Egypt Unrest Signals Danger for Christians
As growing unrest in Egypt leaves the country on the brink of revolution, there are fears that radical Islamists may capitalise on the crisis to seize power - signalling danger for the beleaguered Christian community. Protests against President Hosni Mubarak's authoritarian regime have been gathering momentum throughout this week. And off the back of the Tunisian uprising, which resulted in the ousting of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, there is the mood and momentum for radical change in Egypt. The unrest gained new impetus when the largest opposition movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, said it would back demonstrations on Friday (28 January). The banned Islamist group demanded that Mubarak dissolve the nation's recently formed parliament and hold a new election, threatening in a statement on its website that if the Egyptian government "does not move fast and shoulder responsibility to start a serious reform process, stability might not last for long". Egypt is 90% Muslim, and the Brotherhood, which lost all 88 of its parliamentary seats in last November's election, appears to be trying to harness the political, economic and social unrest that sparked the riots to gather support for its Islamist agenda.The Brotherhood wrote: The events in Tunisia are a cornerstone for the rest of the people of the Arab and Islamic world. It is a message to all the despotic leaders and the corrupt regimes that they are not safe and they are living on the tip of a volcano of people's anger and God's wrath. Many commentators have warned of a domino effect from Tunisia across the Arab world, as instability grows in Algeria, Lebanon, Yemen and Jordan. If Egypt were to be taken over by Islamists, the consequences for the region could be very serious. Global intelligence analyst George Friedman of Stratfor has warned: An Islamist Egypt would give dramatic impetus to radical Islam throughout the Arab world... The transformation of Egypt into an Islamist country would be the single most significant event we could imagine in the Islamic world, beyond an Iranian bomb. The protests in Egypt follow targeted attacks against the country's Christians, most notably the suicide bombing at a church in Alexandria on New Year's Day that killed at least 21 worshippers. Christians took to the streets in protest over the lack of protection and justice for their community. Their insecurity could only be increased under an Islamist regime, and in the worst case they could even be forced to flee the country en masse. In addition, Egyptian Christians are already second-class citizens in their own country. They suffer severe discrimination in many areas of life, such as in education and employment. And if the Muslim Brotherhood were to seize power, they could rapidly be subjected to a raft of even more humiliating regulations, designed to exclude and degrade them further. All Christian gatherings and church meetings have been cancelled for the third day in a row; a Barnabas Aid contact said believers were staying in their homes, adding that they were "praying hard" and "trusting God."
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Egypt's False Prophet
The Mubarak regime is likely in its last days and the Muslim Brotherhood has now endorsed former IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) director Mohamed ElBaradei to replace him. The wise move by the Islamists will allow them to control the next government while soothing the fear over the creation of the Islamic Republic of Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood has allowed ElBaradei to lead a new coalition called the National Association for Change that also includes secular democrats and other opposition figures like Ayman Nour and Dr. Osama al-Ghazali Harb. This coalition led by ElBaradei is going to begin forming a national unity government that will exclude President Mubarak's National Democratic Party, removing a potential secular voice in the next regime. Once this national unity government is put together, it will force the U.S. to pick either the Mubarak regime or the opposition regime as the government of Egypt. The Brotherhood decided to embrace ElBaradei because it will make it easier to pursue an Islamist agenda. One of the group's officials did not try to disguise this, saying "The Brotherhood realizes the sensitivities, especially in the West, towards the Islamists, and we're not keen to be at the forefront." The West should not find comfort in the prospect of ElBaradei leading Egypt instead of an official Brotherhood member. He may be a secular democrat ideologically, but his foreign policy stances are not much different than the Brotherhood and he is a stalwart defender of the organization. He has just compared them to "new evangelical…groups in the U.S., like the orthodox Jews in Jerusalem" and says "[t]his is total bogus that the Muslim Brotherhood are religiously conservative. They are [in] no way extremists." He also asserts that the Brotherhood has "not committed any acts of violence in five decades," drawing a deceitful distinction between the Brotherhood and its Palestinian branch, Hamas. The constitution of Hamas states it is "the arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine" and in March, a top Hamas operative reaffirmed that it remains so. There are already unconfirmed reports that armed members of Hamas are now entering Egypt to link up with the Brotherhood. ElBaradei has in the past defended "the Palestinian resistance," saying that "the Israeli occupation only understands violence." An Egypt under ElBaradei would be friendly to Iran. As the director of the IAEA, El-Baradei was repeatedly accused of covering-up incriminating evidence about the Iranian nuclear program. He opposes sanctions on Iran and says "they are not like the stereotyped fanatics bent on destroying everybody around them. They are not." It has been reported that an Iranian official gave $7 million to an associate of his in Hungary to finance a presidential campaign and the Iranians also offered other forms of assistance, including information to undermine Mubarak. This could be an attempt by Egypt's Arab allies to undermine ElBaradei but at the very least, the Iranian state media is supporting the revolution. The U.S. is currently in a difficult position as the stability of the Mubarak regime is in its geopolitical interests. However, preserving the West's strategic position requires siding against democratic change and it would reinforce the Brotherhood's narrative that the U.S. supports dictatorships as part of an imperialistic agenda. The Muslim Brotherhood leader in Jordan is making that argument right now, stating that "We tell the Americans, enough is enough" and that "Obama must understand that the people have woken up and are ready to unseat the tyrant leaders who remained in power because of U.S. backing." Likewise, ElBaradei blames the U.S. for Mubarak's "life support" and says that the U.S. is "losing credibility every day." Secretary of State Clinton's earlier description of Mubarak's regime as "stable" and Vice President Biden's remark that Mubarak is not a dictator and should not resign assists the Egyptian opposition in making these arguments. Tawfik Hamid, a former member of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, says that the U.S. must now force Mubarak to resign because it is the "ONLY thing that can calm the political situation sufficiently [emphasis original]" and have him replaced by a secular military leader. Hamid argues that a new presidential advisory office that includes the opposition must be created that the U.S. can work with. The Washington Post's Jackson Diehl argues that the U.S. should support the replacement of Mubarak with a transitional government led by ElBaradei. He feels that if elections are held off for six months to a year while a new constitution is written, this would undermine the Brotherhood. "Given time to establish themselves, secular forces backed by Egypt's growing middle class are likely to rise to the top in those elections--not the Islamists that Mubarak portrays as the only alternative," Diehl writes. However, a poll last year shows strong support for an Islamist agenda. Over 80 percent support stoning adulterers; over three-fourths support whippings and the cutting off the hands of those that commit robbery; 84 percent favor the death penalty for apostates and 59 percent would vote for "Islamists" over "modernizers," who would get only 27 percent of the vote. One-fifth express a favorable view of Al-Qaeda, 30 percent view Hezbollah favorably, and 49 percent view Hamas favorably. The other problem with Diehl's analysis is that the opposition coalition has not stated how long of a period there would be before elections. The Brotherhood would push for a minimal delay so its opponents could not organize effectively. ElBaradei has tried to ease concerns about his alliance with the Brotherhood by estimating they would only have the support of "maybe 20 percent of the Egyptian people." This is unlikely given the results of the aforementioned poll, but even if it were true, the Brotherhood would still be in a position to have a significant say over the direction of the government. The decision by the Brotherhood to rally behind ElBaradei is a trick to win power without bringing scrutiny that could derail its agenda. El-Baradei may not share the Brotherhood's ideology, but his advent will empower the group and he will make Egypt an opponent of the U.S. and Israel and a friend to their enemies. With Hezbollah taking over Lebanon and Mubarak likely on his way out in Egypt, the balance of power has shifted in favor of Iran and its Islamist allies. The pro-American Arab regimes may feel they have to cave to Iran after having lost their powerful Egyptian ally. The fall of the Mubarak regime may pave the way for a Middle East whose future is dictated from Tehran.
The Mubarak regime is likely in its last days and the Muslim Brotherhood has now endorsed former IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) director Mohamed ElBaradei to replace him. The wise move by the Islamists will allow them to control the next government while soothing the fear over the creation of the Islamic Republic of Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood has allowed ElBaradei to lead a new coalition called the National Association for Change that also includes secular democrats and other opposition figures like Ayman Nour and Dr. Osama al-Ghazali Harb. This coalition led by ElBaradei is going to begin forming a national unity government that will exclude President Mubarak's National Democratic Party, removing a potential secular voice in the next regime. Once this national unity government is put together, it will force the U.S. to pick either the Mubarak regime or the opposition regime as the government of Egypt. The Brotherhood decided to embrace ElBaradei because it will make it easier to pursue an Islamist agenda. One of the group's officials did not try to disguise this, saying "The Brotherhood realizes the sensitivities, especially in the West, towards the Islamists, and we're not keen to be at the forefront." The West should not find comfort in the prospect of ElBaradei leading Egypt instead of an official Brotherhood member. He may be a secular democrat ideologically, but his foreign policy stances are not much different than the Brotherhood and he is a stalwart defender of the organization. He has just compared them to "new evangelical…groups in the U.S., like the orthodox Jews in Jerusalem" and says "[t]his is total bogus that the Muslim Brotherhood are religiously conservative. They are [in] no way extremists." He also asserts that the Brotherhood has "not committed any acts of violence in five decades," drawing a deceitful distinction between the Brotherhood and its Palestinian branch, Hamas. The constitution of Hamas states it is "the arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine" and in March, a top Hamas operative reaffirmed that it remains so. There are already unconfirmed reports that armed members of Hamas are now entering Egypt to link up with the Brotherhood. ElBaradei has in the past defended "the Palestinian resistance," saying that "the Israeli occupation only understands violence." An Egypt under ElBaradei would be friendly to Iran. As the director of the IAEA, El-Baradei was repeatedly accused of covering-up incriminating evidence about the Iranian nuclear program. He opposes sanctions on Iran and says "they are not like the stereotyped fanatics bent on destroying everybody around them. They are not." It has been reported that an Iranian official gave $7 million to an associate of his in Hungary to finance a presidential campaign and the Iranians also offered other forms of assistance, including information to undermine Mubarak. This could be an attempt by Egypt's Arab allies to undermine ElBaradei but at the very least, the Iranian state media is supporting the revolution. The U.S. is currently in a difficult position as the stability of the Mubarak regime is in its geopolitical interests. However, preserving the West's strategic position requires siding against democratic change and it would reinforce the Brotherhood's narrative that the U.S. supports dictatorships as part of an imperialistic agenda. The Muslim Brotherhood leader in Jordan is making that argument right now, stating that "We tell the Americans, enough is enough" and that "Obama must understand that the people have woken up and are ready to unseat the tyrant leaders who remained in power because of U.S. backing." Likewise, ElBaradei blames the U.S. for Mubarak's "life support" and says that the U.S. is "losing credibility every day." Secretary of State Clinton's earlier description of Mubarak's regime as "stable" and Vice President Biden's remark that Mubarak is not a dictator and should not resign assists the Egyptian opposition in making these arguments. Tawfik Hamid, a former member of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, says that the U.S. must now force Mubarak to resign because it is the "ONLY thing that can calm the political situation sufficiently [emphasis original]" and have him replaced by a secular military leader. Hamid argues that a new presidential advisory office that includes the opposition must be created that the U.S. can work with. The Washington Post's Jackson Diehl argues that the U.S. should support the replacement of Mubarak with a transitional government led by ElBaradei. He feels that if elections are held off for six months to a year while a new constitution is written, this would undermine the Brotherhood. "Given time to establish themselves, secular forces backed by Egypt's growing middle class are likely to rise to the top in those elections--not the Islamists that Mubarak portrays as the only alternative," Diehl writes. However, a poll last year shows strong support for an Islamist agenda. Over 80 percent support stoning adulterers; over three-fourths support whippings and the cutting off the hands of those that commit robbery; 84 percent favor the death penalty for apostates and 59 percent would vote for "Islamists" over "modernizers," who would get only 27 percent of the vote. One-fifth express a favorable view of Al-Qaeda, 30 percent view Hezbollah favorably, and 49 percent view Hamas favorably. The other problem with Diehl's analysis is that the opposition coalition has not stated how long of a period there would be before elections. The Brotherhood would push for a minimal delay so its opponents could not organize effectively. ElBaradei has tried to ease concerns about his alliance with the Brotherhood by estimating they would only have the support of "maybe 20 percent of the Egyptian people." This is unlikely given the results of the aforementioned poll, but even if it were true, the Brotherhood would still be in a position to have a significant say over the direction of the government. The decision by the Brotherhood to rally behind ElBaradei is a trick to win power without bringing scrutiny that could derail its agenda. El-Baradei may not share the Brotherhood's ideology, but his advent will empower the group and he will make Egypt an opponent of the U.S. and Israel and a friend to their enemies. With Hezbollah taking over Lebanon and Mubarak likely on his way out in Egypt, the balance of power has shifted in favor of Iran and its Islamist allies. The pro-American Arab regimes may feel they have to cave to Iran after having lost their powerful Egyptian ally. The fall of the Mubarak regime may pave the way for a Middle East whose future is dictated from Tehran.
Egypt Protests: ElBaradei Tells Crowd 'Change Coming'
(BBC) -- Leading Egyptian opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei has joined thousands of protesters in Cairo defying a curfew to demand President Mubarak stand down. Addressing the crowd in Tahrir (Liberation) Square, the Nobel peace prize winner urged patience, saying "change is coming". In a tense sixth day of protests, the army sent tanks into the square only to see them blocked by demonstrators. Air force jets and a helicopter repeatedly flew low over the square. "You have taken back your rights and what we have begun cannot go back," Mr ElBaradei told the crowd. "I bow to the people of Egypt in respect. I ask of you patience, change is coming in the next few days." Mr ElBaradei has been asked by opposition groups to negotiate with the authorities on forming a national unity government. However, the BBC's Jim Muir in Cairo said the former UN official did not attract the attention of the whole crowd, which contained other political factions. Embattled President Hosni Mubarak earlier met top commanders during a visit to a military headquarters. Over the weekend, US President Barack Obama made a number of calls to foreign leaders to discuss the situation in Egypt, the White House said. A statement said Mr Obama had spoken to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and British Prime Minister David Cameron. He asked them for their assessment of the situation and agreed to stay in close contact, it said. Mr Cameron's office said he and Mr Obama were "united in their view that Egypt now needed a comprehensive process of political reform". Echoing an earlier US statement, a spokesman for Mr Cameron said the two leaders wanted to see an "orderly, Egyptian-led transition" leading to a democratic future for Egypt. Mr ElBaradei, however, has said Washington is losing credibility by talking of democracy while still supporting a president viewed by Egyptians as oppressive. The BBC's Jeremy Bowen, in Tahrir Square, said the arrival of a column of tanks and the sound of jets roaring overhead significantly raised the tension among the crowds. In Cairo on Sunday, there was no sign of the riot police with whom protesters have clashed violently in recent days, although state television said they were being ordered back on to the streets. Late Sunday night, state television also reported that the 1600 (1400 GMT) curfew - which has been widely ignored - would be extended in Cairo, Alexandria and Suez to run from 1500 to 0800. Clashes are reported to have left at least 100 people dead since rallies began on Tuesday in cities including Cairo, Suez and Alexandria. Thousands more have been injured. Although Sunday is the start of the working week in the Middle East, many businesses in Cairo remained closed and internet access is still intermittent. In Alexandria, in the north, the BBC's John Simpson said more protests were being held there and the army was out in force. In the capital, citizens have formed armed groups to protect their property from looters. Across the country, thousands of prisoners are reported to have escaped from jails after overpowering their guards. They are said to include senior members of the Muslim Brotherhood - the largest opposition group in Egypt. On Sunday, a number of Egyptian political movements issued a joint statement calling on Mr ElBaradei to form a transitional government. The Muslim Brotherhood is also reported to have asked him to negotiate with Mr Mubarak's regime. Mr ElBaradei, a former head of the UN's nuclear watchdog, is a leading advocate for political reform and a likely challenger for Egypt's presidency. Correspondents say that although he has become a leading figurehead of the opposition, protesters have not yet called for him to be their leader. President Mubarak, in an attempt to regain control, has appointed a vice-president - intelligence chief Omar Suleiman. Aviation Minister Ahmed Shafiq has been appointed prime minister. The US embassy in Cairo said on Sunday it would begin flying Americans out of Egypt on Monday. It had earlier advised US citizens in Egypt to consider leaving as soon as possible. The UK is advising its nationals in Cairo, Alexandria and Suez to leave if it is safe for them to do so. A number of other European countries have also advised against visiting the country. The unrest in Egypt follows the uprising in Tunisia which ousted President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali two weeks ago after 23 years in power. The Tunisian turmoil began with anger over rising food prices, high unemployment and anger at official corruption - problems which have also angered many people in Egypt.
(BBC) -- Leading Egyptian opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei has joined thousands of protesters in Cairo defying a curfew to demand President Mubarak stand down. Addressing the crowd in Tahrir (Liberation) Square, the Nobel peace prize winner urged patience, saying "change is coming". In a tense sixth day of protests, the army sent tanks into the square only to see them blocked by demonstrators. Air force jets and a helicopter repeatedly flew low over the square. "You have taken back your rights and what we have begun cannot go back," Mr ElBaradei told the crowd. "I bow to the people of Egypt in respect. I ask of you patience, change is coming in the next few days." Mr ElBaradei has been asked by opposition groups to negotiate with the authorities on forming a national unity government. However, the BBC's Jim Muir in Cairo said the former UN official did not attract the attention of the whole crowd, which contained other political factions. Embattled President Hosni Mubarak earlier met top commanders during a visit to a military headquarters. Over the weekend, US President Barack Obama made a number of calls to foreign leaders to discuss the situation in Egypt, the White House said. A statement said Mr Obama had spoken to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and British Prime Minister David Cameron. He asked them for their assessment of the situation and agreed to stay in close contact, it said. Mr Cameron's office said he and Mr Obama were "united in their view that Egypt now needed a comprehensive process of political reform". Echoing an earlier US statement, a spokesman for Mr Cameron said the two leaders wanted to see an "orderly, Egyptian-led transition" leading to a democratic future for Egypt. Mr ElBaradei, however, has said Washington is losing credibility by talking of democracy while still supporting a president viewed by Egyptians as oppressive. The BBC's Jeremy Bowen, in Tahrir Square, said the arrival of a column of tanks and the sound of jets roaring overhead significantly raised the tension among the crowds. In Cairo on Sunday, there was no sign of the riot police with whom protesters have clashed violently in recent days, although state television said they were being ordered back on to the streets. Late Sunday night, state television also reported that the 1600 (1400 GMT) curfew - which has been widely ignored - would be extended in Cairo, Alexandria and Suez to run from 1500 to 0800. Clashes are reported to have left at least 100 people dead since rallies began on Tuesday in cities including Cairo, Suez and Alexandria. Thousands more have been injured. Although Sunday is the start of the working week in the Middle East, many businesses in Cairo remained closed and internet access is still intermittent. In Alexandria, in the north, the BBC's John Simpson said more protests were being held there and the army was out in force. In the capital, citizens have formed armed groups to protect their property from looters. Across the country, thousands of prisoners are reported to have escaped from jails after overpowering their guards. They are said to include senior members of the Muslim Brotherhood - the largest opposition group in Egypt. On Sunday, a number of Egyptian political movements issued a joint statement calling on Mr ElBaradei to form a transitional government. The Muslim Brotherhood is also reported to have asked him to negotiate with Mr Mubarak's regime. Mr ElBaradei, a former head of the UN's nuclear watchdog, is a leading advocate for political reform and a likely challenger for Egypt's presidency. Correspondents say that although he has become a leading figurehead of the opposition, protesters have not yet called for him to be their leader. President Mubarak, in an attempt to regain control, has appointed a vice-president - intelligence chief Omar Suleiman. Aviation Minister Ahmed Shafiq has been appointed prime minister. The US embassy in Cairo said on Sunday it would begin flying Americans out of Egypt on Monday. It had earlier advised US citizens in Egypt to consider leaving as soon as possible. The UK is advising its nationals in Cairo, Alexandria and Suez to leave if it is safe for them to do so. A number of other European countries have also advised against visiting the country. The unrest in Egypt follows the uprising in Tunisia which ousted President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali two weeks ago after 23 years in power. The Tunisian turmoil began with anger over rising food prices, high unemployment and anger at official corruption - problems which have also angered many people in Egypt.
Egypt's Armed Forces: 'No Violence' Against the People
Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- As anti-government demonstrations persist across Egypt and the country's military firmly puts its boots on the ground to establish order, the army said it won't deploy "violence" against the people. A military spokesman said on state TV Monday that "freedom of opinion in a peaceful manner is allowed for all" and the "armed forces are aware of the legitimate demands of the honest citizens." "The presence of the armed forces in the Egyptian streets is for your benefit to protect your safety and peace," said the spokesman for the army, which has been regarded favorably by many protesters who despise the police and see that institution as an ally. The armed forces "will not use violence against this great people which have always played a significant role in every moment of Egypt's great history. And we reassure the armed forces are a force of stability and security for this great nation. The protection of the people is one of its core values," the spokesman said. This statement comes as activists in Cairo, Alexandria and other restive Egyptian cities robustly took to the streets in peaceful rallies Monday and a major outpouring is planned for Tuesday. They protested the rule of embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who remains in power despite repeated grassroots calls for his ouster and widespread dissatisfaction over his Cabinet selections. And many observers regard the seething rage of the past week as the calm before the storm. Egyptians plan another huge wave of demonstrations on Tuesday, so-called "million-man" marches in Cairo and Alexandria that will occur a week after the historic anti-government protests began. Egyptian security forces in Cairo have been setting up concrete barriers around key locations ahead of the march, including iconic sites such as Tahrir, or Liberation, Square, the Egypt State TV building and the Interior Ministry. The ongoing demonstrations, inspired in part by a Tunisian uprising, follow years of social, political and economic grievances that bubbled up among the citizenry. Fed up with years of corruption, poverty and lack of opportunity, masses of people have boldly shouted their displeasure with Mubarak in public protests. After ruling Egypt with an iron fist for three decades, Mubarak has given no indication of giving up his rule. He swore in a few new Cabinet members on Monday. After discharging his previous Cabinet on Saturday, Mubarak appointed his trusted and powerful intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, as his vice president, the first time the authoritarian regime has had such a post. The president charged newly appointed Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq with shaping the Cabinet of his reshuffled government, which will have the goal of restoring national security and Egyptians' faith in their country's economy. Mubarak on Monday swore in Mahmoud Wagdy as the new interior minister. He replaces Habib el-Adly, who has been criticized by protesters because of police actions. Others sworn in on Monday were Finance Minister Samir Radwan, a former economist at the International Labor Organization, and Health Minister Ahmed Hosni Farid. Radwan told CNN's "Quest Means Business" that his priority is "to show that this is a government that responds to the demands -- the fair demands, I would say -- of the people in Tahrir Square." "We need to use public expenditure to achieve some sort of social justice and a better distribution of the fruits of growth, as to the bottom 40% of this country." At the same time, he said, Egypt shouldn't sacrifice economic reforms and gains "that enabled it to stand the storm of two successive crises -- the food crisis and the financial crisis." Meanwhile, there are international indications that the world could accept a changed Egypt without Mubarak. Asked Sunday on TV whether the Obama administration still backs Mubarak as the legitimate president of Egypt, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hedged. "We have been very clear that we want to see a transition to democracy. And we want to see the kind of steps taken that will bring that about. We also want to see an orderly transition," she said. She said the United States wants to see a "well-thought-out plan that will bring about a democratic, participatory government." "I also believe that this is in Egypt's long-term interests. It's in the interest of the partnership that the United States has had with Egypt," she said, noting that the situation is "intensely complex," without "quick yes or no answers." While it was widely believed Mubarak was grooming his son, Gamal, as his successor, that plan now has been complicated by demands for democracy. Mohamed ElBaradei, the Nobel laureate and former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, is one of several opposition figures whose names surface when protesters talk about possible future leaders of Egypt. Among other names is Amre Moussa, head of the Arab League. Several opposition movements have been represented on the streets in the demonstrations. Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour, secretary-general of the Wafd Party, told CNN the group's followers have been "extremely active." He said he hopes opposition forces such as his party can help bring about a peaceful transition of power. A government-imposed curfew began at 3 p.m., but this daily restriction has been largely ignored by protesters over the past few days, and it was again Monday. In Alexandria, an armored personnel carrier fired warning shots as about 2,000 to 3,000 people gathered. The shots were seen as an apparent effort to intimidate protesters near a hotel. In Cairo, the crowd has swelled compared with Saturday and Sunday, and people gathered Monday in Tahrir Square, a focal point of the protests. Some of them said they had spent the night. The smell of smoke from campfires lingered in the air. Police have been virtually absent from the streets since Saturday, after a brutal crackdown a day earlier when thousands of riot and plainclothes police clashed violently with protesters. But police forces were scheduled to start deploying and resuming their duties throughout Egypt on Monday, state-run Nile TV reported. Human Rights Watch researcher Heba Morayef said the army is controlling the square and checking people's IDs at all entry points. She said there are some police visible in Cairo, such as traffic officers, but no state security police could be spotted downtown. While it's difficult to ascertain a solid death toll during the violence, Human Rights Watch staffers have confirmed 80 deaths from two hospitals in Cairo, 36 deaths in Alexandria and 13 fatalities in Suez, Morayef said. The unrest has paralyzed daily life in Egypt. Many essential supplies are running low, said Peter Bouckaert, Human Rights Watch emergencies director. Gas stations throughout Cairo and Alexandria were closing because they were out of fuel. The amount of goods in shops were low and many were rationing how much food people could buy. The Egyptian stock exchange and banks were closed Monday, and the Moody's ratings agency downgraded debt ratings for the country because of the turmoil. There were long lines in front of bread shops and supermarkets, ATMs and gas stations were closed, and there was a minimal police presence. In one neighborhood of Cairo, however, sanitation workers were seen collecting garbage. In Alexandria, people waited in long lines outside bakeries and supermarkets. Nile TV set up a hotline for citizens to call in and report bread shortages across the country. A private sanitation company was seen collecting trash there, also. Shops and businesses were looted and abandoned police stations were stripped clean of their arsenals. Men with makeshift weapons patrolled neighborhoods, creating checkpoints to fill the void left when police stopped patrolling the streets. The self-appointed defense groups appear to be working closely with the military. There have been reports of prison breaks, and state-run Nile TV said Monday nearly 2,100 escaped inmates had been arrested. Al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based news network, said six of its journalists arrested in Cairo earlier Monday have been released, but their camera equipment remains seized. The unrest has prompted evacuations of foreigners. More than 500 Americans have departed on five flights, the State Department said. A team of heavily armed Marine Corps security personnel have been sent to the U.S. Embassy in Cairo to provide additional security for the facility, defense officials tell CNN. The dozen or so Marines are part of a Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team. Suez Canal authorities have said operations there are unchanged and the army is in control. However, shipping companies are predicting delays. Soldiers are guarding the pyramids in Giza. Meanwhile, the popular uprising that toppled the Tunisian government before spreading into Algeria, Jordan, Yemen, Sudan and, of course, Egypt, may now be headed for Syria. Opposition movements in Syria are calling for mass protests on Saturday against the rule of President Bashar Al-Assad.
Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- As anti-government demonstrations persist across Egypt and the country's military firmly puts its boots on the ground to establish order, the army said it won't deploy "violence" against the people. A military spokesman said on state TV Monday that "freedom of opinion in a peaceful manner is allowed for all" and the "armed forces are aware of the legitimate demands of the honest citizens." "The presence of the armed forces in the Egyptian streets is for your benefit to protect your safety and peace," said the spokesman for the army, which has been regarded favorably by many protesters who despise the police and see that institution as an ally. The armed forces "will not use violence against this great people which have always played a significant role in every moment of Egypt's great history. And we reassure the armed forces are a force of stability and security for this great nation. The protection of the people is one of its core values," the spokesman said. This statement comes as activists in Cairo, Alexandria and other restive Egyptian cities robustly took to the streets in peaceful rallies Monday and a major outpouring is planned for Tuesday. They protested the rule of embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who remains in power despite repeated grassroots calls for his ouster and widespread dissatisfaction over his Cabinet selections. And many observers regard the seething rage of the past week as the calm before the storm. Egyptians plan another huge wave of demonstrations on Tuesday, so-called "million-man" marches in Cairo and Alexandria that will occur a week after the historic anti-government protests began. Egyptian security forces in Cairo have been setting up concrete barriers around key locations ahead of the march, including iconic sites such as Tahrir, or Liberation, Square, the Egypt State TV building and the Interior Ministry. The ongoing demonstrations, inspired in part by a Tunisian uprising, follow years of social, political and economic grievances that bubbled up among the citizenry. Fed up with years of corruption, poverty and lack of opportunity, masses of people have boldly shouted their displeasure with Mubarak in public protests. After ruling Egypt with an iron fist for three decades, Mubarak has given no indication of giving up his rule. He swore in a few new Cabinet members on Monday. After discharging his previous Cabinet on Saturday, Mubarak appointed his trusted and powerful intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, as his vice president, the first time the authoritarian regime has had such a post. The president charged newly appointed Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq with shaping the Cabinet of his reshuffled government, which will have the goal of restoring national security and Egyptians' faith in their country's economy. Mubarak on Monday swore in Mahmoud Wagdy as the new interior minister. He replaces Habib el-Adly, who has been criticized by protesters because of police actions. Others sworn in on Monday were Finance Minister Samir Radwan, a former economist at the International Labor Organization, and Health Minister Ahmed Hosni Farid. Radwan told CNN's "Quest Means Business" that his priority is "to show that this is a government that responds to the demands -- the fair demands, I would say -- of the people in Tahrir Square." "We need to use public expenditure to achieve some sort of social justice and a better distribution of the fruits of growth, as to the bottom 40% of this country." At the same time, he said, Egypt shouldn't sacrifice economic reforms and gains "that enabled it to stand the storm of two successive crises -- the food crisis and the financial crisis." Meanwhile, there are international indications that the world could accept a changed Egypt without Mubarak. Asked Sunday on TV whether the Obama administration still backs Mubarak as the legitimate president of Egypt, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hedged. "We have been very clear that we want to see a transition to democracy. And we want to see the kind of steps taken that will bring that about. We also want to see an orderly transition," she said. She said the United States wants to see a "well-thought-out plan that will bring about a democratic, participatory government." "I also believe that this is in Egypt's long-term interests. It's in the interest of the partnership that the United States has had with Egypt," she said, noting that the situation is "intensely complex," without "quick yes or no answers." While it was widely believed Mubarak was grooming his son, Gamal, as his successor, that plan now has been complicated by demands for democracy. Mohamed ElBaradei, the Nobel laureate and former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, is one of several opposition figures whose names surface when protesters talk about possible future leaders of Egypt. Among other names is Amre Moussa, head of the Arab League. Several opposition movements have been represented on the streets in the demonstrations. Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour, secretary-general of the Wafd Party, told CNN the group's followers have been "extremely active." He said he hopes opposition forces such as his party can help bring about a peaceful transition of power. A government-imposed curfew began at 3 p.m., but this daily restriction has been largely ignored by protesters over the past few days, and it was again Monday. In Alexandria, an armored personnel carrier fired warning shots as about 2,000 to 3,000 people gathered. The shots were seen as an apparent effort to intimidate protesters near a hotel. In Cairo, the crowd has swelled compared with Saturday and Sunday, and people gathered Monday in Tahrir Square, a focal point of the protests. Some of them said they had spent the night. The smell of smoke from campfires lingered in the air. Police have been virtually absent from the streets since Saturday, after a brutal crackdown a day earlier when thousands of riot and plainclothes police clashed violently with protesters. But police forces were scheduled to start deploying and resuming their duties throughout Egypt on Monday, state-run Nile TV reported. Human Rights Watch researcher Heba Morayef said the army is controlling the square and checking people's IDs at all entry points. She said there are some police visible in Cairo, such as traffic officers, but no state security police could be spotted downtown. While it's difficult to ascertain a solid death toll during the violence, Human Rights Watch staffers have confirmed 80 deaths from two hospitals in Cairo, 36 deaths in Alexandria and 13 fatalities in Suez, Morayef said. The unrest has paralyzed daily life in Egypt. Many essential supplies are running low, said Peter Bouckaert, Human Rights Watch emergencies director. Gas stations throughout Cairo and Alexandria were closing because they were out of fuel. The amount of goods in shops were low and many were rationing how much food people could buy. The Egyptian stock exchange and banks were closed Monday, and the Moody's ratings agency downgraded debt ratings for the country because of the turmoil. There were long lines in front of bread shops and supermarkets, ATMs and gas stations were closed, and there was a minimal police presence. In one neighborhood of Cairo, however, sanitation workers were seen collecting garbage. In Alexandria, people waited in long lines outside bakeries and supermarkets. Nile TV set up a hotline for citizens to call in and report bread shortages across the country. A private sanitation company was seen collecting trash there, also. Shops and businesses were looted and abandoned police stations were stripped clean of their arsenals. Men with makeshift weapons patrolled neighborhoods, creating checkpoints to fill the void left when police stopped patrolling the streets. The self-appointed defense groups appear to be working closely with the military. There have been reports of prison breaks, and state-run Nile TV said Monday nearly 2,100 escaped inmates had been arrested. Al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based news network, said six of its journalists arrested in Cairo earlier Monday have been released, but their camera equipment remains seized. The unrest has prompted evacuations of foreigners. More than 500 Americans have departed on five flights, the State Department said. A team of heavily armed Marine Corps security personnel have been sent to the U.S. Embassy in Cairo to provide additional security for the facility, defense officials tell CNN. The dozen or so Marines are part of a Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team. Suez Canal authorities have said operations there are unchanged and the army is in control. However, shipping companies are predicting delays. Soldiers are guarding the pyramids in Giza. Meanwhile, the popular uprising that toppled the Tunisian government before spreading into Algeria, Jordan, Yemen, Sudan and, of course, Egypt, may now be headed for Syria. Opposition movements in Syria are calling for mass protests on Saturday against the rule of President Bashar Al-Assad.
Dictatorships and Revolutions
The pressure in Egypt has been building for a long time and has now finally exploded -- inspired by the events in Tunisia. The fact that the Egyptian government has been taken by surprise is a sign of how disconnected the regime has become from the reality on the ground. Mubarak has wasted many opportunities to transfer power to another administration peacefully. He could have gone down in history as the first Arab leader to conduct a fair election, but instead, he kept ignoring the inevitable and kept re-electing himself for 30 years, followed by grooming his son to take over. Now he will go down in history as just another Arab tyrant in the dysfunctional political history of the Muslim world. Having been born and raised in the Muslim faith during the generation of the 1952 Egyptian revolution, in which my father held a prominent role in the Nasser revolutionary government of that time, I see things repeating themselves. The Nasser 52 revolution promised freedom, democracy, Arab Nationalism and self-rule. Nasser toppled what he called the tyrant King Farouk, promised a new era of freedom, democracy and prosperity, but ended up giving Egyptians more of the same. The era of Nasser was one of the most oppressive periods in Egyptian history, ushering in a long period of wars, socialism, poverty, illiteracy, and a police state. Judging from Arab history, revolutions do not necessarily bring about democracy or freedom. Will the current Egyptian uprising bring what it was intending to bring? Or will it end up in a vicious cycle of uprising and tyranny following the footsteps of the earlier 52 revolution? In a recent poll, over 70% of Egyptians stated that they want to live under Sharia Islamic law. And most of these people do not understand that Sharia law will result not in a democracy but in a theocracy like Iran or Saudi Arabia. That unrealistic expectation by the majority of Egyptians will probably end up in a great disappointment -- the same way the Iranian revolution could not deliver the freedom and democracy the Iranian people had hoped for. Many Egyptians chant "Allahu Akbar" and "Islam is the solution." But the truth is, Islam or more accurately, Sharia, is the problem. The Muslim Brotherhood, which is entrenched in Egyptian society, has announced that it is currently in talks with Mohammed ElBaradei -- the former UN nuclear watchdog chief -- to form a national unity government. They have chosen to ally themselves with a well known moderate international figure which might make them more acceptable to the moderates and reformists in Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood will use the democratic process to come to power but the true nature of the Brotherhood will come out as soon as they take power. According to their basic beliefs, they must rule according to Sharia, which is the official law of Egypt anyway. Perhaps the most dangerous law in Sharia that stands in the way of democracy is the one that states that "A Muslim head of State can hold office through seizure of power, meaning through force." That law is the reason every Muslim leader must turn into a despotic tyrant to survive, literally. When a Muslim leader is removed from office by force, we often see the Islamic media and masses accept it and even cheer for the new leader who has just ousted or killed the former leader, who is often called a traitor to the Islamic cause. Sadat's assassination followed many fatwas of death against him for having violated his Islamic obligations to make Israel an eternal enemy. He became an apostate in the eyes of the hard-liners and had to be killed or removed from office. This probably sounds incredible to the Western mind, but this is the reality of what Sharia has done and is still doing to the political chaos in the Muslim world. Westerners often described the Mubarak administration as secular when in reality it is not. It is true that Mubarak comes from a military background and neither he nor his wife wear Islamic clothes. But no Muslim leader can get away with or even survive one day in office if he is secular in the true sense of the word. It was during Mubarak's rule in 1991 that Egypt signed the Cairo Declaration for Human Rights stating that Sharia supersedes any other law. So even though Sharia is not 100% applied in Egypt, it is officially the law of the land. Mubarak, like all Muslim leaders, must appease the Islamists to avoid their wrath. According to Sharia itself, a Muslim head of state must rule by Islamic law and preserve Islam in its original form or he must be removed from office. That law leaves no choice for any Muslim leader. Because of that law Muslim leaders must play a game of appearing Islamic and anti-West while trying to get along with the rest of the world. It's a game with life and death consequences. The choice in Egypt is not between good and bad, it is between bad and worse. Many in the Muslim world lack the understanding of what is hindering them as well as a lack of a moral and legal foundation for forming a stable democratic political system. I fear that my brothers and sisters in Egypt will end up embracing extremism instead of true democracy and thus will continue to rise and fall, stumble from one revolution to another and living under one tyrant to another looking for the ideal Islamic state that never was. The 1400 year-old Islamic history of tyranny will continue unless Sharia is rejected as the basis of the legal or political systems in Muslim countries. Sharia must be rejected if Egyptians want true democracy and freedom.
009 01-31-2011 The Middle East's Intifada
Now that the Muslim Brotherhood has begun talks with opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei to form a national unity government after the fall of Mubarak, which apparently all concerned expect to be imminent, the character of the Egyptian revolution has become clearer. Whether or not the majority of demonstrators were pro-Sharia, the Brotherhood was the sole entity in Egypt capable of constituting an organized and energized vanguard that could put an ideological cast on the rapidly unfolding revolt. And so Egypt now stands on the brink of installing in power a group that wants to see it become an Islamic state. Many Western analysts have welcomed the demonstrations currently roiling Tunisia, Egypt, and elsewhere in the Middle East as an outpouring of democratic sentiment against repressive authoritarian rulers -- and that they are. But it is no coincidence that Islamic supremacist pro-Sharia leaders and groups are also applauding these demonstrations. They know that if the people truly rule in the Middle East, so will Islamic law (Sharia). For belying the widespread assumption in the West that Islamic supremacists, whether violent or stealthy, represent only a tiny minority of extremists among Muslims, in reality the imperative for Islamic rule (which is also the ultimate goal of jihad terror attacks) enjoys broad popular support among Muslims. It thus came as no surprise that when Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was toppled from power and fled to Saudi Arabia, Rached Ghannouchi, the London-based leader of the banned Tunisian pro-Sharia party, the Tunisian Renaissance Party (Hizb al-Nahdah), quickly dubbed the Tunisian uprising an "intifada," claimed it as a victory for Islam, and returned to the country. In Egypt, opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei, who has the backing of the pro-Sharia Muslim Brotherhood, adopted the same language, warning that "if the regime does not step down, the people's Intifada will continue." The word intifada in Arabic signifies resistance to oppression, but in this case the oppression that Ghannouchi and others, possibly including ElBaradei, had in mind was clearly that of secular rule and the failure of Ben Ali, Mubarak and other Arab rulers to implement Islamic law fully. The internationally influential Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, also applauded the demonstrations; a website linked to him last week posted a chapter of his 2009 book Laws of Jihad, including this passage: "The laws of Islam instruct us to… oppose the tyrant… All types of oppression [including] of subjects and peoples by their rulers -- are reprehensible and forbidden, and jihad must be waged against them." In Iran, the Ayatollah Mohammad-Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi claimed that the Iranian Islamic Revolution was the model for the new demonstrations: "Today, as a result of the gifts of the Islamic revolution in Iran, freedom-loving Islamic peoples such as the peoples of Tunisia, Egypt and nearby Arab countries are standing up to their oppressive governments." He praised the Egyptian demonstrators, asserting that what they were doing was "based on the principles" of revolution that installed the Islamic regime in Tehran in 1979. Likewise, when the demonstrations first began in Tunisia, pro-Sharia MP's in Kuwait applauded "the courage of the Tunisian people," and Abdelmalek Deroukdal, a leader of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, hailed the revolution as a jihad and expressed solidarity with the Tunisians. In Gaza, the jihadist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad were both thrilled at events in Tunisia. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri hailed the victory for democracy, and Gaza Foreign Minister Fathi Hammad emphasized that "we are with the Tunisians in choosing their leaders, no matter what sacrifices it takes." Islamic Jihad praised the Tunisian people for liberating themselves "through blood, sacrifices and the expression of free will," adding ominously that the toppling of Ben Ali was "a message to Arab and Islamic countries to pay attention to the aspirations of their people that are rejecting hegemony and tyranny before it is too late." Islamic Jihad held a rally in Gaza City, featuring hundreds of jihadists waving Tunisian flags festooned with the words "Revenge against tyranny." With Islamic supremacism comes Islamic anti-Semitism, and that abundantly true in the case of these demonstrations. Islamic Jihad spokesman Dawud Shehab sounded a drearily familiar note in accusing the Ben Ali regime of maintaining "suspicious ties" with Israel. In Egypt, meanwhile, demonstrators toted signs depicting Hosni Mubarak with a Star of David drawn on his forehead. CNN's Nic Robertson, interviewing demonstrators on a street in Alexandria, Egypt, found several who explained that they hated Mubarak for the uneasy peace he maintained with Israel. "Israel is our enemy," one said flatly, explaining why she wanted Mubarak to go. Another added, "If people are free, they're gonna destroy Israel. The country who controls the United States is Israel." Iran's PressTV interviewed a lawyer, Marwan al-Ashaal, in Cairo; al-Ashaal also ascribed much of the popular resentment of Mubarak to his non-belligerence toward Israel: "Currently the Egyptians demand a new rule for the country, a new government, a new leader. The American-Egyptian relationships were based on Israeli security and I think Mubarak has been very dedicated to Israeli security more even than to his own people's security or the national interests." The Iranians, Qaradawi and other Islamic supremacist pro-Sharia elements are excited about the events in Tunisia and Egypt because of the great unacknowledged truth about the Islamic world in general: that Islamic jihadists and pro-Sharia forces, far from being the "tiny minority of extremists" of media myth, are actually quite popular. Any genuine democratic uprising is likely to install them in power. That's why they're hailing recent events in Tunisia and Egypt. That is also why all lovers of freedom should view those events with extreme reserve -- for a Sharia government in either country will be no friend of the United States. If these uprisings continue to spread (there have already been rumblings in Jordan and Yemen), an already hostile anti-American environment could become much, much worse. All this yet again demonstrates the crying need for realistic analysis in Washington of the jihad threat, rather than the fantasy-based analysis that prevails there now. If Washington had been working to limit the influence of pro-Sharia forces in Egypt and elsewhere, events unfolding now might be very different. But it is rapidly becoming too late.
The pressure in Egypt has been building for a long time and has now finally exploded -- inspired by the events in Tunisia. The fact that the Egyptian government has been taken by surprise is a sign of how disconnected the regime has become from the reality on the ground. Mubarak has wasted many opportunities to transfer power to another administration peacefully. He could have gone down in history as the first Arab leader to conduct a fair election, but instead, he kept ignoring the inevitable and kept re-electing himself for 30 years, followed by grooming his son to take over. Now he will go down in history as just another Arab tyrant in the dysfunctional political history of the Muslim world. Having been born and raised in the Muslim faith during the generation of the 1952 Egyptian revolution, in which my father held a prominent role in the Nasser revolutionary government of that time, I see things repeating themselves. The Nasser 52 revolution promised freedom, democracy, Arab Nationalism and self-rule. Nasser toppled what he called the tyrant King Farouk, promised a new era of freedom, democracy and prosperity, but ended up giving Egyptians more of the same. The era of Nasser was one of the most oppressive periods in Egyptian history, ushering in a long period of wars, socialism, poverty, illiteracy, and a police state. Judging from Arab history, revolutions do not necessarily bring about democracy or freedom. Will the current Egyptian uprising bring what it was intending to bring? Or will it end up in a vicious cycle of uprising and tyranny following the footsteps of the earlier 52 revolution? In a recent poll, over 70% of Egyptians stated that they want to live under Sharia Islamic law. And most of these people do not understand that Sharia law will result not in a democracy but in a theocracy like Iran or Saudi Arabia. That unrealistic expectation by the majority of Egyptians will probably end up in a great disappointment -- the same way the Iranian revolution could not deliver the freedom and democracy the Iranian people had hoped for. Many Egyptians chant "Allahu Akbar" and "Islam is the solution." But the truth is, Islam or more accurately, Sharia, is the problem. The Muslim Brotherhood, which is entrenched in Egyptian society, has announced that it is currently in talks with Mohammed ElBaradei -- the former UN nuclear watchdog chief -- to form a national unity government. They have chosen to ally themselves with a well known moderate international figure which might make them more acceptable to the moderates and reformists in Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood will use the democratic process to come to power but the true nature of the Brotherhood will come out as soon as they take power. According to their basic beliefs, they must rule according to Sharia, which is the official law of Egypt anyway. Perhaps the most dangerous law in Sharia that stands in the way of democracy is the one that states that "A Muslim head of State can hold office through seizure of power, meaning through force." That law is the reason every Muslim leader must turn into a despotic tyrant to survive, literally. When a Muslim leader is removed from office by force, we often see the Islamic media and masses accept it and even cheer for the new leader who has just ousted or killed the former leader, who is often called a traitor to the Islamic cause. Sadat's assassination followed many fatwas of death against him for having violated his Islamic obligations to make Israel an eternal enemy. He became an apostate in the eyes of the hard-liners and had to be killed or removed from office. This probably sounds incredible to the Western mind, but this is the reality of what Sharia has done and is still doing to the political chaos in the Muslim world. Westerners often described the Mubarak administration as secular when in reality it is not. It is true that Mubarak comes from a military background and neither he nor his wife wear Islamic clothes. But no Muslim leader can get away with or even survive one day in office if he is secular in the true sense of the word. It was during Mubarak's rule in 1991 that Egypt signed the Cairo Declaration for Human Rights stating that Sharia supersedes any other law. So even though Sharia is not 100% applied in Egypt, it is officially the law of the land. Mubarak, like all Muslim leaders, must appease the Islamists to avoid their wrath. According to Sharia itself, a Muslim head of state must rule by Islamic law and preserve Islam in its original form or he must be removed from office. That law leaves no choice for any Muslim leader. Because of that law Muslim leaders must play a game of appearing Islamic and anti-West while trying to get along with the rest of the world. It's a game with life and death consequences. The choice in Egypt is not between good and bad, it is between bad and worse. Many in the Muslim world lack the understanding of what is hindering them as well as a lack of a moral and legal foundation for forming a stable democratic political system. I fear that my brothers and sisters in Egypt will end up embracing extremism instead of true democracy and thus will continue to rise and fall, stumble from one revolution to another and living under one tyrant to another looking for the ideal Islamic state that never was. The 1400 year-old Islamic history of tyranny will continue unless Sharia is rejected as the basis of the legal or political systems in Muslim countries. Sharia must be rejected if Egyptians want true democracy and freedom.
009 01-31-2011 The Middle East's Intifada
Now that the Muslim Brotherhood has begun talks with opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei to form a national unity government after the fall of Mubarak, which apparently all concerned expect to be imminent, the character of the Egyptian revolution has become clearer. Whether or not the majority of demonstrators were pro-Sharia, the Brotherhood was the sole entity in Egypt capable of constituting an organized and energized vanguard that could put an ideological cast on the rapidly unfolding revolt. And so Egypt now stands on the brink of installing in power a group that wants to see it become an Islamic state. Many Western analysts have welcomed the demonstrations currently roiling Tunisia, Egypt, and elsewhere in the Middle East as an outpouring of democratic sentiment against repressive authoritarian rulers -- and that they are. But it is no coincidence that Islamic supremacist pro-Sharia leaders and groups are also applauding these demonstrations. They know that if the people truly rule in the Middle East, so will Islamic law (Sharia). For belying the widespread assumption in the West that Islamic supremacists, whether violent or stealthy, represent only a tiny minority of extremists among Muslims, in reality the imperative for Islamic rule (which is also the ultimate goal of jihad terror attacks) enjoys broad popular support among Muslims. It thus came as no surprise that when Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was toppled from power and fled to Saudi Arabia, Rached Ghannouchi, the London-based leader of the banned Tunisian pro-Sharia party, the Tunisian Renaissance Party (Hizb al-Nahdah), quickly dubbed the Tunisian uprising an "intifada," claimed it as a victory for Islam, and returned to the country. In Egypt, opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei, who has the backing of the pro-Sharia Muslim Brotherhood, adopted the same language, warning that "if the regime does not step down, the people's Intifada will continue." The word intifada in Arabic signifies resistance to oppression, but in this case the oppression that Ghannouchi and others, possibly including ElBaradei, had in mind was clearly that of secular rule and the failure of Ben Ali, Mubarak and other Arab rulers to implement Islamic law fully. The internationally influential Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, also applauded the demonstrations; a website linked to him last week posted a chapter of his 2009 book Laws of Jihad, including this passage: "The laws of Islam instruct us to… oppose the tyrant… All types of oppression [including] of subjects and peoples by their rulers -- are reprehensible and forbidden, and jihad must be waged against them." In Iran, the Ayatollah Mohammad-Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi claimed that the Iranian Islamic Revolution was the model for the new demonstrations: "Today, as a result of the gifts of the Islamic revolution in Iran, freedom-loving Islamic peoples such as the peoples of Tunisia, Egypt and nearby Arab countries are standing up to their oppressive governments." He praised the Egyptian demonstrators, asserting that what they were doing was "based on the principles" of revolution that installed the Islamic regime in Tehran in 1979. Likewise, when the demonstrations first began in Tunisia, pro-Sharia MP's in Kuwait applauded "the courage of the Tunisian people," and Abdelmalek Deroukdal, a leader of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, hailed the revolution as a jihad and expressed solidarity with the Tunisians. In Gaza, the jihadist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad were both thrilled at events in Tunisia. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri hailed the victory for democracy, and Gaza Foreign Minister Fathi Hammad emphasized that "we are with the Tunisians in choosing their leaders, no matter what sacrifices it takes." Islamic Jihad praised the Tunisian people for liberating themselves "through blood, sacrifices and the expression of free will," adding ominously that the toppling of Ben Ali was "a message to Arab and Islamic countries to pay attention to the aspirations of their people that are rejecting hegemony and tyranny before it is too late." Islamic Jihad held a rally in Gaza City, featuring hundreds of jihadists waving Tunisian flags festooned with the words "Revenge against tyranny." With Islamic supremacism comes Islamic anti-Semitism, and that abundantly true in the case of these demonstrations. Islamic Jihad spokesman Dawud Shehab sounded a drearily familiar note in accusing the Ben Ali regime of maintaining "suspicious ties" with Israel. In Egypt, meanwhile, demonstrators toted signs depicting Hosni Mubarak with a Star of David drawn on his forehead. CNN's Nic Robertson, interviewing demonstrators on a street in Alexandria, Egypt, found several who explained that they hated Mubarak for the uneasy peace he maintained with Israel. "Israel is our enemy," one said flatly, explaining why she wanted Mubarak to go. Another added, "If people are free, they're gonna destroy Israel. The country who controls the United States is Israel." Iran's PressTV interviewed a lawyer, Marwan al-Ashaal, in Cairo; al-Ashaal also ascribed much of the popular resentment of Mubarak to his non-belligerence toward Israel: "Currently the Egyptians demand a new rule for the country, a new government, a new leader. The American-Egyptian relationships were based on Israeli security and I think Mubarak has been very dedicated to Israeli security more even than to his own people's security or the national interests." The Iranians, Qaradawi and other Islamic supremacist pro-Sharia elements are excited about the events in Tunisia and Egypt because of the great unacknowledged truth about the Islamic world in general: that Islamic jihadists and pro-Sharia forces, far from being the "tiny minority of extremists" of media myth, are actually quite popular. Any genuine democratic uprising is likely to install them in power. That's why they're hailing recent events in Tunisia and Egypt. That is also why all lovers of freedom should view those events with extreme reserve -- for a Sharia government in either country will be no friend of the United States. If these uprisings continue to spread (there have already been rumblings in Jordan and Yemen), an already hostile anti-American environment could become much, much worse. All this yet again demonstrates the crying need for realistic analysis in Washington of the jihad threat, rather than the fantasy-based analysis that prevails there now. If Washington had been working to limit the influence of pro-Sharia forces in Egypt and elsewhere, events unfolding now might be very different. But it is rapidly becoming too late.
Date With a Revolution
Cairo -- On Friday, the "day of rage," I was in the streets with the protesters. Friends and I participated in a peaceful demonstration that started at the Amr Ibn al-As Mosque in Old Cairo near the Church of St. George. We set off chanting, "The people want the regime to fall!" and we were greeted with a torrent of tear gas fired by the police. We began to shout, "Peaceful, Peaceful," trying to show the police that we were not hostile, we were demanding nothing but our liberty. That only increased their brutality. Fighting began to spread to the side streets in the ancient, largely Coptic neighborhood. A friend and I took shelter in a small alleyway, where we were warmly welcomed. The locals warned us not to try to escape to the metro station, and pointed us toward a different escape route; many of them even joined the protests. Eventually, a man drove us in his own car to safety. Clearly, the scent of Tunisia's "jasmine revolution" has quickly reached Egypt. Following the successful expulsion in Tunis of the dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, the call arose on Facebook for an Egyptian revolution, to begin on Jan. 25. Yet the public here mocked those young people who had taken to Twitter and Facebook to post calls for protest: Since when was the spark of revolution ignited on a pre-planned date? Had revolution become like a romantic rendezvous? Such questions abounded on social networking sites; but even cynics -- myself included -- became hopeful as the calls continued to circulate. In the blink of an eye, the Twitter and Facebook generation had successfully rallied hundreds of thousands to its cause, across the nation. Most of them were young people who had not been politically active, and did not belong to the traditional circles of the political opposition. The Muslim Brotherhood is not behind this popular revolution, as the regime claims. Those who began it and organized it are seething in anger at police cruelty and the repression and torture meted out by the Hosni Mubarak regime. And, from the outset, the government decided to deal with the people with the utmost violence and brutality in the hope that the Tunisian experience would not be repeated. For days now, tear gas has been the oxygen Egyptians have inhaled. So much was in the air that there are reports of small children and the elderly having suffocated on the fumes in their homes. The security forces in Cairo started by shooting rubber bullets at the protesters, before progressing onto live ammunition, ending dozens of lives. In Suez, where the demonstrations have been tremendously violent, live ammunition was used against civilians from the first day. A friend of mine who lives there sent me a message saying that, Thursday morning, the city looked as if it had emerged from a particularly brutal war: its streets were burned and destroyed, dead bodies were strewn everywhere; we would never know how many victims had fallen to the police bullets in Suez, my friend solemnly concluded. After having escaped from Old Cairo on Friday, my friends and I headed for Tahrir Square, the focal point of the modern city and site of the largest protests. We joined another demonstration making its way through downtown, consisting mostly of young people. From a distance, we could hear the rumble of the protest in Tahrir Square, punctuated by the sounds of bullets and screams. Minute by painstaking minute, we protesters were gaining ground, and our numbers were growing. People shared Coca-Cola bottles, moistening their faces with soda to avoid the effects of tear gas. Some people wore masks, while others had sprinkled vinegar into their kaffiyehs. Shopkeepers handed out bottles of mineral water to the protesters, and civilians distributed food periodically. Women and children leaned from windows and balconies, chanting with the dissidents. I will never forget the sight of an aristocratic woman driving through the narrow side streets in her luxurious car, urging the protesters to keep up their spirits, telling them that they would soon be joined by tens of thousands of other citizens arriving from different parts of the city. After several failed attempts to break through the security checkpoints and get to Tahrir Square, we sat in a cafe to rest. Three officers from the regime's Central Security Forces, all in civilian clothing, sat down next to us. They appeared to be completely relaxed, as though they were impervious to the sounds of bullets and shouting, or to the numbers of wounded and dead Egyptians being reported on Al Jazeera, which was being broadcast on the coffee shop's television. They and their colleagues were all over the city, spying on their countrymen. Hour by hour on Friday evening, the chaos increased. Police stations and offices of the ruling National Democratic Party were on fire across the country. I wept when news came that 3,000 volunteers had formed a human chain around the national museum to protect it from looting and vandalism. Those who do such things are certainly highly educated, cultivated people, neither vandals nor looters, as they are accused of being by those who have vandalized and looted Egypt for generations. The curfew meant that I couldn't return home, so I spent the night at a friend's house near the Parliament building and Interior Ministry, one of the most turbulent parts of the city. That night, the sound of bullets was unceasing. We watched from the window as police shot with impunity at the protesters and at a nearby gas station, hoping, perhaps, for an explosion. Despite all of this and despite the curfew, the demonstrations did not stop, fueled by popular fury at President Mubarak's slowness to address the people and, a few hours later, indignation at the deplorable speech he finally gave. On Saturday morning, I left my friend's house and headed home. I walked across broken glass strewn in the streets, and I could smell the aftermath of the fires that had raged the night before. The army, called in by the regime to put down the protests, was everywhere. I tried first to cross over to Tahrir Square, in order to see for myself whether the museum was safe. A passer-by told me that the army was forbidding people from entering the square, and that shots were being fired. I asked him, anxiously, "Is the army shooting at the demonstrators?" He answered, confidently: "Of course not. The Egyptian army has never fired a shot against an Egyptian citizen, and will not do so now." We both openly expressed our wish for that to be true, for the army to side with the people. NOW that army troops were monitoring the demonstrations, the police force had completely disappeared from the streets, as if to taunt people with the choice between their presence and chaos. Armed gangs have mushroomed across the city, seeking to loot shops and terrorize civilians in their homes. (Saturday night, a gang tried to rob the building where I have been staying, but was unable to break in.) Local volunteers have formed committees to stand up to the criminals, amidst an overwhelming feeling that the ruling regime is deliberately stoking chaos. Late Saturday, as I headed toward Corniche Street on the Nile River, I walked through a side street in the affluent Garden City neighborhood, where I found a woman crying. I asked her what was wrong, and she told me that her son, a worker at a luxury hotel, had been shot in the throat by a police bullet, despite not being a part of the demonstrations. He was now lying paralyzed in a hospital bed, and she was on her way to the hotel to request medical leave for him. I embraced her, trying to console her, and she said through her tears, "We cannot be silent about what has happened. Silence is a crime. The blood of those who fell cannot be wasted." I agree. Silence is a crime. Even if the regime continues to bombard us with bullets and tear gas, continues to block Internet access and cut off our mobile phones, we will find ways to get our voices across to the world, to demand freedom and justice.
Cairo -- On Friday, the "day of rage," I was in the streets with the protesters. Friends and I participated in a peaceful demonstration that started at the Amr Ibn al-As Mosque in Old Cairo near the Church of St. George. We set off chanting, "The people want the regime to fall!" and we were greeted with a torrent of tear gas fired by the police. We began to shout, "Peaceful, Peaceful," trying to show the police that we were not hostile, we were demanding nothing but our liberty. That only increased their brutality. Fighting began to spread to the side streets in the ancient, largely Coptic neighborhood. A friend and I took shelter in a small alleyway, where we were warmly welcomed. The locals warned us not to try to escape to the metro station, and pointed us toward a different escape route; many of them even joined the protests. Eventually, a man drove us in his own car to safety. Clearly, the scent of Tunisia's "jasmine revolution" has quickly reached Egypt. Following the successful expulsion in Tunis of the dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, the call arose on Facebook for an Egyptian revolution, to begin on Jan. 25. Yet the public here mocked those young people who had taken to Twitter and Facebook to post calls for protest: Since when was the spark of revolution ignited on a pre-planned date? Had revolution become like a romantic rendezvous? Such questions abounded on social networking sites; but even cynics -- myself included -- became hopeful as the calls continued to circulate. In the blink of an eye, the Twitter and Facebook generation had successfully rallied hundreds of thousands to its cause, across the nation. Most of them were young people who had not been politically active, and did not belong to the traditional circles of the political opposition. The Muslim Brotherhood is not behind this popular revolution, as the regime claims. Those who began it and organized it are seething in anger at police cruelty and the repression and torture meted out by the Hosni Mubarak regime. And, from the outset, the government decided to deal with the people with the utmost violence and brutality in the hope that the Tunisian experience would not be repeated. For days now, tear gas has been the oxygen Egyptians have inhaled. So much was in the air that there are reports of small children and the elderly having suffocated on the fumes in their homes. The security forces in Cairo started by shooting rubber bullets at the protesters, before progressing onto live ammunition, ending dozens of lives. In Suez, where the demonstrations have been tremendously violent, live ammunition was used against civilians from the first day. A friend of mine who lives there sent me a message saying that, Thursday morning, the city looked as if it had emerged from a particularly brutal war: its streets were burned and destroyed, dead bodies were strewn everywhere; we would never know how many victims had fallen to the police bullets in Suez, my friend solemnly concluded. After having escaped from Old Cairo on Friday, my friends and I headed for Tahrir Square, the focal point of the modern city and site of the largest protests. We joined another demonstration making its way through downtown, consisting mostly of young people. From a distance, we could hear the rumble of the protest in Tahrir Square, punctuated by the sounds of bullets and screams. Minute by painstaking minute, we protesters were gaining ground, and our numbers were growing. People shared Coca-Cola bottles, moistening their faces with soda to avoid the effects of tear gas. Some people wore masks, while others had sprinkled vinegar into their kaffiyehs. Shopkeepers handed out bottles of mineral water to the protesters, and civilians distributed food periodically. Women and children leaned from windows and balconies, chanting with the dissidents. I will never forget the sight of an aristocratic woman driving through the narrow side streets in her luxurious car, urging the protesters to keep up their spirits, telling them that they would soon be joined by tens of thousands of other citizens arriving from different parts of the city. After several failed attempts to break through the security checkpoints and get to Tahrir Square, we sat in a cafe to rest. Three officers from the regime's Central Security Forces, all in civilian clothing, sat down next to us. They appeared to be completely relaxed, as though they were impervious to the sounds of bullets and shouting, or to the numbers of wounded and dead Egyptians being reported on Al Jazeera, which was being broadcast on the coffee shop's television. They and their colleagues were all over the city, spying on their countrymen. Hour by hour on Friday evening, the chaos increased. Police stations and offices of the ruling National Democratic Party were on fire across the country. I wept when news came that 3,000 volunteers had formed a human chain around the national museum to protect it from looting and vandalism. Those who do such things are certainly highly educated, cultivated people, neither vandals nor looters, as they are accused of being by those who have vandalized and looted Egypt for generations. The curfew meant that I couldn't return home, so I spent the night at a friend's house near the Parliament building and Interior Ministry, one of the most turbulent parts of the city. That night, the sound of bullets was unceasing. We watched from the window as police shot with impunity at the protesters and at a nearby gas station, hoping, perhaps, for an explosion. Despite all of this and despite the curfew, the demonstrations did not stop, fueled by popular fury at President Mubarak's slowness to address the people and, a few hours later, indignation at the deplorable speech he finally gave. On Saturday morning, I left my friend's house and headed home. I walked across broken glass strewn in the streets, and I could smell the aftermath of the fires that had raged the night before. The army, called in by the regime to put down the protests, was everywhere. I tried first to cross over to Tahrir Square, in order to see for myself whether the museum was safe. A passer-by told me that the army was forbidding people from entering the square, and that shots were being fired. I asked him, anxiously, "Is the army shooting at the demonstrators?" He answered, confidently: "Of course not. The Egyptian army has never fired a shot against an Egyptian citizen, and will not do so now." We both openly expressed our wish for that to be true, for the army to side with the people. NOW that army troops were monitoring the demonstrations, the police force had completely disappeared from the streets, as if to taunt people with the choice between their presence and chaos. Armed gangs have mushroomed across the city, seeking to loot shops and terrorize civilians in their homes. (Saturday night, a gang tried to rob the building where I have been staying, but was unable to break in.) Local volunteers have formed committees to stand up to the criminals, amidst an overwhelming feeling that the ruling regime is deliberately stoking chaos. Late Saturday, as I headed toward Corniche Street on the Nile River, I walked through a side street in the affluent Garden City neighborhood, where I found a woman crying. I asked her what was wrong, and she told me that her son, a worker at a luxury hotel, had been shot in the throat by a police bullet, despite not being a part of the demonstrations. He was now lying paralyzed in a hospital bed, and she was on her way to the hotel to request medical leave for him. I embraced her, trying to console her, and she said through her tears, "We cannot be silent about what has happened. Silence is a crime. The blood of those who fell cannot be wasted." I agree. Silence is a crime. Even if the regime continues to bombard us with bullets and tear gas, continues to block Internet access and cut off our mobile phones, we will find ways to get our voices across to the world, to demand freedom and justice.
Call to Stop Attacks on Christians Welcomed
(ACN) -- An international Catholic charity that helps persecuted Christians has welcomed calls by the European Parliament to step up action to defend religious freedom. The ACN International statement welcoming the European Parliament's resolution comes ahead of Monday's (31st Jan) discussion in the EU Foreign Affairs Council about stepping up measures to promote religious liberty. Council members are expected to debate the impact of incidents detailed in the EU Parliament's resolution including the bomb attack on Coptic Christians in Egypt on New Year's Day, the bombing of a chapel in the Philippines on Christmas Day, the arrests of Christians in Iran and attacks on Christians in Nigeria. Members of the European Parliament also expressed horror at the January 4th murder of Pakistani governor Salman Taseer, who had criticised the country's blasphemy laws and called for the reprieve of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman sentenced to death in November. She was convicted under the laws that punish anyone who "defiles the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Mohammed" with life imprisonment or death. She denies the charges. Parliamentarians expressed concern that Pakistan's blasphemy laws are "still being applied in order to persecute faith communities, including Christians". ACN International's 2010 report on Religious Freedom in the World was one of the sources of the resolution. ACN will shortly be publishing its biennial report* on the oppression of Christians -- Persecuted and Forgotten? Catherine Ashton, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, condemned the recent terrorist attacks targeting places of worship, in a statement on 19th January. She said: "I think we can all agree that these attacks are unacceptable, perpetrated by extremists with an agenda of intolerance that must be condemned and resisted." "Long-established Christian communities in the Middle East face difficulties, which have led to significant displacement in some countries and dwindling numbers in the region as a whole. "The EU will not turn a blind eye to their plight. We consider their demand to have their rights respected as citizens of their own country as entirely legitimate." This was echoed by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe which adopted 17 points on "Violence against Christians in the Middle East" on 27th January. The assembly specifically condemned the 31st October 2010 attack on the Syriac Cathedral in Baghdad, Iraq and the New Year bombing of the church in Alexandria, Egypt. The assembly stated: "The situation [in the Middle East] has become more serious since the beginning of the 21st century and if it is not properly addressed, it could lead to the disappearance of Christian communities in the Middle East, which would entail the loss of a significant part of the religious heritage of the countries concerned."
(ACN) -- An international Catholic charity that helps persecuted Christians has welcomed calls by the European Parliament to step up action to defend religious freedom. The ACN International statement welcoming the European Parliament's resolution comes ahead of Monday's (31st Jan) discussion in the EU Foreign Affairs Council about stepping up measures to promote religious liberty. Council members are expected to debate the impact of incidents detailed in the EU Parliament's resolution including the bomb attack on Coptic Christians in Egypt on New Year's Day, the bombing of a chapel in the Philippines on Christmas Day, the arrests of Christians in Iran and attacks on Christians in Nigeria. Members of the European Parliament also expressed horror at the January 4th murder of Pakistani governor Salman Taseer, who had criticised the country's blasphemy laws and called for the reprieve of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman sentenced to death in November. She was convicted under the laws that punish anyone who "defiles the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Mohammed" with life imprisonment or death. She denies the charges. Parliamentarians expressed concern that Pakistan's blasphemy laws are "still being applied in order to persecute faith communities, including Christians". ACN International's 2010 report on Religious Freedom in the World was one of the sources of the resolution. ACN will shortly be publishing its biennial report* on the oppression of Christians -- Persecuted and Forgotten? Catherine Ashton, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, condemned the recent terrorist attacks targeting places of worship, in a statement on 19th January. She said: "I think we can all agree that these attacks are unacceptable, perpetrated by extremists with an agenda of intolerance that must be condemned and resisted." "Long-established Christian communities in the Middle East face difficulties, which have led to significant displacement in some countries and dwindling numbers in the region as a whole. "The EU will not turn a blind eye to their plight. We consider their demand to have their rights respected as citizens of their own country as entirely legitimate." This was echoed by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe which adopted 17 points on "Violence against Christians in the Middle East" on 27th January. The assembly specifically condemned the 31st October 2010 attack on the Syriac Cathedral in Baghdad, Iraq and the New Year bombing of the church in Alexandria, Egypt. The assembly stated: "The situation [in the Middle East] has become more serious since the beginning of the 21st century and if it is not properly addressed, it could lead to the disappearance of Christian communities in the Middle East, which would entail the loss of a significant part of the religious heritage of the countries concerned."
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