WITH MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD MOTTO IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR MORSI TO UNITE EGYPTIANS
From: People For Peace
Voices of Justice for Peace
Regional News
BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 2012
There are several reasons why Egypt will never be at peace despite the call by Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi for national unity following his victory in Egypt's first democratically presidential elections. Mr Morsi won 51.73 percent of the vote in last-week's run-off, beating former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq.
[image]Official symbol of Muslim Brotherhood
;
[image]President Morsi claims he will unite Egyptians
Although speaking on Egyptian television late on Sunday evening, Morsi vowed to "protect the rights of women and children", as well as Christians and Muslims alike, the official symbol of Muslim Brotherhood and motto, Muslims are called to be prepared to fight the enemies of God, of which Christians are included.
[image][editorial cartoon] puppet, labeled Morsi; operated by Military and Islamic Clerics as the 2 pupeteers
Cartoon courtesy Daily Nation
The fact that the republic of Egypt has recognized Islam as the state religion since 1980, talking of protecting the rights of Christians is almost impossible. Egypt is predominantly Muslim, with around 80 million Muslims, comprising 94.7 percent of the population, as of 2010.
On June 30 last year Muslims looted and torched Christian homes and businesses in the village of western Kolosna in Samalut, Minya province. The violence broke out when a Coptic couple was returning to Kolosna by bus when the wife was severely sexually harassed by Muslims at the bus terminal. The husband tried to defend his wife but was severely beaten.
This is to signal that Christians have no business in that country. Police cannot help much since majority of them are Muslims. Christians have been harassed in an attempt to keep them from voting in the country’s presidential election.
Coptic Christians, being the largest religious minority in Egypt, are the most negatively affected by possibly discriminatory legistlation. They have faced increasing marginalization after the 1952 coup d’etat led by Gamal Abdel Nasser.
Until recently, Christians were required to obtain presidential approval for even minor repairs in churches. Although the law was eased in 2005 by handing down the authority of approval to the governors, Copts continue to face many obstacles in building new churches.
The Catholic population in Egypt is considerably small as compared to the rest of the Christian population in Egypt with only 14 dioceses. The Catholic population in Egypt is said to have begun during the British control of Egypt- many returned to Europe after the 1952 Revolution in Egypt, which also caused the overthrow and exile of King Farouk of Egypt.
The Muslim Brotherhood removed Hosni Mubarak from power for one reason- that he had stayed in power too long and failed to notice warning signs of change, most notably over lack of real democratic elections, rather than a cynical facsimile.
They also feared Mr. Mubarak was grooming his younger son Gamal for the top job, creating the kind of dynastic arrangement seen in North Korea and Syria. Promised 2010 elections would be “fair and free,” but this did not happen in the parliamentary polls in which tricks were used to invalidate all Muslim Brotherhood candidates, arguing that there was no way Mr. Mubarak’s ruling party gained around 90 percent of seats.
The Brotherhood also accused Mubarak of stashing estimated at US$30-billion offshore in the usual secret bank accounts in the U.S., Switzerland and Britain. There was also pricey real estate including a Georgian townhouse in London, handy for shopping at Harrods, and properties in Los Angeles, Washington and New York. Back home there was a luxurious villa in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh. Much of the loot was in the name of Mr. Mubarak’s wife, Suzanne, who has a British passport.
The fact that the Muslim Brotherhood opposes secular tendencies of Islamic nations and wants return to the precepts of the Qur’an and rejection of Western influences as well as extreme Sufism, and that it is the most powerful political force in Egypt, are some of the reasons that Egypt will not be the same again.
According to the Brotherhood’s motto, “Allah is their objective. The Prophet is their leader. Qur'an is their law. Jihad is their way. Dying in the way of Allah is their highest hope.” It explains why they made sure Mubarak was removed even if doing so could result to death. More than 800 people are thought to have been killed by the police during the protest.
Currently, the Egyptian Brotherhood exists as a militant clandestine group, and has been connected to many underground political operations. In other countries, they have more prominent roles, including parliamentary seats.
Their political party belongs to the “second generation” or "middle generation" (jil al-wasat). Many of the Egyptian Brotherhood members were activists in Islamist student organizations in the 1970s- they are skilled and politically savvy.
Founded in Egypt in 1928, the Brotherhood is the oldest and largest Islamist movement in the world, with affiliates in most Muslim countries and adherents in Europe and the United States. This demonstrates how forceful it is.
After a failed assassination attempt against Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nassar, the group was banned in 1954 and driven underground. New laws were passed during the Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak regimes that marked police harassment and severe punishment for anyone openly associated with the Brotherhood.
Although driven underground, the Brotherhood continued to provide social services to many poor Egyptians, a traditionally rural and religious sector that readily identified with the Brotherhood's Islamist message.
The Muslim Brotherhood began to emerge in politics after suffering deadly suppression by the Mubarak regime. After senior leaders formally renounced and abandoned the use of terror, the Brotherhood began fielding parliamentary candidates as Independents during elections.
However, for the Muslim Brotherhood, Morsi victory marks the beginning of the country’s government adherent to blatant religious-Islamist ideology. It has also marked the end of the era of secular colonels who ruled Egypt since the 1950s.
Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
People for Peace in Africa
Tel +254-7350-14559/+254-722-623-578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Peaceful world is the greatest heritage
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Egypt’s transition: the democratic tests
from Yona Maro
As protestors take to Tahrir Square once again, this time to protest against Egypt's interim military rulers, Alina Rocha Menocal reflects on the protests, mapping the problems of democratic transition, and argues that ousting Egypt’s dictator was only one step in an unavoidably rocky road towards democratisation.
http://www.opendemocracy.net/alina-rocha-menocal/egypts-transition-democratic-tests
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Egypt: Free Blogger Held in Maspero Case
from Yona Maro
(New York) – Egypt’s military prosecutor should immediately release an award-winning blogger charged in connection with the demonstration by Christian Copts on October 9, 2011, which turned deadly, Human Rights Watch said today. Alaa Abdel Fattah was detained and later charged with incitement and theft of a military weapon, even though the prosecutor had presented no evidence to support the charges. His detention came as military prosecutors started questioning activists and priests about their alleged involvement in publicly encouraging Copts to demonstrate on that day.
During the protest in the Maspero area, military vehicles ran over demonstrators and the military used excessive force to disperse protesters, resulting in the deaths of 27 civilians and one military officer. A November 2 report by the National Council for Human Rights, Egypt’s government-appointed human rights commission, said members of the military were responsible for killing demonstrators. Investigations related to this demonstration remain solely in the hands of military prosecutors, who have called in activists and priests for questioning but have refused to reveal any information about whether they are investigating any military officers for their roles in killing Coptic protesters.
“Instead of identifying which members of the military were driving the military vehicles that crushed 13 Coptic protesters, the military prosecutor is going after the activists who organized the march,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Abdel Fattah’s detention is a blatant effort to target one of the most vocal critics of the military. The prosecutor’s acts further entrench military impunity by failing to build public confidence that there will be a transparent investigation of those responsible for the deaths.”
On October 30 Abdel Fattah and Bahaa Saber, another political activist, appeared before the military prosecutor in response to an official summons. Prosecutors questioned them about their political affiliations and involvement in the protests at Maspero, but the two men refused to answer, saying they did not recognize the military’s authority to try civilians before military courts.
Abdel Fattah’s father, Ahmed Saif al-Islam, who is also serving as one of his defense lawyers, told Human Rights Watch that he and the team of defense lawyers contended during the interrogation that the military court was not competent to question civilians with regard to the Maspero violence because the military itself was party to the violence and the head of the military police was responsible for the deaths of protesters.
In response, the military prosecutor ordered Abdel Fattah’s detention for 15 days. The prosecutor released Saber pending further investigation.
On November 3 the head of the military justice system released a statement saying the military prosecutor had charged Abdel Fattah with “theft of a military weapon, the destruction of military property, incitement to the assault of military officers, illegally demonstrating and use of force against members of the armed forces.” At no point in the proceedings has the prosecutor presented any evidence against Abdel Fattah. Given the absence of evidence, Human Rights Watch believes it is highly likely that the charges were trumped up and are politically motivated, related to Abdel Fattah’s activism. On November 3 his lawyers filed an appeal against his detention, which the prosecutor rejected and on November 14, the prosecutor renewed Abdel Fattah’s detention for a further 15 days.
Abdel Fattah is an award-winning blogger and activist who has been one of the most vocal critics of abuses by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), the interim governing authority in Egypt. Abdel Fattah has written regular columns in the independent daily Al Shorouk and appeared on private satellite TV stations such as ON TV. The Mubarak government imprisoned him in 2006 for 45 days for participating in protests calling for judicial independence. The Egyptian daily Al Shorouk and The Guardian published a letter written by Abdel Fattah on November 1 in which he wrote, “I never expected to repeat the experience of five years ago: after a revolution that deposed the tyrant, I go back to his jails?”
“The military government has no business prosecuting Abdel Fattah, or any other civilian, in a military court, much less in a case involving the military’s own unlawful violence against protesters,” Whitson said. “These charges presented without evidence against one of the country’s best known activists are further reflection of the military’s desire to silence its critics.”
Investigation of Protest Organizers on Charges of Incitement
Military prosecutors have summoned at least seven people – five activists and two priests – to question them about allegations that they incited the demonstration and attacked the military, based on an October 17 police report by the Interior Ministry’s criminal investigations department. The report claimed to identify 12 individuals and seven political activist groups, including the April 6 Youth Movement, the Maspero Youth Movement, and Copts Without Chains, as responsible for inciting the events at Maspero.
Based on this report, military prosecutors opened an investigation, case number 855 of 2011, at the East Cairo Military Criminal Court, and started summoning people for questioning. Defense lawyers who saw the report during the interrogation of their clients told Human Rights Watch that it contained a list of generalized charges against all 12 people named without providing any evidence or even narrating specific facts to link any of the accused to the charges. The charges include illegally demonstrating in front of the TV building to harm public order, inciting to violence against the armed forces, inciting and participating in the destruction of military property and vehicles, and membership in an organization that seeks to harm public order.
“The military is relying on Mubarak’s old playbook, charging activists with absurdly vague offenses such as ‘illegally demonstrating,’” Whitson said. “These laws have no place in an Egypt that respects the rights of its citizens to organize, assemble, and protest.”
Those listed in the Interior Ministry’s report as prime suspects in the incitement investigation are:
Mina Daniel, activist, shot dead on October 9 during the Maspero protest
Ramy Kamel, member of the Maspero Youth Union, interrogated on October 27
Hany Geziri, has not received a summons yet
Joseph Nasrallah, lives in the United States
Father Filopeter Gamil Aziz, interrogated on October 26
Father Mitias Nasr, interrogated on October 20
Sherif Ramzy Aziz, member of Copts without Chains, interrogated on October 26
Ibram Louis, member of the April 6 Youth Movement and of Copts without Chains, interrogated on Oct 27
Sarwat Kamal
Sabry Zachary
Bahaa Saber, activist, interrogated on October 30
Alaa Abdel Fattah, blogger and activist, interrogated on October 30
Daniel was shot dead with a live bullet during the violence at Maspero. The autopsy stated that a bullet had entered the top of his back and exited through his stomach in the front, indicating that it must have been fired from a height. His sister Mary Daniel spoke at a news conference on November 3 organized by the campaign group No To Military Trials, saying, “I was stunned, didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when I heard [that he was a suspect], after they killed him they now want to ruin his reputation. They may have silenced Mina but there will be a hundred Minas who come after him.”
Said Fawzy, defense lawyer for Ramzy, a member of Copts without Chains, and Louis, a member of Copts without Chains and the April 6 Youth Movement, told Human Rights Watch that the military had questioned them on the basis of their memberships in those activist groups. Hany Ramsis, defense lawyer for Kamel, an active member of the Maspero Youth Union, told Human Rights Watch that the military prosecutor had asked Kamel about his involvement in the group and the October 9 demonstration.
The April 6 Youth Movement leader, Mohamed Adel, who is serving in the army as a conscript, was summoned to the military prosecutor on October 27 on allegations of having incited the Maspero protest. His lawyer Gamal Eid told Human Rights Watch that the charges against him were dropped when his presiding officer confirmed that Adel had not left the military base that day.
Two priests, Father Mitias Nasr and Father Filopeter Gamil Aziz, were among those the prosecutor summoned for questioning about incitement allegations, on October 20 and 26 respectively. Mitias told Human Rights Watch that he had thought the prosecutor was summoning him to take his testimony about a complaint Mitias had submitted against Gen. Ibrahim El Maty, deputy head of the military police, accusing military police officers of attacking peaceful protesters on October 6. The military prosecutor interrogated Aziz, priest of the Virgin and Maryohanna Church in Giza, on allegations of incitement and abusing religion to cause sectarian violence and the destruction of military property and assaulting members of the military.
No Transparency About Whether Military Officers Being Investigated
The civilian Office of the Public Prosecutor has referred all complaints filed by the families of victims killed or injured at Maspero to the military prosecutor, who is exercising sole jurisdiction over the Maspero investigation. Military prosecutors are investigating 31 people, mostly Copts, arrested on the evening of October 9 and charged with assaulting military officers.
Prosecutors are refusing to tell the lawyers whether anyone is being investigated for the killing of protesters through live gunfire and crushing by military vehicles. A human rights lawyer, Taher Abul Nasr, confirmed to Human Rights Watch that lawyers representing victims have been unable to view any of the prosecutor’s reports to determine whether prosecutors are interviewing any military officers driving the armored personnel carriers (APC) or otherwise deployed that evening.
Said Fayez, the lawyer for the Daniel family, told Human Rights Watch that despite the fact that he is representing one of the victims, he has not been able to obtain any information about whether military prosecutors are interrogating any military officers for their role in the violence and therefore whether there is any genuine investigation of military responsibility. Fayez said that the Office of the Public Prosecutor sent all the complaints submitted by the families of victims to the military prosecutors under one case number.
Vivian Magdy, who was with her fiancé, Michael Mus’ad, when he was crushed by an APC on the evening of October 9, said at a news conference organized by the No To Military Trials Groupon November 2 that she went to the military prosecutor to give her testimony but the prosecutor only asked her about whether she saw “thugs” attacking the military.
“The military justice system is not going to bring justice for Michael’s killing,” she said. “Only civilians can do this. The time for silence is over, this massacre cannot happen again, it can’t happen again.”
Egypt’s military has tried at least 12,000 people before military courts this year. Despite the military’s vague promises to limit the use of military courts, there are at least four ongoing investigations before the military prosecutor, including the cases of the 28 Copts arrested on the night of Maspero and charged with assaulting military officers. Human Rights Watch has previously set out thereasons that only a civilian judicial body can conduct an independent and impartial investigation into the events at Maspero, since the military is directly implicated in the violence at the demonstration.
Military Responsibility for the Maspero Massacre
From its first reactions in response to the violence at Maspero, the military has blamed external forces for the deaths. In an October 12 news conference, Gen. Adel Emara blamed “foreign elements” and “incitement and threats by political personalities and religious men to gather in front of the TV building at Maspero” for the violence. He went on to say that, “There has not been a case of rolling over people with vehicles,” and instead that the people controlling the armored military vehicles at the demonstration were “trying to avoid running into protesters, not rolling over them.”
Human Rights Watchinterviewed 20 participants in the demonstration who consistently said that between 6 and 7 p.m. on October 9, at least two APCs were driven recklessly through crowds of demonstrators, in some cases appearing to pursue the demonstrators intentionally. The evidence overwhelmingly suggested that the protest of thousands of Copts had been peaceful until the point that the APCs were driven through the crowds, and that the military’s subsequent response to violence by some of the demonstrators was disproportionate. The large, heavy vehicles crushed and killed at least 10 demonstrators, as autopsies later showed.
On November 2 the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR), Egypt’s national human rights commission, released the report of its fact-finding committee on Maspero. It concluded that three APCs “moved one after another, at great speed along the Corniche toward the October Bridge … the movement of the first two APCs in the midst of demonstrators was fast and circular, they changed their direction from the October bridge to the opposite direction toward Maspero. As a result of the extreme speed at which the first and second APCs were driving, they ran over a number of demonstrators, killing at least 12.” The NCHR said that the military had violated the right to life but was less categorical on whether the military had used live ammunition, saying that some statements confirmed they had but others had said they had only used sound bullets and that the military had denied the use of live gunfire.
The report also stated that the group had little faith in a government fact-finding committee. On October 10 the cabinet established a six-member government fact-finding committee headed by Assistant Justice Minister Amr Marwan to “investigate the causes of the Maspero events, the instigators and all those responsible… in addition to investigating the truth of what happened in the village of Marinab, including reviewing the results of the investigations conducted by the public prosecution.”
The committee has thus far visited Marinab on October 12 to investigate the destruction of the church there, one of the reasons for the October 9 demonstration, but has yet to make public its findings and it does not formally have the power to question any members of the military or to access any of the investigations conducted by military prosecutors. An earlier Justice Ministry-led fact-finding committee set up to investigate the excessive use of force by the military in breaking up a demonstration in Tahrir square on April 9 has yet to make public any of its findings.
In the draft principles on military justice adopted by the United Nations Human Rights Commission, principle no. 9 states: “In all circumstances, the jurisdiction of military courts should be set aside in favor of the jurisdiction of the ordinary courts to conduct inquiries into serious human rights violations such as extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances and torture, and to prosecute and try persons accused of such crimes.” In the European Court of Human Rights Case Al-Skeini and others v UK, the court found that:
For an investigation into alleged unlawful killing by State agents to be effective, it is necessary for the persons responsible for and carrying out the investigation to be independent from those implicated in the events... a prompt response by the authorities in investigating a use of lethal force may generally be regarded as essential in maintaining public confidence in their adherence to the rule of law and in preventing any appearance of collusion in or tolerance of unlawful acts. For the same reasons, there must be a sufficient element of public scrutiny of the investigation or its results to secure accountability in practice as well as in theory.
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Egypt: Don’t Deport Eritreans
from Yona Maro
(Geneva) – The Egyptian authorities are preparing to deport 118 detained Eritreans to Eritrea, where they risk persecution, Human Rights Watch said today. On October 29, 2011, guards at the al-Shalal prison in Aswan beat the 118 men, including 40 who already have refugee status, to force them to sign papers for their “voluntary” return to Eritrea, according to sources with access to the detainees.
Egypt should stop forcing detained Eritreans to sign repatriation forms and allow the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to interview all detained Eritreans to identify refugees among them, Human Rights Watch said. According to UNHCR, it has already registered 40 of the group as refugees in Sudan and Ethiopia. The renewed deportations signal a return to Egypt’s mass deportations of Eritreans in 2008and 2009, Human Rights Watch said.
“Detaining Eritreans and then beating them to force them to sign ‘voluntary’ return papers can’t mask the fact that Egypt is about to commit refoulement, the forced return of refugees to likely persecution,” said Gerry Simpson, senior refugee researcher and advocate at Human Rights Watch. “Instead of ripping up refugee law, ignoring UNHCR, and beating migrants and refugees, Egypt should protect them.”
Eritrea, ruled by an extremely repressive government, requires all citizens under 50 to serve in the military indefinitely. Anyone of draft age leaving the country without permission is branded a deserter, risking five years in prison, often in inhumane conditions, as well as forced labor and torture. UNHCR considers that, in practice, the punishment for desertion or evasion is so severe and disproportionate that it constitutes persecution.
Human Rights Watch spoke with multiple credible sources with regular recent access to about 160 Eritrean men and women detained for the past month in al-Shalal prison in Egypt’s southern city of Aswan.
According to the sources, the detainees said that on October 26 an Eritrean embassy official visited them and asked why they had left Eritrea. He returned on October 29 with voluntary repatriation forms and told them they would all be photographed to help prepare travel documents. The detainees all refused to sign the forms.
One of the sources who spoke with all of the detainees said the prison guards then beat 118 of them, mostly young men, to force them to sign the voluntary return papers, though the 30 or so women and seven children were not forced to sign.
Some of the detainees told one of the sources that on November 9 an Egyptian immigration officer and an Eritrean official visited the prison with additional deportation documents, including “laissez passer” papers, indicating deportation is imminent.
Ten of the men are recent deserters from Eritrea’s military. They include two senior personnel – a colonel and a person responsible for the military’s radio service – the source said. The other eight are more junior personnel, two of whom worked in food distribution services in Eritrea’s infamous Sawa military camp.
The camp is the country’s main military training center and notorious for its use of torture to punish draft evaders and people trying to escape the country, as well as for its use of forced labor.
Under Egypt’s 1954 memorandum of understanding with the UN refugee agency, the agency is supposed to carry out all refugee status determination in Egypt. This means Egyptian officials are obliged to give UNHCR access to all detained migrants to identify those who want to claim their right to seek asylum from persecution.
In practice, Egyptian authorities often deny the UN refugee agency access to detained migrants. The Egyptian authorities have not allowed UNHCR to visit the detainees, the refugee agency told Human Rights Watch.
“By blocking UNHCR from visiting asylum seekers, the Egyptian government not only tramples on their right to seek asylum but disregards its own agreements,” Simpson said. “Egypt needs to reaffirm its agreement to protect asylum seekers and let the refugee agency interview them.”
According to credible sources, over the past two months Egyptian Interior Ministry officials have given Eritrean embassy officials access to detained Eritreans, including asylum seekers registered by UNHCR in other countries, to help prepare travel documents for deportation.
Human Rights Watch said that allowing Eritrean diplomatic officials to visit detained Eritreans, including potential asylum seekers, means Egypt is violating the principle of confidentiality, essential to asylum procedures.
According to reports by Egypt’s official Middle East News Agency, in October the Egyptian authorities announced that 111 Eritreans had “voluntarily” returned to their country after they had signed Eritrean embassy paperwork. Credible sources told Human Rights Watch that Eritrean Embassy officials had visited them in prison before they were deported.
The news agency reported on October 14 that two days earlier, Egypt had deported 50 Eritreans and that, on the same day, 32 Eritreans had “illegally entered the southern border of Egypt with the intention of making their way to Sinai to illegally enter Israel.”
UNHCR said that the Egyptian authorities denied UNHCR access to some of the deportees, in line with Egypt’s policy of generally denying the refugee agency access to detained migrants. In the case of migrants intercepted in Egypt’s eastern Sinai region, UNHCR says the authorities argue that legitimate refugees should try to register with UNHCR in Cairo instead of crossing the Sinai desert.
In June 2008, Egypt summarily returned to Eritrea up to 1,200 undocumented Eritreans who had entered Egypt from Sudan. In December 2008 and January 2009, Egypt forcibly returnedmore than 45 Eritrean asylum seekers to Eritrea.
Until the reports in October, Egypt had appeared to end the deportations, except for one UNHCR-recognized Sudanese refugee, Mohammed al-Haj Abdallah, on January 25, 2010.
Under the African Refugee Convention, asylum seekers have a right to seek asylum, regardless of how they enter a country or whether they have identity documents.International law forbids countries from forcibly returning asylum seekers without first allowing them to apply for asylum and considering their cases.
Both the Convention against Torture and the African Refugee Convention forbid Egypt from sending individuals to countries where they face a serious risk of persecution or torture. Egypt is also a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which, under article 13, prohibits arbitrary expulsion and entitles foreigners to an individual decision on their removal/expulsion. The UN Human Rights Committee has interpreted article 7 of the ICCPR to forbid refoulement – or forced return – of people to places where they would be at risk of torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.
Human Rights Watch said that no international agencies in Eritrea, including UNHCR, have been able to monitor the treatment of deported Eritreans once they are back in Eritrea. However, Eritrean refugees in various countries have told Human Rights Watch that Eritreans forcibly returned to their country are routinely detained and mistreated in detention.
UNHCR’s official Guidelines to States on the protection needs of Eritrean asylum seekers state that “[i]ndividuals of draft age who left Eritrea illegally may be perceived as draft evaders upon return, irrespective of whether they have completed active national service or have been demobilized,” and that “[t]he punishment for desertion or evasion is so severe and disproportionate such as to amount to persecution.”
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EGYPT: WHY ISLAMIC BROTHERHOOD SHOULDN’T TAKE CONTROL OF EGYPT
from People For Peace
Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News
BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2011
The first of Egypt's three-tiered elections are scheduled to take place in late November, with the increasing likelihood that the Muslim Brotherhood may take charge. Should this happen Egypt will never be the same again, especially for Christians who are currently been persecuted.
Brotherhood symbol: A brown square frames a green circle with a white perimeter. Two swords cross inside the circle beneath a red Koran. The cover of the Koran says: "Truly, it is the Generous Koran." The Arabic beneath the sword handles translates as "Be prepared." The swords reinforce the group's militancy and, as traditional weapons, symbolize historic Islam. They also reinforce the group's commitment to jihad. The Koran denotes the group's spiritual foundation. The motto, "Be prepared," is a reference to a Koranic verse that talks of preparing to fight the enemies of God.
Even though under Hosni Mubarak, there was a measure of protection for Christians because of the respect that they've earned in the country, the fact that the Muslim group may be coming into power at a time when they are trying to enforce Shari’ah law, the future, not only of Christians but non Muslims are threatened.
Unlike Muslims, Christians use peaceful mass action-this is because they believe "Jesus taught them to be tolerant," that is why he humbly accepted to die on the cross for the purpose to save humanity from bondage of sin.
Already the power vacuum left after the overthrow of Mubarak is giving Muslim extremists free rein to torch churches and attack Coptic homes in the worst violence against the community in decades. At least 26 people were killed in Cairo capital, Monday, Oct. 10, 2011. Copts make up about 10 percent of the country’s 85 million people.
Their history dates back 19 centuries and the language used in their liturgy can be traced to the speech of Egypt’s pharaohs. Proud of their history and faith, many Copts are identifiable by tattoos of crosses or Jesus Christ on their right wrists, and Coptic women do not wear the veil as the vast majority of Muslim women in Egypt do.
However, the fact that Muslim Brotherhood point out that Shari'ah which has been the constitutional basis of legislation since 1982, that Islam is the state religion and that all the Brotherhood wants is a stricter adherence to it, there is danger that all women in Egypt will be forced to wear veils.
The Brotherhood is seeking to rebuild Egypt's government on Islamic lines should they ascend to power. Egypt has over 9000 mosques and just over 500 churches.
Founded by Hasan al-Banna in 1928, the Muslim Brotherhood has had the longest continuous existence of any contemporary Islamist group. It was initially established not as a political party but as a da'wa (religious outreach) association that aimed to cultivate pious and committed Muslims through preaching, social services, and spreading religious commitment and integrity by example.
The group saw its understanding of Islam as the only "true" one and condemned partisanship as a source of national weakness. It called on Egyptians to unite to confront the forces of Zionism and imperialism and pursue economic development and social justice. The movement is one of Egypt's most popular and organized groups, with a broad grassroots network built up partly through social work even in Mubarak's era.
Under Mubarak the Brotherhood was banned and its members often detained. Mubarak often presented himself as the bulwark preventing Egypt's slide into Islamist hands. It explains one of the reasons why the group had to overthrow him. The Brotherhood and its party have taken an increasingly prominent role since.
While fresh elections for the lower house are due to start in November, a vote for the upper house is to take place early next year. The Brotherhood is expected to perform well in the vote, although many analysts expect a fairly fragmented parliament with no single unified voice emerging.
According to the Brotherhood's credo "God is their objective; the Quran is their constitution, the Prophet is their leader; Jihad is their way; and death for the sake of God is the highest of their aspirations.
English language website describes the "principles of the Muslim Brotherhood" as including firstly the introduction of the Islamic Shari’ah as "the basis controlling the affairs of state and society;" and secondly work to unify "Islamic countries and states, mainly among the Arab states, and liberating them from foreign imperialism.
On the issue of women and gender the Muslim Brotherhood interprets Islam conservatively. Its founder called for "a campaign against ostentation in dress and loose behavior", "segregation of male and female students", a separate curriculum for girls, and "the prohibition of dancing and other such pastimes.
Yet the Brotherhood remains the largest opposition group in Egypt, advocating Islamic reform, democratic system and maintaining a vast network of support through Islamic charities working among poor Egyptians.
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Egyptians are more effective than Kenyans
Kenyans,
I think the truth will save us, and doing things the right way will help Kenya to improve her people`s life style and will bring development.
If we learn to do things which are important in the right way our country will move forward, but laying and cheating to satisfy a few people will spoil this country much deeper.
I am surprised to hear now what is happening in Egypt: EGYPT`S RULING MILITARY COUNCIL ANNOUNCED THAT WORK ON REFORMING THE COUNTRY`S CONSTITUTION IS TO BE COMPLETED IN 10 DAYS. Good people; how can what took Kenya 20 years take Egyptians only 10 days?. What are our brains made of in Kenya?. Are we Kenyans that stupid or having very low IQ compared to the pharaoh`s people or what?.
Kenyans have behaved so stupidly on the new constitution and now we are almost stuck on implementing it. Does this explain why we Kenyans can not develop to catch up with the Asian countries or what?.
I think Kenyan development deserves the attention of sophisticated youths and middle class plus highly well off part of society who have the resources to invest in the country. Those who have stolen Kenyan tax-payers money or assets and thrown abroad should not have any part in Kenyan leadership if we want to move forward. The can lead only if they bring those money back to Kenya and invest.
We Kenyans have no short cut to better development and understanding how to survive in our God given land. We need a new cultural thinking and behavior in building blocks of our Kenyan technology or development. Unless we change our thinking way and capacity we shall remain behind other nations fore ever.
Paul Nyandoto
Switzerland & Egypt: Switzerland confiscates Mubarak`s Assets
From: Paul Nyandoto
Guys,
Dictatorship in Africa has been a thorn for a long time. African leaders are sinking this glorious continent. They exploit it when they are in power, send almost all money they can lay their hands on outside Africa to build other countries and now when they are kicked out they do not consume that money. So what is the point of stealing from your people to enrich Europe?.
We hope this time Switzerland will take a bold step and return back Egyptian`s money Mubarak stole and banked in their country. This should be a lesson also to Kenyan thieves, they might not use those money they are banking outside Kenya. So please bring that money back to develop Kenya. Africans are left behind in development, people are dying from hunger and poverty while their money is resting in European banks. The same money Europe give Africans back in terms of loans. What a mess has Africans got into?. Do poor Africans deserve all these?.
Paul Nyandoto
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From: sospeter gichane
BUT,
Whats the difference btn Switzerland and Mubarak? They have kept his money all though just to freeze it when he is cornered. That's hypocrisy directly made in EU. Why did they not refuse to keep his monies in the first place? And then they freeze it so that even Egyptians cant access it until..............................
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Bureeeeeeeeee Kabisaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!