فى تعليقها على استبعاد رئيس الوزراء السابق أحمد شفيق من السباق الرئاسى، إثر تصديق المجلس العسكرى على قانون العزل السياسى، قالت صحيفة “الفاينانشيال تايمز”، إن الأمر يحسن فرص الأمين العام السابق لجامعة الدول العربية عمرو موسى، والذى عمل وزير خارجية فى ظل حكم مبارك لعشر سنوات.
وأوضحت الصحيفة، أن كلا من موسى وشفيق يحظيان بدوائر متشابهة، وهما الناخبان اللذان يرغبان فى مرشح له خلفية بالحكومة، ومنافس للمرشحين الإسلاميين، مشيرة إلى أن موسى هو المرشح الأوفر حظاًَ وفقاً للعديد من استطلاعات الرأى، ومع ذلك فإن هناك الكثيرين الذين لا يفضلون موسى، لذا فإنه قد يفقد ميزته مع اقتراب الانتخابات. مضيفة أن القيادى الإخوانى السابق عبد المنعم أبو الفتوح منافس رئيسى لموسى، واستطاعت حملته الفوز بدعم الليبراليين واليساريين، بسبب التزامه المعلن بالدفاع عن الحريات الشخصية.
واعتبرت الصحيفة محمد مرسى، مرشح جماعة الإخوان المسلمين، بين المرشحين الأوفر حظاً، رغم أنه لا يتمتع بشعبية موسى، لكنه سيستفيد من جماعته المنظمة على مستوى عال، وخبرتها فى خوض الانتخابات.
وترى الصحيفة البريطانية أن موسى يتمتع بشعبية أعلى كثيراً من غيره من المرشحين، ويستند إلى حد كبير فى شعبيته على لهجته المعادية لإسرائيل، وقت أن كان وزير خارجية وبعدها أمينا عاما للجامعة العربية، وهناك تصور بأن مبارك ألقى به إلى الجامعة الضعيفة، لأنه كان يخشى من شعبيته، الأمر الذى أضاف إلى جاذبيته فى عيون الرأى العام.
Some ten years ago I went with my family to an Arab American convention in Washington DC, at the dinner table there was another Egyptian American family and their late teenage son & daughter who told us of their experience moving back to Egypt for a couple of years. The son loved it but the daughter complained bitterly of her experience in Egypt; I am sure you can guess why: sexual harassment! A year or so later, while on holiday in Egypt some total stranger scolded my daughter and her friend for their lack of head cover, he walked almost 50 Meters on a relatively deserted North Coast beach to deliver his little charming playful lecture leaving my daughter who was just recovering from major brain surgery and her, fresh off the plane American friend, distraught.
It is the same story over & over again everywhere in Egypt, sexual harassment! You can read warnings about it in guide books and we hear about it in the news and you could see it in sickening details in movies like Cairo Time with young men chasing a woman the age of their mothers’. Egypt is ground zero for sexual harassment! ..but why? This is a question that perhaps trained sociologists are better qualified to answer. I can only throw few guesses, from the move to separation of boys & girls in education, increased religiosity and delays in marriage age to the general oppression that Egyptians have & continue to suffer from. As an Egyptian American I can see how I am treated in Egypt depending on which passport I produce be at an Airport or hotel. We Egyptians are treated with no dignity & respect by our police, our schools, our sport coaches and in turn we treat others with little or no dignity and respect. Often times the perceived weaker sex gets the worst of it.
Is it just that, or is more to it? My guess is that there is more to it, there is a fundamental, at best discriminatory, aspect to position of women in Egyptian culture; we are brought up with it, rich and poor, educated and illiterate, Muslim and Christian alike. It is a view of women as cross between a pet, object and a lesser being. I have memories of my mother pleading with A’am Naguib the father of our Christian servant child not to take her home to their village in south of Egypt to perform the “tohor ” on the then 9 or 10 year old Attiat. “tohor” is a word meaning purification, the same word used for male circumcision. Few days later after that Coptic Easter little Attiat came back not able to walk, constantly bleeding after her “purification” I remember my mother scolding the father, but his face was beaming, he achieved something important. Genital mutilation has been imposed on most Egyptian women, to my knowledge only Bedouin Arab tribes representing about 1% of the population of Egypt have normally not engaged in mutilation of their women. Many of the brave Egyptian women on Facebook & Twitter and on the streets during the protests standing up to Mubarak’s police & thugs weremutilated as children and some of the children of the current Facebook generation are destined to the same fate.
In Pre Islamic Arabia baby girls were buried alive at birth for fear of the shame they may bring upon their families as adults, was genital mutilation the Egyptian answer to the same dilemma? The shame that can be brought upon a family if their daughter or sister got pregnant could be averted by interfering and reducing the sexual pleasure of women through mutilation, so instead of burying newborn baby girls, keep them for cleaning and cooking and also be available for man’s sexual pleasure; perhaps the word “tohor” or purification now make a bit more sense. While men often complain of the sexual desire of their wives I suspect Egyptian men are not just whining, Chinese women had their feet forcibly molded to small size, Egyptian women have their sexual enjoyment forcibly curtailed or removed.
Egyptians, Muslims and Christians alike tend to be pious, devout and the vast majority highly observant of religious practice. To my knowledge Islam and Christianity both disapprove of sex outside of marriage and premarital sex is prohibited. I am, however, unaware of Islam or Christianity imposing stiffer bans or punishment on women than on men. Why is it that Egyptian families are happy and readily willing to send their young sons abroad for a semester or a post graduate education and more hesitant to send their daughters? Why do we Egyptian Americans tolerate or even approve our sons having girlfriends but freak out about our daughters having boyfriends? How many of us heard of Egyptian families shipping their daughters back to Egypt because they got “boy crazy” or were getting into that boyfriend stuff? In some cases whole families went back to Egypt or moved to some Arab Gulf country to escape the scary syndrome known as daughter’s boyfriend! The unequal application of what are essentially equal prohibitions is interesting to explore and dig into more to understand where it comes from; it is fundamental inequality drilled into us from birth.
In my own extended family over many years I have seen examples of discrimination against women as daughters, sisters and wives both dished out by men from my family and more often I have seen women relatives suffer at hands of husbands denying children visitation rights, denying divorce even where the husbands have taken second wives. Many Egyptians feel ashamed of discussing these horrible facts especially in English for fear it would damage the image of Egypt or Islam. Ask most non Islamist Egyptians on Twitter and they tell you they believe in equality, ask them if they are willing to marry a non virgin and then ask them if they have a problem with their sister or daughter having the same exact rights they had. We are not talking religions here, we are talking culture.
As a young father some 15 years ago, I was once about to leave on a long trip, I told my then 5 year old son, come on you are now the man of the house! The look on my daughter’s face, always competitive and nearly 18 months older stayed with me. I never repeated the words again; I caught myself falling into the trap of gender discrimination, what did I mean by “man of the house” was this innocent saying a harbinger for a new generation that discriminates against its women?
The Egyptian Jan25 Revolution showed amazing courage from Egyptian women starting from those who blogged and called for the protests to those who were in Tahrir for the 18 days that brought down Mubarak. Of the many amazing aspects of Jan25 was the reported absence or near absence of harassment in Tahrir; Egyptian women found their voice and place. Yet at the very same location, Tahrir Square, and almost one month after the fall of Mubarak, some 16 Egyptian women, who were protesting peacefully, were arrested, tortured and here it comes: subjected to the ultimate humiliation, state conducted mandatory virginity tests. CNN reported an army officer stated that the tests were conducted to avoid accusations of rape against the army and that that none were found to be virgin. I would have thought that showing all of them to have been virgins, even if one or two were married, would have been the exoneration the army needed to show that no “rape” per se occurred, but clearly that was not the real objective of the cruel tests. The objective was the sexual humiliation and ultimately the shame of these women. Those who conducted this shameful operation were well aware of Egyptian hymen obsession. the term counter revolution has been used a lot in Egypt recently, rarely have I seen such a clear example of blatant criminal counter revolutionary behavior, a cruel and violent attempt to take back Tahrir from these brave honorable women.
A sexual revolution in Egypt is most certainly not a goal of mine, neither am I writing to advocate premarital sex and promiscuous society. Egypt has too many pressing problems to deal with and the damage of promiscuity in terms of teen pregnancy, single parent struggle, sky high divorce rate and family disintegration are there for all to see in US and elsewhere. What is my goal then? In simple terms it is equality and real fundamental women rights, not a sexual revolution but rather an honesty revolution that allows us to get into the roots of our social ills. No society can move forward without advancement for its women, no equality is possible without owning up to the current highly unequal status of those fellow humans born with hymens. It is thought leaders of the society, men and women, young men and young women those who made Jan25 possible, the Facebook & Twitter people who can lead the change, towards real equality, not lip service equality and certainly not promiscuity.
ed note–just one more excuse Israel will use in justifying her future invasion and reabsorption of the Sinai. No doubt Egypt is being goaded along in this fashion by the US in the same way that took place with Iraq invading Kuwait. America is doubtless telling Egypt–’oh, this is your affair…you are a sovereign country and free to act in your own best interests…We can’t tell you what to do…Besides, if Israel owed as much money to us as she does to you we would do the same thing’ and then as soon as Israel launches her invasion–BAM! the US will be on the tv talking about Israel’s need to deal with the terrorism on her borders and all the rest.
Egypt’s state-owned gas company says it has scrapped a controversial deal which supplies Israel with 40% of its natural gas at lower than market prices.
Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) complained it had not been paid by the Israeli-Egyptian firm that buys gas from Egypt and sells it to Israel.
Israel denied the claim and warned Egypt that it was violating an economic annex of their 1979 peace treaty.
Egypt’s military rulers have not yet commented on the deal’s cancellation.
The deal was widely unpopular in Egypt, but solidly backed by former President Hosni Mubarak who was forced to step down last February after mass protests.
The termination of the gas deal between Egypt and Israel is more than just a trade dispute; it has serious political and diplomatic consequences.
The historic Camp David Accords ended 30 years of war between these neighbours but only ever led to a cold peace. Since President Hosni Mubarak, an advocate of the deal, was ousted last year, relations between the two countries have deteriorated.
The pipeline delivering Egyptian gas to Israel has been attacked repeatedly. In September, there were riots outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo after Egyptian policemen were killed on the border. Israeli forces had been pursuing militants who crossed illegally from Egypt to carry out a deadly attack. In recent weeks, the Egyptian media and parliament have criticised Coptic Christians and the Grand Mufti of al-Azhar for visiting Jerusalem.
The latest development is another reminder that ties are unlikely to improve soon. Israel is worried about the rise of Islamists in Egypt and a new confidence among its general public about expressing anti-Israeli views.
Since then, the pipeline delivering gas from Egypt to Israel and Jordan has been bombed at least 14 times, reducing supplies significantly.
Gas deliveries to Israel dried up for a total of 225 days in 2011 and 66 days during the first three months of 2012, and ceased after an explosion on 5 March, according to Ampal-American Israel Corporation – a stakeholder in East Mediterranean Gas Company (EMG), which operates the cross-border pipeline.
The shortages have seen the state-owned Israel Electric Company increase rates by a third and warn of rolling blackouts this summer.
‘Business dispute’
Ampal announced on its website on Sunday that EGAS and the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC), another state-owned firm, had told EMG that they were “terminating the Gas Supply and Purchase Agreement”.
“EMG [the pipeline operator] considers the termination attempt unlawful and in bad faith, and consequently demanded its withdrawal,” a statement said.
“EMG, Ampal and EMG’s other international shareholders are considering their options and legal remedies as well as approaching the various governments.”
We want to understand this as a trade dispute… to turn a business dispute into a diplomatic dispute would be a mistake”
End Quote Avigdor Lieberman Israeli foreign minister
Ampal is already using international arbitration to try to get compensation for the supply shortages it has experienced since the uprising.
The chairman of EGAS, Mohammed Shoeb, said it had scrapped the deal on Thursday because EMG had failed to pay for the past several months.
“It is a commercial contract between companies,” he added.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israeli radio stations that the cancellation of the agreement was “not a good sign”, but added: “We want to understand this as a trade dispute.”
“I think that to turn a business dispute into a diplomatic dispute would be a mistake. Israel is interested in maintaining the peace treaty and we think this is also a supreme interest of Egypt,” Mr Lieberman added.
It remains unclear whether Egypt’s ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf) will intervene. It has not yet commented and Israeli officials said they had not yet been formally notified.
The big saying here in Egypt is that we are subsidising the Israeli people while we are not subsidising the Egyptians”
End Quote Tamer Abu Bakr Chairman, Genco Group
Former President Mubarak faces criminal charges for his role in the 20-year gas supply agreement, which was signed in 2005. A close associate, EMG co-owner Hussein Salem, is facing extradition from Spain.
Israeli officials insist the terms of the contract are fair, but Egyptian prosecutors said last April the state had lost more than $714m.
The details of the deal have never been released publicly, but former Egyptian officials have said the gas was initially sold to EMG at about $1.25 per British thermal unit (BTU), and then increased in 2008 to $4 per BTU. EMG was able to negotiate its own terms with Israeli buyers.
The government sells gas to Egyptian companies for about $4 per BTU, while comparable deals see Turkey, Greece and Italy paying $7 to $10.
“The big saying here in Egypt is that we are subsidising the Israeli people while we are not subsidising the Egyptians,” Tamer Abu Bakr, the chairman of Genco Group, an Egyptian natural gas distribution company, told the Wall Street Journal.
نفى الفنان المصري عادل إمام صحة ما تردد عن عزم مجلس الشعب المصري “البرلمان” إصدار قانون بمنعه هو ومجموعة من الفنانين من ممارسة الحياة السياسية لمدة 10 سنوات، نظرا لقربهم من نظام الرئيس المخلوع حسني مبارك، مشيرا إلى أنه تأكد بنفسه من عدم تفكير المجلس في إصدارقانون كهذا.
وأبدى إمام الملقب بـ”بالزعيم” -في تصريح لموقع “ام بي سي.نت” استغرابه من إدراج اسمه في هذا القانون المزعوم حيث قال: “هيعزلوني ليه؟ أنا عمري ما انضميت لحزب أو كنت عضوا في لجنة سياسات ولم أتقلد منصبا سياسيا من قبل، وكذلك لم أكن مثلا رئيس تحرير في إحدى الصحف فلماذا يعزلونني إذن؟”.
من ناحية أخرى، أكد النجم المصري أنه لم يصب بأي ضرر من جراء اقتحام أحد الأشخاص لفيلته الواقعة بمنطقة كرداسة صباح الأربعاء 18 أبريل/نيسان 2012، مشيرا إلى أنها ليست المرة الأولى التي يُقدم فيها هذا الشخص على واقعة كهذه؛ حيث سبق له وجاءه في إحدى المرات إلى المسرح لمحاولة مقابلته.
وأضاف أنه فوجئ بهذا الرجل “المجنون” على حد وصفه يحاول اقتحام الفيلا؛ إلا أن أمن الحراسة منعه من ذلك، فلم يجد هذا الرجل حلا بحسب قوله سوى محاولة تسلق سور الفيلا؛ إلا أن عددا من العرب الذين يقيمون خلف منزله أمسكوه، وقاموا بتسليمه للشرطة.
وأضاف أنه تنازل عن المحضر الذي حرر ضد هذا الشخص، خاصة وأنه وجده شخصا “غلبان” ولكن يبدو عليه أنه مجنون عادل إمام -على حد قوله- مضيفا أنه يقدر الحب الذي يكنه معجبوه ومحبوه له؛ إلا أن هذا الحب لا يمكن أن يتحول -بحسب كلامه- إلى عملية اقتحام البيوت مثلما فعل هذا الرجل.
وعلى الصعيد الفني؛ أشار عادل إمام إلى أنه يواصل حاليا تصوير مشاهده في مسلسل “فرقة ناجي عطا الله” المقرر عرضه في رمضان المقبل.
ومسلسل “فرقة ناجي عطا الله” بطولة عادل إمام، ونضال الشافعي، ومحمد إمام، وأحمد السعدني، وآخرون، تأليف يوسف معاطي، وإخراج رامي إمام.
مصر تعيش حالة غليان على الصعد كافة هذه الايام، ونزول مئات الآلاف الى ميدان التحرير امس تحت عنوان ‘حماية الثورة’ هو المؤشر الابرز في هذاالصدد.
الشعب المصري يخشى على ثورته المباركة من الخطف، ويشعر ان هناك قوى عديدة تريد اعادة البلاد بطريقة غير مباشرة الى عصر حسني مبارك الفاسد، وتجد في الولايات المتحدة ودول غربية وعربية اخرى الدعم والمساندة لتحقيق هذا الغرض.
المتظاهرون في ميدان التحرير يشعرون بالارتياب من مشاركة المجلس العسكري الحاكم في هذه المؤامرة، ولهذا رفعوا لافتات تطالب باسقاطه مماثلة لتلك التي رفعوها لاسقاط نظام مبارك.
الولايات المتحدة الامريكية لا تريد ان تخرج مصر من تحت عباءة نفوذها، لان خسارتها لمصر تعني خسارتها لاتفاقات كامب ديفيد والسلام مع اسرائيل اولا ثم هيمنتها على المنطقة ونفطها وامنها ثانيا. ولهذا تساوم المجلس العسكري وتمارس عليه ضغوطا كبيرة لمنع وصول رئيس اسلامي للسلطة. الدكتور مصطفى الفقي الذي عمل مع نظام الرئيس مبارك لسنوات كمسؤول عن قسم المعلومات في الرئاسة قال قبل عامين، وفي ذروة الحديث عن مسألةالتوريث، ان دولتين يجب ان توافقا على رئيس مصر القادم وهما اسرائيل والولايات المتحدة الامريكية.
ما قاله الدكتور الفقي في زلة لسان فيما يبدو يلخص الوضع الحالي في مصر، والمجلس العسكري اذا لم يكن يريد موافقة امريكا واسرائيل على الرئيسالمقبل، فانه لا يريد معارضتهما ايضا، ولهذا يبذل جهودا كبيرة لايصال رئيس مقبول او غير مكروه من البلدين.
استبعاد الحيتان الثلاثة الكبار من سباق انتخابات الرئاسة اي خيرت الشاطر (الاخوان) واللواء عمر سليمان (العسكر) وحازم صلاح ابو اسماعيل (التيار السلفي) خطة محكمة لافساح المجال لفوز السيد عمرو موسى امين عام جامعة الدول العربية السابق.
فرصة السيد عمرو موسى تبدو كبيرة لان الرجل يملك خبرة واسعة ومعروف على المستويين الدولي والعربي، ولكنه يعتبر من رجالات النظام السابق فينظر الكثيرين عندما خدمه كوزير للخارجية لسنوات.
التشريع الذي وافق عليه مجلس الشعب المصري (البرلمان) باستبعاد كل رجالات العهد السابق جاء من اجل قطع الطريق على مرشحين رئيسيين للرئاسةالاول السيد عمرو موسى والثاني احمد شفيق آخر رئيس وزراء في عهد الرئيس مبارك.
المجلس العسكري وافق على طرح هذا القانون الذي عرف ‘بقانون العزل السياسي’ على المحكمة الدستورية العليا للبت في مدى دستوريته، وقرار المحكمة سيكون حاسما ايا كانت وجهته، فتأييد هذا القانون وتأكيد دستوريته يعني تأجيل انتخابات الرئاسة وابعاد السيدين موسى وشفيق، ومعارضته قدتؤدي الى المزيد من المظاهرات وتوسيع الخلاف بين المجلس العسكري والاسلاميين وباقي الاحزاب.
مصر امام مفترق طرق، والشيء الوحيد المؤكد ان مليونية الامس تكشف ان الشعب لن يتخلى عن ثورته ولن يسمح بخطفها.
Ex-regime Zionist Mossad agent says he fears ‘price Egypt will have to pay if Israel decides to reoccupy Sinai.’ Calls on political rivals to ‘exercise caution, keep peace in region’ in light of close relations between Egypt and Hamas
ed note–say what you want about Suleiman’s past, but the fact is that he was Mubarack’s intelligence chief and is therefore speaking with a certain amount of authority on this topic.
He is 100% correct–Israel intends to take the Sinai and will use as her ‘national security’ as the excuse, citing all the ‘terrorist’ attacks that have taken place since the beginning of the Arab Spring, attacks that were more likely than not Mossad-instigated for the purpose of shaping the narrative. Next we will see attacks coming from Southern Lebanon, Syria, West Bank, Gaza, etc, etc, etc, so that Israel has a justified excuse to repeat what she did in 1967.
Egyptian presidential candidate Omar Suleiman addressed the relations between Egypt and Israel for the first time since he announced his candidacy earlier this month.
In an interview with Egyptian daily al-Youm al-Saba’a, Suleiman analyzed relations between the two neighboring countries in the wake of the Arab Spring and the ongoing terrorist activity originating from the Sinai Peninsula. “I’m fearful of the price Egypt will have to pay if Israel decides to reoccupy Sinai,” he said.
He called on the Muslim Brotherhood party, which is considered his political rival, “to exercise caution in an effort to keep peace in the region.”
“I fear that Israel thinks Egypt has become one of its enemies,” he said referring to the close relations between Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and the current situation in Sinai.
“Israel regards the Sinai Peninsula as an unsecure area, and is led by the notion that Egyptian territory can be used for rocket launching. Therefore, Israel may consider returning to secure borders,” he added.
Asked whether he plans to reoccupy Sinai, Suleiman replied: “It’s possible that Israel will confront us and use its national security as an excuse to do so. Israelis are experts at presenting such excuses to the world.”
He further said that he is fearful of misleading signals that could lead to unwanted confrontations. “If the Israelis reenter Sinai, they won’t be quick to leave it again. Egypt could pay a heavy price if such an event occurred,” he said.
According to Suleiman, “Egypt should continue tightening its relationship with Hamas but not at the expense of the country’s national interests, regional security and peace that will all enable Egypt to further develop internally.”
Suleiman, appointed deputy president by Mubarak in his last days in power, entered the presidential race at the last moment, triggering both concern and heavy criticism from reformists who see him as a symbol of Mubarak’s rule and a danger to democracy.
Tens of thousands of Egyptians packed into Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Friday to protest against Suleiman’s run for the presidency. Muslim Brotherhood supporters waved banners depicting the presidential candidate as an agent of Israel.
Meanwhile, the body overseeing Egypt’s presidential election recently disqualified 10 candidates from the race, including Suleiman.
According to election rules, disqualified candidates have 48 hours to appeal the decision. The final list of candidates will be announced on April 26.
Suleiman told Egyptian media sources that the commission did not fully disqualify him but had told him that he had not presented the proper number of endorsements. Each candidate needed at least 30,000 endorsements, including at least 1,000 from each of the country’s 15 provinces, to join the race.
In response to his “temporary” disqualification, Suleiman pledged to press ahead with his campaign out of respect to his supporters.
CAIRO — Tens of thousands of protesters packed Cairo’s downtown Tahrir Square on Friday in the biggest demonstration in months against the ruling military, aimed at stepping up pressure on the generals to hand over power to civilians and bar ex-regime members from running in upcoming presidential elections.
Egyptian men pass by a wall graffiti depicting two members of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, head of the military police Major General Hamdi Badin, framed right and Commander of the Central Military Zone Major General Hassan al-Rowini, framed left, with Arabic that reads “Down with the military rule,” in downtown Cairo, Egypt Wednesday, April 18, 2012. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
Followers of Egyptian Muslim cleric and a former candidate for the Egyptian presidency Hazem Abu Ismail protest the disqualification of their leader outside the Presidential Election Committee in Cairo, Egypt, Wednesday , April. 18, 2012. (AP Photo/Fredrik Persson)?
The shadows of Egyptian activists are seen on a banner with pictures of Egyptian politicians and presidential hopefuls as it is being prepared for display, during a rally at Tahrir square, Cairo, Egypt, Friday, April 20, 2012. Pictures from right, Egyptian pro-democracy advocate Mohamed ElBaradei, presidential hopeful Abdel-Moneim Abolfotoh and presidential hopeful Hamdin Sabbahi. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
An Egyptian street vendor displays T-shirts under a banner with crossed pictures of two Egyptian presidential hopefuls, former foreign minister Amr Moussa, left, and former Egyptian prime minister Ahmed Shafiq and Arabic that reads “No for the former regime candidates, no for article 28, the New Labor Party,” during a rally at Tahrir square, Cairo, Egypt, Friday, April 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
Islamists and liberals turned out together in force for the protest to show the widespread anger at the military over the country’s political chaos ahead of the first presidential elections since the fall of Hosni Mubarak more than a year ago. The confusion has raised suspicions the generals ruling since Mubarak’s ouster are manipulating the process to preserve their power, ensure the victory of a pro-military candidate and prevent reform.
“Down with military rule,” protesters in Tahrir chanted, and banners draped around the sprawling plaza denounced candidates seen as “feloul,” or “remnants” from Mubarak’s regime.
Liberals and youth groups called for all factions to agree on an antimilitary “revolution” candidate in the presidential vote, but the powerful Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists — who have their own ambitions in the race — refused to sign on.
The Brotherhood, Egypt’s strongest political movement, has been frustrated that the military has prevented their domination of parliament from translating into real political power. The group was angered when the military-appointed election commission over the past week disqualified its initial candidate for president, along with nine other hopefuls.
In response, the Brotherhood is calling for a “second revolution.”
Liberals and the youth groups who led the revolt against Mubarak, however, are also skeptical, accusing the Brotherhood of abandoning the revolution to pursue their own quest to rule. The Brotherhood largely stayed out of antimilitary protests and accepted the generals’ running of the transition, betting that the process would pave their way to political power.
Nada al-Marsafi, a 21-year-old student protesting Friday in Tahrir, questioned the Islamists’ intentions.
“The Brotherhood is using this (rally) as a chance for self-promotion to campaign for their candidate,” she said.
Many in the secular camp demand the Brotherhood “apologize” for its actions over the past year and show it is not intent on monopolizing power.
“First they must make an apology for the revolution whose image they ruined,” says Amr Hamzawy, a liberal lawmaker.
Khaled al-Balshi, editor of the leftist el-Badeel news site, said he feared that Islamists are once again using the protests as a card to pressure the military council and would go back to striking deals with it again later.
“I am afraid that right now there is something being cooked,” he told Al-Jazeera television.
Another major force in the square were the ultraconservative Salafis, an Islamic movement that is more hard-line than the Brotherhood. Many of them are furious over the disqualification of their favored presidential candidate, Hazem Abu Ismail, who was barred from the race because his mother held American citizenship. Election rules bar a candidate’s close family from having dual citizenship. Many of his supporters accuse the military and election of commission of forging documents to force out the popular Abu Ismail.
His supporters marched through the square Friday carrying a long banner with Abu Ismail’s image, demanding that he be reinstated.
The presidential elections are scheduled for May 23-24. A new president will be announced on June. 21. The military council has pledged to transfer power to the elected civilian administration by early July.
Members of military council have said more than once over the past weeks that they don’t intend to postpone elections and are not in favor of any candidate.
But the council raised worries that they intend to push back the election and hold power longer when the generals said in a closed-door meeting with political parties that they believe the writing of Egypt’s new constitution should be finished before a president is seated. The constitution-writing process is already in turmoil, and few believe it could be completed in that time frame.
“Today we came to demand that presidential elections take place on time, without delay even for a single day,” Muslim cleric Muzhar Shahine told protesters in a Friday sermon in Tahrir. “Let’s forget the mistakes of each other … for the sake of our nation’s interest.”
Islamists captured nearly 70 percent of the seats in parliament in elections held late last year, with the Brotherhood alone capturing nearly half the legislature. Parliament then demanded the removal of the military-backed government headed by Prime Minister Kamal el-Ganzouri, which the Brotherhood hoped to replace with a government it would dominate. The military refused, however, and parliament has been unable to force the Cabinet’s ouster.
In retaliation, the Brotherhood reversed a previous promise not to field a presidential candidate from its own ranks and nominated its chief strategist, Khairat el-Shater. However, Egypt’s election commission on Wednesday disqualified el-Shater from presidential elections on legal grounds related to his past conviction and imprisonment.
At the same time, parliament created an Islamist-dominated assembly to write the constitution, angering secular forces and fueling the perception that the Brotherhood is trying to go it alone in determining the country’s future.
However, a court disbanded the 100-member panel, in a blow to the Brotherhood on that front as well.
The Brotherhood has a back-up candidate to run in the presidential election, its political party head Mohammed Morsi.
After what they see as the Brotherhood’s attempts to control every facet of Egypt’s future ruling system, some in the “revolution” camp have doubts over their sincerity in the new protests.
Mustafa el-Naggar, co-founder of the El-Adl Party, created after Mubarak’s fall, said he was boycotting Friday’s rally.
“I will not enter Tahrir square today because it doesn’t represent me,” he said, referring to the Islamists’ agenda.
“The rise of the Coptic church in ancient Alexandria coincided with the destruction of its famous library, the desecration of its amazing temples and sanctuaries, and the murder of its last philosopher, Hypatia.”
Hypatia and ancient Alexandria – poster of ‘Agora’ film
Ironically, Modern day Copts are enduring through the same persecution their early patriarchs had inflicted upon the minority of devotees of the ancient Egyptian beliefs. But now, the question is not whether history repeats itself or not, for it certainly does, rather we should wonder if man ever took notice of the recurrence?
Introduction of Christianity in Egypt
Lately, the world has begun to hear of The Copts of Egypt more often after the 2011 uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak and unleashed a deluge of islamists aiming for political power.
What most people know is that Egypt Copts are the Christian minority which has been suffering, in the last decade, from persecution by Egypt’s Muslim majority- or that how the media goes about it.
But the story of Egypt’s Copts remains largely unknown to the world and many of the Copts as well.
The history of Egypt is not just about the stories of the pharaohs and pyramids; rather it is the intro to the story of mankind.
Egypt’s history covers some five thousand years, and encompasses the origin of civilization, the rise of the Greeks and Romans, the establishment of the Jewish, Christian and Islamic religions and spans over the medieval ages with the crusades and conquests of the Arabs until it reaches the colonial era.
Interestingly, the origin of the name “Coptic” is derived from the word Copti. The Arabs who invaded Egypt had problems pronouncing the term, Aegypti, which means “Egyptian citizen” in Greek. Essentially, they changed the word to Copti.
Of course, at that time, Egypt was a Christian nation, so the term became limited to actual Egyptian Christians as the country became more and more Muslim. But Egypt, before the founding of Alexandria church had been embracing and maintaining for centuries the ancient Egyptian beliefs – far too sophisticated and influential to call it paganism.
The foundational roots of the Coptic Church are based in Egypt but it has a worldwide following. According to historical records, the church was established by Saint Mark the apostle and evangelist in the middle of the 1st century (approximately AD 42). The head of the Coptic Church is the Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of All Africa on the Holy See of Saint Mark.
Egyptians enjoyed one of the richest religious cultures in ancient world. In their splendid temples prayers were offered to the creator of the universe centuries before any revelation fell unto earth from heaven. The temple of Karnak was perhaps the largest place of worship in the whole ancient world.
And if the valley of the Nile was blessed by the gods, one wonders what use did Christianity possibly have for the religious Egyptians? What were the chances of Christ to compete with the mighty Amun-ra or Osiris? How was a multi-faith environment to reconcile with a foreign religion whose followers exclusively believed in one humiliated god? … Well, This proved to be both the challenge and the tragedy for Ptolemaic Alexandria, the cosmopolitan city that combined the wisdom of Thoth and the capriciousness of Dionysus.
Pope Cyril vs. Pope Shenouda III
Pope Shenouda III (1923-2012) & Pope Cyril (c. 376-444)
Pope Shenouda III, the 117th Pope of Alexandria and the Patriarch of theCoptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, died on March 17 at age 88 after presiding over the largest Christian community in the Middle East for more than four decades.
He was mainly a controversial and conservative leader, upholding the church’s rigorous dogma and refusing to bend to any reform calls.
Throughout his long patriarchy Pope Shenouda III was always keen to show the church’s loyalty to the ruling regime. That is why he was striving to keep Christian youths out of Cairo’s Tahrir Square during last year’s popular uprising — the Coptic pope knew that Mubarak regime was the barrier, may be the last one, against an Islamist takeover of the country.
As the Thousands of Christian worshippers filled the somber hall of Alexandria’s St. Mark’s Cathedral and its surrounding streets forthe mourning of the charismatic Pope Shenouda III, similar crowd of devout Christians, albeit newly converted from paganism, stood in the same cathedral that used to be an ancient Egyptian/Greek temple almost two thousands years earlier, exactly In 412 A.D when the infamous Pope Cyril (later St. Cyril) became patriarch of Alexandria.
Isis and her son Horus/ Mary and Jesus
While the founding of the Alexandria church might be accredited to St. Mark the Apostle, the steadfast and inflexible orthodox doctrine of the Coptic Church is primarily attributed to pope Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376 – 444)
Before the patriarchy of Cyril, Egypt and Alexandria in particular, enjoyed a milieu of multiculturalism and tolerance as the pagans, Jews and new Christians learned to live with each others. And just as generations of Egyptians used to revere goddess Isis and her son Horus the newly converted to Christianity didn’t find it hard to relate to the story of Mary and her son Jesus.
Of all the foreign invaders of Egypt, the Ptolemies, were perhaps the only ones to acknowledge the fact that they were taking hold of a nation that had a history and a culture of no lass stature than the Greek’s.
The last days of Hypatia & Alexandria Library
Hypatia(front to the left, amongst scholars) in school of Athens- by Raphael
So during the Hellenistic era in Egypt, The ancient Egyptian wisdom and deities continued to be hallowed in exaltation as more temples were being built for Egyptian gods. And In Alexandria, an ambitious plan to turn the city into the hub of all the wisdom and knowledge of the ancient world was underway as the library of Alexandria was getting ever bigger and more illustrious.
The library comprised perhaps as many as 500,000 manuscripts – the whole corpus of knowledge accumulated by ancient philosophers, scientists and poets. And it was all contained in a building thought by the ancients to have been of surpassing beauty.
From the time of its creation in the third century B.C. until its destruction seven centuries later, the library of Alexandria was the House of Wisdom and the promise of pluralism in the ancient world. One of the last generations of the library’s scholars was the legendary Hypatia.
Hypatia worked in the Library as a mathematician, astronomer, physicist and the head of the Neoplatonic School of philosophy. At a time when women had few options and were treated as property, Hypatia moved freely and unselfconsciously through traditional male domains. When empires were falling and madness prevailed she stood alone to unite the world and safeguard its sanity and wisdom.
Atheological dispute in the early 5th century sparked over the nature of the Christ and whether the Virgin Mary should be called the “Mother of God” or “Mother of Jesus”.
Initiated by the unbending fundamentalist Cyril this early theological dispute led Alexandria church under his patriarchy to separate from the Roman church and start, the defiant to any reform, Coptic church in Egypt and all Africa.
Egyptians, during long centuries of the dark ages and Arab/Muslim conquest remained loyal to the faith of their fathers and to the Cyrillian fundamentalist view of Christology. That’s why the Coptic Church still keeps its ancient rituals and thoughts and upholds the same controversial practices like exorcism to deliver the sons of the church from, believe it or not, Demonic possession. (Watch the practice of exorcism in Coptic church- Video)
Cyril is a controversial figure not only because of the anathemas he pronounced against the archbishop and patriarchs of the Constantinople and Rome and not for his endorsement of expulsion of the Jews from Alexandria but because of his involvement in the abhorrent and tragic murder of the Alexandrian philosopher Hypatia by a gang of pro-Cyril Coptic monks.
At the turn of the fourth century, the growing Christian Church was consolidating its power and trying to eradicate ancient Egyptian religion and tradition. Hypatia stood at the epicenter of that mighty turn of events. Outspoken and fully aware of the perils of an impending theocracy Hypatia fearlessly declared ..
“All formal dogmatic religions are fallacious and must never be accepted by self-respecting persons as final. Fables should be taught as fables, myths as myths, and miracles as poetic fancies. To teach superstitions as truths is a most terrible thing. The mind of a child accepts them, and only through great pain, perhaps even tragedy, can the child be relieved of them.”
Archbishop Cyril despised her because she was a symbol of, free thinking, learning and science, which were largely identified by the early Church along with paganism as a great danger.
In the year 415, on her way home Hypatia was waylaid by a fanatical mob of Cyril’s parishioners and monks. They dragged her from her chariot, tore off her clothes, and armed with abalone shells, flayed her flesh from her bones. Her remains were burned, her works obliterated, her name forgotten. Afterwards and in one of history’s absurd moments, Cyril was made a saint.
To whatever part of the world you travel, to whatever page of history you turn, you find the endowed and established clergy using their holy scripture in defense of whatever form of slave-driving may then be popular and profitable- watch closely now as Islamists use Sharia law as an excuse to seize power.
The glory of the Alexandrian Library is a dim memory now. Its last remnants were destroyed soon after Hypatia’s death which marked the end ofClassical antiquity and wisdom. On the other hand the rising tide of Christian fundamentalism ushered in the long dark ages that immersed millions of clueless people in endless and needless conflict and obscurantism wasting valuable centuries of the human life on earth.
Bidding farewell to Pope Shenouda III and as the thousands of modern-day Christians walked out of St. Mark cathedral in Alexandria, Mobs of Muslim fanatics watched them with eyes filled with the same menace that had before chased and wiped out the minority of devotees of the ancient Egyptian religion, in other words, the pagans.
At the turn of the second millennium A.D, one can’t help but wonder whether man grows wiser as the thousands of years go by during his long journey on earth or does he dwell in endless cycles of evanescent hope followed by recurring long ages of darkness?
The one thing we know is that the Wheels keep on turning and we keep on returning to the same spot where the library of Alexandria once stood and Hypatia murdered.
Egyptian security official says three Palestinians arrested en route to Cairo terror attack; Egypt’s military announced military operation to eradicate terror in the northern peninsula last week.
ed note–and when these measures prove innefective, Israel will use them in support of her argument for initiaiting military operations to reclaim (steal) the Sinai.
Remember, Israel considers everything between the Nile and Euphrates rivers to be hers, and ESPECIALLY the Sinai, as it is the location where Jews believe Moses received his ‘Ten Commandments’ from God.
Two Egyptian police officers were killed in shootout with Islamist militants on Sunday, as tension continued to rise following attempts by Egypt’s military to curb terror activity in the desert peninsula.
According to reports, the two were killed, along with three wounded police officers, after Salafi militants opened fire at a patrol car in the town of el-Arish from an ambush.
Recently, there have been reports of intensified activity by Egypt’s security forces, mainly in the northeastern corner of the peninsula, along the border with Gaza. Only last week, Egypt announced an extensive military operation to eradicate terror in the northern Sinai, centering on the el-Arish-Rafa-Sheikh Zowaiid triangle.
Meanwhile, details regarding clashes in el-Arish came as DPA reported that Egyptian security forces arrested three Palestinians, suspected of planning to execute a terror attack in Cairo.
According to a senior Egyptian security official cited in the report, an investigation of the suspects, arrested on Friday, indicated that they infiltrated Egypt using Gaza’s tunnel systems, and that they paid a large sum of money to a person who was meant to drive them to the Egyptian capital.
Egyptians in Tahrir Square protested the presidential campaign of Omar Suleiman, the longtime spy chief under President Hosni Mubarak.
By LIAM STACK
CAIRO — Egypt ’s rival Islamist groups flexed their political muscle on Friday, drawing thousands of supporters from across the country to Tahrir Square to protest the presidential campaign of the longtime spy chief under the government of President Hosni Mubarak.
Khaled Elfiqi/European Pressphoto Agency
Islamists and secularists alike have viewed the unexpected entry into the presidential race of the candidate,Omar Suleiman , as a potentially existential threat to the country’s year-old revolution and fitful move toward democracy.
Protesters marched to the square from neighborhoods across the capital and rode in from the countryside in a fleet of buses provided by the Freedom and Justice Party, the political arm of theMuslim Brotherhood. The crowd also drew heavily from the ultra-conservative Salafi religious movement as well as those who could be called Islamist political independents — people who support the Islamist trend but have not decided which party to support.
“Down with Omar Suleiman!” the crowd chanted. “Down with the Zionist candidate! Down with military rule!”
Khaled el-Shafei, 38, an archaeologist from the rural Nile Delta, said his “ideology lies with Khairat el-Shater,” a multimillionaire businessman who is the Freedom and Justice Party candidate, “but I did not come here today for a party or an ideology. I would be happy with any elected president — an Islamist or a liberal — as long as they are not an army officer or remnant of the old regime.”
In an interview with the flagship state-run newspaper, Al-Ahram, published Friday, Mr. Suleiman vowed to continue his campaign, which has targeted Egyptians’ anxieties about the country’s rising crime and struggling economy, as well as growing unease over the surging power of Islamist movements, which were officially banned by the Mubarak regime.
His candidacy truck a sense of deep foreboding into many Egyptians who want to turn a new page on Mubarak-era abuses. Egypt’s intelligence agency — the mukhabarat — is well known for its use of torture and domestic surveillance, election tampering and a deep hostility toward Islamists who have emerged as a major political force since the uprising in Tahrir Square.
Adding insult to injury, many feel, was an interview Mr. Suleiman gave during the 2011 uprising that drove Mr. Mubarak from power in which he said that Egyptians were not ready for democracy.
“When we heard he was running, we all thought we had gone crazy,” said Eman Mohamed, 37, a chemist with an international pharmaceutical company. “He said we were not ready for democracy, he protected Mubarak, and now he wants to be president? It is impossible for anyone to accept that.”
Speaking at a crowded street rally in the working-class neighborhood of Shubra el-Kheima on Thursday night, Mr. Shater warned supporters of the potential dangers of a Suleiman presidency.
“Under the old system, it was the regime that decided who would live and who would die,” he declared from the stage, set up on a dusty roadside outside a glassware factory. “This is what will happen again when a man like Omar Suleiman nominates himself for the presidency.”
Friday’s rally was the largest to fill Tahrir Square in months, and the first since last fall to draw an overwhelmingly Islamist crowd. Banners hanging across the square condemned Mr. Suleiman for his warm ties with Israel, some showing a Star of David stamped across his face. Others bore a series of photographs of him shaking hands with smiling Israeli leaders.
Another banner blended his face with that of Mr. Mubarak, declaring, “Hand in hand, we will defend our revolution anew, and continue until we are done with them both.”
“There is no one in Egypt, not Muslims and not Christians, who likes any of these men,” said Ramadan el-Sawy, 45, a supporter of the Salafi presidential candidate, Hazem Salah Abu Ismail. “We want decent, respectable candidates. The people want someone who understands Islam. They want an Islamist.”
On Thursday, the fight against Mr. Suleiman’s candidacy moved to Parliament, where members of Islamist parties hold roughly two-thirds of the seats and which passed a law barring high-ranking figures from the Mubarak government from running for office.
The ruling military council must approve the law for it to take effect, and it is likely to face a constitutional court challenge. If allowed to stand, the law would disqualify both Mr. Suleiman and Ahmed Shafik, the former prime minister appointed by Mr. Mubarak, as part of a cabinet reshuffle in the last days of his rule.
In the interview with Al Ahram, Mr. Suleiman accused the Muslim Brotherhood of plotting to wreak havoc on Egypt by transforming it into an Islamic state “like Afghanistan or Pakistan.”
“The Brotherhood has hijacked the revolution from the young people, and have an intense hatred and desire for revenge and to burn down the country,” he said. “I never imagined at all the state of severe worry that the people are going through, or the sense of inner turmoil and despair.”
