chisinau “today moves on the ground ”,“ moves around the world ”.
The residents of the republic interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" then suggested that Chechen theologians were misleading people.
The claims about the immortality and supernatural abilities of Kishiev fit into Sufi doctrine, although they contradict orthodox Islam, Islamic scholars argued.
Public criticism of the religious views of the followers of Sufism in Chechnya, expressed by Tumso Abdurakhmanov, is inappropriate, such a discussion should be raised only within the Jamaats, explained the "Caucasian Knot" Caucasian scholar Akhmet Yarlykapov.
Tumso himself considered the discussion that arose after his words useful for the residents of Chechnya, where criticism is strongly suppressed.
It should be noted that in July, mass events are also held in Chechnya in honor of the birthday of Kunta-Haji Kishiyev.
The ideas of Kunta-Haji helped the inhabitants of the Caucasus not to give up their faith in the years of repression and atheistic propaganda, Islamic scholars previously interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" indicated.
Author: "The Caucasian Knot"
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03 January 2022, 17: 50
03 January 2022, 15: 55
03 January 2022, 15: 01
Saakashvili demanded the visit of independent doctors
Mikheil Saakashvili, who was returned to the Rustavi prison, demanded that independent doctors be allowed to visit him and that meetings with lawyers be kept confidential, threatening to protest, the defense said today.
03 January 2022, 14: 04
03 January 2022, 13: 14
• Worker killed in Rustavi factory
An employee of one of the factories in Rustavi died after an accident.
The incident is qualified as a violation of labor protection rules, which led to the death of a person, the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported today.
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In Russia, Father Sergius was deprived of his clerical rank following statements about monastic land leasing, yet he continues to reside at the Sredneuralsky nunnery.

Title:

Content: Father Sergius was caught in a lie about the ownership of the lands of the Sredneuralsky monastery
26 August 2020, 12: 20
The Secretary of the Diocesan Council, Abbot Veniamin (Raynikov), said that the land, but which is the scandalous Sredneuralsky Convent, belongs to the Yekaterinburg Diocese, writes “Uralinformburo ”.
In his videos, Father Sergius said that the monastery land is on lease.
However, according to Veniamin, the land is diocesan, there are no private plots there, all of them are registered on cadastral records.
Representatives of the official church believe that the scheman illegally seized the monastery and deny the information that Sergius is registered there, nothing prevents him from leaving the monastery.
The scandal around Father Sergius began to develop after he in his sermons on YouTube cursed supporters of self-isolation, urged people to take to the streets, and also spoke unflattering against the top officials of the state, as well as the ROC.
As a result, he was deprived of his dignity, but the Sredneuralsky nunnery did not leave.

Certainly!

Title:

Content: Chairman of the Board of Directors and Editors
I'm sorry.
Mohamad Elbaz
Chairman of the Board of Directors and Editors
I'm sorry.
Mohamad Elbaz
The castle, the sea and Mrs. Nafisa
I rubbed my eyes several times while watching a video of a tweet from an Arab country on a historical topic.
The subject of the video was about a dangerous archaeological assumption, which is that Mount Sinai is located outside Sinai!
Especially in a mountain range in Saudi Arabia!
At first, I didn ’ t feel that tight.
and if I asked myself & lt; & lt; what brought the castle by the sea? & gt; & gt;
In the famous way of Muhammad Sa'ad.
I did a quick search and found that it was based on the individual diligence of a scientist who said this strange opinion and many did not pay attention to it.
But the activity of this young singer drew my attention to something inside of us more than about others.
And that is that there are those who seek to reduce what we have, and it is very, very much.
And that whoever does this may be an Egyptian by nationality, but certainly not an Egyptian by belonging and closest to health is that he is an Egyptian traitor.
Others recruited him to destroy his country and lose his people ’ s self-confidence.
It goes without saying that the Torah, the Quran and the Gospel are what told us that Moses (peace be upon him) saved his Lord in Sinai, and that his people lived there for forty years, and it goes without saying that the Mount of Transfiguration is one of the most important religious shrines in Egypt, and that President Sisi ordered the development of the region tourist to become a global tourist destination.. Why?
Because there is a great tourism competition that will be witnessed in the coming years and among the axes of religious tourism..
This competition, which does not spoil the friendliness of the issue, will happen by chance with a number of brotherly countries in the Middle East such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar and other countries.
As a result of its years of inactivity, Egypt only ranked third in the number of tourists in the region after the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
Egypt has announced that it aims to double the number of tourists and reach 30 million tourists within five years.
This is a legitimate ambition and less than a country that has one-sixth of the world ’ s monuments and has beaches on Bahrain and combines the climate of Asia with the climate of Africa.
Etc..
What does the electronic commissions of traitors have to do with all this?
The relationship is very close.
Take a project such as the development of the shrines of the House..
It ’ s a simple project, but it ’ s a great one.
First, it sweeps the dust of half a century of imposing Wahhabism on Egypt and generalizing the culture of criminalizing the visit of the family of the house and expiation and innovation - from the heresy - who performs it for other spiritual shrines and another understanding of the religion - has all the respect away from us - then it deepens the cultural heritage of Egypt. This is how God wanted him.
The revival of the shrines of Al-Bayt means that Egypt should be for Muslims with all their sects, diversity, teams and sects, because we welcome visitors without interfering in their relationship with their Lord exactly as we do not like anyone to interfere in our relationship with our Lord.
The renewal of these shrines would raise the value of Egypt in the Muslim world more than it is high, and would revive religious tourism.
In addition to the 15 million who come to visit the beaches and Pharaonic monuments, a million, two or three may come to visit the shrines of Al Bayt.
Certainly this increases Egypt's income and opportunities in tourism competition and harasses the committees of traitors and those who pay them, and here shows the genius of the traitor in distortion through small details depending on the lack of specialization of people..
For example, if you renovated the mosque of Sayyeda Nafisa using wood, he said that it would have been better to use marble.
If you used marble, he said it was better to use stone.
If the mosque was decorated using Andalusian inscriptions, he said it was better to resort to the Ottoman style.
If you used the Ottoman style, he said that the Ottomans were invaders!
How can we salute them?
Thus, according to the system « Doukhini Ya Lemona » based on the lack of specialization of the ordinary citizen and his tendency to malice in any government entity because he considers the government responsible for all his problems and crises, and that ridiculing what it does and minimizing it is « the least duty » can be done in the face of provoking some ministers and their inability to communicate with the people..
In fact, everything that the committees of the fugitives said about the mosque of Mrs. Nafisa is pure nonsense and lies paid for by parties disturbed by the revival of religious tourism in Egypt.
Mosques are generally a moral entity, not monuments.
God wants us to build it, not rebuild it.
At the time of the mission, Al-Haram Al-Sharif was a group of rooms in Al-Jareed overlooking its ground plate of dirt where people pray no more than several meters..
Does it make sense to keep it as it is?
Of course not...
The rooms have been demolished and the mosque expanded dozens of times over fourteen centuries, and this applies to other large and great mosques, but the ignorant do not know.
The Chinese proverb says it doesn ’ t matter what color a cat is, whether it ’ s white or black.
It is important to eat rats.
Likewise, I say that I do not care about the method of renewing the shrines of the House as long as it is carried out by specialists..
The important thing is to renew, develop, illuminate, shine, flourish and bring millions of visitors from all over the Islamic world.
And whoever bothers him should go to hell.

Here is a coherent summary of the provided extracts, rewritten with one sentence per line and within the 2500-character limit:

The Grand Mufti described extremist ideologues as enemies of the homeland.

Title:

Content: Chairman of the Board of Directors and Editors
I'm sorry.
Mohamad Elbaz
Editor-in-Chief
Wael Lotfy
Chairman of the Board of Directors and Editors
I'm sorry.
Mohamad Elbaz
Editor-in-Chief
Wael Lotfy
The Grand Mufti of the Republic: Extremist ideologues are the enemies of the homeland.
We appreciate any “constructive criticism ” (dialogue)
President Sisi takes it upon himself to renew the religious discourse because it is “the duty of time ”
The Fatwa House is not “politicized ” and is strongly determined to confront extremist groups
We are continuing our plan to enhance communication with the public and we aim to open 4 branches every year in the governorates
We entered TikTok to flood it with useful content.
We are facing the fourth generation wars with Fatwa Trend.
We launched the Animation Unit to respond to extremist fatwas in a simplified way that reaches everyone
Dr. Shawky Allam, Mufti of the Republic, said that the Egyptian Fatwa House offers a rich religious and cultural meal and a package of legitimate services that facilitate communication between the mufti and the mufti during the holy month of Ramadan, while continuing the five-year plan that is being implemented to enhance communication with the public by opening four or five new branches each year in the governorates.
The Grand Mufti of the Republic, in his dialogue with the « Constitution », stressed that the renewal of religious discourse and fatwas is the duty of time and an imperative necessity, so President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi bears upon himself this file, pointing out that the House launched the animated unit to respond to extremist fatwas in a simplified manner, with the work to issue a monthly report, under the name « Fatwa Trend », Stirring up rumors and distorting facts.
He stressed that the Fatwa House is not "politicized", does not take instructions from anyone, and is not subject to any dictates, but the public interest is part of the work of the Mufti, so the House does not pay attention to the abusive comments received on social networking sites, which stand behind the enemies of the homeland from the owners of extremist Brotherhood thought, but, in turn, interested in constructive criticism, and substantive proposals.
The beginning...
What are the details of Dar Al Ifta ’ s plan to work in the holy month of Ramadan?
In the holy month of Ramadan, we invite the masses of Muslims to seize the days of this holy month in self-reform, behavior, and constructive work, and to be sincere in the intention of God in all their deeds and obedience, in accordance with the saying of God Almighty: "Say that my prayer, my sacrifice, my life and my death to God, the Lord of the worlds, has no partner."
During the month of Ramadan, we have a package of sharia services that facilitate communication between the mufti and the respondent, some of which are provided through the various departments of the house directly, and some of which we provide through the official accounts of the house through social networking sites, as part of the keenness to provide an intensive faith meal during the holy month that helps the Muslim to obey and offer him various forms of obedience and worship.
We at Dar Al Iftaa are continuing our five-year plan, which is being implemented successively, and aims primarily to strengthen communication channels with the public, and facilitate obtaining the correct fatwa from the specialized fatwa trustees in Dar Al Iftaa, and other Sharia services.
We have already signed a cooperation protocol to establish a branch of Dar al-Ifta in Gharbia Governorate, and we have opened a new branch in Beni Suef Governorate, at the Faculty of Navigation Science and Space Technology at Beni Suef University, as well as a cooperation protocol to establish a new branch in Matrouh, in addition to coordinating the opening of two other branches in North Sinai and Sohag governorates.
What files are you working on at the moment?
Building awareness and confronting extremism is a matter of constant concern to us, and therefore we are strongly determined to confront extremist groups that sow discord and threaten intellectual and social peace and security by flooding social media pages with a flood of sound information that corrects misconceptions.
As part of this, we work through the Dar al-Ifta page on the social networking site « Facebook », which is the beginning of this purpose, and through which we work to correct the concepts through fatwas, and through the daily live broadcast on the page, for an hour from Sunday to Thursday.
In addition, we hold fatwa councils in the major mosques in the provinces, in cooperation with the Ministry of Awqaf, and launched the animation unit to respond to extremist fatwas in a simplified way that reaches everyone, to push the extremist ideology and refute it, and do not leave a vacuum that can be filled by extremist groups that are not competent; because the vacuum must be filled, even if not filled with right is full of falsehood.
■ The phenomenon of "trendsetters" of the owners of video clips through social networking sites has become of great interest recently..
How do you deal with that?
- We are currently developing a new activity to confront this phenomenon, under the name of « Fatwa Trend », which will be a monthly report, issued by the House, after monitoring the most influential issues during the month, and then presented in the form of a detailed report containing the correct judgments, in addition to presenting studies and research that will help explain these « trends » scientifically convincing.
And « Fatwas Trend » aims to publish certain content between people, whether social, political or religious, in order to provoke rumors and distort the facts, so we monitor what is moving on the ground and what people interact with and what concerns them, since the beginning of the new century, field wars and armed confrontations are declining, and replaced by electronic wars, and wars of the fourth and fifth generations, up to what is currently called « “Trends ”, which has become a market of public opinion, through fatwas and topics, and what it raises comments and responses and then responses to responses.
■ Increasing your interest in social networking sites, up to the launch of a special account for the house on the site « TikTok », which provoked the ridicule of some..
So why was that?
During the previous period, the Egyptian Dar al-Ifta had efforts and presence in all social media, without exception, the most important of which is Facebook with 18 pages, in more than one language.
The interest in these sites comes within the framework of direct communication with young people, to build awareness and correct concepts, and maintain the stability of societies and the national state, and we always seek to find a place for us on all social media, so we created that account after monitoring a number of fatwas and ideas anomalous through this application.
Therefore, Dar al-Ifta was the first religious institution to enter the application « TikTok », because it wanted to build a policy of dumping useful content and correct information and speech and everything that benefits people.
We, as I said, see the need to intensify the presence on social networking sites, because of the impact and features, including the speed of spread, and the intensity of youth use of the sites, and the fact that it represents the new modern method of communication, so it was necessary to communicate through them, and the delivery of religious information easily.
Your pages are facing violent attacks and abusive comments.
How do you deal with her?
- Undoubtedly, there are some comments and abusive interactions that stand behind the enemies of the homeland from the owners of extremist Brotherhood thought and others, and we have clarified all their suspicions in many fatwas and publications, such as political Islamism and others, but nevertheless there is another type of interactions, which is the largest share of attention and care, and they are constructive criticism, because we appreciate any proposals or constructive criticism based on methodology and awareness Directed to the house.
Some in his comments accuse the house of being politicized.
So how do you see that?
- Dar Ifta is not "politicized" in the sense intended by people, and does not take instructions from anyone, and is not subject to any dictates, but the public interest is part of the work of the mufti when he considers the issues presented to him, may need state organs or courts to give Dar Ifta legitimate opinion on a particular issue, and answer them.
We talk when it is related to the legal aspect, and after asking people about the matter, so when we talk we do our duty, and we must refer to the people of specialization in all fields, which we do in the fatwa, it is a work that needs skill and training and craftsmanship and professionalism especially; we value the public interest and the need of society and put it on the private interest, as an approach in the fatwa procedures.
■ The official page of the official spokesman of the Presidency of the Republic published a friendly picture that gathered you with President Sisi..
What are the details of this picture?
- This picture was after the performance of Friday prayers, with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, President of the Republic, at the mosque « Marshal Tantawi » in the fifth assembly, in conjunction with the anniversary of « Martyr Day », and a friendly conversation between us showed the extent of President Sisi's keenness to build the awareness of Egyptians and correct false religious concepts and renew the religious discourse.
This is not the first time I met with Mr. President, I met him with a number of fatwa scholars, on the sidelines of the Sixth International Conference of the Egyptian House of Ifta, and we discussed a number of different issues, including the renewal of religious discourse, and the preservation of the identity of the nation and its constants.
President Sisi always calls for a disciplined religious renewal, and since he assumed his duties, he carries on his shoulders the issue of renewing religious discourse, and cares about the need to show this religion in its civilized dress, while maintaining the constants, taking into account the changes, and starting with the legal text with his accurate understanding to the changing reality through which the disciplined mind can address the issues of the times.
What are the most important topics that come to the House for an opinion?
- The house receives about 4 thousand to 5 thousand requests for fatwa on divorce, most of which are faith and oath of divorce, of which one in a thousand falls, and perhaps nothing.
Dealing with divorce cases is done in an organized and disciplined manner, going through three stages; it starts with dealing with the secretary of the fatwa, if it is not possible to resolve the fatwa trustees, there is a doubt in the divorce, referred to me personally, and I may host the parties of the divorce in my office to make sure of divorce or to find a solution, and this is a way to preserve the family, which is the nucleus of society.
Therefore, in recent years, we have launched several specialized courses and programs in order to strengthen the family structure, such as the “Rehabilitation of those who are planning to marry ” program, which aims to raise awareness of those who are planning to marry, as well as the establishment of a specialized unit for family counseling, to which problems are referred from the various fatwa departments, as well as the Department of Family Dispute Resolution.
Society and political leadership are very interested in renewing religious discourse.
What is your assessment of what has been done in this file so far?
The renewal of the religious discourse and the fatwa is a duty of time and an imperative necessity, and the great interest in renewing it stems from the belief that it is the most capable and effective discourse to guide and modify the behavioral and moral paths in the Arab and Islamic societies.
The House, published through its page on social networking sites, messages to citizens, especially young people, in video clips, two minutes, to facilitate the followers, it is necessary to address the world and people to the extent of their minds, sitting with the simple and public has a language and terms, and sitting with men of science has other terms, in order to communicate the correct understanding of religion, which leads to reconstruction and remove the dust raised by some extremist ideas.

President Sisi has undertaken the renewal of religious discourse as a necessary mission for the current era.

Dar Al Ifta insists it is not politicized and remains committed to confronting extremist groups.

The institution has a plan to boost communication with the public, aiming to open four branches each year across various governorates.

Dar Al Ifta recently joined TikTok to provide beneficial content to younger audiences.

The body is responding to the challenges of fourth-generation warfare with its “Fatwa Trend” initiative.

An Animation Unit was launched to counter extremist fatwas with simple messages accessible to all.

During Ramadan, Dar Al Ifta focuses on outreach sites to directly engage youth, foster awareness, correct misconceptions, and maintain state stability.

Social media engagement is significant for Dar Al Ifta, leading to the creation of an account after monitoring many anomalous fatwas on these platforms.

Dar Al Ifta clarifies it is not politicized in the conventional sense, does not act under instruction from others, but considers the public interest a central part of its legal opinions, sometimes in coordination with state entities or courts.

Common inquiries include various issues presented to Dar Al Ifta for religious opinion.

A statement was released after a controversial mosque video, pointing out that chaos is unacceptable within mosques.

Title:

Content: Egypt..
A statement after a controversial video inside a mosque (video)
Arab World News
Copy Link https: / / www.rt.com / svu4
A video from inside the al-Maraghi mosque in Helwan province in Egypt sparked controversy on social media, showing worshippers claiming that they were prevented from continuing their prayers because of an inspector from the endowments.
A source in the ministry commented on what was circulated, and said that "what was promoted is not true, as the inspector did not intervene in stopping the prayer or not, but what happened that the Imam extended the time for Taraweeh, which is scheduled for half an hour, intervened a member of the mosque rejecting that order, especially that the worshipers are not committed to precautionary measures, which include taking the chapel of each chapel."
He continued a source of endowments: "To say that an inspector of endowments tried to prevent worshipers is not true, but one of the members of the administration is the one who intervened because the Imam prolonged and people are not committed, and in the end the intervention of an Imam and completed the prayer."
The source pointed out that "the member of the mosque was talked about this matter because it is not right to have a case of chaos inside the mosques."
The source stressed that there is a state of stalking the endowments and the state, adding: There are many enemies trying to spread false information about the state as well as about the endowments, and in the end the situation was contained and the prayer was completed.
Source: Cairo 24
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Baharna activists have circulated a video in which Sheikh Saddi warns of the so-called Abrahamic religion.

Title:

Content: Point of contact
Baharna activists circulate a video of Sheikh Saddi warning of the Abrahamic religion
Wednesday 05 April 2023 - 12: 36 GMT
The program deals with all the issues that Baharna activists comment on for a whole week on social media platforms, and commented on the subject of normalization agreements concluded by some countries with the Zionist entity under US auspices in 2020, which came under the title of the Abrahamic agreements, which were to promote the process of normalization, including Bahrain, which concluded this agreement and plunged into the quagmire of normalization.
However, the normalization agreements were preceded by the promotion of the so-called Abrahamic religion, which calls for the assimilation of the three monotheistic religions.
Baharna activists specifically this week shed light on this topic because it is very, very dangerous, because it affects the religious constants and its repercussions are very serious on the Islamic religion, so there were many videos, but most of the clips that were circulated in the Ruqaimi platforms and specifically Twitter video clip of Sheikh Saddi, who warned of this heresy and this new religion.
Find out more in the attached video.

A warning was made about a fake video attributed to Egypt’s mufti, and Dar Al Ifta has vowed legal action against those responsible for such forgeries.

Title:

Content: Warning of "fake" video of Egypt's mufti
The Media Center in the Egyptian House of Ifta warned of a "fake" video that has recently spread on social networking sites and shows Dr. Shawki Allam, the Grand Mufti of Egypt and head of the General Secretariat for the role and bodies of Ifta in the world.
The center called the video “artificial intelligence fake ” and falsely attributed to the mufti of the republic.
The center added, in a statement published on the official page of Dar al-Ifta on Facebook, that it is a promotional announcement for one of the applications of electronic games.
Related News
The Egyptian House of Fatwa resolves the controversy over the validity of the title "Mother of the World"
The media center stressed the danger of using modern technology and artificial intelligence in falsifying awareness, and exploiting the confidence of people in religious authorities and public figures in fabricating videos that promote suspicious products or applications for the purpose of rigging people.
The statement vowed to take all legal measures to punish anyone who participated in the production or publication of this fake video, and called on Egyptians to be careful of such misleading pages and videos.
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Bloggers have raised concerns over books available in libraries and the defamation campaign against Sheikh Issa via video clips.

Title:

Content: General Supervision
Elham Aboul Fath
Editor-in-Chief
Thank you for your patience.
General Supervision
Elham Aboul Fath
Editor-in-Chief
Thank you for your patience.
Blogger is making a fuss over social media because of books sold in libraries.
Social media users have circulated a controversial video of a well-known blogger on social media, claiming to publish some books containing stories of socially forbidden relationships outside the framework of religion and custom.
The blogger said in a video on a social media site that some books in bookstores about teaching socially forbidden relationships outside the framework of religion and custom were allegedly sold in a bookstore in Egypt.
The famous blogger said in the video: "Our children are a great trust, and we will ask them and raise them, the books are available and sold in one of the libraries in Sheikh Zayed, October 6. The librarian does not know the content of the books and was very grateful when he drew his attention to the content of the books."

The program "My Heart Is Reassured" was involved in controversy by using Syrian Civil Defense footage of rescue operations in areas outside government control for its reality television show.

Title:

Content: Saturday, April 8, 2023
The Ghaith scandal and the program "My heart is reassured" in Syria..
What does the White Helmets have to do with it?
(Witness)
The scandal of Ghaith and the program “My heart is reassured ” in Syria..
What does the White Helmets have to do with it?
(Witness)
“My Heart Reassure ” program visits and uses clips from the Syrian Civil Defense during its rescue of those trapped under the rubble in the liberated north as they are in the areas of the Syrian regime
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The Emirati media called “Ghaith ” in his program“ My Heart is content ” used to record episodes from the areas controlled by the Syrian regime, which were hit by the earthquake without approaching the areas of the countryside of Idlib, which paid the most expensive price due to the earthquake, which hit large areas and killed and displaced millions.
“My heart is reassured ”, the Assad regime and the UAE ’ s goal
“My Heart is Reassuring ” is a reality show on TV and on social media.
It is a social experience in which the young Emirati “Ghaith ” travels to several countries around the world to help those in need.
But some saw that this project was intended to cover up the reality of the UAE and show it a benevolent appearance in the Arab street, similar to the campaign called “Knight the Magnificent 2 ” for relief of earthquake victims but in areas controlled by the regime, and reached them farce to allocate tables in areas controlled by the regime, where people do not fast and do not pray, according to activists.
In a new scandal for the UAE, the program “My Heart Reassure ”, which did not reassure the hearts of the earthquake victims outside the control of the Assad regime for one time, used videos of the“ White Helmets ” in Idlib carrying out rescue operations, and showed them to be in the areas of the regime and attributed to the regime of Bashar.
In one episode of “My Heart is Reassuring ” from regime-held areas, a pro-regime supporter appeared talking about the loss of his wife and children who were buried under the rubble by the earthquake that hit parts of the Syrian coast.
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The man managed to reach the place where his wife was found and hired paramedics, but they could not reach her because of the collapsed concrete columns, and there was only an opening.
It was noted that the program in this story presents rescue clips of the White Helmets team opposed to the Syrian regime, as a rescue operation inside the areas controlled by the regime.
Suspicious role of the UAE
The responses and comments of the pioneers of the sites varied communication about the program “My heart is reassured ” and its suspicious role, where the media commented“ Qutaiba Al-Yasin ”: “There is nothing that the UAE does good, nothing at all. ”
“Everything you do carries evil, even the program of my heart assures me that absolutely everything deliberately falsifies the truth except a demon. ”
“You show the White Helmets as being from the Assad regime, what is all this evil, how can you be so bad? ”
“Fadi ” believes that the program“ My heart is reassured ” is dedicated to polishing the sons of Zayed. ”
He added: “An episode was filmed in Syria in Latakia within the areas controlled by the Assad regime around those affected by the earthquake, so here is fine, that is their business, but in the clip clips are stolen and used from the Syrian Civil Defense during its rescue of those trapped under the rubble in the liberated north. ”
Another said the UAE had not sent a single date or pill to northern Syria, which is outside the control of the Assad regime.
The UAE does not support Syrian civil defense in the north, let alone any organization or institution there.
The program also focuses its support on Egypt and Sudan, which are ruled by the military, where the UAE supported counter-revolutions in Arab countries, stood against the wishes of the people for change, and supports the forces of retired Libyan Major General Khalifa Haftar to control the capital Tripoli, the headquarters of the internationally recognized legitimate Government of National Accord.
“As the UAE presents itself as a beacon of tolerance in the region, the data reveals a much uglier reality that shows contempt for human rights principles, ” Human Rights Watch said in its ongoing accentuation of abuses such as torture, enforced disappearances, and unfair trials.
Khalid Al-Ahmad
- Writer and journalist born in Homs 1966, published in many Arab magazines and newspapers since 1983. She studied at the Sharia Scientific Institute and then at the Sharia High School in Homs. She worked as a correspondent for the Arab newspaper Al-Itidal, which is published in the United States of America. Most of the Syrian newspapers and magazines, and after moving to Jordan, I followed two press and radio courses for the community media network and a course for the Doha Center for Media Freedom in Amman and completed dozens of radio reports in Radio Al-Balad and Amman Net.
I have been working as a collaborator with Zaman Al Wasl on behalf of Fares Al Rifai since 2013. I have interests in writing about social issues, heritage, phenomena and various artistic topics. I have many printed books, including: (The Seduction of Questions – Confrontations in Thought, Life and Creativity), "Habits and Beliefs from Homs Governorate - Syrian Book Organization in Damascus 2011, and (Pictures of Bedouin Social Life), 2008. And (landmarks and flags from Homs) about Taha House for Printing and Publishing in Homs 2010.
- Many of the manuscript books, including: (Obads and cultural creations from Syria) and (The time of writing - The time of listening - dialogues in thought, life and creativity) - printed electronically on the site "e-book" and (professions and industries heritage from Homs) and (Strange hand, face and tongue - pictures of the popular heritage in Homs) and (Famous scholars of Homs in the second and thirteenth centuries AH).
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There is significant competition in religious tourism, and Egypt, after years of limited activity, currently ranks third in tourist arrivals behind the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

Renewing and maintaining shrines could elevate Egypt's religious and touristic status in the Muslim world.

Debate exists over whether to restore shrines using marble or stone, but the general sentiment is to rely on specialists for these decisions.

A story also circulated online about a man in Safaga claiming prophetic status, which was shared on Facebook with further coverage promised in a video.

Title:

Content: Miscellaneous
In the video.
I am the Messiah and all the apostles.
The story of the new prophet in the Red Sea
A person raised a case of controversy on social networking sites where he appeared through posts on Facebook claiming that he is the awaited Mahdi and that he is one of the world's messengers and that he came to teach people the religion of Islam.
The appearance of the Prophecy in the Red Sea
The city of Safaga witnessed the first incident of its kind after the announcement of a dangerous registrar in the city that he is the awaited Mahdi and published it on the social networking site Facebook.
He said in his posts on the social networking site “Facebook ”:“ I am the slave to whom the book was sent to warn a severe pain, I am all the prophets, I was sent at the end of time in the city of Safaga and the people of the city lied to me. ”
Dr. Mahmoud Al-Shaimi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Endowments in the Red Sea, said in a press statement that all legal procedures will be taken against the registered person who claimed to be the seal of the prophets and the awaited Mahdi, adding that he will communicate with the competent authorities until he is arrested.
We will review more details through the following video.
Echo of the country

This summary captures the main points and issues raised in the extracts provided.

Title:

Content: Miscellaneous
In the video.
I am the Messiah and all the apostles.
The story of the new prophet in the Red Sea
A person raised a case of controversy on social networking sites where he appeared through posts on Facebook claiming that he is the awaited Mahdi and that he is one of the world's messengers and that he came to teach people the religion of Islam.
The appearance of the Prophecy in the Red Sea
The city of Safaga witnessed the first incident of its kind after the announcement of a dangerous registrar in the city that he is the awaited Mahdi and published it on the social networking site Facebook.
He said in his posts on the social networking site “Facebook ”:“ I am the slave to whom the book was sent to warn a severe pain, I am all the prophets, I was sent at the end of time in the city of Safaga and the people of the city lied to me. ”
Dr. Mahmoud Al-Shaimi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Endowments in the Red Sea, said in a press statement that all legal procedures will be taken against the registered person who claimed to be the seal of the prophets and the awaited Mahdi, adding that he will communicate with the competent authorities until he is arrested.
We will review more details through the following video.
Echo of the country

Many critics argue that President Erdogan’s decision to reconvert Hagia Sophia from a museum into a mosque in 2020 was primarily a political move aimed at consolidating support among his conservative and nationalist base.

Title:

Content: Indonesian Muslim missionaries denied entry
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In fact, in Indonesia, Somad was also boycotted by many groups, who did not allow him to speak because he would create division and chaos.
Recently, Muslim missionaries in Madura objected to him speaking in Madura.
Indonesian Muslim missionary Abdul Somad Batubara, with his wife, children and six friends, took a ferry from Batam to the ferry terminal in Tanah Merah on May 16 to enter Singapore and was refused entry at customs.
After the incident, Somad published a photo in the social media of him being detained for one hour in a small room at the customs office in Tanah Merah, and said that the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority of Singapore had deported him without giving a reason.
He wants to know the reason for his deportation.
Later, he accused the Singapore government of being unkind to him, or unkind to Indonesia, as if he were a representative of Indonesia.
He also said in a homemade video in plain English that he asked Singapore ’ s ambassador to Indonesia to explain why he was “deported ”.“ You have to answer to our community why your government is doing this? ”
This is an unfriendly move for Indonesia. ”
Somad, who are you?
Somad was born in 1977 in the Asha Khan region of northern Sudan, and his surname, Batubara, indicates that he is Bata.
But he rarely uses this surname, so many people regard him as Malay, and he also identifies with the Malays.
After graduating from the Islamic Institute in Medan, he went to Egypt to study at the prestigious Azar University in 1998 and returned to work as an Arabic lecturer at the Islamic Institute in 2002.
According to the Indonesian Wikipedia, he later went to Muslim universities in Morocco and Sudan to obtain master's and doctoral degrees, but the English version of the wiki does not mention his education at all.
He is now a lecturer at a Muslim university in Liao Island and is one of the most controversial Muslim missionaries in Indonesia.
Thanks to the blessing of YouTube, his speech spread all over Indonesia and caused a great deal of response.
He had a good sense of humor and storytelling, but his views were extreme, he advocated isolationism, and he was hostile to and despised other religions.
He believed that Muslims should be separated from other religions and not allowed to congratulate each other; he also said that there are demons after the cross, which will harm people, and Muslims who die in the hospital with the cross will immediately go to hell.
He also said that Muslims who go to Starbucks for coffee will immediately go to hell, because the management of the cafe is pro-gay community (LGBT).
He was criticized for hypocrisy because YouTube management is also pro-LGBT, but Somad continues to use it.
According to online sources and the testimony of many moderate Muslim leaders in Indonesia, Somad was a member of the banned Liberation Party (HTI) and the Islamic Defenders Front (FBI).
He was not only a Muslim preacher, but also a political activist.
In the 2019 presidential election, he fell to Prabowo ’ s camp, and Prabowo was proud of it.
Now Prabowo has joined the Indonesian cabinet, betraying the extremists.
Somad often denounces moderate Muslims coming to Christian churches to talk to Christians, saying it is against the teachings of Islam.
But when the head of Jakarta, Anis, visited the Catholic Church, he was silent.
In the 2024 presidential election, I believe he will support Anis.
Several countries refused entry.
Many of Indonesia's extreme missionaries have been jailed, but some are still active, Somad is one of them.
The Indonesian government may not have enough evidence to arrest him.
As an extremist Muslim preacher, he will certainly attract the attention of all countries.
This is not the first time Somad has been refused entry.
According to CNN Indonesia, from 2017 to 2020, Somad was refused entry at least five times: in 2017, Hong Kong refused him entry, in 2018 he failed to enter East Timor, in 2019 he failed to enter the Netherlands through Switzerland, and in 2020 the United Kingdom refused him entry.
On May 17, the Ministry of Home Affairs issued a statement explaining why Somad and his team had been refused entry to Singapore.
Two of these are the most important.
First: Somad ’ s religious teachings of extremism and separatism are not acceptable in a pluralistic Singapore society.
For example, in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, he preached that suicide bombings were justified and were acts of martyrdom.
He also denigrated the followers of other religions, such as his description of the devil behind the Christian cross.
He also publicly referred to non-Muslims as "infidels."
Secondly, the entry of visitors into Singapore is neither a matter of course nor a right.
Each case needs to be evaluated individually.
Although Somad ’ s ostensible reason for trying to enter Singapore was social visits, the Singapore government takes seriously those who advocate violence or advocate extremism and separatism.
As a result, Somad and his team were refused entry to Singapore.
In fact, Singapore has denied entry to a number of religious missionaries in recent years, including Muslim missionaries Ismail Meng and Haslam Bahalin (2017) and American Christian pastor Ru Engel (2019).
Social media views are polarized
The controversy over Somad's refusal to enter Singapore has been rife and comments on Indonesian social media have been polarized.
One faction condemned Singapore's approach, while the other greatly appreciated it.
Both radical Islamists and anti-Joko politicians are on Somad ’ s side, and they do not talk about international regulations or ask questions indiscriminately, and they only think that the Singapore government is wrong to deny Somad entry, which is the Singapore government ’ s anti-Islam and unfriendly to Indonesia.
Anwar Abba, vice-chairman of the Indonesian Islamic Missionary Council, said Somad was “a tokoh with a million followers in Indonesia ” and that being so rude to him would affect the relationship between India and New Zealand.
The Indonesian Muslim extremist lawyer and activist Aji Suzana said that Singapore had dared to "insult our Muslim missionaries, which is also an insult to Islam and to us".
Fadli Zun, leader of the anti-Joko pro-extremist Grand Indonesia Movement Party and a member of parliament, also said that "Somad is a valued citizen of our Indonesia, and Singapore should not treat him like this."
It is an insult to us. ”
However, the other faction believes that Singapore is the right of the Singapore state to do so, and Indonesia cannot intervene.
Even the Indonesian government has the power to prevent foreigners from entering the country.
The Indonesian ambassador to Singapore, Sulia Boradomo, explained to the Indonesian audience at the first time that Singapore is a sovereign state and it is its right to refuse entry.
According to the Singapore Immigration Department, Somad did not meet the entry requirements and was therefore unable to enter the country.
The Ambassador pointed out that Somad was not "dideportasi" because he had not entered the country at all.
Thus, the legal provision is “denied entry ” (dilarang masuk).
As to the reasons for the refusal, the Singapore Immigration Service has the right not to answer.
Indonesian social media activists who oppose extremism have also commented on the Somad incident in many videos.
They believe that Somad ’ s words and behavior can indeed affect the security of other countries. Cokro TV ’ s Ag Kundadi produced two videos commenting on Somad ’ s refusal to enter Singapore.
He said that the Singapore government did not need to explain the incident, but because the matter has been hyped, so it gave a reply.
Somad's religious teachings of segregationism and extremism cannot be accepted by Singapore.
In fact, in Indonesia, Somad was also boycotted by many groups, who did not allow him to speak because he would create division and chaos.
Recently, Muslim missionaries in Madura objected to him speaking in Madura.
"The president of Singapore is a Muslim woman wearing a hijab, and countless Indonesian Muslims are free to travel to and from Singapore. Only Somad, who propagates isolationism and denigrates other religions, has been refused entry," he said.
In another video, Iger commented on the conversation of Congressman Fadli Zun, who did not understand international relations, but came forward to "defend Somad" in order to get votes from Somad supporters.
Trying to make a big deal out of it for political gain.
Another internet sensation, Danny Schillecker, said in a pun that Somad should thank the Singapore government that he could spend a long time in jail if allowed to enter and create chaos in Singapore.
But Somad did not stop.
His supporters demonstrated at the Singapore Embassy in Jakarta and the Singapore Consulate in Medan to protest against the refusal of the Singapore government to allow their leader to enter the country.
Somad also said he would not stop trying to enter Singapore.
Singapore is part of the Riau Kingdom and will definitely return to Riau's bosom in the future, he said.
It is clear that Somad wants to make things bigger for political gain.
Brigadier General Ahmad Nuwahid, director of the Indonesian National Anti-Terrorism Organization (BNPT), said that Singapore's refusal to allow Somad to enter the incident has given Indonesia an important lesson that if terrorism and violence are to be effectively stopped, it is necessary to stop the spread of terrorist views, ideologies and extremist ideas in Indonesia from the source.
Ahmadinejad also said that Somad's denial of entry would not affect the friendly relations between Indonesia and Singapore.
(The author is Senior Visiting Researcher, Isa Institute of Southeast Asia, Yusuf, Singapore. Adjunct Professor, Rajaratnam Institute of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University)
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What kind of domestic reaction did Erdogan's reconversion of Hagia Sophia receive?

What political motivations influenced Erdogan's decision to reconvert Hagia Sophia?

Erdogan's decision was influenced by Turkey's Islamic resurgence.

The decision aimed to rally anti-Kemalist voters.

This action was seen by some as an attempt to divert attention from economic troubles and increase Erdogan’s popularity ahead of upcoming elections.

Concerns have been raised about the religious undertones of this decision, highlighting how the move could deepen divisions between secular and religious communities within Turkey.

Title:

Content: Freedom Square "Exorcism" Religious Exorcism
◎ Liu Weiting
A few days ago, it was reported that a case of life occurred in a religious group in Taichung, which was suspected to have been caused by the act of “exorcism ” on behalf of believers, resulting in severe bruising on the body of the deceased and triggering a huge wave.
It was found that the owner of the house was the founder of a religious group suspected of abetting cadres to kill female believers four years ago. He called himself “Virgin ” and“ Master ”. The old case is still under trial, but new incidents have broken out, causing people to panic, and the neighbors are very afraid of this.
The group is a legal society approved by the People's Organization Law in 2015, and has adapted popular songs on audio-visual platforms to promote good works. One of the aims of the group is to "enlighten people on the five virtues of benevolence, conscience, conscience, good ability, and good behavior."
Taiwan is a place of religious pluralism and freedom of belief, and the Constitution protects people's freedom of religious belief, which is a characteristic of a democratic country.
However, the general public has limited understanding of religion and culture, and the lack of complete basic religious knowledge in school education reflects that intellectuals have long rejected the concept of religion and scientific rationality, ignoring the importance of spiritual reform, leading to people facing various emerging religious phenomena and insufficient judgment, resulting in religious regrets.
The government should take precautions and use the results of academic research on religion to educate the public.
According to the study of emerging religions by religious sociologists, they are different from traditional religions, which are both traditional and new, emphasizing the influence of personal sacred color (i.e. charisma) on believers, and often create miracles in order to establish norms.
Take this news event as an example, the church master often severely "discipline" those believers who do not agree or want to leave the group. It is said that believers are invaded by demons and must be "exorcised by means of knowledge", that is, instigated cadres to beat the believers to achieve the effect of exorcism.
In Eastern and Western religions, exorcism is supported by a theological foundation, which is by no means simple. On the contrary, this kind of behavior has violated social norms, not to mention religion is not only concerned with moral ethics, but also pays more attention to the practical level of practice, the unity of knowledge and action, and becomes a true religious person.
The author calls on the relevant government departments to first and foremost carefully assess the process of filing religious groups, conduct field visits, and formulate religious regulations, whether it is the "Religious Groups Law" or the "Religious Basic Law" and other regulations.
Secondly, pay attention to religious education, including the cultivation of research energy or the preparation of relevant teaching materials, through the Internet and the media to deepen people ’ s understanding of religion to a certain extent, and reduce the consequences of being deceived and deceived, so that they will not be led by problematic religious groups.
(The author is a Ph.D. in Religious Studies and an adjunct assistant professor at the university)
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Editor 's Choice

What political motivations influenced Erdogan's decision to reconvert Hagia Sophia?

Erdogan's decision was influenced by Turkey's Islamic resurgence.

Internationally, the move was met with disapproval from both Christian organizations and several governments, who noted the unique historical and religious significance of Hagia Sophia as a symbol of coexistence and secularism.

No--In 1934, Ataturk turned it into a museum, making it a major tourist attraction and secular symbol in Turkey.

Who was angered by the reconversion of Hagia Sophia in July 2020?

Many critics within Turkey and abroad pointed out that the 1934 conversion of Hagia Sophia into a museum by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk symbolized the secular character of the modern Turkish Republic, and its reconversion was seen as a reversal of those foundational principles.

No--In 1934, Ataturk turned it into a museum, making it a major tourist attraction and secular symbol in Turkey.

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee also voiced concern about the decision, stating that any modification to Hagia Sophia’s status could compromise its universal value as a World Heritage Site.

The Greek government condemned the move as a provocation to the civilized world, while the Russian Orthodox Church expressed regret at the “non-consensual” change of the monument's status.

Who was angered by the reconversion of Hagia Sophia in July 2020?