The 4 Freedoms Library
2024-03-29T07:18:40Z
Alan Lake
http://4freedoms.com/profile/AlanLake
http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/54802804?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1
http://4freedoms.com/group/egypt/forum/topic/listForContributor?user=097vqiv65r6ui&feed=yes&xn_auth=no
Egypt: From Freedom of Dress to the Conformance of Submission (Islam) - in 25 years
tag:4freedoms.com,2013-10-01:3766518:Topic:139604
2013-10-01T02:35:03.908Z
Alan Lake
http://4freedoms.com/profile/AlanLake
<p>I can't find the original article I got these photos from, but since many people are unaware of this clearly documented progression, I'm putting the photos here on their own. These photos are from the Al Azhar University, the premier Arabic university in Cairo.</p>
<p>In 1959, the women can dress how they like, with skirts, dresses and bare arms, and there are no head-scarves.…</p>
<p></p>
<p>I can't find the original article I got these photos from, but since many people are unaware of this clearly documented progression, I'm putting the photos here on their own. These photos are from the Al Azhar University, the premier Arabic university in Cairo.</p>
<p>In 1959, the women can dress how they like, with skirts, dresses and bare arms, and there are no head-scarves.</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110492517?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="750" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110492517?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750" class="align-full"/></a>This freedom continues happily through to 1978:</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110492608?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110492608?profile=original" width="698" class="align-full"/></a>By 1995, about half the women are wearing headscarves, with their legs and arms fully covered:</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110492563?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="750" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110492563?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750" class="align-full"/></a>By 2004, most of the women have their head, legs and arms fully covered:</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110492509?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="750" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110492509?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750" class="align-full"/></a></p>
<p></p>
Egypt: Future President (12 yrs old) explains Democracy and the Muslim Brotherhood
tag:4freedoms.com,2013-08-21:3766518:Topic:134973
2013-08-21T00:32:39.768Z
Alan Lake
http://4freedoms.com/profile/AlanLake
<p>This 12 years old boy is just stunningly, incredibly smart. Listen to him as he excoriates the Muslim Brotherhood, relentlessly dissecting their power grab.<iframe width="640" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/QeDm2PrNV1I?rel=0&wmode=opaque" frameborder="0"></iframe>
</p>
<p><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/07/09/ali-ahmed-egyptian-boy_n_3567462.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/07/09/ali-ahmed-egyptian-boy_n_3567462.html</a></p>
<p>This 12 years old boy is just stunningly, incredibly smart. Listen to him as he excoriates the Muslim Brotherhood, relentlessly dissecting their power grab.<iframe width="640" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/QeDm2PrNV1I?rel=0&wmode=opaque" frameborder="0"></iframe>
</p>
<p><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/07/09/ali-ahmed-egyptian-boy_n_3567462.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/07/09/ali-ahmed-egyptian-boy_n_3567462.html</a></p>
Churches Burning across Egypt
tag:4freedoms.com,2013-08-16:3766518:Topic:134332
2013-08-16T14:37:46.783Z
Alan Lake
http://4freedoms.com/profile/AlanLake
<p>I start this page/discussion to keep track of the ongoing persecution and terrorism of the non-Muslims (mostly Copts) in Egypt.</p>
<p>--</p>
<p>BREAKING NEWS:</p>
<p>Burning of Virgin Mary Monastery in Deir Mawas, Minya, Bishop Tadros Monastery in Fayoum and Sohag Diocese’s services building.</p>
<p>Brotherhood supporters continue to demolish and burn Atfih Diocese in Giza [Greater Cairo], a large number of churches in Minya [Upper Egypt], Fayoum, Assiut, Suez, Arish [Sinai], Luxor [south…</p>
<p>I start this page/discussion to keep track of the ongoing persecution and terrorism of the non-Muslims (mostly Copts) in Egypt.</p>
<p>--</p>
<p>BREAKING NEWS:</p>
<p>Burning of Virgin Mary Monastery in Deir Mawas, Minya, Bishop Tadros Monastery in Fayoum and Sohag Diocese’s services building.</p>
<p>Brotherhood supporters continue to demolish and burn Atfih Diocese in Giza [Greater Cairo], a large number of churches in Minya [Upper Egypt], Fayoum, Assiut, Suez, Arish [Sinai], Luxor [south Egypt], the Bible Society headquarters in Cairo, and the Franciscan school in Suez.</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110492252?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110492252?profile=original" width="559" class="align-full"/></a></p>
<p>Sohag Diocese burnt and destroyed</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Sohag (Egypt), 14 August /MCN/ by Nader Shukri</p>
<p> </p>
<p>A number of Islamists broke into the St. George Diocese in Sohag and set fire to the church. Fire trucks arrived too late, after the fire had consumed the building.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>H.G. Bishop Bakhoum stated that MB supporters had stormed the church, setting fire to the services building and looting all its contents, in addition to assaulting the priests who were inside.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Speaking to MCN, eyewitnesses said police forces and firefighters arrived late at the scene, while a number of MB supporters hijacked a fire truck to prevent it from putting the flames.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Vehicles transporting armed MB groups were seen by eyewitnesses, as they threatened to attack Copts and unarmed citizens on the streets.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Several other governorates in Upper Egypt have witnessed attacks on Copts and churches, after security forces broke up Brotherhood sit-ins at Rabaa el-Adaweya and Nahda squares. In Fayoum, the Friends of the Bible Association headquarters was burned, while MB supporters opened fire on a nuns’ school in Beni Suef, and Archangel Michael’s Church in Assiut was besieged. Meanwhile, several villages in Minya have also witnessed attacks targeting Copts’ houses and churches..</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Two churches attacked in Assiut and Wasta, army protects Two Saints Church in Alexandria</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110492257?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110492257?profile=original" width="559" class="align-full"/></a></p>
<p>Egypt, 14 August /MCN/ by Nader Shukri</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist current supporters assaulted the Archangel Michael Church in Assiut [Upper Egypt], on Wednesday, as well as properties of citizens and Christians in the area.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Security was able to gain control of the situation in the two streets, Namees and Gomhuriya, after clashes with MB supporters around the governorate’s central building.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>In Wasta City, Beni Suef [Upper Egypt], Father Angelos Maqar, priest of St. George Church in the village, reported, “Militants hurled stones at the church, breaking its windows.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>In Alexandria, “Troops secured the church and closed the streets leading to it in case of any violence,” said Joseph Malak, lawyer for the families of Two Saint Church bombing victims.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“At the same time, Christian youth went out to several areas to protect the churches, including the church of Maximous and Damadious in Street 45, Sidi Beshr.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He added there are now violent clashes between security forces and Islamists at al-Qa’ed Ibrahim Mosque.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Churches in Egypt had canceled morning masses, especially in the provinces of Minya, Assiut and Fayoum, and closed their doors in anticipation of any violence that would target the congregations.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It is worth mentioning that Brotherhood supporters have been rioting throughout Egyptian governorates since security forces broke up the sit-in at Rabaa el-Adaweya Square in Nasr City, Cairo. The sit-in was dismantled at 6.00 am on Wednesday morning.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Attacks are focused on police stations, churches and Christian homes, particularly in the Upper Egypt governorates, such as Minya. Islamists broke into Virgin Mary and St. Abraam Monastery in Delga village. They set fire to three churches and six services buildings, and marched in the village chanting against the Copts, surrounding their homes and assaulting them with stones, as security was completely absent.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The crowd also set fire to a church services building of St. Mina the Wondrous Church in the south of the province, and attacked the Evangelical Baptist church in Beni Mazar.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The Islamists also besieged churches in Samalout and Mallawi, and set fire to two churches in the Fayoum governorate [southwest of Cairo] and attacked Coptic homes and burned churches in Suez.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Greek Church and two Coptic schools in Suez burned</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110492259?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110492259?profile=original" width="559" class="align-full"/></a></p>
<p>Suez (Egypt), 14 August /MCN/ by Nader Shukri</p>
<p> </p>
<p>A number of Muslim Brotherhood and Gamaat Islamiyya extremists burned down the ancient Greek Church on Paradise Street in the Suez governorate, in addition to a monastery and a school. They also set fire to the Franciscan school on el-Geish Street.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Governorates throughout Egypt have witnessed attacks on Copts and churches, after security forces broke up Brotherhood sit-ins at Rabaa el-Adaweya and Nahda squares. In Fayoum, the Friends of the Bible Association headquarters was burned, while MB supporters opened fire on a nuns’ school in Beni Suef, and Archangel Michael’s Church in Assiut was besieged. Meanwhile, several villages in Minya have also witnessed attacks targeting Copts’ houses and churches.</p>
<p></p>
<p> Islamists storm St. Mary and St. Abraam Monastery in Upper Egypt, burn three churches and six buildings inside</p>
<p></p>
<p>Minya (Egypt), 14 Augut /MCN/</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Islamists attacked St. Mary and St. Abraam Monastery in Delga village, Minya [Upper Egypt]. The crowd stormed the monastery and set fire to three churches and six services buildings inside.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Supporters of former President Mohamed Morsi have been rioting throughout Egyptian governorates since security forces broke up the sit-in at Rabaa el-Adaweya and Nahda squares. The sit-in was dismantled at 6.00 am on Wednesday morning.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Attacks are focused on police stations, churches and Christian homes, particularly in the Upper Egypt governorates, such as Minya.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The crowd also set fire to a church services building of St. Mina the Wondrous Church in the south of the province, and attacked the Evangelical Baptist church in Beni Mazar. Islamists also besieged churches in the cities of Samalout and Mallawi.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Father Selwanes Lotfi, priest of St. Mary and St. Abraam Church told MCN, “The Islamists set fire on the monastery, which includes three churches. They stormed the monastery, setting areas on fire as they went, including the historical St. Mary Church, St. George Church and St. Antony Church.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Witnesses said the house of Fr. Angelous, also a priest of the church, was burnt. They blamed the absence of security forces for the current deteriorating situation witnessed in the village, and noted that a state of panic dominates the Copts of the village due to the siege imposed on their houses by the Islamists.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Christians of the area called on security authorities to intervene and prevent a potential massacre.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Islamists marched to St. Mary Church in Deir Mawas, chanting against Copts and H.H. Pope Tawadros II. They assaulted the church with stones, breaking glass and windows of the building, and attacked a Coptic-owned shop.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>A witness told MCN that the march was organized to protest the breakup of the Rabaa el-Adaweya and Nahda squares demonstrations. They attacked all that was owned by Copts.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Security forces prevented an attempt to storm the village of Beni Ahmed and attack its Coptic residents, exchanging fire with Islamists. The Coptic residents of the villages of Rida, Beni Mazar and Maghagha faced consecutive attacks from Morsi supporters, who opened fire indiscriminately on Christian homes.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Islamists threw Molotov cocktails at the Evangelical church in Abu Helal, south Minya, burning the church and its services building.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>A witness said that masked people on motorcycles used automatic weapons and birdshot on St. Mina’s Orthodox Church, and then threw Molotov cocktails at the Evangelical church.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Pastor Samir Sadek, head of Minya's Evangelical Synod, told MCN that a number of extremists attacked the church. He rebuked the absence of the security forces, praising the role performed by the residents who exerted their efforts to contain the fire. He signaled that the fire trucks failed to reach to the church due to the narrow street.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The crowd also set fire to a tourist ferry owned by the Coptic Evangelical Authority and another owned by Coptic businessman Samuel Thabet Zaki.</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110492049?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110492049?profile=original" width="559" class="align-full"/></a> </p>
<p>MB supporters surround Virgin Mary Church in Qena</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Qena (Egypt), 14 August /MCN/</p>
<p> </p>
<p>A number of Brotherhood supporters surrounded the Virgin Mary Church in West Qena [southern Egypt], locking worshipers inside the church. This attack is one of the organized violent measures taken by the MB and Islamic movements, which have increased significantly after security forces broke up the sit-ins at Rabaa el-Adaweya and Nahda squares.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Speaking to MCN, H.G. Bishop Kyrillos, Nag Hammadi’s bishop, said he learned of MB gatherings headed to Abu Tesht, which is about 35 kilometers from Nag Hammadi, to attack the local diocese.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He added he had contacted security forces to protect Copts’ places of worship and their properties.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Dozens of MB supporters and Gamaat Islamiyya surrounded the Virgin Mary’s Church in Qena,” explained a security source to MCN, pointing out that church officials had to close its doors for fear of being attacked by extremists.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The city of Qena has witnessed widespread riots by Islamists, while police forces used tear gas to disperse demonstrators who attempted to storm the Qena governorate office, while other Islamist groups surrounded the court building in Qena, which was evacuated of its employees.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Islamists demolish and burn Coptic diocese in Atfih amid security’s absence</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Giza (Egypt), 14 August /MCN/ by Nader Shukri</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Islamists looted, demolished and burned Atfih Coptic Diocese in the Giza governorate [Greater Cairo], during a lack of full security forces.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Hundreds besieged the diocese, setting fire to the building, looting its contents and have now begun to destroy the remaining structure.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The Copts were able to smuggle Fr. Makorious, priest of the diocese’s church, during the attack.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The Church called upon the military to intervene and protect the Copts and diocese in Atfih. Violence in the city is quickly escalating as news spread of the death of an Atfih Islamist during the military’s break-up of the Brotherhood sit-in in Rabaa el-Adaweya Square in Cairo, this morning.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px;">Copyright © 2013 MidEast Christian News, All rights reserved. </span></p>
<p><a href="http://us5.campaign-archive1.com/?u=c2eaf6afddb7f87586e752295&id=e300ecaf33&e=43175592f3" style="font-size: 13px;">http://us5.campaign-archive1.com/?u=c2eaf6afddb7f87586e752295&id=e300ecaf33&e=43175592f3</a></p>
Final Conversation Between Morsi and Sisi
tag:4freedoms.com,2013-07-09:3766518:Topic:129013
2013-07-09T22:10:43.948Z
Alan Lake
http://4freedoms.com/profile/AlanLake
<p>Morsi issues threats to the very end. The General speaks with authority and dignity.</p>
<p><b>Exposed: Final Conversation Between Morsi and Sisi</b></p>
<p>by <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/author/raymond-ibrahim/" title="Posts by Raymond Ibrahim"><b>Raymond Ibrahim</b></a> on July 9, 2013 in <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/category/from-the-arab-world/" title="View all posts in From The Arab World"><b>From The Arab World</b></a></p>
<p><i>On July 5, El Watan (“the nation”),…</i></p>
<p>Morsi issues threats to the very end. The General speaks with authority and dignity.</p>
<p><b>Exposed: Final Conversation Between Morsi and Sisi</b></p>
<p>by <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/author/raymond-ibrahim/" title="Posts by Raymond Ibrahim"><b>Raymond Ibrahim</b></a> on July 9, 2013 in <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/category/from-the-arab-world/" title="View all posts in From The Arab World"><b>From The Arab World</b></a></p>
<p><i>On July 5, El Watan (“the nation”), one of Egypt’s most popular newspapers, <a href="http://www.elwatannews.com/news/details/219627">published</a> the final dialogue between General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Dr. Muhammad Morsi, which took place on Tuesday July 2, a few hours before Morsi’s final speech to the Egyptian people. A reporter who was taken to an adjacent room was allowed to witness and transcribe their conversation from a TV screen. I translate the entire speech as it appears on El Watan below:</i></p>
<p><i><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110491866?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110491866?profile=original" width="589" class="align-full"/></a></i></p>
<p align="center"><b style="font-size: 13px;">Exchange Between Morsi and Sisi</b></p>
<p>Morsi: What’s the military’s position concerning what’s going on? Is it just going to stand by watching? Shouldn’t it protect the legitimacy?</p>
<p>Sisi: What legitimacy? The entire army is with the will of the people, and the overwhelming majority of people, according to documented reports, don’t want you.</p>
<p>Morsi: My supporters are many and they won’t be silent.</p>
<p>Sisi: The army will not allow anyone to destroy the nation, no matter what happens.</p>
<p>Morsi: What if I don’t want to leave?</p>
<p>Sisi: The matter is settled and no longer up to you. Try to leave with your dignity and tell those whom you call supporters to go back to their homes in order to prevent bloodshed, instead of threatening the people through them.</p>
<p>Morsi: But this way it will be a military coup, and America won’t leave you alone.</p>
<p>Sisi: The people concern us, not America. And since you’ve started to talk this way, I’ll talk to you candidly. We have evidence to condemn you and to condemn many governmental officials of compromising Egypt’s national security. The judiciary will have its say and you will all be judged before the whole people.</p>
<p>Morsi: Okay, can you permit me to make a few phone calls and then afterwards I’ll decide on what to do?</p>
<p>Sisi: You are not permitted; but we can let you check up on your family only.</p>
<p>Morsi: Am I imprisoned or what?</p>
<p>Sisi: You are under arrest from this moment.</p>
<p>Morsi: Don’t think the Brotherhood is going to stand by if I leave office. They will set the world on fire.</p>
<p>Sisi: Just let them try something and you’ll see the reaction of the army. Whoever among them wants to live in peace, he’s more than welcome; otherwise, [if they try anything] we will not leave them alone. We will not single anyone out, and the Brotherhood is from the Egyptian people, so don’t try to use them as fuel for your disgusting war. If you truly love them, leave office and let them go to their homes.</p>
<p>Morsi: Anyway, I’m not going, and the people outside of Egypt are all with me, and my supporters are not going.</p>
<p>Sisi: Anyway, I’ve advised you.</p>
<p>Morsi: Okay, but take care—I’m the one who hired you as minister and can remove you.</p>
<p>Sisi: I became minister of defense due to the military’s will and not yours—and you know this very well. Moreover, you can’t remove me; that’s it—you no longer have any legitimacy.</p>
<p>Morsi: Okay, if I agree to be removed, will you allow me to travel abroad and promise not to imprison me?</p>
<p>Sisi: I can’t offer you any promises. It’s the justice [department] that will pass its verdict.</p>
<p>Morsi: Okay, if that’s the case, I’ll make it war, and we’ll see who will prevail in the end.</p>
<p>Sisi: Naturally the people will win.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/exposed-final-conversation-between-morsi-and-sisi/">http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/exposed-final-conversation-between-morsi-and-sisi/</a></p>
Egyptian cabinet discusses war against Israel
tag:4freedoms.com,2013-06-15:3766518:Topic:127512
2013-06-15T21:31:16.629Z
Alan Lake
http://4freedoms.com/profile/AlanLake
<p>Last week the Egyptian government discussed the Ethiopian plan to build a dam that would divert the course of the Nile, a move Egypt thinks will threaten the water supply and agriculture in Egypt.</p>
<p>The discussion was aired live on television but except for president Morsi nobody seemed to be aware of the live broadcast.</p>
<p><strong>Watch here the Memri video of the cabinet meeting:</strong></p>
<p> …</p>
<p>Last week the Egyptian government discussed the Ethiopian plan to build a dam that would divert the course of the Nile, a move Egypt thinks will threaten the water supply and agriculture in Egypt.</p>
<p>The discussion was aired live on television but except for president Morsi nobody seemed to be aware of the live broadcast.</p>
<p><strong>Watch here the Memri video of the cabinet meeting:</strong></p>
<p> <iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/sSxkori-tPw?wmode=opaque" frameborder="0"></iframe>
</p>
<p>Cabinet members spoke freely about destabilizing the Ethiopian government and about waging war against Israel and the US over the Nile crisis.</p>
<p>Magdi Hussein, Chairman of Egypt’s Islamic Labor Party made the boldest statements. He said he was ‘very fond’ of battles with Israel and the US.</p>
<p>He then called for the members of the cabinet to swear themselves to secrecy as they prepare for a confrontation. “We need a popular plan for popular national security”. Later Hussein said that shutting off the water from the Nile would “turn the Egyptians into the world’s most extremist people.”</p>
<p>He continued: “Imagine what this people would do if its water were turned off—what 80 million of us would do to Israel and America if our water was turned off.”</p>
<p>Sheikh HassanAl-Shafe’i of Al Azhar Islamic University launched a new conspiracy theory during the meeting. He said that the Nile could not fly to Israel but that the river might get some ‘subterranean wings’. He then suggested that an Ethiopia might use the water of the Nile to sell it to Israel.</p>
<p>On Monday the Nile crisis was again the main topic during a meeting of Egyptian Islamist parties that was attended by president Morsi.</p>
<p>Morsi called for national unity in face of the threats to the Nile. He also said that “all options” were on the table to respond to<br/> the current situation and insisted that Egypt would not accept infringements on its water security. </p>
<p>He furthermore stated that Egypt will defend each drop of Nile water with blood if necessary.</p>
<p>During this meeting Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya member Safwat<br/> Abdel-Ghani said that Egypt was facing many “conspiracies and<br/> challenges,” including limited water resources and a steadily mounting<br/> population, but also referred to “international forces interfering in Africa”.</p>
<p>“We should not forget that these forces are plotting against Egypt and<br/> exploiting the region’s poverty,” he said, hinting that the Ethiopian dam<br/> project had been encouraged by foreign interests.</p>
<p>He then called on Egypt to “watch the movements<br/> of the Zionist enemy operating within the Nile Basin countries.”</p>
<p>“We will say this one generation after the other: we will remain Israel’s<br/> enemy,” the crowd chanted in response.</p>
<p>It looks like the Egyptian leaders have finally found a way to divert attention from the failure to solve the deepening economic and social crisis in the country.</p>
<p><a href="http://missingpeace.eu/en/2013/06/egyptian-cabinet-discuss-war-against-israel-over-nile-crisis/#content">http://missingpeace.eu/en/2013/06/egyptian-cabinet-discuss-war-against-israel-over-nile-crisis/#content</a></p>
Egypt's Anti-MB Black Bloc - by Ashraf Ramelah of Gatestone
tag:4freedoms.com,2013-05-08:3766518:Topic:123421
2013-05-08T02:34:26.943Z
Alan Lake
http://4freedoms.com/profile/AlanLake
<p>[May 6, 2013]</p>
<p>Egypt's Black Bloc grew out of their struggle for liberation from an authoritarian system, only after non-violent civil efforts had failed. Ironically, the U.S. Black Bloc and Egypt's Black Bloc are on opposite sides of the political struggle – one, in the U.S., a friend to the Muslim Brotherhood and doubtless trying to gain prestige through their nominal association with international fighters; the other, in Egypt, an enemy to the Brotherhood, and fighting for democracy…</p>
<p>[May 6, 2013]</p>
<p>Egypt's Black Bloc grew out of their struggle for liberation from an authoritarian system, only after non-violent civil efforts had failed. Ironically, the U.S. Black Bloc and Egypt's Black Bloc are on opposite sides of the political struggle – one, in the U.S., a friend to the Muslim Brotherhood and doubtless trying to gain prestige through their nominal association with international fighters; the other, in Egypt, an enemy to the Brotherhood, and fighting for democracy and legitimate government.</p>
<div class="no_print">Clad in black, faceless in black ski masks, the nameless Black Bloc soldiers lock arms to create a human shield in defense of pro-freedom protesters -- the Black Bloc's number-one priority -- in the streets and squares of Egypt. Expert in martial arts and ostensibly military-trained, Black Bloc warriors only recently surfaced in Egypt to safeguard fellow freedom-fighters from their arch-enemies, the foes of democracy: President Mohamed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood-Hamas militia.</div>
<div id="print_content_3"><p>Originating out of a plan to protect women protesters from sexual assault, this huge band of men and women numbering in the thousands (the exact number is not known) form a dedicated and determined corps of combatants divided into local groups of 30-50 individuals in Egypt's communities. Self-described as "anti-Muslim-Brotherhood," and generated out of disgust toward years of police and military brutality, the Black Bloc is, for modern Egypt, a completely new phenomenon.</p>
<p>As participants in this well-organized system for safety and preservation, the secret members of the "elite" Black Bloc guard first appeared in the streets of Cairo this January, when revolutionaries commemorated their two-year anniversary with protests in Tahrir Square. Now everywhere the Egyptian opposition stages protests, the rank-and-file Black Bloc, whose leaders remain unknown to them, dutifully move in to police the area on behalf of fellow protesters.</p>
<p>Deemed "terrorists" and "outlaws" by the Morsi regime, the shadowy Zorro-like heroes refer to their network as the "United Ghosts Revolution" and represent a just cause in the ongoing rebellion against Egypt's Islamist government. The Black Bloc mission is to ensure that no more assaults, kidnappings, and torture occur from Morsi's security forces [the Muslim Brotherhood militia] and so-called law enforcement, and that a "camel gazwa," [invading crowds on galloping camels] as in the early days of the revolt, never takes place again. Many Black Bloc members carry firearms, most likely acquired through the illegal networks smuggling weapons from Libya and Gaza.</p>
<p>If the best defense is a good offense, the forceful Black Bloc has aggressively expanded its scope beyond the scene of gathered protesters and their protection. With a physical presence in more than eight cities across Egypt, the anonymous soldiers have claimed responsibility for ransacking at least eight separate Muslim Brotherhood Freedom and Justice Party offices.</p>
<p>At first, the shrouded Black Bloc raised the fears; the public saw them as terrorists. This wrong impression, however, was soon dispelled as their image as guardians took shape. Appearing first in the social media, the Black Bloc now has the moral support of more than 57,000 Facebook members for the purpose of countering Islamic supremacy and brutality.</p>
<p>Their core concern is to facilitate the pursuit of Western-style democracy. Its members claim no affiliation with existing political parties, as the group states that it "aims only to stand against the Muslim Brotherhood and any group exploiting religion to achieve political goals." As pro-democracy secularists using slogans such as, "Our mess prevents chaos" and, "We are confusion that prevents confusion," their challenge to the Muslim Brotherhood has prompted a new crackdown by President Morsi and his Prime Minister, Hasham Kandil. The state now targets opposition protesters who wear black, tracking those who do and conducting investigations. By mid-February, Morsi began arresting members of Black Bloc and its sympathizers.</p>
<p>Running under the banner of "Allah, Country, Revolution," the "outlaws" have been accused by Islamists of having Israeli backing and connections to Western funding. Further, rumors charge them with burning the rear building of the scientific complex in Cairo, and of involvement in attacks upon city infrastructure, including damaging government buildings, paralyzing traffic, and obstructing subway transportation. The Black Bloc flatly denies participation in these crimes and blames the Muslim Brotherhood for tarnishing their image and credibility.</p>
<p>The group does fully admit, however, to targeting Brotherhood locations in the following Cairo incidents: burning the Muslim Brotherhood headquarters in the Sixth October area, storming the media offices of "Brothers Online," torching the Freedom and Justice Party newspaper headquarters and targeting more than one <i>Moomen</i>[Believer] Brotherhood-owned restaurant.</p>
<p>In keeping with their mission statement, Egypt's Black Bloc members claim they have nothing against state institutions <i>per se,</i> "but against control by a particular system, the supremacy of a certain group." They further contend that "the best thing is to hit the existing system and its economy by sabotaging the system's institutions and not ones belonging to the public." Despite this, a U.S. "Black Bloc" attempts to connect its mission against America and governmental power structures to the cause of Egypt's Black Bloc.</p>
<p>Egypt's Black Bloc grew out of the chaos of President Morsi's actions, which necessitated a course correction – such as the use of security, weaponry and attacks -- for freedom-fighters in their struggle for liberation from an authoritarian system. Although tactics similar to the U.S. Black Bloc anarchists are used, Egypt's fighters do not seek anarchism. Furthermore, the Shariah religious state is contrary to the western democratic state, and the roles of their respective revolts find their meaning and identity by way of the system they fight, not the tactics and strategies they use.</p>
<p>U.S. Black Bloc vandalism is class-warfare, a staple of the progressive political agenda of some in America who opportunistically seem to have intertwined themselves with Muslim Brotherhood goals. While actions by the U.S. Black Bloc ultimately favor the short-term goals of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's Black Bloc interrupts the Muslim Brotherhood's power structure with material and moral losses. Ironically, the U.S. Black Bloc and Egypt's Black Bloc are on <i>opposite</i> sides of the political struggle – the one in the U.S. a friend to the Muslim Brotherhood; the other, in Egypt, an enemy to the Brotherhood.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, the U.S. Black Bloc has appealed to Egypt's Black Bloc in a Feb 9th open letter to initiate intercontinental dialogue. The naive U.S. Black Bloc views tactics and strategies on YouTube and mistakes them for "consensus" – then seeks the thrill of joining hands with Egyptians, and using these tactics as a more "generalized revolt." They are hardly, as the letter suggests, fighting the same "stable power structure." Egypt's revolt reached the point of violence only after non-violent civil efforts failed and were no longer an option for achieving democracy.</p>
<p>The U.S. Black Bloc members, in advancing their "project of revolt," are doubtless trying to gain prestige through their nominal association with international fighters, and probably see their dream being "enacted spontaneously" in a full-fledged, high-stakes revolt on the brink of civil war in Egypt. The Egyptian freedom-fighters, on the contrary, aim unequivocally for democracy and legitimate government. "We want to take the struggle out of the hands of political parties entirely," states the U.S. Black Bloc; but Egypt's Black Bloc struggles with the hope of the rise of new political leadership and a real democratic party.</p>
<p>The U.S. Black Bloc, according to its letter to Egypt, wishes to <i>have</i> the Muslim Brotherhood in governments around the world, to "clarify" the global power structure and then assert Black Bloc tactics uniformly worldwide to defeat the state. Egypt's revolutionaries, fighting for freedom within the heart of political Islam, would not take any chance with such a sinister plan.</p>
<blockquote><p><i>Ashraf Ramelah is on the Advisory Board of SION (Stop Islamization of Nations) and president of Voice of the Copts, a human rights organization. In 2010, VOTC sued the Mubarak regime, which refused to change the religious ID card of a Muslim convert to Christianity.</i></p>
</blockquote>
</div>
<p><br/><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3701/egypt-black-bloc">http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3701/egypt-black-bloc</a></p>
Egypt: Fascists step up ethnic cleansing of Copts
tag:4freedoms.com,2013-04-15:3766518:Topic:122474
2013-04-15T20:40:14.885Z
Alan Lake
http://4freedoms.com/profile/AlanLake
<h1 class="title">In Pictures: Savage Islamic Attack on St. Mark Cathedral Allowed by Egyptian Forces</h1>
<div class="post-meta"><span class="small">by</span> <span class="author vcard"><span class="fn"><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/author/raymond-ibrahim/" rel="author" title="Posts by Raymond Ibrahim">Raymond Ibrahim</a></span></span> <span class="small">on</span> <abbr class="date time published" title="2013-04-09T16:20:20-0700">April 9, 2013</abbr> …</div>
<h1 class="title">In Pictures: Savage Islamic Attack on St. Mark Cathedral Allowed by Egyptian Forces</h1>
<div class="post-meta"><span class="small">by</span> <span class="author vcard"><span class="fn"><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/author/raymond-ibrahim/" title="Posts by Raymond Ibrahim" rel="author">Raymond Ibrahim</a></span></span> <span class="small">on</span> <abbr class="date time published" title="2013-04-09T16:20:20-0700">April 9, 2013</abbr> <span class="small">in</span> <span class="categories"><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/category/from-the-arab-world/" title="View all posts in From The Arab World">From The Arab World</a>, <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/category/islam/" title="View all posts in Islam">Islam</a>, <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/category/muslim-persecution-of-christians/" title="View all posts in Muslim Persecution of Christians">Muslim Persecution of Christians</a></span></div>
<div class="entry"><p>Egypt’s Coptic Christians frequently accuse State Security and police of overlooking Muslim attacks on Christians and their places of worship, especially monasteries and churches. The Western mainstream media often ignores these accusations, or mentions them in passing as “unsubstantiated reports.” Last weekend’s assault on the St. Mark Cathedral — unprecedented in significance — was no different, except for the fact that there are many pictures demonstrating State complicity.</p>
<p>To recap: After last Sunday’s St. Mark Cathedral funeral service for Egypt’s most recent Christian victims of jihad — including one man set aflame — gangs of Muslims attacked the Christian mourners, resulting in the deaths of two more Copts, including one shot through the heart. Hundreds of Christians retreated back into the cathedral — both to get out of harm’s way, and to protect their holiest site. They were trapped there all night, enduring projectile and firebomb attacks. State Security also opened fire on the cathedral, including through tear-gas.</p>
<p>Several Egyptian media outlets and newspapers, especially the popular <em>Youm7,</em> have published a variety of pictures showing mobs, if not terrorists, attacking the cathedral in front of absolutely indifferent, possibly approving, security forces. Some of these pictures, with my captions, follow:</p>
<div id="attachment_3330" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/_admin/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/photo-101.png"><img class="size-full wp-image-3330" title="photo (10)" src="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/_admin/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/photo-101.png" alt="" width="730" height="494"/></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Muslim”youth” climb to the roof of a building adjacent to St. Mark Cathedral to attack it. To the left, a man winds to hurl a projectile at it. And in the white circle to the right, high-ranking Egyptian officials and security stand by watching (easily recognizable by their hats and helmets).</p>
</div>
<div id="attachment_3321" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/_admin/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/photo-1.png"><img class="size-full wp-image-3321" title="photo (1)" src="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/_admin/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/photo-1.png" alt="" width="733" height="500"/></a><p class="wp-caption-text">A better close up. This image shows a masked sniper with rifle in hand preparing to open fire at the cathedral — confident that security forces will not intervene.</p>
</div>
<div id="attachment_3322" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/_admin/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/photo-21.png"><img class="size-full wp-image-3322" title="photo (2)" src="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/_admin/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/photo-21.png" alt="" width="730" height="534"/></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Same man opens fire.</p>
</div>
<div id="attachment_3328" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/_admin/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/photo-8.png"><img class="wp-image-3328" title="photo (8)" src="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/_admin/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/photo-8.png" alt="" width="728" height="526"/></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Another man prepares to hurl stones at the cathedral, even as security forces stand by watching.</p>
</div>
<div id="attachment_3358" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/_admin/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/546.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-3358" title="546" src="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/_admin/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/546.jpg" alt="" width="909" height="512"/></a><p class="wp-caption-text">A masked man, with a rifle, sits inside an Egyptian armored vehicle — bought with U.S. taxpayer money — and fires at the cathedral.</p>
</div>
<div id="attachment_3329" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/_admin/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/photo-9.png"><img class="size-full wp-image-3329" title="photo (9)" src="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/_admin/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/photo-9.png" alt="" width="731" height="493"/></a><p class="wp-caption-text">More snipers attacking Copts and their cathedral.</p>
</div>
<div id="attachment_3331" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/_admin/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/photo-11.png"><img class="wp-image-3331" title="photo (11)" src="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/_admin/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/photo-11.png" alt="" width="726" height="511"/></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Yet another picture showing rioting Muslims throwing projectiles (upper left-hand corner) at the cathedral. A man with a pole (in yellow circle) dismantles or destroys something — a cross, or something else of Christian significance? — and Egyptian “security” (lower left-hand corner, in red circle), idly stand by.</p>
</div>
<div id="attachment_3336" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/_admin/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/8r9k2qyb.jpg"><img class="wp-image-3336" title="8r9k2qyb" src="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/_admin/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/8r9k2qyb.jpg" alt="" width="1095" height="480"/></a><p class="wp-caption-text">St. Mark Cathedral, holiest site for Egypt’s indigenous Christians — and home of the Coptic pope — now turned into a war zone, under Muslim Brotherhood leadership.</p>
</div>
<div id="attachment_3335" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/_admin/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/524521_521451994568355_1629327773_n1.jpg"><img class="wp-image-3335" title="524521_521451994568355_1629327773_n" src="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/_admin/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/524521_521451994568355_1629327773_n1.jpg" alt="" width="856" height="535"/></a><p class="wp-caption-text">A Muslim burns a Bible in front of the cathedral, right under security’s nose. In Egypt, if a Christian is merely accused of “desecrating” a Koran, he/she gets several years in prison. Yet here is a Muslim burning a Bible, with photo evidence, but he has nothing to fear.</p>
</div>
<div id="attachment_3324" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/_admin/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/photo-4.png"><img class="size-full wp-image-3324" title="photo (4)" src="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/_admin/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/photo-4.png" alt="" width="730" height="264"/></a><p class="wp-caption-text">A collage of some of those on rooftops firing at the cathedral. Most of them are known by name — including the second one in the Palestinian scarf — and Copts regularly report them to police and security, to no avail.</p>
</div>
<div id="attachment_3323" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/_admin/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/photo-3.png"><img class="wp-image-3323" title="photo (3)" src="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/_admin/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/photo-3.png" alt="" width="726" height="504"/></a><p class="wp-caption-text">More rooftop terrorism against the cathedral.</p>
</div>
<div id="attachment_3333" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/_admin/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/photo-13.png"><img class="size-full wp-image-3333" title="photo (13)" src="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/_admin/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/photo-13.png" alt="" width="734" height="520"/></a><p class="wp-caption-text">The aftermath: the entrance of Coptic Christianity’s holiest site, the St. Mark Cathedral, after Egypt’s Muslim mob and State Security were through with it.</p>
</div>
<p>Finally, lest there be any doubts as to the Islamic nature of this attack, here is a video of Muslims chanting “Allahu Akbar!” in front of the cathedral as smoke rises from it:<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/gxM7hV1yeW0?rel=0&wmode=opaque" frameborder="0"></iframe>
</p>
<p><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/scandal-morsi-government-permits-savage-attack-on-st-mark-cathedral/">http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/scandal-morsi-government-permits-savage-attack-on-st-mark-cathedral/</a></p>
</div>
Why are sex attacks on the rise in Tahrir Square? - BBC
tag:4freedoms.com,2013-02-17:3766518:Topic:118598
2013-02-17T23:53:25.345Z
Alan Lake
http://4freedoms.com/profile/AlanLake
<h1 class="story-header">Why are sex attacks on the rise in Tahrir Square?</h1>
<p><span class="byline byline-photo"><img alt="Aleem Maqbool" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/58806000/jpg/_58806174_aleem_maqbool.jpg"></img> <span class="byline-name">By Aleem Maqbool</span><span class="byline-title">BBC News, Cairo</span></span></p>
<div class="caption body-width"><a href="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/65862000/jpg/_65862104_65862103.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/65862000/jpg/_65862104_65862103.jpg?width=464" width="464"></img></a> <span>Many women have publicly taken a stand against the rise in sexual harassment…</span></div>
<h1 class="story-header">Why are sex attacks on the rise in Tahrir Square?</h1>
<p><span class="byline byline-photo"><img src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/58806000/jpg/_58806174_aleem_maqbool.jpg" alt="Aleem Maqbool"/><span class="byline-name">By Aleem Maqbool</span><span class="byline-title">BBC News, Cairo</span></span></p>
<div class="caption body-width"><a href="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/65862000/jpg/_65862104_65862103.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/65862000/jpg/_65862104_65862103.jpg?width=464" width="464" class="align-right"/></a><span>Many women have publicly taken a stand against the rise in sexual harassment</span></div>
<div class="embedded-hyper"><a class="hidden" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-21441624#story_continues_1">Continue reading the main story</a><div class="hyperpuff"><h2><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12315833">Egypt changing</a></h2>
<ul>
<li><a class="story" rel="published-1359394521451" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-21235994">Q&A: Riots and political crisis</a></li>
<li><a class="story" rel="published-1359344049896" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-21226289">President tested</a></li>
<li><a class="story" rel="published-1359128669992" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-21201364">Mubarak legacy</a></li>
<li><a class="story" rel="published-1359386865441" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-21228852">Black Bloc anarchists emerge</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<p class="introduction" id="story_continues_1">The testimony of women assaulted in Tahrir Square in recent weeks is shocking.</p>
<p>One report documented by an NGO concerns a woman whose genitals were lacerated using a bladed weapon during another assault.</p>
<p>On the internet, you can even see mobile phone footage of women in the square during demonstrations suddenly being surrounded by dozens of men, and carried away as they are groped and assaulted.</p>
<p>"People who pretended to help were actually harassing me more," says Shorouk al Attar, who was seriously assaulted with her sister close to the square during a protest last year.</p>
<p>"Everyone was holding me, pretending to take me out of the crowd but actually they were harassing me," Shorouk told us.</p>
<p>"It was hard to differentiate between who was helping and who was harassing. I heard some people laughing."</p>
<p>Shorouk says that after the attack she became scared to go outside.</p>
<p>"I spent three or four days alone at home," she said. "I couldn't stop thinking about it and crying. I kept asking myself 'why did this happen to me?'"</p>
<p><span class="cross-head">'What do you expect?'</span></p>
<p>A shocking number of women are asking the same question. In a single day in January, 22 serious sexual assaults were reported in Tahrir Square.</p>
<p>There have been protests in Cairo calling for the attacks to stop. But it is an indication of how bad things are, and how some resent even the raising of the issue, that some people attending those demonstrations have themselves been attacked.</p>
<div class="story-feature narrow"><a class="hidden" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-21441624#story_continues_2">Continue reading the main story</a><h2 class="quote">“<span>Start Quote</span></h2>
<blockquote><p class="first-child">If you are here and you see a girl dressed in an indecent way, what are you going to do? You can't help it”</p>
</blockquote>
<span class="quote-credit">Egyptian man in Tahrir Square</span></div>
<p id="story_continues_2">So who is carrying out the sexual assaults in Tahrir Square?</p>
<p>"If you are here and you see a girl dressed in an indecent way, what are you going to do? You can't help it."</p>
<p>So said one of a group of young Egyptian men, hanging around close to the square, when we asked about the increase in sexual assaults against women there.</p>
<p>"We are depressed, we can't find jobs and money, what do you expect?" says another of the youths, who was unsurprisingly reluctant to give his name.</p>
<p>Over recent years, Egyptian women have become used to sexual harassment, particularly in large crowds. Eid holidays in downtown Cairo had become particularly hazardous.</p>
<p>Now, it appears, protest gatherings in Tahrir Square, the home of the country's revolution, have become the big draw for young Egyptian men and boys wanting to leer, harass and now to even carry out assaults.</p>
<p><span class="cross-head">Attacks 'orchestrated'</span></p>
<p>The young men we spoke to admitted they went to the square to look at women, and though they did not admit to being involved in serious assaults, their manner suggested they saw no problem in harassing women.</p>
<p>They even found the issue of rape something of a joke.</p>
<div class="caption body-narrow-width"><a href="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/65862000/jpg/_65862100_victim2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/65862000/jpg/_65862100_victim2.jpg?width=304" width="304" class="align-left"/></a><span>Shorouk al Attar suspects more sinister forces are behind the attacks</span></div>
<p>"If women don't want it, they shouldn't wear tight clothes and they shouldn't come here," one laughed.</p>
<p>But is the recent increase in frequency in assaults more than just a social problem that has spiralled well out of control? Is there something even more sinister at play?</p>
<p>Some victims think so, including Shorouk al Attar, who was attacked as she attended a demonstration against President Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood.</p>
<p>"There's the theory that if you want to break a society you start with women because if you do this men will become afraid," she says. "I think it's organised. It's not by chance, like most people think."</p>
<p>The argument that the Muslim Brotherhood has organised the attacks to deter women from attending protests is one espoused by some other activists and women's support groups.</p>
<p>"Why else are the attacks concentrated where the demonstrations take place?" says Nevine Ebeid, from the New Woman Foundation, a group that documents attacks against women.</p>
<p>She does though acknowledge that solid proof is hard to come by, and that most of the evidence through testimony is circumstantial.</p>
<p><span class="cross-head">'Against Islam'</span></p>
<p>While the problem of sexual assaults in public gatherings began well before the revolution, Ms Ebeid feels that the political and social climate that has come with the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood has made things worse.</p>
<p>"Political Islam has meant there is a discourse opposed to women's rights," she says.</p>
<div class="story-feature narrow"><a class="hidden" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-21441624#story_continues_3">Continue reading the main story</a><h2 class="quote">“<span>Start Quote</span></h2>
<blockquote><p class="first-child">We are against any assault, especially sexual assaults”</p>
</blockquote>
<span class="quote-credit">Essam El Erian</span><span class="quote-credit-title">Freedom and Justice Party</span></div>
<p id="story_continues_3">"It does not believe that there is equality before the law and helps create a climate that encourages sexual harassment and sexual violence against women in Egypt."</p>
<p>It is a charge that has been strenuously denied by the Muslim Brotherhood.</p>
<p>"We are against any assault, especially sexual assaults," says Essam El Erian, the vice-chairman of the party's political wing. "Our religions, Christianity and Islam, prevent us from such."</p>
<p>Mr El Erian also reacted angrily to the theory the authorities were directly involved in orchestrating the attacks in Tahrir Square to stop people protesting, and instead blamed opposition groups for causing chaos.</p>
<p>"Tahrir Square has been captured by some of the revolutionaries," he says. "They are responsible for any case of sexual assault there."</p>
<p>For the last few months, opposition protestors have occupied Tahrir Square. It is closed to traffic and police have retreated beyond its boundaries.</p>
<p>Vigilante groups have started to operate to try to fill the security void and to protect women, but with limited success.</p>
<p>Even if police were present, respect for - and indeed fear of - the security forces has certainly diminished since the revolution and it is hard to imagine women would be safe from harassment in a large crowd here.</p>
<p id="aeaoofnhgocdbnbeljkmbjdmhbcokfdb-mousedown">Whether or not the authorities are behind some of the attacks is hard to say, but there is little doubt the issue of sexual assault is not being taken as seriously as it should be; by politicians, security officials and throughout Egyptian society.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-21441624">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-21441624</a></p>
The brotherhoods plan for a Fascist Egypt.
tag:4freedoms.com,2012-12-04:3766518:Topic:115471
2012-12-04T12:36:43.934Z
Alan Lake
http://4freedoms.com/profile/AlanLake
<h2 class="posttitle"><span style="font-family: terminal,monaco;"><em><span class="font-size-3">Has morsi played his hand to early, or has his willingness to stick to the Egypt/Israeli peace deal given him a free ride from the west.</span></em></span></h2>
<h2 class="posttitle">Has the Muslim Brotherhood entered a new stage?</h2>
<p class="metaStuff">Farid Zahran / November 27, 2012 / …</p>
<div class="opinion" id="entryContainer"><div class="entry"><p></p>
</div>
</div>
<h2 class="posttitle"><span style="font-family: terminal,monaco;"><em><span class="font-size-3">Has morsi played his hand to early, or has his willingness to stick to the Egypt/Israeli peace deal given him a free ride from the west.</span></em></span></h2>
<h2 class="posttitle">Has the Muslim Brotherhood entered a new stage?</h2>
<p class="metaStuff">Farid Zahran / November 27, 2012 / </p>
<div id="entryContainer" class="opinion"><div class="entry"><p><a href="http://dailynewsegypt.com/beta/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/20120911_Farid-Zahran-cloumn__photo.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://dailynewsegypt.com/beta/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/20120911_Farid-Zahran-cloumn__photo-199x300.jpg?width=199" width="199" class="align-right"/></a>The process of Al-Tamkin is a phrase often used by Islamists, that can be traced back to the time of the Prophet (PBUH), which, according to various biographies, consists of two phases.</p>
<p>The first phase is Istada’af, (subjugation); Muslims during the time of the Prophet (PBUH) were often persecuted, and therefore often hid the fact that they were Muslims. Istada’af refers to the methods used and adopted by Muslims to endure persecution in societies that do not accept them.</p>
<p>The second phase of Al-Tamkin is also referred to as al-Tamkin, and refers to the time in history when God granted Muslims the power to defeat their hostile neighbours and establish the Caliphate. In modern terms, Al-Tamkin is used by many Islamic organisations to refer to overcoming adversity.</p>
<p>Islamic organisations of all stripes that participate in politics have borrowed from the past, take particular phrases and try to apply them to their modern day lives.</p>
<p>Shi’a Muslims are often champions of the notion of Al-taqia (dissimulation), as many branches of Shi’ism purposely conceal their beliefs, to the point that many act as underground movements, in order to avoid the dangers associated with making their identity public.</p>
<p>Sunnis on the other hand, which is how many Islamists in Egypt would describe themselves, have not been known to adopt methods of dissimulation except in circumstances where they face an ever present threat. However it is during this stage that God upholds his word and chases away the infidel.</p>
<p>Within both the stages of Al-Tamkin and Istada’af it is possible to say that there exists a series of small sub-stages, and that a sub-stage of Al-Tamkin in one instance may in fact be considered a sub-stage of Istada’af in another. Before the 25 January Revolution for example, the Muslim Brotherhood often existed quite publicly, operating local headquarters, and congresses, sometimes even speaking to the media.</p>
<p>All of this could be considered in some way a form of Al-Tamkin. However despite their public image, authorities often jailed dozens or sometimes hundreds of brotherhood members for long periods of time, in addition to rigging elections. These methods guaranteed that the Brotherhood would never be more than a minority opposition party in Parliament.</p>
<p>Taking into account the various forms of persecution they suffered during this period, it is also possible to say that this may have been a time of Istada’af for the Brotherhood, compared to what they have been able to accomplish recently.</p>
<p>The actions of the Muslim Brotherhood during this period could be seen as employing methods of dissimulation, as a means of hiding their true power for the purpose of biding their time and maintaining a role as an opposition movement.</p>
<p>Before the revolution, the Brotherhood often took part in protests as part of the democratic opposition to the Mubarak regime, and continued doing so until Mubarak stepped down on February 11, 2011.</p>
<p>However after the removal of Mubarak, their methods began to change, as they began to enter into the first of stage of Al-Tamkin. Once the announcement was made regarding parliamentary elections, the Brotherhood promised (based on the belief that they were not yet strong enough to lead) that their goal in taking part in the elections would only be to serve as a minority party that would form a government with a larger coalition.</p>
<p>However, once their power base amongst the Egyptian people began to grow, they began competing for more seats, and went on to contest the presidential elections despite the fact that they had promised not to run a candidate. They went back on their word a third time when they appointed Hesham Qandil to the position of prime minister after previously promising to appoint an individual experienced in politics.</p>
<p>In all of these cases, the Muslim Brotherhood was never content with exercising limited power, they instead went back on their promises when their power increased, and as a result they gradually moved from being in a state of Istada’af to al-Tamkin. The main difference between the two stages for the Muslim Brotherhood was the extent to which they would apply dissimulation to their politics and mask their true intentions.</p>
<p>The practice of reneging on their promises was no mistake, but rather was and is a calculated policy on the part of the Brotherhood to move from the stage of Istada’af to Al-Tamkin. The Muslim Brotherhood does not view any promises made during the period of Istada’af as ones they are expected to keep or uphold, and furthermore do not consider going back on their word in such a circumstance to be immoral.</p>
<p>Perhaps one can justify this by referring to it as continued dissimulation, taking necessary measures to ensure one’s survival, along the lines of that done by the Prophet (PBUH). But this is merely a claim that gives liars a cover against sin. Before the 25 January revolution the notion of the Muslim Brotherhood going back on its word had become normal and was not an issue that drew much attention.</p>
<p>However after the revolution, and with the speed with which unprecedented change swept Egypt, the scope of the Muslim Brotherhood’s lies expanded, and the time it took them to break their promises started becoming shorter and shorter, often not exceeding weeks or days or even a matter of hours.</p>
<p>Before the revolution, the Muslim Brotherhood could claim that they often changed their positions as a result of shifting circumstances, however after the revolution it became clear to the Egyptian people that their tendency to flip flop was not merely circumstantial, but rather was an ingrained part of their identity as a movement, a fact that would later cost them a large amount of support.</p>
<p>It is necessary to state here that like many other Islamist organizations, the Muslim Brotherhood believes in the notion that “war as trickery,” an Arabic phrase that can also be traced back to the Hadiths of the Prophet (PBUH), and they have employed it much in the same way they have dissimulation.</p>
<p>The practice of reneging on promises can be considered to be a part of the notion of war as trickery, and it is upon you my dear reader to realise that the Brotherhood does in fact consider itself at war, and that it is within this context of war that they are allowed to practice the idea of dissimulation.</p>
<p>The announcement of the new constitution is therefore just the latest in a series of steps leading up to Al-Tamkin, which at its core is rooted in what the Muslim Brotherhood considers to be a strategic change in the political landscape that will enable them to further pursue their ultimate goal of establishing an Islamist state and expelling those who stand in their way.</p>
<p>What was the strategic shift that took place in Egyptian politics that enabled the Muslim Brotherhood to draft this constitution, and how did it take place? We must return to the beginning, to the days of the 2011 revolution, and ask what forces were involved between 25 January and 11 February in ousting Hosni Mubarak?</p>
<p>We can agree that there were three main forces primarily responsible for ousting Mubarak, the first being the Egyptian people, and the participation of citizens of all different stripes in working to end a dictatorship. The second being the army, who refused to support Gamal Mubarak as the heir of the Mubarak dynasty. The last force being the west, specifically the United States, who saw that Mubarak had lost his legitimacy and was no longer able to protect their interests. Of course there are differences in opinion about which force played the biggest role in ousting Mubarak.</p>
<p>Opinions abound; some say that the American role had only been to provide political cover to the Egyptian revolutionaries, while others claim that the army contributed nothing other than simply being neutral. Regardless of what has been said, what is important is that the regime was ousted in just 18 days. Whether certain forces contributed more or less by remaining neutral or being active in the streets is of less importance.</p>
<p>Now, just days before the announcement of Morsy’s constitutional declaration the Muslim Brotherhood was able to live out it’s dream, at the expense of Israel and the United States by acting as the primary mediator in a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. This move not only undermined the Palestinian cause, but also ignored Egypt’s security concerns.</p>
<p>There is no doubt that Egypt’s role in brokering the cease fire is the first in a series of steps that will lead to the Gaza Strip becoming a part of Egypt, which will be naturally followed by Jordan annexing the West Bank, two moves that will put an end to the dream of an independent Palestinian state and lead to permanent lawlessness in the Sinai Peninsula.</p>
<p>As far as the army is concerned, the Muslim Brotherhood has given them everything they could ever want.</p>
<p>No one can know whether Morsy actually received official support from the United States and the Egyptian armed forces regarding the declaration before its release, or whether he hoped to obtain it after the fact, based on the belief that he had given both parties everything they had wanted so much that their support was guaranteed.</p>
<p>Again, whether or not this was the case is not important. In Morsy’s eyes the Muslim Brotherhood/Islamist brand had the support of nearly 70 per cent of the Egyptian people (if one takes into account the Egyptian parliamentary elections) and had already reached a level of Al-Takmin that would give them the power to go after the Egyptian judiciary, unilaterally draft a constitution, and sack those who didn’t support their policies, even those who had previously been allies.</p>
<p>The history of political Islam, and the Muslim Brotherhood in particular, consists of alliances being broken as soon as one party believes it can be stronger and accomplish more on its own. The phrase “we eat lunch with them before we have dinner with them” comes to mind.</p>
<p>The Muslim Brotherhood has formed and broken alliances with Al-Naqrashi, Abd-al Nasr, Anwar Sadat, Hosni Mubarak, and even the United States in Kabul. All of these alliances were based on promises made, promises they inevitably went back on as soon as they felt they had moved from a phase of Istada’af to that of Al-Tamkin.</p>
<p>Now, the Muslim Brotherhood’s understanding of their current situation is as follows: if we’ve obtained the support of 70 per cent of the people, in addition to that of the Egyptian Armed Forces and the United States, are we not able then to impose our vision of an Islamic state upon Egypt? The constitutional declaration was the first step in this process, as it attacked the independence of the judiciary, and sought to grant control over it to their supporters. The media has also come under attack, starting by shutting down the Dream network.</p>
<p>Notice my dear reader that this is the very same channel that was ordered to return to work recently by judicial decree. But of course, the decisions of the president now and forever override those of any judicial power.</p>
</div>
</div>
The Fascist World View of Hasan al-Banna and the Muslim Brotherhood
tag:4freedoms.com,2012-12-03:3766518:Topic:115852
2012-12-03T19:57:17.084Z
Alan Lake
http://4freedoms.com/profile/AlanLake
<h1 class="pagetitle">The World View of Hasan al-Banna and the Muslim Brotherhood</h1>
<p><span style="font-family: times new roman, times, serif;"><strong><span style="font-size: 18px;"><a href="http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm/frm/128355/sec_id/128355">http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm/frm/128355/sec_id/128355</a></span></strong></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: times new roman, times, serif;"><strong><span style="font-size: 18px;">by Joseph S.…</span></strong></span></p>
<h1 class="pagetitle">The World View of Hasan al-Banna and the Muslim Brotherhood</h1>
<p><span style="font-family: times new roman, times, serif;"><strong><span style="font-size: 18px;"><a href="http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm/frm/128355/sec_id/128355">http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm/frm/128355/sec_id/128355</a></span></strong></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: times new roman, times, serif;"><strong><span style="font-size: 18px;">by Joseph S. Spoerl</span></strong> <span style="font-size: 10px;">(December 2012)</span></span></p>
<p><br/> <span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 28px;"><span style="font-family: times new roman, times, serif;">F</span></span>ounded in Egypt in 1928, the Muslim Brotherhood has emerged as a force to be reckoned with, not only in Egypt and the Gaza Strip, where it has won elections and assumed power, but also in Europe and North America, where it has been very successful at forming national Islamic organizations claiming to represent Muslims in non-Muslim countries.<sup>1</sup> It is more important than ever to understand this group and its ideology. A natural starting point in this effort is to examine the writings of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Egyptian Sunni Muslim Hasan al-Banna (1906-1949).<sup>2</sup> Al-Banna’s worldview may be summarized in four main propositions: First, Islam is a perfect and complete way of life; second, Islam must be the basis of all legislation; third, Western societies are decadent and corrupt; and fourth, God has commanded Muslims to conquer and rule the earth. Each of these propositions is deeply rooted in the worldview of classical Sunni Islam.</span></span></p>
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><u>Islam is a perfect and complete way of life.</u></span></span></li>
</ol>
<p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">Al-Banna stresses that “Islam is a perfect system of social organization, which encompasses all the affairs of life.”<sup>3</sup> Speaking on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood, he asserts, “We believe that Islam is an all-embracing concept which regulates every aspect of life.”<sup>4</sup> Because Islam is all-encompassing, it is impossible for Muslims to separate politics and religion. Al-Banna advises his fellow Muslim Brothers: “If someone should ask you: To what end is your appeal made? Say: we are calling you to Islam…: government is part of it…. If someone should say to you: This is politics!, say: This is Islam, and we do not recognize such divisions.”<sup>5</sup></span></span></p>
<ol>
<li value="2"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><u>Islam must be the basis of all legislation.</u></span></span></li>
</ol>
<p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">Because Islam is a complete way of life, encompassing law and politics, all constitutional and positive law must be based on it:</span></span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">Every nation has a body of law to which its sons have recourse in their legal affairs. This body of law must be derived from the prescriptions of the Islamic Sacred Law, drawn from the Noble Qur’an, and in accordance with the basic sources of Islamic jurisprudence. For the Islamic Sacred Law and the decisions of the Islamic jurists are all-sufficient, supply every need, and cover every contingency, and they produce the most excellent results and the most blessed fruits. If the punishments prescribed by God[note omitted] were carried out, they would be a deterrent dismaying even the hardened criminal…<sup>6</sup></span></span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">It is striking that al-Banna mentions “the punishments prescribed by God” as an example of positive laws that must be derived from Islamic law. These are the so-called <em>hadd</em> punishments (plural <em>hudud</em>), specific punishments like stoning, crucifixion, amputations, or lashes for specific crimes like illicit intercourse, drinking of alcohol, theft, or highway robbery. Under Islamic law, these punishments have a special status because they are directly prescribed by God, either in the Koran or in the teachings of Muhammad.<sup>7</sup></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">As the above quotation makes clear, al-Banna is very scrupulous in adhering to the traditional prescriptions of classical Islamic law. In 1936, al-Banna wrote a letter to King Faruq of Egypt, as well as to the other rulers of Islamic countries, in which he laid out in some detail his program for Islamic government.<sup>8</sup> In this letter al-Banna called for</span></span></p>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">“a reform of the law, so that it will conform to Islamic legislation in every branch;”</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">“The diffusion of the Islamic spirit throughout all departments of government, so that all its employees will feel responsible for adhering to Islamic teachings;”</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">“The surveillance of the personal conduct of all [government] employees, and an end to the dichotomy between the private and professional spheres;”</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">Action by Islamic countries to pave the way for the restoration of the Caliphate;<sup>9</sup></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">“the imposition of severe penalties for moral offenses” and the prohibition of prostitution, gambling, drinking of alcohol, dancing; and the criminalization of “fornication, whatever the circumstances, as a detestable crime whose perpetrator must be flogged;”</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">“Treatment of the problem of women…in accordance with Islamic teaching” and “segregation of male and female students; “private meetings between men and women,” except for family members, are “to be counted as a crime…”<sup>10</sup></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">“The surveillance of theatres and cinemas, and a rigorous selection of plays and films;”</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">“The regulation of business hours for cafes; surveillance of the activities of their regular clients; instructing these as to what is in their best interests…;”</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">“The expurgation of songs, and a rigorous selection and censorship of them;”</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">“The confiscation of provocative stories and books that implant the seeds of skepticism in an insidious manner, and newspapers which strive to disseminate immorality…;”</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">“[P]unishment of all who are proved to have infringed any Islamic doctrine or attacked it, such as breaking the fast of Ramadan, willful neglect of prayers, insulting the faith, or any such act.”</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">“The annexation of the elementary village schools to the mosques…;”</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">“Active instigation to memorize the Qur’an in all the free elementary schools;”</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">“The prohibition of usury, and the organization of banks with this end in view.”</span></span></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">Al-Banna’s program is perhaps more readily understood in the context of a central provision of classical Islamic law, the duty to command the right and forbid the wrong.<sup>11</sup> Firmly rooted in the Koran (e.g. 3:104), classical <em>sharia</em> prescribes this as a communal obligation<sup>12</sup> of the Islamic <em>umma</em>, and indeed as “the most important fundamental of the religion,” such that “if it were folded up and put away, religion itself would vanish, dissolution appear, and whole lands come to ruin.”<sup>13</sup> Gudrun Krämer writes that this Koranic injunction to command the right and prohibit the wrong “was to play a central role in al-Banna’s career as an Islamic activist.”<sup>14</sup> The duty to command the right and forbid the wrong amounts to a communal duty of the whole Muslim <em>umma</em> to police the behavior of all is members, intervening verbally and even physically when seeing violations of Islamic law such as drinking wine, eating during Ramadan, playing illicit music, and so forth.<sup>15</sup></span></span></p>
<ol>
<li value="3"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><u>Western societies are decadent and corrupt.</u></span></span></li>
</ol>
<p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">Al-Banna is acutely aware that his program for Islamic government is radically at odds with Western values, like personal liberty and secular government. In his writings one finds a scathing critique of Western culture in general. He lists what he takes to be the defining traits of Western society, all of which are negative.<sup>16</sup> European life and culture “rest upon the principle of the elimination of religion from all aspects of social life, especially as regards the state, the law-court, and the school.” European society is inherently materialistic, retaining its Christianity “only as a historical heirloom.” It is marked by “Apostasy, doubt in God, denial of the soul, obliviousness to reward or punishment in the world to come, and fixation within the limits of the material, tangible existence…”</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">Other defining marks of European civilization are “licentiousness, unseemly dedication to pleasures, versatility in self-indulgence, unconditioned freedom for the lower instincts, gratification of the lusts of the belly and the genitals, the equipment of women with every technique of seduction and incitement…” European culture is marked by “individual selfishness,… and class selfishness…, and national selfishness, for every nation is bigoted on behalf of its members, disparages all others, and tries to engulf those which are weaker.” Its addiction to usury is a natural expression of its selfishness and materialism.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">Al-Banna sums up: “These purely materialistic traits have produced within European society corruption of the spirit, the weakening of morality,” “impotence to guarantee the security of human society” and “failure to grant men happiness.”</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">What is worse, the entire Muslim world is being corrupted by Western decadence: Muslim countries are being flooded with Western capital, banks, and companies; Westerners have invaded Muslim lands with “their half-naked women, their liquors, their theatres, their dance halls, their amusements, their stories, their newspapers, their novels.” Westerners have even “founded schools and scientific and cultural institutes in the very heart of the Islamic domain, which cast doubt and heresy into the souls of its sons.”<sup>17</sup> This cultural infection of the Islamic world by Western decadence is even more dangerous than the political and military imperialism of the West.<sup>18</sup> Consequently, the Muslim Brotherhood has two fundamental goals: “(1) That the Islamic fatherland be freed from all foreign domination,… [and] (2) That a free Islamic state may arise in this free fatherland, acting according to the precepts of Islam…”<sup>19</sup></span></span></p>
<ol>
<li value="4"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><u>God has commanded Muslims to conquer and rule the earth.</u></span></span></li>
</ol>
<p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">Since divinely revealed law is superior to man-made law; and since Islam is a complete and perfect way of life, encompassing the political sphere; and since materialistic European civilization cannot but cause unhappiness, it follows that Islam must rule the world:</span></span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">[T]he Noble Qur’an appoints the Muslims as guardians over humanity in its minority, and grants them the right of suzerainty and dominion over the world in order to carry out this sublime commission. Hence it is our concern, not that of the West, and it pertains to Islamic civilization, not to materialistic civilization.<sup>20</sup></span></span></p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">[I]t is our duty to establish sovereignty over the world and to guide all of humanity to the sound precepts of Islam and to its teachings, without which mankind cannot attain happiness.<sup>21</sup></span></span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">The founding of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1928 is often explained as a reaction against Western imperialism. This is certainly true. However, one searches in vain in al-Banna’s writings for any principled critique of imperialism <em>per se</em>. What al-Banna criticizes is non-Muslim, especially Western, imperialism. For Islamic imperialism al-Banna has only the most effusive praise.<sup>22</sup> Imperialism to impose Islamic rule on non-Muslims is altogether to the good. Al-Banna is fully aware that Islam was born not only as a religion but also as an imperialistic ideology mandating the conquest of non-Muslims. The first Islamic conquerors, he writes, “produced the maximal justice and mercy reported historically of any of the nations.”<sup>23</sup></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">Al-Banna is also fully aware that classical Islamic law imposes offensive war to expand the borders of the Islamic state as a communal obligation (<em>fard al-kifaya</em>) on the entire Muslim community.<sup>24</sup> Indeed, al-Banna wrote an entire essay “On <em>Jihad</em>”<sup>25</sup> in which he gives a survey of the Koranic verses and prophetic traditions (<em>hadith)</em> on <em>jihad</em> as well as the teachings of all four of the classical schools of Sunni jurisprudence on this topic. He reaffirms the classical teaching that “<em>Jihad</em> is not against polytheists alone, but against all who do not embrace Islam.”<sup>26</sup> “[I]t is obligatory on us to begin fighting with them after transmitting the invitation [to embrace Islam], even if they do not fight against us.”<sup>27</sup> Jews and Christians as “People of the Book” are not to be forcibly converted to Islam (unlike polytheists), but are to be forced to pay the <em>jizya</em> or tribute tax, as mandated by the Koran (9:29), as a sign of their humble acceptance of Islamic domination.<sup>28</sup> Imperialism, therefore, is an obligation under Islamic law, and is wrong only when carried out by non-Muslims.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">When Islamic lands are actually invaded or occupied by non-Muslims, Muslims have not just a communal but an individual duty to join the <em>jihad</em> (a <em>fard al-‘ayn</em>).<sup>29</sup> This means every single able-bodied Muslim must join the fight or at least help the fighters.<sup>30</sup> Al-Banna sums up the classical <em>shariah</em> on <em>jihad</em> as follows, applying the lesson to his own time:</span></span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">Now you can see from all this how the men of learning…agree unanimously that <em>jihad</em> is a communal obligation imposed upon the Islamic <em>umma</em> in order to broadcast the summons [to embrace Islam], and that it is an individual obligation to repulse the attack of unbelievers upon it. Today the Muslims, as you know, are compelled to humble themselves before non-Muslims, and are ruled by unbelievers. ...Hence it has become an individual obligation, which there is no evading, on every Muslim to prepare his equipment, to make up his mind to engage in <em>jihad</em>, and to get ready for it until the time is ripe…<sup>31</sup></span></span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">A final point al-Banna makes regarding <em>jihad</em> has to do with an alleged saying of Muhammad, to the effect that fighting is the “lesser jihad” while spiritual struggle is “the greater jihad.”<sup>32</sup> Al-Banna points out (correctly) that this alleged saying is not a sound tradition, that is, there is one or more weak links in the chain of people who allegedly passed it down from Muhammad. Indeed, this tradition never made its way into any of the six canonical collections of prophetic traditions.<sup>33</sup> And in any case, the rewards of martyrdom are conferred only on those who slay or are slain in the way of God, al-Banna asserts; they are not bestowed on those who merely struggle spiritually.<sup>34</sup></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">The classical Islamic law of warfare is closely linked to another central teaching of Muhammad and the Koran that clearly informs all of al-Banna’s writings, namely, that “Islam is superior and nothing must be made superior to it.”<sup>35</sup> As scholar of Islamic law Yohanan Friedmann remarks, military victories and the humiliation of the subjugated infidel are “the most conspicuous way in which the superiority of Islam is demonstrated.”<sup>36</sup></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"> <u>Conclusion</u></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">A few key points emerge from this survey of al-Banna’s world view. The first is well-stated by al-Banna’s translator, Charles Wendell:</span></span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">First of all, it is important to state that by no stretch of the imagination can the movement [the MB] be regarded as a more-or-less deviant type of offshoot from Islam like Bahai, the Ahmadiyya, or American Black Islam. In most respects it was if anything ultra-orthodox, and…it had respectable intellectual roots. … Hasan al-Banna’s fundamental conviction that Islam does not accept, or even tolerate, a separation of ‘church’ and state, or of either from society, is as thoroughly Islamic as it can be.<sup>37</sup></span></span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">In other words, the world view of Hasan al-Banna is simply the world view of classical Sunni Islam. Al Banna was not and did not aspire to be an original thinker, but merely repeated and applied what can be found in any manual of classical Islamic law, such as <em>The Reliance of the Traveller</em>, which indeed enjoys the endorsement of the International Institute of Islamic Thought, a major global Muslim Brotherhood organization.<sup>38</sup></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">Second, al-Banna was an unabashed champion of Islamic imperialism and supremacism. Wendell observes that “it seems beyond dispute that …he [al-Banna] envisioned as his final goal a return to the world-state of the Four Orthodox Caliphs…and, this once accomplished, an aggressive march forward to conquer the rest of the earth for God and His Sacred Law.”<sup>39</sup></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">A third point follows from this: as Wendell puts it, Jews and Christians “might aspire to nothing higher than a kind of second-class citizenship” under the restoration of classical Islamic law envisioned by al-Banna.<sup>40</sup></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">Finally, Wendell observes, to al-Banna’s orthodox Muslim mind,</span></span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">Nothing could be more hateful than further diminution of the lands traditionally dominated by Islam. I believe that much of the fury and unconcealed hatred of the Zionist state which is expressed by the majority of Arabs will become more comprehensible in light of what the Islamic domain as a concept really meant to the Muslim, seen through the lens of Hasan’s exposition.<sup>41</sup></span></span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">Indeed, implacable opposition to the Zionist project in Palestine was a central preoccupation of al-Banna and the Muslim Brotherhood,<sup>42</sup> and this remains true of the Brotherhood and its Palestinian branch, Hamas, to the present day.<sup>43</sup> The Hamas “Covenant” – its statement of foundational principles – features a quotation from Hasan al-Banna: “Israel will exist, and will continue to exist, until Islam abolishes it, as it abolished that which was before it.”<sup>44</sup></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">What, then, can we expect from Egypt under the Muslim Brotherhood? Are the Egyptian people prepared to support a Muslim Brotherhood agenda of the sort presented by al-Banna? The answer appears to be “yes,” simply because most Egyptians are devout, traditional Sunni Muslims. According to the Pew Research Center, 85% of Egyptian Muslims consider Islamic influence over political life to be a positive thing for their country. Fifty-four percent of Egyptian Muslims support making gender segregation in the workplace the law in Egypt; 82% favor stoning people who commit adultery; 77% support amputation of hands for theft and robbery; and 84% favor the death penalty for people who leave the Islamic religion.<sup>45</sup> Seventy-five percent of Egyptians have a favorable opinion of the Muslim Brotherhood; 62% say the law should strictly follow the Quran, and another 27% say the laws should follow the values and principles of Islam without strictly following the Koran. A majority of Egyptians (54%) say the 1979 peace treaty with Israel should be annulled; only 36% say the treaty should be retained.<sup>46</sup></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">The conclusion we must draw is that the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt is not a fluke or a mere reflection of disgust with the Mubarak regime. It also represents the deep attachment of most Egyptian Muslims to traditional Sunni Islam. In the words of Samer Shehata, a professor of Arab politics at Georgetown University, “The Brotherhood is the Egyptian Kansas.” Their positions “reflect rather than oppose what the Egyptian center is thinking.”<sup>47</sup> Wherever one finds conservative, traditional Sunni Muslims, one can expect to find sympathy for the world-view of Hasan al-Banna and the Muslim Brotherhood.</span></span></p>
<div><br clear="all"/><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%"/><div id="ftn1"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[1] Lorenzo Vidino, <em>The New Muslim Brotherhood in the West</em> (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010); Ian Johnson, <em>A Mosque in Munich</em> (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010).</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn2"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[2] On al-Banna’s life, see: Gudrun Krämer, <em>Hasan al-Banna</em> (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2010); Brynjar Lia, <em>The Society of the Muslim Brothers in Egypt: The Rise of an Islamic Mass Movement 1928-1942</em> (Reading, UK: Garnet Publishing, 1998); Richard P. Mitchell, <em>The Society of the Muslim Brothers</em> (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969).</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn3"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[3] Hasan al-Banna, <em>Five Tracts of Hasan Al-Banna: A Selection from the <u>Majmu at Rasail al-Imam al-Shahid Hasan al-Banna</u></em>, translated and annotated by Charles Wendell (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978), p. 30.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn4"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[4] Al-Banna, <em>Five Tracts</em>, p. 46.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn5"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[5] Al-Banna, <em>Five Tracts</em>, p. 36; cf. p. 75.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn6"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[6] Al-Banna, <em>Five Tracts</em>, p. 89.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn7"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[7] See Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri, <em>Reliance of the Traveller: A Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law</em>, trans. Nuh Ha Mim Keller, revised edition (Beltsville, MD: Amana Publications, 1994), pp. 610-618, 704, 985. This manual is an excellent guide to the world view of al-Banna and the Muslim Brotherhood generally, for that world view is simply the world view of classical Sunni Islam. Indeed, the <em>Reliance of the Traveller</em> is endorsed by the International Institute of Islamic Thought (pp. xviii-xix), a well-known global Muslim Brotherhood organization based in Herndon, Virginia (see Vidino, <em>The New Muslim Brotherhood in the West</em>, p. 36, and Johnson, <em>A Mosque in Munich</em>, p. 95).</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn8"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[8] Al-Banna, <em>Five Tracts</em>, pp. 103-131, esp. pp. 126-130.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn9"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[9] The establishment of the Caliphate is a communal obligation under <em>sharia</em>: see al-Misri, <em>Reliance of the Traveller</em>, p. 639; see p. 647 for a list of the caliph’s duties, which include “protecting the religion and the sacrosanct, preserving the religion from alteration and substitution,” “enforcing the prescribed legal measures connected with the rights of Allah and men,” “leading Muslims at group and Friday prayers, whether personally or by representative,” “facilitating travel to the hajj,” and undertaking jihad. On communal obligations, see p. 33 and below.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn10"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[10] See al-Misri, <em>Reliance of the Traveller</em>, p. 541: “It is not lawful for a wife to leave the house except by the permission of her husband…. Nor may a wife permit anyone to enter her husband’s home unless he agrees, even her unmarriageable kin. Nor may she be alone with a nonfamily-member male, under any circumstances.”</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn11"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[11] Al-Banna, <em>Five Tracts</em>, p. 16.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn12"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[12] A communal obligation means that as long as enough are doing the activity in question, the whole community has fulfilled its duty, even if not everyone is doing it, but if no one is doing it, then the whole community is guilty of sin. Al-Misri, <em>Reliance of the Traveller</em>, p. 33.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn13"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[13] Al-Misri, <em>Reliance of the Traveller</em>, p. 714.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn14"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[14] Krämer, <em>Hasan al-Banna,</em> p. 9.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn15"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[15] Al-Misri, <em>Reliance of the Traveller</em>, pp. 713-725.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn16"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[16] Al-Banna, <em>Five Tracts</em>, pp 26-7.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn17"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[17] Al-Banna, <em>Five Tracts</em>, p. 28.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn18"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[18] Al-Banna, <em>Five Tracts</em>, p. 29.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn19"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[19] Al-Banna, <em>Five Tracts</em>, p. 31.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn20"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[20] Al-Banna<em>, Five Tracts</em>, p. 71.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn21"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[21] Al-Banna, <em>Five Tracts</em>, p. 72.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn22"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[22] Al-Banna, <em>Five Tracts</em>, p. pp. 17, 24, 49, 51-2, 71-2, 81-2, 93-4, 110.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn23"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[23] Al-Banna, <em>Five Tracts</em>, p. 110.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn24"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[24] See al-Misri, <em>Reliance of the Traveller</em>, p. 600.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn25"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[25] Al-Banna, <em>Five Tracts</em>, pp. 133-156.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn26"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[26] Al-Banna, <em>Five Tracts</em>, p. 142.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn27"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[27] Al-Banna, <em>Five Tracts</em>, p. 147.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn28"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[28] Al-Banna, <em>Five Tracts</em>, pp. 136, 142</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn29"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[29] See al-Misri, <em>Reliance of the Traveller</em>, p. 601. A personally obligatory act is required by God from each and every morally responsible person, so that it is insufficient for another to perform such an act on another’s behalf: see al-Misri, <em>Reliance of the Traveller</em>, p. 32.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn30"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[30] See al-Misri, <em>Reliance of the Traveller</em>, p. 32.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn31"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[31] Al-Banna, <em>Five Tracts</em>, p. 150.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn32"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[32] Al-Banna, <em>Five Tracts</em>, p. 155.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn33"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[33] David Cook, <em>Understanding Jihad</em> (Berkely: University of California Press, 2005), p. 35.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn34"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[34] Al-Banna, <em>Five Tracts</em>, p. 150; cf. p. 143.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn35"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[35] The Koran teaches that God’s will is that Islam be exalted above all religions (9:33, 61:9). It is significant that verse 9:33 comes right after the verses commanding the military conquest of pagans, Jews, and Christians (9:5 and 9:29). The implication is that the exaltation of Islam above all other religions is to take a military and political form: the conquest and domination of non-Muslims.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn36"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[36] Yohanan Friedmann, “Islam is superior…”, <em>The Jerusalem Quarterly</em> 11 (Spring 1979), pp. 36- 42. See also Yohanan Friedmann, <em>Tolerance and Coercion in Islam: Interfaith Relations in the Muslim Tradition</em> (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn37"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[37] Al-Banna, <em>Five Tracts</em>, pp. 3, 6. Gudrun Krämer observes: “Contrary to widespread perceptions of Islamic scholars and Islamic activists as being locked in perpetual conflict, the Muslim Brothers attracted a significant following among religious scholars (and not just the lower echelons)…”; Krämer, <em>Hasan al-Banna</em>, p. 41.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn38"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[38] See footnote 7, above.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn39"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[39] Al-Banna, <em>Five Tracts</em>, p. 3.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn40"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[40] Al-Banna, <em>Five Tracts</em>, p. 4.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn41"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[41] Al-Banna, <em>Five Tracts</em>, p. 7.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn42"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[42] Krämer, <em>Hasan al-Banna</em>, pp. 48-50, 76-78; Brynjar Lia, <em>The Society of the Muslim Brothers</em>, pp. 155-6, 164, 235-247</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn43"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[43] See Joseph S. Spoerl, “Hamas, Islam, and Israel,” <em>Journal of Conflict Studies</em> 26 (2006), pp. 3-15.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn44"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[44] “The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement – HAMAS,” Middle East Media Research Institute, Special Dispatch #3867, May 26, 2011, <a href="http://www.memri.org/report/en/print5319.htm">http://www.memri.org/report/en/print5319.htm</a></span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn45"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[45] “Muslim Publics Divided on Hamas and Hezbollah; Most Embrace a Role for Islam in Politics,” Dec. 2, 2010, Pew Research Center Global Attitudes Project, <a href="http://www.pewglobal.org/2010/12/02/muslims-around-the-world-divided-on-hamas-and-hezbollah/">http://www.pewglobal.org/2010/12/02/muslims-around-the-world-divided-on-hamas-and-hezbollah/</a></span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn46"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[46] “Egyptians Embrace Revolt Leaders, Religious Parties and Military, as Well; U.S. Wins No Friends, End of Treaty with Israel Sought,” April 25, 2011, Pew Research Center Global Attitudes Project, <a href="http://www.pewglobal.org/files/2011/04/Pew-Global-Attitudes-Egypt-Report-FINAL-April-25-2011.pdf">http://www.pewglobal.org/files/2011/04/Pew-Global-Attitudes-Egypt-Report-FINAL-April-25-2011.pdf</a></span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn47"><p><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">[47] David D. Kirkpatrick and Kareem Fahim, “In Paper, Chief of Egypt Army Criticized U.S.,” <em>New York Times</em>, Aug. 17, 2012, p. A1.</span></span></p>
</div>
</div>
<p><em><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><strong>Joseph S. Spoerl</strong> is professor of philosophy at Saint Anselm College.</span></span></em></p>