Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood: Shariah Must Be Basis of New constitution
CAIRO (TheBlaze/AP) — Egypt’s powerful Muslim Brotherhood says Islamic Shariah law must be the basis of Egypt’s new constitution, and legislation must be based on Islamic penal code.
The Brotherhood said in a statement Wednesday that a country ruled by Shariah would not become a theocracy. These comments are important to monitor, considering that Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi comes from the Brotherhood. Additionally, fears about Islamists’ intentions continue to rage.
The statement appeared to be an attempt to clarify the group’s position toward the country’s most contentious issue — the extent of Islamic influence in governance and legislation.
Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi (Photo Credit: FILE)
Islamist killed in clash with Tunisia police: official
TUNIS — Radical Islamists in Tunisia raided two national guard posts Tuesday, leading to clashes with security forces that killed one attacker, the interior ministry said.
Wielding sharp tools and swords, the Islamists went on the attack in the Tunis suburb of Manouba after police arrested a Salafist Islamist suspected of assaulting the head of the suburb's public security brigade, said interior ministry spokesman Khaled Tarrouche.
The latest bombing in Nigeria shows how Christians are increasingly suffering for their faith – and how their plight is being ignored
Only two days ago, a suicide bomber crashed a jeep laden with explosives into a packed Catholic church in Kaduna, northern Nigeria, killing at least eight people and injuring more than 100Photo: AFP/Getty Images
Imagine the unspeakable fury that would erupt across the Islamic world if a Christian-led government in Khartoum had been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Sudanese Muslims over the past 30 years. Or if Christian gunmen were firebombing mosques in Iraq during Friday prayers. Or if Muslim girls in Indonesia had been abducted and beheaded on their way to school, because of their faith.
Alber Saber is on trial in Egypt for insulting religion
It's worth taking a look at this troubling piece from English language Egypt Independent site, which reports on the concerns of the country's atheists in light of the recent controversy over the anti-Islamic Innocence of Muslims film and the arrest of Alber Saber, a 27-year-old Cairo resident accused of posting sections of the film on Facebook.
Benghazi consulate attack suspect killed in Egypt, security source says
Source says Karim Ahmed Essam el-Azizi was killed by bomb which he attempted to use against security forces in raid
A vehicle in flames inside the US consulate compound in Benghazi, Libya after the attack of 11 September. Photograph: Str/AFP/Getty Images
A Libyan militant suspected by Egypt of involvement in last month's attack on the US consulate in Libya has been killed in a raid by Egyptian security forces in Cairo, according to security officials. The Libyan was killed on Wednesday in a raid that targeted him and other militants with suspected links to al-Qaida in Cairo's eastern district of Nasr City, the official said. Four Egyptian militants were detained in the operation, he added.
Women in Tahrir square in November 2011. 'The constitution is basically telling Egyptian women they are “equal” to men, as long as they obey their husbands or fathers and accept their secondary religious status.' Photograph: Mohamed Omar/EPA
Congratulations to all conservative, male Muslims in Egypt. According to the draft constitution, you qualify as the model Egyptian "citizen", and the state will be there for you all the way to uphold your rights and defend your freedoms.
Trial of Egyptian Muslim Cleric Accused of Burning Holy Bible Resumes
By Mary Abdelmassih
(AINA) -- The trial of an Egyptian Muslim cleric accused of tearing and burning the Holy Bible convened for the third time on Sunday, October 21 at Nasr City Misdemeanour Court. On trial were cleric Ahmed Abdallah, known as Abu-Islam, owner of al-Omma TV Channel, his son Islam and journalist Hani Mohammed Yasin, editor of al-Tahrir newspaper. They were charged with contempt of religion by the state prosecutor. Abu-Islam is charged with tearing and burning a copy the Holy Bible during demonstrations in front of the U.S. embassy on 9/11 (AINA 9-14-2012).
Thousands of Christians and Muslims marched on 9 October along the path taken by protesters a year before to commemorate the 26 young Copts killed. Since then, nothing has changed, whilst chaos and violence are spreading across the country. On 12 October, the Muslim Brotherhood and liberal groups clashed in Tahrir Square with more than a hundred people injured, 50 seriously. Pro- and anti-Brotherhood protests break out across Egypt.
Cairo (AsiaNews) - Copts in Egypt feel they are a fragile and precarious situation after fundamentalists took power imposing constraints, mainly on women, and Sharia. In the last two weeks, scores of Christian families have fled their homes in North Sinai, as a result of threats from Muslim fundamentalists who do not want Christians to live among them anymore. Recent events confirm the trend.
On 9 October, thousands of Egyptians, both Christians and Muslims, held a huge demonstration to commemorate the first anniversary of the Maspero battle. On that "black Sunday" of October 2011, 26 young Coptic demonstrators were killed. They had come to take part in a huge protest march that had been organized to condemn the destruction of two churches and tens of houses of Christian inhabitants in a village near Aswan.
France 24 TV Female Correspondent Brutally Assaulted in Tahrir Square
France 24 TV Reporter Sonia Dridi
The Associated Press reports yet another savage attack on a female correspondent near Cairo's Tahrir Square.
Sonia Dridi, a reporter for France 24 TV, was “seized by a crowd” Friday night at a protest at the square. She was later rescued by her colleague Ashraf Khalil.
Khalil reported that as the crowd closed in on him and Dridi, he held Dridi in a “bear hug,” as she was being attacked until they were able to escpae into a restaurant with a metal door. From there, they quickly jumped into a car as some of the attackers continued to bang on their car until they were able to speed away.
Bangladesh investigating whether US Federal Reserve terror suspect had radical connections
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DHAKA, Bangladesh — Police in Bangladesh on Saturday interviewed former teachers and classmates of a Bangladeshi man charged with trying to blow up the Federal Reserve building in New York, investigating whether he had connections with radical groups at home.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police official Monirul Islam said detectives on Saturday will visit North South University in Dhaka where Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis studied before going to the United States. They were to interview teachers, classmates and school officials.
Bangladeshi detectives have already visited Nafis' village, where they found no evidence of ties with radical groups.
RADICAL ISLAMIC TERRORIST IN AMERICA ON STUDENT VISA ARRESTED IN NYC IN PLOT TO BOMB THE FEDERAL RESERVE
Deepti Hajela - Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — A Bangladeshi man who came to the United States to wage jihad was arrested in an elaborate FBI sting on Wednesday after attempting to blow up a fake car bomb outside the Federal Reserve building in Manhattan, authorities said.
Pakistani Imam Charged in Christian Girl’s Case Wins Bail
Cleric accused of producing false evidence against Rimsha Masih, who is charged with ‘blasphemy.’
Special to Morning Star News
LAHORE, Pakistan, October 15 (Morning Star News) – A Muslim cleric charged with fabricating evidence to make it appear that a Christian girl desecrated the Koran – thus incurring charges of desecrating the Koran himself – has been granted bail.
CAIRO (Reuters) – Opponents and supporters of Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi clashed in Cairo on Friday in the first street violence between rival factions since the Islamist leader took office.
Islamists and their opponents threw stones, bottles and petrol bombs, and some fought hand-to-hand, showing how feelings still run high between the rival groups trying to shape the new Egypt after decades of autocracy, although the streets have generally been calmer since Mursi’s election in June.
The Health Ministry said 110 people had sustained light to moderate injuries, state media reported.
Education is a fact of life all British children take for granted. But in a part of Pakistan only boys are allowed to go to school – a situation 14-year-old Malala Yousufzai was determined to change.
But yesterday, as she waited on her school bus, she paid for her campaign for girls to be educated. She was shot in the head in front of her classmates. The Taliban claimed responsibility.
Radical Muslim Cleric To Be Arraigned In NYC Court On Terror Charges
NEW YORK (WPIX)—
A radical Muslim cleric who once called Osama bin Laden a "hero" and faces terrorism charges is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in Federal Court in Manhattan after being extradited from Britain.
Abu Hamza Al-Masri and four other alleged terrorists arrived here early Saturday from London. They face terror charges after a court in London ruled they could be extradited immediately. Al Masri and two of the men are being held at the Metropolitan correctional facility in Manhattan.
Christians Targeted in Nigeria’s University Killings, Students Say
Carnage follows authorities’ raid on area Islamic extremists of Boko Haram.
Special to Morning Star News
Grieving relative of Mubi, Nigeria massacre victim.
YOLA, Nigeria, October 5, 2012 (Morning Star News) – The gunmen who killed at least 46 people in Nigeria’s northwestern town of Mubi on Monday (Oct. 1) first asked them if they were Christians before shooting or knifing them, according to students who escaped the carnage.
Two students from the off-campus housing site in the Mubi suburb of Wuro Fatuje, Adamawa state, where the massacre took place, told Morning Star News that the assailants were ethnic Hausa Muslims who shouted “Allahu Akbar [God is greater]” as they shot or stabbed hostel residents. One of the students said the assailants also torched a church building in nearby Tudun Wada the same night.
Copt home attacked after Egypt president promises security
CAIRO — Gunmen opened fire on the home of a Coptic Christian in the Sinai peninsula on Saturday, hours after a visit by President Mohamed Morsi to reassure Christian residents they would not be targeted again.
Gunmen "used automatic weapons when they opened fire on the house of a Coptic resident of Rafah hours after the president left," a security official told AFP.
There were no reports of casualties, he said.
Witnesses told AFP three gunmen in a car fired on the house of Magdi Niruz before fleeing the scene.
Coptic families flee Rafah following threats, machine-gun fire.
Special to Morning Star News
JERUSALEM, October 3, 2012 (Morning Star News) – Egyptian Christians in North Sinai feel unprotected and in danger following threats and a machine-gun attack that has driven several families from the border town of Rafah.
“The situation of Christians in Sinai is very dangerous,” said Yusuf Zaki, spokesman for the Egypt Coptic Alliance. “They feel that they are not protected by the government and the army, and in fact the army is unable to protect its own soldiers and posts.”
Zaki told Morning Star News that Muslim extremists on both sides of the Sinai border with Gaza pose a threat.
“The feeling is that those who threaten the Christians are not only local Islamists, but Palestinians from Gaza who cross the border freely and who now threaten the Christian existence in Rafah and other places in Sinai,” he said. “We are afraid that these radical elements will be given a free hand in Sinai and possibly even occupy this area, which was inhabited by Christians for centuries.”
2 Coptic Christian Boys Held in Egypt on Charges They Defiled a Koran
By KAREEM FAHIMand MAI AYYAD
CAIRO — Two Coptic Christian boys have been detained by the authorities on charges that they defiled the pages of a Koran, the latest in a spate of recent cases involving accusations that people have insulted Islam.
The boys, ages 9 and 10, are being held in juvenile detention in the village of Ezbet Marco, south of Cairo, according to Ishak Ibrahim, a researcher with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights who is investigating the case. They were detained last Sunday, when the imam of the local mosque claimed that he saw the children tearing the pages of a Koran.
Other news reports said the boys were accused of urinating on the Koran pages.