Letters to the Editor [Archives:2000/46/Letters to the Editor]
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 Gods 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 Sanaa 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
[email protected]
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