Chief presenter on the Quran Radio Station-Reda
Abdel-Salam
His story is an inspiration to all who meet him.
ALahram weekly 28 June - 4 July 2012
I LOVE him very much
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Born in the village of Kuwesena in the Menoufiya governorate in 1964, he graduated from the Faculty of Law in 1987 and then received a degree in Islamic studies and Sharia law, graduating in 1989. Throughout Abdel-Salam's life journey, from birth, education, marriage, fatherhood to work, his slogan has always been "yes, I can."


Abdel-Salam says that the life of any person with special needs, whether he is strong or not, is a series of obstacles and challenges. "Overcoming these obstacles differs from one person to another, depending on one's strength and readiness to accept the disability and make use of every tool one has to achieve one's targets," he says.
When he was born, his family have told him, silence fell over the house, as his parents were in shock at having a child with physical disabilities. "One family member began to shout apparently and my mother began to cry. It was grief mixed with anxiety about the future of this child. A lot of questions apparently were raised at the time, among them how I was going to be able to live with the disability. But my father held me in his arms and kissed my forehead and asked them all to stop crying. He prayed to God to bless me."
Abdel-Salam says that his family have told him that when he was a child there were signs that he was very smart. For example, he started crawling early on, and when he began to walk he would lean on the wall to keep his balance. For his family, these were signs that the child was going to be able to adapt to his condition.
When he was four years old, Abdel-Salam's father applied for him to go to school, and he was adamant that his son should be accepted in a normal school, where he could use his foot to hold a pen instead of his missing hands. However, Abdel-Salam was not accepted at school due to his condition, this becoming a first obstacle in life.
"My father argued for a year with the school administration for them to accept me, and then he decided to find a solution by meeting with an undersecretary at the ministry of education who was an officer in the army. I will never forget what my father said that day although I was only five. He told the officer, 'if your son was like mine, would you accept his being denied an education?' The officer didn't answer. Then my father told him that if he didn't accept me in the school he would go to president Gamal Abdel-Nasser in person."
Abdel-Salam remembers how his father put him in front of a desk and asked him to write. The officer was shocked to see that he could do so, and he ordered his immediate acceptance at school.
"I have always been blessed, even in school. I was very good at Arabic, and in a very short period I was known for being clever. When I reached third primary stage, they insisted on examining me in writing. If I failed the exam, they would kick me out of school. At that time, I learned with the help of my father how to use my mouth to write, as this was going to be easier than using my foot, and I succeeded in the exam."
Abdel-Salam said that he got an A in sixth primary, and all his family knew he was on the right track. He explains that he was very social and had many friends, among them the journalist Ibrahim Eissa. In the third secondary grade, he was the second-best student in the school and tenth on the governorate level.
He then registered at the Faculty of Law because he knew he had to study an academic subject and because studying law entailed reading books, one of his hobbies. In his second year at LawSchool, he came third in a class of 2,500 students.
Choosing to become a broadcaster at the Quran Radio Station was a decision he took overnight, although he also had what it took for the job. "My Arabic was very good, I enjoyed reading and done Islamic studies."
He asked Hossam Fathi, at that time a professor in the Faculty and now dean of the Faculty of Law, to help him achieve his goal. Fathi set up a meeting with the late writer Abdel-Wahab Metawe, who sent him to see Fahmi Omar.
"Omar saw my condition and asked me why I wanted to work for the radio. I answered confidently that I was a law graduate and that I wanted to work as a broadcaster. He sent me for three months training."
Then came the third obstacle, when Abdel-Salam was not appointed to the job he wanted. "I was rejected as a broadcaster after I had succeeded in the training, yet I was offered another administrative job. I went quite insane," he said. Instead of giving up, however, he took a job on the Middle of the Delta Radio in Tanta for two years.
Abdel-Salam said that he was still haunted by the dream of working on the Quran Radio Station, however, and he got another chance when it advertised for presenters.
"When I sat in front of the committee, I took off my jacket. Then I held the pen and started to write using my mouth. I asked Helmi Elbulak, the head of the committee, to imagine that the pen was a microphone and that I was doing an interview with him. Finally, I opened the door and closed it again. I turned to them then to ask them why they had refused me before and whether I was qualified now."
Elbulak was amazed by his performance and gave him the job on the spot.
"I can still remember my first day as a broadcaster," Abdel-Salam says. "I had the confidence, and of course the great faith in God, that I would succeed. They were all anxious about me, but as soon as I had finished broadcasting they all congratulated me and praised my performance. What made me extremely proud was the great happiness that I saw in the eyes of my father, which I will never forget."
Abdel-Salam added that in his 22 years at the station, he has targeted two things, first to respect the audience and second to meet their expectations. He has also tried to show society that people with special needs can work just as well and sometimes even better than fully able people._Highlights in Abdel-Salam's career include covering the international Holy Quran competition in Dubai in 2003 and covering the pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia in 2004, when he not only worked as an on-air broadcaster but also as a presenter.
His first programme was masajid laha tarek, or the history of mosques, followed by another called kutouf min al-sira, or stories from the life of the Prophet Mohamed. Today, he presents a programme called maa al-sahaba, or stories from the life of the Prophet Mohammed and his relationship with his Companions.
Abdel-Salam says that he has been so impressed with the content of the programmes that he has cried twice, although that wasn't very professional of him. The first time was when he was presenting an episode from his programme about the death of the Prophet Mohamed, and the second time was when he was covering the pilgrimage in 2004.
In many ways, Abdel-Salam has had a challenging life. He explained that what society sometimes forgets is that people with special needs are human beings. "They have the same rights that others have. They have the right to get married and have children, for example, just like everyone else."
While Abdel-Salam married his wife 18 years ago, the relationship wasn't an easy one at first. His wife was from the same town, and they were neighbours living in the same street. Her father accepted him at first, but then he was rejected as the father said his daughter would not be happy because of Abdel-Salam's special circumstances.
Nevertheless, his future wife insisted on marrying him, and eventually they did tie the knot. They now have a son, Abdel-Rahman, 17, and a daughter, Afnan, 13. Abdel-Salam says that his relationship with his children is based on friendship. "We even favoured different presidential candidates," he says.
He thinks that thus far he has succeeded in overcoming the obstacles he has faced in his life, except the ones he couldn't defeat, like riding bicycles and swimming. What he really wants as a person with special needs is people's help and not their sympathy.
"Sympathetic glances hurt us more than anyone can imagine," he explains, adding that he is astonished that despite the growing number of TV channels there are no media-awareness campaigns about how to help people with special needs or TV programmes dedicated to their problems.
Abdel-Salam also says that he is surprised that people with special needs have not complained more to the government. "There aren't enough jobs for people with special needs, and if there are any available they are small jobs. For example, there are no jobs for us in the petroleum sector, the judiciary and large companies."
Although the government has legislated to ensure that companies allocate five per cent of jobs to those with special needs, Abdel-Salam says that the fines for not doing so are too low (LE1,000) to act as a real incentive. After graduating, he says, he had applied to join the judiciary, but he was not even interviewed.
During the first round of the presidential elections, Abdel-Salam voted for Abdel-Moneim Abul-Fotouh, and in the second round he voted for Mohamed Mursi despite his reservations about what the Muslim Brotherhood has done over recent months.
"My message to the newly elected president is that people with special needs are Egyptian citizens who have the same rights and duties as everyone else," he says. "The new president should establish a ministry for people with special needs, in order to fight for their rights and help them fulfil their needs."
"My advice to other people with special needs who may wrongly feel that they are less than others, or that disability is the end of the world, is that they are simply incorrect. If I could do it, then so can you! You shouldn't wait for things to fall from the sky. You should work hard and use your mind."
"We should admit without being ashamed that yes, we are different from others, but that we can replace what we lack with abilities that God has given us. You will find them in yourself, if you try."

Commentary: On the brink of civil war
Syria's revolution might turn into an ethnic and sectarian infighting -- to Al-Assad's benefit of course, writes Jamal Kanj



ALahram weekly 28 June - 4 July 2012
What started as a revolt against the regime of Bashar Al-Assad -- as part of the Arab Spring that swept the Middle East -- is quickly pushing Syria to the verge of a civil war. Meanwhile, Al-Assad continues to blame the frustration of the Syrian people on a foreign conspiracy. He is delusional.


In fact, his denial of the truth on the ground is what could eventually justify outside intervention.


Moreover, the reckless attempts by some in the opposition to turn civil protests into an armed insurgency have played into the hands of the Syrian dictator. In an open military conflict, using disproportionate force, Al-Assad has proven to be true to his father's brutal reign.


Syria's best trained and supplied army units led by Al-Assad's family members have been instrumental in "Big Brother" practices aimed at maintaining internal dominance.


After 15 months, it has become more apparent that brutality alone is not enough to silence Syrian voices demanding genuine change. Likewise, the armed opposition is incapable of deposing the Al-Assad regime.


The Syrian opposition should look at what happened in Libya. Until direct NATO intervention, the armed rebellion failed badly in toppling Muammar Gaddafi. NATO interference brought both wanton destruction and lucrative business deals for Western companies to rebuild what their governments destroyed in the first place.


Arming the opposition means splitting Syria between two entrenched, diametrically opposed military camps and paves the way for an unwinnable war with divisions along sectarian and ethnic lines. Naturally, and to preserve their gains, each side is likely to compromise national interest by seeking foreign support.


Outside players with conflicting interests are vying to support one side or the other. Iran's indifference towards the people of Syria has led it to support the regime. But Israel has a vested interest in prolonging the conflict to drain Syria, irrespective of the outcome. To accomplish this, Israel has enlisted the US to do its work.


In a 15 June article, America's leading Zion-Con doctrinaire Elliot Abrams, after a visit to Tel Aviv, refers to discussions with Israeli officials pressing for US involvement: "No country in the world roots with more energy than Israel for American success and American power. So when we refuse to use it, they shake their heads and wonder why... What is Washington thinking?"


The fact is that Israel "roots" not "for American success", but for the Zion-Cons' to hoodwink gullible US politicians to fight its wars, as they did in Iraq and are preparing for in Iran.


If dragged by Israel into another Middle East conflict, the US is disposed to becoming a willing military agent executing Israeli strategic policies in the region.


US politicians must heed warnings by top American military ****ysts that a Syrian venture would not be a jaunt, but long commitment in the quagmire of an emerging civil war.


Following Tuesday's Group of 20 Summit in Mexico, there is a ray of hope that the US and Russia will be working jointly on a zero-sum gain resolution to end the Syrian crisis.


Al-Assad and the opposition must seize the opportunity. The Syrian president needs to understand that his country is more important than his desire to maintain an inherited dictatorship; and the opposition must accept the country is superior to their vindictive ambitions.


The writer is author of Children of Catastrophe, Journey from a Palestinian Refugee Camp to America.

Though Egypt now has a freely elected president, the first of the second republic, it is not yet out of the dangerous waters into which it has ventured, writes Ayman El-Amir


ALahram weekly 28 June - 4 July 2012




By the power of Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the 25 January 2011 Revolution, Egypt has elected its first civilian president in six decades. The euphoria of victory is mixed with some fears of what comes next in a country where protest and great expectations reign.
The post-revolution conduct of policy was a comedy of errors. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) initially declared itself the guardian of the revolution and eventually took over all powers for an interim period. Like the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) of the 1952 military coup, it had little experience in managing policy or state affairs. Unlike the 1952 RCC, which promptly imposed military dictatorship, SCAF slowly responded to the cacophony of slogans and agendas arising from Tahrir Square, all claiming to represent the revolution. In the course of 16 months, Egypt went through one referendum, two elections and a run-off, all in the wrong order. One major priority that was delayed, a sine qua non, was drafting a new constitution to replace the 1971 constitution. The threat of chaos still looms.
When SCAF began to respond to "the people's demands" from Tahrir Square, the loudest, most powerful and most sonorous sounds came from the Muslim Brotherhood. For the single-minded Brotherhood, it was an 82-year-old dream come true to rule Egypt and turn it into an Islamic model for all Muslims throughout the world to behold. Well-organised, disciplined, hungry for power and speaking in the name of God and His Prophet to a country that has revered religion for 6,000 years, they were unbeatable. They cleared Tahrir Square of most young men and women who triggered the revolution and allied themselves with SCAF in the name of fulfilling the objectives of the revolution -- in the same way they did during the 1952 coup. The alliance lasted only until the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, joined by a newly-born Salafist movement and the Nour Party, overwhelmingly won the legislative elections and moved into the People's Assembly. Heady with the wine of victory, the Brotherhood started their onslaught on SCAF and all state institutions, "in the name of the people" or "the revolution". They targeted the government of Kamal El-Ganzouri and tried to topple it. Then they sought to dominate the proposed Constituent Assembly by manipulating its composition to reserve the majority for the Brotherhood and its allies. Then they started attacking the judiciary, from the criminal court trying Hosni Mubarak all the way to the Supreme Constitutional Court. The Brotherhood used its effective weapon of mobilisation to confront SCAF's power-wielding authority. The Brotherhood/Freedom and Justice Party used the power of Tahrir Square to force the hand of SCAF and the Supreme Constitutional Court to abrogate all decisions and judicial rulings. The nation was divided.
This was the environment in which the run-off of the presidential elections and the vote counting took place. Following a laborious process, the Freedom and Justice Party candidate, Mohamed Mursi, was elected the first president of the second republic, beating his opponent, General Ahmed Shafik, by a vote of 51.7 per cent to 48.3 per cent in a round where 51 per cent of eligible Egyptian voters took part. It was a battle of polarisation and mobilisation par excellence. The Brotherhood and its party successfully painted Shafik, a former Air Force commander and the last prime minister under Mubarak, as a loyal follower of the former regime. Shafik's campaign, rather unsuccessfully, tried to intimidate Egyptians by portraying Mursi as the omen of a theocratic state. The Brotherhood won. Six hours after the start of vote counting by more than 13,000 electoral subcommittees nationwide, Mursi told a press conference he had won the presidency and warned of rigged results. He thus pre-empted the final outcome. Prior to the announcement of the results, the Brotherhood started a large-scale campaign in Tahrir Square and elsewhere to the effect that if Mursi were not declared the winner, it would be the result of fraud. This was combined with a virulent attack on the military and SCAF, all coordinated by the Brotherhood, which also threatened bloodshed on the streets if Mursi lost.
SCAF acted wisely in avoiding a confrontation. On 25 January 2011, the military sided with the revolution against Mubarak, who wanted to crush the uprising. The election of Mohamed Mursi as president is one important step towards rebuilding state institutions and establishing stability. It would mean that the uprising, like all previous revolutions, should yield revolutionary power to institutional political management. Tahrir Square should no longer dictate political change to the military or the government and especially to the judiciary. Political movements and activists should focus on building the foundations of a democratic political system without manipulating crowds in Tahrir Square.
Political arrangements prior to the elections left the new president without a parliament, important political portfolios, including defence and interior affairs, and the right to dissolve parliament or to appoint the prime minister. Most importantly, the president is straitjacketed by a supplementary constitutional declaration that primarily kept the armed forces out of the hands of the president. SCAF was protecting its vital interests and also the interests of the majority of Egyptians who were either not eligible to vote or chose against the winning candidate. However, it also created a political vacuum that should be resolved either by negotiations and compromise or by pressure from Tahrir Square where some protesters have staged a sit-in, vowing to hold their ground until their demands are met. Egypt has freely elected its first civilian president in 60 years, but still remains an incomplete democracy.
The election of Mursi will be viewed as a vindication of the decades-long struggle of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Arab region. This impetus will provide hope and encouragement to Muslim Brotherhood-backed parties in Tunisia, Libya, Syria, Algeria and Jordan. A regional alliance and mutual support among them is not far-fetched. Egypt has had its influence in the Arab region for decades, even in her moments of weakness. Mursi's victory will impact the Arab region in a way that would raise hopes but also promote a culture of opposition.
Differences between President Mursi, backed by the Freedom and Justice Party, and the military will persist. Egypt has not developed a culture of difference, debate and compromise -- a relic of six decades of dictatorship. Whether Egypt will pursue the Turkish model, which had been far from peaceful, or the Malaysian model of slow transformation is hard to tell. By all indications SCAF is averse to using military force to suppress protest but is equally unwilling to throw up its hands and give in to the loudest shriek coming out of Tahrir Square.
This is not the worst-case scenario facing President Mursi. The Salafis, with their newly won power are difficult to predict. They may be divided between the principles of obedience to the ruler and judging him by how closely is he abiding by the strictest principles of Islam and Sharia law. The seeds of conflict abound.
It was exactly one hundred years ago that the Titanic, the pride of ocean-liners of the early 20th century, hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic on its maiden voyage and sank. More than 1,450 passengers went down with it. After presidential elections and a run-off, Egypt is today in the same situation as the Titanic was when it hit the iceberg, and it needs a lifebuoy. Like the mammoth Titanic, Egypt has a lot to lose if it sinks into chaos.
The writer is former corespondent of Al-Ahram in Washington, DC, and former director of the UN Radio and Television in New York.

Mursi's first messages

Dina Ezzat reports on the first week in office for Egypt's new president

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Click to view caption (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2012/1105/_eg1.htm)From Top: Mursi's first speech as president at Cairo University; swearing in at the Supreme Constitutional Court...
In the heart of Heliopolis, at the presidential palace, and while the newly sworn-in president, Mohamed Mursi, was in his office, dozens of angry Egyptians gathered at the palace gates to voice social and economic grievances.
Also present before the presidential palace are families of those injured due to police brutality during the 25 January Revolution.
"We are here to ask the president to intervene and to get us our rights. This president is an ordinary Egyptian; he, like us, comes from a humble background and he should feel our grievances," said Ibrahim, one of the demonstrating workers.
For three days Ibrahim has been joining friends outside the presidential palace and his calls have been echoed inside the palace itself, although not inside the office of the new president.
"He knows that there are demonstrators and he said they should be allowed to express their views. He did not say anything else," commented an administration staff member at the palace.
The mere fact that these demonstrators have been able to gather and protest before the presidential palace is in itself an indication of the change in posture of Egypt's new president whose security requirements have been significantly reduced compared to those of his predecessor.
In an inaugural speech delivered Friday evening in Tahrir Square, Mursi made a point of moving away from the presidential security detail to get closer to the cheering masses and to affirm that he does not fear for his life and that he is determined to communicate directly with the people.
"We will always be in continuous touch. I shall not be isolated away from you and will always be coming to see you here in Tahrir Square," Mursi said to the Tahrir crowd to their delight.
Establishing his intention to be -- unlike his isolated predecessor -- a president in permanent touch with the people was a key message of the Mursi speech, the first he made since he announced his victory in the elections almost a week before the result was confirmed. Then too he made a point of underlining his commitment to avoiding losing touch with the masses that voted him into office.
Before going to Tahrir Square, Mursi had also on Friday made a public appearance at Al-Azhar Mosque where his motorcade arrived with limited security measures. Worshipers seeking to join the new president in his first Friday prayers were unconditionally allowed into the mosque.
Apart from presenting himself as the president of the masses, Mursi had several other messages to put across during his first week in office.
A key message is his commitment to work for the development of a "civil, constitutional and modern state" -- something that supporting non-Islamist political forces had insisted on before agreeing to lend him their support in a very tight contest against Hosni Mubarak's last premier, Ahmed Shafik.
The phrase "civil state" was absent in the speech made by Mursi announcing his victory, but it was firmly accentuated during the Tahrir speech and in a subsequent speech that he delivered at Cairo University in a ceremony held for his inauguration.
Relevant to Mursi's commitment to the "civil state", there was clear reference made in Tahrir Square to the literary and art community. "I had missed expressing my support and appreciation for them when I made my first speech but this was not intentional and I wish to underline my respect and appreciation to all of them; together we will work to restore Egypt's cultural leadership," Mursi said Friday.
The new president who comes from the ranks of the Muslim Brotherhood, which he had represented as an MP in previous parliamentary elections, and who headed the Freedom and Justice Party, the political arm of the Brotherhood, resigned from the organisation and the leadership of its party.
And while not disassociating himself from the Islamist current in Egyptian politics, in his recognition of Egypt as a civil state and in his acknowledgement of the country's cultural status, Mursi was aiming to reassure those who fear alleged Islamist schemes to turn Egypt into a semi-theocracy or to bring under wraps the otherwise vivid cultural production of the country.
A third message put across this week by the new president was sent to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) that ran the country since ousted president Hosni Mubarak was forced to step down on 11 February 2011 until 30 June of this year when formally power was transferred to the new president. Regardless of ceremony, SCAF remain partners with Mursi by virtue of their recently issued addendum to the March 2011 Constitutional Declaration, which gives SCAF full legislative powers in lieu of the recently dissolved parliament, and that puts SCAF at the forefront of certain executive matters, including passing the state budget and deciding the affairs of the military.
The message that Mursi sent to SCAF seemed to carry in equal measure elements of approval and elements of defiance.
Following his announced victory, Mursi went to visit SCAF at the Defence Ministry headquarters -- a move perceived as an acknowledgement of the unsaid but obvious fact that this president will not overrule SCAF as Mubarak or any of his predecessors could.
And despite the fact that Mursi received a military salute from SCAF head Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, it was clear by gestures that Tantawi is not subordinate to Mursi.
A clear sign of Mursi's recognition of the continued influence of SCAF was his decision to accept taking the presidential oath before the Supreme Constitutional Court, in line with the addendum to the Constitutional Declaration, despite the previously announced opposition of Mursi supporters from within to the Muslim Brotherhood, and elsewhere in Islamist and wider revolutionary quarters, to this addendum.
Moreover, Mursi who had declined to have the official oath aired on television, finally had to succumb to the wish of the judges of the Supreme Constitutional Court -- whose association with SCAF is subject to considerable debate -- to have the ceremony put on TV.
While in practice Mursi was accommodating SCAF, in rhetoric he was sending them messages of defiance -- sometimes starkly.
Speaking in Tahrir Square Friday evening, Mursi said that the masses are the source of legitimacy and he promised not to see undermined any presidential prerogatives. Speaking on Saturday at Cairo University, Mursi insisted, in the presence of Tantawi and his right hand man, Sami Anan, that "elected" individuals and bodies will be in charge of the country.
Still, at Cairo University and during a speech that he made also on Saturday during a military parade, Mursi paid tribute to the role that SCAF and the Armed Forces had played in administrating the country's affairs during the past year and a half.
Moreover, Mursi's supporters, who had pledged to stage an open-ended sit at Tahrir Square if SCAF did not eliminate the addendum to the Constitutional Declaration decided to go home to "allow the president the chance to negotiate the matter with SCAF".
According to sources close to SCAF, the addendum will not be an******. It would only be put aside when a new constitution is drafted by a committee whose composition and work have been disrupted by endless disagreements and quarrels on large and small issues, including on the role of Islamic Sharia law -- a matter many see as the lynchpin of whether Egypt will be a civil state or turn eventually into a semi-theocracy.
Sources in the Muslim Brotherhood told Al-Ahram Weekly that representatives of the group and its political party in the constitution drafting committee -- whose fate will be decided by a court ruling in September -- were instructed to be more flexible. But this is not proving easy in the face of the hardline approach adopted by Salafis who seem to be making a point of dragging the Muslim Brotherhood into more radical circles.
"We know that people are afraid that we are going to [attack] their lifestyles Òê¦ and we are trying very hard in every way possible to dispel these concerns. Of course this would consolidate the position of Dr Mursi," said a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Mursi himself had made a point of assuring scared liberals and seculars that he is not planning, for now, to impose any strict Islamic rulings on society. No particular dress code would be imposed on the Muslim women of Egypt, Mursi told a group of editors and TV anchors, including unveiled women, which he met during his first week in office.
Mursi also aimed to reassure the clearly apprehensive Coptic community of Egypt, whose numbers are estimated as between five and 15 million. "I am a president for all Egyptians -- Muslims and Christians alike," said the president in his victory announcement speech.
Mursi who comes from the ranks of a group that only a few years ago declined to acknowledge the rights of Copts and women to assume top executive posts promised that in the presidential advisory board he is planning to establish he would have Copts and women. He also pledged that among some five vice presidents he is considering appointing, there would be a seat dedicated to a Coptic politician and another for a woman -- something Salafis are publicly opposed to.
Moreover, Mursi is planning, according to sources close to the president, to allocate no less than five seats in his first cabinet to Copts and women.
In his first week in office, Mursi met with representatives of the leading churches of Egypt (the Coptic Orthodox, the Catholic and the Anglican churches). In the meeting, the president made direct statements of commitment to the equal rights of all citizens of Egypt.
Speaking to State Radio following the meeting, the acting patriarch of the Coptic Church, which almost unanimously voted for Shafik during the second round, expressed satisfaction with the statements made by Mursi.
Western diplomats and human rights groups who have been closely monitoring Mursi's statements in this regard have all expressed initial optimism on the positions Egypt's first ever Islamist president has taken towards Copts in Egypt.
Meanwhile, Mursi also opted to send reassuring messages on the foreign front. Egypt, he said repeatedly, in every statement he made, is committed to its international obligations set under existing treaties it has signed -- a clear reference to the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty of 1979.
Egypt, Mursi added in a direct message to clearly worried Gulf countries, is not planning to export its revolution and will not interfere in the internal affairs of any country. This statement was made during a meeting that Mursi held at the presidential palace with the first foreign dignitary to visit, the foreign minister of Kuwait.
This said; Egypt would not take insults from anyone, Mursi said. Yesterday, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry summoned the ambassador of the United Arab Emirates -- which plays host to some of Mubarak's top aides -- to complain about a Twitter incident in which Dubai's chief of police wrote negatively about Mursi and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Meanwhile, Mursi made it clear in his speeches that Cairo would support Syrian opposition groups and the Syrian and Palestinian peoples.
Later this month, Mursi may make his first foreign trip as president if he decides to head the country's delegation to the Addis Ababa hosted African Summit. "Most probably he would; he seems keen to affirm Egypt's relation with Africa and it is clear that he realises that Ethiopia is a crucial country to befriend if we want to find an agreed arrangement over disputed Nile water shares," said an Egyptian diplomat.
During the next two weeks, Mursi will be receiving several Western and Arab diplomats keen to form their own first impressions of the man and to gain clues to his
agenda as Egypt's first democratically elected leader



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The drums of war

A Turkish military build-up on the border with Syria is causing apprehension in the region, writes Sayed Abdel-Meguid in Ankara
A mood of apprehension is gripping the cities of southeast Anatolia. While the inhabitants of Gaziantep, Hatay and Mardin, many of whom are of Kurdish origin, are no strangers to the sight of military reinforcements on the borders, the build-up over the last few weeks has been on a different scale.
It resembles that last seen in the late 1990s, when Turkey was about to invade Syria, which was then assisting the leader of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan.
Hafez Al-Assad, the Syrian president at the time, thought better than to fight the Turkish military, which has the second-largest army in NATO. Within weeks, he had kicked out Ocalan and other PKK leaders and mended fences with Turkey.
Since then, there had been no major cause of friction between the two countries until two weeks ago when Syrian air defences brought down a Turkish F-4 plane, causing immediate Turkish indignation.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that his country would change the rules of engagement with the Syrian army, and the threat was backed by a show of force on the ground as thousands of troops backed with anti-aircraft batteries deployed along the borders with Syria.
On Sunday and then again on Monday, Turkish military aircraft chased Syrian helicopters without firing on them. Turkey also deployed Stinger missiles and air-defence systems on the Syrian side of the border, practically creating a no-fly zone.
The measures were taken in consultation with Washington, with a senior Pentagon official saying that the Turks intended to create a no-fly zone inside Syria close to Deir al-Zur and Qameshli.
Yet, as Turkish politicians, led by officials from the ruling Justice and Development Party, called for swift action against Syria, the country seemed to be seeking more of a middle course.
Senior Turkish officials say they have no intention of waging punitive attacks on Syria and that the build-up on the borders is only a precautionary measure and has no offensive significance.
The domestic mood in Turkey has also dampened. Opposition members of parliament have asked the government to desist from waging a military assault that could cost Turkish lives.
Erdogan's critics claim that the government has deliberately concealed information relating to the downing of the F-4 reconnaissance plane. According to the leftwing Cumhuriyet newspaper, opposition parliamentarian Orhand Duzgout had demanded that Erdogan reveal the nationality of the plane that was escorting the F-4 before it was downed.
According to Duzgout, the unidentified plane belonged to a NATO country.
Turkey's neighbours do not seem keen about the prospect of hostilities in their vicinity either. The newspaper Redical quoted Iraqi spokesman Ali Al-Dabbagh as saying that the downing of the plane was a "private matter" between Turkey and Syria.
While the drums of war are being sounded, they are being sounded softly. Yet, their impact has been unmistakable, and inhabitants of the Turkish border towns have complained that business has ground to a halt because of the tensions.
They may remember what tensions on the Turkish borders with Iraq did to nearby Turkish towns, and they may be

praying that their fate will be different






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Pressing the press

Journalists are living a current crisis with the Shura Council. They fear the new criteria for choosing editors-in-chief of different publications would Islamise the country's press, Reem Leila reports
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Click to view caption (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2012/1105/_eg6.htm)Journalists protested in front of Al-Ahram building on Tuesday
The country's continuous crises with the government since the 25 January Revolution seems to be non stop. Reporters and journalists are currently witnessing a serious crisis with the Islamist-dominated Shura Council for the nonsense criteria the council has put, according to which editors-in-chief of different publications are to be selected. Journalists are objecting on the formation of the preliminary committee which will choose editors-in-chief. The committee is formed of 14 members, six members of the Shura Council, four veteran journalists and four mass communication university professors.
On Tuesday, more than 200 angry journalists of Al-Ahram, Al-Akhbar and Al-Gomhouriya newspapers protested in front of Al-Ahram building. Slogans as "Down, down with the Shura Council," "Down, down with ruling of SCAF", "Down, down with head of Press Syndicate," "Down, down with the Islamisation of press," were chanted by disappointed journalists. After more than two hours of protest, journalists moved to the premises of the Press Syndicate, where they decided to start an open strike in front of the Shura Council on 5 July.
However, the newly elected president Mohamed Mursi met with the board directors and editors-in-chief of newspapers on 28 June, where he reassured them that there will not be any kind of restrictions on the freedom of press, yet journalists are not secured as they fear the consequences of the criteria set by the Shura Council. The council is responsible for choosing and appointing editors-in-chief as well as the board of directors of state-owned newspapers. Under the previous regime of ousted president Hosni Mubarak, the Shura Council used to benefit of this authority by hiring certain calibers who would serve the government's political agenda.
The whole crisis began when the Shura Council decided to put certain criteria for choosing the editors-in-chief of state-run newspapers. These new measures would affect more than 50 current editors-in-chief. According to the council's criteria, whoever sees himself qualified for the post can submit his papers to the committee. Whoever wants to be editor-in-chief must be with an experience of not less than 15 years, not more than 60-year-old, has spent at least 10 years in the same publication, did not participate in corrupting political life, does not have opinions or writings supporting normalisation with Israel and did not work in the business of press advertisement. Fathi Shehab, head of Culture and Media Committee of the Shura Council, pointed out that an editor-in-chief of any publication would last for three years. "Annual reports will be conducted in case any of the editors was not performing his job properly, he would be immediately eliminated from his post," Shehab said.
According to Shehab, the 14-member committee will screen the candidates for the post. "Screened members will be referred to another committee formed of members of the Shura Council only to select from them those appropriate for the post," said Shehab. After screening, the committee will come up with a short list comprising of three nominees for daily publications and only two for the weekly newspapers.
The Shura Council announced that nominees will be able to submit their papers for a whole week starting 3 July. "None of the members of the second committee which will have the final word will be of the profession. Accordingly, the council is actually the entity which is having the final word of choosing the editors-in-chief. Therefore, journalists have full right to fear the Islamisation of newspapers," said Salah Eissa, a veteran writer.
Shehab believes that the process of selecting new editors-in-chief is due to the deteriorating financial and administrative conditions of these newspapers which resulted from the interference of power in the management of chairmen and editors-in-chief of these publications.
Unlike Shehab, most journalists are against the whole project. "The regulations and criteria which the Shura Council has set them do not suit all journalists," said Eissa. "How are nominees going to be assessed? Most of the 14-member committee are not professionals. How will they judge? Will it be according to their performance as journalists or according to the income they bring to their publications?" asked Eissa.
Veteran writer also raised another important point, the committee has ignored a very important variable in choosing the editor-in chief, which is the nominee's experience in running and managing the publication. "The committee missed this important condition, I wonder why," added Eissa.
At the same time Hisham Younis, member of the Press Syndicate council, believes the Shura Council, though freely elected, should not have any authority or control over state-owned newspapers. In a statement issued by the syndicate, journalists expressed their deep refutation and objections to the council's attempts to interfere in the affairs of state-owned press organisations. The statement stressed the fact that the council's attempt to interfere in the affairs of press institutions raises suspicions regarding its desperate attempt to Islamise the state-owned organisations. "They are playing the same role of the dismantled National Democratic Party, no doubt about that," said Younis. "Journalists will be forced to write what the Islamists like. If they did not, definitely they will be penalised," added Younis.
In the same context, Younis fears that the set criteria will facilitate the appointment of calibers who will be loyal to the Muslim Brotherhood. "No one can hide the fact that many journalists have submitted their papers to join the Freedom and Justice Party. They are hypocrites and weak journalists as they are trying to protect themselves by doing this," said Younis.
At the same time, Eissa is scared of the rise of Islamists to power in Egypt which could easily affect the freedom of expression, especially the press. Eissa said that "it would definitely have a huge negative effect. None of their newspapers was a success, all of them closed after a short while. They have strict restrictions on published photos and advertisements. If they applied this on publications of state-owned organisations, they will be doomed to failure and closure at the end. Is this what they want? I wonder," asked Eissa.
In the time being, journalists are exerting their utmost effort to pressure the Shura Council to preparing a new law on stipulating that state-owned organisations should be affiliated to a National Council which does not have any political preferences. "This is the only way to guarantee independence of the press," said Eissa.
However, things are likely to get more complicated as the Administrative Court will refer a lawsuit filed in front of it to dismantle the Shura Council as in the case of the People's Assembly. Under such a scenario, the issue will be on hold until new elections are held months from now. "The best thing in the time being, is to postpone everything until the issuing of the constitution. We need to figure out what will the constitution do about the profession of journalism and the status of the state-owned organisations. Until then, there will always be the question of, will the rise of Islamists affect freedom of expression?" added Eissa









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Speaking up and speaking out

harassment of women may be on the rise, but more and more victims are coming forward with their stories, writes Sarah Amos
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Click to view caption (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2012/1105/_fe1.htm)An artwork from the exhibition
As Cairo's Tahrir Square swelled with thousands of people last Sunday following the announcement of Mohamed Mursi's victory in the presidential elections, the iconic square once again found itself plunged into the international media's spotlight -- this time not as an icon of democracy, but rather as the setting for ***ual violence against women.
Twenty-one-year-old student journalist Natasha Smith was heading towards the square over Qasr Al-Nil Bridge that night to film the jubilant scene for a documentary about the status of women in post-revolutionary Egypt. Instead of filming footage, she was swallowed quickly by the crowd and became the victim of ***ual abuse.
"Men began to rip off my clothes. I was stripped *****," she wrote on her blog later. "Their insatiable appetite to hurt me was heightened. These men, hundreds of them, had turned from humans to animals."
Her blog post, entitled "Please God, Make it Stop" quickly went viral, with over 10,000 Facebook visits over the past week. The post graphically details the assault Smith suffered from at the hands of "hundreds" of unidentified men, before being brought to a tent where she was disguised in men's clothing and a veil and taken to hospital. Smith noted that she did not intend to enter the square, but had been swept away by the crowd and separated from her two male friends who were accompanying her.
"I think [the assault] may have been because of rumours of my being a foreign spy, or it could just have been because of an explosion of activity," Smith said in a phone interview with Al-Ahram Weekly. Although she was dressed in a conservative long-sleeved blouse and ankle-length skirt, Smith still stood out as a foreigner, which she thinks was among the reasons why she was targeted.
"On the one hand, I was attacked because I am a western girl.... But I recently found out that a married Egyptian woman was also attacked that night, not long after I was," Smith said. "That makes me think, was it just because of the way I looked? Or was it because I was a woman? Or was it because of the atmosphere? It's hard to say."
According to a 2008 study by the Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights (ECWR), 83 per cent of Egyptian women said they had experienced ***ual harassment, defined as "unwanted ***ual contact" which ranges from name-calling to rape and includes ogling, whistling and shouting, touching, following or exposing the genitals. For foreign women, the number shoots up to 98 per cent of those surveyed. The problem is thus undeniably widespread, although only 2.4 per cent of victims report it to the police.
Dissecting the causes behind the prevalence of ***ual harassment of women, which some believe has surged during Egypt's transition, reveals a toxic mix of forces: mob mentality, rigid cultural norms, victim-blaming and a culture of impunity. However, Egyptian journalist Mona El-Tahawi, herself a victim of ***ual assault last November, dismisses the theory that this phenomenon erupted after the ousting of former president Hosni Mubarak.
According to El-Tahawi, the first systematic assaults on female activists and journalists began in 2005, following protests in response to the referendum allowing for multiple presidential candidates.
"Women were holding up their ripped clothes, and we saw video uploaded on YouTube where women were pinned to the ground and had to suffer simulated rape. No one was held accountable because the regime said there was no proof," El-Tahawi told the Weekly. "When the regime does this, it gives the green light to men to think that women's bodies are fair game, and then things are done with impunity."
The following year in 2006, attacks during Eid celebrations occurred in downtown Cairo, when a mob of young men went on the rampage, attacking women openly in the streets. "Looking back now, it's not so shocking after all," El-Tahawi said of the alarming trend of increased ***ual violence that has continued to exist both on a systemic level and is experienced everyday by Egyptian women.
In spite of the rampancy of ***ual assault, both international readers and Egyptians were shocked by the young British woman's explicit account after it appeared on social media sites. Comments on the blog numbered over 2,000 in less than a week and quickly degenerated into indictments of Smith's actions, or even rejections of the validity of her testimony altogether.
"I understand why people are sceptical, but I just want to contribute to a situation where women can stand up when these attacks occur and not just hide away," Smith said, defending her choice to speak out. Some critics claim that a similar story with an Egyptian female victim, instead of a western, blonde girl, wouldn't have garnered the same international attention.
"Very few Egyptian women feel comfortable about speaking out about this, and when they do speak out hardly any attention is paid to them," El-Tahawi said. "And so there's this idea that only when western women are attacked does anyone pay attention. So it's like Egyptian women don't count."
However, she adds, when a Western woman comes forward the international uproar often overshadows the actual crime committed, as was seen in another assault last year. It becomes a case of "Egypt versus the West", and the debate quickly deteriorates, as defensiveness, racism and Islamophobia then begin to enter the fray, she said.
"I want to move beyond that. I want to talk about the woman that survived this attack," El-Tahawi said. However, for every Natasha Smith, there may well be scores of Egyptian women and girls who have suffered similar attacks. But few of these come forward.
"I think one of the hardest things is for women to speak out because of the environment they live in, and I'm hoping that we will now have a social revolution to go hand-in-hand with our political revolution," El-Tahawi said. Returning to Egypt after years abroad, El-Tahawi plans to launch the National Campaign Against ***ual Violence, which will serve as an umbrella organisation for existing women's groups and NGOs. Part advocacy and awareness, the campaign has already garnered attention from the thousands of El-Tahawi's twitter followers, as well as Egyptian women on the ground, such as Samira Ibrahim, the woman who publicly came forward to denounce SCAF "virginity tests". El-Tahawi hopes to provide services ranging from teaching young girls about safety to training doctors about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a psychological ailment that often follows assault. El-Tahawi believes that without a social revolution, the political revolution will fail. "And for me this is the real revolution," she said.
Twenty-one-year-old Salma Hegab, a smartphone-toting, constantly tweeting student activist who believes such a shift is possible, is a scholarship student from Nasr City at the American University in Cairo studying mass communication. Hegab said that in her view the tide was turning, albeit gradually, when it comes to the stigma of speaking out against harassment.
Hegab said it had not been uncommon for her to experience harassment walking home from school when she was younger. One time, when she was just a girl, a man in a car had even exposed himself to her. "In the past, I used to feel guilty about this," Hegab said. "I never told that stuff to my parents or anyone else. You hide that stuff from your parents and from society, because you don't know how they would react to hearing such things."
As she got older and entered secondary school in an attempt to dress more conservatively Hegab began to wear the abaya, "a jeans one -- it's cooler than the regular black abaya," she said with a laugh. But that didn't stop the harassment. In fact, according the ECWR survey, 72.5 per cent of harassment victims were veiled.
"In the community I was raised in, harassment was seen as the girls' fault because she was not dressed moderately, or was not walking moderately. They used to tell us this stuff," Hegab said. "After I had experiences of being harassed, even though I was dressed moderately and walking in a moderate way, I came home and asked my family what I was supposed to have done wrong. Why do I have to hear men calling me stuff I don't want to hear?"
Her questions went unanswered. "In the years before the revolution, nobody had an answer to this problem," Hegab said. She thinks that since the revolution's opening up of cultural norms, outlets now exist where women can express their frustrations over this epidemic. She said that using Twitter to highlight the problem to a greater audience had helped her realise it wasn't her fault, and she had stopped blaming herself.
"I used to be disgusted with the term '***ual harassment,'" she admitted. "But now I see that in order to do something about this, we have to bring this subject up all the time." She hopes the collective voices of women will pressure the government into implementing rules against assault that would put the perpetrators into jail.
The Egyptian penal code doesn't consider ***ual harassment to be a crime at present, though "immoral acts on public highways" and "indecent assault" when presented with irrefutable proof can be considered forms of ***ual harassment. Yet, the legal foundation of such crimes still differs from those found in other countries, including even Gulf states such as the UAE and Qatar.
Because Egyptian culture is deeply rooted in ideas of shame and honour, Hegab believes, if the law began to punish men for committing harassment this "would be a stain on his reputation forever."
But legal enforcement does not appear to be on the immediate horizon. The country is still grappling with the law-and-order vacuum due to the tug-of-war between the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and the newly elected president. As the country remains distracted by political issues, ***ual harassment and assault continues.
"I'm fed up with it. Most girls I know can't have a normal life because they're afraid to go to places by themselves," Noha Sabri, a student from Minya studying at AUC said. "And I don't have a person to take me from one point to another, so I started fighting it."
Sabri became involved with the initiative HarassMap, which utilises mobile technology and Internet mapping to report ***ual harassments as they occur, spreading awareness of the phenomenon. By sending an SMS after experiencing or witnessing a ***ual attack, the incident is marked on an Internet map, which then identifies "hotspots" to alert the police.
After a victim sends the text, she or he will receive a number of services, ranging from filing a police report to accessing psychological assistance. On the ground, activists such as Sabri, captain of the Zamalek team in Cairo, are talking with local populations about the prevalence of harassment.
"They often don't understand how bad the situation is, or how it affects the girl," Sabri said about the reactions of many men she talks to. Once when she was speaking to a man about the problems of harassment, he blatantly ogled a girl at the same time while claiming to understand how bad the phenomenon was. Sabri has even spoken to men who admit to harassing girls, or who perpetuate the stereotype that the "woman wanted it" or "deserved it" because of her clothing. She said it was not an easy job to raise awareness of such issues, but "we have begun to see a difference in many of the people we are talking to."
Coming forward and breaking the silence on harassment is something that some young women have been doing in Egypt, like Smith has done.
"I want to say to Egyptian women that this is not about me," Smith said. Instead of focussing on her story, she said she hopes that women will now move forward in order to figure out the source of the intimidation of women, as well as a possible solution.
"I think that I could be the catalyst for a much bigger movement, and I want to be a part of that movement now to help many other women who suffer attacks," Smith said






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Fifty-fifty

It is time that the relationship between the Muslim Brotherhood, the Freedom and Justice Party and Egypt's new president was more clearly defined, writes Ahmed El-Tonsi
Apart from the common advice to the new president of Egypt, like the need to build national consensus and that he should be the president of all Egyptians, Mohamed Mursi, the newly elected president, should carefully watch his next steps in the light of the unique political scene reflected in the run-off election results.
Now is a heady time for the new president, who has been met with extreme enthusiasm, albeit for various reasons, by 50 per cent of the voters, while the other half has basically been against him. Moreover, the turnout in the elections was relatively low, denoting a sceptical if not a negative attitude towards the elections, the candidates, and the whole transition period. Around 50 per cent of the electorate turned out to vote in the run-off elections. Mursi was partially voted for, in as much as he was the candidate of Egypt's largest political party, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP). Others voted for Mursi because they could not perceive Egypt's presidency going to anyone with links to the regime of ousted former president Hosni Mubarak, as was the case with the other candidate, Ahmed Shafik.
Based upon the results of the first round, the anti-Shafik component among those voting for Mursi could have been approximately 50 per cent. Such an uncertain majority and only mathematical victory should not obscure the facts underneath. One such fact is that Mursi is the first elected, as well as the first partisan, president. Belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood, second only to the Wafd in terms of its age, Mursi benefited from the political strength of his power base. Ideologically as well as organisationally, Mursi has been a front-line leader in the Brotherhood, which duly nominated and campaigned for him in the elections. He would not have become president had the FJP not fielded him as its candidate, capitalising on the presidential elections law that permits each party represented in the parliament to nominate a presidential candidate.
Put differently, Mursi was thus absolutely a party nominee, in contrast to Khairat El-Shater, the previous Brotherhood candidate, whose candidacy was refused despite his endorsement by FJP MPs in the now-dissolved parliament. Another 50 per cent supported Mursi here, as he shared the FJP nomination with El-Shater before the latter's disqualification. Moreover, Mursi's electoral platform was formally that of the Brotherhood, including its famous Renaissance Project, to which he allocated a great part of his electoral campaign.
Among such an array of fifties, what cannot be perceived in this fifty-fifty ratio is the relationship between the Brotherhood, the FJP, and Egypt's new president. Mursi has been elected as president as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and as chair of the FJP, with an electoral platform that consisted of the Brotherhood's own political programme. There seems to be no convincing legal, political or practical reason for Mursi to relinquish his relationship with the parent association or its surrogate political party.
Mursi's resignation from the Brotherhood and its political wing the FJP would be meaningless, if not utterly incorrect, in terms of his previous commitment and in terms of the fact that many people voted for his electoral platform and not for him as an individual. Did Mursi come to the presidential elections with no platform? No, he did not. He was a strong advocate for the Renaissance Project, which contains the Brotherhood's views on Egypt's current situation and its proposals for addressing the country's appalling socioeconomic conditions. As such, it is Mursi's right, as well his organisation's right, to see such electoral promises fulfilled. This is the basis of any electoral contest that ends with the triumph of only one bidder, who is then entitled by majority vote to implement a platform that presumably formed the major thrust of his campaign and supposedly the major rationale behind the people's votes.
The platform advocated by Mursi while campaigning for the elections was that of the Muslim Brotherhood, and people voted for Mursi in the full awareness that he was the presidential candidate of the Brotherhood. Many people will have voted for Mursi for that reason alone. Fundraising for Mursi's electoral campaign was also done by the Brotherhood and its supporters. Paradoxically, the FJP, among other political forces, pressed hard to delete the amendment proposed by the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) regarding the legislative elections law prohibiting independent members from rejoining political parties after they had been elected as non-partisan MPs.
The Brotherhood's decision now to distance itself from its own presidential candidate is unpractical, and it is unthinkable that it will now seek to become part of the opposition to Mursi or that it will abandon its own Renaissance Project, in its own words the outcome of intellectual debate in the association over the last 20 years. Evidently, the Brotherhood, even though one of its leading political figures has been elected as head of state in a fair-and-free election, has become addicted to continuing as an underground movement that needlessly works behind closed doors. What more senior job could move the Brotherhood to become a fully transparent legal entity in order to perform its purported objectives?
When millions have chosen the Brotherhood's nominee in the elections and have endorsed its sacred project, there is a need for the organisation to change its preferred clandestine nature and to play a full part in Egypt's politics and society. The organisation may want to sustain its clandestine modus operandi, which has kept it at arms' length from any supervision by the law or by an independent national regulator. Some have also claimed that it does not want to become "burned out" by day-to-day politics that accompany its direct running of the state in a highly volatile political and social context. At the same time, the organisation may have thought that this manoeuvre would diminish its political accountability.
Herein lies a major issue, since the electoral commitments made by Mursi are those of the Brotherhood, and the latter should be held accountable for their fulfilment during the coming presidential term. In other words, political accountability should be the responsibility of the Brotherhood and its candidate, otherwise there would be no reason to have political parties or associations that nurture, develop and guide their cadres. Political parties sustain their electoral victories through the performance of their representatives in the executive, as well as the legislative, branches of government, and not just through political manoeuvring. Accountability is basic to democracy as it breeds the transfer and sharing of power, and this should be considered by the Brotherhood.
The delegation of accountability is one of the worst mistakes that the management of any given enterprise can make. On the other hand, Mursi is in massive need of the support of his parent organisation, and the latter has the greatest stake in his future success. That Mursi is the president of all Egyptians is axiomatic: this is his basic job description that cannot and should not be eroded by his membership of the Muslim Brotherhood. Ironically, many of the country's political forces have been adamant in their demands that Mursi resign from the FJP and the Brotherhood, though they have also been quite satisfied with their efforts to gain concessions from the organisation.
To achieve its multiple objectives, the Brotherhood has been pursuing the idea of rescinding its formal relationship with Mursi. Obviously, there is no need for such manoeuvres, which will add more uncertainties rather than clear up ambiguities. Furthermore, the association's current endeavours to formally keep a distance from the presidential institution have been quite incredible. For example, in his first few hours after the announcement of the election results Mursi highlighted that he would start work with the Renaissance Project, even as a number of FJP members gave statements about Mursi and plans to end ties with the Brotherhood.
Any move to resign on the part of Mursi from the Brotherhood would be perceived by many as a typical "division of roles", something identified in the way the organisation does things from its management of the various professional syndicates. The Brotherhood dominates most of the syndicates, but it has always done business behind the scenes. Ruling Egypt is more complex than managing the board of a professional syndicate, however, and the Brotherhood should reconsider its steps. Once more, it is Mursi's right to form a team that will implement his electoral platform. Such a team should consist of elements that are fully convinced of the major premises of his platform. There is no time to be wrong about this, and accordingly there is no time for the appeasement of other political forces either, or for pacifying the anxieties of certain groups inside Egypt. Deliverables are what are expected from Mursi and his team.
The Muslim Brotherhood should now change its old paradigms and meet new political realities with their formidable challenges. Political cunning has been a major trait of the Brotherhood and many of its leaders, and there should be no problem living with such a fundamental feature that has long been characteristic of the political culture of the organisation. Yet, there is a need for the currently deliberately ill-defined boundaries between the Brotherhood, the FJP, and the new president to be clearly marked. It cannot be accepted that such ill-defined borders, existing between the Brotherhood and the FJP, now expand to encompass Egypt's new president. The organisation should aim to halt its old secretive style, which has been surpassed by the changing political landscape as well as the organisation's greater visibility. It should work on establishing itself as a formal entity that is transparent and accountable before the whole nation.
The Brotherhood should learn from its past and its historical ebbs and flows. Obviously, it cannot leap from being an outlawed organisation to a legal one easily or in one movement, as has been reflected in the current debate on the verdict of the Supreme Constitutional Court dissolving the parliament. As the country's leading political organisation, particularly given its overarching Islamic reference, the Brotherhood has to set an example. Otherwise, it will act like the protagonist of the famous Greek myth of Sisyphus.
According to The Odyssey, Sisyphus was a king who was compelled to roll a stone up a steep hill. When he reached the top, the stone always rolled down again, and Sisyphus was condemned to do this for eternity. In the Greek myth, Sisyphus was predestined to suffer. In the Egyptian political reality, the Muslim Brotherhood needs to think and act differently, lest it and more importantly also Egypt suffer.


The writer is a political ****yst



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A marriage made in hell

Washington's wedding of democratic evangelism to destructive military campaigns and quasi-racist wars has set democratisation back by decades, writes Gamil Mattar* (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/788/op2.htm#1)
Have the brakes been put on the progress of democracy? Is, indeed, the process actually moving in reverse? To ask such questions would once have seemed implausible to the positivists who, with a sweep of the hand across a map of the world, pointed complacently to the countries that were advancing by leaps and bounds towards democracy or, if not by leaps and bounds, at least moving inexorably forward.
The train has started moving and has picked up too much speed to stop, they insisted. Democratisation is both a pledge and an imperative, they said. It was a pledge on the part of Third World governments to the international community which had declared it would no longer put up with non-democratic regimes. And it was a prerequisite for world peace. Peace is only possible between democratic nations which don't go around attacking other nations, said Bush. With Sharansky's book on democracy firmly tucked beneath his arm the US president promised that peace in the Middle East would follow in the wake of democracy. In so saying he raised the neo-conservatives' romantic, if not entirely innocent, banner, "make democracy not war", launched a campaign to impose democracy on the region using all the violence and coercion available to the world's only superpower, and drove the Middle East further away from peace than it has been for centuries.
The Arab public quickly sniffed out the hypocrisy in the Bush administration's appeals. There was too much wavering, procrastination and lack of coordination, and it was not long before the people lost whatever confidence they had in the efficacy of American support for democratisation in the region. This erosion of confidence occurred a time when voices from within America's ruling conservative right began to protest against the squandering of US material and political resources on policies that only seemed to augment the power and influence of Muslim fundamentalists in the Middle East. Washington stopped talking about democracy as a condition for peace and Bush stopped citing Sharansky as one of his primary sources of inspiration.
The tide of democratisation is once again ebbing in the Middle East. Nor is this a situation unique to the region. In the Philippines President Arroyo has declared a state of emergency following an alleged military coup. Most observers believe the coup attempt to be a fiction, suggesting that Arroyo has taken advantage of recent unrest in order to replace Major-General Renato Miranda as chief of the marines. The president of the Philippines, who used corruption in the army as a tool to secure her grip over the country, is now moving to make an accommodation with the army in order to remain in power. The Manila crisis underscores the extent to which the democratic experience in the Philippines failed to separate the military from politics and to offset the demagogic powers of the church and big business, the two forces that triggered the popular unrest that led to the overthrow of the countries two previous presidents.
This, then, is the Philippines that Bush has so frequently lauded as a model of democracy. That Nigeria, Uganda and other countries have won similar praise only makes one wonder what Bush means by democracy. Nigeria, apparently, is democratic because it has a government that came to power through elections. But Nigeria is riddled with sectarian strife that subsides for days then flares up for months. It has a separatist movement pushing for independence for the oil-rich Niger Delta. It could well be the most corrupt and crime-ridden country in Africa. Uganda, too, recently held elections, though they were hardly free and fair. They took place against a nightmarish backdrop in which the insurgent Rabb Army reigns by night while the government reasserts itself by day.
In Thailand, that new bastion of democracy and free-market economy, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to protest against the prime minister's abuse of constitutional powers and his encouragement of corruption, especially the nepotism of which his own family is the primary beneficiary. Nor is Thailand alone in confusing the worship of money and the sanctity of the free market over true democratisation and constitutional reform.
One of the aims of democratic evangelism, in its heyday, was to herald the victory of the "Bush principle". Many non-democratic regimes played along, holding elections so Washington could in turn welcome them to the democratic club. In most cases progress towards democratisation ground to a halt as soon as the ballots closed. In other cases the process went into reverse as forces not officially entitled to participate in the political process succeeded in circumventing obstacles to their participation, or the polls brought results of which both the domestic authorities and the Americans disapproved.
Elections were held in Haiti a few weeks ago. Once the results were announced the bloodshed resumed, to the extent that the US was forced to intervene to halt the chaos. Washington brought in legal experts who reread Haiti's electoral laws in such a way as allow Rene Perval to claim victory. Everyone -- the Americans included -- know that Haiti under Perval was a haven for drug smuggling and organised crime, in which government officials and the police are involved up to their necks. But what was important in that corrupt and poverty-stricken nation was that it emerge from the elections unchanged -- i.e. dependent upon the US and the UN for its security, for which read the safety of its ruling elite and of foreign interests. Yet Bush administration officials appeared on cue to announce Haiti was experiencing an unprecedented period of "democratic stability".
The Congo has a democratically elected government. Apparently it doesn't count that two-thirds of the country is under the control of rebel forces and that foreign companies and fortune hunters are sapping the wealth of a country that must count as the most plundered in history.
In ***ovo elections brought a new government to power. Not that it does that much. NATO forces still run the country. Washington, though, could not be happier about democracy in ***ovo, which is still deprived of its right to be recognised as a fully independent sovereign state.
King Gyanendra of Nepal has just held fraudulent municipal elections. He then called a halt to democratisation on the grounds that elections would bring terrorists and extremists to power. Washington says nothing against government corruption in Nepal, agreeing, instead, with New Delhi, its up and coming southern Asia ally, that Nepal is India's concern. New Delhi takes a similar position towards Burma. India has learned a great deal from watching the US protect dictatorial regimes while somehow keeping its democratic reputation intact. It has seen the US at work in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East in general, and learned much.
In Kabul a unique balloting process was held, bringing to power an equally unique legislature. Afghanistan outside of Kabul is another story. It exists beyond electoral processes, party plurality and democracy. In the rest of Afghanistan life goes on, just as it did before the Taliban.
Across the border Pakistani propaganda and American support of President Musharraf have failed to convince the rest of the world that Pakistan is a democracy simply because it holds elections. Yet while the Bush administration absolves Pakistan for its military order it heaps scorn on the religious order in Iran, though Iranian elections are freer and fairer than any held in Pakistan. It is Palestine, however, that holds the record for the fairest and most transparent election in the history of this region. But Palestine, along with Iran, has no place on the Bush list of democracies.
The Bush administration's greatest boast is that series of revolutions of many blossoms -- the Rose Revolution in Georgia, the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, the Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyz. Today, though, Moscow is more confident than ever that the chain reaction has reached its end, and the Russians are undoubtedly content that these revolutions changed nothing more than a few faces at the top. Policies remain the same. Corruption is as rife as ever.
In Ukraine an election campaign is currently in progress, and it is Yankovitch, the man whose vote rigging sparked the orange revolution in the first place, who has emerged as front runner. Yankovitch now accuses his opponents of attempting to rig the elections to keep him from reaching power by democratic means. Meanwhile, he still tells his supporters that democracy is impossible in poor countries.
Another global phenomenon is the campaign against "tyranny by democracy". Vladimir Putin's NGO law, for example, aims to keep the activities of local and foreign human and civil rights agencies under his thumb. In Tajikistan the government has taken measures to prevent foreign embassies and agencies from establishing contacts with local individuals and organisations. The Chinese Communist Party has taken a firm stand against the "IT invasion," lashing out against the spread of immorality which, it says, serves as a screen for Western interests. In Zimbabwe the government has expelled the representatives of foreign NGOs and closed down the offices of many local civil society organisations. Ethiopia kicked out the representatives of foreign funding agencies and Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has pledged that the country will experience no revolution, of whatever hue. Eritrea has suspended the activities of several NGOs and USAID agencies while in Latin America, the Organisation of American Unity rejected a US-sponsored bill calling for a body to monitor Latin American governments' respect for "democratic ethics".
Meanwhile, the drive of Arab governments to repel the democratic invasion has been resumed with renewed vigour, with some regimes busy recuperating authoritarian territory many believed had been lost forever.
There are many reasons behind the rising anti- democratic tide. Bush's foreign policy and his government's flagrant human rights violations top the list. Washington's determination to turn Iraq into a model of democracy to be emulated throughout the region has also set the cause of democratisation back by decades. All any anti-democrat now has to do is point to the disaster the US has wrought in Iraq. Washington's erratic fluctuations between ideological fervour and pragmatism have also been inimical to the spread of democracy. When Washington turns a blind eye to the anti-democratic behaviour of some of its allies while lashing out at other countries for the same sins, one cannot avoid the conclusion that Washington is manipulating the appeal to democracy for its own ends. Such cynicism, sadly, is contagious. Another reason, impacting the Middle East in particular, is growing anti-Arab and anti-Muslim feeling on the part of the West. This, combined with growing Western support for Israeli terrorism, compounds suspicions over US intentions and frustrates the efforts of Arab democrats.
Whatever the cause -- or causes -- behind the retreat from democracy, there is no doubt that the US has squandered immense moral capital by wedding democratic evangelism to destructive military campaigns and quasi-racist wars. This mad concoction has, more than anything else, placed freedom and political rights out of the reach of many of the world's peoples, particularly those in the Middle East. Now, in the name of the war against terrorism, anti-democratic governments are being given ample time to absorb lessons from the first campaign to promote democracy and to entrench themselves behind stronger and more sophisticated defences than ever in the case of any renewed democratic offensive,
however far off that might seem



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* The writer is the director of the Arab Centre for Development and Futuristic Research


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Up to it

Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa says he's ready for a second five-year term in office even though he predicts tough times ahead for the Arab world and the entire Middle East. On the sidelines of the Khartoum summit which renewed his mandate, Moussa spoke to Dina Ezzat
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Amr Moussa

On the eve of the Arab summit that gave the Arab League secretary-general five more years, Amr Moussa is pensive, pre-occupied and a little apprehensive


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The seasoned Egyptian diplomat whose first term at the head of the archaic Arab organisation was anything but smooth, is not at all deterred by the colossal challenges he has encountered, including the occupation of Iraq, the total collapse of the Arab-Israeli peace process, the fall-out between Syria and Lebanon and the aggressive personal assault launched against him by envious political figures in the Arab world. In the next term, he says with unmistakable resolve, he will continue to speak out in support of Arab interests irrespective of any assault that might aim to reverse commitments to that goal. "I have thick political skin," he said in defiance.
Moussa admits that during the past five years he had "moments of deep frustration".
"I was anguished by the vast potentials that the Arab world possesses and the obstacles and challenges preventing the optimum exploitation of such assets to serve the interests of the Arab world."
When pressed, Moussa confessed he thought about relinquishing his post during moments of serious collapse in the collective Arab performance. "It crossed my mind once or twice." He would not specifically say when but some of his closest aides pinpoint 20 March 2003 when the war on Iraq was launched, and a year later when the Arab summit was abruptly called off by its Tunisian host in what seemed then as the beginning of the end, or rather the final chapter of the end of the Arab League.
The advice of his aides plus urgings from some Arab capitals persuaded him to continue to shoulder the responsibilities he was entrusted with. The decision to stay the course might have primarily been for political pride -- or as some would say, ego -- of Moussa, a popular foreign minister of Egypt from 1991 to 2001 before he moved to the Arab organisation in what many perceived was a removal from the Egyptian system where he occasioned numerous instances of envy.
Today, the story is behind Moussa who seems concerned about fulfilling a mission that he had to accept.
"I cannot say I was particularly enthusiastic or interested in pursuing a second term," Moussa said, though Arab leaders argued it was a matter of responsibility, not preference.
Moussa does not lose his poise when confronted with ****ysis suggesting that Cairo, for fear of losing the almost exclusive monopoly of the post of Arab League secretary- general, had to re-nominate Moussa for lack of other candidates who would be safely granted Arab support by consensus. "The discussion on this issue included several Arab capitals and many Arab leaders. It was not just Cairo that said that this was not the time to exit the stage," he recounted.
It is when Moussa hears questions about the consent allegedly given by the US to his second term in office that he expresses astonishment, puts his expensive cigar in the ashtray and utters, "This is ridiculous." Moussa believes it is absurd for anyone to suggest that he was assuming his second term in office on the basis of an American vote as the question suggests. "Why would the Americans do this? And who can sanely say they were consulted?"
The Americans, he said, could not have endorsed his second term in hope of a continuous effort by the Arab League to contain the growing civil strife that has turned the US invasion of Iraq into a quagmire.
And, when pressed on the role of the US administration in instigating what many found a premature eclipse of his mission at the top of Egyptian diplomacy, Moussa is equally unamused. The Americans, he said, are not particularly concerned about his political career and were not involved in the Egyptian decision in 2001 to nominate him for the Arab League in the first place. "This is all very silly," he reaffirmed.
Moussa, however, is willing to acknowledge that the Americans have a keen interest in the region and as such it is essential for Arabs and Americans to pursue a strategic dialogue to streamline their interests and disagreements in a way compatible with the complex Arab-American relationship and for the benefit of both sides. He credits the Arab League -- rather than the Arab League secretary-general in an occasional but not very convincing exercise of modesty -- for making a breakthrough in promoting better and closer dialogue between the US and the Arab League in the wake of the 11 September attacks. He insists that during his second term, he would continue efforts to promote the Arab-American dialogue "in a way that is based on mutual respect and equity".
"I was never an advocate of undue confrontation with the US. I express disagreement when it is time to do so but I do not pursue a fight," he said. Moussa argues that he will still count on the support of American-Arab groups in this respect. "We had the first Arab-American dialogue in September 2003 and the next round is in Houston in June."
Moussa also asserts that much attention during his second term in office will be accorded to promoting Arab-European relations, with the upcoming Arab-European dialogue scheduled to convene in France in a few weeks acting as a launch pad. In this respect, Moussa stresses that Arabs should not allow their occasional disappointment with the Europeans to set back the development of this naturally crucial relationship, not just for political and economic purposes but for cultural dialogue as well.
In fact, Moussa intends to use his second five-year term to promote closer rapport with many foreign circles including Latin America, Asia and Africa which were areas of initial diplomatic approaches during his first term in office.
It is precisely this cosmopolitan approach by the Arab League during the past five years that Moussa is particularly proud of. "The Arab League has become a full partner with other international, regional and sub-regional organisations." During such encounters, Moussa argues, the Arab League has expressed the views and legitimate demands of the Arab world. And this is an essential matter at this crucial point of new international and regional dynamics that could take the Arab world by storm.
"When I assumed office [as Arab League secretary-general in 2001] I saw that our region was steadily approaching a worst case scenario of chaos. Unfortunately, this scenario has been unfolding aggressively," he said. Moussa said that his concerns today are by no means less dramatic.
"The world is going through an unprecedented phase of instability and as such we cannot exclude further disorder in our part of the world," he said. He added that with these developments in mind, it would be almost naive to exclude the possibility of a serious shake-up in the region. "My worst fear is the disintegration of any Arab country," he said without naming names.
It does not take an expert to list obvious candidates. Iraq is the worry of the moment. "Iraq is a key country in our Arab world. It is currently suffering a serious state of violence and chaos that demands full Arab support for its political process on the basis of national unity that says Iraq belongs to its entire people without any ethnic or religiously-based discrimination."
At this point Moussa again puts down his cigar and affirms, "The future of Iraq cannot be decided away from the will of the Iraqi people or the support and contribution of Arabs."
Moussa is not willing to directly attack Iranian intervention in Iraq or Turkish tampering in the affairs of north Iraq. He rather insists that he has plans to visit Tehran and Ankara in the near future to pursue closer cooperation between the Arab world and both Muslim countries.
However, he stressed in no uncertain terms that Arabs are determined to pursue efforts to promote national unity in Iraq just as much as they are committed to securing an Arab- Israeli peace deal which will have to be within the accepted Arab parametres as defined in the Arab peace initiative.
During the next five years, Moussa can foresee three types of problems: inter-Arab disputes encompassing some serious cases, the internal problems of some Arab states that evolve in a way that prompts regional intervention as in the case of the multi-shaded civil strife in Sudan, and cultural attacks targeting the Arab world in its entirety.
The new regional set-up and the daunting challenges, Moussa agrees, would require a reconceptualisation, in a way, of the role of the Arab League. Previously, this 60-year-old establishment was prevented from intervening in the internal affairs of Arab countries. This is no longer the case. Moreover, the Arab League was previously not responsible for carving a safe niche for the Arab world in the new world order. This, too, has changed. "Of course, the role of the Arab League is being reformulated by force of international and regional developments.
This, however, would require modifying the work mechanisms of the pan-Arab organisation and a more advanced approach towards its modernisation .
"We do not need to worry about the amendment of the constitution. What we, not just as the Arab League but as the Arab world, need to worry about is the evolving face of the Middle East and the role of the Arab world therein. This is our biggest challenge," Moussa said. "It is clear that due to our current state of weakness we cannot impose our rules." At the same time, despite this weakness, Arab countries cannot succumb to an imposed agenda, he added. "So what we really need is a formula accepted by both sides."
But as Moussa firmly stressed, none of the challenges facing the Arab League can be properly dealt with in the absence of the strong support of its 22 member states on the political and financial levels. "Arab countries need to support the Arab League; it represents them all, defends their interest and carries the banner of their rights in a way compatible with the modern world."
Moussa's affirmation of the need of the support of Arab countries is made in a tone marked by the frustrations of the past five years when many a project, developmental and cultural, including the collective Arab participation in the international Frankfurt Book Fair, was hampered by lack of resources and even the not forthcoming political will on the part of some.
Some Arab diplomats have suggested that it is due to Moussa's strict style of exercising politics, that some Arab capitals were not forthcoming with their support. He does not like to dwell on this matter. He entertains no questions, direct or indirect, on whether his style has prompted non- cooperation on the part of some Arab officials, especially in Arab Gulf capitals, where there is ample sensitivity to an alleged Egyptian chauvinism.
Moussa, who is hailed by Arab individuals as one of the Arab world's best politicians, firmly declines to take questions suggesting that much of the problems that came his way as secretary-general were the deliberate work of envious Arab officials who are, for personal rather than professional reasons, uncomfortable with the "charisma of Amr Moussa" that they can neither compete with nor ignore.
But there is a limit to Moussa's ability to exercise modesty, genuine or otherwise. A few steps away from his 70th birthday and with a record of serious objective criticism of the performance of the Arab League during his tenure, that many sincere critics found unbecoming of his political aptitude, Moussa still commands respect and certainly admiration in the Arab street. His popularity as Arab League secretary-general may be less than the level of political and personal popularity he enjoyed as Egypt's foreign minister. However, judging by the account of foes and friends alike, Moussa is still projecting a unique charisma which may not make everyone, himself included, happy. "It is something that you have to live with," he said with a rare glimpse of profound modesty




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Egypt top court says ruling nullifying parliament 'binding'


Monday, July 9, 2012 04:54:22 PM

CAIRO - Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court said on Monday that all of its rulings were "binding," in response to a presidential decree reinstating parliament after the court ruled the
house invalid


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A file photo showing the headquarter of Supreme Constitutional Court in Maadi, Cairo.
"All the rulings and decisions of the Supreme Constitutional Court are final and not subject to appeal... and are binding for all state institutions," the court said in a statement.
Several people have gone to court to challenge President Mohammed Morsi's decision ordering the return of the Parliament, and the Supreme Constitutional Court said it would look into these cases.
The court also stressed that it was "not a part of any political conflict... but the limit of its sacred duty is the protection of the texts of the constitution."
The Supreme Constitutional Court had said certain articles in the law governing parliamentary elections were invalid, annulling the Islamist-led house.
On Sunday, Morsi in turn an****** the court's decision, putting himself on a collision course with the judiciary and the military that enforced the ruling when it was in power.

Egyptian president reinstates parliame
(+Video)
Reuters
Sunday, July 8, 2012 06:46:45 PM

CAIRO - Egypt's new president decreed on Sunday that the dissolved Islamist-led parliament should reconvene until a new one was elected, apparently reversing a decision by generals who had dismissed the assembly based on a court ruling


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President Mohamed Mursi

"President Mohamed Mursi ordered the reconvening of sessions of the elected parliament," according to a presidential statement read out by Mursi's aide Yasser Ali. An early parliamentary election will be held within 60 days of a new constitution being approved by the nation, Ali said.

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The Supreme Constitutional Court ordered the lower house of parliament dissolved last month after finding fault with the election process. The generals, Egypt's interim rulers until they handed powers to Mursi on June 30, implemented the decision and gave themselves legislative powers






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Syria tests missiles against coastal attack

(+Video)
Reuters
Sunday, July 8, 2012 07:48:03 PM

BEIRUT - Syria's navy fired live missiles from ships and helicopters over the weekend, state media said on Sunday, in an exercise aiming at showcasing its ability to "defend Syria's shores against any possible aggression


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Syrian TV airs video of coastal and naval missile firing drills


Syrian television aired video of a variety of missiles being fired from launchers on land and from ships and showed the Syrian Defence Minister Dawud Abdallah Rahijia in attendance.
"Naval Forces conducted an operational live fire exercise on Saturday, using missiles launched from the sea and coast, helicopters and missile boats, simulating a scenario of repelling a sudden attack from the sea," Syrian news agency SANA said, adding manoeuvres would continue for several days.
Opposition figures have been calling for a no-fly zone and NATO strikes against Syrian forces, similar to those carried out in Libya last year which enabled rebel ground forces to end the rule of Muammar Gaddafi.




But while President Bashar al-Assad has faced sanctions and international condemnation over his *****down on dissent which has left thousands dead, major Western and Arab powers have shied away from the idea of direct military action.
Turkey has reinforced its border and scrambled fighter aircraft several times since Syria shot down a Turkish reconnaissance jet on June 22 over what Damascus said were Syrian territorial waters in the Mediterranean. Ankara said the incident occurred in international air space.
More than 30 people were killed on Sunday during a government bombardment and clashes between Syrian forces and Free Syrian Army rebels fighting to oust Assad, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Activists reported heavy shelling in residential areas of Deir al-Zor city and in Deraa province, the birthplace of the revolt near the Jordanian border.
Rami Abdelrahman, head of the Observatory, said that residents of al-Sharifa in the wider Deir al-Zor province said rebels had taken control of a tank looted in combat for the first time and were using it to attack army positions.
In recent weeks, rebels have become more and more brazen in their attacks, holding small areas of territory across the country and clashing with troops only a few miles from the presidential palace in Damascus

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http://213.158.162.45/~egyptian/index.php?action=news&id=26750&title=Syria tests missiles against coastal attack (+Video)

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Smoking victimises more youngsters-survey
By Amina Abdul Salam-The Gazette Online
Monday, May 16, 2011 03:17:55 PM

CAIRO - A survey on tobacco usage by adults revealed that the rate of smokers was 20 per cent for those up to the age of 15 and nearly 38 per cent for male adult smokers, who had been smoking for more than 15 years

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The rate of Shisha (water pipe) smoking among Egyptian adults is on the rise, Ministry of Health officials warn.
The highest rate of smokers was in the category of males between 25 and 64. The survey was conducted among 25,000 smokers, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, the Central Statistics and Mobilising Agency and the World Health Organisation.
The rate of Shisha (water pipe) smoking reached 3.3 per cent among adults. 56 per cent smoked Shisha at home, which exposed all family members to passive smoking. 36 per cent smoked Shisha in coffee shops.
Dr Mustafa Lutfi, responsible for the fight against smoking at the World Health Organisation in Cairo, made these comments at a conference marking the celebration of 'World Day of Bronchial Asthma'.
The survey also showed that 71 per cent of Egyptians were allowed to smoke at home. 50 per cent of people frequenting medical establishments were exposed to passive smoking. 80 per cent of passengers were subject to passive smoking, when using public transport, and up to 60 per cent of employees suffered from smoking hazards at their work place.
The average smoker spent LE110 per month on tobacco; 98 per cent were fully aware that tobacco caused dangerous diseases, and 96 per cent knew that passive smoking was equally dangerous.
Dr Hisham Taraf, professor of allergy and immunity at Qasr el-Aini School of Medicine at Cairo University, who was chairing the conference, noted that medication and other means of treatment helped to control bronchial asthma.
He added that modern electronic devices contributed to an accurate diagnosis on inflammations of the respiratory system, including bronchial illnesses and tuberculosis.
The use of such devices on a wide scale would contribute to fighting the spread of bronchial illnesses.
Dr Mohamed Awad Tag el-Din, professor of chest diseases, noted that 10 per cent of children had asthma, while the figure for adults was 7 to 8 per cent. He attributed this to genetic and environmental reasons.
There was a big crisis among children exposed to passive smoking. The accumulative impact constituted a big danger to their respiratory systems and hearts, he added.
Quitting smoking could prevent health deterioration, particularly among young people, because they did not yet feel any ill effects.
Dr Mayssa Sharf Eddin, professor of chest diseases, told Al-Ahram semi-official newspaper that new laws were the only way to overcome the problems caused by smoking.
There had to be a complete ban, not only in medical establishments, but also in governmental buildings, educational institutions and sports clubs.
She stressed that early detection and diagnosis would prevent patients with asthma from having severe complications. According to Dr Mona el-Falk, in 80 per cent of patients the symptoms appeared when they were five
years old

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Egypt'd Parliament in legal limbo in power struggle
AFP
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 02:47:28 PM

CAIRO - Egypt's parliament was hanging in legal limbo on Wednesday after a top court overruled a presidential decree reinstating the dissolved house, stepping up a power
struggle between the president and the army

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Thousands of Egyptians gather in Cairo's landmark Tahrir Square for a rally in support of newly-elected Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi (portrait) on July 10 as Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court froze a presidential decree reinstating the Islamist-le



"The battle for power centred around the judiciary," read the headline of independent daily Al-Watan.
The Supreme Constitutional Court on Tuesday annuled a decree by newly-elected
President Mohammed Morsi reinstating the Islamist-led lower house of parliament, after the top court last month ruled it was invalid.
"The court ordered the freeze of the president's decree," a judicial source said, adding that it "ordered that its previous ruling be implemented."
Morsi had on Sunday ordered back parliament and invited it to convene. Taking its cue from the president, the People's Assembly met on Tuesday.
"We are gathered today to review the court rulings, the ruling of the Supreme Constitutional Court," Speaker Saad al-Katatni said.
"I want to stress, we are not contradicting the ruling, but looking at a mechanism for the implementation of the ruling of the respected court. There is no other agenda today," he added.
The origins of the battle for parliament lay in a constitutional declaration issued by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), which ruled Egypt during its transition after president Hosni Mubarak was ousted last year.
The declaration, which acts as a temporary constitution until a new charter is drafted, granted the military sweeping powers, including legislative control, rendering the presidential post little more than symbolic.
The SCAF consists of generals appointed by Mubarak, as was the head of the constitutional court which annuled parliament because it found that certain articles of the law governing its election invalid.
Critics said the decision was politically motivated.
"The constitutional court whose judges were appointed by Mubarak has cancelled the president's decree and restored the field marshal's decree," wrote prominent writer and commentator Alaa el-Aswani referring to SCAF head Hussein Tantawi.
"The message is clear, the elected president is not to exercise power without the military," he said.
But others saw in Morsi's decree a constitutional coup which showed little regard for the judiciary or democracy.
"The constitutional court returns the slap to the president," wrote the liberal Al-Wafd, mouthpiece for the Wafd Party whose MPs boycotted Tuesday's parliamentary session.
Lawyers representing Morsi criticised the court's latest decision and said Tuesday's ruling was a political move that would further complicate the crisis.
"This ruling is null and void," lawyer Abdel Moneim Abdel Maqsud told reporters, while another member of the team, Mamduh Ismail, called it a "political decision".
Thousands of protesters rallied Tuesday evening in Tahrir Square, hub of the 2011 revolution, in support of Morsi and chanting "Down with the military" and other slogans hostile to judges and allegedly anti-Islamist TV anchors.
Opponents of Morsi's decree earlier protested outside the presidential palace.
The decree was hailed by those who want to see the army return to barracks, but it was criticised by those who fear an Islamist monopolisation of power as a "constitutional coup".
Speaker Katatni said the Parliament had referred the case invalidating the house to the Court of Cassation.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is due to visit Cairo on Saturday, urged all parties to engage in dialogue.
"We urge that there be intensive dialogue among all of the stakeholders in order to ensure that there is a clear path for them to be following," the chief US diplomat said after talks in Vietnam.
The Egyptian people should "get what they protested for and what they voted for, which is a fully elected government making the decisions for the country going forward," she added.


http://213.158.162.45/~egyptian/index.php?action=news&id=26806&title=Egypt'd Parliament in legal limbo in power struggle

Nobel science winners meet in Lindau
By Mohamed Kassem - The Egyptian Gazette
Monday, July 2, 2012 09:56:11 PM

LINDAU, Germany - Up-and-coming scientists from 69 countries started their meetings on Monday with 27 Nobel Prize laureates on the shores of Lake Constance in the southern German city of Lindau, to debate the future of science and inspire scientific research.

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Prof. Dr Margret Wintermantel President of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
Former physics Nobel Prize winners are to meet until Friday with the young researchers, including two Egyptians, to exchange knowledge, ideas and experience.
Welcoming a group of young researchers and journalists, Prof. Dr Margret Wintermantel, President of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), said exchange does not merely imply the exchange between different scientific disciplines, countries, researchers or viewpoints.
"Science and innovation are areas which society as a whole must support, for they have an impact on all of our lives," she stressed.
Germany has decided to gradually phase out nuclear energy by 2022 and intends to increasingly draw on renewable energy sources to meet its energy needs, she explained.
"But there are still many unresolved questions for example, how to store the energy and expand the power grid. Will we, as a nation, be able to completely convert to renewable energies? Will we have to fall back on fossil or nuclear-based energy from abroad? To find answers to all of these questions, we need science and scientists.
"I am also pleased that we, supported by our DAAD branch office in Cairo, have enabled young Egyptian researchers to participate at the meeting in Lindau this year," Dr Wintermantel concluded.
In her speech marking the official opening of the event on Sunday, Countess Bettina Bernadotte, President of the Council for the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings, urged the participants to experience what she called “the spirit of Lindau”, “a shared enthusiasm for science and a shared desire to address challenges facing the world".
"While staying true to their roots, the dynamics of the Lindau dialogue are ongoing,” the Countess pointed out, referring to the continuous progress in the scientific programme of the meetings and the various activities and projects implemented beyond the annual meetings, to connect science with society.
Projects like the exhibition ‘Sketches of Sciences’, the ‘Nobel Labs 360°’ and the new Lindau Mediatheque all form part of the ‘Mission Education’ of the council and the foundation.
The scientific programme of the 62nd Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting comprises 26 lectures and discussions, as well as four science master classes.
Every year since 1951, the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings have been bringing together the best scientists of their times and outstanding young scientists from all over the world.
The meetings focus alternately on medicine and physiology, physics, chemistry, and economic sciences.

Al-Azhar stands up to Salafis

The wording of 1971 constitution's Article 2 on Islamic Sharia will be retained, reports Gamal Essam El-Din
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Click to view caption (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2012/1106/_eg2.htm)The Constituent Assembly's Basic Components Committee meeting on Tuesday
Al-Azhar intervened this week to ensure the text of Article 2 of the 1971 constitution be retained.
"People should feel confident that the wording of the article on Islamic Sharia will not be changed," said the Sheikh of Al-Azhar Ahmed El-Tayeb.
El-Tayeb's statement came in response to attempts by Nour Party members on the Constituent Assembly to change the existing reference to Sharia as "the principle" source of legislation in Egypt. The ultraconservative Salafis wanted "principle" replaced by "major" together with the coda "legislators must draw on Islam's four sources of jurisprudence when drafting laws".
Al-Azhar's intervention led the Nour Party to accuse El-Tayeb of undermining their attempts to "apply God's laws" which, in any fundamentalist reading, include practices as stoning and the amputation of limbs.
After much discussion the Assembly's Basic Components Committee decided on Tuesday to retain the 1971 wording: "Islam is the religion of the state, Arabic is the official religion of the state and principles of Islamic Sharia are the major source of legislation". It also adds that "Al-Azhar is the major reference in interpreting the principles of Islamic Sharia and non-Muslims should refer to their religious precepts on personal matters..."
The Basic Components Committee's first article of the new constitution states that the Arab Republic of Egypt "is democratic, consultative, constitutionalÒê¦ based on the separation of powers and the principle of citizenship" and "Egypt is part of the Arab and Islamic nation with strong links to the African Continent." This differs only slightly from the text of 1971 constitution which states that "Egypt is a democratic state based on the principles of citizenship and that the Egyptian people are part of the Arab nation and seek to achieve comprehensive unity".
The addition of the word "consultative" was proposed by the Nour Party. The Constituent Assembly's Rights and Freedoms Committee has refused to allow any mention of censorship in the new constitution, including instead a guarantee of "unlimited freedom of speech".
Constituent Assembly spokesperson Wahid Abdel-Meguid said on Tuesday that Egypt's new constitution will be ready in three months.

Clinton in Cairo

Hillary Clinton will visit Egypt against a backdrop of ambiguity over the US role in President Mohamed Mursi's decision to reinstate the dissolved People Assembly, reports Ezzat Ibrahim from Washington
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Click to view caption (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2012/1106/.htm)Hillary Clinton
Next Saturday US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrives in Cairo to meet Egypt's new President Mohamed Mursi and to express US support for Egypt's democratic transition and economic development.
Clinton will meet with senior government officials, civil society and business leaders, and inaugurate the US Consulate General in Alexandria. Earlier this week US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns concluded what the State Department described as "a successful visit".
The State Department said Burns "had a very constructive meeting with President Mursi, during which he underscored the US commitment to building a new partnership with a new, democratic Egypt". Burns also stressed Washington's commitment to tangible initiatives to help Egypt meet pressing economic concerns, including creating jobs and encouraging investment.
According to State Department sources, Burns "stressed the importance of President Mursi and the new government taking an inclusive approach going forward, upholding respect for the rights of women and Egyptians of all faiths. He also touched on other topics of mutual interest, including regional security issues."
It was the first meeting between a senior American official and the newly inaugurated president of Egypt. In public Washington has refrained from expressing any position on the political crisis that erupted following Mursi's decision to recall the dissolved parliament.
"These issues are for Egyptians to decide in a manner that respects democratic principles and the transition process, and is transparent and protects the rights of all Egyptians," said a State Department spokesperson.
Clinton's visit to Cairo offers the possibility of a change in US policy towards Egypt for the first time in more than 30 years. The administration is engaged in heated discussions with the Department of Defence and Congress over the possibility of building a new partnership with Egypt under a president from the Muslim Brotherhood. Sources close to the discussions say there is strong opposition from senior Congress members to developing a new partnership with Cairo without clear bipartisan guidelines that take into consideration an array of US national interests. "What we see in Washington is not a division, but a degree of uncertainty about what President Mursi's agenda and priorities are." Tamara Wittes, director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, told Al-Ahram Weekly.
In the short-term the US administration might build a pragmatic relationship with Egypt's new president through assistance packages, include support for reform programmes formulated by any new government and pushing Congress to approve a debt swap agreement which would allow Egypt to create a special investment fund. In the meantime, the Republican-majority House of Representatives has expressed unease at the Brotherhood's ascendancy, with many arguing that it is premature to build a close partnership with Egypt in the absence of any "clarity" from the Brotherhood on regional issues, especially guarantees to preserve the Camp David Accords. For some prominent Middle East experts in Washington, the US could not afford to avoid dialogue with the MB.
Clinton will visit Israel in her way to Cairo, while Burns is slated to lead the US delegation at the US-Israel Strategic Dialogue.
"Now it gets complicated," Jackson Diehl of the Washington Post wrote earlier this week. "For the foreseeable future, US officials will have to navigate between Mursi and the Brotherhood, with their nominally democratic but fundamentally anti-Western agenda; the military, which is doing its best to block the creation of democratic institutions while preserving its lifelines with the Pentagon and Israel; and the secular democratic forces that led last year's revolution, which are broadly pro-Western but are squeezed by both the generals and the clerics."
Some experts are suggesting US officials reaffirm a commitment to support only real democratic transformation and continuous advances in human rights and minority rights in Egypt. It is widely believed that Clinton will raise these issues in her meetings with Egypt's new political elite. Inevitably, relations with Israel and building channels for future contacts between Cairo and Tel Aviv will be high on her agenda.
Washington's pro-Israel lobby is arguing that Congress oppose immediate support for Egypt's new government until it displays its good intentions to Israel. For many Middle East ****ysts in Washington it is too early to judge the Brotherhood's intentions and how they might translate into policies.
"The Brotherhood has struggled to deal with its own ascendance, as it suffers internal fissures and unprecedented public scrutiny. Not even the Brotherhood's leadership seems quite certain how their new opportunities will ultimately affect their behavior, their ideology, or their internal organization," writes Marc Lynch of George Washington University.
In an election year Barack Obama will be wary of the way his relationship with Egypt's new Islamist president is perceived by the electorate. On Monday, the White House downplayed reports of possible meeting between Obama and Mursi in September.
"[The] president looks forward to meeting the new president of Egypt at the UN General Assembly," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.
Mursi's own spokesman, Yasser Ali, told reporters on Sunday that Obama, through Burns, had invited Mursi to visit Washington. Carney subsequently said reports of the possible visit were "overstated".
"The president," he said, "will have a chance to meet with or see President Mursi at the UN General Assembly."

Patience in the ranks

When Mursi decided to reinstate the parliament which SCAF dissolved, the generals remained calm. Was a deal struck
beforehand, asks Amirah Ibrahim

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Click to view caption (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2012/1106/_eg5.htm)El-Ganzouri, Mursi, Tantawi, Anan and El-Tayeb attend a graduation ceremony of military cadets on Monday
Against the backdrop of President Mohamed Mursi's call to reinstate the dissolved parliament, and the probability that the decision would evoke a clash between the president, the Muslim Brotherhood and the 19 generals who have been in control of the country since last year, a showdown did not happen.
On Sunday, Mursi issued a presidential decree cancelling an earlier decree issued by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) to dissolve parliament based on a judicial ruling by the Supreme Constitutional Court.
On Monday, SCAF replied with a measured response disappointing those who bet that the army would confront the president. SCAF defended its stance, saying it had only acted on behalf of the court ruling.
"SCAF did not order the parliament to be dissolved. It only acted as an administrative committee to put the court ruling into effect," explained a military source who preferred to remain anonymous. "SCAF's Decree 350 filled a legislative vacuum in the country. A new president was about to be elected and SCAF wanted to ensure a legal president.
"This is not our battle. It is the judiciary's, and those after a state of law must be respected not insulted," the source added.
"We are confident that all state institutions will be respected as what was issued in all constitutional declarations," SCAF said in a statement, also dismissing rumours about a deal over power sharing.
Mursi's decision on Sunday stipulated cancelling SCAF Decree 350 which considered the parliament dissolved starting from 15 June.
"There is nothing wrong as long as the president used his executive powers to cancel a decree by the former executive power," commented a military source. "The first item [Decree 350] comes within the president's power. But the items which followed are not. It called the dissolved parliament to take back its validities as a legal council which is not correct as per the Supreme Constitutional Court's ruling."
Dominated by the Islamists, the parliament launched its first session on 23 January. After four months, it was halted by a court ruling, just as the nation was busy electing its first president after the revolution. SCAF assumed legislative power, taking over from parliament its two main concerns: legislation and budget monitoring.
Mursi's decree supposedly should have taken legislation and budget monitoring from SCAF and given it back to parliament.
SCAF generals did not wait for long. On Tuesday, the Supreme Constitutional Court halted Mursi's decision and affirmed its ruling to dissolve parliament and considered any motion to revive it invalid. Last month, the same court said parliamentary elections were unconstitutional, saying parliament was invalid starting from day one.
The day after Mursi's shock move, the president joined SCAF generals at two military academy graduation ceremonies. Last week, Mursi attended the graduation ceremonies of the Navy Academy and Air Defence Academy, both in Alexandria. He appeared chatting and trying to close ranks with young officers. Head of SCAF Hussein Tantawi was there.
In Cairo on Monday, Tantawi and other generals joined the president 24 hours after his controversial decree at two other graduation ceremonies. Mursi showed no obvious signs of strain as he moved from one military academy to another, accompanied by Tantawi, SCAF members and top state officials. On Tuesday, however, as Mursi and Tantawi were attending another graduation ceremony at the Air Force Academy, the Supreme Constitutional Court issued its ruling that put a halt to Mursi's decision.
Yet the confrontation is far from over. There is speculation over similar intentions by the president to cancel SCAF's recent constitutional declaration to write the new constitution. There was even talk about Mursi going as far as dissolving SCAF.

The Syrian cauldron

While the Western powers have their own reasons for wanting to bring down the Syrian regime, Turkey's agenda is far less clear, writes Jeremy Salt in Ankara
Tensions between Turkey and Syria along their border are edging closer to a flashpoint. Some weeks ago, a Turkish air force jet was shot down after violating Syrian air space. The Syrian government said the plane was hit while inside Syrian air space. Turkey says it had already left Syrian air space and was hit in international air space.
What the plane was doing inside Syrian air space is another matter. Turkey's president, Abdullah Gul, said it had "strayed" off course. Other accounts suggest that it was there to "light up" Syria's radar system or test its missile defences. Turkey immediately sent troops and armour to the border and invoked Article 4 of the NATO Charter, calling for consultation with its partners in the alliance. They immediately endorsed the Turkish version. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the shooting down of the plane "brazen" while UK Foreign Secretary William Hague thought it was "outrageous", words, one cannot help noting, that have never been used to describe the missile attacks by US and UK armed forces that have killed civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Libya.
Another "incident" might lead to Turkey's invoking Article 5, the common defence article of the NATO Charter, which regards an attack on one member as an attack on all. War between Syria and Turkey would then become war between Syria and all NATO members, leading in turn to confrontation between the NATO/Gulf state bloc on the one hand and Russia, China, Iran and their allies on the other.
There is nothing accidental or unwilled about what is happening in Syria. The government in Damascus has been deliberately locked into a cycle of violence fed from the outside by the self-styled "Friends of Syria". Both sides are implicated in the killing of civilians, yet the mainstream media has created a narrative in which virtually all the killing is the work of the army or the "regime loyalists" known as the shabiha.
"Activists" routinely blame every murder, bombing and act of sabotage on the government even when the victims have been Baath loyalists (as was the case of the professor murdered by armed men in her home on the outskirts of Homs in late June, along with her three children and parents). The suffering of families whose menfolk have been killed after taking up arms against the government is reported in the media but not the suffering of families who have lost members to the armed groups.
The jury remains out on the Hawla massacre. While the UN Human Rights Council says in its latest report that "many" of the killings "may" have been the work of regime loyalists, other evidence points to the massacre having been the handiwork of jihadis, reportedly including the Farouq Brigade of the so-called Free Syrian Army. As the Human Rights Council admits that it has no conclusive evidence as to who was behind this massacre, it might have been more responsible if it had said nothing unless and until it did have such evidence.
This unbalanced narrative feeds into the war strategies being framed by the "Friends of Syria". These "friends" insist that the armed campaign they are sponsoring is directed against the government and not the people. What "the people" -- by any measure the majority of Syrians -- want is hard to gauge amidst such chaos, but the evidence suggests they see these "friends" as their enemies. The referendum in February and the elections in May were hardly perfect, but they remain the clearest indications yet of general support amongst Syrians for a political solution to the crisis gripping their country. Outside the enclaves dominated by the armed groups, the people are strongly opposed to these groups and their external backers, knowing that but for the obstruction of Russia and China, NATO warplanes would have already been bombing their country long ago.
Outside governments have fastened on Syria's problems with the tenacity of leeches. The "Arab Spring" created the opportunity to reshape the Middle East at its political and geographical centre, and they have seized it. Although paying lip service to Kofi Annan's ceasefire plan, they are prolonging the violence in the hope that the Syrian army will eventually disintegrate and the government implode.
While the destruction of the government in Damascus is an end in itself, Syria must also be seen as a way station on the road to Iran. If the Baath government can be brought down in Syria, the strategic alliance between Iran, Syria and Hizbullah will collapse at the centre. Even if the government is not dislodged, Syria will be in such chaos that it will be unable to respond if Iran is attacked. Hizbullah would be similarly immobilised. Israel would be able to attack without having to worry about a second front opening up across its northern armistice lines. President Vladimir Putin's assurance while on an apparently unscheduled visit to Israel that Iran will not develop a nuclear weapon may have been a last-ditch attempt to ward off an attack on Iran. Perhaps Russian intelligence has found out that a decision has been taken and the date and time set.
Turkey's initial response to the "Arab Spring" was sluggish. The Tunisian president was gone before the Turkish government had time to react. It waited almost until the end before calling on Mubarak to step down. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke strongly against military intervention anywhere in the region before coming in behind the armed attack on Libya. On Syria, he and his foreign minister claimed to have given President Bashar Al-Assad good advice that he refused to take before deciding that he had to go. In late summer, they threw their government's weight behind the establishment both of the "Syrian National Council" (SNC) and the "Free Syrian Army" (FSA), giving the first a home in Istanbul and the second sanctuary in southeastern Turkey.
For the first time in Turkey's republican history, a government had committed itself to "regime change" in a neighbouring country; for the first time a government had sponsored an armed group operating across its border to kill the citizens of a neighbouring country. Even now the moral and legal implications of this policy have scarcely been touched upon in the Turkish media.
For a country which has a long history of other governments meddling in its affairs, the Turkish position is almost surreal. This is not just because of the parallel between the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the FSA, both crossing the borders of neighbouring countries to kill the citizens of their own countries; both claiming to be fighting in the name of human rights and freedom; and both regarded as terrorist organisations by the governments of the countries in which they are operating. The history of external meddling and support for rebels by outside governments goes deep into the history of Turkey and before that of the former Ottoman Empire, from support for the Greek rebels in the 1820s, to support for Bulgarian rebels in the 1870s and Macedonian and Armenian rebels in the 1890s.
Intervention in the name of bringing civilisation was replaced in the 20th century by intervention in the name of democracy and freedom, and now we have intervention in the name of humanitarian concern -- a continuing theme throughout these two centuries -- and the "responsibility to protect". In a paradoxical play on history, Turkey is now intervening in Syria as the imperial powers once intervened in the Ottoman Empire and as they are still intervening in the affairs of other countries.
Other agendas are easy to see. Saudi Arabia wanted the US to attack Iran during the George W Bush presidency and "cut the head off the snake". Its interests are partly ideological, directed against Shiism in general as well as Iran in particular, while also arising from the traditional Saudi fear of its large northern neighbour. The US put the Syrian government on its list of states that support terrorism in 1979, and since the introduction of SALSA (Syrian Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Act, 2003) it has gradually tightened economic sanctions on the country in an effort to bring the government to its knees.
For Israel, Syria has always been the visceral Arab enemy, and, of course, what Israel wants, any US administration will do its best to deliver. Turmoil in the Arab world suits Israel down to the ground, literally. It is tightening its hold on all the territories occupied in 1967 all the time without the world paying any attention because of the drama of the "Arab Spring". Not that the world has ever paid much attention, but for the moment Israel is having a dream run.
The one agenda that is difficult to determine is Turkey's. It has the approval of its partners inside NATO and of the collective known as the "Friends of Syria", but this has come at a heavy price. Cross-border trade in the southeast of the country has all but collapsed. Relations with Iran, Iraq and Russia have been undermined. Perceptions of government sympathy for a Muslim Brotherhood-type government in Syria have aroused the suspicions of Turkish Alevis, especially in the border province of Hatay, where the population is about 50 per cent Alevi. This region was severed from Syria by the French in 1938 and handed to Turkey. Both Alevis and Christians still have family ties across the border, and both see the Al-Assad government as the effective guarantor of minority rights. They certainly do not share their own government's perspective.
What is currently being played out in the region is one of the greatest power games since the end of the First World War. Behind the cover of the "Arab Spring", the obstacles to renewed Western domination of the region are being removed one by one. The destabilisation of Syria is bringing the region close to a war with potentially catastrophic global repercussions, but the rewards are so great that the Western coalition cannot help itself from pressing against all the red lines.
Turkey's involvement is central to Western strategic planning, and if war does come, either through accident or design, Turkey will be right on the front line. A recent poll carried out by the Centre for Economic and Foreign Policy Research shows strong opposition to any deeper involvement in the Syrian crisis among Turks. The majority of those polled (56 per cent) do not support military intervention in Syria, and only a small number (less than eight per cent) support the arming of the Syrian opposition. The question now is whether the Turkish people realise how deeply their government is already involved. The ruling party dominates parliament, but Syria might yet prove to be its Achilles heel.
The writer is an associate professor of Middle Eastern history and politics at Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey.

The Arafat forensic file reopened

While the Palestinian Authority has dodged many bullets on its dubious relation with Israel, it may not be able to dodge the charge that Israel assassinated Yasser Arafat, writes Saleh Al-Naami
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Click to view caption (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2012/1106/_re11.htm)Palestinian Mahmoud Sarsak, a former player with the national football team, is carried by his supporters in Rafah after his release from Israeli prison where he was held for three years without charges or trial, Tuesday. Sarsak had staged a hunger strike for more than 90 days to press for his release
Palestinian Authority (PA) spokespersons were clearly at a loss for words in response to the results of an investigation into the death of former Palestinian president Yasser Arafat carried out by Al-Jazeera and broadcast last week. The seemingly incontrovertible revelation that the commission formed by the PA leadership eight years ago to probe the circumstances surrounding Arafat's death was not serious in its intent to unearth the truth has been deeply embarrassing for PA officials. The Al-Jazeera report revealed quite a few details that the commission should have been able to learn and that were previously unknown to the Palestinian public.
Under the onslaught of public pressure, the Palestinian leadership announced that it was ready to cooperate with the research teams that took part in the Al-Jazeera investigation. PA spokesmen took the occasion to state that they had no shadow of a doubt that Israel was behind the poisoning of "Abu Ammar" (Arafat's nom de guerre) and that they were determined to get to the truth. At the same time, they tried to give the impression that the commission that was formed in the aftermath of Arafat's death continued to function and that Tawfiq Al-Tirawi, the Palestinian intelligence chief during Arafat's last days, was still its head.
Al-Tirawi stated that the commission would soon submit a report to PA President Mahmoud Abbas, adding that the commission had learned that there had been breaches in the security systems and services that were protecting Arafat when he was under blockade in his headquarters in Ramallah shortly before his death in 2004. The former intelligence chief said that Arafat had increasingly come to feel that his life was in jeopardy because of statements coming out of Israel signalling that he was targeted for assassination.
Statements by PA officials may do little to defuse the heat of criticism. It was not the fact that the commission headed by Al-Tirawi did very little that angered many Palestinians, but that no one had ever heard of this commission before. Nevertheless, the PA leadership has vowed to cooperate with various international agencies and to offer all possible assistance and facilities in the interest of uncovering the circumstances behind Arafat's death, which is now strongly suspected to have been the result of poisoning. Communications are currently in progress with the Institute of Radiophysics in Lausanne to discuss arrangements for a team from that institute to travel to Ramallah in order to determine whether it will be necessary to exhume Arafat's remains in order to perform the necessary tests to ascertain whether the cause of death was indeed polonium poisoning. Some questioned the necessity of this, since all experts interviewed by Al-Jazeera agree that exhumation will be necessary in order to determine the levels of this radioactive substance in the body.
In order to lend greater credibility to their pledges, PA officials have called for a UN Security Council resolution to form an international inquiry commission on the assassination of Arafat. Member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation Executive Committee Saeb Ereikat told reporters that President Abbas asked French President Fran³ýois Hollande to pursue the necessary measures in the Security Council to create a trustworthy international inquiry commission to investigate the circumstances behind the death of Arafat, similar to the UN commission that was tasked with investigating the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Al-Hariri. Ereikat said that in the event that such a UN commission was not created, the Arab League would call for an international Arab investigation and that the Arab League secretary-general was currently studying the matter closely. He added: "We must learn the truth behind the assassination of Arafat and the means by which it was accomplished."
Talal Okal, a member of the board of trustees of the Yasser Arafat Foundation and a member of the committee that this foundation created in 2009 to discover the causes of the late Palestinian president's death, said that the PA's task was complicated by international pressures to prevent Palestine from obtaining a seat in the United Nations. "The situation is difficult and complex, but the PA now has no other choice but to press for an international investigation in light of the extreme sensitivity of this matter among the Palestinian people who attach great importance to the need to discover the circumstances surrounding the death of their leader, Arafat."
But Palestinians are not alone in demanding an inquiry since learning the information that came to light in the Al-Jazeera investigative report. The Tunisian foreign minister, Rafiq Abdel-Salam, has called for an emergency meeting of the Arab League to discuss the subject. Nevertheless, Okal believes that the Palestinians will encounter stiff international resistance to their pursuit of an international inquiry into Arafat's death. "The US administration and Israel will exert enormous pressure on the PA to keep it from turning to the UN," he said. "It is not just a question of technology or material capacities. There is also the refusal on the part of countries concerned to supply answers that will help the course of the investigations. Foremost among these are France and the medical team in Percy Hospital (to which Arafat was moved in November 2004 after a grave deterioration in his health in Ramallah). In addition there will be mounting Israeli pressures to prevent a full investigation."
Okal held that the Al-Jazeera report confirmed Palestinian suspicions that Israel was responsible for Arafat's death, but "the investigation remains incomplete both in terms of conclusions and in terms of their ramifications." He went on to argue that US administration will do its utmost to prevent an international investigation because of the great embarrassment that would cause to Washington. "In fact, the international community, and the members of the International Quartet in particular, collaborated with the perpetrator and even remained a step ahead so as not to find itself in the position of having to take a public position against Israel which these partners know with certainty was the perpetrator. Once again, the great powers -- the manufactures of international policies --should be ashamed of themselves for their flagrant exercise of double standards in view of how they acted in similar cases."
Okal added: "The decision to assassinate an international figure of the stature of the martyr Yasser Arafat is not one that could have been taken by a few. Most likely some former Arab leaders had advanced knowledge of the plan to eliminate Arafat."
Many Palestinians remain unconvinced that the PA leadership is serious in its intent to unearth the truth about the death of Arafat. There reason for this is quite simple: many members of this leadership were instrumental in the drive to eliminate Arafat politically. Ghassan Abu Samha, a teacher in Gaza, asks: "Why did Mahmoud Abbas agree to cooperate with Israel and the West after plans were put into effect to annihilate Arafat politically at the height of Al-Aqsa Intifada?" He goes on to observe: "Unfortunately, Abu Mazen [Abbas] displayed no resistance whatsoever to the Israeli-US project, which subsequently furnished the conditions for Arafat's physical annihilation."
Some Palestinians are of the opinion that the PA leadership's cooperation in putting into effect the US-Israeli devised "roadmap" unveiled by former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice in March 2003 helped pave the way for the elimination of Arafat. As one source explained, Arafat "stood in the way of designs to eliminate the Palestinian resistance in the West Bank and Gaza, which Israel realised could not be accomplished unless there was close cooperation between the PA security agencies and Israeli intelligence, especially in the West Bank."
In fact, as we look back, perhaps the first step toward sidelining Arafat was the restructuring of the PA hierarchy so as to create the position of prime minister. Even then, it was no secret that the Bush administration and the Sharon government had eyed current PA president, Mahmoud Abbas, for the job. Abbas was firmly and publicly opposed to the use of armed force as an instrument of resistance against the occupation, which, from the perspective of Tel Aviv and Washington, made him the ideal successor to Arafat.
Curiously, Al-Jazeera's revelations pointing to Arafat's assassination by poisoning coincide with the success of Palestinian protest movements to prevent a meeting between Abbas and Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz in Ramallah. This coincidence is not without considerable symbolic significance to many Palestinians. Mofaz was the Israeli minister of defence at the time of Arafat's death and of all the members of Sharon's government at the time he was the most ardent advocate of eliminating Arafat, a view that he expressed on numerous occasions. According to some Palestinians the very willingness of PA officials to meet with Mofaz, in particular, is proof of their disregard for the Palestinian blood that was shed in the Intifada.
As the foregoing suggests, the Al-Jazeera documentary has reignited controversy in Palestine on a number of interrelated issues that have profound significance to the Palestinian people. Naturally, all eyes are on the PA leadership to see whether it will take the steps necessary to confirm the sincerity of its desire to investigate the circumstances surrounding Arafat's death. The PA leadership, for its part, is caught in a vice. On the one hand, it cannot circumvent the overwhelming popular demand to learn the truth. On the other, it fears that it will lose all justification for sustaining its relationship with Israel in the event that the investigation establishes what Palestinians already believe to be true, that Tel Aviv is guilty of the crime.

Effective efections?

A number of important defections are taking place from the Syrian military, indicating that the regime could be crumbling, writes Bassel Oudat in Damascus
A key defection from the circle of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad took place on 6 July when brigadier Manaf Tlass, the commander of Brigade 105 in the presidential guard and a close personal friend of Al-Assad, left Syria for Paris with his family.
Tlass is the son of former Syrian defence minister Mustafa Tlass, who served in the post for 30 years and was a confidante of the late president Hafez Al-Assad, as well as his collaborator in tightening the security grip of the Syrian regime.
Manaf Tlass is a member of the military and political elite close to the president. Observers view his defection as a clear sign that figures close to Al-Assad's personal circle have now started to switch allegiances and turn their backs on the president as the popular uprising in the country enters its 16th month, draining the resources of the regime and the Syrian military.
Some opposition figures said that Tlass had "bailed out of a sinking ship" by his action and was "trying to save his family's immense wealth." Regime sources have downplayed the defection, saying that Tlass had been under house arrest for months and his defection would not influence the military situation on the ground.
Nonetheless, Al-Assad's opponents in Syria and in the West have rejoiced over Tlass's defection because it could signal the beginning of the collapse of the regime.
Senior Western officials took particular interest in the defection because of Tlass's close connections to Al-Assad. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the move was "very critical because the inner circle has started to realise that the regime will not survive".
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the "defections prove that the Syrian government is unraveling," and US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said that "the situation is changing in Syria."
Tlass is not the most senior officer to defect since the beginning of the uprising in Syria that has thus far killed an estimated 16,000 civilians and more than 4,000 military personnel. According to the Free Syrian Army (FSA), the military wing of the Syrian opposition, more than 250 senior officers have deserted from the regular army, including ones ranked higher than Tlass.
A few days before Tlass defected, former Syrian MP and cleric Mohamed Habash, close to the regime for two decades, distanced himself from it and blamed it for the killings in Syria.
Speaking from Dubai, Habash justified his support for the regime in the past as a way of defending the country against US interference. Now, however, the regime should undertake comprehensive change, he said, starting with the removal of the president.
At the beginning of July, five senior Syrian army officers fled to Turkey, among them a major-general in the signal corps and 33 soldiers and their families.
One day later, another report said that 85 soldiers had fled to Turkey, this time including a major-general in the artillery division along with seven senior officers. In mid-June, some 455 senior officers, officers and soldiers were reported to have defected from the army.
A few weeks earlier, an air force colonel absconded to Jordan aboard his MiG-21, where he was given political asylum. Meanwhile, three other fighter pilots joined their colleague and entered Jordan across the shared border with Syria but left their jets behind.
FSA leaders estimate the number of defections to have reached 100,000 so far, and that Turkey alone has been giving refuge to nearly 250 FSA officers in the Hatai district in the south of the country near the border with Syria.
Three of these officers are major-generals, and there are also 50 brigadiers and more than 15 officers from the Ministry of Interior as well as military and civilian officials.
FSA commander colonel Riad Al-Asaad has said that morale is high in the FSA after the rise in defections from the regular army, now estimated at 100-200 defections every day.
Al-Asaad said in a recent interview that the regular army had started to lose control over large swathes of Syrian territory and that its control was now limited to military sites and barricades. The FSA controls some 60 per cent of the territory at night, he said.
"It is the beginning of the end" for the regime, Al-Asaad said.
The opposition has also revealed that key defections have occurred from Syria's air force and that entire airbases have been abandoned, such as the Dar Ezza airbase in Aleppo and the missile battalion in Al-Rastan in Homs.
Meanwhile, some 869 officers from the 1,100 posted in the city of Al-Rastan in central Syria have defected, and some 80 per cent of soldiers from the southern governorate of Deraa have also defected. Half of these have fled to Jordan and the others have joined the FSA.
Although the opposition fighters are no match in terms of weapons to the much larger regular army, which comprises 325,000 soldiers and a similar number of reserves, they are counting on the erosion of loyalty within the regular army to cause it to lose control.
One of the reasons why the regime is taking so long to collapse despite the defections may be because senior security and military officials have not abandoned it, given the regime's reliance on sectarian affiliations to run the state apparatus, the security services and the army.
The opposition believes that since a political solution for the Syrian crisis may now be unattainable, the defectors should be embraced despite their past support for the regime.
It has described them as a valuable catch because they may have information about senior officials in Syria and may know the weak points of the army. They may also be able to encourage others to defect from the regime.
For the moment, the West has been reluctant to supply opposition forces with advanced weaponry out of concerns that this could end up in the hands of anti-Western Islamists. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and some wealthy Syrians want to fund and arm the armed opposition, however, though fears that a sectarian war could break out in Syria have thus far been discouraging them.
The Arab peace initiative proposed by the Arab League (AL) at the end of last year was unsuccessful, and the UN and AL envoy Kofi Annan declared earlier this week that plans to end the military *****down and transition to a political solution had also ended in failure.
Last month, UN monitors abandoned their mission in Syria after two months spent in the country without achieving any progress on the ground. As skirmishes continue using heavy artillery on the outskirts of the Syrian capital Damascus, it now appears that developments on the ground are beyond the reach of diplomatic initiatives.
As a result, the military wing of the Syrian opposition has been growing in strength, and it is no longer restricted to the FSA, established in July 2011 with the aim of protecting the protesters.
Other armed opposition forces today include the Supreme Revolutionary Military Council (SRMC), led by Brigadier-General Mustafa El-Sheikh and established in February, the Local Military Council, which receives funds and military assistance from revolutionaries abroad, and other independent armed groups loyal to various financial and military donors.
Meanwhile, security reports say that senior military officers in the regime have been planning their exit strategies and opening channels of communications with the opposition in order to discuss their fates if they decide to defect from the army.
These senior officers apparently include members of Al-Assad's inner circle.
Recent leaks in the US and European press have also stated that some European and Arab states, along with the US, have drawn up a roadmap to support the FSA financially and militarily.
Under the plan, a minimum salary of $200 would be paid to each defecting soldier, helping them to unite and form a single army across Syria.
The plan would also speed up the rate of defections from the regular army by giving refuge to deserters, together with an income and arms, and it would launch a military confrontation against the regular army with the implicit promise that after the ouster of the regime power would be handed to the FSA.
If the plan were to be applied, it could result in more defections from the regular army and could better equip the FSA for battle. However, it would also cause further widespread destruction in Syria.
For the moment, the Syrian protesters do not fear for the future, since their priority is to overthrow the regime and halt its military machine, terminating the tight grip of the intelligence agencies that have ruled their lives for decades.
The defectors are not viewed negatively because of their formerly close ties to the regime, but there are growing fears that they may drag Syria into an unknown future.

Warning signs of skin cancer



Skin cancer can be a deadly battle to fight. With most symptoms left undiagnosed, it can become quite a threat to one’s health. The following guide will help you detect those early signs and seek treatment before it gets too late.

1. Actinic Keratosis

Also known as Solar Keratosis, this condition implies natural and scaly *****es of skin found most commonly on the head, around the neck or hands, and these are a result of overexposure to the sun. Although these can deemed as the early signs of skin cancer, the chances of these *****es becoming cancerous, is entirely subjective. However, most dermatologists recommend patients should attend to these *****es to facilitate early treatment.

2. Farmer’s Lip

Clinically termed as Actinic Cheilitis, Farmer’s Lip condition is similar to Solar Keratosis in its manifestation. This is fairly common in older men and light skinned people. Characterised by swelling of lips, disappearance of the lip-skin border, general scaly texture and *****es of unexplained redness, this type of affliction may become a malignant carcinoma if left untreated.

3. Cutaneous Horns

The appearance of funnel shaped growths with a red base is usually the most telling symptom of its appearance. The scaly texture is characterised by the presence of keratin, which is the same protein that constitutes nails. They start out with only a few millimeters in length and diameter, but can grow up to considerable amounts. The bases of these horns contain the carcinogenous cells that, later on, give way to skin cancer.

4. Atypical Moles

Clinically known as Dysplastic Nevi, these are larger, irregular shaped moles, occurring all over the body, with a fading border of mixed colour, which tend to grow with time. Although the appearance of these notch-like moles might not signify cancer straight away, if left untreated, it might soon become cancerous.

5. Melanoma

Although not as common as the other symptoms, it, nevertheless, is the deadliest type. A melanoma can be spotted in an unexplained formation of a mole, or a sudden pigmentation of the skin. Changes in the size, shape or colour of the mole are some of the earlier symptoms. However, if the mole develops irregular edges, causes itch, oozes pus or bleeds intermittently, one is advised to seek immediate medical attention.

6. Squamous Cell Carcinoma

This type rears its head as a red but firm nodal growth on the skin, which eventually gets crusty and bleeds, or becomes an unsealing sore. Occurring mostly in the areas of the body that are exposed to sun, they tend to form over the neck, arms, head, forehead, nose, cheeks and lips. This carcinoma is completely treatable and if detected early, the affliction can suitably be done away with.

7. Basal Cell Carcinoma

This is the most common occurrence and by far the most easily treated carcinoma in the category. Due to its slow expansion, it can take varied forms to manifest itself. Unsightly bumps with visible blood vessels, mostly occurring on the neck or on the face, this type can manifest itself as a scar like ***** and grow on to be cancerous.

Skin cancer is a growing ailment among people with constant exposure to the sun. Based on the above mentioned symptoms, if one finds any such occurrence on their skin, they are advised to get in touch with their dermatologists as soon as possible.

شكرا بس عندى سؤال
الترجمة هتنزل إمتى ؟

Weight and height: what is the relation? (http://www.hforcare.com/?p=301)

http://www.hforcare.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/weight-and-height--300x225.jpg (http://www.hforcare.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/weight-and-height-.jpg)
Picture by sylvar


Many studies (http://www.happyvagabonds.com/health/obesity-height-weight.htm) have revealed the connection between weight and height and several diseases. Health issues such as diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity have been found to have a direct relationship to the BMI (Body, Mass Index) and the relationship between weight and height especially in children One of the largest epidemics in our society today is the startling number of obese children in our countries. Never before has a generation of children been destined to die at a younger age than their parents or the generations before them. Children and young adults who exceed the healthy ration of weight to height are more susceptible to malnutrition, high blood pressure and the incidence of diabetes has been recorded in children as young as four years old. This would have been unheard of a generation ago. The body, mass index in a way of calculating a healthy ratio of body fat in relation to weight and height. A person is considered obese if he is more than 20 pounds over his body, mass index ratio. Knowing your BMI can help you find out if you need to diet and exercise to prevent the diseases


inherent in an unhealthy weight to height ratio

http://www.hforcare.com/?p=301.

What are the symptoms of diabetes?




http://www.hforcare.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/diabetes-300x199.jpg (http://www.hforcare.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/diabetes.jpeg)
Picture by cogdogblog

Many of us have heard of diabetes and know that it can cause complications. However, knowing the symptoms of diabetes can help save you a lot of trouble later on in life. However, many times diabetes goes undiagnosed because the symptoms of it tend to appear harmless. You also should be aware that there are two main types of diabetes, Type 1 and Type 2. Symptoms of Type 1 diabetes include unusual thirst, extreme hunger, frequent urination, extreme irritability and fatigue, and unusual weight loss. Type 2 diabetes also has the same symptoms as Type 1, but there are others as well. These can include blurred vision, frequent infections, recurring gum, skin, or bladder infections, tingling or numbness of the feet and hands, slow healing cuts or bruises, and blurred vision. Many times, Type 2 diabetes symptoms do not show up. Diabetes causes excess sugar to build up in the blood, causing your kidneys to work overtime in order to filter and absorb this excess sugar. When the kidneys struggle with this, this sugar is excreted into the urine, along with any fluids drawn from the tissue. This means that you urinate more, meaning you become dehydrated. This cycle repeats itself, and this constant urination and drinking is a classic symptom of diabetes. The earlier that you catch hold of these symptoms and get your diabetes under control, the less your chances of complication become



http://www.hforcare.com/?p=383 (http://www.hforcare.com/?p=383)

Could air conditioning be a cause of your neck pain?




http://www.hforcare.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/neck-pain-300x225.jpg (http://www.hforcare.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/neck-pain.jpeg)
Picture by lululemon athletica


Many of us have suffered from neck pain from sleeping wrong. But did you also know that this pain can be caused by the one thing that keeps us cool during the summer: our air conditioners? This is because of the quick changes in temperature, the chilling of the muscles, which causes our muscles to contract painfully. There are other causes of this pain as well, such a whiplash, which is caused by a violent movement of your spinal column. Emotional tension and working or driving in the same position for many hours can also cause neck pain. Most of the time, your nerve endings become compressed or inflamed. However, there is hope. There are many ways to help you relieve your sore neck so that it does not have to ruin your day completely. Some of these include an anti-inflammatory medication, acetaminophen, application of heat or ice, or simply movement exercises. Sometimes a local injection is required, or in severe cases, surgery is needed. It is a bummer to know that your air conditioning can cause some of the pain that you are experiencing. But knowing what can cause your neck pain is half the battle. The other half is knowing how to fix the issues, and make yourself

feel better

http://www.hforcare.com/?p=393 (http://www.hforcare.com/?p=393)

How to Offer Ramadan Greetings

Ramadan is a month-long fast for Muslims around the world. From dawn to sunset, observant Muslims abstain from eating and drinking. This period is marked by joyful greetings and a desire to be faithful to Allah.




http://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/video/offer-ramadan-greetings-132112892.html (http://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/video/offer-ramadan-greetings-132112892.html)

How To Fast For Ramadan


Fasting from sunrise to sunset every day is a crucial part of Ramadan, the annual, month-long Muslim celebration that marks Allah's revelation of the Koran to the Prophet Muhammad. These tips will help you stay strong throughout






http://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/video/fast-ramadan-132112855.html (http://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/video/fast-ramadan-132112855.html)

What Causes Cancer?
Cancer is a complex group of diseases with many possible causes. In this section you can learn more about the known causes of cancer, including genetic factors; lifestyle factors such as tobacco use, diet, and physical activity; certain types of infections; and environmental exposures to different types of chemicals and radiation.


http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/CancerCauses/index (http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/CancerCauses/index)

Thank you very much about this subject which considerd one of the dangerous diseases in egypt country

thanks alot

ramadan karem

All Muslims in all corners of the globe celebrate this holy month

Which is a grant and a gift from God for Muslims

The duty of every Muslim to take this good opportunity to correct the water with God Almighty

thanks soo much to topic

Best regards

Abu Basmalah

Professor Mohammed

All the best for Chkksam good in the supervision of this section

Multi beautiful

Tips and expensive, of course, accept it
Each year, you are all fine

Abu Basmalah

Everyone in Egypt already suffer from this pain

For reasons which are already Atkievat

Or fans

Ommarsat bad day

We call for all Egyptians to stay healthy and happy

My sincere appreciation to Professor Muhammad

Abu Basmalah

The diabetes is not a big dangerous to human life
It is the land that they say about a friend of the man

Man is the one who can Alsatrah on these diseases, a balanced diet


We ask God to heal all

Alangat sincere in good health for all

Abu Basmalah

Is a strong relationship in this way to be obese as children and the cause of death at a young age

What's the main reason for the obesity
Is genetics ?
Is bad diet?

God healed all our children from all harm and ill-

Thanks for the news

Sincere wishes of good health and happiness


Abu Basmalah

Thanks a lot for the news

thanks alot for the topic

thanks alot for the nice topic

Thanks for your efforts

Thanks for your efforts

Thanks for your efforts

May Allah Reward you

:av4056bb7jp3::av4056bb7jp3::av4056bb7jp3:thaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanks
may allah bless and reward UUUUUUUUUU

:av4056bb7jp3::av4056bb7jp3::av4056bb7jp3:thaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaanks
may allah bless:av4056bb7jp3: and reward UUUUUUUUUU

thaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaanks
may allah bless:av4056bb7jp3: and reward UUUUUUUUUU

thaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaanks
may allah bless:av4056bb7jp3: and reward UUUUUUUUUU

merci.....

thanks!!!!!

Poison in the blood

Thousands of furious protesters stormed US diplomatic missions in Cairo and Benghazi after the screening of an anti-Islam movie that insults Prophet Mohamed, writes Gamal Nkrumah
An Israeli filmmaker based in California produced an anti-Muslim movie that incensed the Islamic world. The film was scheduled to be screened in the US marking the 11th anniversary of the 11 September terrorist
attack in New York and Washington.
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2012/1114/_fr02.jpg (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2012/1114/.htm)

Click to view caption (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2012/1114/.htm)
The Innocence of Muslims, the film that enraged Muslims around the world, has led protesters in Cairo to storm the United States Embassy and unknown assailants in Benghazi, Libya, to assassinate the American Ambassor to Libya Chris Stevens and three staff members. Demonstrators, including Christians belonging to the Mina Danial Movement --named after a Christian martyr of the 25 January 2011 Revolution -- started a sit-in in front of the US Embassy, Downtown Cairo.
The movie, The Innocence of Muslims, cost $5 million and depicts Prophet as a philanderer of child ***ual abuse. The film claims that the Prophet Mohamed was a fraud.
The film resulted in a wave of violent protests in Egypt and Libya, snowballing in other Muslim nations as Al-Ahram Weekly went to print. The movie also led to the assassination of the US ambassador in Libya, Chris Stevens.
Sam Bacile is an anti-Islam Israeli filmmaker based in California. "Islam is a cancer, period," proclaimed Bacile, a real estate developer who claims to be an Israeli Jew, and who directed and produced the two-hour film funded by Jewish donors, Bacile insisted, and not by Coptic Christians.
The Israeli filmmaker has been in hiding since the protests erupted in Cairo and Benghazi. The film, which Muslims and Christians both said was provocative and insulting to Islam, culminated in disaster: the US ambassador to Libya and three staff members, including two Marines, were gunned down as militant Islamists fired rockets on the ambassador and his staff. In Cairo, a group of demonstrators including Christians stormed the US Embassy compound in Garden City and tore up the American flag and burnt and hoisted in its place a black banner emblazoned with La Illah illa Allah, Mohamed Rasul Allah ó "There is no God but God, and Mohamed is the Prophet of God".
In a White House statement, US President Barack Obama said he had ordered "all necessary resources to support the security of our personnel in Libya and to increase security at our diplomatic posts around the globe."
"I called Libyan President [Mohamed] Megaryeif to coordinate additional support to protect Americans in Libya. He expressed his condemnation and condolences and pledged his government's full cooperation," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.
What Washington didn't contemplate was that as Al-Ahram Weekly went to press, angry protesters had gathered around the US Embassy in the Tunisian capital, repeating the Cairo scenario.
However, it was not clear what exactly the American ambassador to Libya was doing in Benghazi, the country's second largest city when the actual US embassy is located in the Libyan capital Tripoli.
The Grand Mufti of Egypt Ali Gomaa and Al-Azhar, Egypt's most prestigious Islamic institution of higher learning, condemned the incidents in Cairo and Benghazi.
Morris Sadek, an extremist Coptic Christian, and Pastor Terry Jones, a fundamentalist Christian preacher who is notorious for burning the Quran, are widely believed to have been promoting the film.

Sinai operation continues

The results of the military operation conducted in Sinai against armed militant groups were announced earlier this week, writes Amirah Ibrahim

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2012/1114/_ho202.jpg (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2012/1114/_eg2.htm)
Click to view caption (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2012/1114/_eg2.htm)

The military spokesman uncovered more details about the Sinai operation
Nearly six weeks have passed, and the truth behind the killing of 16 Egyptian soldiers while they were on duty at an eastern border crossing near Rafah in Sinai remains unclear.
However, on Saturday the Defence Ministry held a press conference to present details of the military operation subsequently conducted in Sinai at its Moral Affairs Department, the first since the terrorist attack took place early in August.
During the conference, it was decided that the Moral Affairs Department will no longer be in charge of communication with the media, owing to its poor performance in dealing with media questions about the terrorist attack in Rafah.
The media has not been able to discover the truth about the attack, nor cover the military operations launched since then against armed groups in Sinai.
During the conference, Brigadier Ahmed Ali, an official spokesman for the Armed Forces, told reporters that the military operation being carried out against the armed groups had a new code name, "Sinai" instead of "Eagle".
"Assigning a military spokesman will put an end to the release of inaccurate news reports about the military and Armed Forces, which have negatively affected the army," Ali said.
Ali's presence was welcomed by the reporters, longing for proper coverage of military news. However, hopes were dashed when Ali failed to give precise answers to questions about the identity of the attackers and who had been behind the attacks.
Reporters at the conference also wanted to know the causalities suffered by the army over the month of military confrontations, but these questions remained unanswered.
The military spokesman did not say who should bear the responsibility for the killing of the 16 soldiers, and he gave no clear answer to the question of when the operation in Sinai would be accomplished.
"When making plans for the Sinai operation, we took into consideration several factors: the human rights of the Sinai inhabitants; the geographic nature of the mountainous areas, which require certain military equipment and tactics; and the special social structure of the people there," Ali said.
Of the Sinai operations themselves, Ali said that "the operation so far consists of two phases. The first, which took place from 8 to 30 August, aimed at ending the deteriorating security situation in the wake of the violent attack in Rafah by reestablishing stable conditions and securing vital targets."
Egypt enjoys full sovereignty over every inch of Sinai, Ali said, denying reports about the army's inability to move forward in Sinai without getting permission from the Israeli government first.
"The Sinai operation is part of a comprehensive operation that aims at restoring security to the Sinai Peninsula in preparation for a major development project scheduled to be implemented there, for which the government has allocated the sum of LE650 million," he said.
According to Ali, phase one of the operation had included deploying troops on both the east and west banks of the Suez C**** and in Zone A, B and C of Sinai. A number of military missions had been carried out in these zones to secure border points and vital targets in Arish, Sheikh Zuwaid and Rafah. During phase one, the army had destroyed 31 underground tunnels used for smuggling goods and weapons and for illegal immigration, he said.
"The situation of the underground tunnels is complicated," Ali said. "Their number according to official figures is estimated at more than 225, but considering the construction of the tunnels, with each one having two or three exits on each side, there may be as many as 550 to 700."
"It is difficult to define where a tunnel begins. It could begin in a kitchen, a bathroom, a school or even a closet," he said.
Ali said that 31 militants had been killed, one injured, and 38 arrested in the operation, but he declined to clarify whether non-Egyptians had taken part in the attack on the Egyptian army.
"This is the responsibility of the judiciary, not the army. Our mission is to confront, control, impose security, arrest suspected elements and take them to the investigative bodies concerned, which then take the necessary legal procedures against them," Ali said.
The Sinai operation had been a success, he said, and the killing of 31 militants and arrest of 39 suggested that there were around 400 to 600 militants in Sinai.
Ali repeated that the operation had been coordinated by the Egyptian and Israeli committees assigned to monitor security issues under the 1979 peace treaty with Israel. "It was also monitored by UN and Multinational Force and Observers troops in Sinai," he said.
The second phase of the operation was continuing, Ali said, denying that there had been a withdrawal of the army's equipment from the peninsula. "We sent 10 loads of heavy military equipment to Rafah on Saturday and four to Arish," he said.

Mixed messages on Al-Azhar

President Mohamed Mursi has said he supports the election of the grand imam of Al-Azhar. Gihan Shahine assesses the move's significance

Inaugurating the first congress of student union federations at Al-Azhar University last week, President Mohamed Mursi said that he approved the election of the grand imam of Al-Azhar as well as of university leaderships.
The reshuffle of the leadership at Al-Azhar is already happening, and Mursi said that other universities would be reshuffled soon. Calls for changes at Al-Azhar would be met, he said, but this "should take place via practical and well-studied steps."
Mursi's support for the election of the Al-Azhar grand imam by a senior clergy authority, and not his appointment by presidential decree, appears to be in answer to calls from religious scholars and intellectuals to reinstate the centuries-old institution's independence from the state.
Critics, however, charge that the Islamist president's hints at reshuffling the leadership at Al-Azhar is perhaps an attempt on the part of the Brotherhood "to extend its hegemony" to the prestigious institution, a claim that Brotherhood members vehemently deny.
Liberal intellectual and writer Gamal El-Ghitani was among the supporters of electing the grand imam and reestablishing the institution's independence. El-Ghitani, however, is also a staunch critic of the Brotherhood, and as such he suspects that Mursi's words at Al-Azhar University are not what they seem.
"The Brotherhood will probably attempt to impose its hegemony on Al-Azhar, as it has at other state institutions," El-Ghitani said.
Ashraf Badreddin, a member of the supreme committee of the Brotherhood's political wing the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), countered that "had the president any intention to seize control over Al-Azhar, he would have condoned the appointment of the Grand Imam by virtue of a presidential decree."
Instead, Badreddin argued, his support for the electoral system meant that the president would have no authority over the choice of the grand imam, who will be chosen by a senior clergy authority that in its current form hardly includes any Brotherhood members.
Badreddin, however, did not rule out the possibility that some members of the authority may have hidden sympathies with the Brotherhood, since "after all the group adopts more or less the same moderate Islamic discourse as Al-Azhar."
Badreddin insisted that the president respected Al-Azhar as "the main and only guardian of moderate Islam" and that the Brotherhood wanted the institution to remain "the Sunni world's most prestigious seat of learning".
The grand imam was elected before 1961, when former president Gamal Abdel-Nasser abrogated the senior clergy authority and replaced it with the state-controlled Islamic Research Academy in an attempt to bring the religious establishment under state control.
The grand imam of Al-Azhar has since been appointed by virtue of a presidential decree and remains in office for life. The nature of the appointment means that he has little genuine independence, resulting in a loss of Al-Azhar's credibility.
In the meantime, Al-Azhar has also been financially dependent on the state since the 1952 Revolution. That has meant that Al-Azhar's staff, including its grand imam, have been government employees, with the grand imam holding a rank ****ogous to that of prime minister.
Sometimes seen as being little more than a mouthpiece for the government, there is almost a consensus among ****ysts that Al-Azhar will not be able to restore its former prestige unless it regains its independence from the state and its grand imam is elected by a committee of senior clergy and does not remain in office for life.
Perhaps in response to such calls, a law regulating Al-Azhar and stipulating the election of its Grand Imam was endorsed earlier this year by the former ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF). The law stirred controversy at the time because it had been kept under wraps and hurriedly endorsed by the SCAF only four days before the now-dismantled parliament convened its first session.
This law, designed by Grand Imam Ahmed El-Tayeb, will probably be subject to scrutiny, perhaps amendment, by the upcoming parliament, which will be elected in November.
Critics already charge that the new law has been tailored to help current officials remain in place, arguing that it does not give Al-Azhar financial independence from the state and ignores calls that the institution should regain the control over religious endowments that it had in the past.
One catch in the new law is that it stipulates that the current grand imam selects the members of the senior scholars authority that will elect the next one. The law in its current form also maintains a previous controversial article stipulating that the grand imam remains in office for life.
"There should be major changes in the laws regulating Al-Azhar, and these changes should take into consideration the unique status of Al-Azhar, which is different from all other academic institutions," said Gamal Qotb, former head of the Al-Azhar fatwa council.
"The grand imam should not remain in post for life," Qotb said, also suggesting that the senior clergy authority should be elected and not appointed by the current grand imam and that nominees should include distinguished mosque preachers and those teaching in Al-Azhar institutes and not just university professors.
"That would mean that a larger number of Al-Azhar scholars would be eligible for membership in the authority tasked to elect the coming grand imam," Qotb explained. "Having members from outside the circle of university professors, many of whom have been sent to teach in the Gulf where they have been influenced by Salafist thought, would reduce the external influences over the old university."
The Brotherhood, in Qotb's view, does not constitute a threat to Al-Azhar as the ultra-conservative Salafis do, since "the Brotherhood does not have a unique school of thought or a university teaching that thought."
Although Al-Azhar scholars may include sympathisers with the Brotherhood, Qotb is not worried about Brotherhood hegemony, insisting that "Al-Azhar will always retain its identity and its school of thought."
Yet, El-Ghitani remains sceptical. He suspects that Mursi may try to "get rid of the current imam, Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayeb, because he is an enlightened scholar whose moderate views and strong personality have regained much of Al-Azhar's prestige, lost over past decades by his [El-Tayeb's] predecessor."
At a time when Egypt's political elite had got bogged down in debates over the Islamic-versus liberal identity of post-revolutionary Egypt, Al-Azhar stepped into the fray as perhaps the only universally respected institution capable of bringing about national unity, or at least dialogue, among the different views.
This national dialogue resulted in the production of at least three important documents that many observers regard as possibly providing guidelines for the drafting of Egypt's new post-revolutionary constitution. The documents, which also reiterate the institution's support for the freedom of religious affiliation, expression and belief, have also been seen in the context of Al-Azhar's attempt to reassert itself as the guardian of moderate Islam.
"The Brothers simply do not want to have any strong institution stand in their way," El-Ghitani commented "They will try to institute their members, or at least their sympathisers, in leading positions at Al-Azhar in order to seize power in the old university."
El-Tayeb was previously known for his hardline stance against the Muslim Brotherhood when it was still an outlawed opposition group. In 2006, El-Tayeb, a former member of the now-dismantled National Democratic Party (NDP), condemned a military-style parade by Brotherhood students on campus in his capacity as the then president of Al-Azhar University, charging that they had worn black facemasks "like Hamas, Hizbullah and the Republican Guard in Iran."
El-Tayeb had previously angered some conservative Muslims for being a critic of outward manifestations of piety, such as the veil or the wearing of beards, which he has described as possibly coming at the expense of true spiritual development.
He supported his predecessor's ban on the niqab, or full face veil, among female Al-Azhar students on the grounds that it was not a religious obligation in Islam.
Recently, El-Tayeb also angered some Salafist party members for not answering their calls for the addition of a phrase stipulating that Al-Azhar be the only reference for the interpretation of Islamic Sharia law in the new constitution.
The FJP, however, condoned El-Tayeb's suggestions that Article 2 of the constitution remain unchanged.
El-Ghitani referred to the incident when El-Tayeb was seated in the back during Mursi's inauguration ceremony at Cairo University as a case of "the Brothers' intended disrespect for the grand imam."
The grand imam walked out of the ceremony, but it was later made clear that the seating had been an organisational error and not an insult. President Mursi was said to have extended an apology to the grand imam for "the lack of organisation that left him seated in the back of the room."
Badreddin insists that "neither the president nor the Brotherhood are in conflict with Al-Azhar scholars, and definitely not with El-Tayeb, for whom they have deep respect."
This respect for Al-Azhar, according to Badreddin, has been reflected in Mursi's discourse and attitude in more than one incident. One case in point is that Mursi chose to perform his first Friday prayers at the Al-Azhar Mosque on the eve of his inauguration as Egypt's first Islamist president. By doing that, Bareddin said, Mursi had "meant to send a message that Al-Azhar will remain the only pillar of moderate Islam."
"He [Mursi] also insisted that he take the initiative when entering the mosque and shaking hands with the grand imam and other scholars, breaking the protocol that sheikhs should turn out to greet the president, in respect of the high-ranking position of scholars who, he has said, should be attended to, rather than attend to the people."

may allah bless both of them

Almost president, now wanted

Ahmed Shafik is referred to the Criminal Court less than 48 hours after his first TV

appearance since the presidential elections, Dina Ezzat reports
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2012/1114/ho302.jpg (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2012/1114/.htm)
Click to view caption (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2012/1114/.htm)Ahmed Shafik
"

The man knew it was going to happen anyway. They [the Muslim Brotherhood] are trying to eliminate all the strong men of Egypt as they complete their control of the country, but he will not give up. We will not let Egypt be taken by them," said an aide to Ahmed Shafik, the last prime minister of Hosni Mubarak who lost the presidential elections to President Mohamed Mursi earlier this summer.
Since the announcement of the results, which gave Mursi a very narrow victory after a wave of speculation and leaks over the victory, the runner-up in the presidential race left Egypt. Shafik first went to Saudi Arabia for a two-day minor pilgrimage which was announced after he had departed. Then he took off for the United Arab Emirates where he has been residing ever since along with a group of Mubarak's leading aides who fled the country in short intervals after he stepped down in February 2011 for fear of legal persecution over abuse of power, the fate that has sent some of Mubarak's closest men to jail.
"I have been summoned for questioning over allegations [of abuse of power] but there is no arrest warrant that has been issued in my name," Shafik said on Saturday evening during a TV appearance, the first since the announcement of the results of the presidential elections which he gracefully accepted despite the many doubts that were raised by his supporters and his campaign aides who suggested that the results were rigged in favour of Mursi under US pressure.
Shafik, who had limited himself over the past eight weeks to brief and rare telephone interviews with Egyptian private media, appeared with the flagship programme in Dream, a private channel, called "10pm".
The interview that was broadcast over two episodes, Saturday and Sunday, was angled essentially by anchor-journalist Wael El-Ibrashi over charges that Shafik sold the two sons of Mubarak land next to the Suez C**** for much cheaper prices.
Speaking to El-Ibrashi, Shafik denied allegations of any wrong-doing, deliberate or otherwise, in the deal. The two sons of Mubarak, who have been in jail for a series of financial corruption and power abuse for over a year, were ineligible to buy the land which was allocated by the government for sale for the benefit of Air Force members and their families.
Alaa and Gamal Mubarak obtained the land in this capacity and they paid the regular price like everybody else, Shafik argued in the first episode of his TV appearance. Mubarak's last prime minister, an Air Force officer himself, was the secretary-general of the Air Force Association.
"It is in this capacity that I signed -- but I did not actually sell -- the paperwork for the selling of the land to Alaa and Gamal Mubarak," Shafik told El-Ibrashi.
According to the very detailed account that Shafik provided, the two sons followed the procedures and "actually the part of the land that was allocated to them was not the best part of the land available for sale but it so happened that they applied to buy after all the good parts were already sold off."
This narrative runs counter to the complaints that were levelled against Shafik, among other members of the Air Force Association, along with Alaa and Gamal.
The complaints were first raised ahead of the beginning of the presidential race by MP Alaa Sultan who had asked for the matter to be investigated ahead of allowing Shafik to run in the presidential race. The prosecutor-general had, however, chosen not to investigate until the end of the presidential race -- and after Shafik had left the country.
Some observers say at the time the complaints against Shafik were deliberately overlooked under the pretext of lack of substantial evidence to pursue legal prosecution to allow who they say was the man who was (then) certainly supported by the army to run in the race.
This account was categorically denied by Shafik in his TV appearance. Shafik insisted that he was "not at all supported by the army or by anyone".
In fact, Shafik suggested, without saying it in so many words, that the then ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, whose top officers were removed by President Mursi mid-August, was rather unsupportive and maybe worse.
"I was told by very good sources from within the influential state quarters that I had won the elections but then it was President Mursi who was announced the winner," Shafik said after having recalled the account of a conversation between him and the US ambassador in Cairo whereby the US diplomat had expressed concern over the process of the announcement of the results in a way that indicated an implicit rigging accusation in favour of Shafik.
Since the announcement of the results, American diplomats in Cairo have categorically denied that they had any role to play in the victory of Mursi over Shafik. "This is nonsense. Why would we do such a thing," said one. She added that the embassy was receiving accounts and alerts from independent Egyptian sources suggesting that the results were in favour of Mursi but that there was pressure put on the Presidential Elections Committee to discard some ballots and announce Shafik the winner.
Less than 48 hours ahead of the announcement of the final results of the presidential run-offs, PEC sources suggested that Shafik would be announced the winner, with a very narrow margin.
Speaking to the TV talk show "10pm", Shafik even said that he was offered written proof of his electoral victory "but then again I believed that it is in the interest of the country to acknowledge the results and to have one leader so that the nation could move towards stability."
Since Mubarak was forced to step down on 11 February 2011 after 18 days of forceful demonstrations, the nation's economy and security have suffered dramatically. With Mursi sworn into office elements of stability were regained, especially on the economic front with the stock market making unprecedented gains.
These signs of stability have not satisfied the anti-Mursi camp that has been expressing concern over the Islamisation of Egypt at the hands of the first ever non-military president who came straight from the ranks of the long-persecuted but widely popular Muslim Brotherhood.
The clear Islamist affiliation of Mursi's hand-picked aides and ministers, especially the prime minister and minister of defence, has agitated these concerns and prompted some to call for demonstrations against the so-called rule of the Muslim Brotherhood.
On 24 August scores of protesters took to the Heliopolis-based presidential palace and shouted against Mursi and the Muslim Brotherhood. At the time, Shafik was accused of prompting and financially supporting these demonstrations which were easily dispersed due to an obvious lack of momentum and supporters.
In his TV appearance this week, Shafik made light of the accusations and suggested that they amounted to a deliberate attempt to undermine his image by associating him with a failed call for a political demonstration.
This attempt, Shafik told El-Ibrashi, was part of a wider scheme to get at the man who qualifies himself as the one most capable of defying the Islamist trend, led by the Brotherhood.
This said, ahead of the Tuesday issuance of the warrant arrest, Shafik had declined to offer a date for his return to Egypt. He would only return, he said, when he knows it is safe for him to be back and not to be prosecuted on the basis of faulty allegations.
Shafik argued that there is someone who wants to get him but argued that it is unlikely that it was Mursi himself. He, however, did not rule out a possible link, one way or the other, with some in the Mursi circle.
Shafik told El-Ibrashi that he knew when he left Egypt last June that he was not sure when he would be back. This much, he said, he had shared with Hussein Tantawi, the head of SCAF at the time who was later removed by Mursi.
"I am not running away from anything because this would be against my character but sometimes people have to distance themselves so that they can pursue reform or act upon a solution for a particular crisis," Shafik told El-Ibrashi.
Shafik affirmed that the earlier plan to start a political civil party built on the mass support he had enjoyed during the presidential campaign is on but declined to offer a date for the initiation of this "party or movement".
In his interview with El-Ibrashi, Shafik kept away from harshly attacking the Islamists or President Mursi. He duly referred to Mursi as "Mr President" and acknowledged the popular power base of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Shafik said that the Islamist nature of the newly assigned minister of defence had always been known "but this does not amount to a possible association with the Muslim Brotherhood. There are many observing soldiers and officers in the armed forces in general," Shafik further acknowledged. "But it is one thing for an army officer to be observing and another for this particular officer to be working in favour of the agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood," he added.
This said, Shafik, whose presidential hallmark was one of clear and outright defiance of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamists in general, suggested that if further attacked he could "hit back. I certainly know how and when to hit back and I can tell you that I don't need to be in Egypt to do so," he told El-Ibrashi in the interview that was aired less than three days before the arrest warrant was issued.
"I cannot say what he would do but he is certainly not planning to come back and give a chance for those who wish to arrest him for no reason," the Shafik associate said.
Speaking by phone, the same source added that Shafik might stay on in Dubai where he has been offered generous hospitality for the past eight weeks or he might consider another venue. "It is up to what he thinks is safe for him and his family."
The warrant for Shafik's arrest prompted a wide range of reaction from people, especially on Facebook and Twitter. Shafik supporters argued that he was paying the price for a brave statement that he made during the El-Ibrashi interview when he openly said that he would not give up. Shafik critics said that the move was overdue and necessary to eliminate the power of the remnants of the old regime. Those who stand in between argued that what Egypt needs now is an end to polarisation and a firm march towards national reconciliation.

Back to books

School students begin their new academic year amid a strike by teachers, reports Reem Leila


http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2012/1114/_ho402.jpg (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2012/1114/_eg7.htm)

After an almost four-month summer holiday, 19 million students will return to the country's 46,000 schools on 15 September. This academic year, however, comes with a teachers' strike. Accordingly, confusion is rife among parents who fear a year of instability.
Education has become a national security issue and tops the country's agenda. Just a few days before the start of the new academic year, President Mohamed Mursi agreed to approve a teachers' cadre law following a two-hour meeting with Minister of Education Ibrahim Ghoneim. According to Ghoneim, Mursi agreed to apply the law starting this month, in addition to promoting 20,000 teachers. "The remaining demands of teachers are still under review. The government cannot meet all of their demands since they will cost the state's budget more than LE10 billion. This is impossible at this time due to the deficit in the country's general budget," said Ghoneim.
Teachers are demanding an increase in their salaries to LE4,000 instead of the current LE500, the 200 per cent reward incentives they were promised, in addition to the cancellation of the cadre proficiency exams in which teachers themselves are to be tested. According to Rasha Ahmed, one teacher on strike, "since we began our protest, officials have been very evasive with us. Promises, promises without any fulfillment are all what we get," complained Ahmed.
The Teachers Independent Union (TIU) is urging Egypt's one million teachers to continue their strike, which entered its fourth day, to pressure the education minister to meet their demands. Ayman El-Beyali, the official TIU spokesman, said Mursi did not approve the cadre system. "All what he did is agree to double teachers' salaries starting next January. This is not enough. The newly appointed teacher who is paid LE108 will receive only LE216. Nobody can live on such a small amount. It's not enough to feed a cat, let alone an entire family," El-Beyali said.
"The status of teachers should be improved. Their demands have to be met or they won't be able to work properly in school and will depend on private lessons," El-Beyali said. Teachers have not yet decided whether they will continue their strike. Some say they are determined to stage a sit-in in front of the Cabinet's headquarters downtown "until all their demands are met", El-Beyali added.
In a press conference, Ghoneim said that freedom of expression "is every citizen's right but without harming the welfare of others." Accordingly, holidays are prohibited during the first month of the new academic year. Teachers who will not attend school for no valid reason will be referred to an internal investigation, and a certain percentage of his of her salary will be deducted.
Abdel-Nasser Ismail, deputy of TIU, rejected the raises. "More than 170,000 part-time teachers won't benefit from these increases because they are allocated for only officially appointed teachers, which is unfair," said Ismail.
The new academic year for public schools will end on 6 June 2013. Mid-year exams will begin at the end of December. The mid-year holiday will begin on 19 January and end 31 January. The second semester will start on 1 February and end 6 June. According to a press release issued by the Ministry of Education, the ministry has set up an additional 223 classes this year in schools across the country. This will provide a better opportunity for children to enter school, thus decreasing their number in classes while providing more job opportunities for teachers.
With the advent of the new year, parents are anxious. "We are all worried," Rabab El-Moqadem, a mother of three, said, responding to reports about the recent teachers' strike.
"Every year we have a reason to worry about our children. Last year, it was the revolution, the year before was swine flu, and the one before that was bird flu. Until when will we keep worrying about our children and their future? We don't know what will happen. This year, will teachers enter classrooms?"
Deputy Education Minister Reda Mosaad, stated that parents' fears were groundless. "The ministry will take very strict measures against any teacher on strike. Negotiations with leaders of the teachers union are still ongoing, however, I guarantee the stability of the current academic year," said Mosaad. In the end, the number of teachers on strike is not more than a few hundreds. "This weak percentage can never affect the educational process. Soon the strike will come to an end," he said.
According to Mosaad, the minister of education has held several meetings with the minister of finance to solve the problem. According to Mosaad, teachers do not have the right to strike for the time being, after a minimum level of wages were increased in July, in which all the ministry's teachers and employees benefited. "Additional raises are not expected until the beginning of the new fiscal year. However, there could be incentives paid to teachers which will be taken from the ministry's current budget," Mosaad added.

A history of Ethiopia's Church

Nader Habib (nhabeb*ahram.org.eg?subject=International%20::%20 A%20history%20of%20Ethiopia's%20Church) examines the historical development of Christianity in Ethiopia and its relationship with Egypt's Coptic Church


http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2012/1112/_int203.jpg (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2012/1112/_in2.htm) Click to view caption (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2012/1112/_in2.htm)King Solomon and Makeda, famous as the Queen of Sheba; and their descendant Haile Selassie with the late Pope Kirolos VI; Pope Athanasius





























Axum, Abyssinia and Ethiopia are all names associated with the mighty kingdom that arose in the Horn of Africa more than three millennia ago, and which has had a far-reaching influence outside its borders.
References to the fabulously rich kingdom, and perhaps its satellite states, can be found in temple hieroglyphics in Egypt as well as in Biblical and Quranic references.
In one of the earliest encounters with Ethiopia, Queen Hatshepsut of Egypt sent a commercial mission to the Land of Punt, a part of ancient Ethiopia, believed to be today's Somalia.
The king of Punt sent the emissaries back to Egypt with exotic animals, incense, ebony, ivory and precious stones, all duly noted on the walls of Deir Al-Bahari in Luxor.
History becomes less clear when the Queen of Sheba comes into the picture. The woman who has travelled to Jerusalem and consorted with King Solomon may have originated from Yemen, but Ethiopian traditions lay a strong claim upon her, and also upon the famed Ark of the Covenant.
In Islamic tradition, the Queen of Sheba is Belqais, and her home is Yemen or its vicinity. In Ethiopian tradition, the queen's name is Makeda, or Mageda, and she hails from Axum.
Biblical and Quranic tradition tells us little about Belqais or Mageda, apart from her brief encounter with King Solomon and the way they both impressed each other with their power and wealth.
According to the Bible (Kings 10:1-13), here is what happened between those two powerful monarchs:
When the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon and his relationship to the Lord, she came to test Solomon with hard questions. Arriving at Jerusalem with a very great caravan -- with camels carrying spices, large quantities of gold, and precious stones -- she came to Solomon and talked with him about all that she had on her mind. Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too hard for the king to explain to her. When the queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon and the palace he had built, the food on his table, the seating of his officials, the attending servants in their robes, his cupbearers, and the burnt offerings he made at the temple of the Lord, she was overwhelmed. She said to the king, "The report I heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true. But I did not believe these things until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not even half was told me; in wisdom and wealth you have far exceeded the report I heard. How happy your people must be! How happy your officials, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom! Praise be to the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the Lord's eternal love for Israel, he has made you king to maintain justice and righteousness." And she gave the king 120 talents of gold, large quantities of spices, and precious stones. Never again were so many spices brought in as those the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba all she desired and asked for, besides what he had given her out of his royal bounty. Then she left and returned with her retinue to her own country.
In Ethiopian tradition, the story doesn't end here. The queen goes back home where she gives birth to Solomon's child, Menelik, who at one point goes to Jerusalem to meet his father, King Solomon, then returns home with the Ark of the Covenant in his luggage.
The Ark is said to be still in Ethiopia to this day, tucked away in a church in Axum, and only the monks guarding it are allowed to see it. Even the head of the Ethiopian Church doesn't have this privilege. Non-Ethiopians may find it hard to believe the story, but it is an article of faith in this ancient land.
Menelik is considered to be the head of the Solomon Dynasty that ruled Abyssinia for nearly 3,000 years, its last scion was Haile Selassie, the emperor who was ousted in a Marxist coup in 1974.
The first attempt to convert Ethiopians to Christianity was made by a church father known as Phillips, about 50 AD. According to Acts (8: 26-40), here is what happened:
An angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, "Arise and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza." And he arose and went; and behold, there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure; and he had come to Jerusalem to worship. And he was returning and sitting in his chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the Spirit said to Philip, "Go up and join this chariot." And when Philip had run up, he heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, "Do you understand what you are reading?" And he said, "Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?" And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. And the eunuch answered Philip and said, "Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself, or of someone else?" And Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him. And as they went along the road they came to some water; and the eunuch said, "Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?" And he ordered the chariot to stop; and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch; and he baptised him. And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; and the eunuch saw him no more, but went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus; and as he passed through he kept preaching the gospel to all the cities, until he came to Caesarea.
In another biblical tradition, Matthew the Apostle visited the Abyssinian eunuch, then went into the city after he shaved his head, and held a palm frond to appear like one of the monks. He found that the Abyssinians were worshipping idols. He had a discussion with the chief priest, Aramius, performed a variety of miracles in front of him, and had him convert to Christianity. After a period of turmoil, in which the local Christians were persecuted, Matthew also converted the governor of the city, which put an end to the persecutions.
Matthew lived in Abyssinia for 23 years, during which he propagated the Christian cause. He gained martyrdom in the city of Nadabah in 62 AD.
Christianity only took root in Ethiopia when the Egyptian church sent a bishop to Axum to establish the first church there. This happened in the time of Pope Athanasius of Alexandria, who was consecrated as the 20th head of the Egyptian Coptic Church in 326 AD. Pope Athanasius appointed the Patriarch Frumentius to be the first head of the Ethiopian Church in 330 AD.
The story was told by the Rufinus of Aquileia, who had the chance to meet with Aedesius, brother of the first patriarch of Abyssinia. According to Rufinus, the story began when Meropius, a philosopher from Tyre, wanted to go to India. He took two of his nephews, two Christian boys, one called Frumentius and the other called Aedesius, with him. Their ship was attacked off the Horn of Africa, and the two brothers, the only survivors, were taken to the king's court in Aksum. Impressed by their diligence, the king appointed Aedesius as his chief waiter and Frumentius as his treasurer.
When power changed hands, the two brothers stayed in Abyssinia for a while, then one of them went back to Syria, where he told his story to Rufinus, and the other went to Alexandria to plead his case as the first patriarch of Abyssinia.
Pope Athanasius was sitting with his top aides when he was told that a stranger has come from Abyssinia and demanded an audience. The visitor, Frumentius, impressed the pope with his knowledge of Christianity and the local affairs of Abyssinia, that he gave him the job. The church that Frumentius proceeded to create played a major role in spreading the new faith across Abyssinia. Frumentius was lovingly referred to as Aba Salama, or father of peace, a name that is still in use today.
Since then, it became the custom of the Coptic Church to appoint the heads of the Ethiopian Church. The custom ended with the overthrow of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974. In the 1970s, the new Marxist government nationalised all land, including those of the church. In 1976, Partiarch Theophilos, the last patriarch appointed by the Egyptian Coptic Church was arrested. He was executed in secret in 1977.
The Ethiopian government had the Church elect a new patriarch, Tekle Haymanot. The new patriarch, however, resisted the dictates of the government, and relations between Church and government became strained.
When Haymanot died in 1988, Abune Mercurius, a parliamentarian with close connections with the government, was appointed in his place. After the fall of Mengistu's regime in 1991, Mercurius was dismissed. He fled the country to create a synod in exile, one that is recognised by several churches in North America and Europe.
Following the fall of the Derg in 1991, the then patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Abune Mercurius, was dethroned in circumstances that remain under dispute. Patriarch Abune Mercurius and his supporters maintain that he was forced from office by the new Ethiopian regime, while his opponents maintain that the patriarch abdicated following numerous protests against him by the faithful. His attempt to reverse his abdication was refused by the Holy Synod of the Church, which authorised a new patriarchal election. Abune Paulos was elected in 1992, and Abune Mercurius and his supporters went into exile, establishing a rival synod in the United States. The enthronement of Abune Paulos as patriarch is still recognised by all the canonical Orthodox Christian churches, such as the Coptic Patriarchate in Alexandria, Egypt.
One of the reasons monasticism took root in Ethiopia was the advent of nine monks from Egypt around 480. The top monk was Anba Mikhail Argawi, the founder of Debra Damo monastery. Others included Anba Youanes, founder of the Debra Sina Monastery, and Anba Libanos, founder of the Debra Libanos monastery.
The Ethiopian Church follows the doctrine and rituals of the Egyptian Coptic Church. However, local norms and customs have influenced many of its rituals and practices. Christians in Ethiopia now number some 45 million. The Ethiopian Church has nearly 50,000 churches and 1,200 monasteries, as well as three ecclesiastical colleges. And, links with its Coptic counterpart in Egypt continue to flourish.

May Allah bless you Mr Mohammad

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Iran's economy is edging towards collapse due to international sanctions over its controversial nuclear programme, Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said on Sunday.
Israel claims its arch enemy's developing nuclear weapons marks a threat to its existence, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that, although sanctions are taking their toll, they are not yet forcing Iran to abandon work that could soon lead to a nuclear warhead.
However, Israeli officials appear increasingly ready to acknowledge the effect of recent American and European sanctions designed to restrict Iran's lifeline oil exports.
"The sanctions on Iran in the past year jumped a level," Steinitz told Israel Radio, noting that as finance minister, he follows Iran's economy.
"It is not collapsing, but it is on the verge of collapse. The loss of income from oil there is approaching $45-50 billion by the year's end," Steinitz said.
The United States, Israel's main ally, says it will not allow Tehran to produce the bomb, but sanctions should be given more time to work before force is considered.
American and Israeli commentators say a military strike to destroy Iran's nuclear plants, which Iran says are designed only to develop a nuclear generating capacity, could trigger a regional war with unforeseeable consequences.
In Israel too, some prominent political and military figures question Netanyahu's warning that Iran is so close to the threshold of nuclear capability that military action will soon be the only way to stop it.
But there has been no open split in his coalition over the issue. Steinitz praised the prime minister's speech to the UN General Assembly last week in which he used graphics to underscore the perceived Iranian threat.
An Israeli Foreign Ministry document leaked last week said sanctions had caused more damage to Iran's economy than at first thought and ordinary Iranians were suffering under soaring inflation, although this did not appear to be changing policy.
On Saturday, the Iranian currency slumped to an historic low of about 28,400 rials to the dollar, a fall of about 57 percent since June 2011, meaning a sharp rise in the price of imports.
"The Iranians are in great economic difficulties as a result of the sanctions," Steinitz said.
Parliamentary opponents of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad say sanctions are not a major cause of Iran's economic problems and accuse his government of mismanaging the economy.
"The first approach today is that authorities accept their mistakes and failures, second, that they not blame their mistakes on others, and third, that they invite all the pundits and experts to find a way to solve the problems of the economy," Iranian legislator Ezzatollah Yousefian was quoted as saying by the Mehr news agency.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Saturday's Haaretz daily that he believed Iran's Islamic theocracy would be toppled in a revolt like the one that toppled Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak last year.
"The opposition demonstrations that took place in Iran in June 2009 will come back in even greater force," he told the paper. "In my view, there's going to be an Iranian-style Tahrir revolution. The young generation are sick of being held hostage and sacrificing their future."
(Reuters, Al-Akhbar) (http://www.publici.com/content/israel-finance-minister-says-iran-economy-verge-collapse)

May Allah bless you Mr Mohammad

Thanks Mr Ayman
*************

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thanks for your efforts

thaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaanks
may allah bless:av4056bb7jp3: And reward uuuuuuuuuu

thanks!!!!!


you are welcomE
*************

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Morsi's promises for his first 100 days in office (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2012/1118/eg111.htm)
(*) AL-AHRAM WEEKLY (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/)






President Mohamed Morsi spoke on the anniversary of the 6 October War against a backdrop of political bewilderment and economic anticipation, reports Dina Ezzat
SECURITY:
- Reward and promote police officers according to performance.
- Link police promotions to public satisfaction with the performance of the security apparatus.
- Provide police officers with full insurance against job-related risks.
- Launch a media campaign to restore public confidence in the police.
- Detain outlaws and thugs and providing rehabilitation courses to help them become good citizens.
- Increase police presence on the streets.
- Form neighbourhood watch groups to aid police in preventing crime.
- An emergency hotline to report illegal practices.
- Link the number of police station to local population density.
- Install CCTV cameras in vulnerable areas
- Provide the police with helicopters to help maintain order and organise traffic flow.
- Upgrade facilities, including detention rooms, in police stations and courts.
- Appoint public relation officers at police stations to help the public.
- Recruit university graduates into the police force and provide them with a short, intensive course at the Police Academy.
- Reward citizens who report crimes and provide witness protection programmes.
- Equip police vehicles with computers linked to the Ministry of Interior's databases.
TRAFFIC:
- Ban large trucks from city streets and ring roads between 6am and midnight.
- Ban smaller trucks between 7am and 9pm.
- Restrict road maintenance work to between midnight and 7am.
- Remove all street obstacles, including vendors.
- Designate parking areas for microbuses.
- Allow greater flexibility in working hours for public sector employees so they can avoid rush hours.
- Shift government services online so citizens can complete paperwork at home.
- Provide women-only buses during rush hour.
- Make taxi meters compulsory.
- Introduce traffic radio stations and information hotlines in cities to provide up to date information on congestion.
- Redesign major traffic intersections and provide them with traffic lights to improve traffic flow.
- Utilise empty plots for parking.
- Remove government offices from Cairo city centre.
- Introduce a fully automated system of traffic lights.
- Screen public information films, and use Fridays prayers, to promote good driving practice.
- Provide performance related bonuses for police officers.
- Link vehicle tax to the number of record traffic infringements.
BREAD:
- Increase the nutritional value of flour used in making bread.
- Separate production and distribution.
- Increase incentives provided to bakers.
- Consolidate bakeries into larger units with greater financial and logistical support.
- Increase the weight and quality of subsided loaves.
- Enforce penalties on bakeries which produce loaves of bread that do not meet government set standards.
- Enlist the help of civil society organisations in the distribution of bread.
- Reward the best bakeries with certificates of merit.
- Promote the use of natural gas in bakeries instead of butane.
- Reward and promote efficient government inspectors.
CLEAN-UP:
- Create a programme that rewards and promotes staff responsible for cleaning streets.
- Launch a national awareness campaigns through the media and mosques to encourage citizens to participate in neighbourhood clean-up campaigns.
- Designate sites for the disposal of construction waste and impose severe penalties on anyone violating dumping codes.
- Create a phone number for reporting building violations.
- Form neighbourhood committees to coordinate with the government and monitor environmental violations.
- Transfer garbage collection to NGOs.
FUEL SHORTAGE:
- Place domestic deliveries of butane cylinders in the hands of local NGOs and local authorities.
- Assign inspectors to accompany trucks delivering fuel to gas stations.
- Seek the help of civil society organisations in monitoring the amount of fuel entering and leaving gas stations.
- Provide incentives and rewards for outstanding fuel stations.
- Impose harsh penalties against black-marketeers.

Six killed in militant attacks in Egypt's Sinai (http://www.thanwya.com/vb/showthread.php?t=534804)

Brotherhood assets freeze (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3412/18/Brotherhood-assets-freeze.aspx)



http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/Media/NewsMedia/2013/7/17/2013-635096703459784413-978_resized.jpg (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3412/18/Brotherhood-assets-freeze.aspx)


THE ASSETS of 21 Islamist leaders, including those of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie, were frozen this week as a result of accusations that they had encouraged the use of violence.
The list includes the assets of Khairat Al-Shater, believed to be the engineer of the group’s political strategy and the initial presidential candidate of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) during last year’s presidential elections, which were eventually won by ousted former president Mohamed Morsi. Al-Shater is also the group’s chief financier.
The list also includes the assets of FJP chairman Saad Al-Katatni, the former speaker of parliament.
According to media sources, the banks have been instructed to stop all transactions by these individuals. Meanwhile, the Egyptian stock exchange is investigating if any of the businessmen have a registration enabling them to buy and sell stocks in the market.
The businesses of the Islamist businessmen are mainly in trading and retail, and very few of them are thought to have traded shares in the market.
A leading banker told the state news agency MENA that such precautionary measures were usually taken when the owners of such assets were thought to threaten national security. The Egyptian authorities took the same measures immediately after the 25 January Revolution against leading figures in the former Mubarak regime for fear that they might try to transfer their wealth abroad.
The Islamist leaders are accused of stirring up violence in Giza’s Nahda Square in early July, at the Muslim Brotherhood’s Muqattam headquarters in late June, at the Republican Guard headquarters in early July, and at Al-Ittihadiya presidential palace in December 2012. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3412/18/Brotherhood-assets-freeze.aspx)

‘Morsi is my president’ (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3384/19/%E2%80%98Morsi-is-my-president%E2%80%99.aspx)

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/Media/NewsMedia/2013/7/16/2013-635096081291527691-152_resized.jpg (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3384/19/%E2%80%98Morsi-is-my-president%E2%80%99.aspx)

The Turkish prime minister’s recent outburst in support of Egypt’s ousted president is an attempt to distract attention from his own growing authoritarianism, writes Sayed Abdel-Maguid in Ankara



Wonders will never cease! Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan turns out to be an even more fervent supporter of ousted former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi than the members of Morsi’s own Muslim Brotherhood. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3384/19/%E2%80%98Morsi-is-my-president%E2%80%99.aspx)

So jested quite a few Turkish commentators, some of whom suggested that the Muslim Brotherhood should now confer a medal of honour on the Turkish prime minister, since the organisation was unlikely to find a more faithful and dedicated supporter outside its ranks, they maintained. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3384/19/%E2%80%98Morsi-is-my-president%E2%80%99.aspx)

It would be no exaggeration to say that a broad segment of Turkish public opinion was stunned when they heard their prime minister say that he “did not see any other president in Egypt than Mohamed Morsi, who was elected by his people” last week. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3384/19/%E2%80%98Morsi-is-my-president%E2%80%99.aspx)

“What do the Turks have to do with the business in Egypt that does not even concern them,” was the immediate reaction of many. They were even more shocked to learn that Erdogan was apparently convinced that the 33 million people who had filled the streets and squares of Egypt on 30 June were no more than an electronic illusion manufactured by the fiendish masters of the “accursed Twitter”, as he put it in his remarks. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3384/19/%E2%80%98Morsi-is-my-president%E2%80%99.aspx)

The Turks were then treated to a sermon, following a Ramadan breakfast banquet on Saturday, in which Erdogan offered a prayer to God “to lead the minority who are sitting in Tahrir Square”. He was confident that “they would soon learn the truth, and when they do they will join the march beneath the banner of constitutional legitimacy along with their fellow believers at the Rabaa Al-Adawiya Mosque” in Cairo, Erdogan said. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3384/19/%E2%80%98Morsi-is-my-president%E2%80%99.aspx)

To be fair, Erdogan is not the sole pro-Morsi champion in Turkey, even if his ardour in this cause are hard to match, part of a surrealistic campaign that seems completely detached from reality, including realities in Turkey itself. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3384/19/%E2%80%98Morsi-is-my-president%E2%80%99.aspx)

In response to a wink of approval from the powers-that-be in Ankara, the Islamist-oriented Saadet (Felicity) Party founded by the late Necmettin Erbakan organised a pro-Morsi demonstration in Istanbul on Sunday during which thousands responded to the party’s call to “rally in opposition to the coup and in support of Egypt”. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3384/19/%E2%80%98Morsi-is-my-president%E2%80%99.aspx)

Demonstrators assembled near walls dating back to the Byzantine era to shout “We’re with you Morsi!” and “We’re all Muslims and we’re all brothers.” Some chants booed Egyptian General Al-Sisi who, in the opinion of the Turkish demonstrators, had been responsible for “overthrowing” the millions who had voted for Morsi in the Egyptian presidential elections last year. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3384/19/%E2%80%98Morsi-is-my-president%E2%80%99.aspx)

Naturally, the Turkish media was on hand to cover the event, this being a predominantly cowed and domesticated media that knows it had better keep its lenses focused exclusively on the vicinity of Rabaa Al-Adawiya and ignore anything that might send a conflicting message to Turkish audiences. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3384/19/%E2%80%98Morsi-is-my-president%E2%80%99.aspx)

Of course, Erdogan’s pro-Morsi zeal also has a strong domestic motive. In the course of justifying the recourse to excessive force against the protesters in Taksim Square and other Turkish squares opposed to his policies, he famously said that he had “come to power through the polls” and would not leave by any other means than the polls. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3384/19/%E2%80%98Morsi-is-my-president%E2%80%99.aspx)

It is little wonder, then, that Erdogan’s rhetoric against the Tamarod (Rebel) Movement in Egypt has homed in on the imperative of bowing to the legitimacy of the ballot box. Only the results of this reflect the will of the people, in his view, and confer authority on the winning party, and only the result of the polls can determine whether the government formed by the ruling party is successful or not. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3384/19/%E2%80%98Morsi-is-my-president%E2%80%99.aspx)

The tenacity with which Erdogan has adhered to this line has set Ankara’s compass with respect to events in Egypt. Although the Turkish Foreign Ministry has indicated the possibility of moderation, it is clear that the prime minister is determined to escalate his campaign against Cairo and to mentally block out the causes and repercussions of the second wave of the 25 January Revolution that took place two-and-a-half years ago. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3384/19/%E2%80%98Morsi-is-my-president%E2%80%99.aspx)

While Erdogan’s remark that “Morsi is my president” elicited sarcastic smiles among intellectuals, commentators and observers in Egypt, Ankara’s actions toward Egypt, which have flouted the most basic diplomatic codes and conventions, have also prompted concerns. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3384/19/%E2%80%98Morsi-is-my-president%E2%80%99.aspx)

What is the Erdogan government trying to do, commentators have asked. Is the purpose to strain Turkish-Egyptian relations to the breaking point? And will the media campaign now being engineered by Turkish deputy prime minister Bÿlent Arõnç subdue such anxieties? (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3384/19/%E2%80%98Morsi-is-my-president%E2%80%99.aspx)

Meanwhile, the Turkish dailies as well as informed observers in Istanbul have observed that the new authorities in Cairo have shown considerable self-restraint and have been working hard to mend the rift with decision-makers in Ankara, aiming to persuade them that the Egyptian army acted solely in response to the overwhelming popular will. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3384/19/%E2%80%98Morsi-is-my-president%E2%80%99.aspx)

But there is another important domestic factor that has shaped the Anatolian response to events in Egypt. On Saturday, the Turkish parliament approved an amendment intended to definitively clip the Turkish army’s political wings. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3384/19/%E2%80%98Morsi-is-my-president%E2%80%99.aspx)

Article 35 of an army regulation that had once defined the role of the army as being “to safeguard the Turkish republic” has often been cited by Turkish generals as giving legal grounds for carrying out a coup if they felt that the government of the day was undermining republican principles, such as secularism. This article has now been reworded to read that the army’s role is “to defend the Turkish nation against external threats and dangers”. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3384/19/%E2%80%98Morsi-is-my-president%E2%80%99.aspx)

Against a backdrop of anti-government protests at home, the amendment, introduced by Erdogan’s ruling party, was meant to deliver an explicit message to Turkish army officers and soldiers: “don’t even begin to think of emulating what your Egyptian counterparts have done.” (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3384/19/%E2%80%98Morsi-is-my-president%E2%80%99.aspx)

At the same time, the Erdogan government has strengthened the powers of the police. This, after all, is the force that it will task with suppressing protest demonstrations against what the opposition already regards as Erdogan’s growing authoritarianism and his government’s stealthy assault on civil and personal freedoms. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3384/19/%E2%80%98Morsi-is-my-president%E2%80%99.aspx)

When the academic year begins this autumn, the police will take the place of private security firms on university campuses, for example. The action is an explicit response to the nationwide anti-government demonstrations that flared up after a sit-in, whose original purpose was to protect Gezi Park in Taksim Square, was attacked by the police. The Gezi Park demonstrations were primarily led by university students. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3384/19/%E2%80%98Morsi-is-my-president%E2%80%99.aspx)

Justifying his decision to move the police onto Turkish university campuses, Erdogan said that “we don’t want to see our youth walking around carrying Molotov cocktails and knives.” His point, of course, was to blame his youthful critics for the violence and then to tell them that his government had improved conditions for students so they had better show their gratitude and stop protesting. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3384/19/%E2%80%98Morsi-is-my-president%E2%80%99.aspx)
Will the students listen? It seems unlikely, judging by the amounts of tear gas and water canons recently brought to bear in Turkish cities to disperse large crowds of demonstrators every Saturday and Sunday, while an obedient media kept its attention focussed elsewher (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3384/19/%E2%80%98Morsi-is-my-president%E2%80%99.aspx)

Female genital mutilation: 30 million girls 'at risk (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)

http://static.bbci.co.uk/frameworks/barlesque/2.48.3/desktop/3.5/img/blq-blocks_grey_alpha.png (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)


More than 30 million girls are at risk of being subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM) over the next decade, a study by Unicef has found. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
It said more than 125 million girls and women alive today had undergone a procedure now opposed by the majority in countries where it was practised. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
Ritual cutting of girls' genitals is practised by some African, Middle Eastern and Asian communities in the belief it protects a woman's virginity. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
Unicef wants action to end FGM. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
The UN Children Fund survey, described as the most comprehensive to date on the issue, found that support for FGM was declining amongst both men and women. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
FGM "is a violation of a girl's rights to health, well-being and self-determination," said Unicef deputy executive director Geeta Rao Gupta, (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)


"What is clear from this report is that legislation alone is not enough."
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/68887000/jpg/_68887607_female_mutilation_464.jpg (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
Country (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858) Prevalence (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858) Country (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858) Prevalence (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858) Note: Data from the Republic of the Sudan only. Data not collected from South Sudan. Source: Unicef (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
Somalia (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
98% (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
Ivory Coast (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
36% (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
Guinea (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
96% (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
Kenya (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
27% (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
Djibouti (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
93% (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
Nigeria (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
27% (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
Egypt (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
91% (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
Senegal (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
26% (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
Eritrea (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
89% (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
Central African Republic (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
24% (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
Mali (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
89% (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
Yemen (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
23% (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
Sierra Leone (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
88% (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
Tanzania (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
15% (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
Sudan* (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
88% (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
Benin (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
13% (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
Burkina Faso (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
76% (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
Iraq (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
8% (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
The Gambia (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
76% (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
Ghana (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
4% (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
Ethiopia (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
74% (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
Togo (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
4% (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
Mauritania (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
69% (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
Niger (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
2% (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
Liberia (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
66% (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
Cameroon (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
1% (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
Guinea-Bissau (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
50% (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
Uganda (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
1% (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
Chad (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)
44% (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)

(http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23410858)

Texas students dress in burqas, taught to call Muslim terrorists ‘freedom fighters’ (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/feb/25/texas-students-dress-burqas-taught-call-muslim-ter/)

http://media.washtimes.com/static/images/twt-special-white.pnghttp://media.washtimes.com/static/images/twt-special-white.png (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/feb/25/texas-students-dress-burqas-taught-call-muslim-ter/)

(http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/feb/25/texas-students-dress-burqas-taught-call-muslim-ter/)
A Texas lawmaker is launching an investigation after a high school teacher reportedly invited her female students to dress in burqas and refer to Muslim terrorists as “freedom fighters.” (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/feb/25/texas-students-dress-burqas-taught-call-muslim-ter/)
State Sen. Dan Patrick told Fox News he is very disturbed by a Facebook photograph posted by one of the students in a world geography class at Lumberton High School, which showed them in Islamic garb. He also is investigating reports that the students were forced to write an essay based on an article in The Washington Post that blamed Egypt’s turmoil on democracy rather than the Muslim Brotherhood. (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/feb/25/texas-students-dress-burqas-taught-call-muslim-ter/)
“Parents are very sensitive to any issue that seems to be anti-American — that blames democracy for some sort of trouble in the world,” he told Fox. (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/feb/25/texas-students-dress-burqas-taught-call-muslim-ter/)
“I felt like the line had been crossed,” a parent of the daughter who posted the Facebook photo told Fox. “Christian kids who want to pray have to do it outside of school hours — yet Islam is being taught to our kids during school hours.” (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/feb/25/texas-students-dress-burqas-taught-call-muslim-ter/)
(http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/feb/25/texas-students-dress-burqas-taught-call-muslim-ter/)The girl’s father is confused why a geography class is teaching religion at all. (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/feb/25/texas-students-dress-burqas-taught-call-muslim-ter/)
“She went from learning about Mexico to learning about Russia to learning about Islam,” he told Fox. “Islam is not a country. Islam is not a continent.” (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/feb/25/texas-students-dress-burqas-taught-call-muslim-ter/)
The school district released a statement to Fox News defending the class: “The lesson that was offered focused on exposing students to world cultures, religions, customs and belief systems. The lesson is not teaching a specific religion, and the students volunteered to wear the clothing.” (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/feb/25/texas-students-dress-burqas-taught-call-muslim-ter/)
The parents contacted the principal, who defended the program required under CSCOPE, a controversial electronic curriculum system that provides online lesson plans for teachers, Fox News reports. (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/feb/25/texas-students-dress-burqas-taught-call-muslim-ter/)
“This is the normal answer from every school using CSCOPE,” said Janice VanCleave, the founder of Texas CSCOPE Review, which monitors what is being taught in the state’s schools. “They are definitely promoting the Islamic religion.” (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/feb/25/texas-students-dress-burqas-taught-call-muslim-ter/)


Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/feb/25/texas-students-dress-burqas-taught-call-muslim-ter/#ixzz2ZpKMNh00
Follow us: *washtimes on Twitter (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/feb/25/texas-students-dress-burqas-taught-call-muslim-ter/)

Will Egypt get a second chance at democracy? (http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/15/will-egypt-get-a-second-chance-at-democracy/?hpt=hp_t2)

http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/img/3.0/global/header/intl/hdr-globe-central.gif (http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/15/will-egypt-get-a-second-chance-at-democracy/?hpt=hp_t2)

(http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/15/will-egypt-get-a-second-chance-at-democracy/?hpt=hp_t2)

(http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/15/will-egypt-get-a-second-chance-at-democracy/?hpt=hp_t2)

(http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/15/will-egypt-get-a-second-chance-at-democracy/?hpt=hp_t2)
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/130715155054-exp-egypt-wisner-amanpour-00013030-horizontal-gallery.jpg (http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/15/will-egypt-get-a-second-chance-at-democracy/?hpt=hp_t2)

(http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/15/will-egypt-get-a-second-chance-at-democracy/?hpt=hp_t2)
That’s what the world is asking, a week after Egypt’s military forced President Mohamed Morsy from office, after a year of what the opposition called tyrannical governance. (http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/15/will-egypt-get-a-second-chance-at-democracy/?hpt=hp_t2)
(http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/15/will-egypt-get-a-second-chance-at-democracy/?hpt=hp_t2)
“Second chances are rare in any country,” U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns said in Cairo on Monday, after meeting with the interim leader, Adly Mansour. (http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/15/will-egypt-get-a-second-chance-at-democracy/?hpt=hp_t2)
(http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/15/will-egypt-get-a-second-chance-at-democracy/?hpt=hp_t2)
Speaking with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Frank Wisner, the former U.S. envoy to Egypt, said that Egypt should seize the opportunity. (http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/15/will-egypt-get-a-second-chance-at-democracy/?hpt=hp_t2)
(http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/15/will-egypt-get-a-second-chance-at-democracy/?hpt=hp_t2)
“[It’s] a second chance,” he said. “One worth achieving, and there’s a chance Egypt can do it.
(http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/15/will-egypt-get-a-second-chance-at-democracy/?hpt=hp_t2)
Last week, Egypt’s acting foreign minister, Mohamed Kamel Amr, said that there would be a “maximum of six to seven months” before new presidential elections are held. (http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/15/will-egypt-get-a-second-chance-at-democracy/?hpt=hp_t2)
(http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/15/will-egypt-get-a-second-chance-at-democracy/?hpt=hp_t2)
“It’s an adventuresome goal, but it’s not impossible,” Wisner said in reaction. “Much of the construction has already been written, Egypt has a very sophisticated election machinery.” (http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/15/will-egypt-get-a-second-chance-at-democracy/?hpt=hp_t2)
(http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/15/will-egypt-get-a-second-chance-at-democracy/?hpt=hp_t2)
What is critical between now and then, Wisner said, was consensus-building. (http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/15/will-egypt-get-a-second-chance-at-democracy/?hpt=hp_t2)
(http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/15/will-egypt-get-a-second-chance-at-democracy/?hpt=hp_t2)
“I can’t predict what the Muslim Brothers will do,” he said. “I know they are being called upon to join. But it is an opportunity for Egypt to bind up its wounds and come together.” (http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/15/will-egypt-get-a-second-chance-at-democracy/?hpt=hp_t2)

May Allah reward you Mister Mohamed on this effort
Allah made it in your balance

Thanks a lot

may allah reward you mister mohamed on this effort
allah made it in your balance

thanks mr mohammed


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thanks a lot
thanks mr nor aldin


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God save Egypt and its people and BLESSED in the Holy people
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Egypt death toll soars as Obama leads muted international condemnation
Egypt death toll soars as Obama leads muted international condemnation (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/15/egypt-*****down-death-toll-obama)

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/8/15/1376602062839/Egypt-military-round-up-008.jpg (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/15/egypt-*****down-death-toll-obama)


Suspects are rounded up near an annex building of Rabaa Adawiya mosque after the clearing of a protest camp on Thursday. Photograph: Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/15/egypt-*****down-death-toll-obama)
Egyptian security forces clashed with supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood for a second day on Thursday as muted international condemnation led by Barack Obama failed to quell violence now said to have killed at least 638 people and wounded many thousands more. (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/15/egypt-*****down-death-toll-obama)
The death toll from the ongoing *****down is likely to be far higher, with many bodies remaining unaccounted for in mosques near the scene of the two major assaults on Brotherhood sit-ins on Wednesday. (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/15/egypt-*****down-death-toll-obama)
The violence achieved its aim of clearing both protest sites but led to widespread rage and revenge attacks by supporters of the Brotherhood who torched a number of government buildings. (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/15/egypt-*****down-death-toll-obama)
In the early hours of Friday the Brotherhood called for a nationwide "millions' march of anger" after noon prayers, Reuters reported. (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/15/egypt-*****down-death-toll-obama)
"Despite the pain and sorrow over the loss of our martyrs, the latest coup makers' crime has increased our determination to end them," the Islamist group said in a statement. (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/15/egypt-*****down-death-toll-obama)
Responding to the army's brutal *****down on protesters, Obama announced the cancellation of joint US military exercises with Egypt in a carefully calibrated rebuke that stopped short of a more significant suspension of aid. (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/15/egypt-*****down-death-toll-obama)
The US president interrupted his family vacation on Martha's Vineyard to condemn the bloodshed, but stressed that any move toward peaceful democracy was a difficult process that could take decades. (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/15/egypt-*****down-death-toll-obama)
"We appreciate the complexity of the situation," he said. "We recognise that change takes time. There are going to be false starts and difficult days. We know that democratic transitions are measured not in months or even years, but sometimes in generations." (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/15/egypt-*****down-death-toll-obama)
Egypt's presidency said early on Friday Obama's remarks were not based on "facts" and would strengthen and encourage violent groups, Reuters reported. (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/15/egypt-*****down-death-toll-obama)
His statement disappointed many in the diplomatic community who had hoped for a suspension, or even cancellation of $1.3bn in annual US military aid to Egypt, but the administration is anxious to retain this link for future leverage over the generals. (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/15/egypt-*****down-death-toll-obama)
"If I'm an Egyptian general, I take notice and think President Obama is trying to take the least painful step to demonstrate to various constituencies in the US that he means what he says about democracy in Egypt," said Amy Hawthorne, who until recently was an Egypt policy official at the State Department. "But only the least painful step, so we won't take him that seriously." (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/15/egypt-*****down-death-toll-obama)
The White House's limited intervention came as clashes took place for a second day in the capital Cairo, where an angry crowd stormed a security building in Giza and sporadic fighting was reported in at least four other parts of the country, including central Egypt where at least one police station and several churches were torched. (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/15/egypt-*****down-death-toll-obama)
In Beni Suef, a southern city, locals said demonstrators attacked the security headquarters and a Coptic school. In Ismaïlia, a city near the Suez C****, protesters backing the ousted president Mohamed Morsi attempted to attack a police station with a car, while Brotherhood members held a protest after the start of the evening curfew. (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/15/egypt-*****down-death-toll-obama)
Overall, though, violence was markedly lower than on Wednesday – a day that appeared to be worse than the fears of some politicians and even Brotherhood backers, who had been bracing for an imminent attack on their hubs in north-eastern and western Cairo. (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/15/egypt-*****down-death-toll-obama)
Bodies were still being counted in three mosques, three hospitals and two morgues, said Brotherhood spokesman Gehad el-Haddad early on Thursday, hours after a major assault led by interior ministry forces left behind scenes of shocking carnage at two sites used by supporters for the past six weeks. (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/15/egypt-*****down-death-toll-obama)
Morgue officials struggled to cope with the number of bodies arriving at the premises. As a result, dozens of decaying bodies lay in coffins outside, relatives piling them with ice to stop the rot. Many claimed the police had refused to record their deaths as murder. (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/15/egypt-*****down-death-toll-obama)
By daybreak, both protest sites were ravaged wastelands. Throughout Thursday, cleaners picked through the wreckage-strewn remains of the sites in an attempt to create a sense of normality. Protesters who had been encamped there had all fled or been arrested. Several groups made symbolic attempts to establish new hubs elsewhere in Cairo, but Brotherhood leaders continued to call on supporters to refrain from violence and hold only peaceful demonstrations. (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/15/egypt-*****down-death-toll-obama)
Meanwhile, Egypt's military-backed interim government remained defiant, pledging in a statement to confront "terrorist actions and sabotage", laying the blame for the violence at the feet of the Brotherhood. (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/15/egypt-*****down-death-toll-obama)
"The cabinet expressed its determination to confront the terrorist actions and sabotage by elements of the Muslim Brotherhood organisation," it said. "These actions are carried out as part of a criminal plan that clearly aims at toppling the state." State television quoted the interior ministry as saying the security forces would again use live ammunition to counter any attacks against themselves or public buildings. (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/15/egypt-*****down-death-toll-obama)
The curfew that had been announced in a declaration of emergency that was imposed across the country for 30 days will now be imposed from 9pm to 6am. (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/15/egypt-*****down-death-toll-obama)
In the street outside Cairo's Zeinhom morgue, families of victims vowed to resist the new curfew, refusing to leave the street until their relatives' bodies were accepted by the mortuary. "Curse the curfew," said Atef Fatih, whose brother was shot dead on Thursday. "We don't care about it. We will wait until they let the body inside." (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/15/egypt-*****down-death-toll-obama)
Brotherhood leaders warned they could not restrain the anger of supporters across the country and said they feared the outbreak of more widespread violence in coming weeks as the full scale of the massacre in Cairo sinks in. (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/15/egypt-*****down-death-toll-obama)
Christian leaders said that violence against Egypt's minority Coptic community was now at its highest for many decades. Islamists have angrily denounced Egypt's Christians as having given political cover to the new government, which was ushered into power by military chief, General Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, who ordered his officers to arrest Morsi and his aides on 3 July. (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/15/egypt-*****down-death-toll-obama)
The six-week standoff between the state and the Brotherhood failed to reach any form of compromise, setting the scene for the violent clashes of this week. Brotherhood leaders had persistently said that the protest sites in Cairo would remain peaceful. Two earlier assaults by security forces had led to an estimated 300 deaths. (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/15/egypt-*****down-death-toll-obama)
Morsi has been held incommunicado on a military base throughout the crisis. He is understood to have threatened to start a hunger strike should security forces carry through with their threat to attack both protest sites (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/15/egypt-*****down-death-toll-obama)

(http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3713/17/Paying-the-price.aspx)Paying the price (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3713/17/Paying-the-price.aspx)

The spate of attacks launched by Islamists, including the Muslim Brotherhood, against Christians constitutes collective punishment for Coptic participation in the mass demonstrations that led to Morsi’s ouster, (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3713/17/Paying-the-price.aspx)
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/Media/NewsMedia/2013/8/14/2013-635120944467805719-780_resized.jpg (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3713/17/Paying-the-price.aspx)

(http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3713/17/Paying-the-price.aspx)
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/Media/NewsMedia/2013/8/14/2013-635120945613165061-316_resized.jpg (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3713/17/Paying-the-price.aspx)
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/Media/NewsMedia/2013/8/14/2013-635120946776932521-693_resized.jpg (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3713/17/Paying-the-price.aspx)
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/Media/NewsMedia/2013/8/14/2013-635120948082816892-281_resized.jpg (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3713/17/Paying-the-price.aspx)
Egypt’s Copts and other Christians face tough times. Since the ouster of Muslim Brotherhood president Mohamed Morsi on 3 July churches and the homes of Christians have been the targets of regular attacks, some of them under the eyes and ears of an indifferent police force. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3713/17/Paying-the-price.aspx)
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The attackers identify themselves as Islamists. Indeed, the writing on the walls of burned churches and houses in Upper Egypt over the last month has conveyed a single, chilling message — that Egypt is exclusively an Islamic country and Copts should move elsewhere. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3713/17/Paying-the-price.aspx)

“This is collective punishment. The message is that Copts should find themselves somewhere else to go,” says Suleiman Shafik, a researcher into Coptic affairs. “The fact is, though, that Egypt is their home and Copts are staying.” (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3713/17/Paying-the-price.aspx)

Speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly in the wake of growing numbers of attacks on Christians, Shafik is less concerned about the slogans daubed on walls than he is with the identity of the attackers.
(http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3713/17/Paying-the-price.aspx)
“For the first time in decades we are seeing Muslim Brotherhood members directly involved in attacks against Copts. Previous attacks against Copts have been by and large the doing of other Islamist groups, Jihad and Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya. The Muslim Brotherhood has not been directly involved in any such attacks since 1950,” says Shafik. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3713/17/Paying-the-price.aspx)

The Muslim Brotherhood, which was established in 1928, instigated some attacks against Christian targets in the 1930s and 1940s. Otherwise, says Shafik, relations between the Islamist group and Egypt’s Copts, while they witnessed ups and downs, have remained manageable. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3713/17/Paying-the-price.aspx)

In the run-up to the presidential elections of 2012 Muslim Brotherhood leaders, including Morsi, tried to solicit Coptic support through positive public statements and appearances at the Coptic Cathedral. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3713/17/Paying-the-price.aspx)

“We are talking about a serious shift in positions here, and it’s very disturbing,” notes Shafik . He adds that “there is no doubt” in his mind about the “Muslim Brotherhood identity of the attackers” not only because there is no attempt to conceal this identity but also because “it is a well-known fact” that the villages in Upper Egypt where the attacks have happened “fall squarely in the area of Muslim Brotherhood influence”. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3713/17/Paying-the-price.aspx)

Equally disturbing for Shafik is the context in which the attacks take place. “I am not just talking about a police force that stands by while churches and houses are being burned down. I am talking about people being attacked for no reason other than the fact that they are Copts, and Copts participated in the 30 June demonstrations that led to the ouster of Morsi.” (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3713/17/Paying-the-price.aspx)

During the final months of Morsi’s year in office, Muslim Brotherhood leaders began to complain about the presence of Copts in anti-Morsi demonstrations. Mohamed Al-Beltagui, whose anti-Coptic statements from the Rabaa Al-Adaweya sit-in fall squarely within the realms of hate speech, was among the most vociferous. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3713/17/Paying-the-price.aspx)

What people like Al-Beltagui fail to realise, argues Shafik, is that “Copts are fully-fledged Egyptian citizens who have the right to protest against anything they happen to dislike, especially when it comes to a president determined to deny their existence.” (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3713/17/Paying-the-price.aspx)

The size of Egypt’s Christian population has been the subject of debate for decades, not least because the national census studiously avoids any religion-based count. According to many independent sources, Christians, whether Copts, Catholics or evangelicals, constitute one fifth of the population rather than the officially touted 10 per cent. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3713/17/Paying-the-price.aspx)

“To put things in black and white, Copts are being punished for exercising the perfectly legitimate citizenship right of protesting against the president,” Shafik says. “And the only body that is intervening to stop this is the army.” (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3713/17/Paying-the-price.aspx)

During the past month army vehicles have been deployed in the villages of Upper Egypt where attacks have taken place to provide the Coptic community with a sense of security. Such scenes are in sharp contrast to the images Copts have lived with since 9 October 2011 when military vehicles were used to kill Coptic demonstrators in front of the Maspero television headquarters. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3713/17/Paying-the-price.aspx)

“During the first interim phase churches and people were attacked in the context of disputes between neighbours or feuds over a love affair between a Muslim and a Copt. Now we are seeing attacks for no reason at all,” says Shafik . (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3713/17/Paying-the-price.aspx)

Sectarian violence against Copts has been a recurrent story since the late 1970s. Indeed, late president Anwar Al-Sadat is blamed by many historians for inciting sectarianism as he courted Islamist groups as a counterbalance to the lingering influence of leftists. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3713/17/Paying-the-price.aspx)

Sadat himself criticised the Coptic Patriarch Shenouda III and placed him under house arrest. Shenouda remained secluded until Hosni Mubarak came to power in 1981 and turned a new page in relations with the Church. Implicit in the new dispensation was the understanding that the patriarch would keep the Coptic population “within the walls of the church”. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3713/17/Paying-the-price.aspx)

“For years Copts would demonstrate inside the walls of the Cathedral grounds. All that changed when they took part in the 25 January Revolution. There were repeated attempts to force them back inside the churches but neither the Copts nor the Church complied. Instead, the opposite happened. They defied these attempts. One result of this was the marked presence of Copts in every demonstration that led the way to 30 June,” argues Shafik. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3713/17/Paying-the-price.aspx)

Now, he says, the homes and places of worship of Copts and other Christians are being attacked as a form of “collective punishment”. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3713/17/Paying-the-price.aspx)

[U] “We now see all the houses of Copts in a village being attacked. This signals a shift from the individual discrimination faced by many Copts towards wholesale persecution. The state needs to interfere, strongly, to stop this (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3713/17/Paying-the-price.aspx)

Copts in the line of fire (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3735/17/Copts-in-the-line-of-fire.aspx)

On 14 August supporters of toppled president Mohamed Morsi torched at least 50 churches, Christian-owned schools and businesses across Egypt. Eyewitnesses stated that the attacks were perpetrated by the Muslim Brotherhood and their supporters in areas which lacked a police presence and protection. Attackers threw Molotov cocktails at churches as well as firebombs. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3735/17/Copts-in-the-line-of-fire.aspx)


According to the website nilerevolt.wordpress.com, there was one church burnt in Alexandria, one in Arish, eight in Assiut, two in Beni Suef, one in Cairo, six in Fayoum, one in Gharbiya, two in Giza, around 12 in Minya, one in Qena, five in Sohag, and five in Suez. One of Egypt’s oldest churches, the Virgin Mary in Minya was engulfed in flames. The church goes back to the fourth century. Among more churches burnt were St Mina, Baptist church status of Bani Mazar, Saint Mark, Jesuit Fathers, the Greek church and Franciscan fathers, Saint Maximus, Saint Mark, Virgin and Anba Abram, Saint George, Virgin Lady, and Prince Taodharos Elchatbi. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3735/17/Copts-in-the-line-of-fire.aspx)

This is in addition to at least 11 Christian institutions in Cairo, Fayoum, Assiut and Minya. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3735/17/Copts-in-the-line-of-fire.aspx)

Many Copts were also injured. It was reported that at least 15 worshipers were seriously injured while praying in churches. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3735/17/Copts-in-the-line-of-fire.aspx)

Nuns and priests fled to neighbouring rooftops after their churches were torched. Smoke and flames rose while the screams of nuns filled the air. Citizens banded together in front of churches all over Egypt’s governorates to protect them against attacks by the Muslim Brotherhood. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3735/17/Copts-in-the-line-of-fire.aspx)

Many Coptic political ****ysts believe that Christians are being scapegoated for the toppling of Morsi. Emad Gad, political ****yst at Al-Ahram Centre for Strategic and Political Research, said the severity of the attacks against Copts has never happened before. “Police and armed forces must exert more efforts to protect Christian entities and Copts as well. There have throughout the past decades been minor attacks against Copts; this time is the fiercest. Copts are being slaughtered and massive churches are being burnt down and security forces are doing nothing to protect innocent people and their houses of worship,” said Gad. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3735/17/Copts-in-the-line-of-fire.aspx)

Gad believes that the security silence over what is happening to Copts is disturbing. “Muslims and Copts do not want the dominance of one faction over the other in society. But Islamists either want everything under their control or will destroy the country,” Gad explained. “Islamists have a natural aggression against Copts. During the rule of Morsi, Copts were suppressed. Most were excluded from almost all important posts in the country. The Muslim Brotherhood who wanted to Islamise the country and its different entities as if Muslims are the only ones who are living in Egypt.” (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3735/17/Copts-in-the-line-of-fire.aspx)

After the escalating sectarian violence against Copts, Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II called on Egyptians to stop the bloodshed and violence. “I ask every Egyptian to preserve Egyptian blood and exercise self-restraint and stop any assault against anyone,” said Tawadros. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3735/17/Copts-in-the-line-of-fire.aspx)

In the same context, the pope cancelled his weekly sermon for the third successive week due to the escalating violence against Copts since the ousting of Morsi on 3 July. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3735/17/Copts-in-the-line-of-fire.aspx)

Some ****ysts blamed the media for ignoring attacks on Copts and churches. They said the media focused too much on the evacuation of Rabaa Al-Adaweya and Al-Nahda sit-ins by Islamist supporters of Morsi and neglected other incidents in society caused by the Muslim Brotherhood. “The media should not be bias. All calamities should be covered by the media equally,” said Gad. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3735/17/Copts-in-the-line-of-fire.aspx)

Muslims have been seen helping in putting out fires in churches. Muslims along with Copts were reported defending churches and Christian-owned businesses and schools. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3735/17/Copts-in-the-line-of-fire.aspx)

Former MP Georgette Qullini denounced the attacks against churches, Copts, their homes and businesses. Qullini said what happened was an attempt to disrupt the country’s unity. “Egypt is witnessing a bloody phase in the country’s history at the hands of Islamist terrorist militias. There is an organised scheme against the country’s unity and people as well,” said Qullini. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3735/17/Copts-in-the-line-of-fire.aspx)

Qullini blamed leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood for encouraging their followers to launch violent attacks against innocent citizens and unarmed Christians. “They want to keep power and maintain it by force. They do not listen to the people. What they did instead is gain the public’s hatred,” she said. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3735/17/Copts-in-the-line-of-fire.aspx)

“Egypt is going through a critical phase. They are risking the country’s stability. Police and armed forces should intervene in order to end th (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3735/17/Copts-in-the-line-of-fire.aspx)is farce

(http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/15/world/middleeast/egypt.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0)Hundreds Die as Egyptian Forces Attack Islamist Protesters (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/15/world/middleeast/egypt.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0)



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(http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/15/world/middleeast/egypt.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0)A young man next to the bodies of protesters killed on Wednesday. Many of the dead were shot in the head or chest; some appeared to be in their early teens (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/15/world/middleeast/egypt.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0)
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CAIRO — Egyptian security officers stormed two encampments packed with supporters of the ousted president, Mohamed Morsi, on Wednesday in a scorched-earth assault that killed hundreds, set off a violent backlash across Egypt and underscored the new government’s determination to crush the Islamists who dominated two years of free elections (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/15/world/middleeast/egypt.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0)

The attack, the third mass killing of Islamist demonstrators since the military ousted Mr. Morsi six weeks ago, followed a series of government threats. But the scale — lasting more than 12 hours, with armored vehicles, bulldozers, tear gas, birdshot, live ammunition and snipers — and the ferocity far exceeded the Interior Ministry’s promises of a gradual and measured dispersal. (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/15/world/middleeast/egypt.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0)
At least one protester was incinerated in his tent. Many others were shot in the head or chest, including some who appeared to be in their early teens, including the 17-year-old daughter of a prominent Islamist leader, Mohamed el-Beltagy. At a makeshift morgue in one field hospital on Wednesday morning, the number of bodies grew to 12 from 3 in the space of 15 minutes. (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/15/world/middleeast/egypt.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0)
“Martyrs, this way,” a medic called out to direct the men bringing new stretchers; the hems of women’s abayas were stained from the pools of blood covering the floor. (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/15/world/middleeast/egypt.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0)
Adli Mansour, the figurehead president appointed by Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi, declared a state of emergency, removing any limits on police action and returning Egypt to the state of virtual martial law that prevailed for three decades under President Hosni Mubarak. The government imposed a 7 p.m. curfew in most of the country, closed the banks and shut down all north-south train service. (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/15/world/middleeast/egypt.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0)
The Muslim Brotherhood, the main Islamist group behind Mr. Morsi, reiterated its rejection of violence but called on Egyptians across the country to rise up in protest, and its supporters marched toward the camps to battle the police with rocks and firebombs. (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/15/world/middleeast/egypt.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0)
Clashes and gunfire broke out even in well-heeled precincts of the capital far from the protest camps, leaving anxious residents huddled in their homes and the streets all but emptied of life. Angry Islamists attacked at least a dozen police stations around the country, according to the state news media, killing more than 40 police officers. (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/15/world/middleeast/egypt.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0)
And they lashed out at Christians, attacking or burning seven churches, according to the interior minister. Coptic Christian and human rights groups said the number was far higher. (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/15/world/middleeast/egypt.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0)
The *****down followed six weeks of attempts by Western diplomats to broker a political resolution that might persuade the Islamists to abandon their protests and rejoin a renewed democratic process despite the military’s removal of Mr. Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected president. But the brutality of the attack seemed to extinguish any such hopes. (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/15/world/middleeast/egypt.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0)
The Health Ministry said that 235 civilians had been killed and more than a thousand others had been wounded across Egypt. But the rate of dead and seriously injured people moving through the field hospitals at the sit-ins seemed to promise the true numbers would be much higher. (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/15/world/middleeast/egypt.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0)
The assault prompted the resignation of the interim vice president, Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel Prize-winning former diplomat who had lent his reputation to selling the West on the democratic goals of the military takeover. (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/15/world/middleeast/egypt.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0)
“We have reached a state of harder polarization and more dangerous division, with the social fabric in danger of tearing, because violence only begets violence,” Mr. ElBaradei wrote in a public letter to the president. “The beneficiaries of what happened today are the preachers of violence and terrorism, the most extremist groups,” he said, “and you will remember what I am telling you.” (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/15/world/middleeast/egypt.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0)
The violence was almost universally criticized by Western governments. A spokesman for President Obama said the United States was continuing to review the $1.5 billion in aid it gives Egypt annually, most of which goes to the military. The spokesman, Josh Earnest, said the violence “runs directly counter to pledges from the interim government to pursue reconciliation” with the Islamists.
(http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/15/world/middleeast/egypt.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0)

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(http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/15/world/middleeast/egypt.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0)

Is This the End of the Arab Spring? (http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/08/14/is-this-the-end-of-the-arab-spring)



Introduction


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Ahmed Gomaa/Associated PressAuthorities cleared sit-ins in Cairo, killing scores of protesters.

With a state of emergency declared (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/15/world/middleeast/egypt.html?hp) in Egypt, continued unrest in Bahrain (http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/08/08/317762/bahrain-steps-up-*****down-on-activists/), democracy under threat in Tunisia (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/30/opinion/killing-the-arab-spring-in-its-cradle.html), Libya (http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/139628/lindsay-benstead-ellen-m-lust-jakob-wichmann/its-morning-in-libya), and possibly even Turkey (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/19/world/europe/turkey-arrests-dozens-in-*****down-on-protests.html), and an all-out civil war in Syria (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/syria/index.html), is there any hope left for the anti-authoritarian movement that swept through the Middle East?





http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/08/14/opinion/Mona_EltahawyRFD/Mona_EltahawyRFD-thumbStandard.jpg Airing Out the House of Egypt (http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/08/14/is-this-the-end-of-the-arab-spring/airing-out-the-house-of-egypt)


Mona Eltahawy, columnist
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/08/08/opinion/ed_husain2RFD/ed_husain2RFD-thumbStandard.jpg If the West Would Step Up (http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/08/14/is-this-the-end-of-the-arab-spring/hope-for-the-arab-spring-if-the-west-steps-up)


Ed Husain, Council on Foreign Relations
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/08/14/opinion/Karima_BennouneRFD/Karima_BennouneRFD-thumbStandard.jpg Activists Must Reclaim a Co-Opted Movement (http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/08/14/is-this-the-end-of-the-arab-spring/democracy-activists-must-reclaim-a-co-opted-movement)


Karima Bennoune, author, “Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here”
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/05/29/opinion/matar_EBRAHIM2RFD/matar_EBRAHIM2RFD-thumbStandard.jpg In the Gulf, a New Model for Creating Democracy (http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/08/14/is-this-the-end-of-the-arab-spring/in-the-gulf-a-new-model-for-creating-democracy)


Matar Ebrahim, activist
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/08/14/opinion/Christine_OganRFD/Christine_OganRFD-thumbStandard.jpg In Turkey, Voters Still Have Power (http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/08/14/is-this-the-end-of-the-arab-spring/in-turkey-voters-still-have-power)


Christine Ogan, Indiana University
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/06/16/opinion/haleh/haleh-thumbStandard.jpg Region’s Hardliners Will Take Heart (http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/08/14/is-this-the-end-of-the-arab-spring/regions-hardliners-will-take-heart-from-egypts-*****down)


Haleh Esfandiari, Woodrow Wilson International Center
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/08/14/opinion/James_GelvinRFD/James_GelvinRFD-thumbStandard.jpg ‘Spring’ Uprisings Are Nothing New (http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/08/14/is-this-the-end-of-the-arab-spring/spring-uprisings-are-nothing-new)


James L. Gelvin, author, "The Arab Uprisings: What Everyone Needs to Know"
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/08/14/opinion/albertus/albertus-thumbStandard.jpg http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/08/14/opinion/menaldo/menaldo-thumbStandard.jpg There’s Hope in the Long Run (http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/08/14/is-this-the-end-of-the-arab-spring/democracy-slowly-won-out-over-other-coups)


Michael Albertus, University of Chicago and Victor Menaldo, University of Washington
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Consider Egypt’s Peaceful Masses (http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/08/14/is-this-the-end-of-the-arab-spring/consider-egypts-peaceful-masses)

Tawakkol Karman, human rights activist, Yemen
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/08/14/opinion/ackerman/ackerman-thumbStandard.jpg Democracy May Succeed if Violence Doesn’t Rise (http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/08/14/is-this-the-end-of-the-arab-spring/egyptian-democracy-may-succeed-if-violence-doesnt-rise)


Peter Ackerman, International Center for Nonviolent Conflict


http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/misc/nytlogo110x16.gif (http://www.nytimes.com)

http://www.thanwya.com/vb/showthread.php?p=5439777#post5439777

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(http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3802/17/Turning-against-Turkey.aspx)Turning against Turkey (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3802/17/Turning-against-Turkey.aspx)




The Turkish government is behaving very oddly these days. As if there were not sufficient issues to concern it at home and immediately across the Turkish border in Syria, the situation in Egypt now tops the agenda in Ankara. Not long ago, only occasional statements on Egypt came out of the offices of the Turkish president and prime minister. These days, the attention is constant. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3802/17/Turning-against-Turkey.aspx)
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Moreover, in Turkey where the government goes the media follows. This has increased its coverage of Egypt, most of it being lifted directly from Al- (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3802/17/Turning-against-Turkey.aspx)

Jazeera and CNN, in addition to from reports on the summoning of the Egyptian ambassador to Turkey, Abdel-Rahman Salah, for an interview at the Turkish foreign office. It is difficult to find opinions not in harmony with the position of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), while anti-Egyptian fervour is being drummed up in the streets of Istanbul and Ankara. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3802/17/Turning-against-Turkey.aspx)

These are filled with government-organised marches condemning the “coup” in Egypt and calling for the restoration of “legitimacy”, in other words the reinstatement of the ousted former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3802/17/Turning-against-Turkey.aspx)

As a result, the Egyptian people have begun to air their anger at Ankara, having already begun to question Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s democratic credentials when he unleashed a police *****down against peaceful environmental rights protesters in Istanbul’s Gezi Park earlier this year. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3802/17/Turning-against-Turkey.aspx)

However, they could never have imagined that Erdogan would be arrogant enough to cast himself as an Ottoman caliph wearing a Western suit and tie. But Erdogan has set his government and its media squarely against the will of the Egyptian people, as voiced in the revolutionary waves of the 30 June Revolution, and this has opened their eyes to the true character of the government in Ankara. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3802/17/Turning-against-Turkey.aspx)

The admiration that many Egyptians felt for the beautiful expanses of Anatolia and the elegance of its cities until just a month and a half ago has now turned into something akin to revulsion. The anger has homed in on a single person, Erdogan, but it has also been expressed by the Egyptian public’s switching off the Turkish television ******s that it was once addicted to and increasingly boycotting products made in Turkey. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3802/17/Turning-against-Turkey.aspx)

Turkish companies probably understand that such things are the closest at hand, which is why they have been treating the phenomenon like a passing storm, after which the bonds of affection will return to normal. Two weeks ago, in a meeting specially convened in response to the situation in Egypt, Turkish Economy Minister Zafer Çaglayan reassured Turkish businessmen that their interests in Egypt were safe at least for the foreseeable future. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3802/17/Turning-against-Turkey.aspx)

The tone was subdued and the desire to avert alarm clear, but there has nevertheless been no ignoring the fact that relations between Cairo and Ankara are now in crisis and that Ankara has done its best to inflame it. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3802/17/Turning-against-Turkey.aspx)

For the time being, Egypt’s response has been to withdraw the Egyptian ambassador from Ankara. It is difficult to say whether it will go so far as to sever relations with Turkey, a painful decision that the interim government may feel forced to make in the light of the campaign being waged by the powers-that-be in Ankara against a government that they describe as “dictatorial” and other forms of reckless behaviour that Egyptians regard as unwarranted interference in their country’s domestic affairs. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3802/17/Turning-against-Turkey.aspx)

Many Turks living in Egypt have commented on the huge gulf between what they see on the ground in Egypt and the remarks made by their country’s officials and the coverage of Egypt by the Turkish media. Where are the massacres that Ankara keeps talking about, they ask. Why does the Turkish media never say a word about the crimes committed by the other side? (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3802/17/Turning-against-Turkey.aspx)

Since the media airs nothing but images of violence accompanied by one-sided commentary against the brutal “dictatorship” in Egypt and its ruthless army and police, Turkish residents of Egypt are apt to receive phone calls from alarmed friends and relatives back home. Their advice is not to pay too much attention to the media coverage in Turkey, but they still want to know why Erdogan is orchestrating the current campaign against Egypt and what purposes it is meant to serve. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3802/17/Turning-against-Turkey.aspx)

It is unlikely that the Turks will ever receive clear answers to these questions, at least not while Erdogan is prime minister and continues to control the country’s press. He made the Egyptian crisis the centrepiece of a speech delivered yesterday in Bursa south of the Marmara Sea, as usual lacing his words with religious terms and formulas guaranteed to stir up the emotions of his supporters. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3802/17/Turning-against-Turkey.aspx)

These had received instructions from AKP municipal chiefs a week beforehand to take part in the rally and to bring Turkish flags, AKP banners and pictures of Erdogan with them. With such a well-primed audience, Erdogan was sure to raise a cheer when he raised four fingers, instead of the usual two. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3802/17/Turning-against-Turkey.aspx)

These four fingers are understood to signal Rabaa Al-Adaweya, in Turkey the symbol of the opposition to the “anti-Morsi coup”. (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/3802/17/Turning-against-Turkey.aspx)






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