Egypt: Free People Not Going Quietly Into the Sharia Night

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Egypt: Free People Not Going Quietly Into the Sharia Night


February 1, 2013
By Robert Spencer

Survey after survey, as well as the election results that put the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi in the presidential palace, show that most Egyptians want Islamic law. But those who do not are not submitting quietly to Sharia tyranny.

Morsi has declared a state of emergency and given the military the power to arrest civilian protesters, yet still the anti-Morsi demonstrations continue. And while he quickly endorsed the demonstrations against Hosni Mubarak that ultimately led to the Muslim Brotherhood’s ascent to power, Barack Obama has been reticent about supporting these demonstrations, as he was in 2009 when thousands of Iranians took to the streets to protest against the mullahcracy.

But aren’t these “pro-democracy” protesters? After all, Morsi has been notably inhospitable to dissent, arresting his critics and overseeing the adoption of a constitution that Egyptian Christians fear will be used to deny them basic rights, in accord with Sharia provisions institutionalizing discrimination against non-Muslims. Videos have come to light in which he lashed out against Jews with venomous hatred, referring to Qur’anic curses of them as “apes and pigs” and declaring that there could be no negotiations with Israel.

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Egypt: Free People Not Going Quietly Into the Sharia Night
 
Protestors says Morsi betrays the revolution...
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Egypt stages new protests against President Morsi
1 February 2013 - Thousands of opponents of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi are staging new protests, after the deadliest week of violence since he came to power.
More than 60 people have been killed in the unrest. On Thursday, leaders of some of the main political factions condemned the violence. But youth groups later called for more street demonstrations. The protesters are marching on the presidential palace in Cairo and rallying in the city of Port Said. Thousands of people took to the streets of Port Said - on the first anniversary of football riots in city, in which 74 people were killed. The city, at the northern end of the Suez Canal, has also seen the worst of the violence over the past week, in clashes sparked by death sentences imposed on 21 local people in connection with the football riots.

Protesters also marched to Tahrir Square in the centre of Cairo and staged rallies in the Mediterranean port of Alexandria. Human rights officials, meanwhile, have expressed alarm over a rise in sexual violence against women in Cairo. According to the UN's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, 25 women have been sexually assaulted, mainly in Tahrir Square, since the protests erupted. Michelle Bachelet, of the UN's Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, said she was "deeply disturbed by the gravity of [the] recent attacks". Sexual assaults against women around Tahrir Square was widely reported during the uprising there which eventually unseated Hosni Mubarak.

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Opponents of President Morsi say he has betryed the revolution

'Collapse of state'

The current unrest began on 24 January in Cairo on the eve of the second anniversary of the 2011 revolution and has spread to several cities. Protesters accuse President Morsi, a member of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, of imposing a new form of authoritarianism and betraying the values of their uprising two years ago. Supporters of Mr Morsi say the opposition is trying to use the power of the street to unseat Egypt's first democratically elected leader. On Tuesday, Egyptian army chief Gen Abdul Fattah al-Sisi warned that the political crisis could lead to the collapse of the state. Thursday's meeting at the al-Azhar mosque was attended by the Muslim Brotherhood and by opposition figures.

The document signed by the leaders refers to the "sanctity of [citizens'] blood and of public and private property", according to a text published by the Egyptian al-Ahram newspaper. It says those signing "condemn the inciting of violence, its justification... and its exploitation in any form". Opposition politician Mohamed ElBaradei said he was optimistic after the meeting, saying differences should be solved peacefully. Earlier this week, the National Salvation Front, formed by Mr ElBaradei, leftist Hamdeen Sabahi and former Foreign Minister Amr Moussa, turned down an invitation to talks with Mr Morsi. They said they first wanted him to commit to the idea of a national unity government and a body to look at amendments to the new Egyptian constitution.

BBC News - Egypt stages new protests against President Morsi

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Egyptians march in fresh protests nationwide
Feb 1,`13 -- Thousands of Egyptians marched across the country, chanting against the rule of the Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, in a fresh wave of protests Friday, even as cracks appeared in the ranks of the opposition after its political leaders met for the first time with the rival Muslim Brotherhood.
The protests continue a week of political rioting that engulfed the country and left up to 60 people dead. The violence prompted Morsi to declare a state of emergency in three restive Suez Canal cities, impose a curfew that thousands of the cities' angry residents defied in night rallies, and left him with eroding popularity in the street.

On Friday, thousands of protesters in the Mediterranean city of Port Said at the northern tip of Suez Canal, which witnessed the worst clashes and biggest number of causalities the past days, pumped their fists in the air while chanting, "Leave, leave, Morsi." They threatened to escalate pressure with civil disobedience and a work stoppage at the vital Suez Canal authority if their demand for punishment of those responsible for protester death is not met. "The people want the Republic of Port Said," protesters chanted, voicing a wide sentiment among residents that they are fed up of negligence and mistreatment by central government and that they want to virtual independence. "Your policy is: I don't hear, I don't talk and I don't see," read a flyer distributed by protesters.

Buses carrying protesters from two other Suez Canal cities of Suez and Ismailia carried more protesters to the Port Said rallies. Last week's violence first erupted on the eve of the second anniversary of 2011 uprising that toppled down longtime authoritarian ruler Hosni Mubarak's regime. It accelerated a day later when security forces fired at protesters killing at least 11 dead, most of them in the city of Suez. The next day, riots exploded in Port Said after a court convicted and sentenced to death 21 defendants - mostly locals - for a mass soccer riot in the city's main stadium a year ago. Residents saw the verdict as politicized. Over the next few days, around 40 people were killed in the city in unrest that saw security forces firing on a funeral.

Feb. 1 marks the first anniversary of the mass soccer riot in Port Said that left 74 people dead mostly fans of Al-Ahly, Egypt's most popular soccer team. Egypt's main opposition political grouping, the National Salvation Front, called for Friday's protests in Cairo, demanding Morsi form a national unity government and amend the constitution, moves they say would prevent the Islamist from governing solely in the interest of his Muslim Brotherhood group. "The policies of the president and the Muslim Brotherhood are pushing the country to the brink, but they are adopting the same language of the old regime and accusing their opposition of betrayl," the opposition said in a statement. "Instead of responding to the street demands, and working with the rest of the national forces that contributed in the revolution to rescue the nation, they are pointing their arrows to media to stifle freedoms," it added.

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Riot police caught on camera beating a protestor...
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Video of police abuse stokes anger in Egypt
Feb 2,`13 -- Egypt's Interior Ministry offered a rare expression of regret Saturday after riot police were caught on camera a day earlier beating a protester who had been stripped of his clothes, and then dragging the naked man along the muddy pavement before bundling him into a police van.
The video of the beating, which took place late Friday only blocks from the presidential palace where protests were raging in the streets, further inflamed popular anger with security forces just as several thousand anti-government demonstrators marched on the palace again on Saturday. The uprising that toppled longtime leader Hosni Mubarak in 2011 was fueled in part by anger over police brutality. In the footage aired live on Egyptian TV, at least seven black-clad riot police used sticks to beat 48-year-old Hamada Saber, who was sprawled out on the ground, shirtless and with his pants down around his ankles.

In a statement, the Interior Ministry voiced its "regret" about the assault, and vowed to investigate. But it also sought to distance itself - and the police in general - from the abuse, saying it "was carried out by individuals that do not represent in any way the doctrine of all policemen who direct their efforts to protecting the security and stability of the nation and sacrifice their lives to protect civilians." Later in the day, however, Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim put the blame elsewhere entirely, saying initial results from the public prosecutor's investigation indicated that Saber was undressed by "rioters" during skirmishes between police and protesters. "The Central Security Forces then found him lying on the ground and tried to put him in an armored vehicle, though the way in which they did that was excessive," Ibrahim said.

President Mohammed Morsi's office called Saber's beating "shocking", but stressed that violence and vandalism of government property is unacceptable. The abuse took place as thousands of protesters chanted against President Mohammed Morsi on Friday. The march was part of a wave of demonstrations that have rocked Egypt since last week's second anniversary of the 2011 revolt, leaving more than 60 people dead and plunging the country into turmoil once again. In what appeared to be an effort to protect the police from a harsh backlash over the video, Ibrahim said that nearly 400 policemen have been wounded this past week in clashes, and warned that the disintegration of police will lead to even wider-spread chaos in the Arab world's most populous nation. "The collapse of police will affect Egypt and transform it into a militia state like some neighboring nations," Ibrahim said, alluding to Libya where militias comprise the bulk of security after that nation's uprising.

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Egyptian cops strike against Brotherhoodization of police ministry...
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Police strikes in Egypt accelerate, adding turmoil
Mar 8,`13 -- After months of battling with angry young protesters, many in Egypt's police forces say they have had enough.
Strikes and protests spread around the country Friday by police units frustrated with being blamed for deadly crackdowns on protesters and accusing Islamist President Mohammed Morsi of using them to fight his enemies. In at least 10 of the country's 29 provinces, some units sealed their stations with chains, some calling for the removal of their boss, the interior minister, appointed by Morsi. In past days, angry riot police locked their top commander in their camp for hours. Others refused to be deployed in clashes with street protesters in Nile Delta cities. Police disobeyed orders to secure Morsi's motorcade route from his palace to his home in eastern Cairo, to guard his family home in the Delta, or to guard the headquarters of his Muslim Brotherhood in the capital.

The wave of police discontent adds a new layer to Egypt's turmoil and sense of breakdown in state institutions. In a sign of the possible repercussions of the disarray, a hardline Islamist group announced its members would take up policing duties in the southern province of Assiut because of strikes by local security forces. Since late January, cities around the country have been hit by relentless street protests, mainly directed against Morsi and the Brotherhood. Near daily, the demonstrations have turned into clashes with police, resulting in the killing of around 70 protesters. Each death has increased public anger against the security forces.

Some protests have turned into stone-throwing attacks on security agency buildings, and many protesters accuse Morsi of giving a green light to police to use excessive force. Their outrage has been further stoked by reports of torture and abduction of some activists by security agents. Not all police were joining the strikes. Protesters continued to clash Friday with riot police in Cairo, the Mediterranean city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Mahalla el-Kubra, leaving dozens injured.

Striking police accuse the Brotherhood of trying to take over the Interior Ministry, in charge of police, by infusing it with its sympathizers. "We hit the bottom and we are fed up. The ministry is falling apart and no one is listening," said Capt. Mohammed Shalabi, who led a group of officers in a sit-in in front of Media City on the outskirts of Cairo. "Our demands are no to politicization of the ministry, which means no to the Brotherhoodization of the ministry. We are making a pledge to stay away from politics," he said.

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