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Africa North

Mursi vows to be president for all Egyptians

2012-06-30

The Copts and other non-believers, of course, won't be considered 'Egyptian'... CAIRO: Muhammad Mursi paid tribute on Friday to Egypt's Muslims and Christians alike and symbolically swore himself in as the country's first elected civilian president before a huge crowd at Tahrir Square. Mursi, who won a run-off election earlier this month, was received with applause by the tens of thousands of people gathered in the birthplace of the revolt that overthrew his predecessor Hosni Mubarak last year. He promised a "civilian state" and praised "the square of the revolution, the square of freedom," in what he called an address to "the free world, Arabs, Muslims... the Muslims of Egypt, Christians of Egypt." Mursi symbolically swore himself in before the crowd, saying: "I swear to preserve the republican system... and to preserve the independence" of Egypt. In his speech Mursi, whose election has raised concerns among Egypt's sizeable Coptic Christian community, served the United States with advance warning that his politics will be markedly different from those of his ousted predecessor. No, really? He told the Tahrir crowd he would work to secure freedom for Omar Abdul Rahman, a blind Egyptian cleric jailed for life over the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. "I will do everything in my power to secure freedom for... detainees, including Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman," Mursi said in his address to the throng packing the hub of the 2011 revolution. Champ would lose New York in November if he did that, so don't look for it .. until December. Abdul Rahman was convicted in 1995 for his role in the World Trade Center bombing, plotting to bomb other New York targets including the United Nations, and a plan to assassinate Mubarak. After taking the oath, Mursi will have to contend with the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, headed by Mubarak's longtime defense minister Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, that will retain broad powers after it formally transfers power. The liberal Wafd newspaper reported that Tantawi will remain defense minister in the new government. And that's the real power...

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Africa North

Libyan Jihadis Claims U.S. Consulate Attack

2012-06-13

[An Nahar] An alleged Libyan jihadist group has grabbed credit for last week's bombing of the U.S. consulate in Libya's main eastern city of Benghazi, the SITE monitoring service said Monday. The "Brigades of the Imprisoned Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman" said the attack was to avenge the death of Al-Qaeda number two Abu Yahya al-Libi in a drone strike in Pakistain, said the US-based SITE, which monitors jihadi websites. The Brigades also said the June 6 kaboom at the U.S. diplomatic mission -- in which one person was maimed -- had come in response to the use of "American drones flying in Libyan skies," SITE said. The group said it had "planted an bomb in a wall of the consulate, targeting a group of 'Christian overseers' who were preparing to receive one of the 'heads of instigation'" from the State Department, SITE said. The statement added that the group -- which also grabbed credit for a May attack on the Benghazi offices of the International Committee of the Red Thingy -- would soon release its footage of the consulate attack. The group is named after Abdel Rahman, 73, who received a life sentence in the United States for his involvement in plots to hit New York targets and a plan to assassinate former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... .

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Britain

UK: Top job fighting extremism for Muslim who praised bomber

2005-08-21

A Muslim accused of anti-Semitism is to be appointed to a government role in charge of rooting out extremism in the wake of last month's suicide bombings in London. Inayat Bunglawala, 36, the media secretary for the Muslim Council of Britain, is understood to have been selected as one of seven "conveners" for a Home Office task force with responsibilities for tackling extremism among young Muslims, despite a history of anti-Semitic statements. Mr Bunglawala's past comments include the allegation that the British media was "Zionist-controlled". Writing for a Muslim youth magazine in 1992, he said: "The chairman of Carlton Communications is Michael Green of the Tribe of Judah. He has joined an elite club whose members include fellow Jews Michael Grade [then the chief executive of Channel 4 and now BBC chairman] and Alan Yentob [BBC2 controller and friend of Salman Rushdie]." "The three are reported to be "close friends
 so that's what they mean by a 'free media'." In January 1993, Mr Bunglawala wrote a letter to Private Eye, the satirical magazine, in which he called the blind Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman "courageous" - just a month before he bombed the World Trade Center in New York. After Rahman's arrest in July that year, Mr Bunglawala said that it was probably only because of his "calling on Muslims to fulfil their duty to Allah and to fight against oppression and oppressors everywhere". Five months before 9/11, Mr Bunglawala also circulated writings of Osama bin Laden, who he regarded as a "freedom fighter", to hundreds of Muslims in Britain. The Muslim Council of Britain was one of several organisations invited to a meeting held by Tony Blair after the London bombings. The Prime Minister said afterwards that he would set up a task force to tackle extremism "head on". Mr Bunglawala's job at the Home Office will be to help to organise a programme to tackle radicalism and extremism among young Muslims. News of his appointment comes 10 days after he wrote to Mark Thompson, the BBC Director General, accusing a forthcoming BBC1 Panorama programme of possessing "a pro-Israeli agenda". Although the programme had yet to be completed, Mr Bunglawala said that the BBC had allowed itself to be used by "highly placed supporters of Israel in the British media to make capital out of the July 7 atrocities in London". The programme, A Question of Leadership, which will air tonight at 10.20pm, seeks to discover whether British Muslim leaders can tackle the extremism in their midst. Obviously not. It features an interview with Sir Iqbal Sacranie, the secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, who says members of the Palestinian terrorist organisation Hamas are "freedom fighters". Sir Iqbal compares Hamas suicide bombers to Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Ghandi. He says: "Those who fight oppression, those who fight occupation, cannot be termed as terrorist, they are freedom fighters, in the same way as Nelson Mandela fought against their apartheid, in the same way as Gandhi and many others fought the British rule in India." Sir Iqbal also refers to the founder and spiritual leader of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, as "the renowned Islamic scholar". Sir Iqbal attended a memorial service at the Central Mosque in London for Sheikh Yassin after he was killed in an Israeli air strike last year. The programme also shows a leading Saudi cleric, an honoured guest of the East London Mosque, claiming that Islam is "the best testament to how different communities can live together", while back in his pulpit in Mecca, he has referred to Jews as "monkeys and pigs" and also as "the rats of the world". Christians are "cross worshippers" and Hindus "idol worshippers". Mr Bunglawala said: "Those comments were made some 12 or 13 years ago. All of us may hold opinions which are objectionable, but they change over time. I certainly would not defend those comments today." No. Some of these calls to murder and treason were made as recently as this year. The Home Office refused to confirm or deny the appointment.

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