Posts Tagged ‘Egypt’

‘A dark and incomprehensible spirit has possessed the souls of Egypt’
by Drew Zahn

A former Muslim Brotherhood terrorist claims a bizarre video released out of Egypt demonstrates the “demonic” spirit that has gripped the nation since its 2011 Islamic revolution.

The video shows a wedding celebration in which a group of men in a frenzy tear apart a live chicken by hand, then scrabble over its pieces to eat its raw flesh.

“The video is a glimpse into the dark and incomprehensible spirit that has possessed the souls of Egypt,” claims Walid Shoebat, a former Palestinian Liberation Organization operative who has since renounced his terrorist ways. “Lawlessness has abounded, excesses have gone unrestricted and the full force of Islam has greatly dimmed the land with its dark clouds, thundering about and striking without discrimination.”

Shoebat told WND the video comes from a wedding in the Egyptian district of Algharbieh, which lies on the Nile River between Cairo and Alexandria.

Shoebat further reports much of Egypt has descended into chaos and mob rule, with lynchings, rape and “diabolical rituals unknown in our time.”

He points, for example, to a video from last year, in which two thieves were caught in a western province village and without due process were hung upside down while angry crowds mutilated their bodies, spilling pools of blood on the ground.

“The acts of public executions happen as a result of the lack of trust towards the police,” Shoebat asserts, “and since lawlessness abounds, the people decided to follow an Islamic code of Shariah called Hiraba, which is to take the law into their own hands.”

Get Walid Shoebat’s “For God or for Tyranny: When Nations Deny God’s Natural Law,” from the WND Superstore!

Shoebat provided WND with video of victims burned publicly, whipped and tortured corpses dragged through the streets, violent confrontations and armed mobs outside Christian churches and the widely circulated video of Coptic women being raped in in broad daylight to cries of “Allahu Akbar” from the crowd.

One Egyptian commented on YouTube, “What happened to the good old days when Hosni Mubarak was in charge in which no one dared to do such things? Because in his time there was law and order and an iron fist to whoever breaks it.”

“We have warned about this,” Shoebat said. “Egypt will begin to enforce the Islamic sanctioned Hiraba, the code on punishments being applied.”

To Shoebat, a former radicalized Muslim who turned from his life of jihad after converting to Christianity in 1994, the reports of anarchy in Egypt reflect a prophecy in the Bible’s book of Isaiah: “The LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken [man] staggereth in his vomit” (Isaiah 19:14).

Discover for yourself the connection between Islam and biblical end times prophecy in Walid Shoebat and Joel Richardson’s “God’s War on Terror: Exposing the World to the Real Truth of What Islam Represents.”

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/04/bone-appetit-muslims-go-wild-in-demonic-ritual/#vvo0x23ekJIopUw8.99

Fear, intimation, and business as usual in Egypt

Egypt’s ruling party is paying gangs of thugs to sexually assault women protesting in Cairo’s Tahrir Square against President Mohamed Morsi, activists said. They also said the Muslim Brotherhood is paying gangs to beat up men who are taking part in the latest round of protests, which followed a decree by President Morsi to give himself sweeping new powers.

Egyptian supporters of Muslim Brotherhood taking part in a demonstration near Cairo University, in Cairo, in support of President Mohamed Morsi’s recent constitutional declaration

It comes as the Muslim Brotherhood co-ordinated a demonstration today in support of President Mohamed Morsi, who is rushing through a constitution to try to defuse opposition fury over his newly expanded powers.

Just 24 hours earlier around 200,000 people gathered in Tahrir Square, the heart of last year’s revolution which toppled President Hosni Mubarak, yesterday to protest against a new draft constitution.

Large marches from around Cairo flowed into the square, chanting ‘Constitution: Void!’ and The people want to bring down the regime.’ But amid the calls for democracy a sinister threat has emerged.

Magda Adly, the director of the Nadeem Centre for Human Rights, said that under Mubarak, the Government paid thugs to beat male protestors and sexually assault women.

‘This is still happening now,’ she told The Times. ‘I believe thugs are being paid money to do this … the Muslim Brotherhood have the same political approaches as Mubarak,’ she said.

One protestor, Yasmine, told the newspaper how she had been in the square filming the demonstrations for a few hours when the crowd suddenly turned.

Before she knew what was happening, about 50 men had surrounded her and began grabbing her breasts. She said they ripped off her clothes, starting with her headscarf and for nearly an hour, indecently assaulted her with their hands.

A few men tried to help her but they were beaten away. Eventually some residents who had seen the attack from their windows came to her aid and an elderly couple pulled her into their home. She suffered internal injuries and was unable to walk for a week.

Four of Yasmine’s friends were also sexually assaulted in the square that day, in the summer.

Afaf el-Sayed, a journalist and activist, told the newspaper she was assaulted by a group of men while protesting in Tahrir Square just over a month ago and she was sure her attackers were ‘thugs from the Muslim Brotherhood’.

In February 2011 the correspondent for the American network CBS, Lara Logan, endured a half-hour sexual assault in Tahrir Square by a group of men. She said after the ordeal that she had been ‘raped with their hands’.

While the exact frequency of these attacks is unknown, activists have reported nearly 20 attacks in the last ten days and say there has been a dramatic increase in mob sex attacks on protestors in the last year.

Most attacks take place in one particular corner of the square, at roughly the same time every evening, and usually starts with a group of men forming a human chain around women as if to protect them.

Yasmine said she was almost sure the assault was planned. She managed to throw her camera to a friend and was able to watch the footage later. She told The Times: ‘Just before the attack it looks like men are getting into position. They look like they’re up to something, they don’t look like random protestors.’

The newspaper spoke to two men who admitted they were paid to target female protestors. Victor and Tutu, both in their thirties, said they operate in a group of around 65 local men and got paid between £10 and £20 a time. But they would not reveal who pays them.

‘We’re told to go out and sexually harass girls so they leave the demonstration,’ Victor told The Times. He said the aim was to cause disruption and instil fear in protesters. He said members of the public sometimes joined in.

Protestors in Tahrir Square yesterday angrily vowed to bring down a draft constitution approved by allies of President Morsi. source – Daily Mail UK

by Jason Howerton The Obama administration’s plan to transfer $450 million in cash to Egypt hit a roadblock Friday as a top House committee chairwoman blocked the move, saying it warrants further review.

Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, said the State Department had notified Congress of plans to move the money to the new government of President Mohammed Morsi as Cairo struggles economically. The money is part of the nearly $1 billion in debt relief that President Barack Obama had promised the Muslim Brotherhood-controlled Egypt earlier this year.

“This proposal comes to Congress at a point when the U.S.-Egypt relationship has never been under more scrutiny, and rightly so,” the chairwoman of the Appropriations subcommittee on foreign operations said in a statement. “I am not convinced of the urgent need for this assistance and I cannot support it at this time. … I have placed a hold on these funds.”

The relationship between the United States and Egypt has been rocky since the overthrow of U.S. ally President Hosni Mubarak last year. The Egyptian government angered Washington when it cracked down on numerous democracy advocates and groups, including three U.S.-funded nongovernmental organizations, earlier this year.

It also doesn’t help matters that Morsi has promised to push the U.S. to release convicted radical Islamist terrorist Omar Abdel Rahman, also known as the “Blind Sheikh.” In fact, when he was elected, Morsi called the Blind Sheikh’s release a matter of great importance to him.
In an article with the headline “Morsi‘s Election Can’t Erase Radical Record,” the Algemeiner lays out just a portion of the Egyptian leader’s radical roots:

In a 2005 article touting Muslim Brotherhood parliamentary candidates, Morsi invoked the Brotherhood’s motto in making the case that “Islam is the solution”:
“God is our goal. The Messenger is our example. The Quran is our constitution; Jihad is our way and death for the sake of God the highest aspiration.”
He repeated that theme during a campaign appearance last May, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) showed, leading the crowd in chanting “The Quran is our constitution. The Prophet Muhammad is our leader. Jihad is our path. And death for the sake of Allah is our most lofty aspiration.”
That could help explain his affection for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, which was created to be a terrorist branch of the Brotherhood, and which has a series of anti-Semitic statements in its charter.
More recently, demonstrators breached the U.S. Embassy in Cairo to protest an anti-Islam video, and some in Congress have called for cutting off aid. The United States provides Egypt with $1.55 billion annually – $250 million in economic aid and $1.3 billion in military aid.

The cash transfer would have come from money that had already been appropriated.

A senior State Department official said the United States remains committed to a democratic transition in Egypt and still sees support for economic growth as a vital way to protect peace and security. The official said the administration would work with Congress in the next days and weeks to make the case that the budget is in U.S. interests.

The official was not authorized to speak publicly about the ongoing negotiations and discussed the situation on condition of anonymity.

Last December, Congress made foreign assistance to Egypt, including the military financing, contingent on a determination that the government “is supporting the transition to civilian government including holding free and fair elections; implementing policies to protect freedom of expression, association and religion and due process of law.”

On the eve of his first visit to the United States as Egypt’s president, Islamist Mohammed Morsi said he will demonstrate more independence from the U.S. in decision-making than his predecessor Hosni Mubarak and told Washington not to expect Egypt to live by its rules.
Morsi sent that message in an interview with the New York Times after a wave of violence erupted across the Muslim world over an amateur film produced in the U.S. that was deemed offensive to Islam and its prophet Muhammed. The film raised news tensions between Washington and Egypt.
Morsi criticized U.S. dealings with the Arab world, saying it is not possible to judge Egyptian behavior and decision-making by American cultural standards. He said Washington earned ill will in the region in the past by backing dictators and taking “a very clear” biased approach against the Palestinians and for Israel.
“Successive American administrations essentially purchased with American taxpayer money the dislike, if not the hatred, of the peoples of the region,” he told the paper in the interview published late Saturday, drawing a clear distinction between the American government and the American people. Those administrations “have taken a very clear biased approach against something that (has) very strong emotional ties to the people of the region that is the issue of Palestine.”
He stressed that unlike his predecessor, Mubarak, he will behave “according to the Egyptian people’s choice and will, nothing else.”
Morsi, who was sworn in on June 30 after the first democratic elections in Egypt’s modern history, has been cautious not to sharply depart from Mubarak’s foreign policy path, particularly the longstanding alliance with the United States.
But with an Islamist president at the helm of the Arab world’s most populous country, there are already differences and changes of focus. Morsi has been expected to distance himself from what many Egyptians saw as Mubarak’s compliance with Washington’s agenda in the Middle East, especially because his Muslim Brotherhood group has been a vocal critic of U.S. policy in the region and in the Muslim world.
In the interview, Morsi dismissed criticism that he responded too slowly when protesters managed to scale the walls of the heavily fortified U.S. Embassy in Cairo on Sept. 11. The demonstrators replaced the American flag with a banner carrying the Islamic declaration of faith.
Morsi said he needed to deal with the situation “wisely” and took time to avoid a backlash from an angry but small crowd of protesters.
While he praised President Barack Obama for moving “decisively and quickly” to support Arab Spring uprisings against longtime authoritarian leaders, he said Arabs like Americans want to live “free in their own land, according to their customs and values, in a fair and democratic fashion.”
To this end, Morsi urged the U.S. to live up to its commitments to support an independent Palestinian state.
Since taking office, Morsi, 61, has been immersed in largely foreign policy issues. He has strongly criticized the Syria regime for violently repressing the uprising there, tried to warm relations with the Palestinians, and has dealt with tensions between the Middle East and the West over the anti-Islam film.
Reflecting the tension with Washington over the protests, Obama was asked about Egypt a day after anti-U.S. protests broke out in Egypt on Sept. 11 and he said he does not consider it an ally or an enemy.
The Times asked Morsi if the U.S. was an ally, to which he replied with a laugh by saying: “That depends on your definition of ally.”
But he quickly followed by saying he wants a real friendship with the U.S.
“I think what I am trying seriously (is to) look into the future and to see that we are real friends.”

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/09/23/morsi-dont-expect-egypt-to-live-by-america-rules/#ixzz27PplPlg8

By Ashley Lindsey

Militants killed Egyptian tribal leader Khalaf al-Menahy and his son Aug. 13 as the two were returning from a conference in east Sinai organized and attended by tribal leaders to denounce militancy, according to Sinai security forces. The senior al-Menahy was a prominent proponent of bolstering the Sinai Peninsula’s representation in Egypt’s parliament and of improving security in the region. He also was a prominent sheikh in the Sawarka tribe, said to be the largest in Sinai. Following his burial Aug. 13, the tribe vowed to seek vengeance.

This is the first reported case of militants attacking tribal leaders in Sinai. It comes soon after an attack on Egyptian security forces Aug. 5 and an attack on military checkpoints in northern Sinai on Aug. 8.

Although the militant tactic of targeting tribal leaders is new to Sinai, the tactic has been common in conflict zones in the Middle East and South Asia, such as in Yemen, Iraq and the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region. Though it can offer many benefits to these militants — including weakening the targeted tribe and possibly leading to its co-option — these kinds of attacks tend to only succeed in zones with little government control and against tribes that cannot effectively retaliate. Examining similar instances of this tactic thus provides a helpful tool for assessing the consequences of attacks against tribal elements in the Sinai Peninsula.

A Widespread Militant Tactic

Yemen

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has operated openly in Yemen’s tribal-dominated southern and eastern provinces for years. It has sought to expand its presence and operations by winning over local tribes using tactics such as strategic marriages.

Lately, it appears to have begun a shift from wooing tribal leaders to intimidating them. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula recently failed in an attempt to assassinate tribal leader Majed al-Dhahab in the city of Radda in Bayda province. An important tribal leader, al-Dhahab participated in the offensive to drive al Qaeda — and his own cousin, a local al Qaeda leader — from the region after the militant group seized control of Radda in January. Al-Dhahab’s son received a package that unbeknownst to him contained a bomb, which he was instructed to give to his father. However, the package exploded in his arms Aug. 4 before he could deliver it. Immediately after his son’s death, al-Dhahab received a call warning him that the group would kill anyone who opposed it.

The group followed up with another attack on tribal elements Aug. 5. A suicide bomber detonated an explosive device at a wake in Jaar, killing 45 people. The dead included several tribal fighters who had participated in the June Yemeni government offensive against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and the wounded included a tribal leader.

The region’s tribes have not publicly vowed to retaliate against the militant group. If they are capable of doing so, they probably will respond to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s attacks. But the tribes could be too weak to mount an effective response, especially in the wake of attacks on their leadership structure. This could cause some tribesmen to abandon the fight, allowing militants to try to resume activity in the region’s towns should they wish.

Iraq and the Afghanistan-Pakistan Border

Although new to Yemen, militants frequently used the tactic of attacking tribal leaders during the U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. The tactic is still frequently used, especially in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region. In one significant instance, in 2007 al Qaeda in Iraq assassinated high-profile Sunni tribal Sheikh Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha, who led the Anbar Awakening Council. A U.S. ally, Abu Risha had formed the council, uniting dozens of Sunni tribes in the province against al Qaeda in Iraq. His killing backfired on the militant group, generating a massive outpouring of sympathy for Abu Risha and prompting the tribes in the province to join in vowing to fight al Qaeda in Iraq to the death.

In southern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan, the Afghan Taliban are deeply embedded into the tribal system. They have effectively used the tactic of assassinating tribal leaders to eliminate obstacles to their operations and evolution. To this end, they regularly employ suicide operations, armed assaults and roadside bombs against anti-Taliban militias known as lashkars and against tribal leaders in northwestern Pakistan.

One area particularly affected by such attacks is Bajaur, a Pakistani agency that borders Afghanistan’s Kunar province. After numerous attacks on tribal leaders and members of peace committees in Bajaur, the Mamond tribe announced July 25 that the tribal leaders had formed a lashkar to prevent cross-border attacks. Hundreds of elders, leaders and religious figures of various subtribes and peace committees pledged their support for this militia. As with the killing of Abu Risha, the Afghan Taliban attacks on tribesmen and leadership in the region spurred a fiercely united response across numerous tribes, with the new militia even expressing a willingness to enter Afghanistan to attack Taliban leaders.

Upsides and Downsides of a Militant Tactic

Militant groups attack tribal leaders to increase their influence and area of operations. From the militants’ perspective, removing a tribal leader ideally will weaken the targeted tribe. This could end the tribes’ resistance and even lead to the its being co-opted by the militant group due to a leadership vacuum following the militant attack. The weakening of the tribe could leave the group no choice but to allow the militant group to operate unchallenged in its territory. Even though assassinated tribal leaders are replaced and the leadership structure remains intact, tribal leaders in the area could be persuaded to adopt a more accommodating stance on the presence of militants.

Success for a militant group in the long term happens under two conditions. First, the militants must be acting in an area with a tribal patronage network and limited government oversight. Without such a network, attacks on tribal leaders in efforts to co-opt and intimidate that tribe would not provide any significant gain. In Yemen, for example, the patronage and tribal network are very strong and in most cases enjoy greater legitimacy and power than the government. Attacks against tribal chiefs there are accordingly tantamount to attacks on the local government. On the one hand, that means tribal networks can band together and shun foreign militant elements as one community. On the other hand, if al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is able to coerce a tribe into aligning with it, the militant group will then enjoy access to that tribes’ resources, will gain the ability to plan and launch attacks in that area, and could even gain better relations with neighboring tribes.

Second, the group must be militarily capable of overwhelming the targeted tribe and its allies or at least of gaining the upper hand. As can be seen from the Iraq example, killing Abu Risha backfired because his tribe was large, committed and militarily strong, and it had the support of several allied Sunni tribes that belonged to his Anbar Awakening Council.

The tactic of targeting a tribal leader thus comes with certain risks. When the aforementioned two conditions are not met, a militant group exposes itself to great danger when it targets tribal leaders.

Consequences of the Sinai Assassination

The Sinai Peninsula meets the requirement of limited government control and strong tribal networks. The question then becomes whether the Sinai tribes can muster a strong defense against the militants. In the coming weeks, it will be important to look for signs of the retaliation pledged by al-Menahy’s Sawarka tribe and others allied with it. This retaliation could come in the form of attacks against the militants passing through Sawarka and its allied tribes’ territory.

Tribal retaliation could also come in the less aggressive, yet still effective, form of supplying increased logistical support and intelligence to the Egyptian government. Increased weapons seizures and the arrest of key leaders suggest that tribal sources on the ground are providing intelligence to Cairo. A targeted campaign against the militants already has begun, with Egyptian planes bombing the mountains of El Arish on Aug. 15. The intelligence for these attacks likely came from local tribes.

The success of tribal and Egyptian security efforts against the militants will determine whether the militants miscalculated their position in Sinai when they attacked a key tribal leader. The resilience of militants in Sinai also will help determine whether they can continue to stage attacks against Egypt and Israel.

Read more: Targeting Tribal Leaders: A New Militant Tactic in Sinai | Stratfor http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/targeting-tribal-leaders-new-militant-tactic-sinai

updated:
Egypt’s highest court declared the parliament invalid Thursday, and the country’s interim military rulers promptly declared full legislative authority, triggering a new level of chaos and confusion in the country’s leadership.
The Supreme Constitutional Court found that all articles making up the law that regulated parliamentary elections are invalid, said Showee Elsayed, a constitutional lawyer.
The ruling means that parliament must be dissolved, state TV reported.
Parliament has been in session for just over four months. It is dominated by Islamists, a group long viewed with suspicion by the military.
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, in control of the country since Mubarak’s ouster, said that it now has full legislative power and will announce a 100-person assembly that will write the country’s new constitution by Friday.
The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest Islamist party, said SCAF leaders were taking matters into their own hands “against any true democracy they spoke of.”
The court also ruled that former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik. the last prime minister to serve under ousted President Hosni Mubarak, may run in a presidential election runoff this weekend.
The court rejected a law barring former members of Mubarak’s regime from running in the election.
The runoff Saturday and Sunday pits Shafik against Mohamed Morsi, head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm.
“We do not need a court ruling to ban Shafik,” said Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Mahmoud Ghozlan. “We will put all our efforts into the upcoming elections so that Morsi wins and we avoid the rebirth of the old regime overnight.”
“All this equals a complete coup d’etat through which the military council is writing off the most noble stage in the nation’s history,” said Mohamed el-Beltagy, a member of parliament and a senior member of Morsi’s Freedom and Justice Party, in a Facebook posting. “This is the Egypt which Shafik and the military council desire.”
Shafik, at a news conference in Cairo, praised the high court for rejecting the rule preventing former regime members from running. “The age of settling accounts is over and gone. The age of using the law and the country’s institutions against any individual is over,” he said.
Some analysts also called it a coup.
“Egypt just witnessed the smoothest military coup,” said Hossam Bahgat of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, in a tweet after the high court’s decisions Thursday. “We’d be outraged if we weren’t so exhausted.”
Shadi Hamid, director of research at the Brookings Doha Center, said the court rulings are the “worst possible outcome” for Egypt and the transition to civilian rule is “effectively over.”
“Egypt is entering into a very dangerous stage and I think a lot of people were caught by surprise,” he said.
Riot police and military personnel, some in armored vehicles, were outside the court ahead of the rulings. Military intelligence officers were also present.
After the ruling about Shafik was announced, a crowd of citizens shouted their disapproval. Military police moved to block the road in front of the court — a major Cairo artery.
Protesters outside the court chanted slogans against the former Mubarak regime and Shafik.
Ahmed Yousef, a protester with the April 6 Movement, said: “The military wants Shafik, the court will not rule against him — but we don’t care, we will continue to fight against him.”
“Those who don’t want to see a return to the oppression of the past … are very unhappy with this ruling,” CNN’s Ben Wedeman said from Cairo.
Many voters were unhappy with both choices in the runoff.
Morsi and Shafik are the most non-revolutionary of all candidates and represent “two typically tyrannical institutions: the first (Morsi) being a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the second (Shafik) a senior official of the former regime,” Sonya Farid wrote for Al Arabiya earlier.
“Everything about Egypt’s revolution has been unexpected, and the first-round results in the country’s first-ever competitive presidential elections are no different,” Omar Ashour, director of Middle East studies at the University of Exeter and a visiting scholar at the Brookings Institution in Doha, Qatar, wrote for Project Syndicate previously.
Egypt’s voters “overwhelmingly chose the revolution over the old regime … but their failure to unite on a single platform directly benefited Shafik,” Ashour said.
The rulings come a day after Egypt’s military-led government imposed a de facto martial law, extending the arrest powers of security forces.
Egypt’s Justice Ministry issued a decree Wednesday granting military officers the authority to arrest civilians, state-run Egy News reported.
The mandate remains in effect until a new constitution is introduced, and could mean those detained could remain in jail for that long, the agency said.
Lawyers for the Muslim Brotherhood filed a court appeal Thursday against the decree.
A decades-old emergency law that critics said gave authorities broad leeway to arrest citizens and hold them indefinitely without charges expired on May 31.
The political scene in Egypt remains tense after the parliament failed to agree on a committee to write a new constitution defining the powers of the president and the parliament.