Informed observers are increasingly raising the fear that new elections will put the Muslim Brotherhood in control of Egypt’s parliament and the presidency. Of course it will try. Senior Brotherhood leader Sobhi Saleh, who helped write Egypt’s interim constitution, said in a recent video that he expects the new government to be Islamist.
As new demonstrations broke out at Tahrir Square on May 27th—the “Second Day of Rage”—the Brotherhood withdrew its youth from the Revolution Youth Coalition that has pushed for democratic reform. After forming the Party of Freedom and Justice, headed by Muslim Brotherhood politburo leader Mohammed al-Mursi, it revised an earlier promise to contest only 30 percent of parliament seats upwards to 45 percent or more.
News that Mohammed Morsi, Egypt’s Islamist president, has promised to uphold his country’s long-standing peace treaty with Israel has been widely welcomed. Revealingly, however, Mr Morsi refused to refer to the Jewish state by name, sticking instead to a generalised statement that his government was “in full respect of international peace treaties”.
Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s foreign minister, responded by urging Morsi to put his money where his mouth is. “We hope to see President Morsi receiving official Israeli representatives,” he said. “We want to see him giving interviews to Israeli media and we want to see him in Jerusalem.”
The video above shows raw emotional pain. I could have chosen worse, but I wanted only to convey the distress our brothers are in without exalting the power of the enemy. As it is, it is hard enough to take.
The two year old “Arab Spring” was much-heralded in the western press. It began in Tunisia, which is ironically one of the less oppressive Arab nations, when a street merchant immolated himself to protest government corruption. Such is the human thirst for freedom. These people have access to the Internet now, and they see how westerners live. How you gonna keep them down on the farm?
For many years whenever I would hear that a nation didn’t have the cultural underpinnings for democracy, I thought that was absurd. Self determination is hard-wired in our psyche, I reasoned. But I was naïve of spiritual strongholds that repress truth and freedom. Since then I’ve learned the bitter truth.
“After the victory of the military by this Islamist president, we should not be surprised that they are going to have more restrictions with the press because the Islamist agenda has to start with controlling what is being said to the Egyptian people,, to control the outside and foreign influence on the press and to control anything that doesn’t go in the mainstream wanted and planned by the Islamists,” - Dr. Mansouria Mokhefi, Head of the Middle East and North Africa Program at the French Institute of Foreign Relations in Paris.
We have, and it’s about time to acknowledge it and to accept it because we have no other way to deal with this situation, to accept the fact that the Egyptians have elected the president, who is the first civilian since independence in the 50s, the first non-military and the first Muslim Brother. We have to acknowledge that although this regime claims to be attached to freedom of the market, of freedom of the economy and everything, this is nevertheless the regime which base and roots and philosophy are Islam and what we know about Islam is that it’s different from what we claim as freedom of the press, freedom of expression, human rights and everything. So, once we acknowledge this, we should stop being surprised, appalled by all the restrictions that we are going to be witnessing with this. And this is being said without any judgment. It’s just a go-back to reality, we are dealing with the new dimension in politics, in philosophy in this countries.
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THIS spring, I traveled to the cradle of the Arab uprisings — a forlorn street corner in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia, where a street vendor, drenched in paint thinner, struck a match in December 2010 that ignited the entire Middle East. “We have far more freedoms,” one peddler hawking fruit in the same square lamented, “but far fewer jobs.” Another noted that Mohamed Bouazizi, the vendor who set himself on fire, did so not to vote in a democratic election but because harassment by local officials had cost him his livelihood.
As the peddlers vented, prayers ended at the whitewashed mosque across the street. Among the faithful were Salafis, ultraconservative Sunni Muslims vying to define the new order according to seventh-century religious traditions rather than earthly realities. For years, many Salafis — “salaf” means predecessors — had avoided politics and embraced autocrats as long as they were Muslims. But over the past eight months, clusters of worshipers across the Middle East have morphed into powerful Salafi movements that are tapping into the disillusionment and disorder of transitions.
It is my view that whether political Islam is defined as a religious theocratic movement or a political movement in the modern sense of political movements, the currents of political Islam have a position concerning the type of value system which contemporary intellectuals in advanced societies recognise as constituting the foundations of a culture of progress and modernity.
So a conversation must needs be held between some of these value systems and the mentality and behaviour of exponents of currents of political Islam. This is what I shall attempt to do in an essay such as this, which aims to place political Islam side by side with a number of values associated with modernity and progress.
The conception of the modern state: modern Islamists are unable to understand or accept or even admire the modern state system, which is the product or the result of centuries of political, cultural, social and economic struggle over the course of human progress. When the Prophet took ill (during the last days of his life) he tasked his close companion Abu Bakr al-Siddīq with deputising for him in leading the prayer. When the Prophet passed away shortly afterwards, a large number of Muslims considered that this entrusting of the leadership of the prayer constituted an indication from the Prophet that Abu Bakr was to be his preferred successor. And this is what in fact took place in the aftermath of the problems associated with the Saqīfa compact (saqīfat banī sāʽda)[2]. From the very first day Abu Bakr became “the Prophet’s ‘deputy’” or successor.
Persecution of Christian Copts in Egypt on Rise as Muslim Brotherhood Consolidates Power
By Michael Terheyde
Christians in the Middle East need our help as well as our prayers
President Mursi said he was going to be the president of all Egyptians, including the Copts. As we watch events unfold in Egypt, we have to ask ourselves, was that just a big lie, a ruse to gain power and Islamize Egypt? Does President Mursi mean to govern the Copts as a free and equal people or as the dhimmi class? Some Copts fear a return to the days of the dhimmi class and the jizya tax, as Islamist groups seem emboldened since the Muslim Brotherhood's rise to power.
A Coptic Christian woman prays
KNOXVILLE, TN (Catholic Online) - There is growing fear among the Coptic Christian community as open violence escalates against them in Egypt. According to reports, this violence is in response to a letter calling on Muslims to kill Copts. Again, the world watches to see if Egypt's new president, Mohammed Mursi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, intends to follow up on his promise to be the president of all Egyptians.
Steadily burgeoning [2] evidence [3] indicates that one of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s closest aides, Huma Abedin, despite Ms. Clinton’s protestation [4], was inadequately vetted for either family, or personal ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. Diligent, open [5] source [2] investigation [3] has already uncovered and documented numerous alarming connections. One can reasonably infer that a serious, formal Congressional investigation of the overall extent of Muslim Brotherhood influence operations—as requested [6] by Representatives Bachmann, Gohmert, Franks, Westmoreland, and Rooney—might yield even more disturbing findings.
The rigours of Ramadan observance ensure that as Ramadan progresses frustration accumulates. This, merged with religious zeal, produces an incendiary mix. On Wednesday 25 July a dispute erupted in the village of Dahshur on the southern outskirts of Cairo, after a Coptic launderer inadvertently singed the shirt of his Muslim client. The Muslim agreed to return in the evening to settle the claim but returned in the afternoon with a vengeful mob. With a large crowd of armed Muslims besieging his home and laundrette, the Copt threw a Molotov cocktail from the roof. It hit and severely burnt a Muslim youth passing by. When he died in hospital on 1 August, Muslim Brotherhood clerics, instead of rising up as peacemakers, incited Islamic hysteria and vowed collective punishment. The ensuing Islamic pogrom left 16 Copts injured, numerous Coptic homes and businesses torched and the only church in the village vandalised. This violence included threats to shoot all Christians dead and convinced some 120 Christian families they had no choice but to flee. Only one elderly Christian woman remained, receiving sanctuary in the home of a Muslim neighbour.
Yesterday, there was another attempt to break into a church, after demolishing the church of Atfih, burning the church of Embaba, demolishing the church of al-Marinab in Aswan. This time the story happens in St. George church in al-Badrasheen village, Giza, in addition to burning and looting the properties of the Copts. Losses are estimated at more than 3 million EGP, not to mention the horror and panic that children of the Copts have experienced since the beginning of the incident. I can call it: organized forced displacement for the Egyptian Christians, which targets forcing them to leave Egypt and travel to other countries.
Among the biggest losers from the current Arab political upheavals are the Christian minorities of the Middle East.
Long before the Arab Spring, Iraq’s historic Christian community had shrunk dramatically, as tens of thousands fled threats and bomb attacks by Islamist militias. The flood of refugees pouring out of Syria includes many of that country’s Christian minority, who fear a radical Islamist takeover if President Bashar Assad falls.
Meantime, most of Egypt’s Coptic Christians, who make up 10 percent of the population, are deeply worried by the election of Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Morsi as president. “There is a feeling that democracy has been a disaster for us,” says Samia Sidhom, managing editor of Watani, a newspaper that serves the Coptic community. (The Coptic church dates back 19 centuries and is based on the teachings of St. Mark, who took Christianity to Egypt.)
“Muslim and Christian villagers hurled fire bombs at each other south of Cairo after a Christian laundry worker burnt a Muslim’s shirt,” that was the piece of news I woke up to one Ramadan morning this year. And Ramadan memories came flooding through my head.
I can recall my mother’s closest friend, a lady who I visited more than I did my own family. Tante Aziza, may she rest in peace, was a devout Copt living across town from our house. My mother and Tante Aziza shared a trait; being very religious. Tante Aziza would fast the whole 250 days of Coptic fasting without flinching. And because she did that, our fasting and hers would mostly coincide and we would all fast both ways. No food or drink all day, then break our fast to vegan foods. Hard hard days, but we came through. We spent our feasts together, we had Christmas trees and Ramadan lanterns in both houses. Tante Aziza would bake kahk (Muslim feast cookies) and bring them to us because mum didn’t, and mum would prepare a big meaty meal to celebrate the end of Coptic fasting.
The Muslim Brotherhood is on the rise. The Islamist group is spreading across the Middle East. The question is whether it has infiltrated the Obama administration, especially the State Department. Led by Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, a band of House Republican conservatives is investigating the reach of the Muslim Brotherhood. For this, they are being vilified not just by the liberal media, but by the GOP establishment. Our ruling class refuses to confront the reality of radical Islam.
In particular, Washington’s elites are circling the wagons around Huma Abedin, a top adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Ms. Abedin is a classic Beltway insider. For years, she has served as a close aide to Ms. Clinton. Ms. Abedin is also married to disgraced former Rep. Anthony Weiner, New York Democrat. She is widely known on Capitol Hill — including among Republicans. She is a life-long liberal apparatchik, an ambitious political climber who has done favors for both parties. This is why when Ms. Bachmann — along with four other members of Congress — wrote a letter to the State Department’s Office of Inspector General asking if a proper background check was conducted prior to Ms. Abedin’s appointment, the stalwart conservative was excoriated. Liberals are calling Ms. Bachmann “Joseph McCarthy with lipstick.” House Speaker John Boehner and Sen. John McCain have denounced her as “irresponsible” and “reckless.”
Mohamed Morsi's choice of prime minister confirms Egyptian fears
The appointment of Hisham Kandil, from the outgoing cabinet, is a bitter reminder that the revolution is far from complete
Mohamed Morsi, centre, is likely to appoint Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, left, as defence minister. Photograph: Sherif Abd El Minoem/AP
Egypt's first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, has lived up to the worst expectations of him. He may be an experienced old cadre in the Muslim Brotherhood and a dogged parliamentarian, but his choice of prime minister confirms what many suspected: he lacks imagination and flare.