from a few days ago in Egypt-- enjoy

[Independent]

They target Muslims, and if you say they don't then why is the western media so consistent in portraying Islam in the bad light?

I wouldn't disagree with you that Muslims are often portrayed in a bad light - but not exclusively, there are plenty of attempts to show otherwise. In the UK I can see many sincere attempts to redress the balance, even if the overall image remains negative.

But consider the image of the west in Muslim media? It's even worse. The views of Abz (above) are far from unusual.

i regret these extreme views on both sides and they are leading us into wars and division that don't need to happen.

How about letting the viewer know that these terrorists are not working according to, but rather against the commandments of Islam?

It's very difficult for the west to understand when individuals keep saying they are doing these things in the name of Islam. I have seen any number of debates in this forum about who is a 'real' Muslim. But for the west, they are what they say they are. Also, you have guys like Abz quoting Quranic verses that appear to endorse enmity into eternity. I don't know what to make of this. it's exactly what we've been told Islam does not do.

As a matter of fact, anything that has anything positive about Islam is rather opposed and suppressed.

You might like 'Kingdom of Heaven' too, which takes a pro Muslim view of Saladin's capture of Jerusalem.

West is the primary customer of oil. Customer being the keyword here. Don't you ever wish you never had to pay for the things you love? Food for thought

The main thing the west wants is open, competitive markets and free trade. This is a much cheaper policy, and far more effective, than invasions which, apart from the wholly justified liberation of Kuwait, have never resulted in increased access to oil for the west.

 

[Abz2000]

But consider the image of the west in Muslim media? It's even worse. The views of Abz (above) are far from unusual.

Then the views of abz must have been "unusual" when he was going around handing out dawah books and anti war leaflets in London, just that Abz must have been struck a few chords when he started speaking out against illegal wars while calling for non-violence and arrested a few times under stupid premises with totally fabricated accusations and even sent to trial and fined despite CCTV evidence to the contrary, grown up in the palace of pharaoh and seen his corruption with his own eyes to make him realise that things aren't as chummy as they appear on the surface, maybe he's even been pushed offers to shift kilos of drugs by those whom he's previously identified as agents of influence in order to try and ensnare him but has somehow managed to disentangle himself despite the peer pressure laid on him. Maybe Abz just feels an enemy presence for reasons only he himself understands.

 

[faithandpeace]

Jazakallah khair to some very informative posts on this thread. A united people is a people that is harder to control than a divided people. The West should not fear a united Islamic Caliphate unless they know that they--the West--is doing something wrong. It really is up to us as Muslims to be the best Muslims we can be insha'Allah because that way we are leaders by example. Enemies can kill us but they cannot kill ideas. Soldiers who have gone over to Muslim lands to kill Muslims have ended up converting to Islam themselves and then upon their return from service call out the injustices done against Muslims. This does seem to be a real test of faith. The enemies want us to falter and fail if even in just small ways. I loved the lecture given at the Eid prayer I attended. Its message was a simple one: don't give up the Salaat. They want us divided but at the end of the day we are all insha'Allah facing Makkah five times per day and communicating with Allah (swt) and standing shoulder to shoulder with our fellow brothers and sisters. Insha'Allah the enemies will never be able to stop this.

 

[Abz2000]

The sons of the devil even used abz' Quran in the video game, now he "hates" their actions even more!-------Independent may be thinking "They hate us for our freedoms" because he heard it on the ministry of truth.----This representative of theirs summed up their understanding of "things" well, not that it's not nonsense- simpleton.--------"See, we love—we love freedom. That's what they didn't understand. They hate things; we love things. G W Bush—Oklahoma City, Aug. 29, 2002

 

[جوري]

Who the heck cares what kaffirs think? They insinuate themselves here then accuse and tell you how it's according to their understanding which there's not much of!

 

[faithandpeace]

This is why I object for the most part to the non-Muslims' involvement in our politics on this discussion board. If they want to debate Islamic politics, then they need to become Muslims first. We as Muslims do not have a united ummah or caliphate of our own, yet how can we talk about successfully building one when we are endlessly explaining ourselves to those who have no intention of ever joining us? There is a difference between being a member of something and being a guest with acceptable levels of social decorum for each one accordingly. Since I have been here I feel like Muslims are spending more time arguing over tragic situations from the Boston, U.S. bombings to Egypt's and Syria's crises to those who are here as guests and have no say whatsoever in our politics. I'm happy to hear what Muslims think we as an Islamic community need accompanied with understandings based on Qur'an and Hadith. It is my opinion that non-Muslims here as guests can listen and ask clarifying questions but their opinions on what Muslims or Islamic society need have absolutely no relevancy.

 

[sister herb]

This is why I object for the most part to the non-Muslims' involvement in our politics on this discussion board. If they want to debate Islamic politics, then they need to become Muslims first.

Salam alaykum

Following same logic we, us muslims, should then become Christians first before we can discuss about political matters about Christian-majority countries? Because we are muslims, we should avoid talk here about politics of USA, UK, France, Germany or... (we should become Jews?) about Israel?

Sometimes you muslims get very interesting ideas to your heads!

 

[faithandpeace]

No sister Herb, this is an Islamic board. This is not a Christian, Jewish, etc. discussion board. Why is this so hard?

 

[sister herb]

No sister Herb, this is an Islamic board. This is not a Christian, Jewish, etc. discussion board. Why is this so hard?

Salam alaykum

It is hard when some members feels it so hard to listen opinions from outside of your religion. Not even all muslims agree with those political matters. Why it is so hard to you try to discuss with some non-muslim. If your knowledge is better than them, why you couldn´t lost some minutes to help others and increase they knowledge?

If non-muslims here really stress you, you better contact to admins and ask them to change the rules.

 

[جوري]

Here's the church in involvement in Egypt's coup in videos

منقووول

طبعا لان كتير من المصريين ركن دماغه على جنب واستخدم مكانه فردة جزمه مقاس 45 اسود برباط مهما نقول ومهما نتكلم بالادله والبراهين والاثبتات القاطعه عن دور الكنيسه في الاحداث الاخير مش بيصدقونا ويقولوا كدابين لانهم اتعودو على الكلام بدون تفكير

جمعنا ليكم الراوبط ده دليل واضح وقوى على دور الكنيسه

ياااارب اللى عايز يعرف الحقيقه يفوق بقي

بالفيديو مسلحون داخل الكنيسة بالعباسية يطلقون النار على الشرطة

http://nahdanm.blogspot.com/2013/08/blog-post_8943.html

بالفيديو شباب الكنيسة يعترف باستخدام السلاح لمواجهة الشرطة

http://nahdanm.blogspot.com/2013/08/blog-post_8264.html

بالفيديو الشرطة تعترف بوجود أسلحة داخل الكنيسة المصرية

http://nahdanm.blogspot.com/2013/08/blog-post_6259.html

بالفيديو سليم العوا يتهم الكنيسة بتخزين السلاح

http://nahdanm.blogspot.com/2013/08/blog-post_2588.html

بالفيديو عمر عفيفى يتهم الكنيسة المصرية بوجود أسلحة بداخلها

http://nahdanm.blogspot.com/2013/08/blog-post_7670.html

بالفيديو تصريح خطير للقمص عبدالمسيح يهدد باستعمال السلاح

http://nahdanm.blogspot.com/2013/08/blog-post_5337.html

بالصور : الأسلحة داخل الكنائس المصرية

http://nahdanm.blogspot.com/2013/08/blog-post_4201.html

تغريدات تويتر حول سلاح الكنيسة المصرية

http://nahdanm.blogspot.com/2013/08/blog-post_7271.html

 

[سيف الله]

Salaam

An update on the situation

Amended draft Egyptian constitution seeks to ban parties based on Islam

The amended constitution will be discussed by a 50-member assembly representing Egyptian society

After a month of deliberations and revisions, a 10-member technical committee entrusted with amending Egypt’s 2012 constitution has finished its task.

On Tuesday, the committee handed an amended copy of the constitution to Adly Mansour, Egypt’s interim president. The copy will be discussed by a 50-member committee representing major stakeholders in Egyptian society.

As revealed by Ahram Online on Monday, the committee decided to retain Article 2, which states that Islam is the religion of the state, Arabic its official language and Islamic sharia the main source of legislation. The committee, however, decided that Article 219, which gives various interpretations of Islamic sharia, be revoked. This reportedly came upon the request of most political and public institutions.

The article, which was added by the Islamist-dominated constituent assembly in 2012 under the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood, states that: “the principles of Islamic sharia include its generally-accepted interpretations, its fundamental and jurisprudential rules and its widely considered sources as stated by the schools of Sunna and Gamaa.”

The committee also opted to change Article 6 to impose an outright ban on the formation of political parties based on religion or on mixing religion with politics. The article in its amended form states that “it is forbidden to form political parties or perform any activities on the basis of religious foundations or on the basis of discrimination in terms of gender or sex.”

The new draft could lead to the dissolution of dozens of newly-formed political Islam parties – including the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice party.

The committee’s changes will also alter Egypt’s electoral system, going back to an individual candidacy system which was in use in Egypt during most of the years of Hosni Mubarak’s presidency.

The committee also ruled in favour of eliminating the Shura Council, parliament’s upper house, and lifting a ban that prevented leading officials of Mubarak’s defunct ruling National Democratic Party from exercising political rights, including running in elections.

Committee member Magdi El-Agati commented that: “Stripping citizens of their political rights must be instituted through judicial order rather than by the national charter.”

El-Agati was the judge who ordered the dissolution of the NDP in 2011.

Egypt’s interim presidency also said it will announce the make-up of the 50-member committee, representing all layers of society “within days.”

Members of the committee will represent political parties, intellectuals, workers, farmers, syndicates, national councils, Al-Azhar, Egyptian Church, armed forces, and police, in addition to other public figures. Ten youth and women are expected to be among the members.

Most members will be chosen by their respective bodies. The Cabinet will choose the public figures of the committee. The 50-member group is assigned to come up with the final draft of the constitution within 60 days. The final draft is expected to be up for public debate within the same period.

The president is to later put the amended version of the constitution to a national referendum within 30 days from receiving the final draft. It will be effective upon public approval.

The 2012 constitution was suspended as part of the Egyptian armed forces’ roadmap for Egypt’s future following Islamist president Mohamed Morsi’s ouster on 3 July amid mass protests against him.

Egypt’s non-Islamist political forces have repeatedly argued that the suspended constitution was not representative of all layers of society and limiting many freedoms. They blame the majority of the Islamist members of the outgoing constituent assembly for ignoring their recommendations.

Al-Ahram

http://www.hizb.org.uk/news-watch/a...stitution-seeks-to-ban-parties-based-on-islam

 

[سيف الله]

Salaam

Insightful commentary on whats happening in Egypt.

Egypt Massacre: Time to uproot the U.S. backed system

On the 14th August 2013 Egypt’s US-backed military regime started the process of bringing to an end the protests and sit-ins in support of Mohammad Morsi at various sites across the country. In doing so, a huge number of people were massacred.

There can be no doubt that the spilling of innocent Muslim blood as we have seen in the past few weeks is haram – a great sin in the eyes of Allah (swt).

Whilst many across the world have condemned these killings, the words of condemnation from Washington and London are mere hypocrisy. They approved the coup in which General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi removed Mohammad Morsi. America continues to give aid to the Egyptian military, merely cancelling some joint military exercises – wanting the army to bring the stability Morsi could not give, in order to secure American interests.

In the aftermath of these tragic deaths, we make the following points:

1. It is clear for all to see that the US-backed army leadership in Egypt never gave up power after the uprisings two and a half years ago – and has managed to preserve the same old system that served U.S. interests in the Mubarak era.

2. It should be clear to everyone that to assume political office under this US-backed system, without having any real power or authority means you will only ever be serving those with the real power in the state – which in the case of Egypt is the United States.

Moreover, it should be clear that trying to experiment by mixing Islam with a secular system only ever ends in disaster and humiliation.

3. Egypt now faces several choices and all but one of these choices would be a disaster in this world and in the akhira.

The first disastrous choice would be to legitimise the US-backed military-led system by endorsing the coup, as secular politicians have chosen to do.

The second disastrous choice would be by reinstating Morsi into the same Mubarak-era system he was in before. That would simply mean continuing the charade that pretends that the existing system somehow has Islamic legitimacy – as well as trying to hide the aspects of Islam that conflict with the existing system.

Both of these two paths would effectively legitimise a system that secures U.S. dominance over the people of Egypt – a secular system that is in place as an obstacle to the Islamic system and made to secure U.S. interest above all else.

The third disastrous choice would be to take up arms against the army and open an ‘Algerian-style’ fitna causing bloodshed and mayhem. This is not the Shari’ way to bring Islamic change but only a recipe for years of misery that would weaken the country in a way that could only please the enemies of Islam.

The only choice that could lead to salvation for this Ummah is to follow the Prophetic method of Islamic change working for a real Islamic society and state – the Khilafah.

This means to call for Islam comprehensively, distinctly from secular democracy, without hiding aspects of it, mixing Islam with secularism, or trying to implement Islam piecemeal.

Full article here

http://www.hizb.org.uk/current-affairs/egypt-massacre-time-to-uproot-the-u-s-backed-system

 

[جوري]

They've already banned all Islamic articles which include
1- cursing of the prophets and condemnation of religion.(it is ok for you to do that now)
2- article 208 which impliments sharia according to Quran and Sunnah
3- making arabic the official language

a movie actress who has slept with everyone ilahm shaheen and the bango smoking druggie from Tamrud amended the articles that were drafted by judges and scholars..and the mufti from Al Azhar Ali Jumaa gave the OK to kill the protesters because he called them khwarij he denied that later but didn't give a statement otherwise whether he supported the killing or not, and one army general came forth saying the 80+ people he killed are well killing his conscience and wants Ali Jumaa to justify what he said to him.

if you are still not sure whether Mursi is the good guy or the bag guy then check your own conscience!

 

[سيف الله]

Salaam

Secular liberals are in a bind.

Sherlock 363

claim: this is a coup.
Egyptian liberals: No, it is a revolution.

claim: it is a massacre.
Egyptian liberals: No, it is a fight against terrorists.

claim: Sisi is a dictator.
Egyptian liberals: No, he is a hero.

Fact: Mubarak is released, this is a counter revolution.
Egyptian liberals: Error 404 – Not Found !??!

Having said that this was one of the better responses from the secular liberal Guardian.


Military crackdown: Egypt's Tiananmen Square

The Egyptian military's bloody assault on its own people marks a point of no return for the government


Egypt's military-installed government crossed a Rubicon on Wednesday by sending in the security forces to clear the camps of demonstrators demanding the reinstatement of President Mohamed Morsi. Within hours, the contours of the landscape the country had entered became brutally clear: 235 confirmed deaths and the possibility of many more; running battles breaking out in cities around the country; a state of emergency; night-time curfews imposed on 10 provinces. The bloodshed caused by interior ministry troops opening fire with shotguns, machine guns and rooftop snipers on largely peaceful sit-ins took its first major political casualty on Wednesday evening. The leading liberal who had supported the military coup, Mohamed ElBaradei, resigned as acting vice-president. The streets around Rabaah al-Adawiya became Egypt's Tiananmen Square.

The Rubicon being crossed is clear: before Wednesday, there had been the possibility, however faint, that cooler counsel would prevail in the Egyptian military mind – that, with the release of Muslim Brotherhood leaders arrested on phoney charges, a way could be found to announce a national unity government pending fresh parliamentary and presidential elections. Formidable obstacles remained, not least the undoubted unpopularity of Mr Morsi's rule among a large section of the population and his non-negotiable demand to put the constitutional clock back to the eve of the coup that toppled him. The prospect of an early reconciliation between the two camps has now disappeared.

Spurred on by voices in the liberal and secular camp that the opportunity had finally arrived to deal the Muslim Brotherhood a mortal blow – the running banner on Egypt's private television coverage on the demonstrators was "War on Terrorists" – General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the defence minister and head of the army, took the opposite course. Rejecting any hope of reintegrating Islamists into the political process, he has declared war on Egypt's largest political movement.

The government vowed last night that there would be no cabinet resignations, but with the departure of Mr ElBaradei, the liberal fig leaf has dropped off what has become full military rule. The day before these traumatic events, 19 of 25 provincial governors appointed were generals (17 from the military, two from the police). The idea even then that the military would take orders from a transitional civilian government appointed by them was far-fetched.

Today, military rule has been revealed for what it is, and anyone thinking that it will be temporary or last for just one month has got to be supremely optimistic. Calm and a national dialogue cannot be restored in that time. More likely are repression and further rounds of arrests – the Brotherhood leader Mohammed El-Beltagy, whose 17-year-old daughter was killed in the storming of the camps, was one of those detained last night – that will in turn provoke fresh protest. The defiance of the Brotherhood, and especially of those leaders who have lost family members, will be redoubled. There were already revenge attacks on Christian churches in upper Egypt by militants whom the Brotherhood do not and can not control.

The reaction of the international community failed lamentably to match the significance of these events. John Kerry, the US secretary of state, called last night for all sides to take a step back. He stated his strong opposition to emergency law, and repeated that the only solution will be a political one. These are all rhetorical statements, unless and until the US is prepared to cut its $1.3bn aid to Egypt's military. The state department said Wednesday evening that this was still under review. Mr Kerry's assertion that the political route was still open last night appeared to belie the basic facts on the ground – a military intent on crushing all expression of dissent, peaceful or not. International inaction in circumstances of the growing military crackdown in Egypt amounts to acquiescence. The bet the US is taking is that General Sisi will prevail. That is looking like a risky one.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/14/egypt-military-crackdown-muslim-brotherhood-protestors

 

[Independent]

I don't believe you are as naive as you are trying to come across, I hear Westerners talking about this issue all the time as well, it is all over TV in various European countries, how it can come as a surprise to you is beyond me.

Islam as an issue has shot up the agenda from the time of the 1981 Teheran Embassy hostage crisis onwards. But the Muslim media is at least as bad - if anything worse, because extreme anti western views are mainstream. Either way I hold my views from my own observations and no other agenda, whatever you think. I wish there was some oath I could take that you would believe me by when I say this.

You have to remember that there is another, perfectly logical narrative of key events. That Afghanistan really was invaded because of Bin Laden and 9/11, not in order to build some pipeline or other excuse. That WMD was an excuse for a war, but it was to finish off Gulf War 1, not the next epdisode in the Crusades. There is nothing strange or bizarre about this narrative. Everyone knew that the US would have to take action after 9/11.

In fact, if you look at the current situation, with US troops out of Iraq and on the way out of Afghanistan - potentially there will be no direct combat at all between Muslim and Western forces very soon. (Which is why I hope the west will not intervene in Syria, despite Assad's crimes.) The main wars Muslim wars are with other Muslims. As I have said elsewhere, the West's biggest wars by far have all been against non Muslim targets. This needs to be explained by anyone who sees a war against Islam as the main agenda.

Muslims are one of only two groups who can be spoken of openly in hostile terms, the other one being travelling people

The Russians still get an unfavourable press, so do the Chinese at times, so do other immigrants groups who are seen as taking jobs etc. The situation is fluid and is the same in every country. For example in Egypt, it's not travellers who are the issue - Coptic Christians are. Prejudice varies from country to country, and from one age to the next. In the Uk, Muslims/Islam was not a serious issue 40 years ago. It's risen up the agenda because of actual events.

people banning veils

I don't agree with France banning veils but you need to understand the context, and this is not just to do with Islam. France is far more proactively protective of its culture than some countries. For example, they have even tried to ban people using English words because it undermines French - also a ridiculous extreme in my view.

this type of hostile attitude,

i don't agree with anti Muslim attitudes but you have to accept that anti western attitudes are at least as ubiquitous in Muslim media. Whereas in the west anti Muslim attacks tend to be by isolated individuals, we have been treated many times on tv to huge crowds burning effigies etc of western hate figures - and this goes back to 80s Iran (long before Afghanistan etc). It looks like the whole community is ready to come out and attack westerners at the drop of a hat. The only thing remotely similar in the UK are groups like the BNP but they are regarded as fringe extremists. When they put together a protest, they have to bus in people from all over the country.

I realise that these anti western events may be stage managed by politicians - however, the effect is cumulative. It doesn't matter whether you consider these people to be true Muslims - they say they are, and that's how the west is bound to regard them.

 

[جوري]

Islam has been an issue for the church and the west since its inception. I don't usually read of this fellow more than the first line, as it is usually the summary for the fillers and meaningless words strung together to follow. History and politics are learned from books and the events that shaped it. This is an Islamic forum not a cesspool for much and trashy novels as dreamt up by those who are responsible for the trash and the muck in the world.

 

[Independent]

Islam has been an issue for the church and the west since its inception.

No - at the inception of Islam, the west didn't even exist as a concept. Also, Chuch and state are not the same thing.

In this post I'm talking about the last 50 years, not the last 1400. Obviously Islam was a much bigger issue when the Ottomans were hacking their way through central Europe - although this doesn't help your argument either. But since the disappearance of Muslim states as a military threat (the 18th century onwards), Islam has also slipped down the agenda as a topic of political importance.

History and politics are learned from books and the events that shaped it.

You need to read some by people who aren't just echoing your own opinion.

 

[جوري]

No - at the inception of Islam, the west didn't even exist as a concept. Also, Chuch and state are not the same thing.

Hence I named them separately the church first then the west!
I can't be bothered with the rest of your drivel since you don't seem to understand the most basic of statements!

You need to read some by people who aren't just echoing your own opinion.

It is because of people not like me that I have formed my opinion!

best,

 

[sister herb]

I only can repeat this

May Allah sends peace to the all Egyptians and let this kind of unnecessary violence end as soon as possible. Preferably immediately.

Best,

 

[سيف الله]

Salaam

Another comment piece

The Spreading Wings of Islamophobia in Egypt



The Orwellian features of the military takeover in Egypt have received attention, although the use of language to evade unwanted truth continues because incentives to do so persist. For this reason, Washington has remained unwilling to call what happened in Egypt on July 3rd as a coup, despite its unmistakable character. The nature of Egypt’s coup has daily become more and more evident. It is now clear that not only was the takeover properly described as coup, but it has turned out to be a particularly bloody coup that is now being reinforced by a total lockdown of opposition forces and democratic options, including even dissenting opinions.

It is true that the disgraced members of el-Sisi’s façade of civilian leadership, its so-called ‘interim government,’ continue to tell a compliant media in Cairo about intentions to restore democracy, revert to the rule of law, end the state of emergency, and carry forward the spirit of Tahrir Square in 2011. They even have the audacity to invoke their allegiance to the overthrow of Mubarak as ‘our glorious revolution,’ historicizing that memorable occasion when the whole world was inspired by this remarkable scene of Egyptian unity and fearlessness. They shamelessly make such a claim at the very moment when their own movement is extinguishing the earlier quest for a just society by this newly empowered and ruthless police and security establishment. The latest reports from Egypt suggest an atmosphere in which state terror prevails without accountability and with a writ so large as to reach even those anti-Morsi activists who were in the street on June 30th but now have the temerity to question the release from prison of Mubarak. Nothing more establishes the hypocrisy of the new Egyptian leadership than to insist on their continuity with the earlier democratic movement and their support for Mubarak’s release from prison and accountability.

Of all the Orwellian ironies is this double movement that deserves our contempt: public reassurances about fidelity to the January 25th Revolution of 2011 while arranging the official rehabilitation of Hosni Mubarak!

But less noticed, but at least as insidious, is resurgent Islamophobia on the part of the el-Sisa junta that runs the country with an unconcealed iron fist. Revealingly, Western media seems to avert their eyes when reporting on the suppression of the Muslim Brotherhood, and its supporters. Now according to the most recent reports the non-religious leaders of striking workers or independent journalists are being killed or criminalized if they offer even the mildest criticisms of the harsh oppressiveness that prevails in Egypt these days, and the justifications offered are that they are engaged in ‘Islamic’ politics. [See David D. Kirkpatrick, “Egypt Widens Its Crackdown and Meaning of ‘Islamist,’” New York Times, Aug. 25, 2013] In the security codes operative these days in Egypt, ‘Islamist’ is increasingly being used as a synonym for ‘terrorist,’ and neither is seen as entitled to the protection of law nor even treatment as a human being. It is hard to grasp this kind of extreme Islamophobia in a country that is itself overwhelmingly Muslim, and in which even its military leadership affirms its private adherence to Islam. Such an inner/outer confusion is more distressing even than the Orwellian manipulations of our feelings by Inversions of language: calling the peaceful demonstrator as ‘a terrorist’ and treating the terrorist acting on behalf of the state as a bastion of public order. Why? This inner/outer demonization of Islamists gives a sanctuary to the virus of genocide. We urgently need further insight into this disturbing discovery that the worst forms of Islamophobia seem currently emergent within the Muslim heartland.

There are other features of Egyptian developments that point in the same direction. None more illuminating than the failure of the Western media to observe that the new rulers of Egypt shockingly turned their back on the most elemental human entitlements of the Muslim Brotherhood, whose membership and sympathies extends to at least 25% of the country. Recall how strident and universally endorsed was the external Western criticism of Morsi for his failure to establish a more inclusive form of democratic governance during his time as president. Then compare with the deafening silence about the undisguised embrace of violent exclusiveness by the el-Sisi cabal. Somehow the repression of Muslims, even if taking the form of massacres, guilt by identity, and group criminalization, is reported upon critically as an overreaching by the government seeking in difficult circumstances to establish public order. The repressive policies and practices of the el-Sisi leadership are rarely identified, even tentatively, as a genocidal undertaking where affiliations with the most popular and democratically most legitimate political organization in the country is by fiat of the state declared an outlaw organization whose membership become fair game. Is inclusiveness only expected when the government is in the hands of an elected Muslim-oriented leadership? Is exclusiveness overlooked when the government moves against an alleged Islamist movement? What, we might ask, is the el-Sisi concept of inclusiveness? At present, the only plausible answer is ‘my way or the highway.’

http://www.zcommunications.org/the-spreading-wings-of-islamophobia-in-egypt-by-richard-falk.html