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Following day-long street-battles in Tahrir Square between "Accountability Friday" protesters and supporters of Muslim Brotherhood’s President Mohamed Morsi, the latter have finally retreated from the iconic square. The clashes which were began when Morsi supporters attacked and destroyed a raised platform set up by the protesters leaving behind hundreds injured and an enraged crowd. Demonstrations planned to mark Morsi's 100 days were quickly transformed into violent street battles with thousands running back and forth in the streets surrounding Tahrir, as rocks flew over all of the square's various entry points. Some waved socialist red flags, others the flags of the...

- FrontPage Magazine - http://frontpagemag.com - The Danger in Dealing With IslamistsPosted By Magdi Khalil On July 9, 2012 @ 12:20 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | No Comments Following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, the United States made the first strategic mistake by contributing to the creation of the most dangerous Islamic fundamentalist revival to take place in the twentieth century, or “The Islamic Awakening,” as termed by prominent Islamist scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi. The American perception of Islamic fundamentalism was shallow and lacking an in-depth look at history, while also being short-sighted with a focus on short-term objectives.Zbigniew...

Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Pope Shenouda III dies Pope Shenouda III dies at age of 88 on Saturday after 40 years as head of country's Coptic Orthodox Church Hatem Maher, Saturday 17 Mar 2012 The head of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church, Pope Shenouda III, has died on Saturday at the age of 88, after a long battle against illness. The Coptic patriarch suffered from back and kidney problems for years and repeatedly travelled to the United States for medical treatment. "Pope Shenouda died from complications in health and from old age," his political adviser Hany Aziz said. He was born on...

Questions about Huma Abedin By Andrew C. McCarthy July 21, 2012 4:00 A.M. Der Spiegel pointed out the obvious: “A certain role of the Muslim Brotherhood in the transition process [to ‘democracy’] in Egypt seems acceptable to the Obama White House.” It was early February 2011, the moment when the uprising that would oust Hosni Mubarak was bubbling over in Tahrir Square. The prominent German newsmagazine figured, who better to ask about the Muslim Brotherhood than the American political establishment’s resident foreign-policy genius, John McCain? So, the reporter asked him, does Obama’s tolerance of the Muslim Brotherhood “concern you”? Senator...

The Muslim world does not have to fire a single shot; the Western world is capitulating to the Islamists' every demand. Three recent events show the continuing and relentless interplay among Islamists worldwide. The latest assault is playing out in Spain. La Meca, a popular "discotheque in southern Spain, has agreed to change its name and architectural design" because of pressure from Islamic extremists who find the name of the discotheque and its design "offensive and insulting to their religion." Like the Danish cartoon uproar in 2005 when Muslims took to the streets in outrage because the newspaper Jyllands-Posten published...

The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre has released this year’s list of the 500 “world’s most influential Muslims” and of the top 10, seven are Islamists. The unfortunate reality is that Islamism is indeed mainstream thought in the Muslim world and non-Muslims have a lot of ground to make up in the struggle over the direction of the Muslim world. The most influential Muslim is Saudi King Abdullah. He is hailed as a reformer but that is by Saudi standards. Under his rule, Sharia is still the law of the land in an especially puritanical form. By setting this example...

White House officials held talks with representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood in Washington this week, as the Islamist group threw itself into the fray in Egypt's presidential election. The meeting on Tuesday with low-level National Security Council staff was part of a series of US efforts to broaden engagement with new and emerging political parties following Egypt's revolution last year, a US official said. The White House pointed out that Republican Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain, and other US lawmakers and officials had also met with Brotherhood representatives in Egypt and elsewhere in recent months. "We believe that it...

Political Islam, which is the heart of the Muslim Brotherhood, is anti-modernity, anti-progress, anti-human rights, anti-democracy, anti-peace, anti-otherness, anti-pluralism, anti-women's rights, anti-liberal education, and anti-free-and-critical thinking -- BY DEFINITION. I cannot believe the "rumors" that the US wants to see members of the Muslim Brotherhood as Egypt's new rulers. If this "rumor" is correct, that policy decision will be the most gigantic, monumental strategic mistake made by the US since the end of WWII. Such a policy decision would also reflect nothing but an amazing inability to understand that while there are many moderate Muslims, there does not exist such...

A recently published report by Egypt's Rose El-Youssef magazine identifies six American Islamist activists that are connected to the Obama Administration as Muslim Brotherhood (MB) operatives who enjoy strong influence over U.S. policy. The Dec. 22 story suggests that the influence of these six MB operatives is "tantamount to a turning point for the Obama administration from a position hostile to Islamic groups and organizations in the world to the largest and most important supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood in the world as well."The article was translated in full (read here) and separately summarized by John Rossomando of the Investigative Project on Terrorism (here). Founded in...

Latest Egypt News: July 3, 2013 10:00 AM EDT Egyptian Military Occupies TV Stations 10:05 EDT CAIRO, Egypt -- Egypt's military moved to tighten its control on key institutions Wednesday, even putting officers in the newsroom of state TV, in preparation for an almost certain push to remove the country's Islamist president when an afternoon ultimatum expires. Mohammed Morsi has vowed not to step down in the face of millions of protesters in the streets in the biggest anti-government rallies the country has seen. His Islamist supporters have vowed to resist what they call a coup against democracy, and have...

Giorgio Bernardelli Vatican Insider Roma 6 July 2013 http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/nel-mo...to-egypt-26268/ [Machine translation of the Italian; no English version yet available] A Coptic priest was killed this morning in Egypt in an ambush in all probability due to the situation created in the country after the overthrow of President Islamist Mohammed Morsi. The murder took place in the town of El Arish in northern Sinai. The victim's father called Mina, was 39 years old and was the secretary of the Coptic bishop of El Arish Kosman. The cleric was shot while he was in the car with his wife, who would be...

The Obama administration is set to begin formal contacts with the Muslim Brotherhood, a group dedicated in its own words to “eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within, and sabotaging its miserable house.” This news came in a Reuters report Wednesday, quoting a “senior U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.” Why this official felt it necessary to speak on condition of anonymity is a mystery, given the fact that Barack Obama has never made a secret of his solicitude for the Muslim Brotherhood. Even though the Brotherhood was still outlawed in Egypt at that time, he made a...

July 1, 2013 US Embassy to Remain Closed Tuesday; Obama Says Protecting US Missions Top Priority by Patrick Goodenough (CNSNews.com) – As Egypt’s turmoil continued overnight the U.S. Embassy in Cairo said it will remain closed for a third consecutive day on Tuesday, and President Obama said that ensuring U.S. diplomatic facilities there are protected is his “number-one priority.”Demonstrators who are calling for President Mohammed Morsi to step down by Tuesday celebrated after the military leadership threatened to intervene if Egyptian politicians did not “meet the people's demands” in 48 hours. The statement was viewed by many as an ultimatum...

Fresh presidential and parliamentary elections have been announced in Egypt amid reports that Mohamed Morsi has been told he is no longer in charge of the country. Egypt's state-run Al-Ahram newspaper reported on its website that the army told Mr Mursi at 7pm (6pm UK time) that he was no longer head of state, quoting a presidential source. The country's leading Muslim and Christian clerics and opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei will shortly unveil the details of a political road map for a short transitional period followed by new national polls, state news agency MENA reported.

The political arm of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood has announced plans to run one of its leaders in the country's presidential elections in May, reversing an earlier pledge to stay out of the race. The once-banned Islamist movement will be represented by Khairat al-Shater, a longtime financial backer, the Brotherhood announced over the weekend. Al-Shater has resigned from his post as deputy chairman to join the already-crowded field of presidential candidates, group said. The jail terms he served under ex-Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak had been an obstacle that would have kept him off the ballot. But the Supreme Council of the...

Saad al-Katatny was elected chairman of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood’s political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party, Egyptian media reported Friday. He beat out FJP’s acting leader Essam al- Erian in a vote that took place October 6. The FJP is Egypt’s largest political party, currently occupying 47 percent of all seats in the country’s lower house of parliament. Katatny hailed his election as “a first step” towards achieving the goals of the FJP, according to Egypt’s Al-Ahram newspaper. In this respect, Katatny was quoted as saying that “The Muslim Brotherhood established the [FJP] to represent the Brotherhood’s political project,...

CAIRO: A statement issued by Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood said that US Ambassador to Cairo Anne Patterson met with the group’s Supreme Guide Mohammed Badie on Wednesday, and reportedly told her that Sharia law, or Islamic law, “ensures personal freedoms for all.” The MB’s statement explained that Patterson expressed her gratitude for the meeting and congratulated the group for their political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), victory in the recent parliamentary elections, and stressed that the United States is looking forward to cooperate with “whoever is chosen by the Egyptian people and a democratic government.” The statement pointed out...

The protests against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak show little sign of relenting. The dismissal of the previous government, and swearing in of new ministers Monday did little to assuage those demanding Mubarak's ouster. There are calls for 1 million people to take to the streets of Cairo Tuesday. One report says demonstrators are giving the army until Friday to choose sides between the government and the people before protesters march on the presidential palace. Meanwhile, former International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohammed El-Baradei may be making progress in his campaign to become the consensus candidate to lead a future Egyptian...

Supporters of Mohamed Morsi expected to pour on to the streets after Friday prayers today Mohammed Badie detained in Mediterranean coastal city near Libyan border over killings outside Cairo HQ Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi being held at Presidential Guard facility just a year after coming to power Judge in Egypt's supreme court, Adly Mansour, sworn in as interim president in Cairo just hours after coup BBC reporter tweeted that people were chanting 'no more beards' apparently aimed at the Muslim Brotherhood Arrest warrants have been issued for 300 members of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood party as round-up begins Military suspends Islamist-drafted...

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's opposition Muslim Brotherhood says it will shift its political struggle to the streets after elections that were "rigged" to ensure the movement was ejected from parliament. Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie said the group would use peaceful means of dissent against a parliament that he said did not reflect the real strength of Egypt's opposition or the will of voters. "Absent from parliament...the opposition will take to the streets," Badie told Reuters in an interview. He said the movement would coordinate with other opposition groups in protests that would be "legal, constitutional and en masse". [Snip] Officials...