Video - Egyptian Cleric 'Alaa Said Slams School Textbook for Teaching Religious Tolerance.

Egyptian Cleric 'Alaa Said Slams School Textbook for Teaching Religious Tolerance.Following are excerpts from an interview with Egyptian cleric ‘Alaa Said, which aired on Al-Rahma TV on October 3, 2012.:

‘Alaa Said holds a school textbook in his hands and points at a page

‘Alaa Said: Take a look at the cover of this book – it says: “No to sectarianism.” See?

Read what it says on page 64 – and this is what they are teaching our children. Read what it says in this inset: “Anyone who converts from his religion is…”

Interviewer: “to be respected.”

‘Alaa Said: Oh what a catastrophe! The hadith of the Prophet Muhammad, in the Al-Bukhari collection, as narrated by Abdallah Ibn Abbas, says: “Anyone who converts from his religion is to be killed.” But the book says: “Anyone who converts from his religion is…”

Interviewer: “to be respected.”

‘Alaa Said: “Anyone who converts from his religion is to be respected.” And this is what they are teaching our children! Oh Muslim girls, “Anyone who converts from his religion is to be respected.” One day you can be Muslim, and that’s fine, another day, you can be Christian, and that’s fine too, yet another day, you can be Jewish, and that’s fine as well, then you can be an atheist, and that’s fine. Anyone who converts from his religion is to be respected and honored.

What about someone who doesn’t convert? Anyone who converts is to be respected… and anyone who doesn’t should be derided? These are the very words that are written here and will be taught to our children: “Anyone who converts from his religion should be respected.” Source: Memri.

Video: Egypt - Unveiled Women Barred from Voting on Constitution.

Video: Egypt - Unveiled Women Barred from Voting on Constitution.(INN).Women without veils complained they were not allowed to vote for the new Egyptian anti-secular constitution. Mass protests on Tuesday.
Egypt's opposition is calling for mass protests on Tuesday over alleged polling violations after Islamists backing Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsi claimed victory in the first round of a referendum on a new charter.
Thousands of women complained they were not allowed to vote because they were not veiled, and Christian women also said they were turned away.
A low one-third turnout fueled charges of forged ballots, campaigning inside polling stations and judges being replaced by civilians favoring the Muslim Brotherhood.
A group of top judges announced on Monday it would boycott supervision of the second round, and Germany said it has postponed debt relief for Egypt because of concerns over the country's commitment to democracy.
Adding to the complications for Morsi, the prosecutor general named by the president as he temporarily assumed sweeping powers last month handed in his resignation, a judicial source told AFP.
The opposition coalition, the National Salvation Front, urged Egyptians to "take to the streets on Tuesday to defend their freedoms, prevent fraud and reject the draft constitution" ahead of the second round.
It claimed "irregularities and violations" marred the initial stage of the referendum last weekend across half of Egypt that Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood said resulted in a 57 percent "yes" vote, according to its unofficial tally.
On the legal front, the State Council Judges Club, whose members took part in overseeing the first round as required by law, said it would boycott next Saturday's vote because the authorities had failed to live up to their promises.
The association has demanded that a "siege" of the Supreme Constitutional Court by Brotherhood supporters be lifted. But the action has continued without any intervention by the authorities, it said.
In Germany, a spokesman for the overseas development ministry said a plan to forgive up to 240 million euros ($316 million) of Cairo's debt had been delayed indefinitely.
Germany's Development Minister Dirk Niebel said earlier he had serious reservations. "There is the danger that the dictatorial system of ousted president (Hosni) Mubarak is returning," he told the daily Berliner Zeitung.Hmmmm....Obama says the Koran teaches that, "Be it man or woman, each of you is equal to the other."Read the full story here.

"Whoever Fights Us, Fights Islam"

"Whoever Fights Us, Fights Islam".(MiddleEastForum).By Raymond Ibrahim. Gatestone Institute.
 December 14, 2012.

In the ongoing conflict between those Egyptians who strongly oppose a Sharia-based constitution—moderates, secularists, non-Muslim minorities—and those who are strongly pushing for it, Islamists are currently evoking the one argument that has always, from the very beginnings of Islam, empowered Islamists over moderates in the Muslim world.
Examples are many. According to a December 1 report from El Fagr, Gamal Sabr, former campaign coordinator for the anti-freedom Salafi presidential candidate Abu Ismail, made the division clear during an Al Jazeera interview, where he said that "whoever disagrees with him, disagrees with Islam itself," and that many Egyptians "are fighting Islam in the picture of President Muhammad Morsi and in the picture of the Islamists," clearly implying that the latter are one with Islam, and to fight them is to fight Islam.
The logic is simple: Sabr, as well as those millions of Egyptians who want Sharia, only want what Allah wants—that Egypt be governed according to Sharia law. According to this position, any and all Muslims who disagree, who do not want to be governed by Sharia, whatever their arguments and rationale, are ultimately showing that they are at odds with Islam itself.
Sabr is hardly the only Egyptian Muslim making use of this age-old argument. A Dostor report, also appearing on December 1, quotes Tarek Zomar making the same point. A leader of the infamous Gam'a Islamiyya (Islamic Group), who was formerly imprisoned for his role in the assassination of President Anwar Sadat, released with the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, and is now a member of the Shura Council of Egypt's Parliament, Zomor asserts that whoever votes against the Sharia-based constitution that Morsi is trying to enforce "is an infidel"—an apostate enemy to be slain in the cause of Allah.
Others like Sheikh Abdullah Badr—who earlier said that anyone who opposes or rejects the Sharia will have their tongues cut out—after describing protesters as "mischief makers" said they would be "hung on trees," a distinct allusion to Islamic crucifixion, as proclaimed in Quran 5:33: "The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His messenger and strive to make mischief in the land is only this: that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off…"
Even Ahmed Morsi, President Muhammad Morsi's son, accused the many demonstrators in Tahrir Square who object to his father's attempts to impose Sharia on them of belonging to the "former regime"—code for secularist-minded people, who are opposed to the totality of Sharia law. Writing on his Facebook account, he asserted that "all the people in Tahrir Square are remnants of the old regime," adding that "my father will eliminate them soon."
Such is the difficulty encountered by moderate Muslims, past and present: how can they justify their rejection of Islamic teachings, as captured in the Quran, hadith—teachings and doings of Muslim prophet Muhammad—and the words of the Islamic scholars throughout the ages, all of which constitute the "Sharia" of Islam, a word that simply means the "way" of Islam?
History offers insightful parallels and patterns. A few decades after Islamic prophet Muhammad died, during the First Fitna—whence the Sunni-Shia split emerged—a group of extremely fanatical Muslims, known as the Kharajites, based on a word that literally means "those who go out" (of the Islamic fold), rejected both Sunni and Shia leadership claims and deemed themselves the "truest" Muslims. Accordingly, they engaged in takfir, that is, randomly accusing any Muslim not upholding the totality of Islam's teachings of being infidels, often killing them.
Today's radicals and Islamists are similar; in fact, that is the primary way more moderate Muslims portray them, as "Takfiris" who themselves sin by judging fellow Muslims, when that is Allah's prerogative alone.
Due to the impossibly high standards the Kharajites set—to sin even once was to be deemed an apostate and executed—mainstream Islam eventually rejected their approach, to the point that merely saying the Islamic profession, or shehada—"there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the prophet of Allah"—is usually enough to safeguard someone as a Muslim.
Yet it is not that simple today. The Kharajites of the 7^th century were truly extreme—ritually slaying even Muslim women and children for not being Islamic enough—whereas the Islamists of today are merely insisting that Sharia law be enshrined in the constitution and enforced in Egypt. From a historical point of view, this is not an "extreme" position and only seems so to those "globalized" Muslims who espouse enlightened and rationalistic principles.
Hence why these secular, moderate, or liberal Muslims—so long as they define themselves as Muslims—are destined to lose the debate with their more radical brethren, who will always say, "True Muslims support Sharia: if you reject this, then you are no Muslim, you are an apostate, an infidel, and thus an enemy."

Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

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Egypt's National Salvation Front calls for protests against rigged referendum.

Egypt's National Salvation Front calls for protests against rigged referendum.(AO).Egypt's opposition umbrella group, the National Salvation Front, calls for mass protests to take place on Tuesday in objection to the "numerous violations" witnessed in Saturday's referendum on the constitution. In a press conference held Sunday, the Front blames the Supreme Elections Commission (SEC), headed by Zaghloul El-Balshi, for the violations seen throughout the country. Just hours after the polls closed on Saturday, the Front stated that it had detected "unprecedented rigging," including 750 violations across all 10 governorates participating in the first phase of the referendum. Violations include unstamped voting papers (which makes them invalid), the names of deceased persons on voting lists, the absence of observers at polling stations and delays in opening polling stations. They also claimed to have detected at least 120 "fake" judges supervising at polling stations. 
Many voters on Saturday complained of painfully slow queues; some waited for several hours and were still not able to cast their vote. In response, the Front demands that Saturday's results be cancelled and to re-run the first phase of the elections. Furthermore, they specify voters should get two days to vote: this referendum was allotted only one day, whereas traditionally any vote in Egypt is given two consecutive days.
The SEC should ensure the second phase of the referendum on 22 December - where the remaining 17 governorates will vote - is under full judicial supervision, especially in light of Saturday's violations, charges Abdel-Ghaffar Shukr, a member of the Front. The general assembly of the Judges' Club had refused to supervise the referendum on the constitution, uneasy with a decree that Morsi had issued on 22 November that gave himself more powers at the expense of the judiciary, although the decree was revoked. The Front says El-Balshi should hold a press conference to address the violations that have been recorded by human rights organisations. They also request he meet with the Front in preparation for the second phase. Rights organisations on Sunday recorded that overall approximately 7,400 violations were reported, which include 1,500 police reports against the violations.Read the full story here.