Gaza

In the aftermath of the recent devastating earthquake in Iran, news media reported “a miracle”: a man, extracted from the rubble and thought to be dead, stirred on the way to the mass grave. At least two other similar cases were reported. When I read it, my first thought was: In the rush to bury the victims in order to avoid an epidemic, how many people failed to stir in time and were buried alive — for the second time within hours or, at most, days? How many of those would have been alive today had Iran not rejected Israel's offer of help?

In my previous article, “Is Islam a Tolerant Religion?” posted on 30 June, 2006, I did not expect it to be Part One of a series of articles on this subject. The Tanweer website, where I saw the Arabic text, gave no indication of a continued discussion of the topic. But while I was glancing at the website of the Arabic online daily Elaph, I discovered Parts II & III of the series.
As is my method in my contributions to FFI, first I begin with excerpts from the article, and then end with my analysis and comments.

On July 14 in the chamber of the United Nations Security Council, the permanent representative from Israel, Ambassador Dan Gillerman, paused to address his colleague, the ambassador from Lebanon. “You know that what we are doing is right, and if we succeed, your country will be the real beneficiary.”