BY MICHAEL GERSON MCT Casanova / MCT Photo BY MICHAEL GERSON This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
In some parts of the world, Herod’s massacre of the innocents is a living tradition. On Christmas Day in Iraq, 37 people were killed in bomb attacks in Christian districts of Baghdad. Radical Islamists mark — and stain — the season with brutality and intolerance.
Orthodox Christian worshippers hold crosses as they take part in the Eastern and Orthodox Church's Good Friday procession along the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem's Old City. (Reuters)
Whether the words are “Merry Christmas” or the more politically correct “Happy Holidays,” late December merriment is a given in many parts of the Western world. Either in honor of Jesus’ birth or just because it’s a colorful, glittery season, warm-hearted toasts to friends and loved ones are in order.
Egypt’s New Draft Constitution Raises Concerns Over Defining Islamic Sharia Law
By Mounir Bishay
Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt on February 9, 2011/Wikimedia Commons
A new Constitution for Egypt has just been drafted and sent to the interim president Adly Mansour for his approval before putting it to a popular referendum. A committee of fifty representing various factions of Egyptian society, as well as ten specialists in constitutional law, worked on the project that ultimately produced the final draft containing 247 articles. If approved, the 2013 Constitution would replace the 2012 Constitution known as the Brotherhood Pro-Islamic Constitution enacted during the rule of ousted President Mohammed Morsi (June 30, 2012 to July 3, 2013).
INTERVIEW WITH MOUNIR BISHAY: THE CHRISTIAN-MUSLIM FAULT LINES IN EGYPT AND THE MIDDLE EAST
“The Obama administration’s new found love affair with the Muslim Brotherhood is astounding, to say the least. It has to be based on false perceptions and deceitful promises made by an organization that historically has been stained by the blood of innocent Egyptians, including Coptic Christians. Regardless of what the Muslim Brotherhood says, America, to them, will continue to represent an infidel country that must be conquered and converted to Islam.” – Mounir Bishay
By Georgiana Constantin
Introduction
Christians in Egypt are facing hardships not only in practicing their religion, but also in living normal, peaceful lives. This has unfortunately been the case for centuries.
News abounds with the tragic stories Copts live every day. And it appears that this region is going to keep offering the media sorrowful and terrible accounts to report on, as there doesn’t seem to be any hope of change, while the Obama administration remains virtually silent.
Peanut Butter Bomb and the Mango Bang: Secret diary of 'White Widow' terrorist reveals how she planned to open her own juice bar
Samantha Lewthwaite also wrote of her recipe for a happy marriage: 'Wife beautiful, food prepared, kids clean, immediately he will forget the pain of his day'
Widow of July 7 bomber planned classes for pregnant mothers to keep fit with exercises which are '100% safe'
Lewthwaite, 29, is accused of murdering seven in Kenya including two radical Muslim clerics and two Protestant preachers
Dagestan: Muslim children make videos imitating jihadis, threatening to kill unless they get money and good grades
They've taught their children well: "If you don’t do that, I’ll first kill Khalimat and Nurmagomed and then come at you. Insha'Allah." Even if these children are just playing around, it is clear what kind of values the adults around them are demonstrating and instilling in them.
"Trick-or-treat: Children in Russia’s North Caucasus record militant-style threatening videos," from RT, November 15:
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.
what they do best—twist reality to the Islamists’ benefit by casting them as innocent victims merely “
