CLOSING THE GAP: On Tuesday, President Hosni Mubarak officiated over the annual celebrations of Laylat Al-Qadr, commemorating the night that the Qur'an began to be revealed to Prophet Mohamed over 1,400 years ago. Organised by the Ministry of Waqf (Religious Endowments), the ceremony, reports Reem Nafie, included the handing out of prizes to young people from different Muslim countries that participated in a Qur'an memorisation contest. Mubarak delivered an extensive speech outlining the status of Muslim and Arab nations in light of the current "dangerous and complicated circumstances, and the increased violence all over the world for which innocent civilians are paying the price." Mubarak said Egypt and the Arab world needed to cooperate to end international intervention in Iraq and Sudan. Mubarak also stressed that terrorism would not be defeated via the imposition of external pressures on Arab and Islamic countries, but by "working according to our own vision of reform. It would be meaningless to apply ambitious plans to achieve internal democracy and freedom," he said, "when our nations are not entitled equal rights -- on the economic and social levels -- with other countries." Mubarak urged Arab and Muslim nations to focus their efforts on showing that Islam is not anti-modern, anti-Semitic or anti-democratic, before the schisms being created between Eastern and Western civilisations become too deep to heal. ( photo: Ahmed Afifi)
