By Pakinam Amer
First Published: May 27, 2006
CAIRO: Activists around the world are picketing Egyptian embassies under the slogan “The Egyptian judges are not alone! We are not alone,” marking May 25 as a day of support for Egyptians “in their quest for freedom and in their fight against tyranny.”
As protests raged in Cairo, an international coalition of supporters of the two judges Hisham El-Bastwisy and Mahmoud Mekki and those detained for their cause staged protests in Chicago, New York, London, Paris, Toronto, Athens, Washington D.C., San Francisco, Beirut and Montreal.
The two judges underwent a disciplinary hearing for claiming that corruption and fraud took place during last year’s presidential electoral process. Last week one judge was acquitted and the other was reprimanded. Political and opposition forces in Egypt, despite the pardon, deemed the act offensive to judges. Protests surged in support of the judges; police rounded-up demonstrators in the hundreds and detained them in Tora Mazraa Prison near Cairo.
“Activists around the world are coming together to support our cause. The Egyptian experiment for freedom is attracting more and more audience,” read the statement of the international protests. “Right now, they [the Egyptian government] are starting to be alone. It is a matter of who has stronger stamina now. So let's prove it is us.”
The international activity groups have launched what they called "The International campaign in solidarity with the Egyptian judges.” The Egyptian Committee in Support of the Egyptian Judges in London and Chicago, the Toronto Solidarity Campaign, the International Campaign for Solidarity with the Judges in the United States, the International Socialist Committee in Britain, the Cairo Conference group, the London-based Stop the War Coalition, the Athens Labor Center and Global Resistance are all part of the movement.
According to these groups, their campaign came in response to a Kefaya (Enough) movement’s call for Egyptians living abroad “to campaign, explain and introduce the Egyptian cause to the world.” Before the protests, the group held a public meeting in London where around 65 journalists, European and Egyptian high-profile speakers explained the Egyptian situation and the challenges facing political activists under the current government.
“The Egyptian judiciary is still a long way from independence,” said Shehab Ismail, a protest organizer. “The struggle for the independence of the Egyptian judiciary, a cornerstone of any thriving democracy, is being actively hindered by the Mubarak [government]. The Mubarak [government] is sending clear and heavy-handed signals that peaceful protests, a constitutional right, will not be tolerated.”
Activists in Chicago formed a solidarity group with the judges, the Egyptian Committee for Judges Support, calling for the independence of the Egyptian judicial system and a halt to the arrests of protesters.
“We oppose the violent repression and arrests in Egypt,” stated Sherry Wolf, Chicago protest organizer. “We wish to express our distress at the brutal treatment of peaceful demonstrators calling for legal reform … We call upon the Egyptian authorities to show respect for human rights and the independence of the Egyptian judiciary by releasing the detainees without delay.”
On Thursday, the group organized a peaceful protest, attended by around 25 people, in front of the Egyptian consulate to demonstrate solidarity with the Egyptian judges. According to their statement, the group condemns the “brutal crackdown, brutal beatings, unjustified arrest, verbal abuse and threats of sexual assault targeting female demonstrations and journalists,” which the Egyptian security police had carried out, targeting pro-reform protesters. The group also believed that “many of the injured demonstrators could not get medical treatment in Egyptian hospitals as they feared arrest.”
“Being outside of Egypt doesn't take away from our role and responsibilities as Egyptians to do our part to serve the freedom of our people,” said the Egyptian supporters. “Egypt needs its sons and daughters to take a united solid stance today not tomorrow. The sense of remorse and hopelessness we have felt in the past regarding the situation at home must cease to exist.”
As the activists protested in Chicago, Wolf said they received “accounts of torture” of some pro-democracy detainees at a Cairo police station by way of a Kefaya statement.
“I was outraged along with others here to read about the arrest and torture,” Wolf tells The Daily Star Egypt, adding that protesters in each city read the Kefaya statement to bystanders.
“If the Egyptian government believes that it will silence us in this way, I can only reply that brutalities such as these only serve to fuel our commitment to continue to organize solidarity with our Egyptian brothers and sisters.”
In New York, some 30 protesters carried poster-size pictures featuring police violence.
In the London protests, activist distributed fliers to spectators explaining the Egyptian situation.
“Like so many other Egyptians living abroad, we remain well connected with events and contemporary issues in Egypt. However, like so many others we have significant concerns regarding a nation whose values of tolerance and free expression we feel might be jeopardized,” read their flier.
"The intention is not a 'one off' demonstration that reflects a wave of sudden enthusiasm that might quickly dissipate; rather, it is of a sustained campaign that engages with the different active social groups and media.”
The Paris demonstration was organized with the help of the European Social Forum and Egyptian activists living in Paris, attracting around 30 people.
A group of South Korean activists staged a protest in Seoul in solidarity with the judges and activists. Last year, the same group organized a protest in support of Kefaya in the wake of its protests against the government.
May 25, the date most of the protests took place, marks what the opposition and human rights activist have called the first anniversary of "Black Wednesday,” when during a key vote on an amendment of an article in the constitution, opposition protesters were beaten and assaulted.
Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1674
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
IHT/DSE: Verbal Clash continues with Interior Ministry
By Pakinam AmerFirst
Published: May 25, 2006
CAIRO: Muslim Brotherhood members in parliament continue to appeal for what they have called a “confrontation” with the Ministry of Interior and the Prime Minister. The Brotherhood says they still need explanations and justifications for the events of “Black Wednesday,” involving large-scale arrests of Brotherhood members.
“This is pressure, not only on the interior minister, but also on the regime,” said Mohammed Habib, first deputy to the Brotherhood’s supreme guide.
More than 300 Muslim Brotherhood members were detained as protests surged in support of two prosecuted judges who were critical of last year’s presidential electoral process. Charges were pressed against some, while others remain in custody without charges or trial.
In the protests, hundreds of security units encircled groups of protestors for hours and then used violence to disperse them. Truckloads of policemen and plainclothes officers were deployed to the scene. Many activists were kicked, beaten with shoes, batons and heavy truncheons. Reporters on the scene were also assaulted, with cameras confiscated and journalists threatened.
According to an Associated Press report, “Plainclothes police were seen plunging into a crowd of demonstrators and beating them with short batons until they fell to the ground.”
”Police grabbed a middle aged man by his collar and hit him repeatedly as he screamed, ‘I didn't do anything,’” read the report. “A policeman repeatedly slapped a young man in the face using both hands.”
Throughout Egypt, independent and opposition newspapers have featured pictures of the events, as the Ministry of Interior denied the use of violence, saying that dispersing “illegal gatherings” was necessary and even claimed that the protestors attacked security units and beat up policemen.
The day after Thursday’s violence-marred protests, senior Brotherhood leader and group spokesman Essam Al-Arian and leader Mohammed Mursi, who was reportedly assaulted by the police, were arrested and detained.
“The extreme cruelty, violence and wide-scale detentions … these methods that the government, under slogans of reform, uses to repress pro-reform voices shows that the government is losing its legitimacy and credibility,” Mohammed Mahdi Akef, Brotherhood’s supreme guide, told a press conference on Tuesday.
“The Muslim Brothers that are suffering from prosecution and injustice are the responsibility of every Egyptian, every one who commits to protecting human rights and freedom and all those who are concerned with the problems of this nation,” he said. “However, despite troubles we will continue on our path to reform, with the help of God, until we gain our rights and freedom.”
Around 260 more Muslim Brotherhood members were detained in other pro-reform protests; some were even rounded up as they distributed leaflets criticizing the recently extended Emergency Law. The prosecution renewed their detention orders, but they have not yet faced trial.
Muslim Brotherhood parliament members have been calling for the release of all activists, demanding an investigation into police violence. When their requests were ignored, the Brotherhood decided to raise the stakes, threatening a sit-in in parliament if the ministry refused to meet them.
As Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif criticized the Brotherhood’s behavior in parliament, saying that they should not behave as a political group and that their presence will not be further tolerated by the state, condemnation of Nazif swelled.
“We have a secret organization represented in parliament,” Nazif had told the press.
“The statements of Nazif [against the Brotherhood upper house members] show that he has no respect for the will of the people; especially those who chose and voted for those members,” said upper house and Brotherhood member Mohammed Al-Katatny. “He does not even respect the constitution … he is not aware of the political reality.”
Meanwhile, the Brotherhood is supporting a campaign by the Judges Club demanding the immediate release of all the detained activists in Tora Mazraa Prison, including the Muslim Brotherhood members. The campaign involves carrying out peaceful sit-ins and protests during the next week to put pressure on the government. The pre-trial detainees are accused, among other charges, of illegal gathering, insulting the president of the state, distributing leaflets and hampering traffic in downtown Cairo.
Link:http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1638
Published: May 25, 2006
CAIRO: Muslim Brotherhood members in parliament continue to appeal for what they have called a “confrontation” with the Ministry of Interior and the Prime Minister. The Brotherhood says they still need explanations and justifications for the events of “Black Wednesday,” involving large-scale arrests of Brotherhood members.
“This is pressure, not only on the interior minister, but also on the regime,” said Mohammed Habib, first deputy to the Brotherhood’s supreme guide.
More than 300 Muslim Brotherhood members were detained as protests surged in support of two prosecuted judges who were critical of last year’s presidential electoral process. Charges were pressed against some, while others remain in custody without charges or trial.
In the protests, hundreds of security units encircled groups of protestors for hours and then used violence to disperse them. Truckloads of policemen and plainclothes officers were deployed to the scene. Many activists were kicked, beaten with shoes, batons and heavy truncheons. Reporters on the scene were also assaulted, with cameras confiscated and journalists threatened.
According to an Associated Press report, “Plainclothes police were seen plunging into a crowd of demonstrators and beating them with short batons until they fell to the ground.”
”Police grabbed a middle aged man by his collar and hit him repeatedly as he screamed, ‘I didn't do anything,’” read the report. “A policeman repeatedly slapped a young man in the face using both hands.”
Throughout Egypt, independent and opposition newspapers have featured pictures of the events, as the Ministry of Interior denied the use of violence, saying that dispersing “illegal gatherings” was necessary and even claimed that the protestors attacked security units and beat up policemen.
The day after Thursday’s violence-marred protests, senior Brotherhood leader and group spokesman Essam Al-Arian and leader Mohammed Mursi, who was reportedly assaulted by the police, were arrested and detained.
“The extreme cruelty, violence and wide-scale detentions … these methods that the government, under slogans of reform, uses to repress pro-reform voices shows that the government is losing its legitimacy and credibility,” Mohammed Mahdi Akef, Brotherhood’s supreme guide, told a press conference on Tuesday.
“The Muslim Brothers that are suffering from prosecution and injustice are the responsibility of every Egyptian, every one who commits to protecting human rights and freedom and all those who are concerned with the problems of this nation,” he said. “However, despite troubles we will continue on our path to reform, with the help of God, until we gain our rights and freedom.”
Around 260 more Muslim Brotherhood members were detained in other pro-reform protests; some were even rounded up as they distributed leaflets criticizing the recently extended Emergency Law. The prosecution renewed their detention orders, but they have not yet faced trial.
Muslim Brotherhood parliament members have been calling for the release of all activists, demanding an investigation into police violence. When their requests were ignored, the Brotherhood decided to raise the stakes, threatening a sit-in in parliament if the ministry refused to meet them.
As Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif criticized the Brotherhood’s behavior in parliament, saying that they should not behave as a political group and that their presence will not be further tolerated by the state, condemnation of Nazif swelled.
“We have a secret organization represented in parliament,” Nazif had told the press.
“The statements of Nazif [against the Brotherhood upper house members] show that he has no respect for the will of the people; especially those who chose and voted for those members,” said upper house and Brotherhood member Mohammed Al-Katatny. “He does not even respect the constitution … he is not aware of the political reality.”
Meanwhile, the Brotherhood is supporting a campaign by the Judges Club demanding the immediate release of all the detained activists in Tora Mazraa Prison, including the Muslim Brotherhood members. The campaign involves carrying out peaceful sit-ins and protests during the next week to put pressure on the government. The pre-trial detainees are accused, among other charges, of illegal gathering, insulting the president of the state, distributing leaflets and hampering traffic in downtown Cairo.
Link:http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1638
Monday, October 02, 2006
DSE: Finding the perfect balance
By Pakinam Amer
First Published: May 24, 2006
CAIRO: Karen Armstrong’s books on theology and history have managed to charm Egyptian readers, with new titles in demand, book sales high and often making the bestseller lists in Cairo’s bookstores.
Armstrong is famous in the Middle East for her books: “Islam: A Brief History” and “Muhammad,” a book recounting the life and traditions of the prophet of Islam.
So far, however, in Cairo, her most popular and best-selling books have been her comparative studies: “The History of God” and “The Battle for God.” These books not only review the origins of the three religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam, they also highlight many of the factors that characterize the three faiths and make them “strikingly similar,” in spite of stereotypes that indicate that they are not.
Armstrong teaches Christianity at London’s Leo Baeck College for the study of Judaism. Generally throughout her written work, she tries to spread ideas of tolerance and peaceful coordination between religions. Armstrong implicitly suggests that instead of working alone in an idiosyncratic way in a quest for ultimate meaning, the three faiths might benefit from questioning these meanings together.
“It’s a truism to say that Muslims, Jews and Christians all worship the same God. They all have remarkably similar ways of thinking about the divine, all of them,” says Armstrong.
“What struck me when I was researching for my book “The History of God” is how striking it was that working in isolation from one another and often from the spirit of deadly hostility, Jews, Christians and Muslims kept asking themselves the same questions about the divine and coming up with remarkably similar solutions.”
Armstrong likes to cite the story of Israa and Miraj, the Islamic story of the Prophet Mohammed flying miraculously to Jerusalem and later ascending through the seven heavens to meet God, as testimony to how unity is endorsed in the heart of Islam.
Drawing lessons of tolerance from this account, Armstrong says that, if anything, this mythos, central to the spirituality of Muslims throughout the ages, expresses two deep meanings. “It indicates the absolute active Islam or surrender to the divine, the return to the source of our being that every one of us has to make one way or another.”
“It also expresses the Prophet’s yearning to bring the people of Arabia right into the heart of the monotheistic family in the city of Jerusalem,” she says.
Instead of engaging in rivalry, Armstrong explains, “All prophets of the past welcomed the new prophet into their midst. The prophets all listen to one another and talk to one another and take each other’s advice.”
This story, says Armstrong, is the epitome of Islamic spirituality; it has pluralism and a sense of unity with the other religions of Abraham right at its heart.
“I think this is something important to ponder on in this time of strife, pain, anguish and conflict,” she adds, referring to the current conflict between the West and Islam.
Apart from studies into the three faiths, Armstrong has written books on Buddhism, while her dream project is a book about incarnation, which she is currently working on.
Meeting the woman behind the legacy in Cairo was an unforgettable experience; “an enlightening experience,” in the words of some of the Egyptian fans who met her.
With short silvery hair, a wide, bright smile and an air of modesty embracing her, Armstrong maintains the look of a humble academic as opposed to a celebrity, in spite of all the glitter, fame and popularity surrounding her work or the passionate applause she has received from critics and the public.
When she speaks, she does so confidently, almost defiantly; her voice clear and her ideas imbued with novelty, a marvel to the ears and mind and, even more importantly, the spirit.
Armstrong, who has undergone a long journey and struggle with religion, is currently one of the most trusted and wide-ranging experts on religion, especially monotheistic faiths. Her quest for “practical compassion,” as she chooses to define it, has led her to be what she calls a “freelance monotheist,” believing in one God and embracing many aspects from the three central faiths.
Armstrong was drawn to Islam early on in her personal quest. According to the theologian, the spirit of “tolerance and unity” is what first attracted her.
“It is this pluralism that first drew me to Islam; the endorsement of every other faith,” recounts Armstrong. “That Muslims are taught, ‘Say to the people of the book: we believe that your God and our God is One and the same.’ It was extraordinary to me coming to that; [considering the custom of] my Christian past which said that my church, not even my tradition, was the one true faith, the only one.”
Armstrong, who was born a Roman Catholic in 1945, says she gave up on her original belief when she was in her early 20s. In those early years, after failing to find God as a nun, she denounced religion all together and became in atheist.
Through the years, her beliefs were refined. She eventually returned to God, “but never to the Catholic church,” she says.
As a theologian, Armstrong says that “spiritual exercise” is one key to understanding that unfortunately many of those who aim to scientifically study scripture and text have abandoned it. Thus, Armstrong, who finds her ecstatus (stepping outside of herself) among books, research and religious texts, has her own form of worship and has found the right form of prayer for her “among the myriad forms of spirituality.”
Armstrong not only knows how to talk about God and his texts, but also loves to talk about him. With her passionate spirit fully engaged, she often lectures about her understanding of God. “We are talking about another reality altogether, another kind of reality altogether … He goes beyond anything we can conceive,” says Armstrong.
“God has an ‘ousiya’ an essence; that’s what makes God what God is … the essence of divinity is something that is always absolutely transcendent. We will never know it. It is one,” she said. “But when God in his ultimate transcendence makes himself known to us, he makes himself known through these outward signs that he has made accessible to us so we can grasp.”
What Muslims call “the ayat” or the signs of creation, she said, “are not God himself, but signs of his presence ... They are part of God, but they are not the whole of God.”
In Jewish mystical tradition, Armstrong cites, there is this concept of “God without end,” meaning that God can never be defined.
Armstrong, a scholar herself, encourages all believers to study God and their faiths. Armstrong says Muslims and non-Muslims all have the raw ingredients in their faith already. “You can just study it, and only turn to other traditions for spiritual inspirations,” she says.
Speaking about the issue of Islam and fundamentalism, Armstrong says that Muslims have alienated themselves. “What they need is to reach out to other faiths,” and to encourage dialogue, adds Armstrong.
“It is difficult to forget the pain or sweep it off the carpet,” Armstrong told The Daily Star Egypt earlier during her visit; referring to the horrors that Muslims, Christians and Jews have subjected one another to.
“We must all first recognize that we have all done harm to one another and we have inflicted suffering upon one another. But before these atrocities, religious people have preferred to be right rather than compassionate,” explains Armstrong.
“I think of my own tradition, I think of the Crusades … I remember the Crusaders started their journey by slaying Jews and Muslims and ended it by slaughtering Jews and Muslims in a two-day massacre. This has never been forgotten, and how could it be?” she says.
The difficulty people face in accepting what others say and the thought that “the other is wrong and we are right,” lies at the core of the problem. What we should think of, according to Armstrong, is “our world” and that our religions cannot accept this.
According to her, the keys lie in beginning with self-criticism, self-examination and in finding “compassion.”
“God does not change the state of a people, unless they change the state of themselves,” she says, citing a Quranic verse.
Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1631
First Published: May 24, 2006
CAIRO: Karen Armstrong’s books on theology and history have managed to charm Egyptian readers, with new titles in demand, book sales high and often making the bestseller lists in Cairo’s bookstores.
Armstrong is famous in the Middle East for her books: “Islam: A Brief History” and “Muhammad,” a book recounting the life and traditions of the prophet of Islam.
So far, however, in Cairo, her most popular and best-selling books have been her comparative studies: “The History of God” and “The Battle for God.” These books not only review the origins of the three religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam, they also highlight many of the factors that characterize the three faiths and make them “strikingly similar,” in spite of stereotypes that indicate that they are not.
Armstrong teaches Christianity at London’s Leo Baeck College for the study of Judaism. Generally throughout her written work, she tries to spread ideas of tolerance and peaceful coordination between religions. Armstrong implicitly suggests that instead of working alone in an idiosyncratic way in a quest for ultimate meaning, the three faiths might benefit from questioning these meanings together.
“It’s a truism to say that Muslims, Jews and Christians all worship the same God. They all have remarkably similar ways of thinking about the divine, all of them,” says Armstrong.
“What struck me when I was researching for my book “The History of God” is how striking it was that working in isolation from one another and often from the spirit of deadly hostility, Jews, Christians and Muslims kept asking themselves the same questions about the divine and coming up with remarkably similar solutions.”
Armstrong likes to cite the story of Israa and Miraj, the Islamic story of the Prophet Mohammed flying miraculously to Jerusalem and later ascending through the seven heavens to meet God, as testimony to how unity is endorsed in the heart of Islam.
Drawing lessons of tolerance from this account, Armstrong says that, if anything, this mythos, central to the spirituality of Muslims throughout the ages, expresses two deep meanings. “It indicates the absolute active Islam or surrender to the divine, the return to the source of our being that every one of us has to make one way or another.”
“It also expresses the Prophet’s yearning to bring the people of Arabia right into the heart of the monotheistic family in the city of Jerusalem,” she says.
Instead of engaging in rivalry, Armstrong explains, “All prophets of the past welcomed the new prophet into their midst. The prophets all listen to one another and talk to one another and take each other’s advice.”
This story, says Armstrong, is the epitome of Islamic spirituality; it has pluralism and a sense of unity with the other religions of Abraham right at its heart.
“I think this is something important to ponder on in this time of strife, pain, anguish and conflict,” she adds, referring to the current conflict between the West and Islam.
Apart from studies into the three faiths, Armstrong has written books on Buddhism, while her dream project is a book about incarnation, which she is currently working on.
Meeting the woman behind the legacy in Cairo was an unforgettable experience; “an enlightening experience,” in the words of some of the Egyptian fans who met her.
With short silvery hair, a wide, bright smile and an air of modesty embracing her, Armstrong maintains the look of a humble academic as opposed to a celebrity, in spite of all the glitter, fame and popularity surrounding her work or the passionate applause she has received from critics and the public.
When she speaks, she does so confidently, almost defiantly; her voice clear and her ideas imbued with novelty, a marvel to the ears and mind and, even more importantly, the spirit.
Armstrong, who has undergone a long journey and struggle with religion, is currently one of the most trusted and wide-ranging experts on religion, especially monotheistic faiths. Her quest for “practical compassion,” as she chooses to define it, has led her to be what she calls a “freelance monotheist,” believing in one God and embracing many aspects from the three central faiths.
Armstrong was drawn to Islam early on in her personal quest. According to the theologian, the spirit of “tolerance and unity” is what first attracted her.
“It is this pluralism that first drew me to Islam; the endorsement of every other faith,” recounts Armstrong. “That Muslims are taught, ‘Say to the people of the book: we believe that your God and our God is One and the same.’ It was extraordinary to me coming to that; [considering the custom of] my Christian past which said that my church, not even my tradition, was the one true faith, the only one.”
Armstrong, who was born a Roman Catholic in 1945, says she gave up on her original belief when she was in her early 20s. In those early years, after failing to find God as a nun, she denounced religion all together and became in atheist.
Through the years, her beliefs were refined. She eventually returned to God, “but never to the Catholic church,” she says.
As a theologian, Armstrong says that “spiritual exercise” is one key to understanding that unfortunately many of those who aim to scientifically study scripture and text have abandoned it. Thus, Armstrong, who finds her ecstatus (stepping outside of herself) among books, research and religious texts, has her own form of worship and has found the right form of prayer for her “among the myriad forms of spirituality.”
Armstrong not only knows how to talk about God and his texts, but also loves to talk about him. With her passionate spirit fully engaged, she often lectures about her understanding of God. “We are talking about another reality altogether, another kind of reality altogether … He goes beyond anything we can conceive,” says Armstrong.
“God has an ‘ousiya’ an essence; that’s what makes God what God is … the essence of divinity is something that is always absolutely transcendent. We will never know it. It is one,” she said. “But when God in his ultimate transcendence makes himself known to us, he makes himself known through these outward signs that he has made accessible to us so we can grasp.”
What Muslims call “the ayat” or the signs of creation, she said, “are not God himself, but signs of his presence ... They are part of God, but they are not the whole of God.”
In Jewish mystical tradition, Armstrong cites, there is this concept of “God without end,” meaning that God can never be defined.
Armstrong, a scholar herself, encourages all believers to study God and their faiths. Armstrong says Muslims and non-Muslims all have the raw ingredients in their faith already. “You can just study it, and only turn to other traditions for spiritual inspirations,” she says.
Speaking about the issue of Islam and fundamentalism, Armstrong says that Muslims have alienated themselves. “What they need is to reach out to other faiths,” and to encourage dialogue, adds Armstrong.
“It is difficult to forget the pain or sweep it off the carpet,” Armstrong told The Daily Star Egypt earlier during her visit; referring to the horrors that Muslims, Christians and Jews have subjected one another to.
“We must all first recognize that we have all done harm to one another and we have inflicted suffering upon one another. But before these atrocities, religious people have preferred to be right rather than compassionate,” explains Armstrong.
“I think of my own tradition, I think of the Crusades … I remember the Crusaders started their journey by slaying Jews and Muslims and ended it by slaughtering Jews and Muslims in a two-day massacre. This has never been forgotten, and how could it be?” she says.
The difficulty people face in accepting what others say and the thought that “the other is wrong and we are right,” lies at the core of the problem. What we should think of, according to Armstrong, is “our world” and that our religions cannot accept this.
According to her, the keys lie in beginning with self-criticism, self-examination and in finding “compassion.”
“God does not change the state of a people, unless they change the state of themselves,” she says, citing a Quranic verse.
Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1631
DSE: Press Round-up
By Pakinam Amer
First Published: May 23, 2006
CAIRO: The World Economic Forum (WEF) on the Middle East held in Sharm El-Sheikh and entitled “The Promise of a New Generation” is putting Egypt into the limelight as the event draws extensive local and international coverage.
National newspapers published round-ups of the conference’s key speeches and highlighted its high-profile attendees, while independent and international media chose a more focused approach.
The Christian Science Monitor set the event in the context of the recent violence against pro-democracy and pro-reform activists, saying that the forum comes only days after many were detained for supporting the then-prosecuted judges who had pointed to fraud in last year’s presidential electoral process.
“Nevertheless, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's opening speech Saturday at the forum defended his government's actions and its reluctance to reform,” said the newspaper. “Mr. Mubarak emphasized the regime's long-held policy that political change must be ‘based on a gradual prudent approach that ensures its sustainability’ adding that rushing reform would just lead to ‘chaos.’”
The media also highlighted Mubarak’s criticism of the United States as the forum’s events first unfolded.
According to Knight Ridder news service, “Mubarak told hundreds of analysts, academics and politicians … that nations should avoid double standards and selectivity when it comes to nuclear development, a reference to the United States' intense concern over Iran's nuclear ambitions and silence over the atomic arsenal Israel is believed to possess.”
"The winds of change in the Middle East will not bear fruit in the absence of addressing its conflicts and tensions: the stalemate in the peace process, the situation in Iraq, the controversy surrounding Iran's nuclear program, the situation in Darfur, the tension between Syria and Lebanon," Mubarak was quoted as saying. The president added that the world “steers away from unilateral action,” a statement that many interpreted as direct criticism of the United States’ foreign policy toward some countries in the region and its invasion of Iraq.
Despite Mubarak’s statements, the forum gained praise as Chinese Ambassador to Egypt, Wu Sike, said that the Egyptian government “is doing a good job” in hosting such a conference on the Middle East, adding that the conference is not only advantageous to the economy of Egypt but to that of the whole region.
Some opposition and independent papers made softer news their priority, following up on those detained at recent protests, the condition of the acquitted judge and the Muslim Brotherhood’s parliamentary controversy on their front pages.
The independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm reported on Deputy to the Cassation Court Hisham Al-Bastawisy, who suffered a heart attack only a day before his trial. The newspaper’s front page features a picture of Minister of Justice Mahmoud Abu Leil kissing Al-Bastawisy’s head as he visited him in his hospital room, an act that was deemed a form of “apology” after Abu Leil referred the judge to a disciplinary hearing. Al-Bastawisy was acquitted, while his colleague Mahmoud Mekki, who initially shared the blame, was reprimanded.
Meanwhile, the United State has condemned Egypt’s attitude toward protestors supporting jailed leader Ayman Nour and the two judges. Police dispersed demonstrations last week using truncheons and beating people with batons, punching and kicking them. Hundreds were arrested, with many remaining in Tora Mazraa prison, near Cairo.
"These [actions] strike me as not only wrong actions but mistakes, like beating people up and the heavy-handed security reaction to these things," U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick told the press. "The reason I say that is [because] I think that they conflict with the government's own desires and interests and where they [the government] want Egypt to go.
“It [beating protestors] is certainly not a pretty sight, but it is also in a way encouraging that you now have the people of Egypt trying to step forward and say: ‘Look now that there is a more open process we want to take part in it and we are going to insist on our political rights …’ It is the direction we would obviously encourage things to go.”
Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1612
First Published: May 23, 2006
CAIRO: The World Economic Forum (WEF) on the Middle East held in Sharm El-Sheikh and entitled “The Promise of a New Generation” is putting Egypt into the limelight as the event draws extensive local and international coverage.
National newspapers published round-ups of the conference’s key speeches and highlighted its high-profile attendees, while independent and international media chose a more focused approach.
The Christian Science Monitor set the event in the context of the recent violence against pro-democracy and pro-reform activists, saying that the forum comes only days after many were detained for supporting the then-prosecuted judges who had pointed to fraud in last year’s presidential electoral process.
“Nevertheless, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's opening speech Saturday at the forum defended his government's actions and its reluctance to reform,” said the newspaper. “Mr. Mubarak emphasized the regime's long-held policy that political change must be ‘based on a gradual prudent approach that ensures its sustainability’ adding that rushing reform would just lead to ‘chaos.’”
The media also highlighted Mubarak’s criticism of the United States as the forum’s events first unfolded.
According to Knight Ridder news service, “Mubarak told hundreds of analysts, academics and politicians … that nations should avoid double standards and selectivity when it comes to nuclear development, a reference to the United States' intense concern over Iran's nuclear ambitions and silence over the atomic arsenal Israel is believed to possess.”
"The winds of change in the Middle East will not bear fruit in the absence of addressing its conflicts and tensions: the stalemate in the peace process, the situation in Iraq, the controversy surrounding Iran's nuclear program, the situation in Darfur, the tension between Syria and Lebanon," Mubarak was quoted as saying. The president added that the world “steers away from unilateral action,” a statement that many interpreted as direct criticism of the United States’ foreign policy toward some countries in the region and its invasion of Iraq.
Despite Mubarak’s statements, the forum gained praise as Chinese Ambassador to Egypt, Wu Sike, said that the Egyptian government “is doing a good job” in hosting such a conference on the Middle East, adding that the conference is not only advantageous to the economy of Egypt but to that of the whole region.
Some opposition and independent papers made softer news their priority, following up on those detained at recent protests, the condition of the acquitted judge and the Muslim Brotherhood’s parliamentary controversy on their front pages.
The independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm reported on Deputy to the Cassation Court Hisham Al-Bastawisy, who suffered a heart attack only a day before his trial. The newspaper’s front page features a picture of Minister of Justice Mahmoud Abu Leil kissing Al-Bastawisy’s head as he visited him in his hospital room, an act that was deemed a form of “apology” after Abu Leil referred the judge to a disciplinary hearing. Al-Bastawisy was acquitted, while his colleague Mahmoud Mekki, who initially shared the blame, was reprimanded.
Meanwhile, the United State has condemned Egypt’s attitude toward protestors supporting jailed leader Ayman Nour and the two judges. Police dispersed demonstrations last week using truncheons and beating people with batons, punching and kicking them. Hundreds were arrested, with many remaining in Tora Mazraa prison, near Cairo.
"These [actions] strike me as not only wrong actions but mistakes, like beating people up and the heavy-handed security reaction to these things," U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick told the press. "The reason I say that is [because] I think that they conflict with the government's own desires and interests and where they [the government] want Egypt to go.
“It [beating protestors] is certainly not a pretty sight, but it is also in a way encouraging that you now have the people of Egypt trying to step forward and say: ‘Look now that there is a more open process we want to take part in it and we are going to insist on our political rights …’ It is the direction we would obviously encourage things to go.”
Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1612
DSE: Muslim Brotherhood pushes for investigations
By Pakinam Amer
First Published: May 22, 2006
CAIRO: Disputes between the Interior Ministry and Muslim Brotherhood members of parliament have intensified as the latter insist on a thorough investigation into what they call “the events of Black Thursday.”
“What is happening is taking us backward on the path of reform,” one parliament member was quoted as saying on the official Muslim Brotherhood Web site. “Especially since the assaults [during the protests] targeted political and national icons.”
Lately, Muslim Brotherhood representatives in parliament have been vocal about events surrounding a key trial of two deputies to the Cassation Court, Hisham El-Bastawisy and Mahmoud Mekki, who pointed out violations during last year’s presidential elections. Protests took place in the streets as the two were tried and police said that “they were obliged” to disperse the protests since they were illegal and unauthorized.
El-Bastwisy was reprimanded and Mekki acquitted in a hearing that aroused what has been called “opposition rage.”
During the protests, police used violence in dealing with the judges’ supporters; security forces beat and kicked many activists, assaulting Al-Jazeera and Associated Press reporters in the process, confiscating one journalist’s camera and breaking another. One AP reporter, Nadia Abul-Magd, was trampled by security police and threatened by thugs while covering one of the protests.
In addition, around 100 Muslim Brotherhood members were detained, including senior leader and group spokesman Essam Al-Arian and leader Mohammad Mursi, who was reportedly assaulted by the police.
On Thursday, protestors in support of jailed opposition leader Ayman Nour were rounded-up by the hundreds. The supporters surged against security forces, especially after the announcement that the court had confirmed the five-year sentence against imprisoned El-Ghad leader Ayman Nour.
According to George Isaac, founder and leader of Kefaya, “fresh faces” and unregistered supporters of the Kefaya (Enough) movement were also arrested.
Last week, 90 upper house members left the latest parliament session in anger and the next day members threatened to sit in if the parliament head, Ahmed Fathi Sorour, continued to refuse to discuss the “events of Black Thursday.”
Some Muslim Brotherhood members displayed poster-size pictures of policemen beating up demonstrators; giving visual evidence of “the extreme violations” of the riot units deployed to handle the demonstrations. The members wanted to meet with the Minister of Interior and not his deputies, to discuss such acts. They seek to make issuing reports concerning these incidents a parliamentary priority.
Lately, the Muslim Brotherhood have been behaving as a unit, including having a spokesman, a notion that has led the government to consider ways to prevent the group from running for parliament in the future.
"Islamists who say they belong to an illegal organization have been able to go into parliament and act in a format that would make them seem like a political party,” Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif told Reuters Saturday. “We need to think clearly about how to prevent this from happening … We have a secret organization represented in parliament. They are not individuals.”
When parliament agreed to extend the decades-old Emergency Law for two years, based on a presidential recommendation, Muslim Brotherhood representatives unanimously refused to pass the decision. In one session, all 88 members came to the parliament wearing black sashes around their shoulders, reading “No to Emergency Law.”
In response to the Brotherhood, National Democratic Party members reportedly distributed leaflets reading: “No to terrorism,” in what they considered a reminder of what the law was enacted to fight. Muslim Brotherhood members in turn dismissed the notion that the law was intended to fight terrorism, deeming it an excuse used by the government to extend the law in an attempt to squash opposition.
“I hope that the Muslim Brotherhood will achieve something through their recent stand in parliament,” commented political science professor and women’s activist Mona Makram Ebeid. “However, I do not think they will pressure the ministry.”
Ebeid added that the Interior Ministry will “probably” not respond to their demands for an inquiry into the “brutality” used by the police forces.
In similar rhetoric, Kefaya leader Isaac does not believe that pressing the ministry through parliament members will yield to investigations, even as disputes mount between the two sides and even if members of parliament “raise the stakes.”
“I know that they will push for [an investigation]. But the parliament does not concern us now… we are beyond this point,” said Ishac. “We, in Kefaya, are going to international organizations, local pressure is not enough.”
“We will never leave those policemen who assaulted us. We have pictures of the violations,” said Isaac. “We will go to the United Nations on June 19th, [and] later to Davos and the case of violence will be discussed and studied on the international level, as it should be at this point in time.”
Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1600
First Published: May 22, 2006
CAIRO: Disputes between the Interior Ministry and Muslim Brotherhood members of parliament have intensified as the latter insist on a thorough investigation into what they call “the events of Black Thursday.”
“What is happening is taking us backward on the path of reform,” one parliament member was quoted as saying on the official Muslim Brotherhood Web site. “Especially since the assaults [during the protests] targeted political and national icons.”
Lately, Muslim Brotherhood representatives in parliament have been vocal about events surrounding a key trial of two deputies to the Cassation Court, Hisham El-Bastawisy and Mahmoud Mekki, who pointed out violations during last year’s presidential elections. Protests took place in the streets as the two were tried and police said that “they were obliged” to disperse the protests since they were illegal and unauthorized.
El-Bastwisy was reprimanded and Mekki acquitted in a hearing that aroused what has been called “opposition rage.”
During the protests, police used violence in dealing with the judges’ supporters; security forces beat and kicked many activists, assaulting Al-Jazeera and Associated Press reporters in the process, confiscating one journalist’s camera and breaking another. One AP reporter, Nadia Abul-Magd, was trampled by security police and threatened by thugs while covering one of the protests.
In addition, around 100 Muslim Brotherhood members were detained, including senior leader and group spokesman Essam Al-Arian and leader Mohammad Mursi, who was reportedly assaulted by the police.
On Thursday, protestors in support of jailed opposition leader Ayman Nour were rounded-up by the hundreds. The supporters surged against security forces, especially after the announcement that the court had confirmed the five-year sentence against imprisoned El-Ghad leader Ayman Nour.
According to George Isaac, founder and leader of Kefaya, “fresh faces” and unregistered supporters of the Kefaya (Enough) movement were also arrested.
Last week, 90 upper house members left the latest parliament session in anger and the next day members threatened to sit in if the parliament head, Ahmed Fathi Sorour, continued to refuse to discuss the “events of Black Thursday.”
Some Muslim Brotherhood members displayed poster-size pictures of policemen beating up demonstrators; giving visual evidence of “the extreme violations” of the riot units deployed to handle the demonstrations. The members wanted to meet with the Minister of Interior and not his deputies, to discuss such acts. They seek to make issuing reports concerning these incidents a parliamentary priority.
Lately, the Muslim Brotherhood have been behaving as a unit, including having a spokesman, a notion that has led the government to consider ways to prevent the group from running for parliament in the future.
"Islamists who say they belong to an illegal organization have been able to go into parliament and act in a format that would make them seem like a political party,” Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif told Reuters Saturday. “We need to think clearly about how to prevent this from happening … We have a secret organization represented in parliament. They are not individuals.”
When parliament agreed to extend the decades-old Emergency Law for two years, based on a presidential recommendation, Muslim Brotherhood representatives unanimously refused to pass the decision. In one session, all 88 members came to the parliament wearing black sashes around their shoulders, reading “No to Emergency Law.”
In response to the Brotherhood, National Democratic Party members reportedly distributed leaflets reading: “No to terrorism,” in what they considered a reminder of what the law was enacted to fight. Muslim Brotherhood members in turn dismissed the notion that the law was intended to fight terrorism, deeming it an excuse used by the government to extend the law in an attempt to squash opposition.
“I hope that the Muslim Brotherhood will achieve something through their recent stand in parliament,” commented political science professor and women’s activist Mona Makram Ebeid. “However, I do not think they will pressure the ministry.”
Ebeid added that the Interior Ministry will “probably” not respond to their demands for an inquiry into the “brutality” used by the police forces.
In similar rhetoric, Kefaya leader Isaac does not believe that pressing the ministry through parliament members will yield to investigations, even as disputes mount between the two sides and even if members of parliament “raise the stakes.”
“I know that they will push for [an investigation]. But the parliament does not concern us now… we are beyond this point,” said Ishac. “We, in Kefaya, are going to international organizations, local pressure is not enough.”
“We will never leave those policemen who assaulted us. We have pictures of the violations,” said Isaac. “We will go to the United Nations on June 19th, [and] later to Davos and the case of violence will be discussed and studied on the international level, as it should be at this point in time.”
Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1600
DSE: Ayman Hour denied appeal
By Pakinam Amer
First Published: May 19, 2006
CAIRO: Jailed opposition leader Ayman Nour’s appeal case was rejected Thursday, with the Cairo Court of Cassation upholding the five-year sentence originally assigned.
Most reporters and journalists were kept away from the courtroom, as hundreds of activists and Nour supporters gradually flocked to Cairo’s Supreme Court. The press was denied entrance to the court, while security forces filled the court halls.
Security units cordoned off the courthouse, with truckloads waiting by and more forces called in to control what the ministry deems “illegal gathering” and protests. Similar procedures were used against Nour’s supporters and the press on the scene during Nour’s previous trial in December.
Before the appeal, expectations ran high and press reports circulated that the deputy to the Court of Cassation, supported by legal experts, said that the five-year sentence against Nour was “too harsh.”
Gameela Ismail, Nour’s wife and El-Ghad party spokesperson, told the press she would be “shocked” if her husband was not released.
Mona Makram Ebeid, veteran political analyst and former El-Ghad and upper house member, told The Daily Star Egypt before the results of the appeal were announced that she was hopeful Nour would receive a pardon. She said she was “on the optimistic side. The international public opinion is so much with him … but then again, perhaps it is just wishful thinking.”
However, “if he does not, I do not expect that the opposition will rise in his support,” Ebeid said. “His supporters are mostly individuals like the Muslim Brotherhood, many people from the left, right, the Nasserites, but no independent blocs … not as a bulk.”
“This comes from linking him with Americans,” added Ebeid.
The European parliament also supported Nour in a report released Wednesday, saying that the political leader’s case should be reconsidered and called for his release.
Amir Salem, human rights activist and one of Nour’s principal attorneys also told The Daily Star Egypt that Nour would “probably get a retrial and he will be given a new verdict” from the cassation court.
As Nour awaited his appeal in his prison cell in Tora Mazraa, he spent his time writing letters to human rights organizations and to Fathi Sorour, head of parliament. His wife, Gameela Ismail and his doctors have tried to convince him, unsuccessfully, to stop his now-three week long hunger strike.
Nour protested what he deemed “humiliation” and violations of his rights as a prisoner, with banning him from writing and putting him in “demeaning cell conditions” topping what his supporters called a long list.
“I was prevented from writing, which is a violation of my constitutional right,” said Nour in one letter. “My papers and letters were seized without grounds … my articles were confiscated because they criticize the ruling party.”
Ismail tells The Daily Star Egypt that the prison security was backed by the government, who wanted Nour to be “forgotten and banned from public life.”
Once called “a national hero,” Nour was quoted as saying that he intends to resign from his work as a lawyer. “The law is absent [in Egypt]; it’s on a break,” Nour had said in his letter to Sorour. “My resignation is not a message against the profession itself, which I treasure and whose people I have respected generation after generation, but it’s a message against the state that does not abide by constitutional and legal decrees and does not punish those who violate them.”
In his letters to human rights organizations, both local and international, Nour said he has been subjected to “serious violations” of his human, prisoner and constitutional rights. Nour also said that the prison warden had accused him falsely of “having suicidal intentions,” an accusation that Nour has vehemently denied.
“This claim might imply that I might be made to look like I had committed suicide or perhaps received death threats,” said Nour.
“AIDS, tuberculosis and scabies patients were put in the cell next to mine,” added Nour. “My right to send or exchange letters with my lawyers and family is also restricted.”
According to Nour’s letter, previous correspondence with Egypt’s prosecution and other organizations had been blocked, adding that on many occasions he was denied visits, which he should have been guaranteed according to international prisoners’ rights.
According to El-Ghad newspaper, the El-Ghad party mouthpiece, an inspection committee that examined Nour testified that iron cuffs were placed constantly around his wrists, leaving marks on them, an act that defies prison law, which should guarantee physical safety in custody.
Nour was indicted last December of forging documents and signatures needed to declare his party official. During his trial, chaos broke out outside the courtroom where most reporters where banned and pushed away. Many of Nour’s supporters and some human rights activists burst into tears as they heard news of the five-year sentence handed to Nour.
Nour was Mubarak’s strongest rival in last year’s presidential elections, earning around eight percent of the votes. However, in his latest parliamentary elections, he surprisingly lost his seat, while his party performed poorly.
Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1566
First Published: May 19, 2006
CAIRO: Jailed opposition leader Ayman Nour’s appeal case was rejected Thursday, with the Cairo Court of Cassation upholding the five-year sentence originally assigned.
Most reporters and journalists were kept away from the courtroom, as hundreds of activists and Nour supporters gradually flocked to Cairo’s Supreme Court. The press was denied entrance to the court, while security forces filled the court halls.
Security units cordoned off the courthouse, with truckloads waiting by and more forces called in to control what the ministry deems “illegal gathering” and protests. Similar procedures were used against Nour’s supporters and the press on the scene during Nour’s previous trial in December.
Before the appeal, expectations ran high and press reports circulated that the deputy to the Court of Cassation, supported by legal experts, said that the five-year sentence against Nour was “too harsh.”
Gameela Ismail, Nour’s wife and El-Ghad party spokesperson, told the press she would be “shocked” if her husband was not released.
Mona Makram Ebeid, veteran political analyst and former El-Ghad and upper house member, told The Daily Star Egypt before the results of the appeal were announced that she was hopeful Nour would receive a pardon. She said she was “on the optimistic side. The international public opinion is so much with him … but then again, perhaps it is just wishful thinking.”
However, “if he does not, I do not expect that the opposition will rise in his support,” Ebeid said. “His supporters are mostly individuals like the Muslim Brotherhood, many people from the left, right, the Nasserites, but no independent blocs … not as a bulk.”
“This comes from linking him with Americans,” added Ebeid.
The European parliament also supported Nour in a report released Wednesday, saying that the political leader’s case should be reconsidered and called for his release.
Amir Salem, human rights activist and one of Nour’s principal attorneys also told The Daily Star Egypt that Nour would “probably get a retrial and he will be given a new verdict” from the cassation court.
As Nour awaited his appeal in his prison cell in Tora Mazraa, he spent his time writing letters to human rights organizations and to Fathi Sorour, head of parliament. His wife, Gameela Ismail and his doctors have tried to convince him, unsuccessfully, to stop his now-three week long hunger strike.
Nour protested what he deemed “humiliation” and violations of his rights as a prisoner, with banning him from writing and putting him in “demeaning cell conditions” topping what his supporters called a long list.
“I was prevented from writing, which is a violation of my constitutional right,” said Nour in one letter. “My papers and letters were seized without grounds … my articles were confiscated because they criticize the ruling party.”
Ismail tells The Daily Star Egypt that the prison security was backed by the government, who wanted Nour to be “forgotten and banned from public life.”
Once called “a national hero,” Nour was quoted as saying that he intends to resign from his work as a lawyer. “The law is absent [in Egypt]; it’s on a break,” Nour had said in his letter to Sorour. “My resignation is not a message against the profession itself, which I treasure and whose people I have respected generation after generation, but it’s a message against the state that does not abide by constitutional and legal decrees and does not punish those who violate them.”
In his letters to human rights organizations, both local and international, Nour said he has been subjected to “serious violations” of his human, prisoner and constitutional rights. Nour also said that the prison warden had accused him falsely of “having suicidal intentions,” an accusation that Nour has vehemently denied.
“This claim might imply that I might be made to look like I had committed suicide or perhaps received death threats,” said Nour.
“AIDS, tuberculosis and scabies patients were put in the cell next to mine,” added Nour. “My right to send or exchange letters with my lawyers and family is also restricted.”
According to Nour’s letter, previous correspondence with Egypt’s prosecution and other organizations had been blocked, adding that on many occasions he was denied visits, which he should have been guaranteed according to international prisoners’ rights.
According to El-Ghad newspaper, the El-Ghad party mouthpiece, an inspection committee that examined Nour testified that iron cuffs were placed constantly around his wrists, leaving marks on them, an act that defies prison law, which should guarantee physical safety in custody.
Nour was indicted last December of forging documents and signatures needed to declare his party official. During his trial, chaos broke out outside the courtroom where most reporters where banned and pushed away. Many of Nour’s supporters and some human rights activists burst into tears as they heard news of the five-year sentence handed to Nour.
Nour was Mubarak’s strongest rival in last year’s presidential elections, earning around eight percent of the votes. However, in his latest parliamentary elections, he surprisingly lost his seat, while his party performed poorly.
Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1566
DSE: Activists protest violence against Egyptian journalists
By Pakinam Amer
First Published: May 18, 2006
CAIRO: More than 200 activists staged a loud demonstration in front of the press syndicate Tuesday evening, vehemently criticizing the use of force against journalists covering last week’s protests.
“Down … Down with the Emergency Law,” shouted some protestors. “Down … Down with the security police.”
The activists belonged to several groups: the Kefaya (Enough) movement, the socialist party, the Muslim Brotherhood and reporters making a stand in sympathy with their colleagues. Among the protestors was Muslim Brotherhood member and Islamist thinker Mohammad Abdel-Qudous, who has become a familiar face at most opposition protests.
During the protest, however, a minor dispute between protestors occurred, when two groups differed over the intensity of the slogans shouted against the government. Dozens of truckloads of security forces convened around the syndicate did not interfere. However, hundreds of riot police silently blockaded the entrance to the building.
The protestors held banners and pictures citing security violence during protests. Last week’s protests broke out on the day of the trial of two deputies to the Cassation Court, Hisham El-Bastawisy and Mahmoud Mekki. The two judges faced a disciplinary hearing, supervised by Minister of Justice Mahmoud Abu-Leil, for speaking to the press about what they deemed as violations and fraud during last year’s presidential electoral process.
Waves of protests in support of the two judges, with thousands of activists taking to the streets, were dispersed violently by state police. Reporters were harassed, with their cameras confiscated or broken.
One Al-Jazeera reporter was surrounded by a group of plainclothes security men and was punched several times in the face, an Al-Jazeera correspondent and eyewitness told The Daily Star Egypt. More than 250 were rounded up; in addition, some reporters were held temporarily in police trucks.
In the local and international press, newspapers published pictures of police beating activists using truncheons and brutally kicking them as they curled on the ground.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Interior responded twice to the incident.
In its initial response, the ministry said that the activists’ presence was illegal and their gathering unauthorized. “The police presence was crucial to guarantee the safety of the important court session,” the statement said, without commenting on the use of violence.
In their second statement to the parliament, however, the deputy to the ministry said that the protestors and activists “actually attacked the security forces and physically assaulted them” and that such attacks were recorded on film.
Such statements have not only aroused anger in the Egyptian political arena, they have drawn strong condemnation from international human rights and other concerned groups. The European Union in Brussels said it had followed “with concern” recent developments in Egypt.
“The scale of the police operation and the harsh manner in which these demonstrations have been policed appear as disproportionate,” said the report.
The EU report also expressed alarm concerning the pre-trial conditions of the detained activists, arrested during recent protests.
“According to lawyers of the detainees, a number of those held have been arrested under the provisions of the Emergency Law, for instance without an arrest warrant, which is a procedure only authorized under the state of emergency,” said the report, adding that the Emergency Law should not be extended beyond 2008, reminding the Egyptian president of his promise that the Law would only be used to combat terrorism.
Addressing the Egyptian government, the EU called on authorities to “allow civil society activists and other political forces to express themselves freely, to permit peaceful demonstrations and freedom of assembly and to maintain public order by transparent and proportionate legal procedure.”
New York-based Human Rights Watch also published a detailed report, publishing records of eyewitnesses and journalists present at the protest scene, along with names of 50 detainees referred to a Heliopolis police station.
According to the report, “Human Rights Watch called on President Mubarak to speak out against the attacks by plainclothes and uniformed security officials and to order an impartial investigation to identify those responsible and hold them accountable.”
“The government is apparently determined to stamp out peaceful dissent - literally,” Joe Stork, deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch, was quoted as saying. “It seems that President Mubarak sees growing popular support for the reformist judges as a real challenge to his [rigid] ways.”
Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1551
First Published: May 18, 2006
CAIRO: More than 200 activists staged a loud demonstration in front of the press syndicate Tuesday evening, vehemently criticizing the use of force against journalists covering last week’s protests.
“Down … Down with the Emergency Law,” shouted some protestors. “Down … Down with the security police.”
The activists belonged to several groups: the Kefaya (Enough) movement, the socialist party, the Muslim Brotherhood and reporters making a stand in sympathy with their colleagues. Among the protestors was Muslim Brotherhood member and Islamist thinker Mohammad Abdel-Qudous, who has become a familiar face at most opposition protests.
During the protest, however, a minor dispute between protestors occurred, when two groups differed over the intensity of the slogans shouted against the government. Dozens of truckloads of security forces convened around the syndicate did not interfere. However, hundreds of riot police silently blockaded the entrance to the building.
The protestors held banners and pictures citing security violence during protests. Last week’s protests broke out on the day of the trial of two deputies to the Cassation Court, Hisham El-Bastawisy and Mahmoud Mekki. The two judges faced a disciplinary hearing, supervised by Minister of Justice Mahmoud Abu-Leil, for speaking to the press about what they deemed as violations and fraud during last year’s presidential electoral process.
Waves of protests in support of the two judges, with thousands of activists taking to the streets, were dispersed violently by state police. Reporters were harassed, with their cameras confiscated or broken.
One Al-Jazeera reporter was surrounded by a group of plainclothes security men and was punched several times in the face, an Al-Jazeera correspondent and eyewitness told The Daily Star Egypt. More than 250 were rounded up; in addition, some reporters were held temporarily in police trucks.
In the local and international press, newspapers published pictures of police beating activists using truncheons and brutally kicking them as they curled on the ground.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Interior responded twice to the incident.
In its initial response, the ministry said that the activists’ presence was illegal and their gathering unauthorized. “The police presence was crucial to guarantee the safety of the important court session,” the statement said, without commenting on the use of violence.
In their second statement to the parliament, however, the deputy to the ministry said that the protestors and activists “actually attacked the security forces and physically assaulted them” and that such attacks were recorded on film.
Such statements have not only aroused anger in the Egyptian political arena, they have drawn strong condemnation from international human rights and other concerned groups. The European Union in Brussels said it had followed “with concern” recent developments in Egypt.
“The scale of the police operation and the harsh manner in which these demonstrations have been policed appear as disproportionate,” said the report.
The EU report also expressed alarm concerning the pre-trial conditions of the detained activists, arrested during recent protests.
“According to lawyers of the detainees, a number of those held have been arrested under the provisions of the Emergency Law, for instance without an arrest warrant, which is a procedure only authorized under the state of emergency,” said the report, adding that the Emergency Law should not be extended beyond 2008, reminding the Egyptian president of his promise that the Law would only be used to combat terrorism.
Addressing the Egyptian government, the EU called on authorities to “allow civil society activists and other political forces to express themselves freely, to permit peaceful demonstrations and freedom of assembly and to maintain public order by transparent and proportionate legal procedure.”
New York-based Human Rights Watch also published a detailed report, publishing records of eyewitnesses and journalists present at the protest scene, along with names of 50 detainees referred to a Heliopolis police station.
According to the report, “Human Rights Watch called on President Mubarak to speak out against the attacks by plainclothes and uniformed security officials and to order an impartial investigation to identify those responsible and hold them accountable.”
“The government is apparently determined to stamp out peaceful dissent - literally,” Joe Stork, deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch, was quoted as saying. “It seems that President Mubarak sees growing popular support for the reformist judges as a real challenge to his [rigid] ways.”
Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1551
DSE: Watching houses of worship crumble
By Pakinam Amer
First Published: May 18, 2006
CAIRO: As sectarian tension has grown in Egypt over the past few years, Copts have become more vocal about their concerns with the decades-long difficulties facing the building and restoration of churches topping their list of complaints.
The government has allegedly tried to ease the process that Copts have to go through in order to license a church or restore weakened portions in Egypt’s ancient or historic churches. However, many Copts say that reform has been too slow and repressive laws still exist.
“The issue of church building is old and is a result of a constitutional error that does not treat Muslims and Christians equally,” says Youssef Sidhom, editor of Watani, a weekly newspaper that focuses on Coptic society and related issues. “The path that a Muslim citizen follows in order to buy land, get authorization and build a mosque is enormously different from that of a Christian Egyptian citizen who wishes to build a church.”
In January, a church in Udaysat, a village near Luxor in Upper Egypt, was attacked on the eve of an Epiphany service. Press reports said that the fact that the worshippers were holding a service in an unlicensed church triggered the attack. The original church had reportedly been old and crumbling and was pulled down to make way for a new church; however, the church’s rebuilding permit had been pending since 1971. The Copts in the area had built a small building and used the space as it was for their prayers.
Such incidents have arguably brought the much-debated issue of church construction to the top of the Coptic-Christian agenda.
Conflict occurred between Muslims and Copts in Alexandria, where Copts in three churches were attacked during the daytime. One knife attack in front of the Saints Church killed a 78-year-old man. Egypt’s second largest city experienced heavy rioting and protesting, and Coptic anger has once again brought the crisis of church building into the spotlight.
The incidents also highlighted a parliamentarian’s initiative for a decree that standardizes laws governing churches, mosques and even Jewish synagogues.
Churches in Egypt are governed by a set of laws set forth by top government official Muhammad Al-Ezaby Pasha in 1934, the laws were formally known as “the ten conditions decree,” or the “Hemionic Line.” The decree outlines procedures that state security must fulfill before a church is built on any piece of land; security has the authority to recommend or reject the building of a church in a certain area.
According to the law, churches cannot be built in a privileged area - close to a historic spot, a government quarter, a water facility or the Nile. The distance between one church and another or a neighboring mosque must be “adequate.”
“It’s funny that this decree does not specify a distance. It only says ‘adequate,’ which is a very vague word and could be misused or interpreted differently by the security,” says Sidhom. “Some villages are forbidden churches, because state security says there is a church three or five kilometers away.”
Even if security initially approves the matter, the Muslim majority in the area has to be consulted. In the past, the final approval had to be issued by the president of the state. However, in 1996, President Hosni Mubarak issued a decision stating that the district head would approve the restoration of churches, and licensing for church building consequently became the responsibility of the local governors.
“It all comes back to the judgments of the local governor,” says Milad Hanna, Coptic thinker and writer. “He may delay the building of a church for a year … depending on his judgment. If it is a time of strife, he delays the building of churches so that the Muslims would not be provoked.”
The size of the church is supposedly limited as well. If security determines that the land could potentially accommodate a large church, says Sidhom, then “they would not approve the building of the church.”
Historically, rejections of a church license were always unfounded, even in official papers, until 2005, when Mubarak issued a decision saying that refusals had to be explained.
Limitations also apply to restorations, with detailed and often hectic procedures to follow. Even for ancient churches, some centuries old, property rights and documents have to be found and presented before any major restoration can take place.
“We have been adopting this cause since 1990,” says Hafez Abu Saada, head of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR). “The state is completely ignoring our reports concerning this matter. The Hemionic line must be eliminated, the 10 conditions. The heads of districts, local administrative bodies and central offices should take on this duty.”
Even in the new cities, built and constructed in the suburbs of Cairo, lands initially designated in plans for churches are sometimes ignored or used for other facilities. Although this is not often the case, the EOHR has received complaints about it.
On a general level, EOHR receives around five complaints annually concerning rejections of restoration and building of churches. “The rejections are not usually supported by real reasons; like for example, a rejection of [a] church because another church exists four or five kilometers away, or because of security fears,” says Abu Saada. “Those kinds [of] unfounded reasons show a preexisting intention to decline [demands for churches].”
Some argue, however, that “security fears” are well founded, since in some areas strife has mounted as Muslims and Christians dispute dominance through churches or mosques. Incidents of attacks against churches are not uncommon.
“The government must set laws to govern this process. No one should build a place for worship without authorizations; Muslims or Christians,” says Hanna. However, although Hanna acknowledges security considerations, he rejects the idea of security units making decisions. “We are not a police state,” he adds.
“It should not be up to the state security to point out areas where they think that it has extreme or radical Muslims and forbid churches on them. Muslims and Copts are best friends,” says Hanna. “If each has demands, then the governor should fulfill them, with the blessing of the state security… If problems arise, only then should security interfere. Forbidding something should not be the only option.”
In light of the difficulty of some of the procedures, Copts sometimes skip them and unofficially transform their houses, property and even garages into places of worship. Some build the desired church and file for a license later, a process that may take years to finalize.
“Unfortunately, such haphazardly ‘adapted’ churches bear little (if any) resemblance to the structure and architecture of the ancient churches of Egypt,” reads the Christian Coptic Orthodox Church’s statement.
Meanwhile, as voices are raised in protest, upper house member Mohammad Goweily has decided to make the church issue a priority. Goweily, responsible for the district of Shubra, which is dominated by Christians, said the rules restricting churches and bounding them by a top official’s decision is not even “logical.”
Goweily, during two consecutive terms, has been trying to pass a law that guarantees that mosques, churches and Jewish synagogues fall under the same laws and are not governed by state security.
“This is a protection for all. The supervision of the government on the building of any house of worship is essential. There must be guarantees,” says Goweily. “However, there must not be discrimination between a mosque, a church or a synagogue … between Muslims, Christians and Jews.”
When it was initially proposed, all upper house members, including the Muslim Brotherhood, hailed the law.
Some Coptic voices, however, remain discouraged.
“I would be very astonished if such a law is passed, at least during this session,” says Mounir Fakhry Abdel-Nour, a high-ranking member of Al-Wafd and former parliamentarian. “The parliament’s agenda is full and I don’t think it’s a priority.”
Abdel-Nour, like many others, argues that, as important as it is, the church issue is not the main source of Coptic troubles. It is the culture, says Abdel-Nour, who believes that Egypt’s education system and media, among other factors, create a culture of division and rejection of the “other.”
“In primary, preparatory, secondary schools … there is curricula that creates a cultural atmosphere that does not only lead to disrespect of the rights of citizenship, but also promotes division and strife,” explains Abdel-Nour.
Others like Safwat Al-Bayad, head priest of the Egyptian Anglican Church blame a wavering economy and religious rhetoric, Christian and Muslim, for Coptic troubles, deeming the church issue a shell for more deep-rooted matters of concern.
“The main concern is the clashes that occur between the people here [in Egypt],” said Al-Bayad. “People clash with one another because they are fed up. We [Muslims and Copts] have always been living side by side. However, young people are strained, unemployed … they need money. They’re easily exploited by some people; some people pull them towards [certain ideas].”
“Radical religious rhetoric is the main factor, like the clerics that stand in a mosque or a church and attack the other side, young people listen to these speeches. There’s nothing in their hands.”
http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1550
First Published: May 18, 2006
CAIRO: As sectarian tension has grown in Egypt over the past few years, Copts have become more vocal about their concerns with the decades-long difficulties facing the building and restoration of churches topping their list of complaints.
The government has allegedly tried to ease the process that Copts have to go through in order to license a church or restore weakened portions in Egypt’s ancient or historic churches. However, many Copts say that reform has been too slow and repressive laws still exist.
“The issue of church building is old and is a result of a constitutional error that does not treat Muslims and Christians equally,” says Youssef Sidhom, editor of Watani, a weekly newspaper that focuses on Coptic society and related issues. “The path that a Muslim citizen follows in order to buy land, get authorization and build a mosque is enormously different from that of a Christian Egyptian citizen who wishes to build a church.”
In January, a church in Udaysat, a village near Luxor in Upper Egypt, was attacked on the eve of an Epiphany service. Press reports said that the fact that the worshippers were holding a service in an unlicensed church triggered the attack. The original church had reportedly been old and crumbling and was pulled down to make way for a new church; however, the church’s rebuilding permit had been pending since 1971. The Copts in the area had built a small building and used the space as it was for their prayers.
Such incidents have arguably brought the much-debated issue of church construction to the top of the Coptic-Christian agenda.
Conflict occurred between Muslims and Copts in Alexandria, where Copts in three churches were attacked during the daytime. One knife attack in front of the Saints Church killed a 78-year-old man. Egypt’s second largest city experienced heavy rioting and protesting, and Coptic anger has once again brought the crisis of church building into the spotlight.
The incidents also highlighted a parliamentarian’s initiative for a decree that standardizes laws governing churches, mosques and even Jewish synagogues.
Churches in Egypt are governed by a set of laws set forth by top government official Muhammad Al-Ezaby Pasha in 1934, the laws were formally known as “the ten conditions decree,” or the “Hemionic Line.” The decree outlines procedures that state security must fulfill before a church is built on any piece of land; security has the authority to recommend or reject the building of a church in a certain area.
According to the law, churches cannot be built in a privileged area - close to a historic spot, a government quarter, a water facility or the Nile. The distance between one church and another or a neighboring mosque must be “adequate.”
“It’s funny that this decree does not specify a distance. It only says ‘adequate,’ which is a very vague word and could be misused or interpreted differently by the security,” says Sidhom. “Some villages are forbidden churches, because state security says there is a church three or five kilometers away.”
Even if security initially approves the matter, the Muslim majority in the area has to be consulted. In the past, the final approval had to be issued by the president of the state. However, in 1996, President Hosni Mubarak issued a decision stating that the district head would approve the restoration of churches, and licensing for church building consequently became the responsibility of the local governors.
“It all comes back to the judgments of the local governor,” says Milad Hanna, Coptic thinker and writer. “He may delay the building of a church for a year … depending on his judgment. If it is a time of strife, he delays the building of churches so that the Muslims would not be provoked.”
The size of the church is supposedly limited as well. If security determines that the land could potentially accommodate a large church, says Sidhom, then “they would not approve the building of the church.”
Historically, rejections of a church license were always unfounded, even in official papers, until 2005, when Mubarak issued a decision saying that refusals had to be explained.
Limitations also apply to restorations, with detailed and often hectic procedures to follow. Even for ancient churches, some centuries old, property rights and documents have to be found and presented before any major restoration can take place.
“We have been adopting this cause since 1990,” says Hafez Abu Saada, head of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR). “The state is completely ignoring our reports concerning this matter. The Hemionic line must be eliminated, the 10 conditions. The heads of districts, local administrative bodies and central offices should take on this duty.”
Even in the new cities, built and constructed in the suburbs of Cairo, lands initially designated in plans for churches are sometimes ignored or used for other facilities. Although this is not often the case, the EOHR has received complaints about it.
On a general level, EOHR receives around five complaints annually concerning rejections of restoration and building of churches. “The rejections are not usually supported by real reasons; like for example, a rejection of [a] church because another church exists four or five kilometers away, or because of security fears,” says Abu Saada. “Those kinds [of] unfounded reasons show a preexisting intention to decline [demands for churches].”
Some argue, however, that “security fears” are well founded, since in some areas strife has mounted as Muslims and Christians dispute dominance through churches or mosques. Incidents of attacks against churches are not uncommon.
“The government must set laws to govern this process. No one should build a place for worship without authorizations; Muslims or Christians,” says Hanna. However, although Hanna acknowledges security considerations, he rejects the idea of security units making decisions. “We are not a police state,” he adds.
“It should not be up to the state security to point out areas where they think that it has extreme or radical Muslims and forbid churches on them. Muslims and Copts are best friends,” says Hanna. “If each has demands, then the governor should fulfill them, with the blessing of the state security… If problems arise, only then should security interfere. Forbidding something should not be the only option.”
In light of the difficulty of some of the procedures, Copts sometimes skip them and unofficially transform their houses, property and even garages into places of worship. Some build the desired church and file for a license later, a process that may take years to finalize.
“Unfortunately, such haphazardly ‘adapted’ churches bear little (if any) resemblance to the structure and architecture of the ancient churches of Egypt,” reads the Christian Coptic Orthodox Church’s statement.
Meanwhile, as voices are raised in protest, upper house member Mohammad Goweily has decided to make the church issue a priority. Goweily, responsible for the district of Shubra, which is dominated by Christians, said the rules restricting churches and bounding them by a top official’s decision is not even “logical.”
Goweily, during two consecutive terms, has been trying to pass a law that guarantees that mosques, churches and Jewish synagogues fall under the same laws and are not governed by state security.
“This is a protection for all. The supervision of the government on the building of any house of worship is essential. There must be guarantees,” says Goweily. “However, there must not be discrimination between a mosque, a church or a synagogue … between Muslims, Christians and Jews.”
When it was initially proposed, all upper house members, including the Muslim Brotherhood, hailed the law.
Some Coptic voices, however, remain discouraged.
“I would be very astonished if such a law is passed, at least during this session,” says Mounir Fakhry Abdel-Nour, a high-ranking member of Al-Wafd and former parliamentarian. “The parliament’s agenda is full and I don’t think it’s a priority.”
Abdel-Nour, like many others, argues that, as important as it is, the church issue is not the main source of Coptic troubles. It is the culture, says Abdel-Nour, who believes that Egypt’s education system and media, among other factors, create a culture of division and rejection of the “other.”
“In primary, preparatory, secondary schools … there is curricula that creates a cultural atmosphere that does not only lead to disrespect of the rights of citizenship, but also promotes division and strife,” explains Abdel-Nour.
Others like Safwat Al-Bayad, head priest of the Egyptian Anglican Church blame a wavering economy and religious rhetoric, Christian and Muslim, for Coptic troubles, deeming the church issue a shell for more deep-rooted matters of concern.
“The main concern is the clashes that occur between the people here [in Egypt],” said Al-Bayad. “People clash with one another because they are fed up. We [Muslims and Copts] have always been living side by side. However, young people are strained, unemployed … they need money. They’re easily exploited by some people; some people pull them towards [certain ideas].”
“Radical religious rhetoric is the main factor, like the clerics that stand in a mosque or a church and attack the other side, young people listen to these speeches. There’s nothing in their hands.”
http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1550
DSE: Violence during judges’ protests dominates independent press
By Pakinam Amer
First Published: May 16, 2006
CAIRO: The aftermath of protests in support of prosecuted judges is still making headlines in independent and opposition papers.
“Egypt trampled by security police,” read Al-Fajr’s front page.
“The truncheon of the regime will not stop reform … we are beyond disciplining,” Al-Osbou’s headline quoted veteran journalist Muhammad Hassanein Heikal as saying.
In his weekly column, writer and upper house member Mustafa Bakri recounted the events of last Thursday, when hundreds of Egyptian pro-reform activists staged protests in front of the Supreme Court, near the Bar Association and inside the Judges Club.
The police dispersed the protestors using batons and heavy clubs, and around 250 activists supporting the judges’ cause were rounded-up and detained in Tora Mazraa Prison, near Cairo. Security also reportedly harassed and beat reporters, confiscating a video camera from an Al-Jazeera reporter and breaking another.
The protests come after two judges, Mahmoud Mekki and Hisham Al-Bastawisy, were given disciplinary hearings prior to a trial. The judges had allegedly leaked information to the press as they were supervising last year’s presidential elections.
Activists, however, believe they are being prosecuted because the two deputies to the cassation court took a stand and outlined what they considered “fraud” in the electoral process. The judges accused the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) of thuggery and said they were responsible for the violence that marred the process. The judges had also demanded full independence, threatening to boycott all forthcoming elections if their demands were not granted.
“When I went home after the protests, I felt suppressed; a state that every Egyptian must have been experiencing at that moment,” said Bakri, commenting on the violence used by Egyptian police forces and security units. “Now in grief, we ask ourselves: How can we protect the country and the people? How can we end this crisis that has overwhelmed us?”
A photo of a plain-clothed security officer kicking an activist in the face, as the latter lay curled up on the ground, accompanied Bakri’s column. The caption read: “Reform … in its latest fashion.”
Independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm reported a related incident where 90 upper house members left the latest parliament session in anger after the parliament head, Ahmed Fathi Sorour, refused to discuss events on what members called “Black Thursday.”
During the session, some members displayed poster-size pictures of police forces beating up demonstrators; visually citing what they consider “the extreme violations” of the security units. The members said that it was the parliament’s duty to issue reports concerning these incidents. According to the paper, one Muslim Brotherhood member even shouted in Sorour’s face, and called the NDP “unjust.”
Also according to Al-Masry Al-Youm, another Muslim Brotherhood member, Hussein Ibrahim, told the press that the “regime, thus, does not respect any human rights laws.”
“The government does not even respect the Emergency Law, because the Emergency Law does not give the police units the authority to brutally humiliate people in the streets and beat them with shoes.”
Meanwhile, the national papers’ front pages feature government-related updates and news of the latest match between the two rival clubs Al-Ahly and Zamalek with, Al-Ahly winning 2–0.
Al-Ahram also reported that President Hosni Mubarak is due to meet members of the NDP’s parliamentarian committee in five different governorates, starting next week.
“In response to the demands of citizens, the president issues important and critical decisions,” read one of Al-Ahram’s main headlines. “Water will reach middle Sinai to irrigate 140 feddans of agricultural lands, LE 110 million will be dedicated to water facilities in Areesh, Rafah and Sheikh Zuweid, [and] a fishing city worth LE 30 million will be constructed on the Ezbet Al-Burg coast.”
Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1523
First Published: May 16, 2006
CAIRO: The aftermath of protests in support of prosecuted judges is still making headlines in independent and opposition papers.
“Egypt trampled by security police,” read Al-Fajr’s front page.
“The truncheon of the regime will not stop reform … we are beyond disciplining,” Al-Osbou’s headline quoted veteran journalist Muhammad Hassanein Heikal as saying.
In his weekly column, writer and upper house member Mustafa Bakri recounted the events of last Thursday, when hundreds of Egyptian pro-reform activists staged protests in front of the Supreme Court, near the Bar Association and inside the Judges Club.
The police dispersed the protestors using batons and heavy clubs, and around 250 activists supporting the judges’ cause were rounded-up and detained in Tora Mazraa Prison, near Cairo. Security also reportedly harassed and beat reporters, confiscating a video camera from an Al-Jazeera reporter and breaking another.
The protests come after two judges, Mahmoud Mekki and Hisham Al-Bastawisy, were given disciplinary hearings prior to a trial. The judges had allegedly leaked information to the press as they were supervising last year’s presidential elections.
Activists, however, believe they are being prosecuted because the two deputies to the cassation court took a stand and outlined what they considered “fraud” in the electoral process. The judges accused the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) of thuggery and said they were responsible for the violence that marred the process. The judges had also demanded full independence, threatening to boycott all forthcoming elections if their demands were not granted.
“When I went home after the protests, I felt suppressed; a state that every Egyptian must have been experiencing at that moment,” said Bakri, commenting on the violence used by Egyptian police forces and security units. “Now in grief, we ask ourselves: How can we protect the country and the people? How can we end this crisis that has overwhelmed us?”
A photo of a plain-clothed security officer kicking an activist in the face, as the latter lay curled up on the ground, accompanied Bakri’s column. The caption read: “Reform … in its latest fashion.”
Independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm reported a related incident where 90 upper house members left the latest parliament session in anger after the parliament head, Ahmed Fathi Sorour, refused to discuss events on what members called “Black Thursday.”
During the session, some members displayed poster-size pictures of police forces beating up demonstrators; visually citing what they consider “the extreme violations” of the security units. The members said that it was the parliament’s duty to issue reports concerning these incidents. According to the paper, one Muslim Brotherhood member even shouted in Sorour’s face, and called the NDP “unjust.”
Also according to Al-Masry Al-Youm, another Muslim Brotherhood member, Hussein Ibrahim, told the press that the “regime, thus, does not respect any human rights laws.”
“The government does not even respect the Emergency Law, because the Emergency Law does not give the police units the authority to brutally humiliate people in the streets and beat them with shoes.”
Meanwhile, the national papers’ front pages feature government-related updates and news of the latest match between the two rival clubs Al-Ahly and Zamalek with, Al-Ahly winning 2–0.
Al-Ahram also reported that President Hosni Mubarak is due to meet members of the NDP’s parliamentarian committee in five different governorates, starting next week.
“In response to the demands of citizens, the president issues important and critical decisions,” read one of Al-Ahram’s main headlines. “Water will reach middle Sinai to irrigate 140 feddans of agricultural lands, LE 110 million will be dedicated to water facilities in Areesh, Rafah and Sheikh Zuweid, [and] a fishing city worth LE 30 million will be constructed on the Ezbet Al-Burg coast.”
Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1523
DSE: Judges receive worldwide support
By Pakinam Amer
First Published: May 15, 2006
CAIRO: Last week, protesters raised their voices in the United States; now the wave of protests in support of Egypt’s prosecuted judges has reached the British capital.
More than 50 Egyptians, English and European civil society members and activists assembled in Mayfair, London to protest what they deemed a blow to the independent judicial system.
“We are already very active in the London social, political and cultural scene, and we wanted to make sure our voice is heard when it comes to supporting our national cause,” says Ahmed Zahran, one Egyptian protestor. According to Zahran, the protest attracted Egyptian doctors, professors, journalists, young professionals and students who are living either permanently or temporarily in London, in addition to English activists.
The wave of protests was triggered when Egyptian police used violence in dispersing pro-reform activists protesting in support of two judges, Mahmoud Mekki and Hisham Al-Batawisy, last week. The two deputies of the cassation court were given disciplinary hearings for outlining what they had called “scam” and “thuggery” during last year’s presidential elections, and for allegedly leaking information to the press.
Over the past two weeks, Egyptian police have detained around 300 political activists including members of the Kefaya (Enough) movement and El-Ghad party, as well as two journalists.
Shortly after the detained were transferred to Tora Mazraa Prison near Cairo, 40 of them went on a hunger strike to protest their pre-trial prison conditions. In conflict with international prisoner rights laws, the activists were imprisoned in cells alongside convicted criminals. The detainees, who remain in custody, are charged with illegal assembly, creating public disorder, insulting the Egyptian president and blocking traffic in the downtown area.
The London protest included speeches by Egyptian participants and was covered by international networks. The speeches addressed what the protestors deemed the dangers of the government’s strategy and its crackdown on democratic voices, as well as the importance of activism and the participation of Egyptians living abroad in supporting their cause.
The protestors also talked about what they saw as “the general prejudice and suspicion that surrounds any activities by Egyptians abroad.” One speaker commented how “we should participate in our country's politics … as we have the right to do so.”
Some chanted: “Down … Down with Mubarak” as they held banners and signs criticizing the government, calling for democracy and demanding the immediate release of all political detainees. Others sang the national anthem.
Among the protestors were representatives from movements such as Stop the War Coalition UK, who has recently sent representatives to the press syndicate’s annual Cairo conference, and Egyptians who have been living in exile in London.
Among the protestors was Kamal El-Hilbawy, a former member of the Muslim Brotherhood and founder of Save Egypt Front, a Web site that constitutes an opposition front in London against the Egyptian government. In his online columns, El-Hilbawy has often condemned the Egyptian government; in a recent column he passionately praised politician Osama El-Ghazali Harb for resigning from the National Democratic Party.
Meanwhile and in response to the use of violence, the Ministry of Interior in Egypt issued a statement justifying the presence of thousands of security units and riot police amid the protests.
The ministry said the forces were deployed outside the Supreme Court to protect the integrity of the court session and to guard the event as the judges were tried. The ministry also said that the presence of such forces was essential to guarantee safety and to disperse flocks of people who - according to the statement - have illegally gathered and who have demonstrated without prior permission from the state security.
As a result of police violence, the court session was interrupted and thus postponed.
Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1509
First Published: May 15, 2006
CAIRO: Last week, protesters raised their voices in the United States; now the wave of protests in support of Egypt’s prosecuted judges has reached the British capital.
More than 50 Egyptians, English and European civil society members and activists assembled in Mayfair, London to protest what they deemed a blow to the independent judicial system.
“We are already very active in the London social, political and cultural scene, and we wanted to make sure our voice is heard when it comes to supporting our national cause,” says Ahmed Zahran, one Egyptian protestor. According to Zahran, the protest attracted Egyptian doctors, professors, journalists, young professionals and students who are living either permanently or temporarily in London, in addition to English activists.
The wave of protests was triggered when Egyptian police used violence in dispersing pro-reform activists protesting in support of two judges, Mahmoud Mekki and Hisham Al-Batawisy, last week. The two deputies of the cassation court were given disciplinary hearings for outlining what they had called “scam” and “thuggery” during last year’s presidential elections, and for allegedly leaking information to the press.
Over the past two weeks, Egyptian police have detained around 300 political activists including members of the Kefaya (Enough) movement and El-Ghad party, as well as two journalists.
Shortly after the detained were transferred to Tora Mazraa Prison near Cairo, 40 of them went on a hunger strike to protest their pre-trial prison conditions. In conflict with international prisoner rights laws, the activists were imprisoned in cells alongside convicted criminals. The detainees, who remain in custody, are charged with illegal assembly, creating public disorder, insulting the Egyptian president and blocking traffic in the downtown area.
The London protest included speeches by Egyptian participants and was covered by international networks. The speeches addressed what the protestors deemed the dangers of the government’s strategy and its crackdown on democratic voices, as well as the importance of activism and the participation of Egyptians living abroad in supporting their cause.
The protestors also talked about what they saw as “the general prejudice and suspicion that surrounds any activities by Egyptians abroad.” One speaker commented how “we should participate in our country's politics … as we have the right to do so.”
Some chanted: “Down … Down with Mubarak” as they held banners and signs criticizing the government, calling for democracy and demanding the immediate release of all political detainees. Others sang the national anthem.
Among the protestors were representatives from movements such as Stop the War Coalition UK, who has recently sent representatives to the press syndicate’s annual Cairo conference, and Egyptians who have been living in exile in London.
Among the protestors was Kamal El-Hilbawy, a former member of the Muslim Brotherhood and founder of Save Egypt Front, a Web site that constitutes an opposition front in London against the Egyptian government. In his online columns, El-Hilbawy has often condemned the Egyptian government; in a recent column he passionately praised politician Osama El-Ghazali Harb for resigning from the National Democratic Party.
Meanwhile and in response to the use of violence, the Ministry of Interior in Egypt issued a statement justifying the presence of thousands of security units and riot police amid the protests.
The ministry said the forces were deployed outside the Supreme Court to protect the integrity of the court session and to guard the event as the judges were tried. The ministry also said that the presence of such forces was essential to guarantee safety and to disperse flocks of people who - according to the statement - have illegally gathered and who have demonstrated without prior permission from the state security.
As a result of police violence, the court session was interrupted and thus postponed.
Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1509
Friday, May 12, 2006
DSE: Freedom of the press takes a blow
Freedom of the press takes a blow
By Pakinam Amer
First Published: May 12, 2006
CAIRO: Egyptian police beat up and temporarily held an Al-Jazeera cameraman, among others, while he was covering a protest outside the Judges Club on Thursday.
“A group of police thugs handpicked him from the crowd of journalists, around five or six thugs, and surrounded him,” says Lina Al-Ghadban, Al-Jazeera Cairo correspondent who was present at the scene. “He was badly beaten, punched several times in the face.”
According to Al-Ghadban, the cameraman, Yasser Mohammed, was standing in a group of other journalists and camera crews on the opposite side of the street from where the club was located.
The journalists were not allowed to come close to the gates, according to eyewitnesses, behind which hundreds of judges convened to protest the case of two of their colleagues facing disciplinary hearings for outlining what they called scam and thuggery in last year’s violence-marred presidential elections. The judges were harshly critical of the regime, chanting against Mubarak, and calling the government “tyrants.”
As the anger and the number of protestors mounted, riot police, who cordoned off the club, allegedly treated the journalists more aggressively. Cameramen especially, were pushed away from the club gates whenever they tried to enter.
“It really seemed that they had purposely targeted the Al-Jazeera cameraman,” says Al-Ghadban. After Mohammed was beaten, police detained him for over 20 minutes; policemen shattered his camera and confiscated the tape. Al-Ghadban convinced the police to release her cameraman, but was denied even the broken camera.
“I was not personally harassed … but they shouted at me: ‘Do you want to go home or not,’ which of course was a warning.”
Meanwhile, according to the correspondent, Mohammed sustained minor scars due to the beating. “They were very smart. They meant to beat him in such a way so as not to leave clear marks or scars. His face of course hurts and is swollen, but he is not bleeding,” says Al-Ghadban.
No other injuries were reported, although Al-Ghadban claims that others were later targeted. “I heard that several other journalists were beaten up and two Qatari journalists were arrested. So it seems that they did not want anyone to witness or record the protests, perhaps not just Al-Jazeera.”
Political, human rights activists and Muslim Brotherhood members were also present at the demonstration in support of the judges. According to BBC News, dozens of Muslim Brotherhood members were rounded up during the clashes.
This incident comes less than two weeks after Al-Jazeera Cairo Bureau Chief Hussein Abdel-Ghani was arrested, interrogated for around 40 hours and charged with propagating false information while covering the recent Dahab bombings, which killed 21 people and wounded 85.
Abdel-Ghani was released on LE 10,000 bail but is still on trial. Following Abdel-Ghani’s arrest, Al-Jazeera told Associated Press that his case is "a flagrant violation of freedom of opinion in Egypt and an insult to a journalist whose only fault was trying to ensure the free flow of information."
Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1468
By Pakinam Amer
First Published: May 12, 2006
CAIRO: Egyptian police beat up and temporarily held an Al-Jazeera cameraman, among others, while he was covering a protest outside the Judges Club on Thursday.
“A group of police thugs handpicked him from the crowd of journalists, around five or six thugs, and surrounded him,” says Lina Al-Ghadban, Al-Jazeera Cairo correspondent who was present at the scene. “He was badly beaten, punched several times in the face.”
According to Al-Ghadban, the cameraman, Yasser Mohammed, was standing in a group of other journalists and camera crews on the opposite side of the street from where the club was located.
The journalists were not allowed to come close to the gates, according to eyewitnesses, behind which hundreds of judges convened to protest the case of two of their colleagues facing disciplinary hearings for outlining what they called scam and thuggery in last year’s violence-marred presidential elections. The judges were harshly critical of the regime, chanting against Mubarak, and calling the government “tyrants.”
As the anger and the number of protestors mounted, riot police, who cordoned off the club, allegedly treated the journalists more aggressively. Cameramen especially, were pushed away from the club gates whenever they tried to enter.
“It really seemed that they had purposely targeted the Al-Jazeera cameraman,” says Al-Ghadban. After Mohammed was beaten, police detained him for over 20 minutes; policemen shattered his camera and confiscated the tape. Al-Ghadban convinced the police to release her cameraman, but was denied even the broken camera.
“I was not personally harassed … but they shouted at me: ‘Do you want to go home or not,’ which of course was a warning.”
Meanwhile, according to the correspondent, Mohammed sustained minor scars due to the beating. “They were very smart. They meant to beat him in such a way so as not to leave clear marks or scars. His face of course hurts and is swollen, but he is not bleeding,” says Al-Ghadban.
No other injuries were reported, although Al-Ghadban claims that others were later targeted. “I heard that several other journalists were beaten up and two Qatari journalists were arrested. So it seems that they did not want anyone to witness or record the protests, perhaps not just Al-Jazeera.”
Political, human rights activists and Muslim Brotherhood members were also present at the demonstration in support of the judges. According to BBC News, dozens of Muslim Brotherhood members were rounded up during the clashes.
This incident comes less than two weeks after Al-Jazeera Cairo Bureau Chief Hussein Abdel-Ghani was arrested, interrogated for around 40 hours and charged with propagating false information while covering the recent Dahab bombings, which killed 21 people and wounded 85.
Abdel-Ghani was released on LE 10,000 bail but is still on trial. Following Abdel-Ghani’s arrest, Al-Jazeera told Associated Press that his case is "a flagrant violation of freedom of opinion in Egypt and an insult to a journalist whose only fault was trying to ensure the free flow of information."
Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1468
DSE: Egyptians in four American states stage protests in support of detained activists
Egyptians in four American states stage protests in support of detained activists
By Pakinam Amer
First Published: May 11, 2006
CAIRO: In four American states, some 50 U.S. residents of Egyptian origin and American activists protested in support of political and human rights activists recently detained by security forces and held in Tora Mazraa Prison.
“We want to show our support to the activists in Egypt and show that there is mounting international pressure on [President Hosni] Mubarak's regime,” says Shehab Ismail, one protestor who is also in charge of circulating statements and petitions for the activists’ cause.
The protests came after police detained around 90 political activists during the past two weeks for demonstrating in support of two judges who received disciplinary hearings for outlining what they called “fraud” and “thuggery” during last year’s presidential elections. Among the detained were Kefaya (Enough) activists, El-Ghad Party members and two journalists. The detained were transferred to Tora Mazraa Prison, near Cairo.
Forty of the pre-trial detainees in Tora Mazraa went on a hunger strike to protest their prison conditions, where, against human rights laws, they were kept in the same cell with convicted criminals and were denied access to the prison mosque. Most of the detainees face charges such as creating public disorder, insulting the Egyptian president in a public gathering, distributing leaflets and disrupting traffic.
In New York, a dozen Egyptian and American activists picketed the Egyptian consulate. The National Council of Arab Americans and the International Socialist Review, published by the International Socialist Organization, initiated the protests.
The protestors, who were reportedly “loud and chanting,” held signs and banners reading, “This is Mubarak’s democracy… nothing but hypocrisy” and “What do we want: freedom… when do we want it: now.” Some chanted, “Free speech is not a crime… Why are reformers doing time?”
The biggest protest was in Chicago, attracting some 25 activists, who marched in downtown Chicago. “We got lots of notice and we handed out [our] statement to passers-by,” says Sherry Wolf, editor of the International Socialist Review and protest organizer. “Egyptian students held out colorful signs… We all carried signs with slogans like: Free the Egyptian reformers now… that had pictures of Egyptian state repression, with Arabic and English slogans.”
According to Wolf, they received the statement that the 40 detainees on hunger strike had sent out from prison by e-mail. Each picketer took his turn during the marches to read out the mail from the Tora Mazraa Prison.
The protestors then outlined their demands in a statement sent to both the Egyptian prosecutor general, to different Egyptian consulates and to the Egyptian Ambassador to the United States. Their demands included releasing what they called pro-democracy activists, ending the state of emergency, granting the judicial system independence and endorsing press freedom.
“As Egyptians living in the United States, we have been following the alarming setbacks of democratic reforms in Egypt,” reads the New York petition, signed by 30 Egyptian and American citizens. The petition also read that the activists detained “did nothing but exercise their right of publicly expressing their opinion in a peaceful manner.”
“We condemn the actions of the Egyptian police in attacking the protests,” reads the Chicago petition, signed by mostly American activists. “We call upon the Egyptian authorities to show respect for human rights and the independence of the Egyptian judiciary by releasing the detainees without delay.”
According to Wolf, the petitions were delivered to three consulates. However, in “San Francisco, the consulate informed picketers that all arrestees have already been released without bail and there was nothing to protest about.”
However, all the activists detained remain in custody.
“Everywhere else, we were treated coarsely by [Egyptian] officials, though never roughed up. There were no arrests,” Wolf tells The Daily Star Egypt.
Meanwhile, according to Media Line, another group of Egyptian political activists have started a campaign to protest the detention of Alaa Seif Al-Islam, a prominent Egyptian blogger who was also arrested during the protest in support of judges.
Internet Bloggers has also started an e-mail campaign aimed at Egyptian embassies and the U.S. State Department to push for his release. According to the same source, they are also planning protests in the United States, France, Italy and Germany.
“His blog was short-listed by Reporters Without Borders last year, as one of eight nominees for the best blog award in the category of freedom of expression,” reads the Media Line report.
The bloggers established a Web site to promote Seif Al-Islam’s cause, saying that his arrest is not a coincidence and claiming, “Government agents handpicked people to arrest from amongst the protesters,” as quoted in the Media Line report. “They have wanted to get [Seif Al-Islam] for a long time now, precisely because he is high profile, and because he helps organize the protests and spreads the information through the blog aggregator he runs.”
In addition to the activists’ arrest, more than 50 Muslim Brotherhood members were arrested following the renewal of the 25-year-old Emergency Law. Some Brotherhood members were arrested as they hung up wall posters condemning the Emergency Law and criticizing the government.
In response, New York-based Human Rights Watch has strongly criticized the mass arrests in their latest report on Egypt.
Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1462
By Pakinam Amer
First Published: May 11, 2006
CAIRO: In four American states, some 50 U.S. residents of Egyptian origin and American activists protested in support of political and human rights activists recently detained by security forces and held in Tora Mazraa Prison.
“We want to show our support to the activists in Egypt and show that there is mounting international pressure on [President Hosni] Mubarak's regime,” says Shehab Ismail, one protestor who is also in charge of circulating statements and petitions for the activists’ cause.
The protests came after police detained around 90 political activists during the past two weeks for demonstrating in support of two judges who received disciplinary hearings for outlining what they called “fraud” and “thuggery” during last year’s presidential elections. Among the detained were Kefaya (Enough) activists, El-Ghad Party members and two journalists. The detained were transferred to Tora Mazraa Prison, near Cairo.
Forty of the pre-trial detainees in Tora Mazraa went on a hunger strike to protest their prison conditions, where, against human rights laws, they were kept in the same cell with convicted criminals and were denied access to the prison mosque. Most of the detainees face charges such as creating public disorder, insulting the Egyptian president in a public gathering, distributing leaflets and disrupting traffic.
In New York, a dozen Egyptian and American activists picketed the Egyptian consulate. The National Council of Arab Americans and the International Socialist Review, published by the International Socialist Organization, initiated the protests.
The protestors, who were reportedly “loud and chanting,” held signs and banners reading, “This is Mubarak’s democracy… nothing but hypocrisy” and “What do we want: freedom… when do we want it: now.” Some chanted, “Free speech is not a crime… Why are reformers doing time?”
The biggest protest was in Chicago, attracting some 25 activists, who marched in downtown Chicago. “We got lots of notice and we handed out [our] statement to passers-by,” says Sherry Wolf, editor of the International Socialist Review and protest organizer. “Egyptian students held out colorful signs… We all carried signs with slogans like: Free the Egyptian reformers now… that had pictures of Egyptian state repression, with Arabic and English slogans.”
According to Wolf, they received the statement that the 40 detainees on hunger strike had sent out from prison by e-mail. Each picketer took his turn during the marches to read out the mail from the Tora Mazraa Prison.
The protestors then outlined their demands in a statement sent to both the Egyptian prosecutor general, to different Egyptian consulates and to the Egyptian Ambassador to the United States. Their demands included releasing what they called pro-democracy activists, ending the state of emergency, granting the judicial system independence and endorsing press freedom.
“As Egyptians living in the United States, we have been following the alarming setbacks of democratic reforms in Egypt,” reads the New York petition, signed by 30 Egyptian and American citizens. The petition also read that the activists detained “did nothing but exercise their right of publicly expressing their opinion in a peaceful manner.”
“We condemn the actions of the Egyptian police in attacking the protests,” reads the Chicago petition, signed by mostly American activists. “We call upon the Egyptian authorities to show respect for human rights and the independence of the Egyptian judiciary by releasing the detainees without delay.”
According to Wolf, the petitions were delivered to three consulates. However, in “San Francisco, the consulate informed picketers that all arrestees have already been released without bail and there was nothing to protest about.”
However, all the activists detained remain in custody.
“Everywhere else, we were treated coarsely by [Egyptian] officials, though never roughed up. There were no arrests,” Wolf tells The Daily Star Egypt.
Meanwhile, according to Media Line, another group of Egyptian political activists have started a campaign to protest the detention of Alaa Seif Al-Islam, a prominent Egyptian blogger who was also arrested during the protest in support of judges.
Internet Bloggers has also started an e-mail campaign aimed at Egyptian embassies and the U.S. State Department to push for his release. According to the same source, they are also planning protests in the United States, France, Italy and Germany.
“His blog was short-listed by Reporters Without Borders last year, as one of eight nominees for the best blog award in the category of freedom of expression,” reads the Media Line report.
The bloggers established a Web site to promote Seif Al-Islam’s cause, saying that his arrest is not a coincidence and claiming, “Government agents handpicked people to arrest from amongst the protesters,” as quoted in the Media Line report. “They have wanted to get [Seif Al-Islam] for a long time now, precisely because he is high profile, and because he helps organize the protests and spreads the information through the blog aggregator he runs.”
In addition to the activists’ arrest, more than 50 Muslim Brotherhood members were arrested following the renewal of the 25-year-old Emergency Law. Some Brotherhood members were arrested as they hung up wall posters condemning the Emergency Law and criticizing the government.
In response, New York-based Human Rights Watch has strongly criticized the mass arrests in their latest report on Egypt.
Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1462
DSE: Emergency Law leading to more instability
Emergency Law leading to more instability
By Pakinam Amer
First Published: May 10, 2006
CAIRO: Opposition forces claim that following the extension of the Emergency Law security forces have been “harsher” and “stricter” in their policy. In response, some political and judicial blocs have organized a conference to combat the law’s “hegemony.”
Following the renewal of the Emergency Law, at least 70 political and human rights activists were arrested; some 20 were rounded up on Monday for protesting in front of Cairo’s Supreme Court.
Monday’s group was charged with insulting the president, demonstrating and distributing leaflets. The police did not hesitate to use force to curb the protestors, according to human rights activist Aida Seif El-Dawla who was present at the scene. Some of the protestors were women, who claimed to have been pushed, shoved and beaten with batons.
Meanwhile, following their conference, the Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary (ACIJLP) published reports and recommendations concerning the Emergency Law, deeming the law unconstitutional.
The conference, entitled “The Constitutional and Legislative Organization of the State of Emergency in Egypt” featured the participation of different policymakers and lawmakers, diplomats, journalists and upper house members.
During the conference, the participants expressed their perceptions of the position of Egyptian legislation and international agreements on declaring a state of emergency for an additional two years, despite fierce opposition.
The participants also discussed the regulations governing the law and the constitutional framework that should have guided its extension. The center also attempted to examine whether the reasons for declaring and extending the state of emergency were truly in the interest of public rights and personal freedoms or in fact trampled them.
According to the ACIJLP conference report, extending this “exceptional” law lacks “realistic grounds and misses the reasons stated in the Emergency Law itself.”
The first article of the Emergency Law reads that “a state of emergency may be declared whenever security or public order are threatened in the Republic's territories or parts of it, whether through a war, conditions that threaten with war, internal unrest, natural disasters or an epidemic.”
The participants also argued that extending the Emergency Law had not led to more stability contrary to what the government “envisioned.”
The law in fact reinforces “the international community's view of Egypt as an unstable area … while the state [claims otherwise by trying to] convince the world and investors that Egypt is experiencing real stability.” The law, according to ACIJLP, also enticed negative reactions that “will impact the economy in the coming period,” read their report.
Last week, the U.S. state department strongly criticized the extension of the law, saying that it restrains freedom and reform. International human rights groups, with the New York-based Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International topping the list, published reports linking recent violations of human and prisoners’ rights to the state of emergency, calling on President Hosni Mubarak to keep his promises and abolish the much-criticized law.
“The government pledged to refrain from resorting to the Emergency Law against intellectuals, writers and those who express their opinion, emphasizing that the law will only be used to pursue terrorism,” said the law center representatives at the conference. “Daily events affirm the use of the Emergency Law against journalists, union members and human rights activists.”
“Moreover, the provisions of exceptional nature present in the Penal Code, known as the Anti-Terrorism Law, would suffice to pursue terrorists.”
The center has called upon political and civil forces to pressure the government by directly asking the president to immediately “intervene to lift the state of emergency in accordance with the principles of legitimacy and to implement his election program.” Lawmakers also suggested that adequate compensation is essential to rehabilitating what they called the “victims of the Emergency Law” and their families.
“We call upon the media, particularly the independent media, to broadcast the trials, investigations and cases that are based on the state of emergency.”
Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1445
By Pakinam Amer
First Published: May 10, 2006
CAIRO: Opposition forces claim that following the extension of the Emergency Law security forces have been “harsher” and “stricter” in their policy. In response, some political and judicial blocs have organized a conference to combat the law’s “hegemony.”
Following the renewal of the Emergency Law, at least 70 political and human rights activists were arrested; some 20 were rounded up on Monday for protesting in front of Cairo’s Supreme Court.
Monday’s group was charged with insulting the president, demonstrating and distributing leaflets. The police did not hesitate to use force to curb the protestors, according to human rights activist Aida Seif El-Dawla who was present at the scene. Some of the protestors were women, who claimed to have been pushed, shoved and beaten with batons.
Meanwhile, following their conference, the Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary (ACIJLP) published reports and recommendations concerning the Emergency Law, deeming the law unconstitutional.
The conference, entitled “The Constitutional and Legislative Organization of the State of Emergency in Egypt” featured the participation of different policymakers and lawmakers, diplomats, journalists and upper house members.
During the conference, the participants expressed their perceptions of the position of Egyptian legislation and international agreements on declaring a state of emergency for an additional two years, despite fierce opposition.
The participants also discussed the regulations governing the law and the constitutional framework that should have guided its extension. The center also attempted to examine whether the reasons for declaring and extending the state of emergency were truly in the interest of public rights and personal freedoms or in fact trampled them.
According to the ACIJLP conference report, extending this “exceptional” law lacks “realistic grounds and misses the reasons stated in the Emergency Law itself.”
The first article of the Emergency Law reads that “a state of emergency may be declared whenever security or public order are threatened in the Republic's territories or parts of it, whether through a war, conditions that threaten with war, internal unrest, natural disasters or an epidemic.”
The participants also argued that extending the Emergency Law had not led to more stability contrary to what the government “envisioned.”
The law in fact reinforces “the international community's view of Egypt as an unstable area … while the state [claims otherwise by trying to] convince the world and investors that Egypt is experiencing real stability.” The law, according to ACIJLP, also enticed negative reactions that “will impact the economy in the coming period,” read their report.
Last week, the U.S. state department strongly criticized the extension of the law, saying that it restrains freedom and reform. International human rights groups, with the New York-based Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International topping the list, published reports linking recent violations of human and prisoners’ rights to the state of emergency, calling on President Hosni Mubarak to keep his promises and abolish the much-criticized law.
“The government pledged to refrain from resorting to the Emergency Law against intellectuals, writers and those who express their opinion, emphasizing that the law will only be used to pursue terrorism,” said the law center representatives at the conference. “Daily events affirm the use of the Emergency Law against journalists, union members and human rights activists.”
“Moreover, the provisions of exceptional nature present in the Penal Code, known as the Anti-Terrorism Law, would suffice to pursue terrorists.”
The center has called upon political and civil forces to pressure the government by directly asking the president to immediately “intervene to lift the state of emergency in accordance with the principles of legitimacy and to implement his election program.” Lawmakers also suggested that adequate compensation is essential to rehabilitating what they called the “victims of the Emergency Law” and their families.
“We call upon the media, particularly the independent media, to broadcast the trials, investigations and cases that are based on the state of emergency.”
Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1445
DSE: Demands for judiciary independence dominate the news
Demands for judiciary independence dominate the news
By Pakinam Amer
First Published: May 9, 2006
CAIRO: The Judges Syndicate has decided to discuss the independence of the judiciary in a conference slated for May 17, reported Al-Masry Al-Youm. The conference is scheduled to include Egyptian journalists, parliamentarians, thinkers and law experts.
The judges said they will plan ways to make the judiciary independent from the state, in an attempt to end the crisis facing the judges.
After two high-profile deputies to the Cassation Court, Hisham Al-Bastawisy and Mahmoud Makki, were referred to disciplinary hearings before the Ministry of Interior, the judges voiced their protest and filed a court case against the decision in a Cairo cassation court.
The two prosecuted judges had filed an inquiry and demanded investigations into the 2005 presidential elections, calling the elections “corrupt” and marred by “thuggery” and “fraud.”
As the judges sat-in at their club for days, the police cracked down on their protests; dispersing the groups using force and beating one judge with batons and sticks. Although the police deny that violence occurred and the government has separated itself from the crisis, the judges see the policies of the current government as the main stumbling block obstructing reform, according to the independent newspaper.
The judges also vowed to continue to protest, reported Al-Masry Al-Youm, and have already met with around 35 human rights and civil society groups and activists in order to organize a sit-in by the Judges Club compound by the end of this month. This time the protest will fit the high status and reputation of the judges, they said in their statements.
According to Al-Masry Al-Youm, the judges currently carry out their meetings under tight security measures, with truckloads of security police encircling their headquarters to prevent outbreaks of riots or protests.
The judges’ statements coincided with the prosecutor’s order to detain eight pro-reform activists, raising the number of detained activists to 48, some of whom demonstrated for the judges’ cause less than two weeks ago.
"The detained people are charged with disrupting traffic, obstructing the state from carrying out its duties and insulting the president," one of the security officials told Reuters.
“The activists said police encircled and beat them before dragging away specific activists, including Alaa Seif Al-Islam, who maintains a pro-reform Web blog,” said the Reuters report, adding, “security sources also said police had picked up at dawn four members of the Islamist opposition Muslim Brotherhood in Alexandria. Brotherhood officials say about 50 of their member’s remains in custody.”
Also in Al-Masry Al-Youm, political analyst and journalist Mohammad Hassanein Heikal voiced his criticism of the current government in an open discussion with the press. “There are few options for this country, we need change on a wider level,” said Heikal. “We need a new constitution.”
“The current [government] does not have a set project, a plan, for reform in politics, economy, or even on the social level,” said Heikal. “It is a disaster. What we see now has only created hope for everybody … but in the end [nothing happens] and we see everyone is fighting one another.”
“[The government] will not willingly accept change. We must unite and exert pressure on the government as groups for change to take place.”
Speaking on the conditions of the press in Egypt, Heikal said that the Egyptian press “is at its worst.” Heikal said that encouragement for reporters in these difficult times is most desperately needed. Donation grants, fellowships and awards for journalists are necessary in order to raise the quality of journalism, said Heikal, and make it more informative on all levels, in terms of both editorials and news.
Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1436
By Pakinam Amer
First Published: May 9, 2006
CAIRO: The Judges Syndicate has decided to discuss the independence of the judiciary in a conference slated for May 17, reported Al-Masry Al-Youm. The conference is scheduled to include Egyptian journalists, parliamentarians, thinkers and law experts.
The judges said they will plan ways to make the judiciary independent from the state, in an attempt to end the crisis facing the judges.
After two high-profile deputies to the Cassation Court, Hisham Al-Bastawisy and Mahmoud Makki, were referred to disciplinary hearings before the Ministry of Interior, the judges voiced their protest and filed a court case against the decision in a Cairo cassation court.
The two prosecuted judges had filed an inquiry and demanded investigations into the 2005 presidential elections, calling the elections “corrupt” and marred by “thuggery” and “fraud.”
As the judges sat-in at their club for days, the police cracked down on their protests; dispersing the groups using force and beating one judge with batons and sticks. Although the police deny that violence occurred and the government has separated itself from the crisis, the judges see the policies of the current government as the main stumbling block obstructing reform, according to the independent newspaper.
The judges also vowed to continue to protest, reported Al-Masry Al-Youm, and have already met with around 35 human rights and civil society groups and activists in order to organize a sit-in by the Judges Club compound by the end of this month. This time the protest will fit the high status and reputation of the judges, they said in their statements.
According to Al-Masry Al-Youm, the judges currently carry out their meetings under tight security measures, with truckloads of security police encircling their headquarters to prevent outbreaks of riots or protests.
The judges’ statements coincided with the prosecutor’s order to detain eight pro-reform activists, raising the number of detained activists to 48, some of whom demonstrated for the judges’ cause less than two weeks ago.
"The detained people are charged with disrupting traffic, obstructing the state from carrying out its duties and insulting the president," one of the security officials told Reuters.
“The activists said police encircled and beat them before dragging away specific activists, including Alaa Seif Al-Islam, who maintains a pro-reform Web blog,” said the Reuters report, adding, “security sources also said police had picked up at dawn four members of the Islamist opposition Muslim Brotherhood in Alexandria. Brotherhood officials say about 50 of their member’s remains in custody.”
Also in Al-Masry Al-Youm, political analyst and journalist Mohammad Hassanein Heikal voiced his criticism of the current government in an open discussion with the press. “There are few options for this country, we need change on a wider level,” said Heikal. “We need a new constitution.”
“The current [government] does not have a set project, a plan, for reform in politics, economy, or even on the social level,” said Heikal. “It is a disaster. What we see now has only created hope for everybody … but in the end [nothing happens] and we see everyone is fighting one another.”
“[The government] will not willingly accept change. We must unite and exert pressure on the government as groups for change to take place.”
Speaking on the conditions of the press in Egypt, Heikal said that the Egyptian press “is at its worst.” Heikal said that encouragement for reporters in these difficult times is most desperately needed. Donation grants, fellowships and awards for journalists are necessary in order to raise the quality of journalism, said Heikal, and make it more informative on all levels, in terms of both editorials and news.
Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1436
Monday, May 08, 2006
DSE: Activists protest pre-trial treatment of detainees
Activists protest pre-trial treatment of detainees
By Pakinam Amer
First Published: May 8, 2006
CAIRO: Around 30 rights activists and Kefaya movement (Enough) leaders protested Sunday in support of Kefaya members, political activists and two journalists, temporarily detained at Tora Mazraa Prison near Cairo.
The activists, who were encircled and cordoned off by security police in front of the Supreme Court, had initially wanted to attend the detainees’ trial but were denied entry.
Seven of those protesting the detentions have been arrested thus far.
“The police are currently blocking any access to them,” says Aida Seif El-Dawla, human rights activist, as she stood near the court. “They have prevented us from attending their trial. They harassed us … pushed us and encircled us.”
All of the 40 detained activists, some of whom were put on trial Sunday, had started a hunger strike the day before, protesting the conditions of their detention and their treatment at the hands of local prison security.
The political detainees said they were kept in prison cells in a “humiliating” state, along with criminals, some of whom carry knives and other weapons; an act perceived as a threat to their lives. According to Seif El-Dawla, some of the criminals were also in possession of drugs.
The detainees filed complaints with prison authorities but were ignored. They have been reportedly banned from meeting with anyone from outside the prison, including their lawyers, during the past three days.
Sharing a cell with criminal convicts, according to New York-based Human Rights Watch, is “in violation of international standards requiring pre-trial detainees to be separated from convicted prisoners.”
Amnesty International has also received reports concerning some of Egypt’s prisons, with Tora Mazraa topping the list. According to Amnesty, “these prisons lack adequate medical care and facilities, that prisoners are detained in cramped and unhygienic conditions that the food provided is inadequate and of poor quality and that, in some prisons, torture and ill-treatment are practiced by security officers on a routine basis.”
“Furthermore, prisoners held in the high security prison in Tora and Istiqbal Tora Prison have been denied the basic right to receive visits from lawyers and family members, following decrees issued by the Ministry of Interior in December 1993 and September 1994, respectively … This ban violates both international human rights standards and national legislation.”
Many of the detained were arrested as they took part in protests supporting two judges who underwent disciplinary hearings earlier for outlining what they called “fraud” in Egypt’s last presidential elections. The group that stood on trial Sunday was accused of humiliating Egypt’s president by shouting slogans against him in public gatherings, and distributing leaflets “in an attempt to create public disorder.”
In a statement allegedly signed and sent by all 40 detainees, available on the Kefaya movement’s official Web site, the pre-trial detainees demanded that an immediate investigation should be launched into the circumstances of their arrest.
The detainees had also accused the state police of “thuggery,” saying that they used “extreme force” in dispersing protests. The detainees also said they were prevented from praying in the prison’s main mosque and were denied access to newspapers.
Press syndicate head, Galal Aref and Gamila Ismail, El-Ghad party spokesperson and Ayman Nour’s wife, reportedly attempted to visit the detained on Saturday, along with lawyers and human rights activists Amir Salem and Ihab El-Khouly.
Ten of the 40 arrested are part of the El-Ghad party, Ismail tells The Daily Star Egypt.
Last month, Nour, Al-Ghad’s jailed leader and one of the president’s principal opponents in last year’s presidential elections, also went on a hunger strike. Nour had demanded that the general prosecution improve the conditions of his detention but was ignored.
Three days later, Nour, a diabetic, was moved to a public hospital as his condition reportedly worsened. Accused of forgery, he is serving a five-year prison sentence in Tora Mazraa.
According to Ismail, Nour has now been on a hunger strike for 20 days and has been moved back into a prison. While he is still banned from writing, Ismail says he has written to those on the hunger strike supporting them.
Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1416
By Pakinam Amer
First Published: May 8, 2006
CAIRO: Around 30 rights activists and Kefaya movement (Enough) leaders protested Sunday in support of Kefaya members, political activists and two journalists, temporarily detained at Tora Mazraa Prison near Cairo.
The activists, who were encircled and cordoned off by security police in front of the Supreme Court, had initially wanted to attend the detainees’ trial but were denied entry.
Seven of those protesting the detentions have been arrested thus far.
“The police are currently blocking any access to them,” says Aida Seif El-Dawla, human rights activist, as she stood near the court. “They have prevented us from attending their trial. They harassed us … pushed us and encircled us.”
All of the 40 detained activists, some of whom were put on trial Sunday, had started a hunger strike the day before, protesting the conditions of their detention and their treatment at the hands of local prison security.
The political detainees said they were kept in prison cells in a “humiliating” state, along with criminals, some of whom carry knives and other weapons; an act perceived as a threat to their lives. According to Seif El-Dawla, some of the criminals were also in possession of drugs.
The detainees filed complaints with prison authorities but were ignored. They have been reportedly banned from meeting with anyone from outside the prison, including their lawyers, during the past three days.
Sharing a cell with criminal convicts, according to New York-based Human Rights Watch, is “in violation of international standards requiring pre-trial detainees to be separated from convicted prisoners.”
Amnesty International has also received reports concerning some of Egypt’s prisons, with Tora Mazraa topping the list. According to Amnesty, “these prisons lack adequate medical care and facilities, that prisoners are detained in cramped and unhygienic conditions that the food provided is inadequate and of poor quality and that, in some prisons, torture and ill-treatment are practiced by security officers on a routine basis.”
“Furthermore, prisoners held in the high security prison in Tora and Istiqbal Tora Prison have been denied the basic right to receive visits from lawyers and family members, following decrees issued by the Ministry of Interior in December 1993 and September 1994, respectively … This ban violates both international human rights standards and national legislation.”
Many of the detained were arrested as they took part in protests supporting two judges who underwent disciplinary hearings earlier for outlining what they called “fraud” in Egypt’s last presidential elections. The group that stood on trial Sunday was accused of humiliating Egypt’s president by shouting slogans against him in public gatherings, and distributing leaflets “in an attempt to create public disorder.”
In a statement allegedly signed and sent by all 40 detainees, available on the Kefaya movement’s official Web site, the pre-trial detainees demanded that an immediate investigation should be launched into the circumstances of their arrest.
The detainees had also accused the state police of “thuggery,” saying that they used “extreme force” in dispersing protests. The detainees also said they were prevented from praying in the prison’s main mosque and were denied access to newspapers.
Press syndicate head, Galal Aref and Gamila Ismail, El-Ghad party spokesperson and Ayman Nour’s wife, reportedly attempted to visit the detained on Saturday, along with lawyers and human rights activists Amir Salem and Ihab El-Khouly.
Ten of the 40 arrested are part of the El-Ghad party, Ismail tells The Daily Star Egypt.
Last month, Nour, Al-Ghad’s jailed leader and one of the president’s principal opponents in last year’s presidential elections, also went on a hunger strike. Nour had demanded that the general prosecution improve the conditions of his detention but was ignored.
Three days later, Nour, a diabetic, was moved to a public hospital as his condition reportedly worsened. Accused of forgery, he is serving a five-year prison sentence in Tora Mazraa.
According to Ismail, Nour has now been on a hunger strike for 20 days and has been moved back into a prison. While he is still banned from writing, Ismail says he has written to those on the hunger strike supporting them.
Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1416
Saturday, May 06, 2006
Emergency Law stifling any hope for change (Opinion/Editorials)
Emergency Law stifling any hope for change
By Pakinam Amer
First Published: May 5, 2006
CAIRO: An interior ministry spokesman and deputy to the ministry claimed in a live TV show on Tuesday that no violations of human or prisoners’ rights occur under the emergency Law, saying that any incidents of ill-treatment were indeed rare.
When faced with written complaints, the deputy simply said that no investigation was launched into those grievances.
The complaints to the ministry included claims of ill-treatment, unjustified or sudden detention and imprisonment without trial or accusation. “There are no official entities that have looked into these complaints to attest [to] them.” He said, adding that that they do not even “have the means to confirm these complaints.” In short, it was the ministry’s word against their word.
It is surprising that no “official entities” have investigated these claims. However, there is a possibility that these entities were not given the permission, the information or the adequate transparency to even attempt an investigation process in the first place. Local human rights groups are only allowed to file annual reports and comments, mostly through international and independent press, or send complaints to the attorney general, prosecutor, or president. These are often ignored. A different ministry spokesman, in response to questions raised by the press, said that the ministry refuses the term “political prisoners,” adding that there are none in Egypt’s prisons.
Amnesty International, United Nations (UN) Special Reporter on torture, had once said that Egypt had been postponing a request for “prompt and impartial investigations into all torture allegations and the abolition of incommunicado detention.” Investigations into such practices have been systematically blocked. Requests by UN and International human rights organizations have been pending since 1996.
Some official sources in the ministry have denied blocking any organizations, saying that they refused “the exaggeration of cases” that some human rights groups cite. A point to consider, said officials in more than once instance, is “the fact” that many detainees claim they have been tortured to strengthen their cases, or at least reduce the court’s verdict. Reportedly, in the few prove cases of ill-treatment, guilty individuals from the police force received penalties.
In a discussion with Muslim Brotherhood lawyer Abdel-Moneim Abdel-Maksoud more than a year ago, following arrests of Muslim Brotherhood members, Abdel-Maksoud cited incidents that could be considered to imply that detention, ill-treatment and sometimes torture under the Emergency Law are systematic and generally unwarranted. During that time, backed-up by the Emergency Law, not only were more than 50 Muslim Brotherhood leaders arrested, but also some of their businesses were shut down, and the Muslim Brotherhood official Web site was deactivated.
Additionally, according to the lawyer, the cases that the Muslim Brotherhood has presented to officials have been ignored. “They remain on the general prosecutor’s desk,” Abdel Maksoud had said. “It’s a complicated problem and a deep issue, one must realize, since the torture is not only applied on the suspects, but also on those cleared by the court and on those proved innocent during the night they spend under investigation.”
Islamist lawyer Montassir Al-Zayat, a veteran who has been defending Islamic activists for over 20 years, had also echoed Abdel-Maksoud’s allegations. “Our cases are ignored by both the Interior Ministry and the government. And although they get alarmed at the reports published by Human Rights group, the alarm is not strong enough to make a change.”
Cases of ill-treatment have lately been openly manifested as Egypt’s opposition movements have become more vocal. The harassment of individuals and violence by state police has also been witnessed in protests, during a key vote day and in various confrontations with demonstrators or “rioters.”
Even as the government formed the National Committee for Human Rights (NCHR) more than two years ago to investigate incidents of ill-treatment, matters did not seem to get any better. The Reform Plan Initiative publicized by the NCHR and endorsed by the government has not yet fulfilled its promises.
According to Abdel-Maksoud, the real change lay in removing repressive regulations; principally, the Emergency Laws.
The Emergency Law, according to Human Rights Watch, gives the right of “arresting suspects at will and detaining them without trial for prolonged periods, referring civilians to military or exceptional state security, prohibiting strikes, demonstrations and public meetings, and censoring or closing down newspapers in the name of national security.”
Based on this, according to many, there is no better “reform plan initiative” than one that includes the elimination of the decades-long law, recently extended to two more years “or until anti-terror measures are enacted.”
Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1397
By Pakinam Amer
First Published: May 5, 2006
CAIRO: An interior ministry spokesman and deputy to the ministry claimed in a live TV show on Tuesday that no violations of human or prisoners’ rights occur under the emergency Law, saying that any incidents of ill-treatment were indeed rare.
When faced with written complaints, the deputy simply said that no investigation was launched into those grievances.
The complaints to the ministry included claims of ill-treatment, unjustified or sudden detention and imprisonment without trial or accusation. “There are no official entities that have looked into these complaints to attest [to] them.” He said, adding that that they do not even “have the means to confirm these complaints.” In short, it was the ministry’s word against their word.
It is surprising that no “official entities” have investigated these claims. However, there is a possibility that these entities were not given the permission, the information or the adequate transparency to even attempt an investigation process in the first place. Local human rights groups are only allowed to file annual reports and comments, mostly through international and independent press, or send complaints to the attorney general, prosecutor, or president. These are often ignored. A different ministry spokesman, in response to questions raised by the press, said that the ministry refuses the term “political prisoners,” adding that there are none in Egypt’s prisons.
Amnesty International, United Nations (UN) Special Reporter on torture, had once said that Egypt had been postponing a request for “prompt and impartial investigations into all torture allegations and the abolition of incommunicado detention.” Investigations into such practices have been systematically blocked. Requests by UN and International human rights organizations have been pending since 1996.
Some official sources in the ministry have denied blocking any organizations, saying that they refused “the exaggeration of cases” that some human rights groups cite. A point to consider, said officials in more than once instance, is “the fact” that many detainees claim they have been tortured to strengthen their cases, or at least reduce the court’s verdict. Reportedly, in the few prove cases of ill-treatment, guilty individuals from the police force received penalties.
In a discussion with Muslim Brotherhood lawyer Abdel-Moneim Abdel-Maksoud more than a year ago, following arrests of Muslim Brotherhood members, Abdel-Maksoud cited incidents that could be considered to imply that detention, ill-treatment and sometimes torture under the Emergency Law are systematic and generally unwarranted. During that time, backed-up by the Emergency Law, not only were more than 50 Muslim Brotherhood leaders arrested, but also some of their businesses were shut down, and the Muslim Brotherhood official Web site was deactivated.
Additionally, according to the lawyer, the cases that the Muslim Brotherhood has presented to officials have been ignored. “They remain on the general prosecutor’s desk,” Abdel Maksoud had said. “It’s a complicated problem and a deep issue, one must realize, since the torture is not only applied on the suspects, but also on those cleared by the court and on those proved innocent during the night they spend under investigation.”
Islamist lawyer Montassir Al-Zayat, a veteran who has been defending Islamic activists for over 20 years, had also echoed Abdel-Maksoud’s allegations. “Our cases are ignored by both the Interior Ministry and the government. And although they get alarmed at the reports published by Human Rights group, the alarm is not strong enough to make a change.”
Cases of ill-treatment have lately been openly manifested as Egypt’s opposition movements have become more vocal. The harassment of individuals and violence by state police has also been witnessed in protests, during a key vote day and in various confrontations with demonstrators or “rioters.”
Even as the government formed the National Committee for Human Rights (NCHR) more than two years ago to investigate incidents of ill-treatment, matters did not seem to get any better. The Reform Plan Initiative publicized by the NCHR and endorsed by the government has not yet fulfilled its promises.
According to Abdel-Maksoud, the real change lay in removing repressive regulations; principally, the Emergency Laws.
The Emergency Law, according to Human Rights Watch, gives the right of “arresting suspects at will and detaining them without trial for prolonged periods, referring civilians to military or exceptional state security, prohibiting strikes, demonstrations and public meetings, and censoring or closing down newspapers in the name of national security.”
Based on this, according to many, there is no better “reform plan initiative” than one that includes the elimination of the decades-long law, recently extended to two more years “or until anti-terror measures are enacted.”
Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1397
Brotherhood speaks out on renewal of Emergency Laws
Brotherhood speaks out on renewal of Emergency Laws
By Pakinam Amer
First Published: May 4, 2006
CAIRO: Mass arrests targeting Muslim Brotherhood members coupled with the renewal of the Emergency Laws have left Brotherhood leaders angry and speculating on a “conspiracy” against Islamists in general and the Brotherhood in particular.
“All hopes for reform have totally vanished,” declare Muslim Brotherhood leaders on their official Web site, with spokesman Essam Al-Arian vocal in his criticism of the Emergency Laws and the government.
“No one understands why the arrests are taking place. It’s a right outlined for the state, so it is constantly used,” adds El-Erian.
The 25-year-old Emergency Law was extended two more years or “until anti-terrorism measures are passed and enacted,” according to Egypt’s upper house, a stipulation giving the state the right to renew the law beyond the two-year period suggested by President Hosni Mubarak. The law has been in force since the assassination of former President Anwar El-Sadat, and has been renewed every three years since.
Last Friday, police arrested 18 members of the Muslim Brotherhood for marching in the Judges Club’s demonstrations in support of two judges who were disciplined for criticizing last year’s presidential elections. Early this week, at least a dozen members were also rounded-up for allegedly distributing leaflets and hanging up wall posters condemning the state of emergency.
The members, still being held in custody, were accused of “affiliation with a banned group.” The Muslim Brotherhood is officially banned but has been tolerated recently, with hundreds of members actively engaging in politics and 88 Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated seats in Egypt’s parliament, allowing them to form an opposition bloc and informally appoint a spokesperson.
Under the Emergency Law, however, in the past few years such mass arrests have generally been random and prior permissiveness has not meant protection from arrest.
The Emergency Law guarantees the police’s right to hold detainees for up to six months without trial, with the possibility of renewal. Ill-treatment and illegal interrogation of those arrested in the absence of lawyers has been widely reported. Those detained under the Emergency Law have included journalists, Islamic activists, those suspected of crimes and even homeless children.
International human rights group Amnesty International once reported a case in an article entitled “Stories of Torture in the 21st Century,” where an active member of a Palestinian sympathizer group was tortured, electrocuted and, according to the report, “blindfolded, stripped to his underwear and surrounded by four officers who punched and kicked him … a dirty sock was placed in his mouth and bottles of freezing water [were] poured over him.”
One 2003 case, famous among the Muslim Brotherhood community in Egypt and reported by their official Web site as well as by several rights groups, involved a Brotherhood member named Mossad Kutb, who was allegedly tortured to death while in custody. Both a briefing paper done by the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) and the U.S. Department of State’s Egypt report for the year 2003 documented his case. According to EOHR, Kutb was arrested by state police and kept in custody for five days “until he died of torture.”
The Emergency Law has also given the police the right to carry out unjustified detentions, even in the presence of a court ruling decreeing the detainee’s innocence. Under the law, people have been detained for crimes for which a court has already acquitted them. In some cases, as in the case of Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya’s Aboud and Tarek El-Zommor, a court ruling is not sufficient to obtain release; instead, the interior minister’s pardon is necessary.
“Despite statements and several promises by President Mubarak during his election campaign, the political reality totally contradicts the presidential vows and statements,” says Muslim Brotherhood member Mohammed Ali in a column published on the group’s official Web site. “The number of political detainees according to the human rights organizations reaches more than 16,000. Detentions are continuous and the interior minister, [despite] this number, denies that there is something called ‘political prisoners’.”
Ali went on, saying “The Emergency Law is only supposed to prevail in times of wars, disasters or exceptional conditions. [However], the interior minister's authorities given to him by the military ruler restrict the political parties and ban peaceful power rotation by imposing restrictions on the political party’s activities.”
According to Voice of America News, in response to recent events, “U.S. officials have indicated that Washington is displeased by the lack of progress in Egypt toward more democracy.”
Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1372
By Pakinam Amer
First Published: May 4, 2006
CAIRO: Mass arrests targeting Muslim Brotherhood members coupled with the renewal of the Emergency Laws have left Brotherhood leaders angry and speculating on a “conspiracy” against Islamists in general and the Brotherhood in particular.
“All hopes for reform have totally vanished,” declare Muslim Brotherhood leaders on their official Web site, with spokesman Essam Al-Arian vocal in his criticism of the Emergency Laws and the government.
“No one understands why the arrests are taking place. It’s a right outlined for the state, so it is constantly used,” adds El-Erian.
The 25-year-old Emergency Law was extended two more years or “until anti-terrorism measures are passed and enacted,” according to Egypt’s upper house, a stipulation giving the state the right to renew the law beyond the two-year period suggested by President Hosni Mubarak. The law has been in force since the assassination of former President Anwar El-Sadat, and has been renewed every three years since.
Last Friday, police arrested 18 members of the Muslim Brotherhood for marching in the Judges Club’s demonstrations in support of two judges who were disciplined for criticizing last year’s presidential elections. Early this week, at least a dozen members were also rounded-up for allegedly distributing leaflets and hanging up wall posters condemning the state of emergency.
The members, still being held in custody, were accused of “affiliation with a banned group.” The Muslim Brotherhood is officially banned but has been tolerated recently, with hundreds of members actively engaging in politics and 88 Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated seats in Egypt’s parliament, allowing them to form an opposition bloc and informally appoint a spokesperson.
Under the Emergency Law, however, in the past few years such mass arrests have generally been random and prior permissiveness has not meant protection from arrest.
The Emergency Law guarantees the police’s right to hold detainees for up to six months without trial, with the possibility of renewal. Ill-treatment and illegal interrogation of those arrested in the absence of lawyers has been widely reported. Those detained under the Emergency Law have included journalists, Islamic activists, those suspected of crimes and even homeless children.
International human rights group Amnesty International once reported a case in an article entitled “Stories of Torture in the 21st Century,” where an active member of a Palestinian sympathizer group was tortured, electrocuted and, according to the report, “blindfolded, stripped to his underwear and surrounded by four officers who punched and kicked him … a dirty sock was placed in his mouth and bottles of freezing water [were] poured over him.”
One 2003 case, famous among the Muslim Brotherhood community in Egypt and reported by their official Web site as well as by several rights groups, involved a Brotherhood member named Mossad Kutb, who was allegedly tortured to death while in custody. Both a briefing paper done by the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) and the U.S. Department of State’s Egypt report for the year 2003 documented his case. According to EOHR, Kutb was arrested by state police and kept in custody for five days “until he died of torture.”
The Emergency Law has also given the police the right to carry out unjustified detentions, even in the presence of a court ruling decreeing the detainee’s innocence. Under the law, people have been detained for crimes for which a court has already acquitted them. In some cases, as in the case of Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya’s Aboud and Tarek El-Zommor, a court ruling is not sufficient to obtain release; instead, the interior minister’s pardon is necessary.
“Despite statements and several promises by President Mubarak during his election campaign, the political reality totally contradicts the presidential vows and statements,” says Muslim Brotherhood member Mohammed Ali in a column published on the group’s official Web site. “The number of political detainees according to the human rights organizations reaches more than 16,000. Detentions are continuous and the interior minister, [despite] this number, denies that there is something called ‘political prisoners’.”
Ali went on, saying “The Emergency Law is only supposed to prevail in times of wars, disasters or exceptional conditions. [However], the interior minister's authorities given to him by the military ruler restrict the political parties and ban peaceful power rotation by imposing restrictions on the political party’s activities.”
According to Voice of America News, in response to recent events, “U.S. officials have indicated that Washington is displeased by the lack of progress in Egypt toward more democracy.”
Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1372
Boycott Vs. Dialogue
Boycott vs. dialogue
By Pakinam Amer
First Published: May 3, 2006
CAIRO: After protesting relentlessly for months, vociferously declaring a boycott of all Danish products, Muslims are divided over “what to do next.”
With some Muslims insisting on continuing the economic boycott and refusing to forget their perceived humiliation, others are calling for cultural exchange and dialogue between Danes and Muslims – in particular, youth. Islamic scholars, who had issued strong fatwas in the wake of the crisis, are not making the division easier. Some stand firm in their stances, while others have ruled it permissible for Muslims to buy Danish goods.
After a dozen Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed in a manner deemed offensive to Islam were published in the now infamous Jyllands-Posten, the Muslim world was furious. Many primarily Muslim countries, with the blessings of their respective Islamic clerics, backed a boycott. In Egypt, chain supermarkets such as Metro withdrew all Danish dairy products from their stores and many Muslims staged loud protests. Around the Middle East, the spirit and the attitude toward Denmark were no different.
Jyllands-Posten refused to apologize; however, as violence surged in some Muslim countries against Danish embassies, the newspaper finally said they had never meant to offend.
A great deal of damage had already been done and Muslims continued to boycott. A senior economist told Xinhua that Muslims have cost the country at least 1.5 billion crowns in dairy exports, which is around 10 percent of Denmark’s estimated sales.
Figures in some Arab countries are not any better. Metro supermarkets, in the wake of the boycott, reported a LE 1 million loss after they withdrew Danish products.
“I did support the boycotting of Danish products and I think it should go on until they actually realize how much harm they caused to Muslims,” says Maram Said, a graduate student at the American University in Cairo. “Boycotting is very civilized, peaceful, and [it shows] our felt humiliation.”
For Said, the damage caused by the boycott yielded some benefit on a more general level. “It made some of the companies realize the harm and show some respect by apologizing. Once they apologize, I believe that boycotting their products should stop.”
Others disagree. “The boycott has achieved the hoped-for goal,” says Dina Hamdi, a Muslim affairs writer at IslamOnline.net. “Through the boycott we managed to attract the world's attention and to voice our grievance … The aim was not to harm the Danish people, but rather to make it clear that we Muslims are offended.”
The 22-year-old has been chosen to attend an upcoming workshop in Lebanon aimed at promoting tolerance between Danish and Middle Eastern youth entitled: “I see myself through you.”
“I feel we have fallen prey to dirty fingers whose aim it is to cause a big gap between Islam and the West,” says Yasmine Farouk, a 24-year-old Egyptian.
“We must stop the boycott now; enough is enough, the losses have gone [too] far … As [Egyptian preacher] Amr Khaled puts it, it gave a warning sign but the warning’s effect will fade away if we continue [the boycott] aimlessly.” Farouk recently took part in an Abu Dhabi-based conference, where Danes were invited to talk with Muslim youth about the cartoon crisis.
According to Farouk, this is a time when Muslims and Danes should initiate joint humanitarian projects, aimed at creating understanding and cooperation between Muslims and the West. “We should also invite more Danes to our countries; we should learn more about the ideologies and the beliefs of others. Only then will we understand their standpoints and their views.”
Some Danish and Muslim youth (especially those who do not believe in the continuation of the boycott) are already carrying out a multitude of talks and joint conferences, which included one initiated by Khaled in Copenhagen more than a month ago. Many young participants concluded that violent reactions and stern stances were not the solution.
“In the context [of these dialogues], instead of looking at who is Western and who is Muslim, we focused on the fact that we are all humans and we all deserve respect,” says Sarah Habibti, a Danish Muslim and a youth representative. Young people should “go out and do something … so that the wall of prejudice can be broken.”
In the conference, which was led by Khaled and a group of scholars, more focus was put on explaining Islam. The conference included more youth in their early twenties than preachers and official representatives. The 25 participating from the younger generation were given intensive training on how to present the Prophet and his life to the West, and were present mainly to give Danes a chance to be exposed to Arab Muslims “as they are,” the scholars were there to answer theological questions on Islam; giving detailed presentation of the “often misinterpreted” religion.
For some Muslims and Danes, the dialogue was a much more effective tool than a boycott. “When I was in Denmark, one Dane asked me: Are the Muslims punishing millions of Danes for one racist newspaper who offended them?” says Darah Rateb, a participant in the Amr Khaled Conference. “I was moderately aware of the damage caused by a boycott … and I did support it … however, going to Denmark and hearing stories with my own ears was quite a different matter.”
Rateb is one Muslim who had initially believed the boycott a “peaceful yet powerful means” to express Muslim anger. However, she said she wished the conflict had been resolved sooner. “Western societies know the value of money, and so far 1.3 billion crowns have been supposedly lost … The boycott simply aggravated others who claimed that freedom of speech was a value of much greater importance.”
“We need each other economically and politically, and I think a little respect for your partners never hurt anyone,” added Rateb.
“The publishing of the cartoons was a mistake, but let us turn this into a success of mutual understanding and respect for our different cultures. After all we have more in common than we have differences,” says Christopher Trier Lind, a Danish 26-year-old psychology student and a participant in Khaled’s conference.
Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1370
By Pakinam Amer
First Published: May 3, 2006
CAIRO: After protesting relentlessly for months, vociferously declaring a boycott of all Danish products, Muslims are divided over “what to do next.”
With some Muslims insisting on continuing the economic boycott and refusing to forget their perceived humiliation, others are calling for cultural exchange and dialogue between Danes and Muslims – in particular, youth. Islamic scholars, who had issued strong fatwas in the wake of the crisis, are not making the division easier. Some stand firm in their stances, while others have ruled it permissible for Muslims to buy Danish goods.
After a dozen Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed in a manner deemed offensive to Islam were published in the now infamous Jyllands-Posten, the Muslim world was furious. Many primarily Muslim countries, with the blessings of their respective Islamic clerics, backed a boycott. In Egypt, chain supermarkets such as Metro withdrew all Danish dairy products from their stores and many Muslims staged loud protests. Around the Middle East, the spirit and the attitude toward Denmark were no different.
Jyllands-Posten refused to apologize; however, as violence surged in some Muslim countries against Danish embassies, the newspaper finally said they had never meant to offend.
A great deal of damage had already been done and Muslims continued to boycott. A senior economist told Xinhua that Muslims have cost the country at least 1.5 billion crowns in dairy exports, which is around 10 percent of Denmark’s estimated sales.
Figures in some Arab countries are not any better. Metro supermarkets, in the wake of the boycott, reported a LE 1 million loss after they withdrew Danish products.
“I did support the boycotting of Danish products and I think it should go on until they actually realize how much harm they caused to Muslims,” says Maram Said, a graduate student at the American University in Cairo. “Boycotting is very civilized, peaceful, and [it shows] our felt humiliation.”
For Said, the damage caused by the boycott yielded some benefit on a more general level. “It made some of the companies realize the harm and show some respect by apologizing. Once they apologize, I believe that boycotting their products should stop.”
Others disagree. “The boycott has achieved the hoped-for goal,” says Dina Hamdi, a Muslim affairs writer at IslamOnline.net. “Through the boycott we managed to attract the world's attention and to voice our grievance … The aim was not to harm the Danish people, but rather to make it clear that we Muslims are offended.”
The 22-year-old has been chosen to attend an upcoming workshop in Lebanon aimed at promoting tolerance between Danish and Middle Eastern youth entitled: “I see myself through you.”
“I feel we have fallen prey to dirty fingers whose aim it is to cause a big gap between Islam and the West,” says Yasmine Farouk, a 24-year-old Egyptian.
“We must stop the boycott now; enough is enough, the losses have gone [too] far … As [Egyptian preacher] Amr Khaled puts it, it gave a warning sign but the warning’s effect will fade away if we continue [the boycott] aimlessly.” Farouk recently took part in an Abu Dhabi-based conference, where Danes were invited to talk with Muslim youth about the cartoon crisis.
According to Farouk, this is a time when Muslims and Danes should initiate joint humanitarian projects, aimed at creating understanding and cooperation between Muslims and the West. “We should also invite more Danes to our countries; we should learn more about the ideologies and the beliefs of others. Only then will we understand their standpoints and their views.”
Some Danish and Muslim youth (especially those who do not believe in the continuation of the boycott) are already carrying out a multitude of talks and joint conferences, which included one initiated by Khaled in Copenhagen more than a month ago. Many young participants concluded that violent reactions and stern stances were not the solution.
“In the context [of these dialogues], instead of looking at who is Western and who is Muslim, we focused on the fact that we are all humans and we all deserve respect,” says Sarah Habibti, a Danish Muslim and a youth representative. Young people should “go out and do something … so that the wall of prejudice can be broken.”
In the conference, which was led by Khaled and a group of scholars, more focus was put on explaining Islam. The conference included more youth in their early twenties than preachers and official representatives. The 25 participating from the younger generation were given intensive training on how to present the Prophet and his life to the West, and were present mainly to give Danes a chance to be exposed to Arab Muslims “as they are,” the scholars were there to answer theological questions on Islam; giving detailed presentation of the “often misinterpreted” religion.
For some Muslims and Danes, the dialogue was a much more effective tool than a boycott. “When I was in Denmark, one Dane asked me: Are the Muslims punishing millions of Danes for one racist newspaper who offended them?” says Darah Rateb, a participant in the Amr Khaled Conference. “I was moderately aware of the damage caused by a boycott … and I did support it … however, going to Denmark and hearing stories with my own ears was quite a different matter.”
Rateb is one Muslim who had initially believed the boycott a “peaceful yet powerful means” to express Muslim anger. However, she said she wished the conflict had been resolved sooner. “Western societies know the value of money, and so far 1.3 billion crowns have been supposedly lost … The boycott simply aggravated others who claimed that freedom of speech was a value of much greater importance.”
“We need each other economically and politically, and I think a little respect for your partners never hurt anyone,” added Rateb.
“The publishing of the cartoons was a mistake, but let us turn this into a success of mutual understanding and respect for our different cultures. After all we have more in common than we have differences,” says Christopher Trier Lind, a Danish 26-year-old psychology student and a participant in Khaled’s conference.
Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1370
Proposed extension of Emergency Law widely debated (Press Round-up)
Press Round-up
Proposed extension of Emergency Law widely debated
By Pakinam Amer
First Published: May 2, 2006
CAIRO: After the upper house agreed to President Hosni Mubarak’s proposal to extend the Emergency Law for two years, criticism of the decision has been non-stop.
National newspapers published few reactions, focusing instead on Mubarak’s announcements, while the independent press launched a campaign against the much-criticized law.
According to Al Ahram, “the Emergency Law would be extended for two years or until anti-terrorism laws are passed,” a notion that suggests that the law may be further extended even though it has been in force in Egypt for 25 years.
Less than two weeks ago, 114 upper house members who were mostly Muslim Brotherhood representatives, formed an opposition front against the laws, calling on local human rights groups to support their cause. The members have said that violence or the threat of violence should not be used as an excuse to “stifle” people’s freedom. However, when Mubarak suggested the extension, the majority of parliament complied.
The Emergency Law was enacted in 1981 after a group of Islamists assassinated former President Anwar El-Sadat, and has been renewed every three years since.
It allows security to carry out mass arrests without permits, holding detainees for as long as six months without trial. Any other perceived threat to national security by a group or an individual are taken to military or state security emergency courts. The law also puts restrictions on freedom of speech, sit-ins and gatherings, if the latter are without prior authorization from state security.
According to the Washington Post, the president renewed the law “despite his promise that it would be canceled and replaced with specific anti-terrorism measures.”
“Egyptian officials signaled in recent weeks that the U.S. pressure had eased and that recent reforms had gone far enough. Mubarak heralded the status quo two weeks ago, telling reporters that a new law would take 18 months to two years to formulate,” added the newspaper.
“The Emergency [Law] is for the protection of the state and the confrontation of terror,” Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif told Al-Akhbar. “We are committed to plans of political and constitutional reforms, and democracy outlined by the president.”
The same newspaper carried the picture of Nasr Khamis, deemed principally responsible for the three Dahab Red Sea resort bombings that killed 18 and wounded at least 90.
“Intensive efforts to catch the fugitive are underway,” explained Al-Akhbar after it reported an “exchange of fire between Khamis, his supporters on one side and security police on the other in the Sinai Mountains on Sunday.”
Also, according to Reuters’ police sources, police shot dead two other men suspected of belonging to the group of Sinai Bedouins who carried out the Dahab attacks.
“A police patrol came across two of the men in the Mount Hilal area of northeastern Sinai. The men threw two hand grenades at them but the grenades did not explode, they said. Police opened fire in response and killed them both,” read a Reuters report.
A day before the gunfire battle, police said they had detained two men suspected of plotting the attacks.
Coinciding with the renewal of the law, security police have also rounded-up at least 18 members of the Muslim Brotherhood branch in Al-Sharqiya governorate. The members were reportedly hanging up posters condemning the Emergency Laws and distributing leaflets.
According to Reuters, “The Brotherhood has launched a campaign against extending the laws, including blacklisting politicians who support it, and has said the state is cracking down on the group in response.”
Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1355
Proposed extension of Emergency Law widely debated
By Pakinam Amer
First Published: May 2, 2006
CAIRO: After the upper house agreed to President Hosni Mubarak’s proposal to extend the Emergency Law for two years, criticism of the decision has been non-stop.
National newspapers published few reactions, focusing instead on Mubarak’s announcements, while the independent press launched a campaign against the much-criticized law.
According to Al Ahram, “the Emergency Law would be extended for two years or until anti-terrorism laws are passed,” a notion that suggests that the law may be further extended even though it has been in force in Egypt for 25 years.
Less than two weeks ago, 114 upper house members who were mostly Muslim Brotherhood representatives, formed an opposition front against the laws, calling on local human rights groups to support their cause. The members have said that violence or the threat of violence should not be used as an excuse to “stifle” people’s freedom. However, when Mubarak suggested the extension, the majority of parliament complied.
The Emergency Law was enacted in 1981 after a group of Islamists assassinated former President Anwar El-Sadat, and has been renewed every three years since.
It allows security to carry out mass arrests without permits, holding detainees for as long as six months without trial. Any other perceived threat to national security by a group or an individual are taken to military or state security emergency courts. The law also puts restrictions on freedom of speech, sit-ins and gatherings, if the latter are without prior authorization from state security.
According to the Washington Post, the president renewed the law “despite his promise that it would be canceled and replaced with specific anti-terrorism measures.”
“Egyptian officials signaled in recent weeks that the U.S. pressure had eased and that recent reforms had gone far enough. Mubarak heralded the status quo two weeks ago, telling reporters that a new law would take 18 months to two years to formulate,” added the newspaper.
“The Emergency [Law] is for the protection of the state and the confrontation of terror,” Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif told Al-Akhbar. “We are committed to plans of political and constitutional reforms, and democracy outlined by the president.”
The same newspaper carried the picture of Nasr Khamis, deemed principally responsible for the three Dahab Red Sea resort bombings that killed 18 and wounded at least 90.
“Intensive efforts to catch the fugitive are underway,” explained Al-Akhbar after it reported an “exchange of fire between Khamis, his supporters on one side and security police on the other in the Sinai Mountains on Sunday.”
Also, according to Reuters’ police sources, police shot dead two other men suspected of belonging to the group of Sinai Bedouins who carried out the Dahab attacks.
“A police patrol came across two of the men in the Mount Hilal area of northeastern Sinai. The men threw two hand grenades at them but the grenades did not explode, they said. Police opened fire in response and killed them both,” read a Reuters report.
A day before the gunfire battle, police said they had detained two men suspected of plotting the attacks.
Coinciding with the renewal of the law, security police have also rounded-up at least 18 members of the Muslim Brotherhood branch in Al-Sharqiya governorate. The members were reportedly hanging up posters condemning the Emergency Laws and distributing leaflets.
According to Reuters, “The Brotherhood has launched a campaign against extending the laws, including blacklisting politicians who support it, and has said the state is cracking down on the group in response.”
Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1355
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