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Egyptian Islamists Target Christian Churches in Wave of Apparently Coordinated Attacks

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Photo Credit: Almogaz/Twitter

Photo Credit: Almogaz/Twitter

By Patrick Goodenough.

Some supporters of Egypt’s ousted Islamist president directed their wrath at the country’s Christian minority Wednesday, in what activists described as “the worst coordinated attacks on Egypt’s Coptic community in modern history.”

Largely eclipsed by the military’s crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood protest camps in Cairo and resulting loss of life, more than 20 churches in a number of provinces were reported to have been targeted for arson and other attacks.

Through the day news reports and social media posts drew attention to individual incidents and it soon became apparent that a concerted campaign of coordinated attacks was underway. Most of the targeted churches were Coptic Orthodox, but Catholic churches were also attacked as well as at least one Protestant church.

One of the groups monitoring the situation through contacts on the ground, the Australian Coptic Movement Association (ACM), released a list of 16 churches and related sites attacked, and said the true figure could reach 40.

Those it listed included six churches and the house of a parish priest in Minya province, south-west of Cairo, among them a Church of the Virgin Mary which the ACM reported had been “totally demolished.”

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Bryan Denton

Photo Credit: Bryan Denton

Islamists Debate Their Next Move in Tense Cairo

By David. D. Kirkpatrick.

Gathering Thursday morning around a mosque used as a morgue for hundreds killed the day before, many Islamists waited confidently for a surge of sympathetic support from the broader public. But it failed to materialize.

With their leaders jailed or silent, Islamists reeled in shock at the worst mass killing in Egypt’s modern history. By Thursday night, health officials had counted 638 dead and nearly 4,000 injured, but the final toll was expected to rise further.

A tense quiet settled over Cairo as the city braced for new protests by supporters of the ousted president, Mohamed Morsi, after the Friday Prayer. The new government authorized the police to use lethal force if they felt endangered.

Many of those waiting outside the makeshift morgue talked of civil war. Some blamed members of Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority for supporting the military takeover. A few argued openly for a turn to violence.

“The solution might be an assassination list,” said Ahmed, 27, who like others refused to use his full name for fear of reprisals from the new authorities. “Shoot anyone in uniform. It doesn’t matter if the good is taken with the bad, because that is what happened to us last night.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Video: Exiled Egyptian Christian Says U.S. Foreign Policy Is ‘Definition of Insanity’

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Rev. Majed El Shafie declared on TheBlaze TV Friday that “the Arab Spring is a lie” that has turned into a “cold deadly winter,” especially for minorities. He also criticized the U.S. for continually arming radicals in the Middle East, only to be attacked by them later.

The native Egyptian is intimately familiar with the subject, having been tortured and sentenced to death after converting to Christianity at the age of 18. He described how he stole a jet ski and fled to Israel, and how he has since begun the human rights group “One Free World International” that now has 28 branches around the world.

“And that was under the Mubarak regime,” Erick Stakelbeck, author of The Brotherhood: America’s Next Great Enemy, pointed out. “I can’t imagine how it would be under the Muslim Brotherhood!”

“That’s correct,” Shafie responded. “It [would] be one hundred times worse.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Egypt’s Coup Puts Fearful Christians in a Corner

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Photo Credit: APIt was nighttime and 10,000 Islamists were marching down the most heavily Christian street in this ancient Egyptian city, chanting “Islamic, Islamic, despite the Christians.” A half-dozen kids were spray-painting “Boycott the Christians” on walls, supervised by an adult.

While Islamists are on the defensive in Cairo following the military coup that ousted President Mohammed Morsi, in Assiut and elsewhere in Egypt’s deep south they are waging a stepped-up hate campaign, claiming the country’s Christian minority somehow engineered Morsi’s downfall.

“Tawadros is a dog,” says a spray-painted insult, referring to Pope Tawadros II, patriarch of the Copts, as Egypt’s Christians are called. Christian homes, stores and places of worship have been marked with large painted crosses.

The hostility led a coalition of 16 Egyptian rights groups to warn on Wednesday of a wave of violence to come, and to demand that the post-coup authorities protect the Christians who are 10 percent of the population, and suffer chronic discrimination.

Nile-side Assiut, a city of one million people 400 kilometers (250 miles) south of Cairo, dates back to the pharaohs. The New Testament says Mary, Joseph and the infant Jesus passed through as they fled the infanticidal King Herod. Today, its Christian fears are compounded by the failure of authorities to curb the graffiti-spraying and the Islamists’ demonstrations, which have gone on almost nightly since the July 3 coup that ousted Morsi.

Read more from this story HERE.

State Department Spokeswoman: ‘We Have Determined That We Do Not Need to Make a Determination’ on Egypt (+video)

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State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told Matt Lee of the Associated Press Tuesday that the U.S. had “determined that we do not need to make a determination” over whether or not the ousting of Mohamed Morsi in Egypt was a coup.

Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) called it a coup Tuesday, but the Obama administration has deliberately avoided using the word:

LEE: In response to the first question about Senator McCain’s comments, you gave — you said, our position has not changed, as you just did with Morsi. On McCain’s comments, though, our position has not changed — then you said the U.S. government has stated what our position is. Could you remind us all of what your position actually is? Because as I recall, your position was that you don’t have a position, and that’s not quite — is that correct?

PSAKI: Matt, I think you know our position, which is that –

LEE: I — tell me.

PSAKI: There was a determination made that we need to — not need to make a designation.

LEE: So then — so your position is that you do not have a position, correct?..

Read more from this story HERE.

Egyptian Anti-Obama Video Goes Viral, Blames Him for Siding with Muslim Brotherhood (+video)

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US President Barack Obama appears to have angered supporters of ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, as well as supporters of the army coup that toppled him on July 3.

Leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is at the vanguard of the street protests against Morsi’s ouster, claim the US supported the coup. Those opposed to the Brotherhood claim Washington has been and still is supporting the Islamists.

An example of the vitriol in the country can be seen in a new video clip featuring a song by Egyptian performer Sama Elmasry. Titled “You Obama, Your Father, Mother,” it attacks the US president for allegedly preferring Islamic radicals over the army. It has gone viral, with over 160,000 views since last week.

The clip features Obama in traditional Islamic dress. Elmasry curses him while mentioning that he had called for former president Hosni Mubarak to leave immediately, seeming to imply that this proved he was pro-Brotherhood.

The song also mentions Obama’s support for Islamistled Turkey as well as Israel. It is highly nationalistic in tone…

[WARNING: VULGAR LANGUAGE]

Read more from this story HERE.

Kerry: Egypt’s ‘Military Did Not Take Over’ (+video)

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By Jeryl Bier

During his visit to Pakistan on Thursday, Secretary of State John Kerry gave several TV interviews including one to Hamid Mir of Geo TV. Mir’s first question for Kerry concerned Egypt. The Obama administration has resisted referring to the military action in Egypt as a coup, but in this interview, Kerry went even further, asserting that “the military did not take over, to the best of our judgment so – so far,” and that its intervention was at the request of “millions and millions of people” concerned about the increasing chaos in the country [emphasis added]:

QUESTION: Thank you very much for giving us time. My first question is about your commitment with democracy. The U.S. believes in democracy, U.S. is a champion of democracy all over the world. But why U.S. is not taking a clear position on military intervention against the democratically elected government of President Morsy in Egypt?

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, it’s a very appropriate and important question, and I want to answer it very directly. The military was asked to intervene by millions and millions of people, all of whom were afraid of a descendance into chaos, into violence. And the military did not take over, to the best of our judgment so – so far. To run the country, there’s a civilian government. In effect, they were restoring democracy.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: WNDEgypt Hurtling Toward Civil War?

By F. Michael Maloof

As demonstrations increase in intensity in Egypt between the military backers and Muslim Brotherhood supporters, concern mounts that the conflict could lead to major confrontations and civil war, according to a report in Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

Members of the Muslim Brotherhood have ratcheted up demonstrations demanding the reinstatement of President Mohammad Morsi, who was elected last year but ousted by the military after one year in office.

These demonstrations have resulted in increased clashes with the military, raising concerns the confrontations could become more widespread.

Now, the military has added fuel to the fire by accusing Morsi of conspiring with the Palestinian militant group Hamas in killing some 14 guards, while getting help in his 2011 escape from prison.

As WND recently reported, the Brotherhood also has announced the creation of the Egyptian Free Army, a reflection of a similar army created by the opposition in Syria to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. A civil war has been under way there for two years, and some 100,000 people have been killed.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: WNDFeds plan to give Egypt armed-to-the-teeth ships

By Steve Peacock

The U.S. Senate has rejected an effort to crack down on U.S. taxpayer monies being forwarded to the violence-ridden nation of Egypt, and now the Obama administration is preparing to send more heavily armed, missile-equipped naval patrol ships to the interim government there.

For that purpose, Washington is hiring private contractors to make the transoceanic delivery on its behalf.

This shipment of Fast Missile Craft, or FMC, comes at a time when congressional interest in suspending U.S. military aid to Egypt had heated up – to the point there was a Senate proposal to cut it off. That aid, according to federal law, must be suspended in response to military coups.

But the White House refuses to designate the military overthrow of deposed President Mohamed Morsi as a coup, and therefore has expressed no more than a commitment to review U.S.-Egyptian aid.

The U.S. Senate this week shot down, 86-13, Sen. Rand Paul’s proposed amendment to the transportation spending bill that would have redirected “certain foreign assistance to the government of Egypt as a result of the July 3, 2013, military coup d’état.” Read more from this story HERE.

Senate Overwhelmingly Kills Rand Paul’s Bill to Cut Off Aid to Egypt and, Instead, Rebuild Nation’s Bridges

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Photo Credit: Life NewsThe Senate on Wednesday overwhelmingly rejected a proposal by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., to cut off aid to Egypt.

The Kentucky conservative proposed the measure as a way to override the Obama administration’s refusal to classify the recent political upheaval in Egypt as a “military coup” — a move that by law would’ve frozen aid to the north African country.

The proposal called for redirecting the $1.5 billion in mainly military assistance the U.S. provides Egypt each year to bridge-building projects in the U.S.

The measure, which failed by a vote of 83-13, was attached as an amendment to a transportation and housing spending bill.

Paul, who is mulling a 2016 presidential run, casted his debate in terms of refocusing U.S. government efforts to rebuild the nation’s crumbling infrastructure.

Read more from this story HERE.

Egypt Restores Feared Secret Police Units

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Photo Credit: APEgypt’s interim government was accused of attempting to return the country to the Mubarak era on Monday, after the country’s interior ministry announced the resurrection of several controversial police units that were nominally shut down following the country’s 2011 uprising and the interim prime minister was given the power to place the country in a state of emergency.

Egypt’s state security investigations service, Mabahith Amn ad-Dawla, a wing of the police force under President Mubarak, and a symbol of police oppression, was supposedly closed in March 2011 – along with several units within it that investigated Islamist groups and opposition activists. The new national security service (NSS) was established in its place.

But following Saturday’s massacre of at least 83 Islamists, interior minister Mohamed Ibrahim announced the reinstatement of the units, and referred to the NSS by its old name. He added that experienced police officers sidelined in the aftermath of the 2011 revolution would be brought back into the fold.

Police brutality also went unchecked under Morsi, who regularly failed to condemn police abuses committed during his presidency. But Ibrahim’s move suggests he is using the ousting of Morsi – and a corresponding upsurge in support for Egypt’s police – as a smokescreen for the re-introduction of pre-2011 practices.

Ibrahim’s announcement came hours before Egypt’s interim prime minister was given the power to place the country in a state of emergency – a hallmark of Egypt under Mubarak.

Read more from this story HERE.

Rand Paul: Use Egypt’s Foreign Aid to Rebuild our Crumbling Bridges Here at Home

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Photo Credit: APAimages/Rex FeaturesRand Paul targets Egypt aid

By Julian Pecquet. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) plans to use next week’s vote on transportation spending to end aid to Egypt following the ouster of the country’s freely elected president.

Paul’s amendment comes as a growing number of senators are rebelling against the White House’s decision not to call Mohamed Morsi’s ouster a military coup, a declaration that would automatically freeze the $1.5 billion in mostly military aid the U.S. provides every year.

The foreign aid skeptic proposes spending the money on the country’s crumbling bridges instead, an issue that has bipartisan appeal.

“It is no secret that our nation’s roads and bridges are crumbling at an increasing rate, many of which are in critical stages of disrepair,” Paul said in introducing the amendment.

“Instead of sending taxpayer money to countries that are ineligible to receive our aid, like Egypt, we should be directing that money to these pressing domestic needs.” Read more from this story HERE.

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Morsi supporters pledge to stand firm after massacre

By Patrick Kingsley. Supporters of the overthrown Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi have pledged to maintain their weeks-old sit-in in east Cairo, despite the massacre of scores of their comrades by state officials on Saturday.

At least 65 pro-Morsi protesters were shot dead during an eight-hour attack by police officers and armed men dressed in civilian clothes. An ambulance official said the death toll was 72; the Muslim Brotherhood said 66 had died and a further 61 were braindead in hospital.

“No one’s going anywhere,” said Abdel-Rahman Daour, one of several spokespeople at the sit-in outside the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque. “We either have freedom or we die. We’re not going to live in a country without freedom.”

Tens of thousands of Morsi supporters have camped outside the mosque since late June when the president’s overthrow began to seem likely. Egypt’s interior minister has made it clear that he intends to clear Rabaa as soon as possible, and Saturday’s massacre in a nearby street was considered an attempt to intimidate the protesters.

On Friday hundreds of thousands of anti-Morsi protesters turned out in support of a call by Egypt’s army chief, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, for a crackdown on what he called terrorists – a move sceptics saw as a veiled threat to protesters at Rabaa. Read more from this story HERE.

US Calls on Egypt to “Pull Back from the Brink” While the Muslim Brotherhood Announces the “Free Egyptian Army” Plan

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Photo Credit: Amru Salahuddien/CorbisEgypt: John Kerry calls for leaders to ‘pull back from the brink’

By Reuters. The United States has urged Egypt to “pull back from the brink” after security forces killed dozens of supporters of the deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

US secretary of state John Kerry spoke to two senior members of Egypt’s army-installed interim cabinet, expressing his “deep concern”.

“This is a pivotal moment for Egypt,” he said in a statement. “The United States … calls on all of Egypt’s leaders across the political spectrum to act immediately to help their country take a step back from the brink.”

Thousands of Brotherhood supporters were hunkered down in a vigil at a Cairo mosque on Sunday, vowing to stand their ground despite the imminent threat of a move to disperse them.

Saturday’s bloodshed, following huge rival rallies, left an unknown number of people dead. Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: WNDMuslim Brotherhood declares ‘Free Egyptian Army’ plan

By F. Michael Maloof. The head of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood has declared that his organization plans to create a “Free Egyptian Army” in an effort to reinstate Muslim Brotherhood-backed President Mohammad Morsi, who recently was removed in a coup by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, according to report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

Muslim Brotherhood Chairman Mohammad Badie who, like Morsi, already has been arrested for inciting violence, said that the Free Egyptian Army intends to “put their viewpoints into action” to return their elected president.

Badie’s announcement to create the Free Egyptian Army mirrors action by the Syrian opposition in creating the Free Syrian Army, which has been fighting against the embattled regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Badie has been jailed on allegations of inciting the violent demonstrations by Brotherhood supporters resulting in more than 100 deaths. His announcement suggests the prospect of increased confrontations with the Egyptian military, leading to greater instability and the prospect of civil war itself, analysts say.

The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood renounced violence some 30 years ago when it entered into mainstream politics, even though its goal remains to Islamize the Egyptian society by promoting Islamic, or Shariah law. Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: MANU BRABO/APEgypt: Military accused of killing over 100 Muslim Brotherhood followers

By Ruth Sherlock, and Magdy Samaan, and Harriet Alexander. The Muslim Brotherhood said that 66 people were killed and another 61 were “brain dead” on life support machines, after a violent repression of a protest by supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi. The health ministry put the toll from the night’s violence at 72.

“They were not shooting to wound, they were shooting to kill,” said Gehad El-Haddad, Brotherhood spokesman. “The bullet wounds are in the head and chest.”

The Sunday Telegraph saw the aftermath of the violence first hand on Saturday at a makeshift field hospital close to the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque, where dozens of corpses were laid out in a room and blood soaked the carpets.

Hundreds of wounded lay resting and groaning on floor. Doctors and volunteers sought to treat the injured with minimal first aid kits.

Many aimed chants at Gen Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, the head of the armed forces, saying: “The people want to execute the butcher.” Read more from this story HERE.