Journey To Mecca

This is a 45 minutes documentary about the famous Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta.

He started a voyage from his home town Tanga or Tangier in the year 1325 to Mecca, which was a historic and cultural center of Islam.

He returned home after 29 years, after he crossed most of the world; from Africa to India, China and the Maldives covering about 100,000 miles, which is 3 or 4 times what the famous Marco Polo had covered.

Later he dictated his reminiscences to become the most famous travel books (Al Rihla) The Journey.

The movie was filmed in both Saudi Arabia and Morocco.
It is an Imax feature, in three languages; Arabic, English and  Berber Tamazight.

The Journey takes you to amazing places from Mt. Everest to the Deep Sea and Outer Space.

It ended in showing the Now a Days Hajj or pilgrimage where over 3 million Muslims perform the holy rituals.

However, for the Non Muslims, the IMAX feature give them the chance to see as close as possible this outstanding event.

Muslims will definitely see a deeper significance.

Journey to Mecca was made with special Imax cameras and cost more than $13 million.

"Erasing that kind of prejudice is the reason Taran Davies — a half-English, half-American graduate of Eton and Harvard who was raised in the Church of England — has devoted himself to making films about Islam." New York Times

His latest and most ambitious project, “Journey to Mecca,” strives to impress Westerners with a side of Islam that he thinks gets short shrift in the news coverage of Islamic fundamentalism, focusing on the respect with which millions of Muslim pilgrims treat one another and how the hajj unites Muslims, Jews and Christians.

But Mr. Davies and his director, Bruce Neibaur, have done it for the first time in Imax, a format in which the vastness of deserts and seas show up superbly on vastness of screen and in which aerial shots capture every face in a crowd.

It’s also a format that uses 85-pound cameras that must be reloaded every three minutes.

The film concentrates only on Ibn Battuta first hajj and recreates its high points — wild dashes pursued by highwaymen through the Atlas Mountains; a felucca ride up the languid Nile; ancient Damascus by night; the Grand Mosque of Mecca as it was in 1326.

The film includes a stunning flyover shot taken just above the camels’ heads. How to keep the beasts from bolting?

Before completing his epic journey, Ibn Battuta will be chased down by black-cloaked highwaymen. He will endure blinding sandstorms, cross vertiginous mountains, be tempted by mirages in broiling deserts. And, at night, he will sit mesmerized on cooling sand dunes, his young heart soaring, staring at a sky splashed with stars.

Journey to Mecca is an exploration of the history, geography, and culture of 14th century North Africa and the Middle East.

The film is based on the real-life experiences of Ibn Battuta, one of the greatest travelers of all time.

The story of his first Hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca, offers the modern eye a glimpse into a vital part of history.

Journey to Mecca emphasizes much on the common traditional cultures between the three main religions; Islam, Judaism and Christianity.

The Movie also shows how the Good Values overcome evil temptations, and how the human nature takes back its trend towards Good.

One of the Movie producers said that the aim is to give a better picture on Islam to the West, and better highlights on Islamic Civilization. Dominique Reed also said that they wanted to show the cultural, spiritual and historic elements that the Islamic world used to possess in a non-religious way.

Taran Davis explained that he wanted to publish a Peace Culture, because the Hajj or Pilgrimage is about realizing this culture of peace.

However his message is confusing especially when he relates the building of Kaaba to Ibrahim and Ismail.... suggesting that the three religions participates in this great heritage.

All in all, it is always good to publicize the culture of peace between religions.

Even if this culture is penetrated by politics and then by blood.

Take a look on what caused wars in the past and also now...
Conflicts between religions... come on top of the list
Then Money

Sami Cherkaoui

Hey Dad, Its Your Day

How it was different a 100 years ago?

It all started in 1909 in Spokane, Washington State USA, when a daughter that was one of six children raised by a single dad, decided to Honor her father.
Sonora Smart Dodd (Now referred to as Mother of Father's Day) encouraged a local church to institute the first Father's Day observance the following year, and the idea carried on widely in other churches, the years to follow.

Now, it is celebrated every third Sunday of June in most countries.
Other countries chose other dates to celebrate.

Few nice examples about worldwide dates:

February 23 - Russia
May 8 - S.Korea
June 21 - Egypt - Lebanon - Jordan - Syria
August 8 - Taiwan
2nd Sunday of August - Brazil
March 19 - Italy - Spain - Antwerp (Belgium)
13 Rajab - Iran - Pakistan

In history, it was recorded that 4000 years ago, in Babylon, a son named Elmesu, carved a Father's Day message on a clay card. He wished his father a long and healthy life.

Today, it is more like a commercial appeal, than real honoring.

Stores takes advantage of the Day to sell more of their products that are intended to be gifts for Fathers.

With this Global Economy, they are even selling less.

Less selling and less honoring.

The significant role of the father and how this role can affect a child's future life, was missing till few decades ago.

However, it is still not recognized in the same way that Mother's Day is recognized.

Probably because the mother role, is traditionally and historically a social and house role; raising children and taking care of the house.

Father role is always outside the house; working and bringing the finance.

Today things changed....

Mothers and Fathers, forcefully have equal roles.

Like Single Mothers.... Single Fathers are becoming popular.

Father's Day is celebrated to compliment Mother's Day and honor Fatherhood and Parenting.

However, Dads and children today are much different than few decades ago...

Then, Dad was the real head of the family..
Today both Mom and Dad are heads.. if not ... then Mom only...
If not... then no heads l... Children on their own

Then, Dad was a real image to the children...an example.... an idol... a pagan...
Today..Dad's image is very vague
Children like to be their own examples.

Then, Dad was the basic supporter of the children..
Today.. Children think they can support themselves..
Enough part-time jobs to do so..

Then, when Dad got angry, all the house take whatever steps not to upset him more..
Today if Dad gets angry... he is out of the house.. on his own

Then, no child can get out of the house without Dad permission..
Today...Dad needs a permission to stay in the house...

Then, if Dad says home by 10 O'clock... he means it.... and children abide..
Today,..10 O'clock.. is a joke..

Then, children celebrated Dad's Day for the honor of their Dads...
Today... it is only a festivity to the kids...
Sometimes they celebrate... and no need for the fathers to be there..

Anyways...
Happy Father's Day

Sami Cherkaoui

Children Of Our Alley

In my previous blog, I have committed a mistake when putting the example of Najib Mahfouz's novel " Awlad Haritna".
For the importance of this example,  I am correcting here the mistake and elaborate more on the novel and its significance.

Firstly...The title is officially translated to "Children of our Alley"

In the Alley there are the following characters:

Jabalawi: symbolizes God and his eternity.
Jabalawi House: (The Big House: symbolizes Heaven and God Throne)
The Alley symbolizes the Universe
Kandil: symbolizes Jibril or Gabriel
Adham: symbolizes Adam
Kadri: Adham's son symbolizes Cain
Idris: symbolizes Iblis or Satan
Jabal: symbolizes Moses
Rafa'ah: symbolizes Jesus Christ
Kasim: symbolizes Mohamed
Sadiq: symbolizes Mohamed friend and companion Abu Baker Al Seddiq
Arafah: symbolizes knowledge or science - not related to the sons...(Jabal, Rafa'ah or Kasim}yet each one claims he is his. However he is influenced by Idris and his descendants..
He is also Jabalawi's Killer.

In plot sequence:
Jabalawi has built a mansion in an oasis in the middle of a barren desert; his estate becomes the scene of a family feud which continues for generations. "Whenever someone is depressed, suffering or humiliated, he points to the mansion at the top of the alley at the end opening out to the desert, and says sadly, 'That is our ancestor's house, we are all his children, and we have a right to his property.

Jabalawi by choosing his younger son, Adham, to oversee the estate, rather than the eldest son of his first wife, Idris opened wide conflict between the two sons. Idris explodes in such a jealous rage that he is expelled from the house and family, and becomes a thief. He had previously raped a servant, who bore him a daughter.

Adham as Jabalawi's favorite son manages the estate and gets married. And before his wife gives birth, Idris tricks him into disobeying their father, so he too is expelled from home and family. He builds a shack on the outer wall of the garden, and forever dreams of going back inside. He and his wife have twin boys, who grow up in the alley.

The couple go on to raise the two sons, one of whom accidentally slays the other in an argument, and they spend their remaining days in misery. On his deathbed, however, Adham receives a promise from Jabalawi that Adham's children will inherit the estate. Their surviving son, having left his parents' home years earlier, returns with his wife, the daughter of Idris, and their children. From them are descended all the people of the alley.

Jabal, Rafa'ah and Kasim, follow. Each established a just society.
Like Adham, they have the blessing of Jabalawi, who communicates with them, either in person, or through a servant. He remains holed up in his house and garden, and doesn't communicate with anyone else.

Jabal is the first of Jabalawi's descendants to receive his message that the residents of the alley have equal right to the estate, and he leads the first successful uprising against corruption and mob rule. A period of universal prosperity returns, but, sadly, it is not long before the cycle of abuse resumes, interrupted only by the occasional interventions of one of Jabalawi's descendants.

Rafa'ah works in his father's carpentry shop, until he starts to exorcize evil spirits from people, so that they may lead happy lives. He acquires a following of reprobates, whose lives are changed.
The girl across from his parents' home is caught in adultery, and to spare her honor and her life, he marries her.
He teaches his followers that in a society in which one either clubs, or is clubbed, it's better to die than to kill.
Of course, he gets killed, but Jabalawi takes his body into the garden for burial. After his death there are two clans, Jabal and Rafa'ah, which each fight one another ferociously in the alley.

Kasim suffers for his ideals and love to Jabalawi and his family. He was raised by one of his uncles who taught him the trading business. He married a wealthy woman who was older than him, loved him and believed in him.
He was not happy with the corruption that controlled the Alley, and tried to convince people to quit their criminal acts and follow a clean path.
But he was faced with tough hardship on him, so he retreats from the Alley before he brought back justice for all, men and women, slaves and free, which he did, representing the Hijra,  confirming that he stood for the prophet, Mohammed.

Families of each son settle in different parts of the alley, symbolizing Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

The book symbolizes the story of creation of Jabalawi (God) to his village(Heaven) and filling it with sons, starting with Adham (Adam - Jabalawi favourite son), and the rebellion of Idris (Iblis-Satan), which led Jabalawi to kick him out of the Village.

Idriss succeeds in causing Adham be driven out f the Village, so the eternal struggle between Adham and Idriss begins.

The protagonist of the book's fifth section is Arafa , who symbolizes modern science and, significantly, comes after all prophets, while all of their followers claim Arafah as one of their own.

This novel together with Mahfouz's Trilogy, were the basics which considered essential for the author to win the Nobel Price.

The Trilogy is another amazing novel of three series:

Palace Walk (Bain Al Qasrain)

Palace Design (Qasr Al Shouk)

Sugar Street (Al Sukariah)


In this controversial classic that nearly cost him his life, Mahfouz addresses human suffering, the never-ending battle between good and evil, and God's mysterious ways.

Mahfouz wanted to show that humans are cursed to forget the lessons of the past and forced to relearn them continually through hardship.

The book was banned throughout the Arab world, except in the Lebanon. In the 1960s, Mahfouz further developed its theme that humanity is moving further away from God in his existentialist novels. In The Thief and the Dogs (1961) he depicted the fate a Marxist thief, who has been released from prison and plans revenge. Ultimately he is murdered in a cemetery.

Sami Cherkaoui

Creation and People With Visions

In the Bible it is said that God create Man in his own image.
In the Qur'an it is said that God taught Adam all names, and God teach human what he did not know.

Science says of evolution from ice and stone age to our time..
According to science... it took human thousands and may be million of years to develop, adapt, invent and civilized.

The questions that may be asked.
What was the first invention, how and by whom?

Me, I do not have a clue...

But I strongly believe that that there was no first invention...
All inventions came together with humans when they were created.

Well may be not the full thing...
May be some little knowledge, then certain special people gave a little help to develop the little knowledge to great science.

These people are people with visions.
Call them Messengers, Prophets, Inventors, Scientists, Philosophers, Thinkers...
Call them anything you want... They are the people who paved the way to all the civilizations we know and see today.

I strongly believe that technology started with the beginning of days.... then it was lost.

Many disasters came on Earth, which wiped everything from its surface.
History, Religion and Science can confirm this.

However, I believe that "Everything" include also science and technology.

Let us go back to what the Bible and Qur'an.said.
God create Man in his image..
What does this mean?

For sure God image is perfect because he is God.
Perfect image is not only shape.
It is shape and contents.

And if this so...
Then Man should be perfect in shape and content.
May be semi perfect...
He has the brain to know..
The senses to feel...
And the body to age and die..
This is why Man is not as perfect as God.

However, if Man has the brain to know...
Then Man already know everything at time of creation..

This is what the Qur'an confirms..

God taught Adam all names...
Meaning the knowledge of everything.
God taught Man what he did not know before...
But God taught him..
And Man became knowledgeable..

So what went wrong, that we see history tells us that Man was nothing but a Monkey shape creature... had no knowledge..
Then evolved to become in the shape we know today..
Then developed to become civilized.

Najib Mahfouz is an Egyptian Novelist who won Noble Price on literature in the 1980's, wrote a very nice story called " Awlad Haritna"... means " Children of our Alley".

In this book, he told about a certain neighborhood, made and developed by a person called "Adham" (symbolizing Adam), who was like the governor of this neighborhood.
He had many children..
One of them is "Idris" (symbolizing Iblis or Satan)
The neighborhood was expanding and flourishing.
Adam's children married and had children and grand children.
Adam remained in his palace at the Alley's Hill. Watching and controlling.

One of "Idris's grand children, got involved with weapons and explosives.
He did not like the way that Adam is controlling...... and wanted to rebel.
In the end he managed to invent a kind of devastating explosions and destroyed the house of Adam and killed him.

I believe this was happening every time at all times.

Civilizations destroyed themselves and the idea of God is killed each time.

At the peak of every civilization, some one manages to destroy it.

The destruction is so intense to wipe everything out....

All the brains which created those civilizations vanished together with their science, technology and inventions.
Who ever survived survived....remained to strive and build up from what could be caught.

And all what could remain is some evidences that bear witness of how brilliant and advanced our ancestors were.....

No one is able to discover the real meaning of such evidences.

There are some hints in the religious books...
Again no one is able to understand those hints..

This is my belief..

What is yours?
Sami Cherkaoui

BP and Othman Shirt

Mr. Obama wants BP to pay for the mess the oil spill has made on USA shores.

He announced that BP will put a compensation fund of 20 Billion Dollars, for the victims of the Gulf Oil Spill.

BP Chairman Carl Henric Svanberg announced that the company will not pay shareholders dividends this year.
(In other words, the 20 billion dollars could have been a one year BP annual profits.)
He said that BP is sorry and is committed to its legitimate responsibilities.

But British PM Mr. Cameron has different views..
He made an appeal on behalf of BP's British investors and called the company to be protected from excessive compensation claims as Mr. Obama made the company agree to potentially unlimited charges.

Mr, Cameron further said that the company should not be exposed to a string of future damages claims.

But Mr. Obama vowed to the American people (Voters) that he will make BP pay for its "recklessness", and compared the oil spill disaster impact to that of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the US.
Typical!!!

It seems USA now has two Othman Shirts; September 11 and the Deep Water Horizon disaster.

What is Othman Shirt?
It is a phrase used by Arab Muslims to indicate blackmail.
Othman was the fourth Caliph after Prophet Mohamed.
After he was assassinated rival groups blamed one another for the blood of Othman, Carried his blooded shirt and demanded revenge.. so to get political compensations.

It seems USA now is following the same policy!

So what about the sea life?

No one knows what the survival rate will be for the Gulf species affected by the oil spill. One expert said, "I don't believe that all these birds that are being rehabilitated for the Deep Water Horizon  spill will end up dying."

Life seems do not matter....
The "Catch" is very high... 20 Billion Dolllars to infinity...
Or should we say the goat is priceless?

Well speaking about this particular goat... British Petroleum

20 Billion Dollars estimated profit for one year is really WOW...
The shareholders are exceptionally happy every year.
Not this year ofcourse... poor people... they will be sad...
No Christmass presents..

Who are those shareholders anyways...
Ok.. may be not our concern

But 20 Billion dollars is a probably budgets of 4 or 5 Third World Countries.
Where there are really poor people, dying of hunger every day...

20 Billion Dollars...
I heard this number before...

Oh, I remembered..
It is the budget that Canada put to support its troops in Afghanistan...
Where almost every day 1 or 2 Canadian soldiers die.....
What a waste of money and men..

Now USA, Canada and all these countries who are in Afghanistan, discover that Afghanistan is sleeping on treasure mines worth trillions of dollars..

The U.S. has discovered nearly $1 trillion of untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves, the New York Times reported on its website last Sunday, citing unnamed senior U.S. government officials. The discovery could make the country one of the world's most important mining centers, it said.

It seems the country has deposits of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals such as lithium, the newspaper said. Citing an internal Pentagon memo, the newspaper said that the lithium deposits are so big that Afghanistan could become the "Saudi Arabia of lithium."

Lithium is a key raw material to make batteries for laptops, cameras and mobile phones.

What is the destiny of those mines ... and Afghanistan

Who knows....

It seems Afghanistan will be another Othman Shirt!

Sami Cherkaoui

God Particle and Fifth Element

Do you remember Dan Brown's Angels Vs Demons?

The start of the book talks about a large collider - A Tunnel goes underground Geneva for few kilometers.
The film visualize it.

However, it realy exists in Switzerland and owned by CERN Organisation Européenne pour la Recherche Nucléaire.

CERN's main function is to provide the particle accelerators and other infrastructure needed for high-energy physics research. Numerous experiments have been constructed at CERN by international collaborations to make use of them.

It is also noted for being the birthplace of the World Wide Web.

The job of this  Large Hadron Collider, is to collide opposing particle beams of protons at energy of 7 trillion electronvolts per particle.

It became operational on November 20, 2009, and is expected to provide experimental evidence of the existence or non-existence of the Higgs boson.

The Higgs boson is a hypothetical massive scalar elementary particle to exist by Standard Model in particle physics.

At present there are no known elementary scalar particles in nature.
The existence of such particles will resolve the inconsistencies in current theoretical physics.
The Higgs boson is often referred to as "The God Particle"

Leon Lederman in his book "The God Particle: If the universe is the answer, what is the question.?
The God Particle has a recurring theme of what Dr. Leon Lederman calls "the history of atomism", and many sections of the chapters in the book are focused through this lens. In the end, it is also the search for the God Particle.
The particle identified in the title is the Higgs boson proposed by the physicist Peter Higgs, Gerald Guralnik, C. R. Hagen, Tom Kibble and François Englert and Robert Brout

The book shares the view of the challenges encountered by the physicists  involved in the science of particle physics with the 20th century's powerful particle accelerators.

According to Dr. Lederman, prior to the big bang all observable matter was overheated and “squeezed into a volume vastly smaller than the head of a pin”. The temperature was unimaginably, baking and broiling. 
Matter as we see with our eyes could not exist. It was too hot. Everything was quarks and leptons boiling around in hot plasma.

Then came the expansion and cooling – quarks “began to coagulate into protons, neutrons, and the other hadrons”. Stable nuclei, began to form when protons and neutrons began to combine at around age three minutes, during a period known as Big Bang nucleosynthesis.

So, does the God Particle actually exist?.

Guess what?
They claim now that there might be Multiple God's Particles...

Recent results from the LHC's US rival suggest physicists could be hunting five particles, not one.

The data may point to new laws of physics beyond the current accepted theory - known as the Standard Model.

The idea of multiple Higgs bosons is supported by results gathered by the DZero experiment at the Tevatron particle accelerator, operated by Fermilab in Illinois, US.

DZero is designed to shed light on why the world around us is composed of normal matter and not its shadowy opposite: anti-matter.

But the DZero results showed much more significant "asymmetry" of matter and anti-matter - beyond what could be explained by the Standard Model.

What does all this mean?

They are trying to repeat the method of the Universe creation, by providing what they think, the matters and anti-matters that collided to form the symmetry of the Universe, on a small scale.

They want to prove that there are scientific answers to creation of the universe.

Their aim target is to abolish the idea of God.

But it seems all what they are doing root back to the very idea of the Universe created by God.

The very existence of matter and anti-matter must be created some how..

It looks that everything they theoretically think of is a copy of a mythical or religious story.
They put it in more scientific standard.
Still it gives the same picture.
But a very expensive picture...

The very same ideas have been either directly or indirectly or via a hin, are found in the Bible, the Quran and other religious books...

From Darkness was Light...
Then Water
Then Wind
Then Earth
They all combine to make Life.

And it still can have no explanation.
Still the same basics...
The four elements...Fire, Earth, Water, Wind...

They are looking for the Fifth Element, which combined all this and form the Universe....
Our World
Our Life

Or shall we say WHO combined all this?

Sami Cherkaoui

Big Bang and the Dark Side

This series of articles about creation, could have come to end by the latest on on Isis and Osiris, however a new article in Science Daily, pushed for some comments and serious thoughts about this whole issue.

The article in Science Daily uncovered new research by astronomers in the Physics Department at Durham University suggests that the conventional wisdom about the content of the Universe may be wrong.

The research is based on observations from Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe satellite of the remnant heat from the Big Bang.

The last observation in 2001 showed that the ripples were about twice the size of the full moon or around a degree across.
This suggested the cosmos is made of 4% normal matter, 22% dark or invisible matter and 74% dark energy.

The new observation showed that the measurement of the size of the ripples are significantly smaller, which could imply that the dark matter and dark energy are not present after all.

In astronomy  and cosmology, dark matter is matter that is inferred to exist from gravitational effects on visible matter and background radiation, but is undetectable by emitted or scattered  electromagnetic radiation. Its existence was hypothesized to account for discrepancies between measurements of the mass of galaxies, clusters of galaxies and the entire universe made through dynamical and general relativistic means, and measurements based on the mass of the visible "luminous" matter these objects contain: stars and the gas and dust of the interstellar and intergalactic  media

Dark matter is crucial to the Big Bang  model of cosmology as a component which corresponds directly to measurements of the parameters associated with Friedmann cosmology solutions to general relativity.

Dark energy is or was the most popular way to explain recent observations and experiments that the universe appears to be expanding at an accelerating rate.

Galaxies show signs of being composed largely of a roughly spherically symmetric, centrally concentrated halo of dark matter with the visible matter concentrated in a disc at the center.

Low surface brightness dwarf galaxies are important sources of information for studying dark matter, as they have an uncommonly low ratio of visible matter to dark matter, and have few bright stars at the center which would otherwise impair observations of the rotation curve of outlying stars.

Gravitational lensing observations of galaxy clusters allow direct estimates of the gravitational mass based on its effect on light from background galaxies.

What does this mean?

If dark energy exists, then it ultimately causes the expansion of the Universe to accelerate, and plays a central role in th structure formation and galaxy evolution.

If it does not exist, then the structure formation and galaxy evolution must have been made by another method or system Or God.....

So far there is no known proved method or system that has arranged the cosmos.
All what we have are theories.
Even scientists are skeptical if these theories could be applied or not.
Well.... It seems the theory of God is prevailing as constant amongst all other theories.

This would leave the open possibility that the religious arguments are after all true.

Scientists believe that the acceleration of the Universe began about 5 billion years ago.
But we have learnt in religion and Myth that time has no essence in creation, as it has no essence in other dimensions or other worlds...

Would it be possible that the 5 billion years scientists are talking about is reality only 6000 years.. Adam Age?

It seems now all possibilities are wide open.

Will we know the truth?.... Who knows

Sami Cherkaoui