Post sent to LPoY by brother "Abu Rasheed"
Dear Brother Anwar,
I hope you and your family are in good health and iman.
It's been a long time since we quenched our thirsts listening to your lectures. You changed our lives as we progressed from ignorance to understanding of our religion and great love of our Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him. Whenever a new lecture was available there'd be a great buzz, "have you heard the latest Anwar Lecture?" And if we hadn't we'd hunt down a recording.
When you were first arrested in Yemen we were all saddened. I remember sitting with my friends at a Friday gathering, all of us downcast and silent until one of us mentioned this hadith reported by Anas bin Malik.
"After the death of Rasool Allah (sas) Abu Bakr (ra) said to Umar (ra), "Let's visit Umm Aiman (ra) as Rasool Allah used to visit her." As we came to her she wept. They (Abu Bakr and Umar) asked her, "What makes you weep? Do you not know that What Allah has in store for His Messenger is better?" She replied, "I don't weep because I am ignorant of the fact that what is in store for the Messenger of Allah is better than this world, but I weep because the Revelation has ceased to come." This moved both of them to tears and they began to weep along with her.
(Muslim)
We cannot imagine what it would have been like to be alive at the time of the death of Rasool Allah, but losing our language link to understanding what Allah the Most Merciful gave us through his Messenger was a blow to us and Allah swt did not replace you in your absence.
When you were released and started releasing lectures again it was as if the sun rose after a night of one and a half years. We don't forget you in our du'a. We hope this turmoil in the Arab lands will unearth more brothers like you who are honest and on the truth, who care about the Ummah and serve it sincerely, who think about akhira before duniya.
We love you for the sake of Allah brother Anwar.
Your brothers and sisters in Islam
Behind the Scenes of the Army
ReplyDeleteAmnesty slams Egypt for torture of women
By AFP
CAIRO (AFP) - Amnesty International on Wednesday condemned the "shocking" treatment of women protesters in Egypt after serious allegations that the army subjected them to torture and forced "virginity tests".
The London-based rights group said that army officers violently cleared Cairo's Tahrir Square, the focus of the uprising that forced Hosni Mubarak to resign last month, and held at least 18 women in military detention.
Women protesters said they were beaten, given electric shocks, subjected to strip searches while being photographed by male soldiers, then forced to submit to "virginity checks" and threatened with prostitution charges, Amnesty said.
"The Egyptian authorities must halt the shocking and degrading treatment of women protesters," the rights group demanded.
"All security and army forces must be clearly instructed that torture and other ill-treatment, including forced ‘virginity tests’, will no longer be tolerated, and will be fully investigated.
"Those found responsible for such acts must be brought to justice and the courageous women who denounced such abuses be protected from reprisals."
Amnesty condemned forced virginity tests as "utterly unacceptable" and intended to "degrade women".
"Women and girls must be able to express their views on the future of Egypt and protest against the government without being detained, tortured, or subjected to profoundly degrading and discriminatory treatment," it said.
Amnesty said the 18 women were initially taken to a Cairo Museum annex where they were reportedly handcuffed, beaten with sticks and hoses, given electric shocks in the chest and legs, and called "prostitutes".
Earlier this month, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned that women were being shut out of political life in the aftermath of democracy revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia.
"In Egypt, the women who marched for freedom in Tahrir Square are now shut out of the committees and the councils deciding the shape of Egypt’s new democracy," Clinton said.
"The Constitutional Committee has not a single woman member," she said.