Tag Archives: National Salvation Front

The Obama Administration’s Disgraceful Muslim Brotherhood Policy

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aap_3281_MAR04_egyptker2_800x6001-450x337By :

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi’s Islamist Muslim Brotherhood-dominated government, which has the support of the Obama administration, has just issued arrest warrants for five activists on false charges that they allegedly used social media to incite violence against the Muslim Brotherhood.  These activists include a blogger who played a key role in the 2011 revolution that toppled President Hosni Mubarak.

Morsi was following through on his threat to the National Salvation Front and other opposition groups, which he issued last Sunday in the wake of clashes between protesters and the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo: “There is a president of the republic and there are emergency measures if any of them makes even the smallest of moves that undermines Egypt or the Egyptians. Their lives are worthless when it comes to the interests of Egypt and Egyptians. I am a president after a revolution, meaning that we can sacrifice a few so the country can move forward. It is absolutely no problem.”

In addition, the Muslim Brotherhood itself filed complaints against 169 opposition figures, which included a former presidential candidate who now works in television.

At the same time, sexual assaults against women have skyrocketed during the Morsi regime’s rule. And the Islamists who have been elevated into power blame the women for the violence against them. For example, an Islamist police general and lawmaker was quoted by the New York Times as proclaiming that “a girl contributes 100 percent to her own raping when she puts herself in these conditions.”

Read more at Front Page

 

Egyptian Official: Beating of Naked Man Was Pre-Planned

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demonstrators in CairoArutz Sheva:

A former Egyptian presidential candidate told Al Arabiya TV in an interview on Sunday that the brutal dragging and beating of a naked man near the presidential palace last week was previously planned by the interior ministry in an effort to terrorize the public.

Ahmed Shafiq, who lost the presidential race to Islamist President Mohammed Morsi last year, said the widely circulated video of 50-year-old Hamada Saber was intended to send a message of fear to those protesting in the streets against the brutal reign of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The torture is a “new style of exaggerated terrorism used against the Egyptian citizens that will lead only to violence and hatred of the regime,” Shafiq told Al-Arabiya.

Meanwhile, Saber on Sunday blamed police for the abuse after initially claiming they saved him from protesters.

The presidency described the footage as “shocking”, prompting the interior ministry to order a rare investigation.

While Saber first insisted that police had saved him from protesters, he then changed his account– which was bitterly contested by relatives who said he was being coerced– when prosecutors showed him the video footage, the official MENA news agency reported.

The man, who said he was shot in the foot during the clashes, explained that he initially blamed protesters to “contain the crisis,” the agency reported.

Saber, who has been transferred to a public hospital, said he changed his account and told the “truth” after his family “renounced me…and all of Egypt was angry and people made fun of me on Facebook.”

The main opposition National Salvation Front (NSF) has called for the resignation of Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim over Saber’s beating.

The beating was “an inhumane spectacle… no less ugly than the killings of martyrs, which is considered a continuation of the security force’s program of excessive force,” the opposition bloc said, according to AFP.

Ibrahim ordered a probe into the incident and said he would resign if “that’s what the people want,” his office said.

Tens of thousands protest Muslim Brotherhood-led government in Egypt

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E anniv protestsBy Betsy Hiel

CAIRO – Crowds across Egypt chanted down a Muslim Brotherhood-led government  on Friday, two years after the start of an uprising that ended the 30-year  dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak.

Clashes here and elsewhere injured more than 250  people. Four deaths were reported in the city of Suez.

Tens of thousands filled Cairo’s Tahrir Square – epicenter of the 2011 revolt – to condemn Mubarak’s successor, Muhammed  Morsy.

On cement block-barricaded streets, young men heaved  rocks and Molotov cocktails at police firing tear gas and birdshot.

Egypt’s most influential novelist, Ala’a Al Aswany,  said “the Brotherhood can’t impose their constitution on us” as he joined  marchers heading to the square.

In December, Egyptians adopted a controversial  constitution written by a Brotherhood-dominated panel. Morsy endorsed it after  first claiming near-dictatorial powers as president.

His power-grab united a fractious opposition into the  National Salvation Front, led by Nobel laureate and former U.N. atomic-weapons  chief Mohamad El Baradei.

Aswany accused Morsy of “violating the independence of  the judiciary” but said he is “optimistic we will overcome all this.”

Karim Kholy, 33, a dentist, said he joined the  protests “to show the Brotherhood that we are a significant part of the  population that doesn’t share their view for the future of Egypt.”

“Morsy is not delivering, and the Muslim Brotherhood’s  religious image is just geared towards getting votes and not showing ethical  values,” he said.

Crowds chanted against Morsy and Brotherhood leader  Mohamed Badie.

“None of the revolution’s goals have been met,” said  protester Shadi Moussa, 28. “There is no justice and no freedom. The Muslim  Brotherhood is clamping down on the press.

“I would rather die for my freedoms than worry about  it,” he declared.

Opposition leader Ziad El Elimi, 32, a former  parliamentarian, said the new constitution is worse than Mubarak-era laws. “We  think the old regime is continuing under the Muslim Brotherhood,” he said.

Women and Christians are especially concerned about  the Islamic-leaning constitution, which protester Lamia Hassan said “neglects  women.”

One sign in Tahrir proclaimed: “As the prophet said,  if you rule Christians, you must treat them well.”

Radical Islamists increasingly have attacked  Christians in the past two years, burning homes or churches and forcing them to  flee some villages.

Muhammed Wahdan, 52, an education ministry worker,  held a sign echoing the growing frustration with U.S. policy that the opposition  sees as backing the Brotherhood. It read: “From Tahrir Square to the U.S. media … Obama you jerk, Muslim Brotherhood are killing Egyptians.”

“I am well aware that Obama and the American  administration are the ones who enabled the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood,” he  said. “I want to tell Obama that the Muslim Brotherhood tricked you.”

Read more at Tribune Review and see the incredible photo slide show by Justin Merriman

Betsy Hiel is the Tribune-Review’s foreign correspondent. Email her at  bhiel@tribweb.com.

Morsi Annuls Decree, Advances 12/15/12 Constitutional Referendum

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Morsi-new-decree

Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi (C) attends a meeting with Egypt’s Vice President Mahmoud Mekky (4th L) with other politicians and heads of parties at the presidential palace in Cairo December 8, 2012. A new decree was issued to accomplish the same popularly supported result as the 11/22/12 decree—a more Sharia-compliant constitution for a Sharia-thirsty Egyptian society

by Andrew Bostom

Al-Ahram has just published (Sunday 12/9/12)  in English translation the full text of a new constitutional declaration that revokes the controversial constitutional declaration issued by Egyptian President Morsi on November 22, 2012.

The earlier decree granting Morsi sweeping executive powers, which he insisted was necessary to move Egypt’s democratic transition forward, did in fact break the deadlock over the draft constitution. According to Mohammad Salim al-Awa, spokesman for a national political dialogue  held Saturday (albeit, boycotted by the major Morsi government opposition groups), the most contentious article from the prior 11/22/12 edict, which placed all of Morsi’s actions beyond judicial review, has been abrogated.

But the referendum on Egypt’s newly minted, increasingly Sharia-compliant draft constitution, will proceed apace, under the following conditions, outlined in item 3 of the new declaration:

3- If the people vote against the draft constitution in the referendum on Saturday, 15 December 2012, the president is to call for the direct election of a new Constituent Assembly of 100 members within three months.

The new Assembly is to finish its task within six months from its election date. The president is to then call for a referendum on the new draft presented by the Assembly within thirty days of receiving it.

In all cases, vote counting and the announcement of results in the constitutional referendum is to take place publicly in election subcommittees as soon as the voting process is finished. The results are to be validated by the head of the subcommittee.

Despite polling data reported yesterday from Vote Compass Egypt, indicating a mass Egyptian popular support of 70% for the constitution,  National Salvation Front “liberal” opposition leader Mohamed El-Baradei, with predictable (if delusive) bravado,  tweeted shortly after 2 a.m Sunday 12/9/12,

We have broken the barrier of fear: A constitution that axes our rights and freedoms is a constitution we will bring down today before tomorrow. Our strength is in our will.