Video - Egyptian Journalist: Al-Sisi Has Jewish Origins, Grew Up Next to Abdel Nasser and Moshe Dayan.

Hmmm....They forgot to mention Sharon was his 6 times removed cousin.

Video - Egyptian President Hopeful Mortada Mansour Threatens War with Ethiopia, Qatar, and to Revoke Camp David Accords.

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood releases lengthy statement condemning violence.

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood releases lengthy statement condemning violence. (AlAhram).

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood issued a lengthy statement Tuesday evening in which it condemned violence and claimed the group had adhered to strictly peaceful means of struggle throughout its history – distancing itself from anyone who acted otherwise. "[The Brotherhood's] activity and struggle against corruption and despotism is based on absolute peacefulness and the rejection of violence in all its forms and putting up with the harm, detentions, killing, torture and oppression [the group] suffers," read the statement, which was written by the Brotherhood's Secretary General Mahmoud Hussein.

The Brotherhood was designated a terrorist organisation by Egyptian authorities last December, despite the group's repeated denial of any links to attacks against Egyptian police and army forces after the ouster of Brotherhood president Mohamed Morsi in July.

"Thousands of Egyptians were killed and the Brotherhood stood at the centre of the killings, but none of them raised a weapon against their murderers," the statement said.

Citing media statements by former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, 1990s era interior minister Hassan El-Alfy and other officials who stated that the Brotherhood was not violent, the group argued that it was peaceful, even at times when the government was confronting militant Islamists, which the Brotherhood said it had condemned for their violent attacks.

The Brotherhood has announced "tens of times" that they engage in political life through legitimate means under the auspices of the law and the constitution, the statement said, adding that the group also contributes generously to social causes.

"This is not a matter of politics and manoeuvring," the statement read; "it is a matter of faith." The statement included Quranic verses to support its claims.

The Brotherhood went further by clearly stating that anyone who engages in violence is at odds with the group.

"The Muslim Brotherhood announces – clearly and without hesitation – that it is innocent of any form and source of violence and condemns all forms and sources of terrorism," the group said.

Those who spill innocent blood are "partners in wrongdoing and mired in sin", it said, calling on perpetrators to cease violence immediately.

The group stressed that these peaceful values are part of its doctrine, the ruling principles of its thought and activities and not an individual tendency.

"Whoever distances himself [from these principles] has drawn for himself a path different from the path of the Muslim Brotherhood," the group stated.

Thousands of Brotherhood members and the group's top leadership are currently in jail pending trials. Most charges include inciting or carrying out violence and belonging to a terrorist organisation.

Most of the major terrorist attacks in Egypt since Morsi's ouster have been claimed by the militant group Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis (ABM). No links between ABM and the Brotherhood have been proven so far.

Last week, the UK government launched investigations into the Brotherhood's activities after British intelligence announced possible links between the group and a bombing in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula in February.

"The Brotherhood was surprised at the latest remarks, since all successive British governments had always been the most expertly informed about the group's positions and peaceful approach," the Brotherhood responded in a statement on Wednesday.

The brother of Al-Qaeda chief Zawahiri to stand trial in Egypt.

The brother of Al-Qaeda chief Zawahiri to stand trial in Egypt.(Taz).

Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri's brother is to stand trial with 67 others for forming a "terrorist group" and plotting attacks after Islamist president Mohamed Morsi's ouster, Egyptian state media reported Sunday, AFP reported.

Mohamed al-Zawahiri was arrested last August, a month after Morsi's ouster by the army, and has been called to go on trial by the state prosecutor.

The military-installed authorities have since launched a crackdown against Morsi's supporters that has left more than 1,400 people dead and thousands jailed.

Zawahiri and the other suspects are accused of having set up an "Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group" that plotted attacks against government installations, security personnel and members of Egypt's Christian minority, state news agency MENA said.

The group was seeking to "spread chaos and undermine security" across Egypt, it said.

MENA did not say whether the group had actually carried out any attacks, nor did it give a date for the trial.
It said 50 of the accused were in custody, while others are on the run.

Judicial sources said investigations revealed the group had pressed members to go and fight the regime in Syria, but they were ordered to return to Egypt after June 30, 2013.

They were called back to confront Egypt's new authorities following Morsi's ouster, the sources added.
Morsi was ousted by former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi after millions took to the streets on June 30 demanding his resignation.

Sisi is now running for president and is expected to win an election on May 26-27.

Judicial sources said Zawahiri was being charged with having formed the group, armed its members, and trained them in manufacturing explosives and planting bombs.

They said the authorities had evidence that the group's members were trained at secret locations in the Nile Delta city of Sharqiya and in Cairo's Matareya and October 6 districts.

Since Morsi's ouster, Sharqiya has been hit by frequent militant attacks on security forces, while violent clashes in Matareya and October 6 have pitted the Islamist's backers against police.

The authorities have regularly accused Morsi's outlawed Muslim Brotherhood of financing radical Islamists linked to Al-Qaeda.

Zawahiri himself, who is an Egyptian national, was detained after being freed in the 2011 revolt that ousted Hosni Mubarak.

Egypt has been hit by a string of bombings and shootings targeting security forces since Morsi's overthrow.
The government says almost 500 people, mostly policemen and soldiers, have died in the attacks.

Most of the attacks have taken place in the lawless Sinai Peninsula, but the jihadists have increasingly targeted police in the capital and in the Nile Delta to the north.

The deadliest attacks have been claimed by Sinai-based Al-Qaeda inspired group, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, but the authorities have blamed the blacklisted Brotherhood.

Video - Egyptian woman's anti-Obama rant: "Shut Up, We Will Not Restore Morsi."

Video - Egyptian woman's anti-Obama rant: "Shut Up, We Will Not Restore Morsi."HT: IsraelMatzav.

Field Marshal Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi appointed as Egypt’s top military leader.

Field Marshal Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi appointed as Egypt’s top military leader.(Taz).

Egyptian interim President Adly Mansour on Thursday issued a decree reshuffling the country's top military council and installing for the first time the military chief as its leader Al Arabiya reported.

Mansour's decree puts Field Marshal Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi in charge of the military council.

The move is considered the first in Egypt's history that the military council will not be headed by the president, who is, according to Egypt's constitution, the chief commander of the armed forces.
The move also rearranges and increases the number of members of the country's Supreme Council for Armed Forces.

Thursday's decree is seen part of a series of decelerations related to rearranging the country's sprawling security establishment nearly two months before presidential elections.

Sisi, who ran the military backed ouster of President Mohammad Mursi last July, is widely expected run for president.

A newspaper report suggested on Thursday that Sisi will soon be resigning from his post as a defense minister to run for presidency.

State-owned Egyptian newspaper al-Ahram quoted former Arab League chief Amr Moussa on Thursday saying that Sisi will make the announcement within the coming 10 days.

Egyptian gov introduces unified Friday prayer guidelines, MB 'Godfather' Qaradawi Replaced at Friday prayer

Egyptian gov introduces unified Friday prayer guidelines, MB 'Godfather' Qaradawi Replaced at Friday prayer.(AA).

The Egyptian authorities and the Muslim Brotherhood are parties to the ongoing conflict on many tracks — in the streets, in universities, in the courts, in some state agencies — and now the conflict has moved to houses of worship.

The country’s mosques are the scene of one of the episodes of the conflict between the Ministry of Religious Endowments, which represents the state, and some clerics who represent the Muslim Brotherhood’s position of opposing “the coup and defending legitimacy.”

The Brotherhood’s tools inside the mosques do not differ from their tools outside: a harsh discourse that incites the masses against the current regime and that also calls on crowds to gather. Mosques sometimes act as outposts for Muslim Brotherhood snipers.

Some have said that this is what happened to the Fatah Mosque when the Rabia al-Adawiya Square sit-in was broken up on Aug. 14, 2013.

The tools of the regime, on the other hand, are represented by the decision to enforce the laws, after they were amended to impose stiffer penalties. The authorities have dispatched clerics from the Ministry of Religious Endowments to the mosques that slipped from government control. Lately, the ministry has imposed harsh penalties for whoever deviates from its religious discourse.

As is usual in most conflicts between the two sides, human rights activists and those not affiliated with either side criticize both the Muslim Brotherhood and the authorities’ decisions.

Sheikh Mohammad Abdel Razek, the proxy of the Ministry of Religious Endowments, told Al-Monitor that the “idea of a unified sermon came because of the critical situation experienced by Egypt, which needs to unite. … So we decided to address a particular issue every Friday throughout Egypt. And this is done in coordination with the associations, which we repeatedly call to adhere to moderation because we are the only ministry responsible for reviewing religious discourse.”

Abdel Razek added that for the unified sermon the topic and its cornerstones are set and whoever does not adhere to them is prevented from rising to the pulpit until a ministry investigation is completed. That is if he was affiliated with the ministry, but if he was affiliated with an association, the mosque is placed under the direct supervision of the ministry or is sent an imam from the ministry to replace the imam from the association.

Amr Ezzat, the official responsible for the issue of freedom of conscience for the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, told Al-Monitor that the unified sermon has existed for a long time but it was nonbinding and there was no penalty for those who departed from it. But now, according to Ezzat, the legal framework was toughened. That framework is how the ministry supervises the Friday sermons in mosques. The framework imposes a fine or jail time for those who depart from the unified sermon.Read the full story here.

WOW - Egypt Seeks Qaradawi’s Extradition.

WOW - Egypt Seeks Qaradawi’s Extradition.HT: TGMBR.

Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi continues to make headlines as a Turkish news portal reports that Egypt is seeing his extradition in connection with a mass jailbreak during 2011. According to a Worldbulletin News report:

Egypt’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday it had summoned Qatar’s charge d’affaires to demand the extradition of Youssef al-Qaradawi, one of the most influential Sunni Muslim clerics in the Middle East.

Ministry spokesman Badr Abdelatty said the diplomat was told Egypt wanted Qatar to extradite critics of Cairo’s army-backed government, including the Egyptian-born cleric who supports the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood.

Abdelatty told journalists recent comments by Qatar-based Qaradawi, who said Saudi support for the military government was wrong and should be withdrawn, were unacceptable and criticized Doha for its ‘refusal to handover wanted Egyptians.’

Qaradawi faces charges alongside Morsi in connection with a mass jail break during the 2011 uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak.

Once close Qatari-Egyptian ties have soured since Cairo’s army last July ousted Morsi, who was strongly backed by Doha, following mass protests against his one-year rule.

Egypt then launched a wide crackdown against Muslim Brotherhood group and labeled it a terrorist group.

Some members of the Brotherhood and other opponents of the government fled to Qatar.

The foreign ministry summoned Qatar’s ambassador last month after Doha criticized Cairo’s crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood. Egypt accuses Qatar and its Doha-based Al Jazeera television channel of backing the Muslim Brotherhood.

Last September, the GMBDW reported that Egypt’s chief prosecutor had issued an arrest warrant for Qaradawi who was accused of inciting the killing of Egyptian security forces and meddling in the country’s affairs. 

The same report also noted that Qaradawi was asked to leave Kuwait as a result of were been described as “divisive remarks he has made inciting violence and bloodshed.

Youssef Qaradawi is the most important leader of the Global Muslim Brotherhood and is the de facto spiritual leader of the movement. He is also considered to be the “spiritual guide” for Hamas and his fatwas in support of suicide bombings against Israeli citizens were utilized by Hamas to justify their operations.  In 2004, Qaradawi turned down the offer to head he Egyptian Brotherhood after the death of the Supreme Guide and now denies that he has any relationship with the Egyptian Brotherhood. He is based in Qatar and has said the Qatari Emir has protected from being designated as a terrorist by the U.S. He has also reportedly amassed substantial wealth by serving as the Shari’ah adviser to many important Islamic banks and funds. Qaradawi is the head of the Union of Good (UOG), a worldwide coalition of charities helping to raise funds for Hamas and is the leader of the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR), the theological body of the European Muslim Brotherhood. MEMRI has produced two video compilations of Qaradawi’s extremist statements. The first collection contains Qaradawi’s statements about Europe and the US as well as about Israel and Jews. The second collection contains various statements by Qaradawi on social issues such as discussing the killing of homosexuals and stating that beating is “suitable” for some wives. Qaradawi been banned from entering the US since 1999 and UK since 2008. Last year, authorities also refused him entry into France.

For  a more extensive profile of Youssef Qaradawi, go here.

Egypt: All-Sissi calls for an overhaul of the Islamic discourse, stop backwardness.

Egypt: All-Sissi calls for an overhaul of the Islamic discourse, stop backwardness.HT: IsraelFlash.

Well it is time, and especially stop this abominable Arab-Muslim paranoia about Israel and the manipulation of the masses by a shameful and deceitful propaganda - Stop backwardness and ignorance!

Translation by Helios Alexandria - My eve  of an article of the Egyptian newspaper  Youm7,  followed by his comment:

(Youm7) On January 11, General Abdel Fatah el Sissi said in a speech to the directorate for morale Egyptian military: "The adjustment [read change or overhaul] religious discourse is the main battle, and the biggest challenge facing the Egyptian people."

He stressed the need to introduce a new vision and a modern and comprehensive understanding of Islam, replacing immutable that during the last 800 years. He also said it is incumbent on all to conform to the true Islam, to improve the image of the religion to the world, whereas Islam is considered worldwide for decades, as the religion of violence and destruction, because of crimes committed falsely in his name.

Comment Helios Alexandria:

The historian and well-known Egyptian thinker Sayed el Qemni described the rise of Islamism in Egypt (Muslim Brotherhood and Wahhabi Salafism) as a modern version of Islamic invasion of the seventh century AD, and after him the modern version is much worse than the former. 

Sayed el Qemni did not preach in the desert last summer more than thirty millions of Egyptians took to the streets twice, demanding that an end to the tyranny of the Muslim Brotherhood. The army bowed to the will of the people, she filed Morsi and facing an unprecedented wave of violence organized by the Muslim Brotherhood, she had no choice but to dissolve the Brotherhood and declare off-the-law as a terrorist organization.

It is an absolute necessity, because it is in the survival of Egypt as a nation.

Egyptians, without being fully aware, have somehow started the RECONQUISTA Egypt, a heavy moral regaining meaning and with unpredictable consequences. 

General Abdel Fatah and Sissi has seen its popularity soar alone having listened to the people. This man, there is barely a year, could not imagine having to play a political role, is by the force of destiny at the head of his country. There is a reason for this and it must be sought in the eternal soul of Egypt, or if you prefer in the collective unconscious of the Egyptians. 

Indeed Muslim Egypt has repressed its Pharaonic and Christian past, a past that is its true nature slowly rises to the surface and seeks to express. But it is fundamentally incompatible with Islam, if he was not he would not have been repressed. The collective unconscious of the Egyptians is looking for a pharaoh of Egypt restores balance, harmony and peace, that is why el Sissi, on behalf of the Egyptians speak the importance of the overhaul of the Islamic discourse.

How is it that a military commander mixes a subject that is not within its powers? If one refers to the Pharaonic regime, the answer is simple: the Pharaoh in ancient Egypt was not only the king, he was also a religious leader and thereby intermediary between his subjects and the Egyptian gods. 

His authority extended over all the temples and all priests. Because Egypt renews quietly with his true nature, his new boss is found naturally assume moral responsibility Pharaoh, for he is indeed moral responsibility, the civilization of ancient Egypt would not have lasted more three thousand years if the Pharaonic institution not based on solid moral foundations. Egyptian morality is summed up in the concept of Maat which can result in truth-justice-balance-order-harmony-peace, just the opposite of Islam.

That is why the general el Sissi considers that the revision of Islamic discourse is the greatest battle that Egypt must win and the biggest challenge facing the Egyptian people. 

But the Islamic discourse is neither more nor less than Islam itself, insofar as it is based on the Koran, the Sunna and Sharia; recast or correct returns to fundamentally change the religion that the soul of eternal Egypt and his genius can emerge again. It is an absolute necessity, because it is in the survival of Egypt as a nation.

But el Sissi is also a man of his time, he understands the importance of giving back to Islam, which remains the official religion of the country, a new image. Islam must stop look as "religion of violence and destruction" is neither salable nor presentable, he also feels the old full nose has not changed since one iota since 800 years.

Leaves that take hard graft, it is appropriate to impose new elements (free will, tolerance, respect for difference, humility, forgiveness, etc..) That make it more friendly and certainly more consistent with the spirit of Eternal Egypt. El Sissi is betting that the Egyptian people give a deep sigh of relief when the revised version of Islam to be presented.

Time is short, Egypt must get back on track quickly because its survival is at stake as we know Islam is the main handicap, Islam must change in depth. This is what the Egyptian people want to base itself and that is what the general el Sissi fully understood.Hmmm.....Finally a man with 'Common sense', how long before he gets a 'Death Fatwa' on his head?

Related: 

General El-Sisi, the current leader of Egypt, states that Islam needs a reformation. 

General El-Sisi, the current leader of Egypt, states that Islam needs a reformation.

General El-Sisi, the current leader of Egypt, has declared that Islam needs a reformation.HT: ClarionProject.By Ryan Mauro.

Islam, said El-Sisi needs a modern understanding and should not rely on a discourse that has not changed for 800 years

General El-Sisi, the commander of the Egyptian Armed Forces and current head of state, is essentially calling for a reformation in Islam.

His bold declaration comes as the Egyptian people approved a constitution in a vote that the Muslim Brotherhood boycotted. The speech, which went unnoticed in the Western media, took place at the Armed Forces’ Department of Moral Affairs.

In the speech, El-Sisi said: “Religious discourse is the greatest battle and challenge facing the Egyptian people, pointing to the need for a new vision and a modern, comprehensive understanding of the religion of Islam—rather than relying on a discourse that has not changed for 800 years.”

Notice what El-Sisi did not say. He did not say Zionism or Western oppression is the greatest threat to Egypt, nor did he point to a specific group like Al-Qaeda or the Muslim Brotherhood. 

He accurately framed the struggle as an ideological one within Islam. 

When he refers to the “discourse that has not changed for 800 years,” he’s referring to when the most qualified Islamic scholars of that time ruled that all questions about interpretation had been settled. The “gates” of ijtihad, the independent interpretation of Islam, ended by the year 1258. He wants the “gates” reopened, allowing for the critical examination that an Islamic reformation needs. Hmmm.....Finally a man with 'Common sense', how long before he gets a 'Death Fatwa' on his head?Read the full story here.

Egypt's Sisi Wins Poll for TIME Person of the Year, Turkish PM comes in second

Egypt's Sisi Wins Poll for TIME Person of the Year, Turkish PM comes in second.(HD).

Egypt’s General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has won TIME magazine’s 2013 Person of the Year poll with 26.2% of the votes, while Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan came in second place with 20.8% of the total, Time reported.

Sisi received 449,596 votes, ahead of Erdoğan who received 356,771 votes and American pop star Miley Cyrus, who received 279,300 votes or 16.3%.

In face-off contests between Person of the Year candidates, Sisi beat Erdoğan, taking 56% percent of the votes.

Sisi’s numbers were driven by massive support from his native Egypt: the country accounted for the largest number of votes on the TIME.com poll.

TIME’s Person of the Year is chosen by the magazine’s editors and will be announced on Wednesday, Dec. 11.