Free Republic

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...

After months of reassuring secularist critics, Islamist politicians in Tunisia and Egypt have begun to lay down markers about how Muslim their states should be -- and first signs show they want more religion than previously admitted. Islamist parties swept the first free elections in both countries in recent months after campaigns that stressed their readiness to work with the secularists they struggled with in the Arab Spring revolts against decades-long dictatorships. With political deadlines looming, the Tunisian coalition led by the reformist Islamist Ennahda party and the head of Egypt's influential Muslim Brotherhood both made statements this week revealing...

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...

As Egypt lurches towards the end of Hosni Mubarak's regime, one way or another - by "an orderly transition to democratic rule" (as Hillary Clinton delicately puts it), through violent overthrow or simply through the demise of the ailing 82-year-old president - much is unclear. One thing that should not be is that the Muslim Brotherhood is our enemy, and whatever role it plays in Egypt's future will be to our detriment.Such clarity is readily available since the Brotherhood (MB or in Arabic, Ikhwan) has told us as much. Consider, for example, the mission statement for the MB found in...

Muslim Brotherhood Members Massacre 7 in Middle Class Neighborhood While Shouting “Allah Akbar” - FrontPage Magazine - http://frontpagemag.com - Muslim Brotherhood Members Massacre 7 in Middle Class Neighborhood While Shouting “Allah Akbar”Posted By Daniel Greenfield On July 7, 2013 @ 2:14 pm In The Point | 7 Comments But first a public service announcement from Barack Obama. “I now call on the Egyptian military to move quickly and responsibly to return full authority back to a democratically elected civilian government as soon as possible through an inclusive and transparent process, and to avoid any arbitrary arrests of President Morsi and...

The Egyptian army has set a deadline of 4 p.m. Cairo time for the Muslim Brotherhood government of President Morsi to compromise with the people of Egypt (by stepping down.) Morsi refuses. 18 people were killed and 200 were wounded in clashes at Cairo University last night.A Washington Post report from Cairo on dueling statements from Morsi and the army: Waving his hands and shaking his fists in a 45-minute speech on national television late Tuesday, Morsi swore that he was committed to the democratic process that brought him to power and said that any attempts to subvert the constitution...

As the violent standoff between the Egyptian military and President Mohamed Morsy continues, U.S. ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson has become a lightning rod for critics of U.S. policy in the country. The tip of the spear for U.S.-Egypt diplomacy, Patterson's June 18 speech discouraging street protests has come to symbolize the administration's inability to recognize the potency of Egypt's liberal opposition. "Some say that street action will produce better results than elections," Patterson said. "To be honest, my government and I are deeply skeptical." Now, with the Egyptian military's 48-hour deadline for Morsy to yield to protesters demands passed,...

The supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, from which Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi emanated, called on Thursday for a jihad (holy war) to liberate Jerusalem from Israeli rule. "Jerusalem is Islamic ... and nobody is entitled to make concessions" on the Holy City, said Sheikh Mohammed Badie in his weekly message to supporters. Members of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood including now-President Mohamed Morsi (3rdL) take part in a press conference in 2011. The supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, from which Morsi emanated, called on Thursday for a jihad (holy war) to liberate Jerusalem from Israeli rule. "The jihad for the...