Europe is approaching a crisis as the region’s debt crisis and austerity measures increase the rates of depression, suicide and psychological problems – just as governments cut healthcare spending by up to 50 percent, according to campaigners, policy makers and health organizations.
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Since the last century, Iran has been methodically pursuing the in-house capability of developing a missile-delivered nuclear bomb. The regime of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is now closer than ever — probably in the latter stages of perfecting an atomic bomb with a multipoint detonation mechanism, compact enough to insert into a Shahab-3 missile nosecone.
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Earlier this month, a group of 48 men from Iran entered Syria, ostensibly to visit a Shi’ite shrine.
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The cardinal died on Friday, aged 85.
Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera has published his last interview, recorded in August, in which he said: “The Church is tired… our prayer rooms are empty.”
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The host committee for the Democratic National Convention is raising a number of eyebrows after choosing to proceed with featuring Islamic “Jumah” prayers for two hours on the Friday before its convention, though Democrats earlier denied a Catholic cardinal’s request to say a prayer at the same event.
Watch the promotional video via the Bureau of Muslim Affairs, which claims it is hosting the event “at the Democratic National Convention.”
The first two minutes are rather dry, but around 2:04 a muezzin sings the call to prayer with an American flag background, and the video “picks up” considerably:
Up to 20,000 people are expected to attend the Friday prayers and Jibril Hough, a spokesman for the Bureau of Indigenous Muslim Affairs (BIMA), said its purpose is to hold political parties accountable for the issues faced by Muslim-Americans.
In particular, the event will target the Patriot Act, the NYPD, the National Defense Authorization Act, and anti-Shariah sentiment.
And while Muslim-Americans undeniably face distinct challenges, those who are well-informed on the dangers of radical Islam are expressing their doubts.
Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, a devout Muslim and the Founder and President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, wrote:
The leaders of this event – Jibril Hough and Imam Siraj Wahhaj [are not] moderates. They are radicals. These individuals embrace Islamist supremacy and have demonstrated support for radical ideologies.
A quick Google search by the DNC would have shown them that Hough and Wahhaj are leaders in the separatist American Islamist movement. While they may be able to get a few thousand Muslims to attend the event, they are NOT going to be mainstream Muslims. Most will likely come from Hough and Wahhaj’s radical networks that have long been entrenched in the Charlotte area. Make no mistake they are part of the Islamist movement.
[…]
Their jummah (group) prayer is…about empowering their Islamist and MB sympathetic groups into the very fabric of the political system so that Americans become anesthetized. We need American Muslims to speak up and marginalize these radicals. The DNC needs to understand and reject them because of their radical history and ideas.
The mosque of Jibril Hough, mentioned by Dr. Jasser, is owned by the North American Islamic Trust, which was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trial as one of the entities “who are and/or were members of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood.”
Siraj Wahhaj, the “Grand Imam” for Jumah at the DNC, is often considered a “moderate” because he was the first Muslim to give an invocation in the U.S. Congress, but as Robert Spencer notes, he has a number of troubling ties to dangerous radicals. In the early 1990′s the man reportedly sponsored talks by “the Blind Sheikh” Omar Abdel-Rahman in New York and New Jersey mosques, and told his followers that the United States will fall unless it “accepts the Islamic agenda.”
Wahhaj elaborated, according to bestselling author Brigitte Gabriel, to say: “If only Muslims were clever politically, they could take over the United States and replace its constitutional government with a caliphate.”
He continued: “Take my word. If 6-8 million Muslims unite in America, the country will come to us.”
When an imam like Siraj Wahhaj says “it his duty and our duty as Muslims to replace the US Constitution with the Quran…we need to speak up!” Dr. Jasser reiterated in response, adding that Americans “should be concerned” if this is who the DNC is “consorting with.”
Robert Spencer speculates that the Democrat National Committee is simply so “in thrall to multiculturalism” that “few, if any” are even aware of the radical connections.
“To raise any concerns about such a speaker would be ‘Islamophobic,’ violating every rule of the anti-American, anti-Western ethos that prevails among so many Democrats today,” Spencer concluded.
*The “Charlotte in 2012” page was established by the city of Charlotte to help coordinate the DNC. It advertises itself as “the official location for all the latest news, information and ways to get involved.” It is also the official website for the host committee. Additionally, all events listed on the site have to go through an approval process.
Jews who came to Israel from Arab countries are not refugees, because they left their homes voluntarily and under pressure from Zionist groups and the Jewish Agency, Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, said over the weekend.
In an article published in a number of Arab media outlets, Ashrawi, who is also a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, said the “claim that Jews who migrated to Israel, which is supposed to be their homeland, are ‘refugees’ who were uprooted from their homelands… is a form of deception and delusion.”
She explained: “If Israel is their homeland, then they are not ‘refugees;’ they are emigrants who returned either voluntarily or due to a political decision.”
Ashrawi’s comments came in response to Israeli efforts to hold a summit on the issue of Jewish refugees from Arab countries next month.
The Foreign Ministry – together with the World Jewish Congress and the Senior Citizens Ministry (formerly the Pensioners Affairs Ministry) – is stepping up its campaign to bring the issue of Jewish refugees to public and diplomatic attention.
The Foreign Ministry says more than 850,000 Jews from Arab countries fled their homes following persecution that ensued after the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.
Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told The Jerusalem Post last week that the government was finalizing plans to institute a national day of recognition for the Jewish refugees. It also plans to build a museum to document the historical events of these communities, as well as their cultural heritage; collate testimony from thousands of refugees; and bring the issue front and center on the diplomatic stage.
Ashrawi, however, rejected the assertion that Jews left their countries of birth because of persecution.
“Arab Jews were part of the Arab region, but they began migrating to Israel after its establishment,” she argued. “They did so in accordance with a forethought plan by the Jewish Agency to bring Jews from all around the world to build the State of Israel.”
Ashrawi did, nonetheless, acknowledge that “some Arab countries at that time were ruled by tyrannical regimes.”
But, she noted, “all citizens, regardless of their religion, were subjected to suffering.
Jews were not singled out, although there had been some suspicious incidents of persecution or individual violence [against Jews] to encourage them to emigrate [to Israel]. The emigration of Jews was a voluntary act that was influenced by factors of pressure and temptation by Zionist movements and the Jewish Agency.”
Ashrawi called for drawing a distinction between Arab and Jewish refugees.
Zionist gangs, she said, “forced Palestinians out of the land that had belonged to the Palestinian people for thousands of years, while Jews voluntarily and collectively left.”
Ashrawi also voiced hope that Jews would be allowed to return to Arab countries.
She claimed that Iraq and Morocco had welcomed the return of Jews.
“We expect the Arab countries to welcome the return of their Jewish citizens in the context of democratic regimes that respect pluralism,” Ashrawi stressed.
“From a legal perspective, the first right – before compensation – is the right of return of the refugee to his/her original homeland.
Approximately 20,000 Muslims are expected to attend a three-day event called “Jumah at the DNC,” according to the published itinerary of the upcoming Democratic National Convention to be held in Charlotte, North Carolina’
The Jumah event is being sponsored by the Bureau of Indigenous Muslim Affairs (BIMA, the national Muslim American non-profit organization that seeks status with the United Nations as a non-governmental organization (NGO).
The Charlotte Observer reported that the event will kick off August 29 with a Friday afternoon jumah prayer service in Marshall Park in uptown Charlotte, followed by an Islamic issues conference that will address such topics as “Islamophobia, Anti-Shariah, Middle Eastern Crisis, the Patriot Act, the National Defense Authorization Act.” This will be capped off with the Islamic Regal Banquet and an Islamic cultural festival.
The purpose, according to BIMA, is to attract national and international attention to the plight of American Muslims and to hold political parties accountable for issues that affect them.
At a press conference in early July, Jibril Hough, the spokesman for BIMA and a local activist said, “Thousands of Muslims are going to perform the Friday ritual prayer. We hope our people will leave feeling rewarded about who they are and what their issues are and have a candidate checklist.”
However, not all Muslims feel that BIMA represents their perspectives and M. Zuhdi Jasser M.D., founder and president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy has expressed serious concerns.
“It is troubling that the Democratic National Convention has decided to promote and lend its name and national political platform to the organizers of the ‘Jumah at the DNC'”, he said. “The leaders of this event, Jibril Hough and Imam Siraj Wahha,j are advertised as moderates. They are radicals. These individuals embrace Islamist supremacy and have demonstrated support for radical ideologies.”
Dr. Jasser added, “Their jumah group prayer is against the Patriot Act, the NYPD, and Islamophobia. Their views on these topics have nothing to do with preserving our democracy as we know it, but it is about empowering their Islamist and Muslim Brotherhood sympathizers into the very fabric of the political system so that Americans become anesthetized. We need American Muslims to speak up and marginalize these radicals. The DNC needs to understand and reject them because of their radical history and ideas.”
As the leader of the Islamic Center of Charlotte, a Sunni mosque, Jibril Hough is known as being an outspoken opponent of North Carolina Congresswoman Sue Myrick, a Republican member of the House Intelligence Committee. He has called her plan to expose and enact legislation against jihadist activity in America “a fear campaign” and has labeled it as the “new McCarthyism (or Myrickism)”.
Moreover, Jibril Hough is the North Carolina leader of the Islamic Political Party of America (IPPA), based in Charlotte. According to Dr. Jasser, the IPPA issued a press release in 2002 claiming the Jews were behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. He asserts that the IPPA has close ties to another organization known as Jamaat Al Muslimeen (JAM), The Islamic Peoples Movement, who have gone on record as being Holocaust deniers.
During an interview with radio station talk show host Keith Larson on the WBT station in Charlotte, it was revealed that Hough’s mosque is owned by The North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), an organization blacklisted by the U.S. Justice Department as an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terror finance case in U.S. history.
According to government reports, NAIT is also a front group for Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood in America. Hough denied any knowledge that his mosque was owned by NAIT and said he was unaware that they had been blacklisted, although during the interview he defended Hamas and accused the U.S. and Israel of the only “real” terrorism.
The other organizer of the “Jumah at the DNC” event is Imam Siraj Wahhaj, who heads the Masjid Al-Taqwa mosque in Brooklyn, New York. He is the leader of The Muslim Alliance in North America and is a member of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) who is an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
During the 1995 trial of Omar Abdel Rahman (the Blind Sheikh), who was convicted of plotting to blow up the World Trade Center and other New York City landmarks, Wahhaj served as a character witness, describing Rahman as a “respected scholar” and as “bold; as a strong preacher of Islam.”
Wahhaj is also a Board of Trustee member of the North American Imams Federation (NAIF) (who’s website currently features an anti-Jewish, anti-black rant), and is also considered to be a Muslim Brotherhood front organization.
Like Hough, Wahhaj is connected to NAIT by way of his membership in the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), which was also found by the government to be a front for Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
According to the Militant Islam Monitor web site, in 1992, while addressing an audience of New Jersey Muslims, Wahhaj said that if Muslims were more clever politically they could take over the United States and replace its constitutional government with a caliphate.
“If we were united and strong, we’d elect our own emir [leader] and give allegiance to him. Take my word, if 6 to 8 million Muslims unite in America, the country will come to us”, he was quoted as saying.
The other organizer of the “Jumah at the DNC” event is Imam Siraj Wahhaj, who heads the Masjid Al-Taqwa mosque in Brooklyn, New York. He is the leader of The Muslim Alliance in North America and is a member of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) who is an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
During the 1995 trial of Omar Abdel Rahman (the Blind Sheikh), who was convicted of plotting to blow up the World Trade Center and other New York City landmarks, Wahhaj served as a character witness, describing Rahman as a “respected scholar” and as “bold; as a strong preacher of Islam.”
Wahhaj is also a Board of Trustee member of the North American Imams Federation (NAIF) (who’s website currently features an anti-Jewish, anti-black rant), and is also considered to be a Muslim Brotherhood front organization.
Like Hough, Wahhaj is connected to NAIT by way of his membership in the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), which was also found by the government to be a front for Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
According to the Militant Islam Monitor web site, in 1992, while addressing an audience of New Jersey Muslims, Wahhaj said that if Muslims were more clever politically they could take over the United States and replace its constitutional government with a caliphate.
“If we were united and strong, we’d elect our own emir [leader] and give allegiance to him. Take my word, if 6 to 8 million Muslims unite in America, the country will come to us”, he was quoted as saying.
US Gen. Martin Dempsey’s assertion Thursday, Aug. 30 that the US would not be “complicit” in an Israel strike against Iran, together with the drastic reduction in the scale of next month’s joint US-Israeli war game disclosed by TIME, add up to a blunt message from US President Barack Obama to Israel: You are on your own! See how you manage without special US weapons and US military backup, including a shield against missile counter-attack, if you decide to defy us and go through with a military operation against Iran.
Instead of the 5,000 US troops originally assigned for Austere Challenge 12, the annual joint exercise, the Pentagon will send only 1,200 to 1,500 service members. The missile interception systems at the core of the joint exercise will be reduced in number and potency: Patriot anti-missiles will come without crews and maybe one instead of two Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense warships, according to the magazine.
debkafile’s military sources: The Obama administration has put Israel on harsh notice that an attack on Iran to disrupt or delay its nuclear armament will be refused US missile backup – both in the course of the operation and to cover Israel’s back in the event of a counter-strike widening into a general Middle East conflict. The Netanyahu government will bear full and exclusive responsibility for the consequences of attacking Iran.
Obama, who has repeatedly pledged his commitment to Israeli security, is the first American president to cut Israeli adrift against a major threat to its security explicitly posed by Iran.
The US president has put his campaign for reelection next month at great albeit calculated risk. His rival Mitt Romney will not doubt follow up on the charges he made during his acceptance speech to the Republican convention Thursday that Obama threw “allies like Israel under the bus” and failed utterly to stop Iran’s centrifuges spinning.
Obama may find the Jewish vote and campaign contributions fading. For Romney an incumbent president throwing Israel to the wolves against the ayatollahs is a dream come true.
Binyamin Netanyahu and his defense minister Ehud Barak must bear some of the onus for one of the most damaging ruptures US-Israel relations have ever faced – as will be discussed later. However, the prime cause must be sought elsewhere.
In the last month, Obama has undergone a change of face: The top US soldier and ambassador Dan Shapiro were told to start treating Israel like a pest and telling its leaders that the administration is fed to the teeth with their clamor for action on Iran.
This change did not come out of the blue. debkafile’s Washington and Moscow sources report it evolved from three events:
1. During this month, President Vladimir Putin severed Russia’s military ties with Iran and Syria as debkafile reported earlier: Obama reciprocated by cutting Israel down to size. Moscow informed Tehran and Damascus that there would be no more Russian arms supplies after the delivery of the last items in the pipeline. Putin therefore left both Iran and Syria high and dry amid war dangers in return for Obama cutting Israel off from advance military hardware at a time of peril.
The Russian and American leaders thus put in place the first bricks of an accord for resolving their disputes over a nuclear Iran and the Syrian crisis by the device of slashing the military capacity of Iran, Israel and Syria.
The Russian president took another step as a gesture to Obama: He pulled Russian warships out of the Syrian base of Tartus and the eastern Mediterranean, leaving only a floating dry dock.
In return, he counted on Washington forcing Israel to abandon any plans to strike Iran.
2. But this exercise in symmetrical reciprocity ran into a major snag: Obama found a tough nut in Jerusalem: Binyamin Netanyahu held out for a pledge of US military action against Iran as his price for holding back. Despite the massive pressure Obama threw at the Israeli government, both through the highest ranking US political and military channels and by mobilizing the government’s most vocal opponents and anti-war circles at home, Netanyahu and Barak did not budge.
They understood, despite Obama’s concealment, that the secret US-Russian deal would in fact preserve Iran’s nuclear program at a point at which Iran’s leaders could have a weapon assembled and unsheathed at any moment.
The also realized that as long as Israel’s military option against Iran was alive, the Obama-Putin deal was stuck, because both Iran’s Ali Khamenei and Syria’s Bashar Assad would likewise refuse to fall into line.
When Romney said he would give America’s friends “more loyalty” and Putin “a little less flexibility and more backbone,” he was referring to President Obama’s request from Putin on June 18, at the G20 conference in Mexico, for more time against his promise to the Russian leader of “more flexibility” later.
To keep his deal with Putin in motion, the US president will have to tighten his squeeze on Israel’s leaders to forego an attack on Iran.
3. The Netanyahu government, for its part, committed three tactical errors:
One: They dragged out the dialogue on Iran with the US administration for far too long – three years or more – and come away for it empty-handed. If their purpose was to persuade the United States to carry the can against Iran, as many Israelis believed, they failed. No Israeli leader has the right to procrastinate to this extent on action affecting its fundamental security, if not existence. Netanyahu fell into the trap of crying wolf by shouting year after year that Iran must be stopped – and doing nothing.
Two: Israel’s deterrent capacity, already sapped by inaction, was further eroded by US General Martin Dempsey’s assertions that Israel lacks the capacity to destroy the Iranian nuclear program.
Three: They failed to act expeditiously to prevent the political opposition using a campaign against an attack on Iran as a stratagem for bringing the government down.
It has been four weeks since the former Mossad director Ephraim Halevi said that if he was an Iranian, he would be worried in the next twelve weeks.
That was on Aug. 2.
Thursday, Aug. 30, Halevi said: “It is important for Israel’s military threat to be credible.”
He was throwing down the gauntlet for Netanyahu and Barak to show they were serious about striking Iran – or else back down completely.
His timeline gives them another eight weeks to show their mettle. During that time, they will be under heavy bombardment from Washington.
Many people who love Israel freely use the term “Zionist” to describe themselves. But how many know what Zionism is really all about?
Not too many, according to David Isaac, of the web site Zionism 101. The current state of Zionist education – i.e. the teaching of the principles of Zionism, why there was a Zionist movement, what the various leaders of the movement represented, etc. – is woefully poor, and much of it has to do with the fact that even though the Zionist movement has progressed since its beginnings some 100 years ago, its “interface” to the public has lagged.
“A high level of Zionist knowledge among Jews and Christians is rare. Most don’t have even a rudimentary knowledge of the modern Zionist movement,” Isaac said.
Unfortunately, the Internet has not helped matters, said Isaac – with the same old-fashioned approach being transferred from the printed page to cyberspace. “The sites I’ve seen on Zionism are rather poor, very text-heavy, not very attractive,” Isaac said.
If there’s one thing educators have learned, it’s that students would much rather watch a movie than read a book – so Isaac, in an attempt to reach more people with the message of what Zionism is all about, has been developing a site called Zionism 101, which includes YouTube-style videos that make it easy to understand what the movement is all about.
The site is organized according to courses – 20 of them, on topics including Founding Fathers (with videos on Theodor Herzl, David Ben-Gurion, Ze’ev Jabotinsky, and others), the origins of Zionism, movements in the Jewish world that attempted to supplant or replace Zionism, the Mandatory period in the Land of Israel, Christian Zionism, US-Israel relations, the story of Israel’s wars, the search for peace, and much more. The site is completely free (you just have to register), and most of the videos are just 5-10 minutes long. (The longest one currently on the site is about 20 minutes.)
The films are built from authentic period footage and photographs, offering students a window into the past. All films are original to the site, and are supplemented by timelines, selected writings and a bibliography for those who wish to extend their knowledge.
The site is great not only for those getting an “elementary education” in Zionism, Isaac said, but also for those who already know what Zionism is all about. “While Zionism 101 is primarily for those who want to learn the basics, more knowledgeable students will also find the site valuable as there are many details to the Zionist struggle known only by a few,” he said.
Isaac, executive director of Zionism 101, is an Assistant Editor at a national newspaper and has been working on Zionism 101 for several years, inspired by his good friend Herbert Zweibon, who passed away in 2011. Zweibon headed the Americans for a Safe Israel (AFSI) organization, which tirelessly lobbied for Israeli security and worked to keep alive the legacy of Ze’ev Jabotinsky revisionist Zionist views.
While the world persists in looking for signs of pragmatism in the Egyptian president, Mohamed Morsy is quietly taking over all the power bases in the country.
Having gotten rid of the army old guard, he replaced them with his own men – officers belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood or known sympathizers. Then he turned his attention to the media, replacing 50 editors working for the government’s extensive and influential press empire – including Al- Ahram, Al-Akhbar, Al-Gomhuria. He is now busy appointing new governors to the 27 regions of the country.
Hosni Mubarak used to choose retired generals he could depend on for these sensitive posts; Morsy is hand picking party faithful. At the same time upper echelons in government ministries and economic and cultural organizations are methodically being replaced. The Muslim Brotherhood is fast assuming total control. For many observers, the deployment of army units is Sinai is more about proclaiming Egyptian sovereignty in the face of Israel than actually fighting Islamic terrorism.
Drafting the new constitution is their next objective. Brothers and Salafis make up an absolute majority in the Constituent Assembly. Liberal and secular forces are boycotting its sessions, and the Supreme Constitutional Court is examining a request to have it dissolved since it does not conform to the constitution because of its overly Islamic composition; a decision is expected in September.
The assembly, however, is not waiting. According to various leaks it is putting the final touch to a constitution where all laws have to conform to the Shari’a and special committees will supervise the media and forbid any criticism of Islam and of the Prophet. In the wings is the creation of a Committee of Islamic Sages supervising the law-making process and in effect voiding of substance the parliament elected by the people, though it is not clear yet if, when and how it will work. What is clear is that a parliament made of flesh and blood individuals is against the very nature of the Shari’a, where all laws are based on the Koran and the hadiths. This is a far cry from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Morsy has been careful to speak about creating “a civil society”; it is now obvious that what he meant was a society not ruled by the army, and not a secular society. Indeed he had promised to appoint a woman and a Copt as vice presidents, but chose Mohamed Maki, a Sunni known for his sympathy for the Brotherhood and incidentally or not the brother of the new minister of justice, Prof. Ahmed Maki, known for his independent stands and opposition to Mubarak, but who had carefully concealed his support for the Brothers.
It is worth stressing that the Brotherhood is still operating under conditions of utmost secrecy, as it had been doing during the decades of persecution. How it is getting its funds, who are its members and how they are recruited is not known, nor is its decision-taking process. The movement has no legal existence since Gamal Abdel Nasser officially disbanded it in 1954.
That state of affairs was not changed while the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces ruled the country, since apparently the movement did not apply for recognition, fearing perhaps it would have to reveal some of its secrets. Now that it has created its own political party, that the members of that party make up nearly 50 percent of the parliament and that one of their own has been elected president, can the movement remain in the shadows?
Morsy did announce that he was resigning from the Brotherhood, but there is no doubt that he will remain true to the tenets and the commands of its leaders. This is making people increasingly uneasy. They had other expectations of the revolution.
Opposition to an Islamic regime is growing, though it is far from being united. The three small liberal parties that had had very little success in the parliamentary elections have now set up a new front, The Third Way, to fight the Brotherhood’s takeover. Hamdeen Sabahi, leader of the nationalistic Karama (Dignity) Party, who had garnered 18% of the votes in the first round of the presidential election, has launched “The Popular Current” promoting the old Nasserist pan-Arab ideology.
Some of the nongovernmental media are vocal in their criticism of Morsy, though it can be costly: Private television station Al- Pharaein – “the Pharaohs” – was shut down after it called to get rid of Morsy; its owner, Tawfik Okasha, well known for his hostility to the Brothers (and to Israel) and who called for a massive demonstration this Friday, was put under house arrest, as was the editor of the daily Al-Dostour that had criticized the president. The editors of two other dailies – Al-Fajer and Saut el-Umma – were questioned. Other papers such as Al-Akhbar stopped publishing opinion pieces from their regular collaborators known for their opposition to the Brothers; well-known publicists left their page blank in a gesture of solidarity for their colleagues.
Morsy knows that his takeover will strengthen the opposition. He has not forgotten that he barely mustered 25% of the votes in the first round of the presidential election – down from the nearly 50% who voted for his party’s candidates in the parliamentary elections. He also knows that the people are no longer afraid to take to the streets to protest – and that it is now said that a new dictatorship is replacing the old – the only difference being that the new ruler has a beard….
However, for now he is devoting all his energy to his fight with the judiciary, long known for its independent stands. The Supreme Constitutional Court is being asked to rule the Brotherhood Movement illegal, and therefore to proclaim that the Liberty and Justice party it created – and which won 50% of the seats in the parliament – is illegal as well, and therefore to invalidate the election of Morsy, candidate of a movement and a party that are both illegal. Morsy sent his new justice minister to browbeat the court, but the judges refused to back down. The president is now working to limit the prerogatives of the court in the new constitution and will start “retiring” senior justices appointed by Mubarak.
Friday’s demonstration will be the first real test for the Brotherhood. It is taking no chances and security forces will be deployed around its institutions throughout the country. A cleric at Al-Azhar issued a fatwa calling for the killing of whoever protests against the rule of the Brotherhood; the resulting uproar was such that he was disavowed by some of the leaders of the movement. However, whatever happens Friday will not deter them from their goal – a thoroughly Islamist Egypt.