46 - Nov 13 thru Nov 19 2000, Vol X


Impressive Maiden Flight.
Liu Xiangang,
ZPEB Yemen
On Monday 30 October 2000, Sana'a airport was in a warm bright sunshine
that seemed distinctive. At 8:00, one white 2 propeller Canada- made aircraft
DASH VI of Yemenia moved to the runway, and took off 6 minutes later, proclaiming
a start of her maiden flight direct to well location at Block S2 onshore
Yemen and of Preussag Energie Exploration therein.
As one of the 9 passengers and drilling contractor representative successfully
discovered Block 53 Sharyoof oilfield and brought Block 32 field on production,
I felt so good to be lucky enough to take this special journey to undertake
another mission, although I had flied smaller craft over north America,
bigger one in south east Asia, helicopter in south Asia. It was marvelous
to find out that what lay underneath was typically different. First of
all, one could not find boundless picturesque farm land. Only a number
of plots of green carpets from Sana'a. In 20 minutes, mysterious openness
of mountains of years eroded cone- type Farda and Nagil Bin Gela later
with flat caps due to weathering and gracefully displayed their vast geographical
diversity of shapes without any make-up or decoration. Pure, simple, natural
aged group in conjunction with a crisscross net work of gullies at their
feet after many years denudation and exhumation of the powerful Nature.
It was amazing to appreciate at ease tens of various sizes of volcanos,
their basins were fully or half covered with golden sands, much like village
sieves of grains, wheat, beans or rice in harvest seasons. Down below nothing
similar to Europe, nor America, even nor palm tree valley of Sayun, nor
even green attractive hills of Ibb. It was unique. Ah ha, Mareb came to
erupt bravely from the desert showing her tireless energy of over 2000
years. I did not bear to watch her entire view of her wrestling with reckless
sand invaders. I prayed in my heart for her survival from harsh environment
of desertification. Thanks to hundreds of oil men we could enjoy beautiful
sceneries of Yemen Hunt base and fields of Yemen Hunt, Jannah Hunt and
Vintage. I was proud of them. Ahead of us aggressive sand current flowed
westward, with thousands of ripples glittering in the sunlight. All of
a sudden, those sand current changed to south direction. I knew we were
above Shabwa. A few black hills in the sahra appeared before our eyes.
Gradually we saw newly built Block S2 site, water well rig, containers,
trucks, jeeps, men, and a brand new runway. Amidst loud cheers our craft
safely landed and ended this pretty impressive maiden flight. That was
a declaration of another new field battle to bring forth black gold.
Conspiracy against Islam: Muslims being cheated
ASSALAMUALAIKUM. I do not know whether this would be read by any
Member of Parliament. I hope it is. I would like to draw your attention
to an article that appeared in Jan 1999 in The Atlantic Monthly published
from USA titled “What is the Koran” The article refers to the manuscripts
of the Koran discovered in 1972 during the restoration of The Great Mosque
in 1972. These manuscripts are now with The House of Manuscripts, Yemen.
It is surprising that only two scholars till date (both non-Muslims and
both Germans) have been allowed to look at these manuscripts. They have
already taken 35,000 microfilms which they have taken to Germany. The whole
aim is to prove that the Koran has not been retained in its original form.
They have already published articles to this effect in several journals.
I quote from the article:
(To date just two scholars have been granted extensive access to the
Yemeni fragments: Puin and his colleague H.-C. Graf von Bothmer, an Islamic-art
historian also based at Saarland University. Puin and Von Bothmer have
published only a few tantalizingly brief articles in scholarly publications
on what they have discovered in the Yemeni fragments. They have been reluctant
to publish partly because until recently they were more concerned with
sorting and classifying the fragments than with systematically examining
them, and partly because they felt that the Yemeni authorities, if they
realized the possible implications of the discovery, might refuse them
further access. Von Bothmer, however, in 1997 finished taking more than
35,000 microfilm pictures of the fragments, and has recently brought the
pictures back to Germany. This means that soon Von Bothmer, Puin, and other
scholars will finally have a chance to scrutinize the texts and to publish
their findings freely — a prospect that thrills Puin. “So many Muslims
have this belief that everything between the two covers of the Koran is
just God’s unaltered word,” he says. “They like to quote the textual work
that shows that the Bible has a history and did not fall straight out of
the sky, but until now the Koran has been out of this discussion. The only
way to break through this wall is to prove that the Koran has a history
too. The Sana’a fragments will help us to do this.”)
Please ensure that these scholars are not given further access to the
documents. Also please rebury them or if they are not exact reproductions,
please burn them.
Allah help us against our enemies
Abul Kasim
fbap0241@nus.edu.sg
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