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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?

5/31/2015 4:18:48 PM

Special Report: Egypt deploys scholars to teach moderate Islam, but skepticism abounds

By Mahmoud Mourad and Yara Bayoumy8 hours ago

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Students revise for a Koran verbal recital exam in one of the Al-Azhar institutes in Cairo, Egypt, May 20, 2015. REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih

By Mahmoud Mourad and Yara Bayoumy

CAIRO (Reuters) - In his battle against militant Islam, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is relying not just on bomber planes and soldiers but on white-turbaned clerics from Al-Azhar, Egypt's 1,000-year-old center for Islamic learning. He wants clerics to counter radicalism in the classroom.

In a televised speech in January at an Al-Azhar conference center in Cairo, Sisi called for "a religious revolution" in Islam. Radicalized thinking, he told the audience of Islamic scholars, had become "a source of anxiety, danger, killing and destruction for the rest of the world."

That had to change – and the scholars had a leading role to play, in schools, mosques and on the airwaves.

"You, imams, are responsible before Allah. The entire world is waiting. The entire world is waiting for your next word because this nation is being torn apart."

Surprised by the president's bluntness, the scholars went "white as sheets," some of those in the audience told a Western official.

The president's warning is part of a much larger project. To contain the radical Islamist movement roiling his nation, Sisi has most conspicuously been using the law and brute force. But he is also promoting a more moderate and less politicized version of the faith.

In that struggle the Al-Azhar institution is one of the most important fronts for Sisi – and for the wider region. The outcome of the struggle in Egypt, the intellectual and cultural capital of the Arab world, has ramifications far beyond its borders.

The Al-Azhar mosque was built in the 10th century and is one of the oldest in Egypt. It opened a university that spread Shi'ite Islam until the end of the Fatimid Caliphate in 1171. It later turned into a Sunni mosque and university that taught the four schools of mainstream Sunni Islam.

Today the university's various faculties and research centers have 450,000 students, many from countries across Asia and Africa. It also has a network of more than 9,000 schools across Egypt attended by more than 2 million students.

Al-Azhar's teachers, preachers, and researchers have so far introduced a few small changes. They include tweaking text books and setting up an online monitoring center to track militant statements on social media so the institute can better refute them. But there is no detailed reform program yet, and Al-Azhar officials openly acknowledge the magnitude of the challenge ahead.

To be successful, Sisi will need to achieve what many before him have not: balancing tough security measures with education to encourage a more moderate version of Islam. Past experiences in Egypt, Syria, Algeria, and Iraq show that attempts to crack down on extremism can also stoke it. So far the results of Sisi's drive have been mixed.

The president is deeply religious and has a mark on his forehead from years of pressing his head to the carpet in daily prayer. His wife and daughter wear the veil. His reputation for piety was so well known that his predecessor, Mohamed Mursi, a leading figure in the Muslim Brotherhood and Egypt's first freely-elected president, appointed him army chief in August 2012.

Yet Sisi was also bold enough to seize power from Mursi after the Brotherhood leader became increasingly unpopular. Since then, he has cracked down hard on the Brotherhood. Hundreds of the group's supporters have been killed, and thousands jailed. This month a Cairo court recommended the death sentence for Mursi in connection with a mass jail break in 2011.

Balancing that sort of force with a message of moderation is difficult. Some students at Al-Azhar say they are deeply skeptical of the institution, and of the government's plans. Many dismiss Al-Azhar as a mouthpiece for the state, which favors the military and political elites over the poor masses where militants find most of their recruits.

Some students told Reuters the security crackdown was counterproductive. Cairo's heavy-handed tactics, they say, are radicalizing people who may have been open to a message of moderation.

Western officials praise Sisi's calls for action but question whether he has any real plan. "There's a kernel of a very big idea in what Sisi wants to do," said one. "But his vision of it is not exactly clear and it's not clear how it will be implemented."

MODERNIZING TEXTS

Critics say Al-Azhar's Grand Imams have long issued religious edicts in support of government policy. During the time of Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's president for three decades until his overthrow in 2011, the Grand Imam was appointed by presidential decree.

The military government that took over from Mubarak gave Al-Azhar more independence. It allowed an Al-Azhar committee to elect the Grand Imam, though the winner still had to be ratified by presidential decree.

When Mursi came to power in 2012, Al-Azhar criticized his policies and accused the Brotherhood of trying to place its own men into top teaching positions. By contesting and winning faculty seats, the Brotherhood ultimately did gain some influence in the institution.

Since Sisi seized power, though, Al-Azhar has purged Mursi-era professors and teachers, and returned to an appointment system in which the state plays a major role. It has also publicly backed Sisi's crackdown on the Brotherhood and militants. Al-Azhar's Grand Imam, Ahmed al-Tayeb, was one of a few public figures who flanked Sisi as he announced the military takeover in 2013 after days of mass protests against Mursi.

The university has issued new rules stating that any student or faculty member who incites, supports or joins in protests that disrupt learning or promote rioting or vandalism will be expelled or fired.

Beginning in 2013, Al-Azhar also started to simplify its curriculum to make it more compatible with the modern age, said Abbas Shuman, Al-Azhar deputy head. School text book passages describing the spoils of war and slavery have been removed, he said, because they were applicable during the Muslim conquests but are now considered out of date.

An introduction to an online version of a book on Islamic theology now reads: "We present this scientific content to our sons and daughters and ask God that he bless them with tolerance and moderate thought ... and for them to show the right picture of Islam to people."

Sitting in Al-Azhar's headquarter in old Cairo, Shuman said that such changes are reasonable. "Al-Azhar is built on Islamic heritage. But not all of it is sacred," he said.

The university insists that students should not read old religious texts without guidance. And Professor Abdel Fattah Alawari, dean of the Islamic theology faculty at Al-Azhar, said specialized panels had also been created to review books written by professors to make sure they do not lean towards extremism.

Clerics are also trying to modernize methods of communication. Al-Azhar recently started a YouTube channel to counter Islamist propaganda with its own, and has begun using social media to condemn Islamic State atrocities. Sheikhs from Al-Azhar have embarked on tours of youth centers around the country to promote moderate thought and discourage radicalism.

Abdel Hay Azab, president of Al-Azhar's university, said: "Al-Azhar university educates scientists, preachers, doctors and engineers. So when Al-Azhar provides its educational services to society, it has to be with the right vision for religion, which is that religion should not be seen as an obstacle in society."

"FIQH-LITE"

The reforms have not been universally welcomed. Al-Azhar's university campuses saw several violent pro-Brotherhood protests after Mursi was deposed. Some students are opposed to changes to the curriculum.

Yousef Hamdi, a third year student studying Islamic theology, said he was upset that he has not been taught the four mainstream schools of thought on Sunni learning and the differences between them. They include rulings by early prominent clerics such as "using force against oppression and rejecting the ruler."

Like some other students, he feels the reforms mean he is not being taught the full teachings of Islam. The result, Hamdi said, is that some students now seek out books that teach what they feel is pure and traditional Islamic jurisprudence.

"A number of students have become radicalized as a result of that, because they turned to these texts on radicalization without aid and instruction from Al-Azhar," he said.

Another student, who met with Reuters in the Cairo metro to avoid detection by security services, said the move to a softer version of fiqh – the interpretation of Islamic Sha'ria law – has made people angry. "They want to change the curriculum ... They've turned it into 'fiqh-lite'," he said.

Shuman, Al-Azhar's deputy head, said the curriculum changes have not weakened the fiqh taught. "Sha'ria law allows for rulings that are no longer applicable to the modern age to be reviewed to make it more suitable for this age," he said.

But H.A. Hellyer, a nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, questioned Al-Azhar's approach. "The students need to be able to contextualize those references properly ... Otherwise they'll end up being susceptible to radicals who'll give them those references, but in a monumentally flawed fashion," he said.

It is not hard to find radical texts. Just outside Al-Azhar mosque in Cairo's old quarter, a maze of alleyways is filled with scores of bookshops that sell both mainstream Islamic titles and books by more extreme Islamist scholars, including Ibn Taymiyya and Sheikh Kishk.

One booklet by Ibn Taymiyya contains stand-alone statements such as "Honesty in faith is not complete without jihad for the sake of God." More moderate Islamic scholars have criticized such statements because they lack any context for when jihad is justified.

Bookshop owners said that they even quietly sell books by Sayyid Qutb, an Egyptian Brotherhood leader in the middle of last century who is widely seen as the father of modern radical Islamist ideology.

DOWNSIDE OF TOUGH ACTION

The security crackdown may be undermining the attempted education reforms, hardening the outlook of students already sympathetic to Islamists and ostracizing some moderates.

Take the 18-year-old Al-Azhar student who goes by the nickname Abu Obeida al-Ansari. The teenager attended Al-Azhar schools from his early years. Two years ago he joined protests in Cairo against Sisi. The protesters were angry about the fierce security crackdown that killed scores of Brotherhood members and sympathizers. The teenager was later arrested, he said, for standing next to a Brotherhood member in the street as security forces closed in.

Ansari told Reuters via Facebook that Al-Azhar was wrong to back Sisi. He said the institution is "penetrated" by Egypt's security agencies and pro-government thinking, and that it teaches about Sha'ria Islamic law but doesn't implement it.

Ansari said he had also grown disillusioned with the Brotherhood, which he believes buckled too easily under state pressure. He wants to join Islamic State, he said, "whether in Libya, Syria or Iraq, and then return to Egypt to take revenge on every apostate in the army and police who killed and arrested my friends."

He added: "Everybody ought to join jihad ... I learned that from my research, the Fiqh I studied ... and Islamic State fatwas."

Islam Yehya, who is studying Islamic theology at Al-Azhar university, is also angered by Sisi's security crackdown. Security forces, he said, "believe that all Al-Azhar students are terrorists or Brotherhood members. And the truth is that Al-Azhar has Brotherhood, Salafists, liberals and secularists and people who don't know anything about politics."

The tough tactics spark a deep hatred for the police, he said. "Two of my university friends traveled to Syria to join terrorist cells after they were tortured for two months in detention," said Yehya, who spoke at a rundown cafe in Cairo's Nasr City district.

Egypt's government denies allegations of human rights abuses and says the Brotherhood, Islamic State and al Qaeda pose a grave threat to Egypt.

At the same time, security sources say authorities do target universities. One police officer told Reuters that "most of Al-Azhar students are under suspicion" and are regularly monitored. Depending on what is detected, students are either subjected to further monitoring or it is stopped. "Al-Azhar students have the tendency (towards extremism) and are usually a fertile ground to be deceived into joining terrorist cells," the officer said.

Others also take a tough line. Abdul Ghani Hendi, a religious affairs adviser in the Egyptian parliament, thinks Al-Azhar should be completely restructured to allow for self-criticism. "All the thought which dominates the society is extremists' thoughts. We should confess that frankly," he said.

In April, an official at the education ministry burned books in the courtyard of a private school, saying the literature included Islamic texts that incited violence. The action sparked ridicule from Islamists and secularists alike, who pointed out that some of the burned books had nothing to do with Islam.

Nevertheless, Sisi remains committed to his drive against militancy and thinks Al-Azhar can do more to promote a moderate form of Islam. In a recent speech, he said: "We need to move faster and more effectively."

(Additional reporting by Ahmed Hassan; Editing by Michael Georgy, Simon Robinson and Richard Woods)

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 5/31/2015 6:02:05 PM
	11 Thought Provoking Images Show What Humans Are Really Doing To The Planet BY THE EVENT CHRONICLE ON MAY 29, 2015 · (Collective Evolution) Go to school, get a job, pay your bills, and try to put yourself in a position to earn enough money to be able to live – this is our current human experience. But while we’re busy focusing on how to survive, our planet is being trashed at an exponential rate. Is it possible to create a human experience where we don’t destroy the planet? Is it possible for everybody to have their basic necessities met without the use of money? Is it possible to create a “system” where money is not even needed? We believe so, but there still seems to be a harsh resistance to this type of thinking, despite the tremendous amount of options that exist to change our world. For example, we could use hemp and other biodegradable non-toxic ingredients to manufacture our products – products that don’t harm the environment, but actually help to heal it. No more plastic, no more deforestation. Hemp can also be used to generate energy and boasts over 50,000 other uses, but this crop is still illegal in many places. Again, hemp is just one small example out of many with big implications. There exist a number of problems that urgently need to be addressed, and the fact that a handful of corporations pretty much own the entire planet and all its resources doesn’t help, but things are changing, there is still good out there. Imagine if these corporations came together and pooled all of their resources to change the world. What a difference that would make. We need a shift in consciousness to save the planet, a network that is not driven by greed, fear, and ego, but one that is driven by a common goal: the betterment of our planet and the well-being of all life on Earth. This is absolutely possible to achieve, and sometimes I feel that because this is such a simple idea in essence, people don’t believe it. It’s not uncommon for many to refer to economics, business, finance, the very system that enslaves us; it’s hard for many to imagine a world without money or to understand how that world would even function in practice. I believe this simply comes from an ignorance of solutions that are out there and the way our world works in general. Self-education is the key to making change happen. I’ve said this before and I will say it again, working in this field for a number of years now and being interested in it for even longer, the progress we’ve made as a human race is astounding. Anybody who pays attention to this type of thing can clearly see that. At the same time, we have a long way to go, and there are many steps for the human race to take, but we are indeed heading in the right direction. These are just a few pictures to get you thinking, and they’ve been floating around the internet for a while. We apologize if you’ve already seen them, but we definitely wanted to archive them on our website as they do provide some valuable food for thought. Source: Collective Evolution
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
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Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 6/1/2015 1:17:15 AM
	Egypt: 2,600 killed after ouster of Islamist president By HAMZA HENDAWI6 hours ago FILE - In this Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2013 file photo, Egyptian security forces detain a supporter of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi as they clear a sit-in camp set up near Cairo University in Cairo's Giza district, Egypt. At least 2,600 people were killed in violence in the 18 months after the military overthrew Morsi in 2013, nearly half of them supporters of the Islamist leader, the head of a state-sanctioned rights body said Sunday, May 31, 2015. (AP Photo/Hussein Tallal, File) View Gallery CAIRO (AP) — At least 2,600 people were killed in violence in the 18 months after the military overthrew Egypt's president in 2013, nearly half of them supporters of the Islamist leader, the head of a state-sanctioned rights body said Sunday. Mohammed Fayeq, head of the National Council for Human Rights, told reporters that the 2,600 included 700 policemen and 550 civilians who were killed in the period between June 30, 2013 and Dec. 31, 2014. The council is a nominally independent group sanctioned by the government. It has no judicial or law enforcement powers. The military overthrew Mohammed Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president, on July 3, 2013, amid massive protests demanding his resignation. In the following months, his supporters held regular demonstrations that set off deadly clashes with police and rival protesters. The violence culminated on Aug. 14, 2013, when police violently dispersed two pro-Morsi sit-ins in Cairo, killing at least 600 of his supporters. Islamic militants retaliated by attacking police stations and churches. Since then, the military-backed government has waged a sweeping crackdown on Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood -- now outlawed and branded a terrorist group -- and jailed secular activists for taking part in unauthorized street protests. Those jailed include some of the leading secular and left-wing activists behind the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak. View gallery FILE - In this file image made from Wednesday, March 26, 2014 video broadcast on Egypt's State T … An appeals court in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria on Sunday sentenced prominent activist and rights lawyer Mahienour el-Masry to 15 months in jail for her part in a demonstration by lawyers against police brutality three months before Morsi's ouster. Two other Alexandria activists were convicted and received a similar prison term. On hearing the verdict, el-Masry chanted "Down, down with military rule!" Fayeq criticized the practice of detaining suspects for extended periods pending the filing of formal charges and trial, saying it amounts to "punishment for crimes not committed." He said holding cells at police stations are filled to 400 percent capacity and prisons to 160 percent. Fayeq said that while the Interior Ministry, which controls the country's police, announced the deaths of 36 people in detention, various human rights groups put the figure at between 80 and 98. "The phenomenon of death in detention had disappeared after the 2011 uprising, but has since made a comeback. There is no proof that they died as a result of torture, but there is also nothing to prove otherwise," he said. View gallery FILE - In this May 8, 2014 file photo, Egypt's ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi sits in … Another human rights group, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, issued a critical report on Sunday saying authorities were selectively using lengthy detentions to jail activists. Prominent Mubarak-era officials, as well as police officers accused of killing protesters, have been mostly spared such lengthy detentions, even though they are well-positioned to leave the country, intimidate witnesses or tamper with evidence. Rights groups and activists have alleged widespread human rights abuses since Morsi's ouster, including the return of the Mubarak-era practice of using torture to punish detainees or extract confessions. Negad Borai, a lawyer and rights activist, was questioned twice by investigating judges this month for drafting an anti-torture law and sending it to the office of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who as military chief led Morsi's ouster and who was elected president a year ago. The law would have prescribed stricter punishment for those found guilty of torture and provide state assistance for victims. Two senior judges that Borai consulted on the draft are expected to be disciplined, according to Borai. View gallery FILE - In this Aug. 14, 2013 file photo, a supporter of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi sit … "My questioning over the draft law is a message that says the state protects torture," he told The Associated Press. The government has defended its practices as being necessary to combat Islamic militancy, including from an increasingly potent Islamic State group affiliate in the Sinai Peninsula, where militants blew up a natural gas pipeline early Sunday. El-Sissi himself has called for reform in Islam in order to disassociate it from extremists. But Islam Behery, a young Muslim scholar who used his popular TV show to promote a revisionist approach to some of the fundamentals of mainstream Islam, was sentenced to five years in jail in absentia for "showing contempt" toward Islam, a loosely defined charge that in the past has been leveled against members of the Coptic Christian minority. Behery did not attend the Saturday court hearing during which he was convicted and sentenced, and his whereabouts were not immediately known. El-Sissi has said he wants the Cairo-based Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's top seat of learning and a bastion of religious conservatism, to take the lead on reforms. Egyptian law grants a new trial to those convicted and sentenced in absentia when they turn themselves in or are arrested.
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
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Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 6/1/2015 10:26:46 AM
	Celebrities make splash with California drought awareness By SANDY COHEN15 hours ago FILE - In this April 8, 2015 file photo, a home with a large pool is visible in the Hollywood Hills area of Los Angeles. From drought-shaming to eco-boasting, willing or not, celebrities play a role in raising awareness about the debilitating drought in Calif. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File) View Gallery LOS ANGELES (AP) — From drought-shaming to eco-boasting, willing or not, celebrities are playing a role in raising awareness about California's debilitating drought. Stars whose homes boast lush, green lawns at a time when residents have been asked to cut back on water may be drought-shamed on social media. Meanwhile, Eco-conscious entertainers hoping to take the lead on water conservation talk proudly of their drought-friendly gardens. "We're all in this together," said actress Wendie Malick, who relies on well water at her home in the Santa Monica Mountains. "Unfortunately, it had to come to this crisis moment to get us all on board." Celebrity enclave Beverly Hills, where many lawns remain bright green, recently approved new water restrictions and penalties for violating them. Enforcement is set to begin this month. Tony, beachside Malibu has long had water restrictions in place, according to the city's environmental programs specialist, Casey Zweig. While she says the city would never engage in drought-shaming, it does offer a website where residents can anonymously report their water-wasting neighbors. Zweig said her team visits the offending properties personally. View gallery FILE - In this Nov. 11, 2013 file photo, honoree Barbra Streisand attends the 23rd Annual Glamour Wo … "Once you reach people with this information, they tend to really want to do the right thing and figure out what the best solution is," she said. "People who live in Malibu love the natural aspect. They want to coexist in a lot of ways with these beautiful natural surroundings that they're paying top dollar to live in." Offenders in the city, though, have multiple chances to make things right before facing fines, Zweig said. Barbra Streisand, a past drought-shaming target, said she and husband James Brolin have let most of the lawns go brown at their Malibu compound. The couple is also working with a water-reuse company to install a graywater system and rainwater cisterns, she said, "should California be lucky enough to get some rain." Cher, another Malibu resident, has also let her grass go brown and has talked about the water shortage on Twitter. In a post last month, she complained California used fresh water for fracking. "WE'RE IN A CATASTROPHIC DROUGHT, WATER MEANS LIFE??" she wrote. "WE CANT DRINK OIL." View gallery FILE - In this Feb. 14, 2014, file photo, morning traffic makes its way toward downtown Los Angeles … Kelly Osbourne drought-shamed herself on Instagram by sharing her guilt over taking a bath and saying she planned to re-use the water. And some celebs are taking to television with public service announcements about drought conservation, including Conan O'Brien and Lady Gaga. Malick, who serves on the board of the Environmental Media Association, said "making green cool" is part of the organization's mission statement. "If people emulate those that they're fans of... why not show them some behavior that is great for the planet?" she said. Being eco-conscious "is the way to be trendy in Hollywood," EMA president Debbie Levin said, adding that studios are also keen on the effort and some have replaced lawns with artificial turf. View gallery FILE - In this May 4, 2015 file photo, Cher arrives at The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume … Industry-watcher Michael Levine said it's important that celebrities make the same cutbacks as other Californians because "people care about a sense of fairness." "They think, 'I'm not going to sacrifice if Brad Pitt doesn't sacrifice,'" Levine said. Both Levine and celebrity blogger Perez Hilton think concern about the drought hasn't reached a tipping point yet in Hollywood, where it's often socially obligatory to be on board with conscientious trends. "It's an issue that doesn't trigger an emotional response in a lot of people," Hilton said. "Or maybe they're afraid to speak out because they might be branded hypocrites." Still, he says only the most publicly eco-aware stars could be damaged by drought-shaming. View gallery FILE - In this Feb. 14, 2015 file photo, Kelly Osbourne attends the Christian Siriano fashion show a …
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
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Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 6/1/2015 10:49:11 AM
	Actor Matt Dillon puts rare celebrity spotlight on Rohingya By ROBIN McDOWELL1 hour ago Associated Press Videos Actor Matt Dillon Visits Rohingya Displaced Watch video SITTWE, Myanmar (AP) — American actor Matt Dillon put a rare star-powered spotlight on Myanmar's long-persecuted Rohingya Muslims, visiting a hot, squalid camp for tens of thousands displaced by violence and a port that has been one of the main launching pads for their exodus by sea. It was "heartbreaking," he said after meeting a young man with a raw, open leg wound from a road accident and no means to treat it. Mothers carrying babies with clear signs of malnutrition stood listlessly outside row after row of identical bamboo huts, toddlers playing nearby in the chalky white dust. "No one should have to live like this, people are really suffering," said Dillon, one of the first celebrities to get a look at what life is like for Rohingya in the western state of Rakhine. "They are being strangled slowly, they have no hope for the future and nowhere to go." Though Rohingya have been victims of state-sponsored discrimination for decades, conditions started deteriorating three years ago after the predominantly Buddhist country of 50 million began its bumpy transition from a half-century of dictatorship to democracy. View gallery In this Friday, May 29, 2015 photo, American actor Matt Dillon, left, stands with a Rohingiya man at … Taking advantage of newfound freedoms of expression, radical monks started fanning deep-seated societal hatred for the religious minority. Hundreds have been killed by machete-wielding mobs and a quarter million others now live under apartheid-like conditions in camps or have fled by boat — hundreds of dehydrated, hungry Rohingya washing onto Southeast Asian shores in recent weeks. Denied citizenship, they are effectively stateless with almost no basic rights. As they become increasingly marginalized, several groups are warning that the building blocks of genocide are in place. "I know that's a very touchy word to use," said Dillon, wearing his trademark black T-shirt and jeans. "But there's a very ominous feeling here." "I've been to some places where the threats of violence seemed more imminent," said Dillon, who has also visited refugee camps in Sudan, the Congo and elsewhere. "Here it's something else. It feels more like people are going to be left to wither away and die." Dillon said he decided to come to Myanmar following a desperate, urgent appeal by Rohingya activist Thun Khin at a Refugees International fundraiser in Washington, just over a month ago. In Japan to promote his new television series, "Wayward Pines," he decided it was a good time to make the trip. View gallery In this Friday, May 29, 2015 photo, American actor Matt Dillon, right, shakes hands with Noor Alam, … "There are people working here, people who know a hell of a lot more about it than I do," Dillon said after hearing grumbling from some aid workers about what he hoped to achieve. "But listen, if I can use my voice to draw attention to something, where I see people suffering, I'll do that any day of the week. I'm happy to do that." He spoke to two teenage boys who tried to flee by boat, only to find themselves in the hands of human traffickers, and was chased away by armed security guards when trying to snap pictures of the last standing Rohingya neighborhood in the state capital — a ghetto surrounded by tall walls topped by rolls of heavy barbed wire. But what really choked him up were the camps: "It affected me more than I thought it would." While there were clear signs humanitarian agencies are active — new latrines, well-placed hand pumps, concrete open sewers — he noted in contrast to camps he's visited in Sudan and the Congo, he didn't run into a single Western aid worker during his two-day visit. Nor were NGO trucks rumbling through with medical equipment, food or other supplies — due primarily to severe restrictions placed on aid agencies by the government following pressure from Buddhist extremists. View gallery In this Friday, May 29, 2015 photo, American actor Matt Dillon poses with Rohingiya children at a ca … "A lot of people are suffering," he said. "I'm really glad I had a chance to come, to see for myself what's happening here." View Gallery
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
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