Posts

US-Egyptian Christians Fear for Faith Under Morsi’s Islamist Agenda (+video)

/0 Comments/in , /by

photo credit: argenberg

It seems like every Sunday, there’s a new face sitting in the pews of the Church of Saint Verena and the Three Holy Youth in Orange, Calif. Most are young professionals or families with small children and some have been living in the United States for a just few weeks.

“The first waves of immigration,” said Bishop Serapion of the Coptic Diocese of Los Angeles, Southern California and Hawaii.

These worshippers are Egyptian Christians, better known as Copts. Their church is Coptic Orthodox, the largest Christian church in Egypt and the Middle East with services similar to other Christian faiths. They perform sacraments like the Catholics and recite prayers many faithful Americans would recognize, including “Our Father” and “Hail Mary.” Mass is spoken in a mix of English, Arabic and the ancient Coptic language.

“We are Christians,” said Bishop Serapion. “We believe in the Holy Bible as the word of God.”

While small, the Coptic Christian population in the United States has been growing since the 1950s, particularly in Southern California, New York and New Jersey. But since the Arab Spring began in early 2011, Department of Homeland Security figures show the number of Egyptians seeking asylum has doubled. Unofficial estimates are that 100,000 Egyptians have so far sought refuge in the U.S. Many of them are believed to be Copts but there are no official statistics on their numbers.

Read more from this story HERE.

Egypt Draft Constitution Sparks Mass Protest (+video)

/0 Comments/in , /by

CAIRO (AP) — More than 100,000 protesters took to the streets in Egypt vowing to stop a draft constitution that Islamist allies of President Mohammed Morsi approved early Friday in a rushed, all-night session without the participation of liberals and Christians.

Anger at Morsi even spilled over into a mosque where the Islamist president joined weekly Friday prayers. In his sermon, the mosque’s preacher compared Morsi to Islam’s Prophet Muhammad, saying the prophet had enjoyed vast powers as leader, giving a precedent for the same to happen now.

“No to tyranny!” congregants chanted, interrupting the cleric. Morsi took to the podium and told the worshippers that he too objected to the language of the sheik and that one-man rule contradicts Islam.

Crowds of protesters marched from several locations in Cairo, converging in central Tahrir Square for the opposition’s second mass rally in a week against Morsi. They chanted, “Constitution: Void!” and “The people want to bring down the regime.”

Senior opposition leader Hamdeen Sabbahi took the stage before the crowd and vowed protests would go on until “we topple the constitution.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Protests Rock Egypt After Morsi Seizes New Powers (+video)

/2 Comments/in , /by

Protesters stormed the headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood’s party in Alexandria on Friday, throwing chairs and books into the street and setting them alight, after the Egyptian president granted himself sweeping new powers.

Supporters of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and opponents also threw stones at each other near a mosque in the city, Egypt’s second largest, a witness said.

Two cars had glass smashed as the clashes moved away from the area.

In Port Said, another port on the Mediterranean, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice party headquarters and pelted it with rocks. Some tried to storm it but did not enter, another witness said.

In Cairo, thousands demonstrated against the decree issued on Wednesday night.

Read more from this story HERE.

Madness: Exchanging One Pro-US Dictator For Another Dictator Who Hates Both the US and Israel

/0 Comments/in , /by

Egypt’s new President (for life?), Mohammed Morsi, riding the afterglow of huge praise from President Obama and Hillary Clinton for his role in ending 8 days of hostility in Gaza, leveraged that glow to seize dictatorial powers over his countrymen.

Morsi a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is tied closely to the United States mortal enemy, Al Quaeda, has been aggressively seizing power since he gained office by winning a democratic election 52-48.

On Thursday he issued constitutional amendments that placed him above judicial oversight & extended that same immunity to a committee drafting a new constitution for the country that many say has been hijacked by Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood allies. Morsis’s critics say he is trying to push through an Islamist state that will marginalize women and minority Christians, infringing on personal liberties.

“Morsi today usurped all state powers & appointed himself Egypt’s new pharaoh,” pro-reform leader Mohamed El Baradei wrote. “This is a major blow to the revolution that could have dire consequences.”

The last time Hillary Clinton visited Egypt, her motorcade was pelted with tomatoes by Egyptians who felt they have been sold out by the Obama administration. These Egyptian citizens feel the Obama administration let Egypt fall into the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood, an arch enemy of democracy and the western worlds way of life.

But since the pelting of Hillary’s motorcade several months ago, the Obama administration has showered millions of dollars on the Morisis government in spite of his dictatorial moves and his aggressive disregard of previous peace agreements with neighboring country, Israel.

Many Americans think “foreign aid” should be based on the carrot and the stick approach. Regardless of the fact that America is broke, it still borrows money and prints it in order to dole out foreign aid. So lets help our friends, so they can help us.

This foreign aid money should have strings attached…It seems we have exchanged a previous dictator, who was friendly towards us, for a new dictator who is not friendly towards us or our close ally Israel. What kind of madness is this?

We are showering Egypt with billions of dollars; in fact Hillary just authorized giving the Morsi government 450 million in emergency funds on the heels of the just completed cease of hostilities in Gaza. Despite the fact Egypt has total control over weapons smuggled into Gaza and Hamas. Read more from this story HERE.

___________________________________________

Ed Farnan is the conservative columnist at IrishCentral, where he has been writing on the need for energy independence, strong self defense, secure borders, 2nd amendment, smaller government and many other issues. His articles appear in many publications throughout the USA and world. He has been a guest on Fox News and a regular guest on radio stations in the US and Europe.

Egypt’s Morsi Grants Himself Far-reaching Powers

/0 Comments/in , /by

Cairo (AP) Egypt’s Islamist president unilaterally decreed greater authorities for himself Thursday and effectively neutralized a judicial system that had emerged as a key opponent by declaring that the courts are barred from challenging his decisions.

Riding high on U.S. and international praise for mediating a Gaza cease-fire, Mohammed Morsi put himself above oversight and gave protection to the Islamist-led assembly writing a new constitution from a looming threat of dissolution by court order.

But the move is likely to fuel growing public anger that he and his Muslim Brotherhood are seizing too much power.

In what was interpreted by rights activists as a de facto declaration of emergency law, one of Morsi’s decrees gave him the power to take “due measures and steps” to deal with any “threat” to the revolution, national unity and safety or anything that obstructs the work of state institutions.

Morsi framed his decisions as necessary to protect the revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak nearly two years ago and to cement the nation’s transition to democratic rule. Many activists, including opponents of the Brotherhood, criticize the judiciary as packed with judges and prosecutors sympathetic to Mubarak. Brotherhood supporters accuse the courts of trying to block their agenda.

Read more from this story HERE.

Islamists Protest in Cairo, Call for Sharia Law

/2 Comments/in , /by

photo credit: BeBOprincessMore than 1,000 Islamists rallied in Cairo on Friday and called for the implementation of sharia Islamic law, highlighting divisions in society as rival factions jostle to shape the new Egypt.

Liberals have locked horns over the role of Islam with Islamists who dominate a 100-strong assembly that is drawing up a new constitution, which must be approved in a referendum before a new parliamentary election can be held.

“Islamiya, Islamiya,” the protesters chanted in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the centre of the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak who spent 30 years keeping a tight lid on Islamists.

The turnout at Friday’s demonstration was smaller than had been expected after some of the main groups that espouse the ultraconservative Salafi school of Islamic thinking backed out. Some groups said they would demonstrate next Friday.

The Muslim Brotherhood, which propelled President Mohamed Mursi to power earlier this year and which takes a less conservative approach, was also not involved in the protest.

Read more from this story HERE.

Israel: Egypt Getting Much More Radical & Obama Doesn’t Care

/3 Comments/in , /by

The new tone coming out of Egypt – punctuated by President Mohammed Morsi mouthing “Amen” to an Imam’s call for the destruction of Israel – is rattling residents of the Jewish state, who claim the Obama administration isn’t taking the ratcheted-up rhetoric seriously.

Lip reading by the Anti Defamation League and the Middle East Media Research Institute confirmed Morsi’s approval of a prayer delivered by influential Imam Futouh Abd Al-Nabi Mansour last Friday, in which he stated, “Oh Allah … grant us victory over the infidels. Oh Allah, destroy the Jews and their supporters.” Israelis already nervous by the rise of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood say it is the latest example of a disturbing trend.

“There is no question that the rise to power of the Muslim Brotherhood has prompted open expressions of anti-Semitism in ways that were never publicly expressed during the Mubarak period,” Efraim Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Israel office told Fox News.com. “The Obama administration is treating this far less seriously than it should be.”

The rise to power this summer of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood prompted fears that the anti-Israeli, and anti-Semitic party, would be set on a collision course with its near neighbor, jeopardizing the peace treaty which has held firm between the previously warring nations since 1979. But while the rhetoric has been heated, the new Egyptian leader has also proven to be more pragmatic than some expected, thus far placing the national interest ahead of his own and his party’s religious ideology.

The party that propelled Morsi to power, however, has made no secret of its contempt for Judaism and Christianity. When Mohammed Badie in 2010 became leader of the Muslim Brotherhood – and consequently President Morsi’s spiritual guide – he stepped up his attacks on Israel even while Hosni Mubarak still held an iron grip on power in Egypt.

Read more from this story HERE.

Henry Kissinger: “In 10 Years, There Will Be No More Israel”; Egypt’s President Prays for Jews’ Destruction (+video)

/61 Comments/in , /by

By Alexander Maistrovoy. Henry Kissinger’s recent statement, that in 10 years Israel will cease to exist, borders on senile. Although one of his staff members denied it, Cindy Adams from New York Post insisted: “Reported to me, Henry Kissinger has stated — and I quote the statement word for word: ‘In 10 years, there will be no more Israel.’”

Kissinger is a controversial figure. He can hardly be suspected of excessive sympathy for Israel. He perhaps, inclines to the “syndrome of self-hatred” so fashionable nowadays in the Jewish elite. At the same time, Kissinger is not an exalted pop-diva, cheap populist or rebellious professor. He is an experienced, prudent politician who takes responsibility for his utterance.

What drove him to such a dramatic conclusion? Is there a real and grave threat to Israel?

Let’s try to analyze the situation. The first impression is rather unfavorable. Israel has been in the midst of historic upheaval. The political structure of the Middle East that existed since Camp David agreement has collapsed, forming a giant cloud of dust and chaos, from which the new threatening reality can crystallize.

America under Obama is deserting the Middle East. The future of Europe becomes more vague as it loses its perspective. Iran becomes a regional power with nuclear weapons while Turkey — recently a strategic ally of Israel — craves Ottoman greatness. Read more from this story HERE.

Perhaps related to Kissinger’s prediction, here’s a video of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood President Morsi praying for the destruction of Israel:

Ex-Egyptian MP: By 2013, “Israel will be annihilated”

/3 Comments/in , /by

An Egyptian political science professor told an Iranian TV station that, with Allah’s help, “Israel will be annihilated” by 2013.

In an interview with Iran’s state-run Arabic news channel Al-Alam last week, Professor Gamal Zahran, head of the political science department at Egypt’s Port Said University and a former Independent MP, said: “Jerusalem is at the heart of the Palestinian cause, and the Palestinian cause is the cause of all Arabs and Muslims. The elimination of the Zionist entity is beyond debate, and the only question has to do with the circumstances.”

Zahran added that “the Arab revolutions, which broke out in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen – as well as in Bahrain and elsewhere – generate the people’s hope that one day, Jerusalem and Palestine will return to them.”

The interviewer interjected: “Why keep it only as a hope? Why not act on it?

Zahran responded that “the revolutions have not reached the throne of power. It is difficult to transform this hope into reality until these revolutions come to the forefront.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Egyptian Illiterate Children Detained for Insulting Koran

/3 Comments/in /by

Two Coptic Christian children, aged 10 and 9, have been arrested for insulting religion in the Upper Egyptian governorate of Beni Suef, Ahram Online reported on Wednesday.

According to the report, the two children were arrested on Tuesday after the imam of their local mosque filed a complaint against them.

By order of the prosecution the two boys, Nabil Nagy Rizk and Mina Nady Farag, are now being held in the Beni Suef juvenile detention pending further investigation on Sunday, said the report.

Ibrahim Mohamed Ali, the village imam, has accused the children of tearing up pages of the Koran. An Ahram Online reporter in the area said Ali initially took the children to the church and requested that the priest punish them.

Unsatisfied with the church’s decision not to castigate the two boys, Ali, together with three other villagers, turned to the courts.

Nabil’s father Nagy Rizk defended the action of the boys in a public statement, explaining that they are illiterate and therefore did not know the content of the papers which they found in a small white bag, as they were playing near a pile of rubbish in the street.

Read more from this story HERE.