The Conservative Papers » Egypt

Egypt Confirms Christians’ Fears of Islamic Rule, Sentences 12 to Life in Jail

kalel — Tue, 22 May 2012 19:45:55 +0000

Egypt has confirmed Christians’ fear of Islamic rule and has sentenced 12 to life in jail for their part in warding off Muslim mobs last year. The court acquitted eight Muslims.

Rally for Muslim Brotherhood presidential candidate

The Christians were found guilty and sentenced for killing two Muslims and for causing a disturbance in the April 2011 riots south of Cairo when a Muslim bus driver, angered by a speed bump in a Christian neighborhood, began to fight with security guards.

The bus driver later returned with dozens of friends to protest the guards’ beating him, and Christians viewed the demonstration as a prelude to an attack. They shot from rooftops, killing two and wounding two others, and Muslims retaliated the following week setting Christian stores and homes on fire.

Both the Christians and the Muslims were charged with possessing illegal weapons, but only the Christians were convicted.

Egyptian human rights activist Ishak Ibrahim called the verdicts “faulty and unfair.”

Egypt’s 10 percent Christian population is afraid for its future after this week’s presidential election. Such fear has forced an estimated 100,000 Christians to flee Egypt since last year’s revolution.

“Two of the frontrunners in the race with a realistic chance of winning are deeply devout Islamists,” CBS correspondent Elizabeth Palmer said on Sunday.

Palmer interviewed a Coptic priest and a Christian layman. Father Pola Marqus of St. Mary’s in Cairo told her, “We see that in neighboring countries with Islamic leaders, Christians aren’t safe… So we’re concerned now about getting an Islamist president, too.”Popular Posts:

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Nuclear Iran More Dangerous than Striking Iran

kalel — Tue, 01 May 2012 23:39:06 +0000

Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned on Monday that as long as Iran poses a threat to Israel with its nuclear program, all options are on the table.

Ehud Barak meets foreign journalists

Speaking with journalists from the Foreign Press Association and quoted by The Associated Press, Barak said, “I believe it is well understood in Washington, D.C., as well as in Jerusalem that as long as there is an existential threat to our people, all options to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons should remain on the table.”

“I have enough experience to know that a military option is not a simple one,” Barak added. “It would be complicated with certain associated risks. But a radical Islamic Republic of Iran with nuclear weapons would be far more dangerous both for the region and, indeed, the world.”

Barak dismissed the remarks by critics of a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, saying, “Parts of the world, including some politically motivated Israeli figures, prefer to bury their heads in the sand.”

By “politically motivated Israeli figures” he was likely referring to former Shin Bet head Yuval Diskin, who attacked Barak and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at an open forum.

Diskin said that Netanyahu and Barak are “messianic” and “unfit to hold the reins of power. They give the public a false picture on the Iran question. They create the feeling that if Israel does not act, Iran will have a nuclear bomb, even though experts think that an attack on Iran will cause it to speed up the process of arming with nuclear weapons.”

Diskin was later supported by former Mossad Chief Meir Dagan. Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert also implied that, like Diskin, he did not trust the current leaders of Israel to make the right decisions.

“You have to have full trust in the judgment of those who have to take decisions,” Olmert told CNN on Monday. “And you could understand from what I said that maybe something in my trust is lacking.”

Barak told the foreign journalists that time is running out for a strike, as “Iran’s military nuclear program will be sufficiently developed and suitably concealed, rendering the facilities immune to surgical attacks.”

He also addressed the past year of upheavals in the Middle East that have overthrown several leaders and caused Islamist political parties to gain prominence.

“Israel has found itself sitting as an island of stability in a stormy sea, a sea in which the waves of radicalism are growing in strength,” Barak said.

“We urge Egypt to contain lawlessness in the Sinai Peninsula,” he said, referring to the unstable security situation in the Sinai Peninsula since the ouster of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak last year. Terror groups have taken advantage of the situation to carry out terror attacks against Israelis and fire rockets at the city of Eilat.

“This is imperative in order to keep our two nations firmly on the path of peace, a peace that has contributed so much to so many for so long now,” he added.

Barak also addressed Syria, where a bloody 14-month uprising against President Bashar Assad is in progress.

“Whatever follows Assad’s bloodstained regime will be greeted with Israel’s extended hand of peace,” he said.Popular Posts:

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Israeli Official: Rockets Fired at Eilat Came from Libya

kalel — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 00:43:40 +0000

The rockets that were fired from Egypt toward Israel earlier this month were smuggled from Libya, an Israeli defense official told The Associated Press on Friday.

Impact of Grad Katyusha missile

The official was referring to the firing of two Grad-style rockets at the Israeli resort town of Eilat, right before the Passover holiday.

Israel has said the attacks originated in the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt has denied the rockets were fired from its territory.

The Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity according, told AP that Israel believes the rockets were stolen from a Libyan weapons storehouse and smuggled into Egypt.

The official said that Libyan rockets were also smuggled into Gaza and were launched into Israel this month, adding that Israel also believes longer-range Scud missiles were smuggled from Libya to Gaza.

Last year, Israeli officials said that terror groups based in Gaza have acquired anti-aircraft and anti-tank rockets from Libya. The officials said the arms were acquired during Libya’s civil war which resulted in the ouster of Muammar Qaddafi’s regime.Popular Posts:

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Going Medieval: Obama Welcomes the Barbarians (Muslim Brotherhood) Into the White House

kalel — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 16:39:12 +0000

By Robert J. Avrech

Obama's new BFF, the Muslim Brotherhood.

The other day was a turning point in American history.

There were no banner headlines to mark the occassion. Editorial pages hardly took notice. But a Rubicon has been passed. That moment occurred when President Obama welcomed the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood into the White House. By rolling out the red carpet Obama legitimized this terrorist movement. The Muslim Brotherhood are a Jew-hating, genocidal-yearning Islamic movement whose platform calls for the imposition of Sharia across the globe.

And if you really care about a war on women, look no further than the barbarians of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Obama believes that he can tame the Brotherhood, but he is gravely mistaken. The Brotherhood is in the process of taming Obama—not that hard a task—and the West.

This is all so familiar. We have seen it before when the Roman empire succumbed to the barbarian hordes.

How did the barbarians overcome and eventually annihilate the Roman empire? We can learn from the past if we want to.

Rome was ravaged by intercine wars, runaway inflation and crushing taxes which decimated the middle class. The depopulation of the empire by dwindling numbers of Roman citizens due to a low birth rate was a major cause of downfall. Romans wanted to have a good time rather than do the hard work of raising children. And finally, the greatest body blow to Rome was, according to historian Eileen Power, the peaceful infiltration of barbarians into Roman society, a gradual process that altered and doomed that empire.

Like today’s Islamization of Europe, and now America—for Obama the Brotherhood are Jeremiah Wright redux—the slow annihilation of civilized society is misunderstood and misinterpreted.

In Medieval People, Ms. Power summarizes how a civilization commits suicide:

All of them were making the same mistake. People thought that Rome could swallow barbarism and absorb it into her life without diluting her own civilization; the people who ran about busily saying that the barbarians were not such bad fellows after all, finding good points in their regime with which to castigate the Romans and crying that except ye become as little barbarians ye shall not attain salvation; the people who did not observe in 476 that one half of the Republica Roamnorum had ceased to exist and nourished themselves on the fiction that the barbarian kings were exercising a power delegated from the Emperor. All these people were deluded by the same error, the belief that Rome (the civilization of their age) was not a mere historical fact with a beginning and an end, but a condition of nature like the air they breathed and the earth they tread Ave Roma immortalis, most magnificent most disastrous of creeds!

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Freedom Suffers Another Blow In Egypt

alpineski — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 04:16:21 +0000

Egypt is a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Article 18 states that:

1. Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference.

2. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.

Yet this week, we learned that “An Egyptian court on Wednesday sentenced a 17-year-old Christian boy to three years in jail for publishing cartoons on his Facebook page that mocked Islam and the Prophet Mohammad, actions that sparked sectarian violence.” The Reuters report continued that “Assiut child’s court ordered the jailing of Gamal Abdou Massoud … for three years after he insulted Islam and published and distributed pictures that insulted Islam and its Prophet.”

When the cartoons first appeared in December, violence against Christians erupted: several houses were burned and several Christians were injured by Muslims. Here is one report:

Angry Muslims locked horns with Christians in the villages of Bahig and El-Adr, with both sides stoning each other. Meanwhile, some Bahig residents rallied in front of Abdullah’s school in the village. Security forces interfered to protect to him inside the school, eventually managing cool down tensions. In El-Adr, however, feelings were more heated. Hundreds of Muslims embarked on a march heading to the student’s house with the intention of lynching him. Security forces had to use tear gas to disperse the crowd. Meanwhile, Abdullah’s family fled from their home. Later on, it was reported that some angry Muslims attacked the house, trying to set it on fire and blow it up. In nearby El-Salam Village, three houses owned by Copts Christians were set ablaze by Muslims. The arson caused other buildings to catch fire also.

Now this 17-year-old Christian boy has received the maximum sentence for his “crime.” One wonders how many of those who tried to lynch him, committed arson, and stoned others have been sentenced to three years in prison. Egypt’s new government will have to decide whether freedom of religion will apply equally for Christians and Muslims, or “public order” and “public morals” arguments will be used to prevent the slightest comment on Islam other than praise. Today the prospects for full freedom of religion and of expression appear grim.Popular Posts:

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Azzam Azzam: Pollard Must be Freed

kalel — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 20:25:40 +0000

Azzam Azzam has issued an emotional appeal for the release of Jonathan Pollard, a Jewish American sentenced to life in prison for passing classified information to Israel. “I do not want to think about the possibility that Jonathan will not be freed, and will keep rotting in jail,” he said.

Azzam Azzam

He joined those calling on President Shimon Peres to refuse to accept a “Freedom Medallion” award from United States President Barack Obama while Pollard remains in prison.

“It chills me to think of how I would feel if something like that happened in Egypt while I was still imprisoned,” he said. Azzam was jailed by Egypt for eight years on charges of spying for Israel, charges which he denies to this day.

He concluded his plea for Pollard’s freedom by saying, “We cannot wait for him to die there, in jail.”

More than 24,000 people have signed a petition calling on Peres not to accept the Freedom Medallion unless Pollard is released. On Saturday night, the heads of the National Youth Council announced that they would join the cause.

“Israeli students will send a clear message – there cannot be a Freedom Medallion without freedom,” they said. “We do not learn about justice and morality in order to put those values in storage.”

Peres has responded to the petition by reiterating his commitment to obtaining Pollard’s release. “In meetings with President Obama and the heads of the U.S. government I have raised the explicit request for Pollard’s release and will continue to work this way during my meeting with Obama in June,” he said.Popular Posts:

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EGYPT: Islamist-Dominated Panel To Draft Constitution

kalel — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 08:00:51 +0000

Islamist-dominated panel

Egypt’s parliament has elected an Islamist-dominated panel to draft a new constitution, and liberal activists are scrambling to block the move, Agence France Presse reported Sunday, March 25.

Thirty-nine of the 50 lawmakers chosen for the 100-member constituent assembly are Islamists, according to press reports, with Islamists also represented among the remaining 50 members drawn from outside parliament. Only six women were appointed, along with a handful of Coptic Christians who make up about 10 percent of Egypt’s population.

Liberal lawmakers had walked out on the vote in the joint parliament and senate session on Saturday, accusing the Islamist majority of trying to dominate the crucial panel.

“It’s ridiculous,” said Coptic tycoon Naguib Sawiris, who founded the largest liberal party in parliament. “A constitution being written by one force and one force alone.”

The assembly is due to hold its first meeting on Wednesday, as secular-leaning groups pressed a court to annul the vote that elected the panel. The new constitution will replace the one annulled by the ruling military which took power after an uprising ousted president Hosni Mubarak last year.Popular Posts:

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Clinton Decides to Resume Military Aid to Egypt

kalel — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 11:54:04 +0000

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will open the way to resuming $1.3 billion in annual military aid to Egypt, AFP reported on Thursday.

Hillary Clinton

The funds had been suspended over human rights concerns, the report noted.

“Tomorrow, Secretary Clinton will certify that Egypt is meeting its obligations under its peace treaty with Israel,” AFP quoted a senior State Department official as having said in an email.

The move will free up $250 million in economic aid that had never been in serious question, the report said, noting Clinton would also waive requirements on whether Cairo is making progress towards democracy to allow for “the continued flow of foreign military financing to Egypt,” according to the official who asked to remain anonymous.

The official stressed that “on the democracy side, Egypt has made more progress in 16 months than in the last 60 years,” highlighting free and fair parliamentary elections as well as the transfer of legislative authority to the new people’s assembly.

He added, however, “Yet Egypt’s transition to democracy is not yet complete, and more work remains to protect universal rights and freedoms, and the role of NGOs and civil society.”

The annual military aid is cemented in Egypt’s 1979 peace with Israel but had come under review recently, due to Cairo’s crackdown on pro-democracy groups.

“These decisions reflect our overarching goal: to maintain our strategic partnership with an Egypt made stronger and more stable by a successful transition to democracy,” the State Department official added.

In December, Egyptian prosecutors stormed the offices of 17 pro-democracy nonprofit groups, including the U.S.-funded International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute and Freedom House.

In January, Egypt barred some U.S. members of the NGOs from leaving the country and a number of them took refuge at the US embassy. The country later allowed six American and seven other foreign NGO members to leave the country after they posted bail, even if the case remains unresolved.

Senator Patrick Leahy, who sponsored the legislation that tied conditions to aid, said Thursday he was “disappointed” by Clinton’s decision.

“I know Secretary Clinton wants the democratic transition in Egypt to succeed, but by waiving the conditions we send a contradictory message,” Leahy was quoted by AFP as having said in a statement.

He added, “The Egyptian military should be defending fundamental freedoms and the rule of law, not harassing and arresting those who are working for democracy.”

Leahy said that Clinton should use the law to “release no more taxpayer funds than is demonstrably necessary, withholding the rest in the Treasury pending further progress in the transition to democracy.”Popular Posts:

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Israel Warns Neighbors Over March to Jerusalem

kalel — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 11:01:08 +0000

As activists are planning to lead a Global March to Jerusalem next Friday, Israel has warned neighboring countries that it would forcefully respond to attempted breaches of its borders.

Jerusalem

The Global March to Jerusalem initiative aims at getting over one million Arabs and their supporters to attempt to infiltrate Israel’s borders on March 30^th. A spokesman for the march said last week the initiative “demand[s] freedom for Palestine and its capital Jerusalem.”

The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC) has presented information that Iran is behind the initiative and openly supports it. The march has also been endorsed by Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who was U.S. President Barack Obama’s pastor for 20 years at the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.

Diplomatic sources told the London-based Asharq Alawsat newspaper on Friday that Israel has sent messages to the governments of Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, the Hamas government in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority regarding the planned march.

The report said that in the messages Israel made it clear that anyone who will come near its borders would be considered an infiltrator and the IDF will act against him with full force.

Israel also reportedly demanded that Arab countries not allow an escalation of the tension in the region through marches toward its borders.

Channel 10 News, which cited the Asharq Alawsat report, said that the Israeli Foreign Ministry and Prime Minister’s Office refused to comment on the report.

Earlier this week, radio host Aaron Klein of WABC radio in New York offered $50,000 to an organizer of the Global March to Jerusalem, if he could name one city in the Middle East, outside of Israel, that has more freedom than Jerusalem. The activist was unable to do so.Popular Posts:

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Report: Iran Targeting Israeli Ships

kalel — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 10:50:17 +0000

Iranian terrorists planned to attack Israeli ships in the Suez Canal, the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram reports. Egyptian security forces reportedly thwarted the attack.

Iranian Warship, Suez Canal

Two Egyptian suspects are accused of attempting to pay a third man to carry out the planned strike. The two allegedly had a budget of more than $8 million.

The two are believed to have received their instructions and funding from Iran. They have had their remand extended for another 15 days.

According to earlier reports, the attack was to involve launching a missile at ships from a farm bordering the canal.

Iran has been linked to recent attacks on Israeli embassies worldwide, including a bombing in Delhi in which an Israeli woman was wounded.Popular Posts:

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