Egyptian media blame ‘anti-revolutionaries’ for clashes between Islamists and Christians

MUSTAPHA AJBAILI


Egyptian media blamed the recent deadly violence between Islamists and Coptic Christians on “anti-revolutionaries” as the country’s grand mufti and chief interpreter of Islamic law warned the country could descend into a civil war.

“We are facing the anti-revolutionary groups who are convinced that any success of the revolution was an even greater threat to their interests and so are trying to fuel confessional conflict,” wrote Al Ahram newspaper, the most widely circulating Egyptian daily publication.

Justice Minister Abdel Aziz Al Gindi has vowed the government would strike with an “iron hand” those who threatened the country’s national security and warned that “Egypt has already become a nation in danger.”

On a day when casualty figures relating to clashes between Islamists and Coptic Christians over a controversial interfaith marriage kept rising, Prime Minister Essam Sharaf postponed a trip to the Gulf to hold an emergency meeting with his cabinet members.

Ali Gomaa, Egypt’s grand mufti and chief interpreter of Islamic law, was quoted in main independent daily Al Masri Al Yom as warning of the potential for civil war, “because of outlaws who want to defy the authority of the state,” according to Agence France-Press.

Meanwhile Interior Minister Mansur Al Issawi denied reports that weapons had been stored in Saint Mena church.

“Contrary to rumors that there were weapons inside the church, it was the owner of a cafe near the church who fired a gun,” he told the government daily Al Akhbar.

Security officials said police arrested a man they identified as the Muslim husband of the alleged convert, saying he had spread the word that his wife was being detained in a building next to the church.

Saturday’s incident, in which 12 people were killed and 232 were wounded, was the second deadly sectarian clash since the January 15 revolution, in which Muslims and Christians joined hands in Tahrir Square to demand the departure of then President Hosni Mubarak.

The clashes were triggered by a controversy over interfaith marriage concerning a 26-year-old woman, Camilia Shehata. She is the wife of a Coptic priest, Tadros Samaan, and disappeared in July 2010 after reportedly converting to Islam, possibly on account of an unhappy marriage. Divorce is forbidden by the Coptic Church, and some Christians have been known to convert to Islam in order to remarry.

Islamists, charging that she was forcibly confined in a church, protested several times. They gathered in front of the Saint Mena Church, which was where the clashes occurred.

But Ms. Shehata has appeared in a new picture published by Al Ahram newspaper with Naguib Gebrael, of the Egyptian Union of Human Rights Organization. Mr. Gebrael, a lawyer, told Al Ahram that he would represent her in a court where a complaint was filed against the church for allegedly holding her in forced confinement.

Ms. Shehata also appeared on a Christian broadcasting channel, with her husband and child.

“Let the protesters leave the church alone and turn their attention to Egypt’s future,” she said, adding that she had never converted to Islam.

In March, Muslims and Christians clashed in the town of Helwan near Cairo. Thirteen people were killed and a church was torched. The cause of the fighting was a rumored romantic relationship between a Muslim woman and a Christian man.

In swift response by the country’s military rulers, 190 people were arrested in Saturday’s violence and were sent to trial, as security was stepped up at houses of worship, amid indications that Egypt’s conservative Islamic movement, led by Salafis, was becoming increasingly restive about the country’s traditionally secular environment.

Inter-faith relationships among faiths are frowned upon in Egypt, where Christians make up about 10 percent of its 80 million people. Such relationships are sometimes the source of deadly clashes between the faiths, said The Associated Press.

If a Christian woman marries a Muslim, she is expelled from the church. A Muslim woman is not allowed to marry a Christian man, according to state law.

Because divorce is banned under the Coptic Church, unless under extenuating circumstances, many women resort to conversion as a way to get out of a marriage.
Christians complain about unfair treatment, including rules they say make it easier to build a mosque than a church.
In 2010, Egypt saw more than its usual share of sectarian strife, and a rights group has said such clashes have been on the rise. Muslims and Christians had been brought together during the protests that ousted Mr. Mubarak.

(Published by Mustapha Ajbaili on http://english.alarabiya.net/  May 9, 2011)

Tunisia elections declared in doubt amid row over possible coup remarks

MUSTAPHA AJBAILI

Tunisia’s planned July elections to form a new government after the ouster of the former president could be delayed amid renewed unrest, interim Prime Minister Beji Caid Essebsi said on Monday.

Protests erupted against Mr. Essebsi’s government last Thursday after former interior minister Farhat Rajhi claimed a military coup was being prepared should the Islamist Ennahda (Renaissance) win the July election.

Mr. Rajhi, in a video interview posted on Facebook, said some members of the ruling elite still in power were preparing a military coup should the Islamist Ennahda (Renaissance) win the July 24 election.
“Since independence, political life has been dominated by the people of the Tunisian Sahel,” such as former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, toppled in January.

Despite Mr. Ben Ali’s ouster these people were not ready to cede power, Mr. Rajhi said.
“If the results of the forthcoming elections go against their interests, there will be a military coup,” he said.

Mr. Rahji also said that Mr. Essebsi had discussed the military coup issue during a visit to Algeria in mid-March. Algeria and Tunisia , neighbors in North Africa, have had a tenuous relationship.
“The nomination on April 18 of General Rachid Ammar as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff is only in preparation of the coup,” Mr. Rahji said.

Mr. Essebsi responded on Sunday saying, “Farhat Rajhi is a liar and his statements are dangerous and irresponsible and (he) deserves to be prosecuted.”
In a bid to reassure protesters he reiterated commitment to the July poll but said logistical problems could delay the vote.

“The government made a commitment by choosing the date of July 24 and we intend to keep to that date but if the reform committee says there are technical and logistical hitches, there will be another probability to discuss,” he said.
“It is true we have been slow in dealing with this but the high commission charged with preparing these crucial elections in July is independent and the government is only giving it material and logistical support,” Mr. Essebsi said.
The election will appoint an assembly to draw up a new constitution after the January 14 ouster of Mr. Ben Ali, who held power for 23 years. His authoritarian rule, according to his critics, was characterized by corruption.
The uprising that toppled Mr. Ben Ali sparked revolts across the Arab world, such as in Egypt.
Mr. Essebsi said the work of the provisional government would cease on the day of the vote.
(Published by Mustapha Ajbaili o nhttp://english.alarabiya.net/ May 9, 2011)

Morocco: On the arrest of suspected Marrakesh bombers

By MUSTAPHA AJBAILI

The Moroccan government has arrested three individuals allegedly responsible for the deadly Marrakesh bombing and hailed the “swift” response of the security services in coordination with international intelligence services from France, Spain and the United States.

Moroccan Interior Minister Taieb Cherkaoui said the main suspect was “loyal” to al-Qaeda and that he tried several times to travel to Afghanistan, Chechnya, Georgia and Turkey before opting to carry out his attack in Morocco after having learned from the Internet how make explosives.

The bombing came at a time when Morocco was witnessing growing popular anger at the corruption thriving in the higher echelons of the government and security services. Public trust in the government and its security organs has fallen to its lowest levels in many years. In the wake of the bombing many people went around speculating that the “Makhzan”—an Moroccan Arabic term for the governing elite consisting of businessmen, wealthy landowners, high-ranking military personnel, security service bosses, and other well-connected members of the establishment—may have masterminded the attack to regain control of a stage gradually being overtaken by the populace.

But Thursday’s arrests may dispel those speculations and the government has sought to regain public confidence by commending its response to the bombing and its ability to capture perpetrators “within one week.”

Mr. Cherkaoui said the security forces “again demonstrated efficiency and ability to repel terrorism and all forms of crime and to maintain and protect the security of citizens and their safety.”

The interior minister must have forgotten that the Marrakesh bombing qualifies to be a disastrous failure to repel terrorism.

In the wake of the attack Moroccans wanted to know who was responsible. The government opened a probe to find out who carried out the bombing but failed to investigate who in the security services and in the government failed to protect public safety.

Today the government—and I do not mean the cabinet—seeks to claim credit on the basis of finding out who committed the bombing while forgetting that it was responsible for having failed to prevent the attack at the first place.

The United States formed a bipartisan national commission in 2002 that uncovered various security failures that led to the Sept. 11 attacks. The failures were made public in the 9/11 Commission Report and those individuals and security bodies that failed the nation were identified. The United States hasn’t been attacked in its mainland ever since.

In Morocco, this is the third major terrorist attack in the country in less than 10 years after the ones that happened in 2003 and 2007. Without exposing the failures of its security services and holding those officials, including the interior minister, responsible for having failed to protect the nation against terrorism instead of beating peaceful protesters in the streets, the deadly Marrakesh bomb attack may not be the last.

(Published on http://english.alarabiya.net/ on May 7, 2011)