VOA常速英语2008年-Egyptians Celebrate Prophet Muhammad's Birthday

By Aya Batrawy
Cairo
21 March 2008

In a weekend-long celebration, Egyptians acknowledge the Prophet Muhammad's birthday late Thursday with prayer and gatherings¹ in celebrations similar to those taking place in other parts of the Muslim world. Aya Batrawy has more from our Middle East bureau in Cairo.

As the Muslim world marks the Prophet Muhammad's birthday, known as Muwld el Nabi, al-Qaida leader Osama bin² Laden³ released a videotape reigniting a two-year-old controversy⁴ over Danish cartoons deemed by Muslims to be insulting.

Myriam Abdel Aziz, said she herself has never seen the cartoons. She believes that the republishing of the cartoons recently and the ongoing⁵ controversy has been overblown on both sides.

"I feel it's totally understandable that people get upset because you portray⁶ a prophet while this is not supposed to be in Islam," she said. "But I also totally understand that people in other cultures consider that you're free to express yourself the way you want. I just think that it's an old story and it's not a good idea that a few years later people keep on asking people about something that happened a long time ago. It just raises bad emotions around it and we need to have people calm down."

Ahmad, one of the thousands who were out in the streets celebrating, explains how revered⁷ the Prophet Muhammad is to Muslims.

"This is a very happy day," he said. " Egypt and the whole world are celebrating this day. Especially the Egyptian people, they are known for their love of Islam and all religions too."

One man explained the importance of remembering the Prophet on this day.

"The Prophet is our ideal example. We are following his ways and how he lived his life," he said.

Ironically, many people in Egypt's Old Cairo neighborhood had no knowledge of the cartoons or Osama bin Laden's latest video. Here, the crowd seems far from the protests that took place across the Muslim world two years ago, where the cartoons sparked mass riots when they were first published. The street are filled with just singing and celebrations, for the weekend at least.

1 gatherings   

聚集( gathering的名词复数 )； 收集； 采集； 搜集

参考例句：

• His conduct at social gatherings created a lot of comment. 他在社交聚会上的表现引起许多闲话。
• During one of these gatherings a pupil caught stealing. 有一次，其中一名弟子偷窃被抓住。

2 bin   

n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件

参考例句：

• He emptied several bags of rice into a bin.他把几袋米倒进大箱里。
• He threw the empty bottles in the bin.他把空瓶子扔进垃圾箱。

3 laden   

adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的

参考例句：

• He is laden with heavy responsibility.他肩负重任。
• Dragging the fully laden boat across the sand dunes was no mean feat.将满载货物的船拖过沙丘是一件了不起的事。

4 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

5 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

6 portray   

v.描写，描述；画(人物、景象等)

参考例句：

• It is difficult to portray feelings in words.感情很难用言语来描写。
• Can you portray the best and worst aspects of this job?您能描述一下这份工作最好与最坏的方面吗？

7 revered   

v.崇敬，尊崇，敬畏( revere的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• A number of institutions revered and respected in earlier times have become Aunt Sally for the present generation. 一些早年受到尊崇的惯例，现在已经成了这代人嘲弄的对象了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Chinese revered corn as a gift from heaven. 中国人将谷物奉为上天的恩赐。 来自辞典例句