Free Republic

Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi has ordered the retirement of the powerful head of the country's armed forces, Field Marshal Mohamad Hussein Tantawi, a presidential spokesman has said....

Cairo (CNN) -- Kamal Ganzouri has agreed to become Egypt's prime minister and will form a new government, an Egyptian army spokesman said Thursday. This development -- announced by Lt. Col. Amr Imam -- comes days after former Prime Minister Essam Sharaf and his government quit en masse, and just days before Monday's parliamentary elections, which Egypt's military rulers vowed Thursday will go on despite ongoing violence and unrest. Ganzouri, who was Egypt's prime minister between 1996 and 1999 under President Hosni Mubarak, could not be reached to confirm his appointment. He met Thursday with Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, field marshal...

The controversy over the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed is expanding, as more Muslims join the boycott and protests against Denmark and various European newspapers decide to publish the cartoons, mostly out of solidarity with Jyllands Posten and to make a strong political stand. One issue that puzzles many Danes is the timing of this outburst. The cartoons were published in September: Why have the protests erupted from Muslims worldwide only now? The person who knows the answer to this question is Ahmed Abdel Rahman Abu Laban, a man that the Washington Post has recently profiled as “one...

Oct. 25, 2005 20:43 Mofaz off to Cairo to meet Mubarak By ARIEH O'SULLIVAN Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz flies to Cairo Wednesday for a one-day meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to discuss border crossing arrangements with the Gaza Strip. The sudden invitation to Cairo came following Mubarak's meeting on Monday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas who stopped in Egypt to brief Mubarak on his talks with US President Bush in Washington last week. It also comes amid criticism by a top Mideast envoy for dragging its feet over opening the Gaza border. Mofaz's visit will also include a meeting...

BAGHDAD, July 27 (KUNA) -- Iraqi police said Wednesday it arrested one of the "dangerous terrorists" in southern Baghdad. Sayyed Tantawi, an Egyptian, described as a right-hand man for Al-Qaeda second-man in command, Ayman Dhawahri, was captured early today by the Scorpion squad in the Yousifia town, Captain Mothanna Abulhareth, spokesman of the Babel police command, told KUNA. Abulhareth quoted the squad leader as saying the arrest took place in an ambush in the Qasr area in central Yousifia.

Leading Sunni cleric condones Iraqi 'resistance' Egypt's highest authority in Sunni Islam has legitimised the "resistance" in Iraq on Friday and called on Iraqis to unite in order to return stability to the war-wracked country, state media has reported. "The Iraqi resistance has the right to defend its land, its fatherland and its right to independence," Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, resident imam of Cairo's Al-Azhar mosque, was quoted as saying by the Mena news agency. He also called on "all Iraqi communities to unite so as to make a serious commitment to restore stability in Iraq," Mena said. Sheikh Tantawi...

Islamic scholars condemn terrorism for bringing disrepute to religion Kuala Lumpur, July 12, IRNA -- The world's top Muslim scholars gathered in Malaysia have roundly condemned terrorism for bringing disrepute to the Muslim religion, and called for books by extremists to be banned and for more dialogue with the West. The ulema, or Islamic scholars, said the killing of innocent civilians has no place in Islam and that terrorists, if left unchecked, would threaten Muslim countries as well as Western nations. The condemnation was led by one of the Muslim world's foremost authority, Dr Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, the sheikh...

The chief Islamic cleric in Egypt has criticised the Iraqi president for not going into exile and sparing his country the trauma of invasion. Sheikh Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi, the grand imam of al-Azhar mosque in Cairo, said Saddam Hussein's oppression of his people, and his wars against Iran and Kuwait, had been "terrorism". But the man seen as the highest religious authority for Sunni Muslims also accused the United States and Britain of waging an "unjust aggression" against the Iraqi people. "Whoever attacks others, spilling blood, harming the other's honour and land is a terrorist," he said, referring to the...

Last week at New York's JFK Airport, a small 5-year-old girl emerged from a commercial flight arriving from Colombia. Traveling alone, the little girl lugged two suitcases through customs before an inspector took her aside to perform a routine check. The officer discovered more than a kilo of heroin packed in her suitcases. "Sending a 5-year-old girl alone on a plane to smuggle heroin represents a new low - even for drug traffickers," Customs special agent Joe Webber said. The little girl - believed by U.S. customs to be the youngest child discovered smuggling drugs - is now in...

George W. Bush knows that Islam is a religion of peace because Sheikh Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi said so. Two months after the September 11 terrorist attacks, the President told the United Nations that Tantawi, "the Sheikh of Al-Azhar University, the world's oldest Islamic institution of higher learning, declared that terrorism is a disease, and that Islam prohibits killing innocent civilians." Yet unfortunately for Bush and others who trumpeted Tantawi's words around the globe last winter, this sheikh whom the BBC called "the highest spiritual authority for nearly a billion Sunni Muslims" has now changed his tune. As liberals say...