Saturday, February 7, 2015
يا جـُند الشيعة والسنّة: أعداء محمد هم أعداء علي!
يا جـُند الشيعة والسنّة: أعداء محمد هم أعداء علي!
د. فيصل القاسم
Sisi's political bankruptcy has polarised Egypt
By: Khalil al-Anani
Link
The general seemed sullen, shaken and lacking confidence.
He spoke with clear anger. He decided, as usual, to blame his arch-enemy, the Muslim Brotherhood. Sisi has not dared to dismiss anyone for negligence. Instead he promoted a brigadier-general to fight what he calls terrorism in Sinai.
Since Sisi asked for a popular mandate to fight "potential terrorism" three weeks after the 3 July 2013 coup, a parallel political and media campaign of terrorism was launched that could be summarised as "you are either with us or against us". Anyone who opposed Sisi became an enemy.
After every attack, instead of being held accountable for further polarisation of Egyptian society, the operators of this campaign are rewarded, brought closer to the authorities and promoted in their jobs.
Sisi does not realise that "terrorism" started a year and a half ago, when television studios began inciting murder and bloodshed.
These studios hosted shameless journalists who churned out lies and fabrications, analysts who promoted myths, and regime loyalists who levelled all manner of accusations against certain segments of Egyptian society. Therefore, Egypt now reaps what was sown in that sensationalist campaign, with normal Egyptians paying the price.
If Sisi was serious about fighting terrorism and stopping the cycle of violence, which I doubt, he would stop the public media campaigns inciting the killing of citizens. If he was honest, which I also doubt, he would start by confronting terrorism in east Cairo, not east of the Suez Canal. Sisi has to hold his loyal journalists and supporters accountable for the state we have reached because their hate campaigns have taken Egypt to the edge of civil war.
Sisi is politically bankrupt and no longer has any cards to prove his competence and ability to run the country. He has not achieved a thing since coming to power.
In fact, Sisi's rise did more than fan the flames of division and tensions in the country - after he gave his media supporters a blank cheque to continue their attacks against anyone opposing them.
Police brutality has increased and many people have been killed. It is as if the police is a militia and not a state institution that can be held accountable for its actions.
What is currently taking place in the Sinai is not simply religious or ideological terrorism, but revenge operations against the state and its repressive and brutal security apparatuses, because of the crimes they have committed against the people of the Sinai.
What do you expect from people who have been forcibly removed from their houses, lands and farms? What do you expect from entire tribes that have no citizenship rights? What did you think would be the result of the public vilification and incitement campaigns against the people of Sinai?
This is undoubtedly not intended to justify terrorism or those who commit terror acts, as they are clearly criminals. It is merely an attempt to understand the context of the current situation, and to identify the facts.
Sisi and his minister of interior have clearly not learned from the mistakes of the former president, Hosni Mubarak, or his former interior minister, Habib al-Adly, who dealt with Sinai as a source of tension and instability, and implemented repressive security measures. Now Sisi is using the same logic, and sees Sinai as nothing more than a desert - a piece of land, and not the home of humans, families, and tribes, and a part of Egypt's history.
Conditions will deteriorate for as long as Sisi remains in power, not just because he is weak and unable to manage the current tension and polarisation or stop the campaign of incitement and hate, but also because he is the main cause of the political crisis Egypt has suffered since since the July 2013 military coup.
This article is an edited translation from our Arabic edition.
Link
Comment: President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's campaign against his political opponents has divided Egypt, and is inciting attacks in the Sinai.
After a recent attack Sinai left 30 people dead, the Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, addressed his people: "You chose me, so if you continue the journey with me, I will not die alone." The general seemed sullen, shaken and lacking confidence.
He spoke with clear anger. He decided, as usual, to blame his arch-enemy, the Muslim Brotherhood. Sisi has not dared to dismiss anyone for negligence. Instead he promoted a brigadier-general to fight what he calls terrorism in Sinai.
Since Sisi asked for a popular mandate to fight "potential terrorism" three weeks after the 3 July 2013 coup, a parallel political and media campaign of terrorism was launched that could be summarised as "you are either with us or against us". Anyone who opposed Sisi became an enemy.
 | Egypt has been divided into two parties, two populations, two societies and two different worlds. |
After every attack, instead of being held accountable for further polarisation of Egyptian society, the operators of this campaign are rewarded, brought closer to the authorities and promoted in their jobs.
Sisi does not realise that "terrorism" started a year and a half ago, when television studios began inciting murder and bloodshed.
These studios hosted shameless journalists who churned out lies and fabrications, analysts who promoted myths, and regime loyalists who levelled all manner of accusations against certain segments of Egyptian society. Therefore, Egypt now reaps what was sown in that sensationalist campaign, with normal Egyptians paying the price.
If Sisi was serious about fighting terrorism and stopping the cycle of violence, which I doubt, he would stop the public media campaigns inciting the killing of citizens. If he was honest, which I also doubt, he would start by confronting terrorism in east Cairo, not east of the Suez Canal. Sisi has to hold his loyal journalists and supporters accountable for the state we have reached because their hate campaigns have taken Egypt to the edge of civil war.
Sisi is politically bankrupt and no longer has any cards to prove his competence and ability to run the country. He has not achieved a thing since coming to power.
In fact, Sisi's rise did more than fan the flames of division and tensions in the country - after he gave his media supporters a blank cheque to continue their attacks against anyone opposing them.
Police brutality has increased and many people have been killed. It is as if the police is a militia and not a state institution that can be held accountable for its actions.
| What is currently taking place in the Sinai is not simply religious or ideological terrorism. |
What is currently taking place in the Sinai is not simply religious or ideological terrorism, but revenge operations against the state and its repressive and brutal security apparatuses, because of the crimes they have committed against the people of the Sinai.
What do you expect from people who have been forcibly removed from their houses, lands and farms? What do you expect from entire tribes that have no citizenship rights? What did you think would be the result of the public vilification and incitement campaigns against the people of Sinai?
This is undoubtedly not intended to justify terrorism or those who commit terror acts, as they are clearly criminals. It is merely an attempt to understand the context of the current situation, and to identify the facts.
Sisi and his minister of interior have clearly not learned from the mistakes of the former president, Hosni Mubarak, or his former interior minister, Habib al-Adly, who dealt with Sinai as a source of tension and instability, and implemented repressive security measures. Now Sisi is using the same logic, and sees Sinai as nothing more than a desert - a piece of land, and not the home of humans, families, and tribes, and a part of Egypt's history.
Conditions will deteriorate for as long as Sisi remains in power, not just because he is weak and unable to manage the current tension and polarisation or stop the campaign of incitement and hate, but also because he is the main cause of the political crisis Egypt has suffered since since the July 2013 military coup.
This article is an edited translation from our Arabic edition.
The judgment of history on Oslo
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However low Netanyahu's relationship to the White House sinks - and as Barak Ravid, theHaaretz writer tweeted, and two Israeli diplomats retweeted, the Israeli premier always manages to take it even lower - it as certain as night follows day, that both sides will be back after the Israeli election exhuming the remains of the peace process.
If Isaac Herzog, the Labor Party leader becomes the next prime minister, there will be an orchestrated rush of optimism , accompanied by a raft of economic threats to propel the Palestinian leadership , like a flock of geese, back into the negotiating pen. They will then be expected to sit there obediently for another five years, if Herzog has his way. If its another dose of Netanyahu, the prevailing wind will be weaker but it will eventually manifest itself.
Before any of this happens, it is worth hearing a veteran negotiator give her verdict on Oslo, the chimera on which the last 25 years of "process" has been based. Hanan Ashrawi is equally critical of Fatah and Hamas, whom she jointly accuses of trying to "divvy up" the spoils of the PLO. Neither she says are really interested in elections, and yet without them, the PLO is , in her words, a tired institution. The veteran PLO negotiator and academic tears into Fatah for failing to turn up in Gaza and take over the ministries of government, and lacerates Hamas for refusing to relinquish security control over the enclave.
She was part of the Yasser Arafat's negotiating team in Madrid after the Peace Conference there, working in parallel with a second team in Washington. Neither she nor her fellow negotiators knew of the existence of a third team in Oslo. This was a secret third track known only to the most senior Palestinians and Israelis, that undercut the red lines drawn by Ashrawi and Faisal Husseini. Arafat decided to trade the Madrid/Washington group for the one gain he got out of Oslo, Israeli recognition of the PLO - not of course of Palestine. It proved to be a strategic error, which Arafat himself realised towards the end of his life that he had made .
What does this have to do with the growing mood of desperation in Jerusalem today? Everything, Ashrawi told me.
"One of the fatal flaws of the Declaration of Principles ( DOP or Oslo Accord) is that they left the Jerusalemites at the mercy of Israel and then the international community allowed Israel to treat the Jerusalemites as residents of the city and totally control their lives, their lands, and their resources. From day one, Israel treated Jerusalem as if it were annexed de facto, even before they annexed it illegally, and started a systematic policy of ethnic cleansing, totally transforming the character, history and culture of the city. Siege and division is a microcosm of what Israel did to the West Bank, where you besiege it, control entrances and exits, and then fragment it internally. They planted settlements and settlers inside Jerusalem, then surrounded it with three rings, a triple siege: the settlements which it started early, the military checkpoints and the apartheid wall. This made Jerusalem inaccessible to any Palestinian who does not have a Jerusalem ID. It means Israel totally extracted Jerusalem from the heart of Palestine, territorially, demographically, in terms of access, in terms of culture, in terms of institutions. Jerusalem's hospitals and schools were there to serve all Palestine."
Of course Israel said it would do no such thing. Shimon Perez as foreign minister wrote a letter to his Norwegian counterpart Johan Holst in October 1993, promising to protect the PLO's institutions in Jerusalem. Perez wrote:
"All the Palestinian institutions of East Jerusalem, including the economic, social, educational and cultural, and the holy Christian and Moslem places, are performing an essential task for the Palestinian population. Needless to say, we will not hamper their activity; on the contrary, the fulfilment of this important mission is to be encouraged."
After attempts by both Netanyahu, in his first term as prime minister, and then Jerusalem mayor, Ehud Olmert to shut it down, Orient House, the former headquarters of the PLO was closed down by Ariel Sharon during the Second Intifada. Ashrawi comments:
" When we entered negotiations, we had American commitments and assurances that Orient House will not be touched, that they would not enter, that they would not look at our papers. Not only did they enter it and confiscate our papers, they closed it down."
Ashrawi sees Oslo not as the victim of 25 years of stalled negotiations, but as one of its causes.
"I would never have signed the DOP [Declaration of Principles] relinquishing power over Jerusalem. I have a Jerusalem ID. My daughters had Jerusalem IDs before they confiscated them. We call ourselves the Madrid/ Washington group. We are not the Oslo group, we had a totally different approach. We didn't postpone the real issues. We discussed human rights, Jerusalem, statehood, borders. We demanded control over the population register and the land register. Israel is in control of both, so how can you ever be free? They control who are their citizens and who owns the land.So no wonder Jerusalemites feel abandoned, vulnerable and targeted. Because Israel has systematically targeted them."
So, when we see a leaderless Palestinian community in Jerusalem, we should not be surprised. Nor should we be surprised that violence begets violence. If Jerusalem is cut off today, Oslo put off the decisions that would have secured it as the capital of two states. Oslo put off all the hard decisions on the core issues - Jerusalem, right of return, borders - that are no nearer being solved today than they were then. In fact there are 600,000 more reasons ( that's the number of settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem ) why they are harder to solve today than they were 25 years ago. In the meantime Netanyahu holds the Palestinian leadership responsible for what goes on in a city over which Israel has made every effort to ensure they have no control. Ashrawi's words are the judgment of history.
This article was first published on the Huffington Post.
Saudi prince calls for prosecution of officials who backed Egyptian coup
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A Saudi Arabian prince has called for the prosecution of officials, including the former head of the Royal Court, who supported the coup in Egypt. Prince Saud Bin Seif Al-Nasr made his calls on Twitter and named former courtier Khalid Al-Twijri as one of those who should be brought to account, claimed Ikhwanonline.com on Friday.
In a series of tweets, the grandson of the late King Saud Bin Abdulaziz, alleged that around "$20 billion was stolen and divided between Al-Twijri and the Egyptian Generals." Despite the "billions showered on Egyptian generals like rain," he continued, "no single problem has been resolved. The Egyptians are still suffering from electricity, gas and bread crises. It is clear that the gang headed by him [Al-Twijri] stole the money with the Egyptian generals."
Why, he asked, are the officials responsible for this waste of Saudi wealth not asking Al-Twijri and the coup generals in Egypt about the money? "No one knows the nature of this aid – a gift, a loan or anything else," he added.
In terms of the lucrative Suez Canal Project, the prince claimed that no feasibility study was carried out. "What these people have done was merely a waste of money and tyranny for the country, the people and the Muslims. They have to be questioned." And, he insisted, brought to account.
Egyptian government uses Al-Qassam to cover own failures
Abdel Sattar Qassem
Link
The Egyptian army is unable to achieve stability in Sinai, and Egyptian soldiers find themselves trapped by armed terrorist groups in the region. Unfortunately, it seems that Egyptian soldiers in Sinai are falling victim to the Egyptian army's lack of preparation, meaning that they have become easy targets for snipers and bombers.
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The Egyptian army is unable to achieve stability in Sinai, and Egyptian soldiers find themselves trapped by armed terrorist groups in the region. Unfortunately, it seems that Egyptian soldiers in Sinai are falling victim to the Egyptian army's lack of preparation, meaning that they have become easy targets for snipers and bombers.
The Egyptian army has ultimately failed in Sinai – as indicated by recent developments in the local security situation. Egypt possesses a large army with sophisticated equipment – drones missiles, and tactics – that is trying to control a sliver of geographic area in northern Sinai known for having a small population and few residential areas. It is a very limited terrain with no complicated topography that could help terrorists hide and quietly plan.
Sinai's geography is similar to other desert areas; an open terrain that exposes those operating within it. It is not a suitable area for guerrilla warfare. Despite this, armed groups continue to be active there and the Egyptian army has been unable to make any significant achievements in confronting such groups.
It is clear that the Egyptian army is sluggish and not well prepared. Its lack of adequate preparation may be cause to believe that the army is unable to engage in any wars, even if against a handful of armed individuals in a small geographic area.
The incapacity suffered by the Egyptian army has evolved over the years of Hosni Mubarak's reign. The army grew very weak because its combat doctrine decline in terms of practice – the Egyptian regime believed that after signing the Camp David Accords with the Zionists, it no longer had any enemies. Therefore, there is an urgent need to rebuild the Egyptian army, train them in the most modern technologies and arm them to confront such challenges and preserve the integrity of he Egyptian state.
If the Egyptian army is this weak, then what would it do if the armed militants moved inside Egypt and waged an armed battle against the government, like they did in Syria?
To compound the situation further, in order for the Egyptian government to cover its ineffectiveness and justify its failure in Sinai, it has deliberately accused Al-Qassam Brigades of planning and executing attacks on Egyptian soldiers in Sinai.
The Egyptian media promotes this accusation and has launched an extensive media campaign against the Palestinians; and specifically against the Palestinian resistance. In addition to this, the recent ruling of the Cairo Court for Urgent Matters against Hamas did not provide any evidence of Al-Qassam Brigades' involvement in the attacks in Sinai, and instead relied only on the delusions of Egyptian officers and politicians. If any evidence did exist, then the Court is kindly asked to present it to the public in order for the Palestinian people to form our position towards Al-Qassam.
We will not and cannot accept the possibility that Palestinian rifles might have been pointed at our Egyptian brothers, but we will also not allow for unsubstantiated accusations to be made against the the same Palestinian rifle. There is no Palestinian who would think of killing an Egyptian civilian or soldier, and those who have failed to achieve their goals must face the people with the truth instead of blaming their failure on others.
We would like to maintain our bonds and cooperation with the great people of Egypt and we would hate for grudges and animosity to come between us. We all belong to one nation, and are partners through thick and thin. The Egyptian government cannot continue its reckless behaviour that will greatly harm our brotherly and historical relations between two nations that are organically linked to one another.
Al-Qassam Brigades are the backbone of the Palestinian resistance, and they have succeeded in the past three wars to collaborate with various resistance forces in Gaza in order to thwart Israeli attacks.
They are the ones standing up to defend the honour of the Palestinian people and the honour of the Arab nation; after the Arab states surrendered to Israel and raised the Zionist flag in their capitals. Al-Qassam Brigades defeated Israel's ground army in the 2014 war; the Israeli army didn't even last a day against the Palestinian resistance and were forced to flee from the Gaza Strip under the pressure of the Qassam's ingenious and successful military operations without achieving any of their objectives.
Al-Qassam Brigades are sacred to the Palestinian people and harming them harms the entire Palestinian nation and the Palestinian history and geography. Those who were defeated by Israel should be standing at the door of Al-Qassam Brigades in order to thank them for washing away the Arab shame, which still stains the faces of the Arab regimes.
If the Egyptian government does not want the help of the Palestinian people, then the government should simply leave them alone and let them fend for themselves. The Egyptian blockade imposed against them must also end. Shame on the Egyptian government, and glory and immortality to our martyrs and to the Palestinian resistance.
If the Egyptian government has any disputes or rivalries with the Muslim Brotherhood, then it should work out its differences away from the Palestinian people. While it may be true that Al-Qassam Brigades are affiliated to the Brotherhood, they are not involved in sectarianism and rather work day and night to fight the Zionist enemy – whom Egypt must ask for permission before sending its army into Sinai.
The EU decided that Hamas is not a terrorist organisation, and Al-Qassam Brigades is the military wing of Hamas. Is the Egyptian government trying to say it knows more than Europe and is more precise in defining the terms "terrorism" and "terrorist"?
The Egyptian court's decision brought joy to the hearts of the Israelis, who have always relied on the fragmentation of the Arab world and internal Arab differences to harm and weaken the Arabnation. The Egyptian court as ultimately helped the Israelis in their fight against the Palestinian youth who have devoted their lives to their holy homeland and to the defence of their people and nation.
Translated from Al Jazeera net, 4 February, 2015
A Tipping Point Toward Chaos
By Scott Ritter
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The murder by militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) of a Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh is being viewed by analysts as a tipping point for mobilizing public support in the region against the forces of Islamic extremism. Prior to Lieutenant Kasasbeh's execution, public opinion in Jordan appeared to be evenly split on the issue of their nation's participation in the US-led coalition targeting Sunni Arab Islamists in Iraq and Syria.
Now, in the aftermath of the pilot's death, there seems to be a consensus among these analysts that a majority of Jordanians will rally around King Abdullah as he seeks revenge against ISIS by executing prisoners in Jordanian custody and considers expanding the role of Jordan in the anti-ISIS coalition. This may be the outcome in the short term, as passions flare in response to what most Jordanians view as a vicious act on the part of ISIS. The reaction of the Jordanian government (indeed all of the western world and much of the Middle East) has been predictable -- so predictable that one must wonder if this is precisely the outcome desired by ISIS in killing Lieutenant Kasasbeh in such a high profile fashion, and if so, why?
The Islamic State has never hidden its desire to create a Sunni Islamic Caliphate that extends over much of the territory that comprises the modern states of Iraq, Syria and Jordan (and elsewhere, as recent events in the Sinai and Libya have shown). In the minds of many who live in the region, these three nations are artificial entities, created at the whim of western imperialists in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire for the sole purpose of facilitating western economic and geopolitical ambitions at the expense of legitimate Arab nationalism and Sunni Islam. There is a growing level of resentment, especially among the ranks of young and disenfranchised males, that feeds off this perception, creating a rich pool of pre-radicalized talent from which ISIS is able to recruit.
ISIS was born from the chaos and anarchy that erupted in Iraq after the United States invaded and occupied that country, removing from power a Sunni dictator, Saddam Hussein, and replacing him with a pro-Iranian Shi'a government. ISIS was able to exploit similar chaos that engulfed Syria in 2011 during popular unrest against the government of Bashar al-Assad. Assad's government is dominated by members of a minority Shi'a sect known as the Allawites, and has close ties with Iran and the Lebanese Shi'a militia-cum-political party, Hezbollah.
In addition to playing off of the notion of historical illegitimacy of the pro-western (and anti-Sunni Islam) governments of Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State has created a de facto Sunni-Shi'a sectarian conflict that, in and of itself, serves as a rallying cry for many of its recruits, undermining the legitimacy of any Sunni Arab country that joins in the anti-ISIS fight. It is in this context that Lieutenant Kasasbeh's murder must be evaluated. By goading Jordan into assuming a larger role -- perhaps even a leadership role -- in the fight against the Islamic State, ISIS may be seeking to accelerate the process of creating social divides within Jordan that could lead to the kind of internal chaos and unrest that the Islamic extremists have shown themselves so adept at exploiting.
It will be difficult for King Abdullah to control the anger unleashed by the actions of ISIS in killing Lieutenant Kasasbeh. The Lieutenant's family is from a large and influential tribe which, while proud of their relative's military service, has not spoken with one voice on the Hashemite Kingdom's policies vis-à-vis Iraq and Syria. ISIS has a long history in both Iraq and Syria of turning tribal angst to its advantage, and this may be exactly the strategy ISIS is pursuing by its gruesome actions.
There can be no doubt that what ISIS did was not an accident. Lieutenant Kasasbeh was killed on January 3, 2015 -- nearly a month before ISIS began "negotiating" a prisoner exchange involving the pilot and a would-be female suicide bomber. ISIS knew that by releasing the video of Kasasbeh's murder it would be guaranteeing the execution of its fellow Jihadists at the hands of the Jordanians.
The Islamic State also knew that the resulting public outrage in Jordan, especially amongst the influential al-Kasasbeh tribe, would push Jordan toward accepting a larger role in the fight against ISIS. And it also knows that, in assuming this role, the Jordanian King would be even further aligning himself with the United States and, indirectly, with a competing Shi'a alliance involving Iran, Iraq, Syria and Hezbollah.
Rather than serving as a tipping point for mobilizing public sentiment in the Sunni Arab world against ISIS, it seems that a case can be made that the actions of ISIS seem geared toward achieving the exact opposite reaction -- the mobilization of angry, disenfranchised Sunni Arab youth inside Jordan against the actions of their King, creating the kinds of social rifts ISIS thrives upon. Jordan should proceed cautiously before agreeing to any expansion of its role in the anti-ISIS coalition. To do otherwise, and surrender to an emotional call for revenge, may very well pull the Hashemite Kingdom into the same vortex of fundamentalist sectarianism that has torn Iraq and Syria apart. And this is exactly what ISIS wants.
Egypt’s 'golden age of unity'
By: Hossam el-Hamalawy
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In less than ten years, Egypt’s judges have gone from icons of democracy to the counterrevolution‘s aggressive hounds. It is, boasts Egypt’s new regime, a golden age of unity… between the judges, police and army.
In 2006, they were the icons of democracy. Thousands of Egyptians, at the time, took to the streets in successive waves, met with brute police force, chanting on their behalf and expressing their solidarity, in what was dubbed the “Cairo Spring”.
In 2015, however, they have become champions of the counterrevolution, ensuring tens of thousands of opposition activists and ordinary citizens remain in jail, sentencing defendants en masse to death in Kangaroo courts, absolving government and security officials from any wrong-doing.
Egypt’s judges have come a long way from spearheading dissent to being the counterrevolution’s aggressive hounds.
On Thursday, Alaa Abdel Fattah, a leading 33-year-old activist, who’s been on hunger strike for more than three months, was ordered to remain in prison during his ongoing trial together with 26 defendants over violating the protest law.
Prominent Egyptian activist, 26-year-old Ahmed Doma, was sentenced also, along with another 299, to life in prison and a LE17 million fine, in a sham trial over their role in December 2011 anti-military riots.
The presiding judge over Doma’s case, Mohammad Nagui Shehata, had the day before sentenced another 183 defendants to death over the killing of 13 police officers in Kerdassa, Giza. Shehata was also the same judge who sentenced al-Jazeera journalists to jail.
It would take volumes to list the cases Shehata has been overseeing over the past years, his draconian sentences as well as the abuse he directs against lawyers, which pushed the Lawyers’ Syndicate to instruct its members to boycott his trials.
Although judges have been disciplined previously for releasing media statements, Shehata seems to be above all rules and regulations, giving interviews to pro-regime papers and TV stations, smearing Doma and his colleagues, as well as stating explicitly that Egypt “needs harsh sentences to return to stability.”
Shehata is only one among hundreds of civilian judges who are serving Sisi’s will, together with a corps of military counterparts.
The 2006 Cairo Spring saw Egypt’s judiciary split, among reformers who were lobbying for more judicial independence from the executive authorities, and those who were pro-regime. The struggle also included demands to improve the living conditions and wages of judges, seen by reformers as essential to guarantee a better corps and to curb corruption.
Mubarak’s autocratic regime was not a monolithic entity. The components of that regime in the three branches: judicial, legislative, and executive, all collaborated in public control, but they were the “warring brothers”. Each institution had developed its own interests and was competing to enlarge its share of the cake. Such friction or splits among the ruling elites always create room, unintentionally most of the time, for dissent from below in other sectors of society.
I’ll never forget an interview I conducted with one of the judge revolt leaders, in his apartment in the upscale neighbourhood of Zamalek, where he paused at some point and shouted:
“LE500 a month for a judge?!” referring to their average monthly salaries at the time without allowances. “That won’t be even enough to pay the maid,” he added, pointing his Filipino housekeeper who was bringing the tea.
Even when the judges were motivated to confront the regime over increasing their powers and enhance their living conditions, they were still part of that regime – that regime which was shaken by the 2011 revolution, but never fell – that regime that regrouped and came back with vengeance on the back of the military coup in 2013 with the aim of stifling any form of threat to its existence.
Nothing could describe the picture clearer than General Mohamed Ibrahim, the interior minister, who bragged: “We are living a golden age of unity between the judges, police and the army.”
In 2015, however, they have become champions of the counterrevolution, ensuring tens of thousands of opposition activists and ordinary citizens remain in jail, sentencing defendants en masse to death in Kangaroo courts, absolving government and security officials from any wrong-doing.
| LE500 a month for a judge?! That won’t be even enough to pay the maid. |
Egypt’s judges have come a long way from spearheading dissent to being the counterrevolution’s aggressive hounds.
On Thursday, Alaa Abdel Fattah, a leading 33-year-old activist, who’s been on hunger strike for more than three months, was ordered to remain in prison during his ongoing trial together with 26 defendants over violating the protest law.
Prominent Egyptian activist, 26-year-old Ahmed Doma, was sentenced also, along with another 299, to life in prison and a LE17 million fine, in a sham trial over their role in December 2011 anti-military riots.
The presiding judge over Doma’s case, Mohammad Nagui Shehata, had the day before sentenced another 183 defendants to death over the killing of 13 police officers in Kerdassa, Giza. Shehata was also the same judge who sentenced al-Jazeera journalists to jail.
It would take volumes to list the cases Shehata has been overseeing over the past years, his draconian sentences as well as the abuse he directs against lawyers, which pushed the Lawyers’ Syndicate to instruct its members to boycott his trials.
Although judges have been disciplined previously for releasing media statements, Shehata seems to be above all rules and regulations, giving interviews to pro-regime papers and TV stations, smearing Doma and his colleagues, as well as stating explicitly that Egypt “needs harsh sentences to return to stability.”
| We are all Shimaa al-Sabagh |
Shehata is only one among hundreds of civilian judges who are serving Sisi’s will, together with a corps of military counterparts.
The 2006 Cairo Spring saw Egypt’s judiciary split, among reformers who were lobbying for more judicial independence from the executive authorities, and those who were pro-regime. The struggle also included demands to improve the living conditions and wages of judges, seen by reformers as essential to guarantee a better corps and to curb corruption.
Mubarak’s autocratic regime was not a monolithic entity. The components of that regime in the three branches: judicial, legislative, and executive, all collaborated in public control, but they were the “warring brothers”. Each institution had developed its own interests and was competing to enlarge its share of the cake. Such friction or splits among the ruling elites always create room, unintentionally most of the time, for dissent from below in other sectors of society.
I’ll never forget an interview I conducted with one of the judge revolt leaders, in his apartment in the upscale neighbourhood of Zamalek, where he paused at some point and shouted:
“LE500 a month for a judge?!” referring to their average monthly salaries at the time without allowances. “That won’t be even enough to pay the maid,” he added, pointing his Filipino housekeeper who was bringing the tea.
Even when the judges were motivated to confront the regime over increasing their powers and enhance their living conditions, they were still part of that regime – that regime which was shaken by the 2011 revolution, but never fell – that regime that regrouped and came back with vengeance on the back of the military coup in 2013 with the aim of stifling any form of threat to its existence.
Nothing could describe the picture clearer than General Mohamed Ibrahim, the interior minister, who bragged: “We are living a golden age of unity between the judges, police and the army.”
Fox News: Muslims don't need help to understand ISIL
Fox News' showing of gruesome pilot video is irresponsible and suggests Muslims support ISIL.
It's hard to avoid hearing a sort of breathlessness emanating from the description of ISIL's latest grotesque release. When the death cult put out a video showing the burning alive of the Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kassasbeh this week, many commentators alluded to the slick production skills, special effects and careful editing.
There's this queasy mix of revulsion for the deed and near-admiration for the delivery mechanism, in some of the analysis of frames from what is essentially a snuff movie.
And when Fox News decided to publish this latest ISIL terror offering, it sent the video to the top of the charts; since Tuesday, the clip has received over two million views.
Analysts have noted before that it is precisely the juxtaposition of medieval violence and modern media savvy that draws attention to the twisted propaganda of the so-called Islamic State - with this latest now dubbed a "Hollywood style execution". The sadistic videos are designed to make us talk about it - and here we are, talking about it.
Remembering Moaz
Most media, unsurprisingly, decided not to publish this video of Kassasbeh's sickening, devastating murder - showing, instead, photographs of the pilot in uniform, or grinning into the camera in a T-shirt.This means, hopefully, that the image most of us will have of him is of a vibrant young man, evidently proud to serve his country and filled with the possibilities of a full life ahead of him.
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Fox News initially didn't give much of a reason for its decision - beyond that the channel wanted to bring to us "the reality of Islamic terrorism".
This - again, unsurprisingly - sparked much anger and disgust. Across social media, people wondered why the channel, which had not showed videos of previous ISIL hostage killings - of James Foley, Steven Sotloff, or Alan Henning - had done so now, over a Jordanian hostage.
Responding to this question, Fox News executive vice president, John Moody, said: "As we've seen from the news reports out of Amman [Jordan], this - more than the previous acts of ISIL - has profoundly touched the Muslim world as well as the West."
Understanding ISIL brutality
This answer pretty much confirms our worst fears over the Fox broadcast; the channel seems to think that Muslims need help understanding the brutality of ISIL. The suggestion is that this death video will dislodge supposed Muslim support for the death cult in a way that previous acts of terror did not.
ISIL's terror is mostly waged against Muslims in Iraq and Syria - but, as usual, Fox News isn't just inaccurate, it is spectacularly offensive, misleading and dangerous.
ISIL's terror is mostly waged against Muslims in Iraq and Syria - but, as usual, Fox News isn't just inaccurate, it is spectacularly offensive, misleading and dangerous.
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Here is what the Fox head goes on to say: "Many people in the West and the US have asked where the Muslims are who condemn this. And all you have to do is look at the footage [from protests in Amman] and you see where they are now."
Well of course Jordanians are more outraged over a Jordanian being killed - in the same way that anger and sadness over any terror killing tends to be more acute in the victim's country of origin. I'd really like Fox to explain how you go from that to the assumption that Jordanian grief here is more to do with being Muslim - because honestly, I can't figure it out.
Meanwhile, as terror experts pointed out, the channel's decision over this video was giving terror the platform it needed; actually helping terror to be terror.
Working for ISIL's media
Malcolm Nance, an expert on counterterrorism and radical extremism told the Guardian that the channel was "literally - literally - working for al-Qaeda and ISIL's media arm".
These ISIL murder videos, designed to simultaneously impress potential recruits and strike fear into the hearts of everyone else, in some way bring other images to mind; the giddy enthusing by TV experts over military hardware and "precision-bombing" during both Gulf wars; the pyramids of naked Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib, or the photograph of one Iraqi prisoner shivering with terror next to guards holding large dogs; some Israelis setting up a make-shift, open-air viewing gallery to witness bombs dropping onto the Gaza Strip.
This is in no way to suggest that any of these acts are remotely comparable, or an attempt to instigate a disgustingness ranking system for such images. The sole point here is that it seems as though the cruel spectacle of war isn't just a medieval relic; it has, in some manner, been running through our contemporary landscape, long before ISIL.
Perhaps, then, one aspect of the compulsion-revulsion element surrounding some of the commentary over ISIL's propaganda is precisely that some of the visual motifs are recognisable as a part of our world, too.
There is a reference to our cultural output, too - as Guardian writer Steve Rose observed last year: "Western film-makers seem to be providing more material for ISIL's image library. Hollywood has even been accused of setting the tone, with its dark, doomsday scenarios…"
Even something so grotesque as an ISIL murder movie, designed to terrify, seeming to revel in being the opposite of humanity - even that is connected to us somehow. It is an uncomfortable and unpalatable reminder that, whatever else this group represents, it did not spring out of a vacuum.
Rachel Shabi is a journalist and author of Not the Enemy: Israel's Jews from Arab Lands.
Friday, February 6, 2015
Exclusive: Deported Palestinian Scholar Sami Al-Arian on His Chilling Post-9/11 Prosecution
Democracy Now!
"Days after his deportation from the United States, the Palestinian activist and professor Sami Al-Arian discusses the end of his ordeal as the target of one of the most controversial prosecutions of the post-9/11 era. Sami was accused of ties to a militant group, but a Florida jury failed to return a single guilty verdict on any of the 17 charges against him. After prosecutors refiled charges, Sami chose jail time and deportation rather than face a second trial. For much of the three years following his arrest in 2003, he was imprisoned in solitary confinement and reportedly abused by prison staff under conditions Amnesty International called "gratuitously punitive." In a broadcast exclusive, Sami joins us from Turkey for his first broadcast interview since being deported. We are also joined by his daughter Laila Al-Arian, a Peabody Award-winning journalist based in Washington, D.C....."
"Days after his deportation from the United States, the Palestinian activist and professor Sami Al-Arian discusses the end of his ordeal as the target of one of the most controversial prosecutions of the post-9/11 era. Sami was accused of ties to a militant group, but a Florida jury failed to return a single guilty verdict on any of the 17 charges against him. After prosecutors refiled charges, Sami chose jail time and deportation rather than face a second trial. For much of the three years following his arrest in 2003, he was imprisoned in solitary confinement and reportedly abused by prison staff under conditions Amnesty International called "gratuitously punitive." In a broadcast exclusive, Sami joins us from Turkey for his first broadcast interview since being deported. We are also joined by his daughter Laila Al-Arian, a Peabody Award-winning journalist based in Washington, D.C....."
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