Sheikh Muhammad Nazim Adil al-Qubrusi al-Haqqani, a leading figure of Sufism, the mystical branch of the Islamic faith, died on Wednesday in Nicosia, Cyprus. He was 92.
Imam Shakir Alemdar, the vice grand mufti of Cyprus, confirmed the death.
He called Sheikh Nazim one of the world’s great Islamic scholars and a spiritual leader to followers of Sufism, which traces its origins to the roots of Islam itself about 1,500 years ago.
Sheikh Nazim was leader of the Naqshbandi-Haqqani Sufi order. He was born on April 23, 1922, in Larnaca, Cyprus, in the east Mediterranean. He received his first religious instruction from his grandfather, an Islamic scholar, before studying chemical engineering in 1940 at Istanbul University. In 1944, he visited Lebanon, where he received further religious instruction.
He traveled within Europe in the 1970s and in the 1990s to the United States, where he gained many followers. He opened a study center in Fenton, Mo.
Later in life, Sheikh Nazim received guests at his home in Lefka, Cyprus. He met Pope Benedict XVI during the pontiff’s 2010 visit. The encounter came as the pope was walking in a procession to a Mass at a Nicosia church near the United Nations-controlled buffer zone that divides the island into a breakaway Turkish Cypriot north and an internationally recognized Greek Cypriot south.
Sheikh Nazim married in 1941 and had four children.
Mehmet Nâzım Adil (Arabic: محمد ناظم الحقاني , April 21, 1922 CE / Sha'ban 23, 1340 AH – May 7, 2014), formally referred to as Muhammad Nazim Adil al-Qubrusi al-Haqqani (Turkish: Nazım Kıbrısi), often called Shaykh Nazim, was aTurkish CypriotSufi Sheikh and leader of the Naqshbandi-Haqqani Order.[1]
Born in Larnaca, Cyprus, Haqqani is claimed by followers to descent from a lineage including the 11th-century Sufi SaintAbdul Qadir Jilani and 13th-century mystical poet Jalaluddin Rumi.[2] He was fluent in Turkish (native) and Arabic and could also speak English.
Having completed secondary education in 1940 at the age of 18, Haqqani moved to Istanbul, where two brothers and a sister were living. He studied chemical engineering at Istanbul University. While advancing his non-religious studies, he continued his education in Islamic theology and the Arabic language under the tutelage of Cemalettin Elassonli. Mawlana Shaykh Nazim studied chemical engineering, yet he would later state, "I felt no attraction to modern science; my heart was always drawn to the spiritual sciences."[2]
At some point during his first year of life in Istanbul, Haqqani met his first spiritual guide, Suleyman Erzurumi, who was a spiritual leader in the NaqshbandiSufi order.[2] Shortly after obtaining his degree, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim received inspiration to go to Damascus in order to find the Naqshbandi leader ShaykhAbdullah Fa'izi ad-Daghestani. He left Istanbul and arrived in Syria in 1944, but the unrest caused by the Vichy French government prevented his entry into Damascus until 1945.[2]
While in Cyprus, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim came into conflict with pro-Atatürkgoverning body of the Turkish community of the island. However, all these were dropped shortly thereafter, with the coming to power of Adnan Menderes in Turkey, whose government chose a more tolerant approach to Islamic traditions.[2]
Mawlana Shaykh Nazim moved back to Damascus in 1952, though every year he visited Cyprus for at least three months.[2]
In 1997, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim visited Daghestan, the homeland of one of his spiritual leaders, Shaykh Abdullah Fa'izi ad-Daghestani. He also made repeated visits to Uzbekistan where he made the pilgrimage to the tomb of the eponymous founder of the Naqshbandi Order, Baha-ud-Din Naqshband Bukhari.[2]
In 1991, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim visited the United States for the first time, at the invitation of his son-in-law and representative Shaykh Hisham Kabbani. At that time Haqqani made the first of four nationwide tours.
The mission of the Naqshbandi-Haqqani Sufi Order of America is to spread the Sufi teachings of the brotherhood of mankind, and the Unity of belief in God that is present in all religions and spiritual paths. Its efforts are directed at bringing the diverse spectrum of religions and spiritual paths into harmony and concord, in recognition of mankind’s responsibility as caretaker of this fragile planet and of one another.
The directorship of the Haqqani Foundation is a position assigned by the grandshaykh of the Naqshbandi-Haqqani Sufi Order, Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Nazim al-Haqqani. He had appointed his representative (calipha), Shaykh Hisham Kabbani, a Sufi shaykh who has been authorized and given permission to guide followers to the Love of God and to their spiritual stations. Shaykh Kabbani’s arduous religious and spiritual training has endowed him with the qualities necessary for a guide on the Path. He meets many Westerners, advising and teaching them on a daily basis, aided by his own lengthy education in Western institutions, his excellent command of English, French, Turkish and Arabic, and his deep knowledge of psychology and spiritual discipline.[5]
Starting in the 1980s, Haqqani has made a number of Doomsday predictions. In 1978, he predicted that the Mahdi would appear in 1980 and rid the world of evil; when this didn't occur, Haqqani predicted in 1986 that the Mahdi would appear in 1988.[8] When the second prediction also failed, Haqqani again predicted in the 1990s that the Last Judgment would occur before the year 2000. Haqqani has claimed that the source of these predictions is the Muslim prophetMuhammad.[9]Haqqani also predicted that the regimes in the Middle East would be replaced by one ruling sultanate before the end of 2011 and that Prince Charles would forcibly dissolve the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
Nazim al-Haqqani passed away at the age of 92 in Northern Cyprus.[10][11] Al-Haqqani had been receiving intense care since April 17 when he rushed from his home in Lefka to the Near East University Hospital in Nicosia after suffering from respiratory problems.
*****
Nazim al-Haqqani or Mehmet Nâzım Adil (Arabic: محمد ناظم الحقاني , April 21, 1922 / Sha'ban 23, 1340 AH – May 7, 2014), formally referred to as Muhammad Nazim Adil al-Qubrusi al-Haqqani (Turkish: Nazım Kıbrısi), often called Shaykh (or Sheikh) Nazim, was a Turkish Cypriot Sufi Sheikh and leader of the Naqshbandi-Haqqani Order.
Hunein Maassab (b. June 11, 1926, Damascus, - d. February 1, 2014, North Carolina) was the developer of nasal spray flu vaccine. He was born on June 11, 1926, in Damascus. His father was a jeweler. He enrolled at the University of Missouri, where he received a bachelor’s degree in biology in 1950 and a master’s in physiology and pharmacology in 1952. He then moved to Michigan, where he earned a master’s degree in public health in 1954 and his doctorate in epidemiology in 1956.
"John" Hunein F. Maassab was a Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Michigan since 1960 and served as the chairman from 1991-1997. He founded and directed the Hospital and Molecular Epidemiology program in the Department of Epidemiology. Dr. Maassab was a member of several scientific organizations including the American Public Health Association and the American Society of Microbiology and was a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. Dr. Maassab had over 170 publications that range from studies on the basic biology of viruses to research on the development of methods to control viral infections.
Dr. Maassab was awarded patents for the development of a cold-adapted influenza virus and for an attenuated respiratory syncytial virus. Dr. Maassab received the 1997 Award for Science and Technology from Popular Science for the development of the cold-adapted influenza virus. This discovery led him to develop a flu vaccine that can be administered by a nasal spray as an alternative to the "flu shot."
Influenza, commonly called "the flu," is an infection of the respiratory tract caused by the influenza virus. Compared with most other viral respiratory infections, such as the common cold, influenza infection often causes a more severe illness. Most people who get the flu recover completely in one to two weeks, but some people develop serious and potentially life-threatening medical complications, such as pneumonia. Between 25-50 million people in the United States are infected each year with the influenza virus. In an average year, infection with influenza virus is associated with 20,000 deaths nationwide and more than 100,000 hospitalizations. Approximately 90 million workdays are lost and 30 million school days are missed each year as a result of influenza.
Vaccination can prevent disease caused by influenza. Unlike vaccines used against other viruses such as measles, mumps, rubella and varicella, people need to be vaccinated annually against influenza. This is because the influenza virus often changes its genetic composition to evade the immune system of its host. Thus, people are susceptible to influenza virus infection throughout life. The current vaccine used for flu is a "killed" virus vaccine that is administered by injection. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends a flu shot for healthy adults over age 50 and high-risk children and adults. Unfortunately, less than one percent of healthy children and less than 30 percent of healthy adults, are routinely vaccinated. Achieving adequate flu protection is difficult because each year a new vaccine must be developed that is appropriate for the specific strainsof influenza likely to circulate. Currently, there is concern n the public health community regarding the timely supply of vaccine for the coming flu season.
In 1967, Dr. Maassab published a paper in the journal Nature describing the adaptation of an influenza virus for growth at a low temperature in culture. Importantly, this "cold-adapted" virus does not grow at higher temperatures such as those found in the lungs. However, the cold-adapted virus can replicate in the nasal passages where the temperature is lower. The cold-adapted virus cannot survive in the lungs where the body temperature is higher, and therefore cannot cause disease. The limited viral growth seen in the nasal passages may stimulate an immune response that may protect a person from infections from influenza viruses. This protection also prevents the spread of influenza to others.
Dr. Maassab developed an intranasal cold-adapted live virus vaccine that may provide promising alternative to the "flu shot." Using a nasal mist, an attenuated (weakened) live form of the influenza virus is sprayed into the nasal passages, where influenza viruses enter the body.
The public health significance of this finding for the development of an influenza vaccine was apparent. By using nasal mist technology to eliminate the fear of injections, this method may offer the first practical way to immunize children and adults on a large scale annually in the near future.
Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, Who Guided Sierra Leone to Peace, Dies at 82
Photo
Former
President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah of Sierra Leone, who oversaw the end of
the country's brutal 11-year civil war, died at 82 in Freetown.CreditGeorge Osodi/Associated Press
Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, who as president of Sierra Leone was
widely credited with returning peace to his West African nation after
years of brutal civil war, died on Thursday at his home in Freetown, the
country’s capital. He was 82.
His death was announced by John Benjamin, a friend and a former chairman of the Sierra Leone People’s Party.
Mr.
Kabbah led Sierra Leone both during and after an 11-year civil war in
which some 120,000 people were killed, many gruesomely. He was praised
for instituting a disarmament program that led to the official end of
the war in 2002, with the help of a United Nations peacekeeping force
and British military trainers. But after the war, he was criticized for
failing to lift his country out of poverty.
Born
to a Muslim family in eastern Sierra Leone on Feb. 16, 1932, Mr. Kabbah
received a Christian education and joined the civil service in 1959.
After
the Sierra Leone People’s Party, to which he belonged, was defeated in
elections in 1968, he lost his job, and his property was confiscated. He
moved to Britain, where he studied law and became a jurist.
He
joined the United Nations Development Program in 1970, and for the next
22 years worked in the United States and several African countries. In
1992, a year after the rebel Revolutionary United Front began a bloody
insurrection, Mr. Kabbah quit the United Nations and was named president
of a national council set up by a military junta to pave the way for a
return to multiparty politics and draw up a new constitution.
Mr.
Kabbah was elected president of Sierra Leone in March 1996, and that
November he signed an accord with the rebel leader Foday Sankoh. But in
May 1997 he was overthrown in a coup and fled to Guinea. Sierra Leone’s
new junta allied itself with the Revolutionary United Front.
In
February 1998, after fierce fighting, the troops of a West African
regional force led by Nigeria chased the junta out of Freetown, paving
the way for Mr. Kabbah’s return. But in January 1999, rebels attacked
Freetown once again.
That
July, Mr. Kabbah and Mr. Sankoh signed a peace accord and agreed to
share power. Around the same time, United Nations peacekeepers were
dispatched to Sierra Leone. But in May 2000, the Revolutionary United
Front reneged on its pledges by taking some 500 peacekeepers hostage.
When the situation worsened, Britain sent armed forces to end the crisis.
Mr.
Sankoh was imprisoned, and Mr. Kabbah began a disarmament program that
led to the official end of the war in January 2002. He stepped down in
2007.
***
Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah (February
16, 1932 – March 13, 2014) was the third President of Sierra Leone from
1996 to 1997 and again from 1998 to 2007. An economist and attorney by
professions, Kabbah spent many years working for the United Nations
Development Programme. He retired from the United Nations and returned
to Sierra Leone in 1992.
In
early 1996, Kabbah was elected leader of the Sierra Leone People's
Party (SLPP) and the party's presidential candidate in the 1996
presidential election. He was elected President of Sierra Leone in the
1996 presidential election with 59% of the vote defeating his closest
rival John Karefa-Smart of the United National People's Party (UNPP) who
had 40% in the runoff vote and conceded defeat. International observers
declared the election free and fair. In his inauguration speech in
Freetown, Kabbah promised to end the civil war, which he indeed achieved
later in his presidency.
An
ethnic Mandingo, Kabbah was Sierra Leone's first Muslim head of
state. Kabbah was born in Pendembu, Kailahun District in Eastern Sierra
Leone, though he was largely raised in the capital Freetown.
Most
of Kabbah's time in office was influenced by the civil war with the
Revolutionary United Front, led by Foday Sankoh, which involved him
being temporarily ousted by the military Armed Forces Revolutionary
Council from May 1997 to March 1998. He was soon returned to power after
a military intervention by the Economic Community of West African
States (ECOWAS), led by Nigeria. Another phase of the civil war led to
United Nations and British involvement in the country in 2000.
As
President, Kabbah opened direct negotiations with the RUF rebels in
order to end the civil war. He signed several peace accords with the
rebel leader Foday Sankoh, including the 1999 Lome Peace Accord, in
which the rebels, for the first time, agreed to a temporary cease fire
with the Sierra Leone government. When the cease fire agreement with the
rebels virtually collapsed, Kabbah campaigned for international
assistance from the British, the United Nations Security Council, the
African Union and the Economic Community of West African States to help
defeat the rebels and restored peace and order in Sierra Leone.
Kabbah
declared the civil war officially over in early 2002. Tens of thousands
of Sierra Leoneans across the country took to the streets to celebrate
the end of the war. Kabbah went on to easily win his final five year
term in office in the presidential election later that year with 70.1%
of the vote, defeating his main opponent Ernest Bai Koroma of the main
opposition All People's Congress (APC). International observers declared
the election free and fair.
Alhaji
Ahmad Tejan Kabbah was born on February 16, 1932 in the rural town of
Pendembu, Kailahun District in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone to
devout Muslim parents. Kabbah's father was an ethnic Mandingo and a
deeply religious Muslim of Guinean descent and a native of Kambia
District in the north of Sierra Leone. His mother was also a Muslim and a
member of the Mende ethnic group from the Coomber family, a Chieftaincy
ruling house based in the small rural town of Mobai, Kailahun District.
Kabbah's first name Ahmad means "highly praised" or "one who constantly
thanks God" in the Arabic language. Kabba himself was a devout Muslim
and a member of the Mandingo ethnic group. Kabbah was a fluent speaker
of his native Mandingo language and was also a fluent speaker of the
local Susu language. Though born in the Kailahun District, Kabbah was
largely raised in the capital Freetown.
Though
a devout Muslim, Kabbah received his secondary education at the St.
Edward's secondary school in Freetown, the oldest Catholic secondary
school in Sierra Leone. Kabbah married a Catholic, the late Patricia
Kabbah, (born Patricia Tucker), who was an ethnic Sherbro from Bonthe
District in Southern Sierra Leone. Together the couple had five
children. Kabbah received his higher education at the Cardiff College of
Technology and Commerce, and University College Aberystwyth, Wales, in
the United Kingdom, with a Bachelor's degree in Economics in 1959. He
later studied law, and in 1969 he became a practicing Barrister-at-Law,
member of the Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, London.
Kabbah
spent nearly his entire career in the public sector. He served in the
Western Area and in all the Provinces of Sierra Leone. He was a District
Commissioner in Bombali and Kambia (Northern Province), in Kono
(Eastern Province) and in Moyamba and Bo (Southern Province). He later
became Permanent Secretary in various Ministries, including Trade and
Industry, Social Welfare, and Education. Kabbah
was an international civil servant for almost two decades. After
serving as deputy Chief of the West Africa Division of the United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in New York, he was reassigned in
1973 to head the Programme's operation in the Kingdom of Lesotho, as
Resident Representative. He also headed UNDP operations in Tanzania and
Uganda, and just before Zimbabwe's independence, he was temporarily
assigned to that country to help lay the groundwork for cooperation with
the United Nations system.
After
a successful tour of duty in Eastern and Southern Africa, Kabbah
returned to New York to head UNDP's Eastern and Southern Africa
Division. Among other things, he was directly responsible for
coordinating United Nations system assistance to liberation movements
recognized by the Organization of African Unity (OAU), such as the
African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa, and the South West
African People's Organization (SWAPO) of Namibia.
Before
his retirement in 1992, Kabbah held a number of senior administrative
positions at UNDP Headquarters in New York, including those of Deputy
Director and Director of Personnel, and Director, Division of
Administration and Management.
After
the military coup in 1992, Kabbah was asked to chair the National
Advisory Council, one of the mechanisms set up by the military to
alleviate the restoration of constitutional rule, including the drafting
of a new constitution for Sierra Leone. He reputedly intended his
return to Sierra Leone to be a retirement, but was encouraged by those
around him and the political situation that arose to become more
actively involved in the politics of Sierra Leone.
Kabbah
was seen as a compromise candidate when he was put forward by the
Mende-dominated Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) as their presidential
hopeful in the 1996 Presidential and Parliamentary elections, the first
multi-party elections in twenty-three years. The SLPP won the
legislative vote overwhelmingly in the South and Eastern Province of the
country, they split the vote with the UNPP in the Western Area and they
lost in the Northern Province. On March 29, 1996, Alhaji Ahmad Tejan
Kabbah was sworn in as President of Sierra Leone. Guided by his
philosophy of "political inclusion" he appointed the most broad-based
government in the nation's history, drawing from all political parties
represented in Parliament, and ‘technocrats’ in civil society. One
minority party did not accept his offer of a cabinet post. The
President's first major objective was to end the rebel war which, in
four years had already claimed hundreds of innocent lives, driven
thousands of others into refugee status, and ruined the nation's
economy. In November 1996, in Abidjan in Côte d'Ivoire, Kabbah signed a
peace agreement with the rebel leader, former Corporal Foday Sankoh of
the Revolutionary United Front (RUF).
The
rebels reneged on the Agreement, resumed hostilities, and later
perpetrated on the people of Sierra Leone what has been described as one
of the most brutal internal conflicts in the world.
In
1996, a coup attempt involving Johnny Paul Koroma and other junior
officers of the Sierra Leone Army was unsuccessful, but served as notice
that Kabbah's control over military and government officials in
Freetown was weakening.
In
May 1997, a military coup forced Kabbah into exile in neighboring
Guinea. The coup was led by the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, and
Koroma was freed and installed as the head of state. In his Guinea
exile, Kabbah began to marshal international support. Just nine months
after the coup, Kabbah's government was revived as the military-rebel
junta was removed by troops of the Economic Community of West African
States (ECOWAS) under the command of the Nigerian led ECOMOG (ECOWAS
Ceasefire Monitoring Group) and loyal civil and military defense forces,
notably the Kamajos led by Samuel Hinga Norman. Once
again, in pursuit of peace, President Kabbah signed the Lome Peace
Accord with the RUF rebel leader Foday Sankoh on July 7, 1999.
Notwithstanding repeated violations by the RUF, the document, known as
the Lomé Peace Agreement, remained the cornerstone of sustainable peace,
security, justice and national reconciliation in Sierra Leone. On
January 18, 2002, at a ceremony marking the conclusion of the
disarmament and demobilization of ex-combatants under the auspices of
the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), he declared that
the rebel war was over. Although
elected as president, he faced the task of fighting a brutal enemy. His
most crucial military support was however from outside. Nigeria was the
foremost participant as they crucially intervened under the leadership
of the late General Sani Abacha, who was then the military head of his
country. On February 1998, he sent his troops to push out the infamous
military junta and rebel alliance of Johnny Paul Koroma and Sam
Bockarie, known as Maskita. The rebels, however, continued their attempt
to dethrone Kabbah's government, despite signing numerous peace accords
with President Kabbah. In May 2000, Foday Saybanah Sankoh, who was then
part of Kabbah's cabinet, kidnapped several UN troops, and then ordered
his rebels to march to Freetown. Trouble was looming as the capital was
once more threatened with another January 6, 1999 scenario. But with
the timely intervention of the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, 800
British troops were sent to Freetown to halt the impending rebel march
to the city. President Kabbah was very grateful to the British Prime
Minister, calling his intervention "timely" and one that "Sierra Leonean
people will never forget".
As
president, Kabbah opened direct negotiations with the RUF rebels in
order to end the civil war. He signed several peace accords with the
rebel leader Foday Sankoh, including the 1999 Lome Peace Accord, in
which the rebels, for the first time agreed to a temporary cease fire
with the Sierra Leone government. When the cease fire agreement with the
rebels virtually collapsed, Kabbah campaigned for international
assistant from the British, the United Nations Security Council, the
African Union and the Economic Community of West African States to help
defeat the rebels and restored peace and order in Sierra Leone.
In
October 1999, the United Nations agreed to send peacekeepers to help
restore order and disarm the rebels. The first of the 6,000-member force
began arriving in December, and the United Nations Security Council
voted in February 2000 to increase the force to 11,000, and later to
13,000. The UN peacekeeping forces were made up mainly of soldiers from
the British special forces, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The African
Union special forces sent to Sierra Leone to assist the government in
fighting the rebels were made up mainly of soldiers from Nigeria,
Guinea, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Zambia and The Gambia. The international
forces, led by the British troops, launched many successful military
operations in repelling the RUF rebels and retook many of the areas of
the country that were under the rebel control. The rebel lines of
communication were severely destroyed and many senior rebel leaders were
captured or fled the country, including the RUF leader Foday Sankoh,
who was captured.
The
fragile rebels finally agreed to be dissarmed. In return the Sierra
Leone government, lead by Kabbah, offered the rebels amnesty, career
opportunities and mental institutions. The child rebels were reinstated
in public schools, also offered mental institutions and reunited with
family members. In 2001, United Nation forces moved in rebel-held areas
and began to dissarm the rebels.
The
civil war was officially declared over in early 2002 by Kabbah. Tens of
thousands of Sierra Leoneans across the country took to the streets
celebrating the end of the war. Kabbah went on to easily win his final
five year term in office in the presidential election later that year
with 70.1% of the vote, defeating his main opponent Ernest Bai Koroma of
the main opposition All People's Congress (APC). International
observers declared the election free and fair. As
the first leader after the civil war, Kabbah's main task was to disarm
the different parties involved in the war and to build unity of the
country. Time magazine called Kabbah a "diamond in the rough"
for his success as the first civilian elected ruler of Sierra Leone in
34 years and his role in the end of what became a decade long conflict
from 1992 until 2000. Although he himself was not considered corrupt,
Kabbah was accused of an inability to deal with corrupt officials in his
government many of whom were said to be profiting from the diamond
trade. Kabbah struggled with this problem and invited the British to
help set up an anti-corruption commission.
Kabbah
left office in September 2007 at the end of his second 5-year term.
Constitutionally, he was not eligible to seek re-election. His
Vice-President, Solomon Berewa, ran as the SLPP candidate to succeed
Kabbah but was defeated by the opposition candidate Ernest Bai Koroma of
the APC.
Kabbah
was the head of the Commonwealth's observer mission for the December
2007 Kenyan election, as well as the head of the African Union's
observer mission for the March 2008 Zimbabwean election.
Kabbah
died at his residential home in Juba Hill, a middle class neighborhood
in the west end of Freetown at the age of 82 on March 13, 2014, after a
short illness. Following the announcement of Kabbah's death, Sierra
Leone's president Ernest Bai Koroma declared a week of national
mourning; and he ordered the country's flags to be flown at half mast
throughout Sierra Leone.
A
state funeral was held for Kabbah. Kabbah's funeral service was
attended by several former Heads of State, international delegations,
former and current government officials, regardless of their political
paties, and members of the civil services.
On
March 21, 2014, Kabbah's casket was carried by soldiers of the Sierra
Leone Armed Forces into the Sierra Leone House of Parliament were
members of parliament paid their last respects to the former Head of
State. On March 23, 2014 Kabbah's casket was brought to the National
Stadium, as thousands of Sierra Leoneans lined the streets of Freetown
to say goodbye to their former leader. Kabbah's body was then carried by
soldiers to the Mandingo Central Mosque in Freetown where an Islamic
prayer service was held before he was finally laid to rest at the Kissi
Road Cemetery, next to his mother Hajah Adama Kabbah's grave.
Kabbah's
wife Patricia, an ethnic Sherbro, died in 1998. They had five
children: Mariama, Abu, Michael, Isata and Tejan Jr., and three
grandchildren: Simone, Isata, and Aidan.
Maryam Durani: (Arabic: مَریَم دورانی), is an Afghan activist. Daughter of Haji Mohammad Eisa Durani, Maryam Durani was born in 1987. Hailing from the Muhammadzai tribe, Maryam is a graduate of the business department of American University of Afghanistan and currently she is a third class student of Law and Political Science at Noor University. Maryam Durani was also Kandahar people’s representative in the provincial council. She has served in different positions such as director of Khadijatul Kubra women's association for culture, owner of Merman Radio (special women radio) and as founder of the Kandahar woman advocacy network. She received the World Ten Brave Women’s award on March 8, 2012 as well as a World 100 Influential Figure’s award on April 20, 2012. She has also received the Brave Woman award from the State of Pennsylvania, the Women Rights Protector’s award from Washington and an Iraq and Afghanistan Female Peace Activist’s appreciation letter from Turkey. She is a broadcaster and the manager of the Merman Radio of Kandahar. On April 6, 2013, she founded the Women's Network (Advocacy) in Kandahar. Maryam also established the Malalai Maiwandi Internet cafe a free women's internet cafe to connect more women to the world in a safe and comfortable space. she opened Malali Maiwandi internet cafe on September 25, 2013 which is the first of its kind in the Afghanistan. There Afghan women could use the cafe for getting information about current affairs and obtain educational material, which is the main reason why she established the women's cafe. In 2012, she was chosen by Time Magazine as "The 100 Most Influential People in the World". According to Time, "As the owner and operator of a radio station (Merman Radio) that focuses on women's issues and as a member of the Kandahar provincial council, Durani stands up for the region's women with remarkable bravery." On March 8, 2012, she became a recipient of the prestigious United States Secretary of State’s International Women of Courage Award.
Samira Ibrahim (Arabic: سميرة إبراهيم) (born c. 1987) is an Egyptian activist who came to prominence during the Egyptian revolution .
On March 9, 2011, she participated in a sit-in at Tahrir Square in Cairo. The military violently dispersed protest participants, and Samira and other women were beaten, given electric shocks, strip searched, and videotaped by the soldiers. They were also subjected to virginity tests. The tests were allegedly carried out to protect the soldiers from claims of rape.
After succeeding in placing the case in front of a civilian court, a court order was issued in December 2011 to stop the practice of “virginity tests”. However in March 2012, a military court exonerated Dr. Adel El Mogy from charges laid in connection with the virginity testing of Ibrahim.
Ibrahim vowed to take her case to the international courts.
In early March 2013, Ibrahim came under criticism after Samuel Tadros, writing in The Weekly Standard, accused her of posting anti-Semitic and anti-American statements on her Twitter account. These statements included quoting Adolf Hitler, writing: "I have discovered with the passage of days, that no act contrary to morality, no crime against society, takes place, except with the Jews having a hand in it. Hitler.” In reaction to a suicide bombing of a bus of Israelis in Bulgaria, she wrote "Today is a very sweet day with a lot of very sweet news.” In 2012, on the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, she tweeted "Today is the anniversary of 9/11. May every year come with America burning".
The United States State Department subsequently announced that it would not be giving the International Women of Courage Award to Samira Ibrahim in light of these comments.
Initially, Ibrahim claimed that her Twitter account had been "previously stolen" and that "any tweet on racism and hatred is not me”. However, she later stated "I refuse to apologize to the Zionist lobby in America regarding my previous anti-Zionist statements under pressure from American government therefore they withdrew the award." The United States State Department later stated that Ibrahim had since left the United States to return to Egypt.
On March 8, 2013, a spokeswoman for the United States State Department stated that "Upon further review, the department has decided not to present her with the award" as American officials "didn't consider some of the public statements that she had made appropriate. They didn't comport with our values" while adding that "There were obviously some problems in our review process, and we're going to do some forensics on how that happened."
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