Warning: Undefined array key "rbname" in /data/rantburg.com/www/rantburg/pgrecentorg.php on line 14
Hello !
Recent Appearances... Rantburg

The Grand Turk
Research article explains how Turkey uses pan-Islamism as a solution for failure
2019-05-24
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
has used Islam to legitimize itself as the leader of the Moslem world since the Ottoman Empire’s decline, writes Saud al-Sarhan, secretary-general of the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, in an article titled "Erdogan and the Last Quest for the Greenmantle."

The article, published by the International Center for the Study of Radicalization (ICSR) at King’s College London, argues that Ottoman Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey...
evokes a pan-Islamic rhetoric "in an attempt to increase the appeal of Turkey’s political stances to Moslem populations across the world" ‐ a tactic which Sarhan links to "political arms of various terrorist groups."

The Ottomans similarly exploited pan-Islamism, but "only once their days of conquering lands had been checked by Europeans," Sarhan writes.

In the early 20th century, Christians made up more than a third of the Ottoman Empire’s population ‐ only to become reduced to less than a fifth after the empire started losing European lands, which Sarhan presents as a major reason for the easy spread of pan-Islamic thought.

The Ottoman ruling elite "sought to adopt pan-Islamist positions in order to reverse the deteriorating state of their empire," the article argues, offering as evidence the campaign that the Ottomans carried out to urge the world’s Moslems to be loyal to them instead of their local rulers shortly before the First World War.

These campaigns failed, which Sarhan attributes to the rejection of Turkification policies by Arabs and Moslems outside the empire, in a major negative turning point in pan-Islamic thought.

According to Sarhan’s research, after the abolition of the empire, pan-Islamic thought was revived through groups such as the Moslem Brüderbund in Egypt, the Caliphate League in India, and the Moslem World Congress in Pakistain.

However,
women are made to be loved, not understood...
the groups did not flourish until secular Arab nationalist regimes failed to solve the "Paleostinian problem" in 1967 and the Soviet Union collapsed, which resulted in a decline in support for Soviet-aligned secular governments in various parts of the Arab world.

This enabled pan-Islamic parties to gain power in places such as Iran (Khomeinism), Iraq (Dawa Party), Gazoo (Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",) and Egypt (the Moslem Brüderbund’s Freedom and Justice Party).

History repeated itself, according to Sarhan, when Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) failed to qualify Turkey for membership in the EU, causing him to turn, once again, to a more pan-Islamic position to secure a major place for Turkey on the world stage.

Sarhan also explains that Turkey even uses pan-Islamism to incentivize Arabs and Moslems to invest in the country and save its economy. He gives the examples of a former Kuwaiti MP and a Moslem Brüderbund sympathizer journalist, both of whom urged people to invest in Turkey on the basis that it is a Moslem nation.

Link


Africa North
Egypt court reduces sentences for Brotherhood's Badie, 36 others in Beni Suef case
2018-12-24
[AlAhram] A Cairo Court of Cassation has accepted an appeal by the head of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood Mohamed Badie and 36 others, decreasing their prison sentences in the so-called ‘Beni Suef violence’ case.

The court reduced Badie’s sentence from life imprisonment to 10 years.

The remaining defendants had their sentences reduced from 15 years to three years.

Sunday's court verdict is final and cannot be appealed.
Whew! Finally, this trial is over. Only ninety-two eleventy more trials to go.
The trial had a total of 93 defendants, 56 of whom were tried in absentia.

The verdicts of life imprisonment and 15 years were handed down in September 2017.

The case dates back to the deadly violence that took place in Beni Suef governorate in Upper Egypt in August 2013 after security forces dispersed two Cairo sit-ins protesting the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

The defendants were charged with torching a police station and a nun’s school in Beni Suef. They were also charged with inciting violence, vandalising public facilities, belonging to an outlawed group and the possession of weapons and ammunition.

The defendants in the case include leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood and former parliamentarians, including Nihad El-Qasim Abdel-Wahhab, secretary of the Freedom and Justice Party in Beni Suef, Sayyed Heikal, Khalid Syed Naji, former members of the Shura Council, and Abdel-Rahman Shukri, a former member of the People's Assembly.
Link


Africa North
Egypt court sentences Brotherhood supreme guide Mohamed Badie to 25 years
2017-09-29
More court kabuki theater, but it keeps everybody busy while the jugged people remain in jail.
[AlAhram] A Beni Suef criminal court has sentenced Moslem Brüderbund supreme guide Mohammed Badie and three others to 25 years in prison for inciting violence that led to festivities in the governorate on 14 August 2013, al-Ahram Arabic news website reported.

The violence, which occurred after the dispersal of sit-ins in Cairo protesting the ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi, involved the torching of a cop shoppe, a notary office and a school in Beni Suef.

The court also sentenced 12 other people to 25 years in prison in absentia and 77 others to 15 years.

The trial involved 92 defendants, with 25 in jug and 67 tried in absentia.

The defendants include leading Brotherhood figures including member of the group’s guidance office Abdel-Azim El-Sharkawy and former MPs with the Brotherhood’s now-dissolved Freedom and Justice Party.

Badie has previously received prison sentences in other cases.

This latest verdict is subject to appeal.
Link


Arabia
Ex-Al Jazeera staff 'linked to Egypt security agency'
2017-07-13
[Al Jazeera] Hacked emails obtained by the Ottoman Turkish-based Anadolu news agency showed that a former Al Jazeera cameraman, who is suing the network, collaborated with Egyptian security agencies while working with the Doha-based television channel.

In an article published on Wednesday, Anadolu reported that Mohammed Fawzy had been providing Egyptian security agencies details of Al Jazeera programmes.

In one incident, he reportedly spoke about an event held by the Moslem Brüderbund's Freedom and Justice Party at the Harvard University that would be aired on Al Jazeera television.

Fawzy also reportedly coordinated with security agencies regarding his lawsuit against the network.

Fawzy is suing Al Jazeera for $7.4m for neglect and endangering the lives of journalists working in Egypt. He said Al Jazeera sent him to Cairo knowing that "it was guaranteed" he would be placed in durance vile
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
Fawzy, along with a group of journalists, was detained in Egypt in 2013 on charges of stoking unrest and publishing false news.
Link


Africa North
Egypt's Islamic edicts authority says Brotherhood plans to reassess strategies long overdue
2016-05-24
[AlAhram] Egypt's state-sponsored Islamic authority (Dar Al-Ifta), which issues edicts, said on Monday that an announced plan by the now-banned Moslem Brüderbund group to re-examine its political ideology and activities was overdue.

A sub-body of Dar Al-Ifta that monitors jihadist and hard boy edicts said that recent remarks by Brotherhood leaders indicating the movement aims to carry out a major reassessment is a result of an "ideology of failure" and its "defeat in the political and religious fields."

The religious unit made the comments days after a senior Brotherhood leader in exile, Gamal Heshmat, said his movement seeks "major revisions," mainly politically, while stressing the group would separate its political and religious work.

The Islamic authority said the announced plan by the group is "inevitable to preserve the security of society and protect individuals from drifting towards violent, bad boy ideology that characterised the group over the past period."

It urged the once-ruling organization to review all strategies it had adopted and have contributed to "violence and polarisation" in Egypt.

Heshmat's statement came as Tunisia's Islamist Party Ennahda, a Brotherhood offshoot, made a similar announcement saying that it has learned "there is no future in political Islam."

"All sides within the groups have stressed the determination to separate the competitive party work from that of preaching and education. This will be announced soon," Heshmat told the Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency last week.

He said the move will help develop the organization and reintroduce it to public opinion in a better shape.

Ill-timed move?
The 88-year-old Brotherhood has worked for decades in the shadows before it was catapulted to the forefront of Egyptian politics following the 2011 uprising that toppled long-time autocrat Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
The group's Islamist president Mohammed Morsi was ousted after a year-long rule that alienated large segments of the Egyptian population.

The group has since been forced back underground, with most of its upper echelons and supporters thrown behind bars.

The Freedom and Justice Party, the Brotherhood's political wing established in the aftermath of the 2011 uprising, was dissolved by a court ruling in August 2014.

On the announced reform efforts, researcher of Islamist movements and a former Brotherhood member Ahmed Ban told Ahram Online "it is a call that will not go any further."

He said that the organization should have made such efforts while holding legitimacy during its reign.

"Now they are not part of the state's calculations," he said, explaining that the group would no longer be allowed to combine politics and religion.

"Separation means they will aim to keep both branches of work but segregate them functionally, which they will no longer be permitted to do in Egypt," he added

While some observers say the move indicates a compromise, the group, nevertheless, does not seem to seek a settlement with the state but is rather working towards lobbying against a "regime of coup," in reference to Morsi's ouster.

"There must be major revisions... but we first need a sensible organization to bolster an anti-coup movement... to topple a regime of coup," Heshmat said.

Heshmat made allusions, however, that the re-evaluation of the group's strategies will not be an easy task given that the movement is suffering from what he called a "major administrative vacuum" amid a rising schism of late.

The Brotherhood has been lurching from crisis to crisis, with the recent rise of an internal rift boiling over between chief Mahmoud Ezzat of the group's London office and a youth administration at home.

The split, which came to surface late last year, intensified last week with the group's London leaders sacking eight senior members, including former international cooperation minister Amr Derrag, after more than 240 members signed a document calling for an across-the-board election that would in turn force out long-serving leaders.

Youth leaders at home have snapped back, announcing a list of sackings of long-time leaders of the international bureau.

Azhar Grand Imam Seeks to Balance Tradition and Modernity

[AnNahar] Al-Azhar's Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayeb, who had a historic meeting with Pope Francis on Monday, has been on a mission to update Islamic thought while championing classical scholarship against jihadist ideologues.
Link


Africa North
Egypt security forces clash with protesters; 2 killed
2016-02-27
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Egypt's Interior Ministry says security forces have clashed with Islamist Moslem Brüderbund protesters in northern Egypt, killing two of them and arresting six.

In a statement Friday, the ministry said that the killed men were part of a group trying to stage a demonstration and carry out attacks against security forces in the northern city of Damietta.

Authorities banned the Moslem Brüderbund group following the ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Mursi in 2013. Thousands of the group's members have been killed or locked away
Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!
over the past two years.

The Interior Ministry says those tossed in the clink
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
were wanted for a previous attack on a gas pipeline.

The Moslem Brüderbund's political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, say in a statement that the men were killed protesting the military overthrow and price hikes.
Link


Africa North
More Muslim Brotherhood offices, hospitals seized by Egyptian government
2015-12-17
The de-Ikhwanization of Egypt continues.
[AlAhram] A number of offices affiliated with the Freedom and Justice Party, the political arm of the Moslem Brüderbund, have been seized by a committee tasked with appraising and freezing the funds of the group.

The committee said in an official statement issued on Wednesday that the offices, located in Cairo and Suez governorates, have been given to the ministry of finance to implement a court ruling.

The governmental committee has also announced that they have seized a number of hospitals in Beni Suef and five other medical laboratories and pharmacies in the same governorate.

Chairman of the committee Mohammed Abouel Fotouh said that all of the medical outlets are currently operating under the supervision of the health ministry.

Since March, the panel has seized the funds of 702 Brotherhood leaders in addition to transferring the management of 1,050 NGOs and some 147 schools believed to be affiliated with the group into a government trusteeship.

The Brotherhood was banned by a court ruling in September of last year, two months after the ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.

Three legal challenges have been filed against the ruling, but courts have not issued any final decisions.

The group was deemed a terrorist organization by Egyptian authorities in December 2013, a designation that was later upheld by a Cairo court.
Link


Africa North
Egypt arrests 16 members of banned Muslim Brotherhood, seizes MB properties
2015-11-17
[AlAhram] The interior ministry released a statement on Monday saying that a number of the arrests made were part of a "preemptive security campaign"
Seems like old times...
Egypt's interior ministry placed in durance vile
Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
16 members of the outlawed Moslem Brüderbund on Monday, a statement by the ministry read.

"In a preemptive security campaign, the interior ministry has arrested nine middle ranking members of the terrorist Moslem Brüderbund group," the statement read.

Seven more members who have been targeting security forces and personnel from the now-banned group have also been arrested, the statement added.

None of those arrested were named in the statement.

Since the July 2013 overthrow of Islamist president and Brotherhood member Mohammed Morsi, hundreds of the group's supporters have been killed and thousands put in jail.

The Brotherhood was designated a terrorist organization by the Egyptian government in November 2013.

Egypt seizes several Freedom and Justice Party offices

[AlAhram] A hospital, a school and two foreign exchange companies affiliated with the Moslem Brüderbund have also been seized

A number of Cairo offices affiliated with the Freedom and Justice Party, the political arm of the Moslem Brüderbund, have been seized by the Egyptian government, a committee tasked with appraising and freezing the funds of the Brotherhood said in an official statement on Tuesday. The committee also announced that it seized a hospital, a school and two foreign exchange companies linked to the group.

The committee has thus far frozen the funds and taken control of over 1,000 NGOs and nearly 100 schools allegedly affiliated with the Brotherhood. The assets of over 700 of the group's leaders have also been seized.

The Freedom and Justice Party was disbanded by a court ruling in 2014, while the Brotherhood itself was designated a terrorist group in 2013.
Link


Africa North
Egypt says 2 senior Muslim Brotherhood officials arrested
2015-10-27
[Ynet] Egypt's security forces have nabbed
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
the secretary general of the Freedom and Justice Party, the Moslem Brüderbund's political wing, and another high-ranking Brotherhood member, the state-run news agency
...and if you can't believe the state-run news agency who can you believe?...
reported on Monday.

Hussein Ibrahim, the dissolved party's secretary general, and El-Refei Hassan, were reportedly hiding in the western Mediterranean province of Marsa Matrouh on Egypt's north coast.

According to the report, the two have confessed they were trying to reach Libya.
Link


Africa North
Egypt's security forces kill 9 'terrorists' during raid in Giza
2015-09-27
More on this story from yesterday.
[AlAhram] The ministry of interior says that the "terrorists" were involved in the bombings of the Italian consulate in Cairo and the national security building in Qalyubia

Nine "terrorists" involved in the July bombing of the Italian consulate in Cairo were killed by Egypt's security forces during a raid in Giza on Friday, the ministry of interior announced in an official statement.

According to the statement, the nine "terrorists" were killed in an exchange of fire with security forces in Aussim district, Giza.

Three coppers and two conscripts were maimed in the raid.

The injured coppers and conscripts were transferred to the hospital to receive treatment.

The statement added that the Lions of Islam were found with weapons, including boom belts used for suicide kabooms.

The ministry of interior said that the "terrorists" were involved in the bombing of the Italian consulate in Cairo in July and the bombing of the National security building in Qalyubia in August.

An Islamic-state affiliated group in Egypt already grabbed credit for both bombings.

Hours before the interior ministry's statement, officials told Rooters that security forces killed nine members of the Moslem Brüderbund in a raid in Giza.
So which were they -- MB, ISIS in Egypt, or double billing?
The now-dissolved Freedom and Justice Party, the political arm of the Moslem Brüderbund, reported on its official website "Freedom and Justice Party Gate" that the nine people killed in Aussim were not members of the group nor were they Morsi supporters, according to sources in the Brotherhood.

The Moslem Brüderbund was designated as a terrorist organization by the Egyptian government in 2013. Its political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, was dissolved by an administrative court order in 2014.

Egypt's prosecutor general is currently investigating the incident.
Link


Africa North
Egypt's Salafist Call expelled members supporting violence: Borhamy
2015-09-05
[AlAhram] Salafist Call has expelled all members who have chosen to violently confront Egypt's state or society, said the organization's vice-president Yasser Al Borhamy on Friday.
"Please don't jail us!"
"I also condemn the media smear campaign against leaders of the Salafist Call ahead of the parliamentary elections," he added in a press statement.

The Salafist Call, based and established in Alexandria, is Egypt's largest Salafist organization whose political arm is the Nour Party, the only potent Islamist party to run for this year's parliamentary elections.

Recently, however, a campaign under the name of 'no to religious parties' called for the dismantling of all religious parties, including Nour, arguing it is against the constitution. The Ministry of Endowments robustly supports the campaign that was launched months before the coming elections.

Nour had 22 percent of the seats in the 2012 parliament's lower body, the second largest percentage after the Moslem Brüderbund's Freedom and Justice Party, which was then headed by Egypt's ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.

The People's Assembly, the parliamentary lower house, was dissolved after the Supreme Constitutional Court deemed the parliamentary elections had been unconstitutional. The Shura Council, the upper body that assumed legislative authorities following the dismantling of the People's Assembly, was also dissolved in 2013 as part of the roadmap that saw Morsi toppled.
Link


Africa North
Muslim Brotherhood leader El-Gazzar makes bail
2014-08-26
[Al Ahram] A senior Moslem Brotherhood official has been released over violence charges dating back to last summer's nationwide unrest, a judicial source told Ahram Online.

Helmy El-Gazzar, a big shot within the Brotherhood's political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party, was released late on Saturday on bail of LE100,000 (about $14,000) pending investigations into charges including murder, attempted murder and thuggery.

The allegations stem from violence on 2 July 2013 in the western Cairo district of Bin El-Sarayat, when festivities between security forces and supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi left almost two dozen killed and some 220 maimed.

The violence was part of days-long mass protests that summer that culminated with Morsi's overthrow by the army on 3 July.

Once Egypt's largest and most organised political movements, the Brotherhood has been hammered by a harsh state crackdown Morsi's ouster. The group was declared a terrorist organization in December 2013 and its political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), was dissolved earlier this month.

Also released alongside El-Gazzar over the same allegations were Mohammed El-Omda, former MP under Morsi, and Abdel-Moneim Abdel-Maksoud, the Brotherhood's lawyer.

El-Omda was already out of prison late on Saturday and Abdel-Maksoud is expected to walk free on Sunday, a judicial source said.
Hundreds of other Islamists have been killed and thousands locked away
You have the right to remain silent...
since Morsi's overthrow.

Morsi himself and much of the group's upper echelons are embroiled in multiple court cases over charges including murder.

At the same time, holy warrior attacks by Sinai-based fighters have surged since Morsi was removed. The violence has killed over 500 police and soldiers, with civilian casualties reported as well.
Link



Warning: Undefined property: stdClass::$T in /data/rantburg.com/www/rantburg/pgrecentorg.php on line 132
-12 More