AWR Quarterly Newsletter - April 2020

Language: 
English
Sent On: 
Thu, 2020-04-02
Year: 
2020
Newsletter Number: 
14

Dear Arab-West Report Newsletter readers,

 

Please find hereby the list of newsletters we published in the first quarter of 2020. It is obvious that the last eight newsletters all dealt with the consequences of the coronavirus crisis (COVID-19). The impact of worldwide measures against this pandemic are very far reaching. Here in Egypt I see deep suffering of the poor, including refugees residing here. Where previously small manual jobs were available now most of them are no longer and people will be starving if no relief is soon provided. But also people in the middle classes have been severely hit, those depending on the tourism industry, restaurants, cafes and other businesses. The longer this crisis takes the deeper the suffering of millions of people will be.

 

Please read the newsletter of HRH Prince El Hassan bin Talal. The virus knows no borders and shows how connected we humans are.  We need to institutionalize the values of compassion, respect and generosity to all our fellow human beings and in particular those who are most vulnerable, not only vulnerable in obtaining and dying from this disease, not only the health workers in health systems that have difficulties coping with the numbers of victims but also those who lose their livelihoods as a consequence of the measures that aim at reducing the spread of the virus as much as possible.

 

Yesterday, April 1, our friend Prof. Dr. Hamdi Zaqzouq, former Minister of Endowments (1995-2011), passed away. He was a tremendous advocate of dialogue between peoples of different convictions and honored Arab-West Report in 2013 with a letter of recommendation. In normal circumstances we don’t send out two newsletters on one day but we believed we had to provide you this time with both the in memoriam of a truly great man and our quarterly overview of newsletters.

 

 

Cairo, April 2, 2020

 

Cornelis Hulsman,

 

Editor-in-Chief Arab-West Report  


English Newsletters

 

1) Engagement in dialogue changes one’s life
February 10, 2020 ​

We all grow up in our own sphere of life, nationality, culture, religion, etc. and then become shaped by our education and experiences. Maadi Messenger asked Cornelis Hulsman to write about how his life has changed and was enriched due to engagements with peoples of other cultures and nationalities. He wrote about his first visit to Egypt and his work with student interns for the Center for Arab-West Understanding.
(Click here for full text)

 

 

2) The ultimate consequence of honor and shame

February 12, 2020

Dutch Arabist Eildert Mulder, advisor to the board of the Dutch Arab-West Foundation, wrote about the 21-year-old Palestinian woman Israa Ghrayeb [Isrāʾ Gharīb] who was killed by her own family, because she had violated their honor by placing a video on Instagram. She became a victim of the horrible honor and shame culture in the Arab world.
(Click here for full text)

 

 

3) Trump’s fake peace plan; how references to Bible and Qur’an can be misused
February 13, 2020

Maya Williamson has translated Cornelis Hulsman 1982 booklet about Oz Ve-Shalom, that warns that people should not sit on the throne of God and decide when and how texts from the Old Testament should be fulfilled.
(Click here for full text)

 

 

 

 

4) Training African Refugee Leaders in Cairo
March 16, 2020

The Center for Arab-West Understanding has started a training program for African refugee leaders in Cairo in cooperation with the Anglican Diocese of Egypt, the Comboni Fathers and the Egyptian Moral Rearmament Association.
(Click here for full text)

 

 

5) The coronavirus is affecting our work in Egypt
March 17, 2020

There is a widespread fear for the coronavirus and responses also affect our work.
(Click here for full text)

 

 

 

6) How did Christians in the Middle East respond to earlier pandemics?
March 18, 2020

How Christians have been dealing with pandemics in the past? Lyman Stone writes in the Financial Times of March 13, “practical theology says care, sacrifice, and community are as vital as ever.”
(Click here for full text)

 

 

7) Coronavirus: numbers matter

March 19, 2020
Egyptian authorities have withdrawn the press card of the Guardian correspondent in Egypt and issued a warning to the New York Times correspondent for presenting disputed exaggerated figures about the number of people infected in Egypt with the coronavirus.
(Click here for full text)

 

 

 

8) Consequences of the coronavirus crisis for our work
March 25, 2020

Continuing work amid the coronavirus panic is not easy, but we will continue.
(Click here for full text)

 

 

9) We are all connected
March 26, 2020

The coronavirus crisis shows it is that the entire world is very interconnected Earth is like a ship in the huge universe. Disunity will create havoc or worse. We need to build unity between all humans since we are in the same boat. Thus, the virus should motivate us to dialogue, build relations, in particular across the borders of our own communities.
(Click here for full text)

 

 

10) Muslim Scholars in Egypt Response to Pandemics

March 29, 2020
General Coordinator of the Center for Dialogue at the Azhar Dr. Kamal Boraiqa Abdelsalam Hassan explains how Egypt’s scholars have dealt with the coronavirus crisis
(Click here for full text)

 

 

11) The Peace Building Prince El Hassan bin Talal: institutionalize the values of compassion, respect and generosity
April 1, 2020 

The only way in dealing with the coronavirus crisis, HRH Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan states, is through institutionalizing the values of compassion, respect and generosity in the days, weeks and months ahead.
(Click here for full text)

 

 

12) In Memoriam Prof. Dr. Hamdi Zaqzouq (1933-2020); a truly great man of dialogue
April 2, 2020 

On April 1, our friend Prof. Dr. Mahmoud Hamdi Zaqzouq (born 27 December 1933), former Minister of Endowments (1995-2011), passed away. Dr. Zaqzouq has been tremendously important for Muslim-Christian dialogue.
(Click here for full text)

 

 

 


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