Palestine-Israel. Rumi's Masnavi, part 1: World figure or new age fad? O Mouthpiece of GodEye of truthSalvation of creatures from this seething ocean of Fire!
How pre-eternal your masteryHow peerless your royalty! Deliverer of the soulfrom attachment's travails …From ghazal 1310 He died in 1273, but his poetry, his depth of feeling, and his mystical insight made "Our Master" (Mowlana or Mevlana) Rumi the most celebrated mystical poet in the Islamic world, from the Balkans to Bengal and everywhere else Persian was used as a literary, historical and learned language. Artists, poets, scholars, diplomats and thinkers have recognised his superlative achievement, and in honour of the 800th anniversary of his birth, Unesco declared 2007 a commemorative year, striking a medal with the poet's imagined likeness. Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi, known as Rumi, was born in 1207 north of the Oxus river, in Persian-speaking Central Asia.
Sun of Truth and Faith, pride of Tabriz! Longing for Saddam in Tikrit. When you see Iraqi policemen salute the grave of Saddam Hussein, you start to realize how much more needs to be achieved before Iraq is on the road to true peace and stability.
There are Iraqis who long for the past, especially in Tikrit, the hometown of the late Iraqi leader. A few moments later, a family arrived at the gravesite which has become a shrine for many. A woman kissed Saddam's grave and cried out: "Abu Oday, where are you? I wish you were here. Since you have been gone, we have been humiliated. " No doubt there are many in Iraq who are glad that Saddam is no longer in power. The upcoming election is supposed to shape Iraq's future, but there are those who lost faith. Raji Khodr was one of our police escorts (In Iraq, it is quite dangerous to travel without security forces who belong to the province you are visiting).
But it seems his loyalty belongs to the previous regime. Like him, many of the people who live here are Sunnis. The Beirut Spring. Politicians can’t do anything to change the situation in Tripoli, but that’s not why the people are complaining.
–Tripoli at Night, photo by Haytham Kabbara Every time someone complains on Facebook or on Twitter that Lebanese Politicians are doing nothing for Tripoli, I feel a mixture of emotions. On one hand, I find it absurd that people are asking politicians to fix a situation they are completely powerless to fix. Saying politicians should do something about the war in Tripoli is as absurd as saying that politicians should do something about the war in Syria.
The situation is too complex to be “fixed”; all politicians can do at the moment is to back one horse or the other, warlords on the streets answer to higher forces than some powerless man in a suit. Even the Army is powerless; as I’ve argued before, the army would lose a lot if it deployed an “Iron Fist” policy: Another part of me however believes that the complainers are right. Mr. Algeria.