Category Archives: Egypt

After the deposition of Morsi, reprisals against Christians

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Well, it isn’t like we expected the Egyptards to lose gracefully, is it?

News.Va

Minya – Among the episodes of violence in Egypt after the overthrow of President Morsi there is also the attack against the Coptic Catholic parish of St. George, in the village of Delgia, 60 kilometers from Minya. Since Wednesday evening, July 3 groups of fanatical Islamists first looted and then burned down the pastor’s house and church group buildings. “Thank God there were no victims and injuries” says to Fides Agency the Coptic Catholic Bishop of Minya Botros Fahim Awad Hanna “but the alarm continues.

The fundamentalists have closed the roads at the entrance to the village. They shout slogans against Christians, they say they want to destroy everything and now they are trying again to storm the church. The local police are helpless, I called Cairo to ask for the intervention of the army.”
The attack on the parish of St. George is so far the most serious incident of violence against Christians recorded in the dramatic hours experienced by the Country. But threats and intimidation against Christian communities also occur in other Egyptian places. .

Morsi advised by military that he is no longer president

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Cautiously optimistic…

H/T M

Article:

  The statement declared its rejection of what it describes as the US “standing by the Muslim Brotherhood for its own interests.”

The current unprecedented popular movement is a continuation of the January 25 revolution, the statement asserted, and “will achieve its goals of justice and dignity by the struggle of its people”.

“We call on national forces to remain united in its path in the face of any attempt to divide” the statement read.

20:50 A presidential source tells Ahram Arabic that President Mohamed Morsi was informed by the army at 7pm that he is no longer president.

BREAKING: EGYPTIAN ARMY MOVES IN, ARRESTS KEY MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD OFFICIALS

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siren

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Leaders Arrested, Army Moves In

Senior Muslim Brotherhood officials are placed under house arrest. The military is securing strategic facilities, Egyptian sources say.

Egyptian sources report that senior officials in the Muslim Brotherhood have been placed under house arrest and the military is securing strategic facilities across the country.

The Islamist group that backed President Mohamed Morsi in last year’s successful bid to win the nation’s first democratic election is also now being scrutinized for corruption in the ranks.

The group’s funding structure and records are being probed, according to a report posted Wednesday by the Egyptian Al-Ahram newspaper.

The report also claimed the Egyptian Army has begun to hermetically seal strategicinstallations across the country in accordance with a military “road map” plan that mandates implementation by the army if politicians could not resolve the leadership crisis by Wednesday.

The army reportedly had already taken control of all weapons and munitions arsenal sites.

However, an Egyptian military source denied the reports, saying he instead expected political, social and economic figures to gather for talks on the “road map” plan.

Military leaders are mulling three options for transitional leadership of Egypt, in the fast-approaching aftermath of the almost certain ouster of President Mohamed Morsi, according to the London-based al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper.

The first would be appointment of the president of the Constitutional Court as transitional leader, supported by a national council comprised of military and government officials.

A second option would be leadership by the Higher Military Council.

MORE HERE.

Amazing developments in Egypt

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1. The Egyptian army told the govt. it has 48 hours to meet the peoples demands.

A spokesperson for the General Command of the Armed Forces, speaking in an audio statement broadcast by state television, gave all political groups in Egypt a 48-hour grace period to respond to the demands of the people.

2. The Muslim Brotherhood vows retaliation.

3. More updates and developments here

Egypt Shoots Tourism Industry in the Foot

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The American Interest:

June 17, 2013

Luxor

Handing over control of a tourist hotspot to a party that loathes tourists is asking for trouble, but that’s exactly what Egypt has just done. On Sunday, President Morsi appointed Adel al-Khayat of the Gamaa al-Islamiyya party as Governor of Luxor, a region home to the ruins of two temples and several monuments, widely known as the “open air museum.”  The party, Gamaa al-Islamiyya, not only holds conservative views against sunbathing, women wearing shorts, and alcohol, but is also responsible for the 1997 attack in Luxor that killed 60 tourists. The New York Times reports:

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(What isn’t mentioned in this article is how islam views all things that exist prior to the time of islamic supremacy as leftover from a time of ignorance and religious muslims feel its a worthy thing to destroy all archeological evidence of same. Notice how many Churches and Synagogues there are in Saudi Arabia for example, a country that was entirely Jewish, Christian and Animist before Mohamed started his killing spree.)

Egypt’s worrying rise in criminal blasphemy cases

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Wow they actually take on a real issue!

Amnesty International 

Criminal “defamation of religion” charges must be dropped in a number of cases across Egypt, Amnesty International said today after a teacher was convicted for insulting Islam and the Prophet Muhammad in the classroom.

A Luxor court on Tuesday fined Coptic Christian teacher Dimyana Obeid Abd Al Nour 100,000 Egyptian pounds (approx. US$14,000) for allegedly insulting Islam and the Prophet Muhammad during one of her classes. It also referred compensation claims to civil court.

Her criminal conviction bodes ill for others in Egypt who have been facing trial on similar charges which the organization said are aimed at criminalizing criticism of or insult to religious beliefs.

“Slapping criminal charges with steep fines and, in most cases, prison sentences against people for simply speaking their mind or holding different religious beliefs is simply outrageous,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Director.

“So-called ‘defamation of religion’ charges should not be used as a pretext to trample over people’s right to freedom of expression and conscience, and all such charges should be dropped, and the resulting convictions overturned.”

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Wonderfully unambiguous video where muslims demand that Jerusalem be taken from Jews and controlled by Arabs

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In a way it is nice to see the veneer of politics coming off and something approximating what they really think being revealed. That muslims simply cannot tolerate any land being autonomously controlled by non-muslims. And that this is about antisemitism and islamic supremacism and not about the fiction of Israel’s right to exist in any rational debate.

Egypt: Over 20,000 Muslims screaming “Allahu akbar” attack Christian church with birdshot and bricks

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More fruit of the glorious Obama-endorsed “Arab Spring.” And look at how the Associated Press covered this atrocity.

“Two Christian Churches in Egypt Attacked By Muslims This Week,” by Mary Abdelmassih for AINA, May 18:

(AINA) — The escalation of Muslim attacks on Christian churches in Egypt continues unabated. This week two attacks were carried out, one in Alexandria and one in Menbal in Upper Egypt — both allegedly prompted by harassment of Muslim women. Yesterday the church of St. Mary, in the Dakhela district, west of Alexandria, was attacked by Molotov cocktails and bricks, causing the gate to burn and the breaking of most of the stained glass window

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One dead, dozens wounded in sectarian clashes in Egypt

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H/T M

Reuters:

ALEXANDRIA | Sat May 18, 2013 1:33am BST

(Reuters) – One person died and dozens were wounded during clashes between Muslims and Christians late Friday night outside a Coptic church in Egypt’s second city, state newspaper al-Ahram reported, in the latest violent sectarian row in the Muslim-majority country.

A quarrel between two young men, one Christian and one Muslim, morphed into a family feud that sparked clashes in a western district of Alexandria.

The two sides threw firebombs at each other before security forces intervened and cordoned off the area around the church.

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(If video appears it will be posted here below)

3 Arrested in Plot to Bomb Egyptian Cities and Embassy

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What this article fails to acknowledge is that the Muslim Brotherhood IS Al-Qaeda. Knowing that makes this story a lot less confusing.
H/T M

New York Times:

By BEN HUBBARD
Published: May 11, 2013

CAIRO — Egyptian security forces have arrested three militants with ties to Al Qaeda who were planning terrorist attacks in Egyptian cities and against a foreign embassy, the interior minister said Saturday.

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A Western official said the Egyptians had privately identified the embassy as the United States Embassy in Cairo.

Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim said at a news conference that the suspects had been arrested with 22 pounds of explosive materials and instructions on how to make bombs and build rockets and model airplanes to use in the attacks.

He said the suspects were “on the verge” of attacking an embassy when they were arrested.

He did not identify the embassy, but Egyptian officials have told their American counterparts that the United States Embassy was a target, a Western diplomat said.

The State Department would not comment on the Egyptian allegations. “We don’t discuss the specifics of our operations nor the exchanges we have with foreign officials,” said Jennifer R. Psaki, a department spokeswoman.

Mr. Ibrahim denied that Al Qaeda was active in Egypt, but said the three men had communicated online with a Qaeda figure in Pakistan and that one of them had traveled to Iran and Pakistan to receive military training.

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More on AHRAM here

Egypt Christian teacher’s detention extended

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Times of Israel:

Dimiana Abdel-Nour accused of blasphemy and proselytizing Christianity

>By May 12, 2013, 3:34 amThe domes of the Coptic Saint Mark's Church in Cairo, Egypt (photo credit: CC BY Bakar_88, Flickr)
The domes of the Coptic Saint Mark’s Church in Cairo, Egypt (photo credit: CC BY Bakar_88, Flickr)

LUXOR, Egypt (AP) — Egyptian prosecutors extended the detention Saturday of a Coptic Christian teacher held over accusations of blasphemy of Islam and proselytizing Christianity, security officials said.

In another southern Egyptian city, security officials said a Coptic man stabbed his wife for converting to Islam and for trying to see their son afterward.

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