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Re: Egypt Revolts; Morsi claims Jews control US media

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Re: Egypt Revolts; Morsi claims Jews control US media

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Re: Egypt Revolts; Morsi claims Jews control US media

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Re: Egypt Revolts; Morsi claims Jews control US media

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Re: Egypt Revolts; Morsi claims Jews control US media

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Re: Egypt Revolts; Morsi claims Jews control US media

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Re: Egypt Revolts; Morsi claims Jews control US media

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Re: Egypt Revolts; Morsi claims Jews control US media

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Re: Egypt Revolts; Morsi claims Jews control US media

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Re: Egypt Revolts; Morsi claims Jews control US media

Posted by Olog-hai on Thu Jan 24 11:39:16 2013, in response to Re: Egypt Revolts; Morsi claims Jews control US media, posted by Chris R16/R2730 on Thu Jan 24 10:38:28 2013.

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In short, the Communists everywhere support every revolutionary movement against the existing social and political order of things.

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Re: Egypt Revolts; Morsi claims Jews control US media

Posted by Fred G on Thu Jan 24 11:50:42 2013, in response to Re: Egypt Revolts; Morsi claims Jews control US media, posted by Olog-hai on Thu Jan 24 11:39:16 2013.

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Egypt Revolts; life for gays in Egypt got *worse* post-revolution

Posted by Olog-hai on Thu Jan 24 11:59:38 2013, in response to Egypt Revolts!, posted by JayZeeBMT on Fri Jan 28 16:01:55 2011.

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Egypt: Campaigners say life has gotten worse for gay people since the Arab Spring

by Corinne Pinfold
24 January 2013, 12:11pm

Homophobia is on the rise in Egypt since the revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak, according to the Egypt Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR).

The visibility of the gay men and women who took to the streets during the revolution in 2011 has caused a backlash against them, instead of clinching them the greater freedom they had hoped for.

“After the fall of Mubarak, the criticism of those [revolutionary] groups has always contained a sexual element. Whether it’s the women who are participating called prostitutes or ‘loose’ women, or men are called homosexuals,” says Adel Ramadan of the EIPR.

Gay rights organizations in Egypt are sparse, and they do not receive as much attention as in neighboring Muslim countries. The EIPR is one group that advocates for gay rights, although it is not their priority.

Egyptian gay people themselves are not very visible either; the revolution was a rare occasion in which they took to the streets openly.

Maha, a 27-year-old lesbian, said she had gone to observe the protests at the start of the revolution, but quickly joined in when she realized the potential for replacing Egypt’s conservative rulers with a government that might give more rights to the gay population.

“We [gay Egyptians] don’t get freedom anywhere. No voice, nothing,” Maha told NBC News. “So, the first chance at revolution, we fought.”

She adds: “There was a moment of hope, but the last few years has killed it.”

Activist Kholoud Bilak says that the silver lining to the cloud is that groups like EIPR have started to take gay rights more seriously since the revolution.

“They are finally starting to acknowledge LGBTs: ‘oh, they were in the revolution since day one very, very effectively.’ I thought that is very positive,” she said.

Egypt does not have explicitly anti-gay legislation. However, gay people can be arrested on other charges such as “debauchery”, as was the case with seven men in November last year.

Activists and LGBT citizens also fear that the new government, lead by the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, may soon change the lack of anti-gay laws and crack down on LGBT Egyptians.

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Re: Egypt Revolts; life for gays in Egypt got *worse* post-revolution

Posted by The Flxible Neofan on Thu Jan 24 12:10:31 2013, in response to Egypt Revolts; life for gays in Egypt got *worse* post-revolution, posted by Olog-hai on Thu Jan 24 11:59:38 2013.

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Re: Egypt Revolts; life for gays in Egypt got *worse* post-revolution

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Re: Egypt Revolts; Morsi claims Jews control US media

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Re: Egypt Revolts; Morsi claims Jews control US media

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Re: Egypt Revolts; life for gays in Egypt got *worse* post-revolution

Posted by Orange Blossom Special on Thu Jan 24 16:52:38 2013, in response to Egypt Revolts; life for gays in Egypt got *worse* post-revolution, posted by Olog-hai on Thu Jan 24 11:59:38 2013.

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Re: Egypt Revolts; Morsi claims Jews control US media

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Re: Egypt Revolts; Morsi claims Jews control US media

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Re: Egypt Revolts; Morsi claims Jews control US media

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Re: Egypt Revolts; Morsi claims Jews control US media

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Re: Egypt Revolts; Morsi claims Jews control US media

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Re: Egypt Revolts; Morsi claims Jews control US media

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Re: Egypt Revolts; life for gays in Egypt got *worse* post-revolution

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Egypt Revolts; second anniversary of "revolution" marked with violence in Port Said

Posted by Olog-hai on Sun Jan 27 01:34:04 2013, in response to Egypt Revolts!, posted by JayZeeBMT on Fri Jan 28 16:01:55 2011.

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A City in Egypt Erupts in Chaos Over Sentences

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and MAYY EL SHEIKH
Published: January 26, 2013

CAIRO — Egypt’s new government lost control of a major city, Port Said, on Saturday as rampaging soccer fans attacked the main jail, drove police officers from the streets and cut off all access to the city.

Set off by the sentencing of 21 Port Said soccer fans to death, the rioting was the sharpest challenge yet to the efforts of Egypt’s new Islamist rulers to re-establish order after the two years of turmoil that have followed the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s autocratic president.

By evening, fighting in the streets had left at least 30 people dead, mostly from gunfire, and injured more than 300. Residents said they were afraid to leave their homes. Doctors said the local hospital was overloaded with casualties and pleaded for help. Rioters sacked and burned a police barracks; attacked police stations, the Port Said power plant and the jail, where the convicted men were being held; and closed off all roads to the city as well as the railroad station.

President Mohamed Morsi canceled a foreign trip to deal with the crisis at home and instead met with the National Defense Council, which includes the nation’s top military leaders. A spokesman for the Interior Ministry acknowledged that its security forces were unable to control the violence and urged that political leaders to try to calm the rioters.

By 8 p.m., a spokesman for the Egyptian military said its troops had moved in and secured vital facilities, including the prison, the Mediterranean port, and the Suez Canal. But in telephone interviews, residents said the streets remained lawless. “I’m worried for my sister and mother,” said Ahmed Zangir, 21. “I could run or do something, but it is not safe for them to get out.”

Mr. Zangir added: “Thugs are abusing the opportunity. They are everywhere.”

Friday was the second anniversary of the revolt that toppled Mr. Mubarak, an occasion that had already set off clashes between protesters and security forces in Cairo and other cities. Those battles began Thursday and continued for a third day on Saturday in Cairo, Suez and Alexandria. In Suez, where two police officers and seven protesters were killed on Friday, protesters attacked police stations and attempted to set fire to a central security building.

The anniversary battles were fueled by a combination of hostility toward the country’s new Islamist leaders and frustration with the meager rewards of the revolution so far. But those battles were more isolated, typically confined to just a few blocks around symbols of government power, like the Interior Ministry headquarters in Cairo or the headquarters of the provincial government in Suez.

In contrast, the escalating chaos that enveloped Port Said over the soccer riot sentencing posed a far greater challenge to the Islamist leaders, who have pledged a new era of respect for the law.

It was unclear how the fledgling government might regain control of the city without either a brutal crackdown on the mob or capitulation to its demands. And either alternative could further inflame the streets in Cairo and around Egypt.

The information minister said the National Defense Council had the authority to impose a curfew or a state of emergency over any trouble spot. But in an illustration of the political risks to any perception of a crackdown, a spokesman for the president, Yassir Ali, declared a few hours later that there was no intention to impose a curfew on Port Said.

In a television interview, Gen. Osama Ismail, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, acknowledged that the violence had spiraled beyond the control of the security forces. “The solution isn’t a security solution,” he said. “We urge the political and patriotic leaders and forces to intervene to calm the situation.”

The case that set off the riot grew out of a deadly brawl last February between rival groups of hard-core fans of soccer teams from Cairo and Port Said at a match in Port Said. The hard-core fans, called Ultras, are known for their appetite for violence against either rival fans or the police. Some had smuggled knives and other weapons into the stadium, security officials said at the time.

Seventy-four people were killed and over 1,000 injured in the soccer riot. Many died after being trampled under the stampeding crowds or falling from stadium balconies, according to forensic testimony later reported in the state news media.

It was the worst soccer riot in Egyptian history and among the worst in the world. Many political figures, including members of Mr. Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, initially sought to blame a counterrevolutionary conspiracy orchestrated by Mubarak loyalists or the Interior Ministry.

But prosecutors ultimately charged 21 Port Said fans with attacking their Cairo rivals and charged nine security officers with negligence. On Saturday, a judge in Cairo convicted the 21 fans of murder before passing sentence. Six of them remain fugitives.

The verdict was awaited with acute anxiety because any outcome risked the fury of the Ultras in either Port Said or Cairo. To warn of their wrath if the Port Said defendants were acquitted, the Cairo Ultras staged several raucous protests last week in anticipation of the verdict, temporarily closing bridges and subways lines and threatening the Egyptian stock exchange.

The trial was held in Cairo instead of Port Said because of the fear of violence between the two groups of Ultras. For the same reason, the Interior Ministry declined to transfer the defendants to the Cairo courtroom to hear the verdict, leaving them in detention in their home city.

Most of those killed in Port Said on Saturday died of bullet wounds, hospital officials said. It was unclear who shot first, but witnesses said some of the civilian protesters brought shotguns or homemade firearms to attack the prison. And after two security officers were killed, the gunfire escalated sharply there and around the city, witnesses and officials said. All of the other people killed were believed to be civilians.

Rioters also attacked members of the news media, damaging television cameras and cutting off live broadcasts.

Many said the severity of the penalty was out of step with the light verdicts handed down in high-profile cases against members of the old government. The soccer fans were sentenced to death for a brawl that killed several dozen people. But no police officer or security official has yet been held responsible for the killing of 800 civilian demonstrators during the 18 days of protests two years ago. The only people convicted were Mr. Mubarak and his interior minister, and those verdicts were overturned this month.

“Where are the officers of the Ministry of Interior and the military council in this verdict?” Mahmoud Affifi, a spokesman for the left-leaning April 6 group, told the state newspaper Al Ahram, referring to the generals who ruled Egypt for 18 months after Mr. Mubarak.

The Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group allied with Mr. Morsi, said in a statement that it blamed the news media for inciting violence against legitimately elected authorities. The group also castigated leaders of the political opposition for “silence instead of condemning these crimes, and even in some cases welcoming them.”

Those plotting the violence “must be condemned by all members of the society, and they must be held accountable according to the provisions of the law,” the Brotherhood said. “It’s incomprehensible to demand the rights of the martyrs by adding more martyrs and victims.”

Adding to the popular outrage over the verdict, the judge hearing the case, Sobhi Abdel Megeed, had imposed a complete ban on publishing or broadcasting news from the last two months of the soccer riot trial, including details of the charges, evidence or judicial reasoning.

On Saturday, Judge Megeed noted again that the court had asked the public prosecutor “to move criminal cases against anybody who would violate the publishing ban, no matter what their position is.”

Most in Cairo had expected an acquittal. Speculation had centered on the wrath of the capital’s Ultras if their attackers walked free. Instead, families of those killed in the soccer riot who were in the courtroom erupted in jubilation when hearing the news of the death penalty. Relatives held pictures of the victims in the air. Some danced and chanted. A few fainted. And the Ultras celebrated for hours outside their team’s headquarters in Cairo.

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Egypt Revolts; Morsi declares state of emergency in response to violence in Port Said

Posted by Olog-hai on Sun Jan 27 17:18:58 2013, in response to Egypt Revolts; second anniversary of "revolution" marked with violence in Port Said, posted by Olog-hai on Sun Jan 27 01:34:04 2013.

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Jan 27, 2013 5:06 PM EST

Egypt declares state of emergency in 3 provinces

By Hamza Hendawi
Associated Press

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's president declared a state of emergency and curfew in three Suez Canal provinces hit hardest by a weekend wave of unrest that left more than 50 dead, using tactics of the ousted regime to get a grip on discontent over his Islamist policies and the slow pace of change.

Angry and almost screaming, Mohammed Morsi vowed in a televised address on Sunday night that he would not hesitate to take even more action to stem the latest eruption of violence across much of the country. But at the same time, he sought to reassure Egyptians that his latest moves would not plunge the country back into authoritarianism.

"There is no going back on freedom, democracy and the supremacy of the law," he said.

The worst violence this weekend was in the Mediterranean coastal city of Port Said, where seven people were killed on Sunday, pushing the toll for two days of clashes to at least 44. The unrest was sparked on Saturday by a court conviction and death sentence for 21 defendants involved in a mass soccer riot in the city's main stadium on Feb. 1, 2012 that left 74 dead.

Most of those sentenced to death were local soccer fans from Port Said, deepening a sense of persecution that Port Said's residents have felt since the stadium disaster, the worst soccer violence ever in Egypt.

At least another 11 died on Friday elsewhere in the country during rallies marking the second anniversary of the anti-Mubarak uprising. Protesters used the occasion to renounce Morsi and his Islamic fundamentalist group, the Muslim Brotherhood, which emerged as the country's most dominant political force after Mubarak's ouster.

The curfew and state of emergency, both in force for 30 days, affect the provinces of Port Said, Ismailiya and Suez. The curfew takes effect Monday from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. every day.

Morsi, in office since June, also invited the nation's political forces to a dialogue starting Monday to resolve the country's latest crisis. A statement issued later by his office said that among those invited were the country's top reform leader, Nobel peace Laureate Mohammed ElBaradei, former Arab League chief Amr Moussa and Hamdeen Sabahi, a leftist politician who finished third in last year's presidential race.

The three are leaders of the National Salvation Front, an umbrella for the main opposition parties.

Khaled Dawoud, the Front's spokesman, said Morsi's invitation was meaningless unless he clearly states what is on the agenda. That, he added, must include amending a disputed constitution hurriedly drafted by the president's Islamist allies and rejected by the opposition.

He also faulted the president for not acknowledging his political responsibility for the latest bout of political violence.

"It is all too little too late," he told The Associated Press.

In many ways, Morsi's decree and his call for a dialogue betrayed his despair in the face of wave after wave of political unrest, violence and man-made disasters that, at times, made the country look like it was about to come unglued.

A relative unknown until his Muslim Brotherhood nominated him to run for president last year, Morsi is widely criticized for having offered no vision for the country's future after nearly 30 years of dictatorship under Mubarak and no coherent policy to tackle seemingly endless problems, from a free falling economy and deeply entrenched social injustices to surging crime and chaos on the streets.

Reform of the judiciary and the police, hated under the old regime for brutality, are also key demands of Morsi's critics.

Morsi did not say what he plans to do to stem the violence in other parts of the country outside those three provinces, but he did say he had instructed the police to deal "firmly and forcefully" with individuals attacking state institutions, using firearms to "terrorize" citizens or blocking roads and railway lines.

There were also clashes Sunday in Cairo and several cities in the Nile Delta region, including the industrial city of Mahallah.

Egypt's current crisis is the second to hit the country since November, when Morsi issued decrees, since rescinded, that gave him nearly unlimited powers and placed him above any oversight, including by the judiciary.

The latest eruption of political violence has deepened the malaise as Morsi struggles to get a grip on enormous social and economic problems and the increasingly dangerous fault lines that divide this nation of 85 million.

In an ominous sign, a one-time jihadist group on Sunday blamed the secular opposition for the violence and threatened to set up vigilante militias to defend the government it supports.

Addressing a news conference, Tareq el-Zomr of the once-jihadist Gamaa Islamiya, said:

"If security forces don't achieve security, it will be the right of the Egyptian people and we at the forefront to set up popular committees to protect private and public property and counter the aggression on innocent citizens."

His threat was accompanied by his charge that the opposition was responsible for the deadly violence of the past few days, setting the stage for possible bloody clashes between protesters and Islamist militiamen. The opposition denies the charge.

In Port Said on Sunday, tens of thousands of mourners poured into the streets for a mass funeral for most of the 37 people who died on Saturday. They chanted slogans against Morsi.

"We are now dead against Morsi," said Port Said activist Amira Alfy. "We will not rest now until he goes and we will not take part in the next parliamentary elections. Port Said has risen and will not allow even a semblance of normalcy to come back," she said.

The violence flared only a month after a prolonged crisis — punctuated by deadly violence — over the new constitution. Ten died in that round of unrest and hundreds were injured.

In Port Said, mourners chanted "There is no God but Allah," and "Morsi is God's enemy" as the funeral procession made its way through the city after prayers for the dead at the city's Mariam Mosque. Women clad in black led the chants, which were quickly picked up by the rest of the mourners.

There were no police or army troops in sight. But the funeral procession briefly halted after gunfire rang out. Security officials said the gunfire came from several mourners who opened fire at the Police Club next to the cemetery. Activists, however, said the gunfire first came from inside the army club, which is also close to the cemetery. Some of the mourners returned fire, which drew more shots as well as tear gas, according to witnesses. They, together with the officials, spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation in the city on the Mediterranean at the northern tip of the Suez Canal.

A total of 630 people were injured, some of them with gunshot wounds, said Abdel-Rahman Farag, director of the city's hospitals.

Also Sunday, army troops backed by armored vehicles staked out positions at key government facilities to protect state interests and try to restore order.

There was also a funeral in Cairo for two policemen killed in the Port Said violence a day earlier. Several policemen grieving for their colleagues heckled Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim, who is in charge of the force, when he arrived for their funeral, according to witnesses.

The angry officers screamed at the minister that he was only at the funeral for the TV cameras — a highly unusual show of dissent in Egypt, where the police force maintains military-like discipline.

Ibrahim hurriedly left and the funeral proceeded without him, a sign that the prestige of the state and its top executives were diminishing.

In Cairo, clashes broke out for the fourth straight day on Sunday, with protesters and police outside two landmark, Nile-side hotels near central Tahrir Square, birthplace of the 2011 uprising. Police fired tear gas while protesters pelted them with rocks.

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Re: Egypt Revolts! Egypt army chief warns: Political unrest could topple state

Posted by WMATAGMOAGH on Tue Jan 29 05:29:58 2013, in response to Egypt Revolts!, posted by JayZeeBMT on Fri Jan 28 16:01:55 2011.

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Egypt Revolts; activists release videos of women being gang-raped (link to videos)

Posted by Olog-hai on Sat Feb 2 20:43:17 2013, in response to Egypt Revolts!, posted by JayZeeBMT on Fri Jan 28 16:01:55 2011.

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Frank Video of Mass Sexual Assault in Cairo Is Released by Anti-Harassment Activists

By ROBERT MACKEY
February 2, 2013, 3:17 pm

Egyptian activists released a brutally frank video on Friday, using images recorded during the mass sexual assault of a woman last week in Cairo’s Tahrir Square to urge volunteers to join their campaign against attacks during demonstrations.

The video, created by the filmmakers Aida Elkashef and Salam Yousry, uses disturbing overhead images of a crowd of men swarming around a woman being assaulted just out of view to explain the work of Op Anti-SH, one of two new initiatives to combat the sexual harassment and rape of female protesters.

While the video includes no graphic images and shows that volunteers did eventually manage to help the woman to a safe location — near the KFC in the square — its detailed description of the woman’s assault stunned some viewers. Activists argued that the events described in the video are depressingly routine two years after the Egyptian revolution began. Despite that reality, the Op Anti-SH activists vow to continue their struggle.

In a video interview on the initiative published on Saturday, one of the women involved in Op Anti-SH, Engy Ghozlan, said: “This is our country, and we will not be silent about sexual harassment, not the type that happens to us every day, nor that of Tahrir. It will end, it cannot continue, because we believe Egypt deserves better.”

“In Egypt,” she added, “there is no revolution without the participation of women or without their security.”

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Re: Egypt Revolts! Egypt army chief warns: Political unrest could topple state

Posted by Olog-hai on Sat Feb 2 20:45:41 2013, in response to Re: Egypt Revolts! Egypt army chief warns: Political unrest could topple state, posted by WMATAGMOAGH on Tue Jan 29 05:29:58 2013.

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Re: Egypt Revolts; activists release videos of women being gang-raped (link to videos)

Posted by SelkirkTMO on Sat Feb 2 21:12:45 2013, in response to Egypt Revolts; activists release videos of women being gang-raped (link to videos), posted by Olog-hai on Sat Feb 2 20:43:17 2013.

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Re: Egypt Revolts! Egypt army chief warns: Political unrest could topple state

Posted by Allan on Sun Feb 3 10:27:20 2013, in response to Re: Egypt Revolts! Egypt army chief warns: Political unrest could topple state, posted by WMATAGMOAGH on Tue Jan 29 05:29:58 2013.

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Re: Egypt Revolts; activists release videos of women being gang-raped (link to videos)

Posted by orange blossom special on Sun Feb 3 12:57:13 2013, in response to Egypt Revolts; activists release videos of women being gang-raped (link to videos), posted by Olog-hai on Sat Feb 2 20:43:17 2013.

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Re: Egypt Revolts; activists release videos of women being gang-raped (link to videos)

Posted by Olog-hai on Sun Feb 3 12:58:38 2013, in response to Re: Egypt Revolts; activists release videos of women being gang-raped (link to videos), posted by orange blossom special on Sun Feb 3 12:57:13 2013.

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Re: Egypt Revolts; activists release videos of women being gang-raped (link to videos)

Posted by SLRT on Mon Feb 4 07:39:33 2013, in response to Egypt Revolts; activists release videos of women being gang-raped (link to videos), posted by Olog-hai on Sat Feb 2 20:43:17 2013.

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Re: Egypt Revolts; activists release videos of women being gang-raped (link to videos)

Posted by Olog-hai on Mon Feb 4 12:29:48 2013, in response to Re: Egypt Revolts; activists release videos of women being gang-raped (link to videos), posted by SLRT on Mon Feb 4 07:39:33 2013.

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Egypt Revolts; gang rapes may increase due to impunity, per Amnesty International

Posted by Olog-hai on Wed Feb 6 22:37:43 2013, in response to Egypt Revolts; activists release videos of women being gang-raped (link to videos), posted by Olog-hai on Sat Feb 2 20:43:17 2013.

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Feb 6, 2013 3:45 PM EST

Impunity feeds Egypt's sexual assaults, group says

CAIRO (AP) — Mob-led sexual assaults targeting Egypt's female protesters could increase if perpetrators are not punished, an international rights group warned on Wednesday.

Amnesty International said statements from victims show that the assaults follow a "clear pattern," where mobs of men encircle the victims, assault them with weapons and hands and then try to undress them.

Amnesty's warning followed a statement from the U.N. human rights office, which last week said that about 25 women were reportedly sexually assaulted - in some cases with extraordinary violence - in Cairo's Tahrir Square during recent demonstrations against Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

The square was the center of the 2011 uprising that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak. It has been the scene of a number of assaults against women — both protesters and journalists — in the aftermath of the uprising and a place where women have been stripped, groped and raped at demonstrations.

The U.N. agency demanded that Egyptian authorities take steps to bring the perpetrators to justice. Amnesty also urged prompt action.

"Horrific, violent attacks on women, including rape in the vicinity of Tahrir Square, demonstrate that it's now crucial President Morsi takes drastic steps to end this culture of impunity and gender-based discrimination," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui of the London-based group.

Amnesty cited a report by a local anti-harassment group, which said that a total of 19 violent attacks against women took place on Jan. 25 alone - the day Egyptians staged a huge demonstration in Cairo to mark the second anniversary of the uprising that ousted Mubarak.

Activists have called the incidents the worst in years, describing them as the darkest stain on the country's opposition street movement.

One particular attack on a woman on Jan. 25 has stood out: A mob of men on Cairo's Tahrir Square raped a 19-year-old woman with a sharp object, cutting her genitals in an attack that forced her to undergo emergency surgery.

Also Wednesday, some 2,000 people rallied in downtown Cairo, chanting against Morsi's Islamist government for not doing anything to protect women demonstrators. Some at the rally raised banners reading: "Those silent against the harassers are devils."

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Re: Egypt Revolts; activists release videos of women being gang-raped (link to videos)

Posted by SLRT on Thu Feb 7 06:28:53 2013, in response to Re: Egypt Revolts; activists release videos of women being gang-raped (link to videos), posted by Olog-hai on Mon Feb 4 12:29:48 2013.

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Egypt Revolts; Muslim Brotherhood won't prosecute imam who issued fatwas against liberal politicians

Posted by Olog-hai on Mon Feb 11 03:43:59 2013, in response to Egypt Revolts!, posted by JayZeeBMT on Fri Jan 28 16:01:55 2011.

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Muslim Brotherhood's El Erian: 'Egypt will not prosecute cleric'

10 February 2013 | Last updated at 19:34 ET

Egypt's ruling party, the Muslim Brotherhood, will not prosecute a cleric for issuing fatwas against liberal politicians in the country, one of its leaders has confirmed.

Some had feared Egypt could follow Tunisia, where a prominent secular politician was assassinated last week.

Speaking to the BBC's Aleem Maqbool, the vice president of the party's political wing, Essam El Erian, also responded to calls from opposition protesters for the president to step down, after accusations he betrayed the country following the revolution.

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Re: Egypt Revolts; Muslim Brotherhood won't prosecute imam who issued fatwas against liberal politicians

Posted by kew gardens teleport on Mon Feb 11 04:31:08 2013, in response to Egypt Revolts; Muslim Brotherhood won't prosecute imam who issued fatwas against liberal politicians, posted by Olog-hai on Mon Feb 11 03:43:59 2013.

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Re: Egypt Revolts; Muslim Brotherhood won't prosecute imam who issued fatwas against liberal politicians

Posted by Olog-hai on Sun Feb 17 14:03:23 2013, in response to Re: Egypt Revolts; Muslim Brotherhood won't prosecute imam who issued fatwas against liberal politicians, posted by kew gardens teleport on Mon Feb 11 04:31:08 2013.

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Egypt Revolts, bans TV station that shows bellydancers and ads for sex toys

Posted by Olog-hai on Sun Feb 17 14:03:52 2013, in response to Egypt Revolts!, posted by JayZeeBMT on Fri Jan 28 16:01:55 2011.

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Feb 16, 2013 3:30 PM EST

Egypt court orders belly dancing station off air

CAIRO (AP) — A court in Egypt has ordered a TV channel that airs belly dancing clips off the air for showing "sexually explicit" content and operating without a broadcast license.

The judge Saturday said that ElTet airs ads that are "offensive" and can "arouse" viewers. The station carries advertisements for sexual enhancement products and matchmaking services. It is broadcast out of a Cairo apartment that airs videos 24 hours a day of scantily clad belly dancers giving sultry performances to music.

The satellite channel's owner, Baligh Hamdy, was briefly arrested last year and accused of facilitating prostitution.

Meanwhile, another court upheld a decision Saturday to keep religious channel al-Hafez off the air for 30 days for slandering an Egyptian actress over her views in support of the former regime.

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Re: Egypt Revolts! Looks like we have more Military Rule, not Democracy

Posted by Olog-hai on Sun Feb 17 15:52:09 2013, in response to Re: Egypt Revolts! Looks like we have more Military Rule, not Democracy, posted by AlM on Tue Jun 19 11:14:23 2012.

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Re: Egypt Revolts! Looks like we have more Military Rule, not Democracy

Posted by Olog-hai on Sun Feb 17 15:52:28 2013, in response to Re: Egypt Revolts! Looks like we have more Military Rule, not Democracy, posted by AlM on Mon Jun 18 12:51:40 2012.

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Re: Egypt Revolts! Looks like we have more Military Rule, not Democracy

Posted by RockParkMan on Sun Feb 17 15:59:55 2013, in response to Re: Egypt Revolts! Looks like we have more Military Rule, not Democracy, posted by Olog-hai on Sun Feb 17 15:52:28 2013.

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Re: Egypt Revolts, bans TV station that shows bellydancers and ads for sex toys

Posted by SelkirkTMO on Sun Feb 17 18:11:35 2013, in response to Egypt Revolts, bans TV station that shows bellydancers and ads for sex toys, posted by Olog-hai on Sun Feb 17 14:03:52 2013.

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Egypt Revolts and is turning into another Afghanistan, per poet/author Abd Al-Rahman Al-Abnoudi

Posted by Olog-hai on Sun Feb 24 12:23:23 2013, in response to Egypt Revolts!, posted by JayZeeBMT on Fri Jan 28 16:01:55 2011.

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Egyptian Poet Abd Al-Rahman Al-Abnoudi: Egypt Is Becoming Another Afghanistan

Following are excerpts from an interview with Egyptian poet Abd Al-Rahman Al-Abnoudi, which aired on Dream 2 TV on February 10, 2013.

Abd Al-Rahman Al-Abnoudi: I used to like Tunisia very much. I would see how tourism was thriving there, and the people were familiar with French and European literature… They opened my eyes to Saint-John Perse, and other great poets and novelists. I learned all this from the Tunisians.

Today, you see there men wearing robes all the way down to here… It is as if they just emerged from a cave in Tora Bora. They took over Tunisia. They are like the Mongols.

First, they came to power. Then, the extremists among them were not content with the rule of the Ennahda Party, so they began the assassinations. They assassinated [Chokri Belaid], who was just like me, only he was a socialist, a union leader, and so on. He was a really good guy. They would not hold a dialogue with him. They do not know the meaning of dialogue.

Interviewer: There was a fatwa sanctioning his killing…

Abd Al-Rahman Al-Abnoudi: We have these fatwas here too. Take the fatwa by that guy with hair all over his face…

Interviewer: You mean Dr. Mahmoud Sha'ban.

Abd Al-Rahman Al-Abnoudi: What is this?

[…]

Interviewer: According to that fatwa, if you oppose the ruler, you can be killed.

Abd Al-Rahman Al-Abnoudi: As I said, it's like Tora Bora. We're turning into an Afghanistan. Soon enough, you'll see mountains here. One day, we will wake up and see mountains all over, and ghosts will be coming out of them, to spook the Egyptians.

Interviewer: You mean that the caves of Afghanistan will move here?

Abd Al-Rahman Al-Abnoudi: Yes, the mountains too. The women who wear tents all the way out to here will also come. We will start to destroy archaeological sites, just like them. These people think like drug addicts.

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Egypt Revolts; Egypt's liberals angered at Kerry visit, seen as US support for Islamists

Posted by Olog-hai on Fri Mar 1 15:45:31 2013, in response to Egypt Revolts!, posted by JayZeeBMT on Fri Jan 28 16:01:55 2011.

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Mar 1, 2013 3:26 PM EST

With Kerry on the way, Egypt liberals angry at US

By AYA BATRAWY
Associated Press

CAIRO (AP) — As John Kerry heads to Egypt on Saturday for his first visit as secretary of state, he faces a barrage of accusations from liberal and secular Egyptians who say Washington is siding with the ruling Muslim Brotherhood in the country's sharp political divisions.

The United States has had its own frustrations with the mainly liberal and secular opposition, which has been plagued by disorganization and divisions. This week, it pressed the main opposition grouping, the National Salvation Front, to reverse its decision to boycott parliamentary elections due to begin in April.

For months, Egypt has been locked in political crisis, amid successive waves of protests against Islamist President Mohammed Morsi that have repeatedly turned into deadly clashes and rioting.

The opposition accuses Morsi and the Brotherhood, from which he hails, of dominating power in Egypt, effectively stepping in to the same role as ousted autocrat Hosni Mubarak and failing to carry out reforms while their supporters seek to instill a more religiously conservative system. Morsi's administration and the Brotherhood, in turn, say their opponents are trying to use street unrest to overturn their election victories.

Washington, Egypt's longtime economic and military benefactor, has kept relatively warm ties with Morsi. The Obama administration has praised him for helping resolve last year's battles between Israel and Hamas, the Islamic militant rulers of the Gaza Strip, and for maintaining Egypt's peace treaty with Israel.

The U.S. has said it wants to encourage the building of democracy in Egypt and, amid the political turmoil, has urged all sides to work out their differences. But the opposition says U.S. officials have voiced little criticism of what it calls the Brotherhood's undemocratic ways of imposing power, including pushing through an Islamist-backed constitution despite an opposition boycott at the end of its drafting.

At least two opposition figures said they rejected invitations to meet with Kerry when he holds talks with Egyptian political parties Saturday, ahead of the American diplomat's meetings the next day with Morsi and the head of Egypt's powerful military.

Ahmed el-Borai, a member of the National Salvation Front, was quoted in local newspapers saying that he rejected a U.S. Embassy's invitation "so as to not allow a foreign party to dictate its will on Egyptians."

Similarly, Egypt's oldest opposition party, al-Wafd, said its chairman, el-Sayed el-Badawi, had also declined the embassy's invitation to meet with Kerry.

Also not meeting with Kerry is Mohamed ElBaradei, one of the Salvation Front's top leaders and perhaps the country's most prominent opposition figure — though it is not clear if he was ever invited for a face-to-face.

The anti-Morsi camp's anger with Kerry and the U.S. was on clear display Friday.

On its front page, the independent Al-Tahrir daily ran a large cartoon of Kerry, calling him "the Ikhwani" — or Brotherhood member — and depicting him with an Islamist's beard and the "zibeeba," a mark on the forehead many devout Muslim men have from kneeling in prayer five times a day.

Also on display was the continued, angry polarization in the country's politics.

The head of the Press Syndicate, Brotherhood member Mamdouh el-Wali, was mobbed by young journalists chanting "down with Brotherhood rule" as he left the syndicate headquarters during elections for a new chief of the union. The crowd shoved and jostled el-Wali, with one person slapping him on the back of the head, before he was hustled into his car.

El-Wali has been sharply criticized by other journalists for not taking legal action over the death of a young journalist during street battles between Brotherhood supporters and anti-Morsi opponents in December. He was also a member of the Islamist-dominated assembly that drafted the country's new constitution but did not push for inclusion of articles to protect reporters from imprisonment as many in the media demand.

Several thousand backers of the army on Friday also held a rally in a CAIRO suburb calling on the powerful military to come back a take power, a sign of how a contingent in the anti-Morsi camp sees the generals as a possible protection against Islamist rule.

The State Department's call on all political groups to participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections particularly angered many in the opposition, who saw Washington's support for the election as backing for the Islamists themselves.

One opposition group, the National Association for Change, denounced the comments as "blatant interference in Egypt's internal affairs."

Hamdeen Sabahi, another senior figure in the Salvation Front, called on Kerry to be consistent in his comments about human rights and U.S. support of democracy.

In an interview with the Egyptian satellite channel ONTV late Thursday, Sabahi said Washington is only thinking of its interests in the region and accused the United States of striking a deal with the Brotherhood.

President Barack Obama spoke by phone this week with Morsi, emphasizing the Egyptian leader's "responsibility to protect the democratic principles that the Egyptian people fought so hard to secure" and urged him and all political groups to find consensus, the White House said.

Obama also "welcomed Egypt's continued role in advancing regional peace and maintaining the ceasefire in Gaza" — in what many in the anti-Morsi camp here see as a sign that Washington is more concerned with ensuring peace with Israel than with democracy in Egypt.

Bahey Eldin Hassan, of the CAIRO Institute for Human Rights Studies, wrote an open letter to Obama earlier this month, saying that Washington should stop commenting on developments in Egypt. He said Washington's comments give Morsi's government "political cover."

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Egypt Revolts; unleashes its version of the Morality Police

Posted by Olog-hai on Sun Mar 3 17:13:52 2013, in response to Egypt Revolts!, posted by JayZeeBMT on Fri Jan 28 16:01:55 2011.

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Egypt unleashes Islamic morality police force

By Katerina Nikolas
Mar 3, 2013

A new informal police force has been launched in Cairo, to ensure Islamic morals are adhered to. The Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice denies it is linked to Saudi's dreaded morality police, which share the same name.

Islamic Cleric Hisham El-Ashri, founder of Egypt's newly launched Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, stated the morality police will only use "non-violent methods" to implement the moral principles of Islam, the IB Times reported.

El-Ashri said: "We will only offer advice to those who want to listen. We shall have no business with people who refuse to listen to us."

In spite of El-Ashri's declarations of non-violence, the Salafist morality enforcers will carry canes to beat violators. According to Bikya News, they will be provided with electric tasers at some point in the future.

Following his recent return from the U.S., El-Ashri gave a television interview during which he declared: "It is the dream of my life to wage war against Israel." He also stated: "There is no such thing as a Christian religion."

Activists in Egypt have condemned the launch of the morality police as Islamic bigotry that flies in the face of the freedoms they have fought for. One activist told Bikya the Islamists will undoubtedly abuse any powers they derive from their membership of the morality police, saying “the reality is that they will abuse it and force people, especially women, to act in stupid conservative ways."

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Re: Egypt Revolts; unleashes its version of the Morality Police

Posted by LuchAAA on Sun Mar 3 17:16:09 2013, in response to Egypt Revolts; unleashes its version of the Morality Police, posted by Olog-hai on Sun Mar 3 17:13:52 2013.

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