Cairo, Egypt - As Gabr sat in a seafront cafe in his hometown of Alexandria, he spoke about his past opinion of atheists. "I used to think that they should be killed," he said matter-of-factly.
Gabr - not his real name - was brought up in a moderate Muslim family before becoming a Salafi, a follower of a literalist and puritanical form of Islam. He eventually underwent a radical shift in belief to become one of those people he used to despise: an atheist, an apostate, a kafir - a group of people who feel under threat in Egypt because of their lack of belief in God.
Persecution threatens 'extinction' of Christianity in ancient homelands, warns Baroness Warsi
Christianity is threatened by extinction in some parts of the world where Christian communities are persecuted because they are a minority, a Government minister has warned.
Christians are being driven out in regions such as Syria and Iraq, places where the religion first took root, Baroness Warsi said.
She used a speech at Georgetown University in Washington DC to express her concerns that Christians were being persecuted and called for a "cross-faith, cross-continent" response to the problem
Maryam Namazie: Limitations on the veil in schools and an all-out ban on the burqa or niqab are often seen to be authoritarian. Your views?
Marieme Helie Lucas: First of all, it is useful not to conflate the two issues: that of veiling girls in schools and banning the face covering. I will thus answer them as two separate questions.
When talking of veils in schools, one automatically refers to the veiling of under-aged girls, i.e. not the veiling of women. The question thus becomes: who is to decide on girls’ veiling - themselves or the adults who are in charge of them? And which adults?
An Egyptian woman mourns during the funeral of several Copt Christians who were killed in Warraq’s Virgin Mary church in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, Oct. 21, 2013. Egypt’s Christians were stunned Monday by a drive-by shooting in which masked gunmen sprayed a wedding party outside a Cairo church with automatic weapons fire, killing several, including two young girls, in an attack that raised fears of a nascent insurgency by extremists after the military’s ouster of the president and a crackdown on Islamists. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
The persecution of any religious minority anywhere by anyone is an evil injustice. It requires all persons of conscience to speak out and, when possible, take action.
الجالية المصرية في بريطانيا تحتفل بنصر أكتوبر في أمسية بعنوان "مصر جميلة"
لجنة من الجالية تبعث برسالة لـ"منصور" و"السيسي" تحثهما فيها على "التقدم بخطى ثابتة نحو المستقبل"
كتب : محمد مجدي
تقيم الجالية المصرية في المملكة المتحدة، اليوم، أمسية تحت عنوان "مصر جميلة"، احتفالا بنصر أكتوبر، استضافت الشاعر الكبير أمين فؤاد حداد، والباحث إسماعيل السعداوي، الذي ألقى محاضرة بعنوان "الجيش في مصر القديمة".
وعلى هامش الاحتفالات زارت نخبة من أبناء الجالية تضم الدكتور حازم الرفاعي، والدكتور سميح عامر، الملحق الطبي المصري، والدكتورة شيرين صالح، المصابين من رجال الأمن المصري الذين استدعت أصاباتهم نقلهم إلى مستشفيات لندن لتلقي العلاج.
وتحتفي اللجنة ببعض المصابين من رجال الأمن تعبيرا عن العرفان والتقدير لهم أسوة بأبطال نصر أكتوبر المجيد لما بذلوه من تضحيات فداء لأمن وسلامة الوطن، وقررت اللجنة تكريمهم وتحيتهم على هامش احتفالات نصر أكتوبر، كما وجهت الجالية رسالة تقدير وإعزاز للمستشار عدلي منصور، رئيس الجمهورية وللشعب المصري ولأبطال القوات المسلحة البواسل في ذكري النصر العظيم.
Thirty million people in the streets of Egypt, with the help of the Egyptian military, have saved the United States from the consequences of its disastrous policy of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood since President Barack Obama came to office. Just months after his inauguration in 2009, Mr. Obama appeared in Cairo to address the Muslim world. He ensured that members of the Muslim Brotherhood were seated in the front row of the auditorium at Cairo University. Since the group was still officially banned in Egypt, no one from President Hosni Mubarak’s administration could attend. The message from the seating arrangement was unmistakable: even at the price of snubbing his official host, Mr. Obama recognized the Muslim Brotherhood as a legitimate player in Egyptian politics. Already, this was clearly interference in the internal affairs of the Egyptian state.
Former British ambassador Charles Crawford later characterized Obama’s quixotic address in the following way: “It boiled down to a well delivered speech full of clever emollient phrases that ultimately sent a message of appeasement to militant Islamist tendencies: Under my restrained leadership the United States will respect and accept conservative forms of Islam. Even if Islamism gets too aggressive we don’t plan to do much about it.”
In her debut performance as national security adviser, confronting the Egypt crisis, Susan E. Rice (and her boss, President Obama) failed miserably.
The failure is particularly acute on the part of Mrs. Rice, though. After all, she was the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, where she was amply exposed to the meaning of the phrase “strongly condemns,” the one chosen Thursday by the president and his national security team to castigate Egypt’s interim government and military for its crackdown.
Surely, Mrs. Rice’s experience with U.N. Security Council resolutions taught her the consequences of the words “strongly condemns.” In deeming one party’s action to be those of an aggressor, license is given to the “victim” to engage in an expanded notion of self-defense.
Now that the Egyptian military has finally begun to neutralize Muslim Brotherhood terrorist bases, the so-called mainstream media are doing what they do best—twist reality to the Islamists’ benefit by casting them as innocent victims merely “holding vigil” only to be slaughtered, while calling for the prosecution of the military for “human rights abuses.” They essentially follow the pro-Brotherhood Al Jazeera’s lead of portraying these bases in Rab‘a al-Adawiya and elsewhere as peaceful “sit ins.”
Recognize Muslim Brotherhood for the hate group it is
By Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper
From his historic Cairo Speech President Obama sought to empower moderate Muslims, including the ‘moderate’ Muslim Brotherhood. The election of Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamad Morsi was hailed as a slam-dunk for democracy and earned Washington’s backing.
But a year later, 22 million Egyptians saw things differently, returning to Tahrir Square and prompting the military to give Morsi and company the boot.
Secretary of State Kerry is to be commended for declaring that the Egyptian military was "restoring democracy" by deposing Morsi. Now the U.S. should drop its flawed Muslim Brotherhood policy. Never a force for moderation, it should be recognized for what it is: An enemy of freedom and tolerance-- a hate group with a long enemies list.
Egypt must protect Christians from turmoil: rights groups
CAIRO
CAIRO (Reuters) - Security forces must do more to protect Egypt's Christian minority in the turmoil following the military overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Mursi, rights groups said on Tuesday, citing the mob killing of four near the southern city of Luxor.
Coptic Christians account for about a tenth of Egypt's 84 million people. They have suffered discrimination for decades, but communal tensions and attacks rose sharply under Mursi, who was elected president a year ago following the fall of strongman Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
The army deposed Mursi on July 3, unleashing violent street clashes and exposing deep fissures in the Arab world's most populous nation.
The killing of more than 50 people at a demonstration in support of ousted Egyptian President Morsi in Cairo on July 8 has justifiably horrified many in Egypt and internationally. The pro-Morsi elements have placed the blame on the military forces, while the military claims it was attacked with live ammunition. While accusations are hurled back and forth, a new aspect to this story is emerging – the presence of a third force, namely snipers stationed on rooftops firing at both sides of the conflict. This revelation raises serious questions about the true nature of the conflict in Egypt and the disturbing similarities between this incident and similar ones in Syria, Thailand, and elsewhere.
The Cairo Massacre
As thousands gathered near the Republican Guard headquarters where many believe the Egyptian military is holding former President Morsi, violence erupted, killing at least 51 people and injuring hundreds. The bloody incident marked a clear transition from a purely political conflict to a potential civil war.
According to military officials, pro-Morsi “terrorists” attempted to storm the building, thereby eliciting a violent response from the military forces defending themselves. Colonel Ahmad Mohammad Ali, a spokesman for the Egyptian military claimed that police personnel were attacked while attempting to secure the area. He noted that, “They were on top of buildings…they either fired or threw things down…they were firing live ammunition and the military had to defend itself.” Colonel Ali’s comments have been echoed by most major media outlets in Egypt which are largely controlled by forces sympathetic to the military and the former Mubarak regime. However, the Muslim Brotherhood and other pro-Morsi forces paint a distinctly different picture.
Editor's note: H.A. Hellyer is a non-resident fellow at the Brookings Institution and ISPU. A writer on Egyptian politics, he held senior posts at Gallup, and the University of Warwick.
(CNN) -- Was the ousting of democratically-elected Mohamed Morsy in Egypt a coup? Answering that question is clear, but not without a very clear qualification. It is a popularly legitimate coup -- and focusing on it is now far less important than what comes next.
Democracy doesn't on its own mean effective government
Bringing about stability in the Middle East is not somebody else's job, it's ours. It will be a difficult and expensive struggle, and it is essential the people of the region know the west is on their side
Stone-throwing protesters standing on a tank in Cairo. Photograph: Ahmed Ali/AP
The events that led to the Egyptian army's removal of President Mohamed Morsi confronted the military with a simple choice: intervention or chaos. Seventeen million people on the street is not the same as an election. But it is an awesome manifestation of people power. The equivalent turnout in Britain would be around 13 million people. Just think about it for a moment. The army wouldn't intervene here, it is true. But the government wouldn't survive either.
The Muslim Brotherhood was unable to shift from being an opposition movement to being a government. Of course governments govern badly or well or averagely. But this is different. The economy is tanking. Ordinary law and order has virtually disappeared. Services aren't functioning properly. Individual ministers did their best. A few weeks back, I met the tourism minister, who I thought was excellent, with a sensible plan to revive Egypt's tourist sector. A few days ago, he resigned, when the president took the mind-boggling step of appointing as governor of Luxor (a key tourist destination) someone who was affiliated to the group responsible for Egypt's worst-ever terror attack, in Luxor, which killed more than 60 tourists in 1997.
Egypt and the Real Arab Spring: Muslim Brotherhood and Obama on the Wrong Side of History
Murad Makhmudov and Lee Jay Walker
President Obama and important inner circle leaders had hoped to install the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and throughout other parts of North Africa and the Middle East. Issues related to enforced dhimmitude on Coptic Christians, the future rights of women, mainstream Islam, secular Egypt and a whole array of countless different thought patterns all faced a grim future. Even Saudi Arabia, a close ally of America, was watching events uneasily because the tentacles of the Muslim Brotherhood and their real objectives remain masked in uncertainty.
The billions of dollars from the Obama administration to the Muslim Brotherhood led President Morsi (Mursi) which was a continuation of past economic policies under Hosni Mubarak – without the Islamist angle – meant that vast numbers of Egyptians couldn’t trust Morsi or Obama. Now the Obama administration is threatening to withhold military assistance to Egypt by dancing around formalities which can be bypassed with ease if desired. After all, shipping military weapons to third parties which benefit al-Nusra and other al-Qaeda affiliates is a cinch when it comes to trying to defeat the government of Syria. Just like invading Iraq under a false pretext but suddenly Obama is using lofty ideals which don’t exist in reality under his leadership. However, he may be forced to backtrack on military assistance because being on the wrong side of history he now needs to play catch up because Egypt is too powerful to ignore.
Egypt political crisis sends cost of debt insurance soaring
By Robin Wigglesworth in London and Heba Saleh in Cairo
Egyptian financial markets have been rattled by a deepening political crisis in the pivotal Arab state, sending the cost of insuring against a government debt default to a record this week.
A combative speech by Islamist president Mohamed Morsi late on Wednesday plunges the market and failed to assuage fears that Egypt’s various political movements could clash violently at a planned mass demonstration of government opponents on Sunday.
The lynching of four Egyptian Shi’a citizens by mobs is raising alarm bells with regard to the potentially tragic consequences of Islamist endorsement of sectarian policies, which threaten not only to rip the country apart but the region as well.
Mobs in the Egyptian village of Abou el Nomros lynched four Shi’a citizens on June 23 and injured many others in an assault that extended over several hours. The accounts of human rights organizations’ fact finding missions and eyewitness accounts tell the same story: Sheikh Hassan Shehata, a leading Shi’a figure was on a visit to one of the 200 or so Shi’a followers who live in the village of Abou el Nomros in the governorate of Giza. The village chief (al omda) warned Sheikh Hassan Shehata to leave as the inhabitants were enraged by his presence: he refused. Shortly thereafter, 5,000 residents, led by the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis attacked and destroyed the house in which he resided, pulled him and others out, dragged them through the streets, hitting them with sharp and hard objects and fatally wounding them. The Arab Network for Human Rights’ (ANHR) fact finding mission discovered that the police previously knew of the planned attacks on the Shi’as but did nothing to prevent them, and that the very attacks which lasted for over three hours happened in their presence.
As Egypt gears up for big demonstrations against the Muslim Brotherhood, it's time to remember that you can't have genuine democracy without respect for religious freedom.
BY DWIGHT BASHIR
What's going to happen in Egypt on June 30? That's the question many are asking as Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) leader Mohamed Morsy marks one year in office as president of Egypt.
According to a recent Zogby poll, while 57 percent of Egyptians were full of hope after Morsy won a democratic election that was seen as a positive development for the country, today that support has dropped to 28 percent, and almost all of it comes from the FJP and the Muslim Brotherhood. The poll found a whopping 70 percent of the electorate is dissatisfied with President Morsy's policies and performance and are concerned that the Brotherhood "intends to Islamize the state and control its executive powers."
As Egyptians of all factions prepare to demonstrate in mass against the Muslim Brotherhood and President Morsi’s rule on June 30, the latter has been trying to reduce their numbers, which some predict will be in the millions and eclipse the Tahrir protests that earlier ousted Mubarak. Accordingly, among other influential Egyptians, Morsi recently called on Coptic Christian Pope Tawadros II to urge his flock, Egypt’s millions of Christians, not to join the June 30 protests.
While that may be expected, more troubling is that the U.S. ambassador to Egypt is also trying to prevent Egyptians from protesting—including the Copts. The June 18 edition of Sadi al-Balad reports that lawyer Ramses Naggar, the Coptic Church’s legal counsel, said that during Patterson’s June 17 meeting with Pope Tawadros, she “asked him to urge the Copts not to participate” in the demonstrations against Morsi and the Brotherhood.
The ties between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Muslim Students' Association (MSA), found on hundreds of campuses across Canada and the USA, are well documented. At the University of Toronto, Canada's largest university, the MSA has a formidable presence and a membership of over 1,500 students, faculty and staff. They present themselves on campus as a legitimate faith group that seeks to serve students. However, their radical Islamic ideology is more than evident.
An American aid worker on trial in Egypt was sentenced to two years in prison on Tuesday after being found guilty of illegally promoting democracy.
More than 18 months after he was arrested at gunpoint by Egyptian authorities and placed on trial for the crime of promoting democracy, Robert Becker will likely appeal the decision.
what they do best—twist reality to the Islamists’ benefit by casting them as innocent victims merely “
