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Poison in the blood
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. Click to view caption 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
Sinai operation continues The results of the military operation conducted in Sinai against armed militant groups were announced earlier this week, writes Amirah Ibrahim Click to view caption 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
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
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Almost president, now wanted ------------------- (Ahmed Shafik
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 Click to view captionAhmed 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
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 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
A history of Ethiopia's Church
Nader Habib 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 Click to view caption 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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Israel finance minister says Iran economy on "verge of collapse"
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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) |
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Thanks Mr Ayman ************* ********************** |
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you are welcomE ************* ********************** |
Morsi's promises for his first 100 days in office
Morsi's promises for his first 100 days in office
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Female genital mutilation: 30 million girls 'at risk
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. Country Prevalence Country Prevalence Note: Data from the Republic of the Sudan only. Data not collected from South Sudan. Source: UnicefIt 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. Ritual cutting of girls' genitals is practised by some African, Middle Eastern and Asian communities in the belief it protects a woman's virginity. Unicef wants action to end FGM. 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. FGM "is a violation of a girl's rights to health, well-being and self-determination," said Unicef deputy executive director Geeta Rao Gupta, "What is clear from this report is that legislation alone is not enough." http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/image...lation_464.jpg Somalia 98% Ivory Coast 36% Guinea 96% Kenya 27% Djibouti 93% Nigeria 27% Egypt 91% Senegal 26% Eritrea 89% Central African Republic 24% Mali 89% Yemen 23% Sierra Leone 88% Tanzania 15% Sudan* 88% Benin 13% Burkina Faso 76% Iraq 8% The Gambia 76% Ghana 4% Ethiopia 74% Togo 4% Mauritania 69% Niger 2% Liberia 66% Cameroon 1% Guinea-Bissau 50% Uganda 1% Chad 44% |
Texas students dress in burqas, taught to call Muslim terrorists ‘freedom fighters’
http://media.washtimes.com/static/im...cial-white.pnghttp://media.washtimes.com/static/im...cial-white.png 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.” 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. “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. “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.” The girl’s father is confused why a geography class is teaching religion at all. “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.” 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.” 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. “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.” Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/feb/25/texas-students-dress-burqas-taught-call-muslim-ter/#ixzz2ZpKMNh00 Follow us: *washtimes on Twitter |
Will Egypt get a second chance at democracy?
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/ass...al-gallery.jpg 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. “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. Speaking with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Frank Wisner, the former U.S. envoy to Egypt, said that Egypt should seize the opportunity. “[It’s] a second chance,” he said. “One worth achieving, and there’s a chance Egypt can do it. 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. “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.” What is critical between now and then, Wisner said, was consensus-building. “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.” |
May Allah reward you Mister Mohamed on this effort Allah made it in your balance |
Thanks a lot
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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://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/...und-up-008.jpg 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. 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. 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. In the early hours of Friday the Brotherhood called for a nationwide "millions' march of anger" after noon prayers, Reuters reported. "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. 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. 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. "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." Egypt's presidency said early on Friday Obama's remarks were not based on "facts" and would strengthen and encourage violent groups, Reuters reported. 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. "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." 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. "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. 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. 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." 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. 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. 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. 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 |
Paying the price http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/Media/New...80_resized.jpg http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/Media/New...16_resized.jpg http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/Media/New...93_resized.jpg http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/Media/New...81_resized.jpg 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. “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 thisThe 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. “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.” 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. “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. 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. 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. “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”. 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.” 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. 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.” 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. “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.” 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. “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 . 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. 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”. “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. Now, he says, the homes and places of worship of Copts and other Christians are being attacked as a form of “collective punishment”. |
Copts in the line of fire
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. 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. This is in addition to at least 11 Christian institutions in Cairo, Fayoum, Assiut and Minya. Many Copts were also injured. It was reported that at least 15 worshipers were seriously injured while praying in churches. 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. 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. 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.” 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. “Egypt is going through a critical phase. They are risking the country’s stability. Police and armed forces should intervene in order to end this farce |
Hundreds Die as Egyptian Forces Attack Islamist Protesters http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...scan_paper.jpg http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...efrontpage.jpg http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...afrontpage.jpg http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...ticleLarge.jpg 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 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 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. 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. “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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. “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.” 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. |
Is This the End of the Arab Spring?!!! Room for Debate!!!!OK!!!!!!!!
Introduction Ahmed Gomaa/Associated PressAuthorities cleared sit-ins in Cairo, killing scores of protesters. With a state of emergency declared in Egypt, continued unrest in Bahrain, democracy under threat in Tunisia, Libya, and possibly even Turkey, and an all-out civil war in Syria, is there any hope left for the anti-authoritarian movement that swept through the Middle East?
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Turning against Turkey
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/App_Theme...mages/logo.jpghttp://weekly.ahram.org.eg/App_Theme...mages/logo.jpg Turning against Turkey 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. 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- 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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? 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. 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. 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. These four fingers are understood to signal Rabaa Al-Adaweya, in Turkey the symbol of the opposition to the “anti-Morsi coup”. |
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