Paradise – A little poem
April 21, 2010
This is a little poem written by Amir from the Greeks Rethink team, for your entertainment.
Enjoy!
In this world everything
Yes everything I say
Does know it’s origin
And knows it’s final day
Nothing is a mystery
And everything is true
Dig out your consciousness
To see there’s only You
Remember, you are the Human
The manifested light
Fight your darkest demons
And the deep slumber, fight
Announce aloud publicly
For everyone to hear
That except our Lord The most High
There’s nothing else to fear
Don’t try to hide yourself
Reality surely is manifest
Don’t drown in your darkest lies
The light is in your chest
And do not – ever – doubt His Word
For He is The All-Wise
For through His Word is the true Peace
And by His Word your rise
Rise oh child of Adam
And don’t you ever look down
Walk the path of true success
The path that He has made for you
The path of Truth and Glory and Light
The path to Paradise
Cypriots split over island’s future
October 12, 2008
Source: Al Jazeera English
Publication Date: September 24, 2008
Cyprus’ rival leaders have begun their first solid talks on reunification and power-sharing in what is seen as the best chance in years of resolving differences on the divided island.
Barnaby Phillips, Al Jazeera’s Europe correspondent, spoke to two Cypriots from either side of the island, one of whom believes that the two communities are slowly coming together, the other who fears they are drifting apart.
“Not a chance,” the café owner was emphatic, “not one chance”, he said, jabbing his finger at me to make the point, “this peace process will go nowhere”.
Phillips’ European diary
Part 1: A Balkan view
It was just one opinion, from the Greek side of the divided island of Cyprus, but it was depressing to hear, nonetheless.
After all, we had come to Cyprus to cover the start of formal reunification talks between the Greek and Turkish communities.
And, so we had been told, this is Cyprus’s best, maybe last, chance of bringing the two sides together.
In truth, my café owner, in the heart of the capital Nicosia, is not alone in his bleak assessment.
Bitter truths
One senior Western diplomat in the region told me, only half in jest, that “when it comes to the Cyprus problem, there are two kinds of people; pessimists, and those who haven’t been here long enough to be pessimists”.
It’s easy to list the reasons why this peace initiative might fail, like all the others before it in the 34 years since Turkish troops landed on Cyprus in response to a coup by officers of the Cypriot National Guard seeking unity with Greece.
There is the difficulty of restoring property and/or paying compensation to the many thousands who were displaced in the fighting in 1974.
Then there is the challenge of finding a workable power-sharing arrangement between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, and of securing consensus on the withdrawal of Turkish soldiers, and so on.
The optimists, and there are a few, say that things might be different this time.
That’s because the respective leaders on Cyprus, Demetris Christofias and Mehmet Ali Talat, are serious about following these talks through to their conclusion. The friendship between the men goes back many years.
But that may not be enough.
If the Cyprus problem is to be solved, both leaders are going to have to tell their people some awkward facts.
For example, many of the displaced will not get their homes or land back, and the families of those listed as “missing” will have to come to terms with the fact that their loved ones are dead.
Cypriots have listened to nationalist rhetoric for decades, and now must accept some very bitter truths.
Awkward position
On the Turkish side of the island, I heard grumbling that Talat may not have the charisma or dynamism to convince his people to embrace reunification, especially after the disappointment of 2004, when Turkish Cypriots accepted a UN plan, but Greek Cypriots rejected it.
Talat is in an awkward position.
Islam does NOT mean peace
July 2, 2008
Contrary to popular belief amongst Muslims, Islam does NOT mean peace. The actual word, Islam, has a very powerful meaning. So, let’s get into it.
Arabic works by root words, containing a combination of root letters. For example, the word for peace is salaam ( سلام ),
Once you know a root word, you can fairly easily know 100 derivative words because they all use the same root letters. These words make up a root family.
So, here’s the catch. Even though the word Islam shares root letters salaam (s-l-m), it comes from a different root family so it does not carry the exact same meaning as salaam (peace) in Arabic or ειρήνη in Greek.
But it doesn’t stop there. Because it uses the same root letters, it has a connotation of peace in its meaning as well. In fact, it also includes connotations of other words too. Five words in all. Watch this 1 min video for the five words:
So, next time you hear someone saying Islam means peace, you can say, hey, wait a minute, the word Islam actually means:
Surrending your will to God’s will, submitting to God’s commandments, doing this in true obedience and sincerity and peace.
And so what do you predict the word Muslim means?
A Muslim (مسلم) is simply the one who surrenders their will to God’s will, submitting to God’s commandments, doing this in true obedience and sincerity and peace.
Are you a Muslim?
