Northern California Chronicle

Red Sea Underwater Wonders

By Elaine Pasquini

On June 25 photographer Phil Pasquini gave a showing of his underwater photos at the Bank of Marin’s newly opened Pacheco Plaza branch located in Ignacio, California.

For the past five years Pasquini (the writer’s husband) has photographed the underwater life in the Gulf of Aqaba off the Jordanian coast and the Egyptian South Sinai peninsula. This year, for the first time, Pasquini ventured into the waters off the coast of El Quseir, Egypt. Accompanied by dive master Tom Petereit of the Subex Dive Center located in the ultra-deluxe Movenpick Hotel, Pasquini descended 60 feet under the Red Sea with his Nikonos V camera. He photographed crocodile fish, blue-spotted eagle rays, triggerfish, black-backed butterflyfish and an array of soft and hard corals. His photos reflect the diversity of color and form of the magnificent coral reefs and sea life in this pristine area.

El Quseir, located 400 miles south of Cairo and 150 miles east of Luxor, has been a popular diving site, especially for Europeans, only since 1994. Quseir, however, is an ancient site dating back to 1479 BCE when Queen Hatshepsut launched expeditions from there to the ancient land of Punt (present-day Eritrea) to bring incense trees, ivory, cattle, giraffes and gold back to Egypt. One famous scene of an expedition to Punt adorns a wall of Hatshepsut’s funerary temple in Deir el-Bahri located on the west bank of the Nile at Luxor. Quseir was the largest trading port in the area until the 10th century and, until the opening of the Suez Canal in the 19th century, was the most popular port for Egyptians traveling to Mecca.

The name El Quseir arose more recently because of the Israeli attack on the U.S. Navy intelligence-gathering ship USS Liberty on June 8, 1967, the fourth day of the Arab-Israeli war. Israeli officials claimed they “mistook” the U.S. Navy ship for the Egyptian ship El Quseir, which was actually docked in Alexandria at the time of the Israeli attack. The USS Liberty Veterans Association is calling for a congressional investigation of the attack, which killed 34 Americans and wounded 171. This assault is the only major American maritime disaster not to be the subject of a congressional investigation. To sign a petition calling for such an investigation log onto <www.petitiononline.com/liberty/>.

Protesting Sharon’s Second White House Visit

As did Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s first meeting at the White House with U.S. President George W. Bush on March 20, his second visit on June 26 elicited angry protests from Palestinian supporters around the country, including the San Francisco Bay Area. “A great disgrace is happening today,” said Richard Becker, of the International Action Center, standing in front of the Israeli Consulate in downtown San Francisco. “George Bush is meeting with a known war criminal,” he stated, “a war criminal with a very documented history.”

Snehal Shingavi of Students for Justice in Palestine defined war crimes as, among other abuses, “using [American-made] F-16 fighter planes on civilians,” referring to the Israeli army’s air assault on Palestinian land on May 18. Echoing the noontime crowd’s feelings, Eman Desouky of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), exclaimed, “We want Sharon indicted now!” Other speakers included Hatem Bazian, professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of California at Berkeley and founder of al-Qalam Institute of Islamic Science; Jeffrey Blankfort of the Middle East Labor Bulletin; Barbara Lubin of the Middle East Children’s Alliance; and activist Alison Weir.

Sharon’s war crimes received worldwide attention through the airing of a June 17 BBC documentary. The program explored the former defense minister’s role in the massacre of 2,000 Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila Lebanese refugee camps in September 1982. The three-day assault on civilian residents of the camps was committed by Israel’s Lebanese Christian allies with the concurrence of Israeli troops under Gen. Sharon’s control. On June 18, several survivors of that brutal attack, including Souad Srour al-Mereh, who was 14 years old at that time and had been raped, shot in the back and left for dead, filed suit against Sharon in a Brussels, Belgium court charging the prime minister with crimes against humanity (see Aug./Sept. 2001 Washington Report, p. 9). On June 22 Human Rights Watch called for a criminal investigation of Sharon.

The San Francisco rally was sponsored by the Palestinian Right of Return (al-Awda), Middle East Children’s Alliance, ADC, Students for Justice in Palestine, International Socialist Organization and the International Action Center.

Women in Black Vigil

Dressed in black and holding banners, eight members of San Francisco Women in Black held a silent vigil on July 6 protesting Israel’s abuse and murder of Palestinians and its illegal occupation of Palestinian land. The women will hold their vigil on the first Friday of each month at the intersection of Market and Montgomery Streets until the Israeli occupation ends. On June 8, in solidarity with Israeli Women in Black, the group joined more than 100 protesters at the same location. Solidarity vigils were held that same date in Jerusalem, Melbourne, Mexico City, Montreal, The Hague, Ann Arbor, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, DC.

Women in Black is a network of women worldwide committed to peace and opposed to oppression and violence. In 1988 the first Women in Black vigils were held in Israel protesting their country’s illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Similar groups were soon organized in Italy, the former Yugoslavia and Great Britain.

Chinese Muslim Displays Arabic Calligraphy

Haji Noor Deen Mi Guangjiang, eminent master of Arabic calligraphy, displayed his works at the Arab Cultural Center of San Francisco on July 20 as part of a month-long tour of the western United States sponsored by the Zaytuna Institute. The ACC’s small main salon was filled to capacity for the evening event.

Born in 1963 in eastern China’s Shandong Province bordering the Yellow Sea, Haji Noor Deen lectures on the art of Arabic calligraphy at the Islamic College in Zhen Zhou, where he also established a correspondence course to enable students from all areas of China to study Arabic calligraphy. In addition, he researches Islamic culture at the Henan Academy of Sciences. In 1997, Haji Noor Deen was the first Chinese Muslim to be awarded the Egyptian Certificate of Arabic Calligraphy and to be admitted as a member of the Association of Egyptian Calligraphy.

The artist/scholar began his presentation by explaining the history of Islam in China. Muslim traders from central and southwest Asia brought Islam to eastern Asia along the famous Silk Route toward the end of the 7th century, during the Tang Dynasty. Presently 2 to 3 percent of China’s 1.3 billion citizens are Muslims, and that number is increasing, Haji Noor Deen said. More mosques and Islamic schools are being built, he noted, the number of Chinese Muslim societies is growing and each year more people make the hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca.

The skillful calligrapher then gave a lively and fascinating demonstration of how he creates his exquisite works in which he employs Arabic script in a Chinese manner. Using either a traditional Chinese calligraphy brush, a pen made of a slice of bamboo, or a unique writing utensil he made from a musical instrument, he writes with unbelievable beauty, speed and accuracy on paper made from mulberry trees grown in China.

Haji Noor Deen was invited to participate in the Zaytuna Institute’s 3rd Annual Conference and Fundraiser on July 1 in Santa Clara, California, which focused on the topic “Unity Through Diversity.” Islam in China was one of the topics presented at the conference. The Zaytuna Institute, founded in1998 in Hayward, California by Sheikh Hamza Yusuf, is a non-profit organization which seeks to establish traditional Islamic schools in the U.S. for the study of classical Islamic sciences.

Helping Hapless Horses

On July 20, the Mill Valley-based Bay Area chapter of In Defense of Animals (IDA) announced it was contributing $1,000 as part of an international effort to provide food, water and veterinary care to more than 200 abandoned horses at the Karachi Race Club in Karachi, Pakistan. Since the club closed in March at least 50 horses have died of hunger and lack of care, according to IDA administrator, veterinarian Elliott Katz. IDA fights worldwide against the use of animals for entertainment. For more information visit IDA’s Web site at <http://www.idausa.org/contactf.htm>.

Egyptian National Day

Egyptian National Day was celebrated July 23 at the Egyptian Consulate in San Francisco. Some 400 guests attended the reception, which commemorated the Free Officers Revolution of July 23, 1952. On that date, King Farouk, 31, Egypt’s reigning monarch for 15 years, sailed off to exile in Italy from Alexandria and Egyptian self-rule was restored for the first time in 1,400 years. Presiding over the evening’s activities was Consul General Afaf El-Mazariky, who succeeded Hagar El-Islambouly in October 2000, when Ambassador El-Islambouly returned to Cairo to serve in the Foreign Ministry as acting assistant minister for North America. The consul general spoke of Egypt’s many achievements over the last 49 years, and its special contribution in attempting to bring peace and stability to the Middle East.

Among the guests at the reception were members of the Los Angeles and San Francisco diplomatic corps, and business and religious leaders of the Northern California Arab community. San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown addressed the gathering and proclaimed July 23 “Egyptian Heritage Day.”

One special guest was Nahed A. Abou-Of, supervisor of acquisitions and technical services at the Bibliothéca Alexandrina in Egypt (see below).

Bibliothéca Alexandrina Intern Studies in California

Since her arrival in California on June 6 for a three-month study of library science, Nahed A. Abou-Of of the Bibliothéca Alexandrina in Egypt has been on the move. During her first week she attended the American Library Association Conference in San Francisco. Next she traveled to Sacramento, where she interned at the California State Library until the end of July. The first week in August she traveled to Palo Alto to participate in Institute 21, a collaboration between the Stanford University Library and the California State Library. Lastly, prior to returning to Alexandria on Sept. 1, she visited the state-of-the-art San Francisco Public Library.

The official opening of the Bibliothéca Alexandrina, where Mrs. Abou-Of holds the position of supervisor of acquisitions and technical services, will be held on International Book Day, April 23, 2002. Upon completion, the complex will house—in addition to the main library, which consists of 13 floors covering 743,000 square feet—a calligraphy museum, archeological museum, conservation and restoration laboratory, planetarium, international school of information studies, and conference center. The latter will have several meeting rooms, a restaurant, banquet hall and public service desk to provide banking, travel, hotel, and restaurant reservation facilities to serve visitors’ needs.

The Bibliothéca is built in a circular design facing the Mediterranean near the site of the fabled original library, which was built in 304 BCE and destroyed over a 400-year period beginning in 48 BCE. Egypt’s First Lady Suzanne Mubarak led the effort to create the complex, estimated at a cost of $180 million, and was helped in this endeavor by UNESCO, the U.N. Development Program, international governments, institutions and private corporations.

Mrs. Abou-Of was assisted in her stay by, among many others, Egyptian Consul General El-Mazariky, Vice Consul Ahmed Abu-Zeid, California Friends of the Biblioth?ca Alexandrina members Rosalie Cuneo Amer and Carmela Ruby, and Dorothy Hackbarth of UNESCO. For more information or to make a contribution, contact California Friends of the Biblioth?ca Alexandrina at (916) 453-1174, e-mail <calfriendsba@yahoo.com>, Web site <www.bibalex.gov.eg>.

Consul Cancels Grant to Jewish Film Festival

Considering a panel of speakers to be too left-wing, Israeli Consul General Yossi Amrani withdrew a $2,000 grant to the 21st Annual San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, which ran July 19 through August 6 at various locations in the Bay Area. The grant had been instituted by Amrani’s predecessor, Daniel Shek. Jewish Voice for Peace activist Lincoln Shlensky moderated the panel in question, entitled, “In Search of Peace: Voices From the Peace Camp,” held July 30 at the University of California at Berkeley’s Wheeler Auditorium. The panelists included Yitzhak Frankenthal of The Parents’ Circle, a group of Israeli and Palestinian parents who have lost children in the intifada; Terry Greenblatt of Bat Shalom, an Israeli feminist organization allied with The Jerusalem Center, a Palestinian women’s organization; Sergeiy Sandler of New Profile, a group opposed to militarism in Israeli society; and Didi Remez of Peace Now. The discussion followed the viewing of “Street Under Fire,”an account of Jewish life in the illegal settlement of Gilo, the scene of heavy fighting the past 10 months, and “The Jahalin,” about a Bedouin clan being evicted from their tent encampment near the illegal Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Adumim on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

Elaine Pasquini is a free-lance journalist based in Ignacia, CA.