WHAT YOU WELL NEVER SEE IN YEMEN WAR

THAT YOU WELL  NEVER THE ANY MEDIA WELL SHOW  WHAT  AL SAUD KEELING THE YEMENIS EVERY HOUR

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(al-Ahed News) ~ About a week ago, Saudi warplanes committed a terrible massacre against a group of Yemeni fishermen on the Island of A’qban in the Province of al-Hadida, killing around 150 fishermen. 

بلاغ صحفي وتضامن#اوقفوا_قتل_الصيادين
Posted by ‎تجمع أحرار اليمن‎ on Thursday, 19 November 2015

#اوقفوا_قتل_الصيادين مجزرة صيادين الخوخة إلى قائمة مجازر الساحل الغربي .. والنوايا تكشفت لماذا ؟http://yalmashhad.com/news/2418
Posted by ‎المشهد اليمني الاول‎ on Thursday, 19 November 2015

#اوقفوا_قتل_الصيادينال سعود المجرمون..لا يمضي يوم إلا ويقتلون المستضعفين في يمن الإيمان والحكمة.كل يوم شهداء كل يوم جر...
Posted by ‎محمد ابو المجد‎ on Thursday, 19 November 2015

#اوقفوا_قتل_الصيادين #اوقفوا_قتل_الصيادين Tweets

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التاريخ المشبوه للملك السعودي الجديد King Salman’s suspect History

King Salman’s suspect History

oseph Westphal, hailed the new Saudi ruler on Friday, proclaiming that ties “will only be strengthened by the wisdom and courage that is the essence of King Salman.” This was not just standard boilerplate from serving U.S. officials: Former U.S. envoy to Saudi Arabia Robert Jordan described Salman as “a reformer … well prepared for the task at hand,” and the Washington Post is reporting that analysts consider Salman “a moderate in the mold of Abdullah,” the late king.

Yet Salman has an ongoing track record of patronizing hateful extremists that is now getting downplayed for political convenience. As former CIA official Bruce Riedel astutely pointed out, Salman was the regime’s lead fundraiser for mujahideen, or Islamic holy warriors, in Afghanistan in the 1980s, as well as for Bosnian Muslims during the Balkan struggles of the 1990s. In essence, he served as Saudi Arabia’s financial point man for bolstering fundamentalist proxies in war zones abroad.

As longtime governor of Riyadh, Salman was often charged with maintaining order and consensus among members of his family. Salman’s half brother King Khalid (who ruled from 1975 to 1982) therefore looked to him early on in the Afghan conflict to use these family contacts for international objectives, appointing Salman to run the fundraising committee that gathered support from the royal family and other Saudis to support the mujahideen against the Soviets.

Riedel writes that in this capacity, Salman “work[ed] very closely with the kingdom’s Wahhabi clerical establishment.” Another CIA officer who was stationed in Pakistan in the late 1980s estimates that private Saudi donations during that period reached between $20 million and $25 million every month. And as Rachel Bronson details in her book, Thicker Than Oil: America’s Uneasy Partnership With Saudi Arabia, Salman also helped recruit fighters for Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, an Afghan Salafist fighter who served as a mentor to both Osama bin Laden and 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Reprising this role in Bosnia, Salman was appointed by his full brother and close political ally King Fahd to direct the Saudi High Commission for Relief of Bosnia and Herzegovina (SHC) upon its founding in 1992. Through the SHC, Salman gathered donations from the royal family for Balkan relief, supervising the commission until its until its recent closure in 2011. By 2001, the organization had collected around $600 million — nominally for relief and religious purposes, but money that allegedly also went to facilitating arms shipments, despite a U.N. arms embargo on Bosnia and other Yugoslav successor states from 1991 to 1996.

And what kind of supervision did Salman exercise over this international commission? In 2001, NATO forces raided the SHC’s Sarajevo offices, discovering a treasure trove of terrorist materials: before-and-after photographs of al Qaeda attacks, instructions on how to fake U.S. State Department badges, and maps marked to highlight government buildings across Washington.

The Sarajevo raid was not the first piece of evidence that the SHC’s work went far beyond humanitarian aid. Between 1992 and 1995, European officials tracked roughly $120 million in donations from Salman’s personal bank accounts and from the SHC to a Vienna-based Bosnian aid organization named the Third World Relief Agency (TWRA). Although the organization claimed to be focused on providing humanitarian relief, Western intelligence agencies estimated that the TWRA actually spent a majority of its funds arming fighters aligned with the Bosnian government.

A defector from al Qaeda called to testify before the United Nations, and who gave a deposition for lawyers representing the families of 9/11 victims, alleged that both Salman’s SHC and the TWRA provided essential support to al Qaeda in Bosnia, including to his 107-man combat unit. In a deposition related to the 9/11 case, he stated that the SHC “participated extensively in supporting al Qaida operations in Bosnia” and that the TWRA “financed, and otherwise supported” the terrorist group’s fighters.

The SHC’s connection to terrorist groups has long been scrutinized by U.S. intelligence officials as well. The U.S. government’s Joint Task Force Guantanamo once included the Saudi High Commission on its list of suspected “terrorist and terrorist support entities.” The Defense Intelligence Agency also once accused the Saudi High Commission of shipping both aid and weapons to Mohamed Farrah Aidid, the al Qaeda-linked Somali warlord depicted as a villain in the movie Black Hawk Down. Somalia was subject to a United Nations arms embargo starting in January 1992.

Saudi Arabia’s support for Islamist fighters in Afghanistan and the Balkans ultimately backfired when veterans of the jihad returned home, forming the backbone of a resurgent al Qaeda threat to Saudi Arabia in 2003. Salman fell back on a tried-and-true Islamist trope to explain the attacks targeting the kingdom, declaring that they were “supported by extreme Zionism whose aim is to limit the Islamic call.”

The jihadi threat to Saudi Arabia, however, does not appear to have ended Salman’s willingness to associate with alleged jihadi funders and fundamentalist clerics. In November 2002, Prince Salman patronized a fundraising gala for three Saudi charities under investigation by Washington: the International Islamic Relief Organization, al-Haramain Foundation, and the World Assembly of Muslim Youth. Since 9/11, all three organizations have had branches shuttered or sanctioned over allegations of financially supporting terrorism. That same month, Salman cited his experience on the boards of charitable societies, asserting that “it is not the responsibility of the kingdom” if others exploit Saudi donations for terrorism.

As President Obama encourages Saudi Arabia to build “a society that is going to be able to sustain itself in this age,” he would do well to consider Salman’s role helping to run the Abdulaziz bin Baz Foundation, named after a Saudi grand mufti who passed away in 1999. The foundation’s website states that it has been “blessed with direct and continuous support” from Salman since its creation in 2001.

In part thanks to this foundation, the late bin Baz still ranks among the most influential Saudi clerics on the web, even from beyond the grave. Islamic historian Reuven Paz notes that the cleric was renowned for his “persistent attempts to move Saudi Arabia in the direction of strict and severe fundamentalism.” For example, bin Baz memorably ruled that women who study with men are equivalent to prostitutes.

Aqeel al-Aqil, a Saudi national placed under U.S. sanctions in 2004 for leading an organization alleged to have aided al Qaeda in more than 13 countries, was one member of the Baz Foundation’s board under Salman. Aqil retained his spot on the foundation’s board for several years following the imposition of the sanctions. When he did eventually leave the board, the foundation added another Saudi preacher, named Aidh Abdullah al-Qarni, who, in a speech on the Arab-Israeli conflict, declared that “throats must be slit and skulls must be shattered. This is the path to victory.”

Qarni is far from the only extremist cleric with whom Salman has worked. The new king has also embraced Saudi cleric Saleh al-Maghamsi, an Islamic supremacist who declared in 2012 that Osama bin Laden had more “sanctity and honor in the eyes of Allah,” simply for being a Muslim, than “Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, apostates, and atheists,” whom he described by nature as “infidels.” That didn’t put an end to Salman’s ties to Maghamsi, however. The new Saudi king recently served as head of the supervisory board for a Medina research center directed by Maghamsi. A year after Maghamsi’s offensive comments, Salman sponsored and attended a large cultural festival organized by the preacher. Maghamsi also advises two of Salman’s sons, one of whom took an adoring “selfie” with the preacher last year.

U.S. officials have explained that the purpose of President Obama’s visit is to forge a “close relationship” with the new Saudi king and to take his measure of the man. As Western officials consider how to engage with the new Saudi regime, Salman’s record of bolstering and embracing extremists needs to be part of the conversation. The worst-case scenario is that the new king shares the hard-liners’ views; the best case is that he is simply an opportunist, willing to accept intolerance in order to get ahead.

Many in the West wish for a Saudi king who will pass meaningful reforms and push back against incitement by local extremists. Sadly, Salman does not look to be that man.

By:David Andrew Weinberg

http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/01/27/king-salmans-shady-history-saudi-arabia-jihadi-ties/

ترجمة: سامى قائد العليبى 

التاريخ المشبوه للملك السعودي الجديد

أشاد السفير الأمريكي في الرياض، جوزيف يستفال، يوم الجمعة بالملك السعودي الجديد، قائلا أن صفتي الحكمة والشجاعة المتأصلتين في الملك سلمان ستؤديان إلي تقوية العلاقات السعودية الأمريكية. لكن ذلك لم يكن تصريحا نمطيا معتادا من مسؤول أمريكي، فقد وصف المبعوث الأمريكي السابق في السعودية روبيرت جوردان سلمان بأنه "مصلح، ومستعد تماما لتحمل المسؤولية،" بينما ذكرت صحيفة "واشنطن بوست" الأمريكية أن المحللين يعتبرون سلمان "رجلا معتدلا، علي نهج سابقه عبد الله."

لكن الملك سلمان لديه سجل حافل برعايته للمتطرفين البغيضين وهو ما يتم التقليل من شأنه الآن لتحقيق بعض الملاءمات السياسية. فقد أشار بروس ريديل بذكاء، بصفته مسؤول سابق بالاستخبارات المركزية الأمريكية، إلي أن سلمان كان جامع التبرعات الرئيسي للمجاهدين الإسلاميين في أفغانستان في الثمانينيات، وكذلك للبوسنة المسلمين أثناء صراعات البلقان في التسعينيات. أي أنه عمل كركيزة للدعم المالي للمتشددين في الحروب التي خاضتها السعودية بالوكالة خارج أراضيها.

بصفته حاكما للرياض لفترة طويلة، كان سلمان مسؤولا عادة عن الحفاظ علي النظام والتوافق بين أعضاء العائلة المالكة. ونتيجة لذلك اختاره أخوه غير الشقيق الملك خالد (الذي حكم السعودية من العام 1975 حتي العام 1982) أثناء فترة الصراع الأفغاني ليستغل معارفه العائلية من أجل أهداف دولية، فنصبه مديرا للجنة جمع التبرعات من العائلة المالكة والسعوديين لدعم المجاهدين ضد السوفيت.

ويذكر ريديل أن سلمان "عمل بشكل وثيق مع المؤسسة الدينية الوهابية في السعودية." ويقدر مسؤول آخر بالاستخبارات المركزية الأمريكية عمل في باكستان في أواخر الثمانينيات أن التبرعات السعودية السرية خلال تلك الفترة تراوحت بين 20 مليون دولار و25 مليون دولار شهريا. وتوضح راشيل برونسون في كتابها "أثخن من النفط: شراكة أمريكا المضطربة مع السعودية"، أن سلمان قد ساعد في تجنيد المقاتلين لصالح عبد الرسول سياف، وهو مقاتل أفغاني سلفي عمل كمرشد لكلٍ من أسامة بن لادن والعقل المدبر لأحداث 11 سبتمبر خالد شيخ محمد.

أعاد سلمان أداء ذلك الدور مع البوسنة، حيث عينه أخوه الشقيق وحليفه السياسي الوثيق الملك فهد لإدارة اللجنة السعودية العليا لإغاثة البوسنة والهرسك بعد تأسيسها عام 1992. وعبر تلك اللجنة، جمع سلمان تبرعات من العائلة المالكة السعودية لإغاثة البلقان، واستمر في الإشراف علي اللجنة حتي إنتهاء دورها مؤخرا عام 2011. بحلول العام 2011، كانت المنظمة قد جمعت حوالي 600 مليون دولار، شكليا لأغراض الإغاثة ولأهداف دينية، لكن هناك مزاعم حول استغلال تلك الأموال في تقديم السلاح للمحاربين المسلمين، رغم قرار حظر التسليح الذي فرضته الأمم المتحدة علي البوسنة والدول الأخري التي خلفت يوغوسلافيا بين عامي 1991 و1996.

ما نوع الإشراف الذي مارسه سلمان علي تلك اللجنة الدولية؟ داهمت قوات الناتو عام 2001 مكاتب اللجنة في سراييفو، لتجد كنزا ثمينا من مواد دعم الإرهاب؛ حيث تضمنت صور لأهداف هجمات تنظيم القاعدة قبل وبعد تنفيذها، وإرشادات حول كيفية تزييف شارات وزارة الخارجية الأمريكية، وخرائط حددت عليها المباني الحكومية في واشنطن.

لكن مداهمة سراييفو لم تكن أول دليل علي تجاوز عمل اللجنة للإغاثة الإنسانية. فقد تعقب مسؤولون أوروبيون بين العامين 1992 و1995 تبرعات بقيمة حوالي 120 مليون دولار من الحسابات البنكية الشخصية لسلمان ومن اللجنة إلي المنظمة العاملة بإغاثة البوسنة "وكالة إغاثة العالم الثالث" ومقرها بفيينا. ورغم مزاعم المنظمة بتركيزها علي تقديم الإغاثة الإنسانية، إلا أن وكالات استخبارات غربية قدرت أن المنظمة قد أنفقت أغلب تمويلها علي تسليح المقاتلين المتحالفين مع الحكومة البوسنية.

استدعي أحد المنشقين عن تنظيم القاعدة ليدلي بشهادته أمام الولايات المتحدة، وقدم إقرارا للمحامين الممثلين لعائلات ضحايا أحداث 11 سبتمبر زاعما أن لجنة سلمان والمنظمة قد قدمتا دعما أساسيا لتنظيم القاعدة في البوسنة، والذي شمل وحدته القتالية. وفي إقرار متعلق بقضية 11 سبتمبر، أفاد بأن اللجنة "شاركت بشكل مكثف في دعم عمليات القاعدة في البوسنة" وأن المنظمة "مولت، ودعمت بطرق مختلفة" مقاتلي الجماعة الإرهابية.

خضعت الصلات بين اللجنة والجماعات الإرهابية لفحص دقيق ولمدة طويلة من قبل مسؤولي الاستخبارات الأمريكية. ضمت فرقة العمل المشتركة في جوانتانامو التابعة للحكومة الأمريكية اللجنة السعودية العليا إلى قائمتها للكيانات المشتبه بها كداعمة أو منفذة للإرهاب. كذلك اتهمت وكالة استخبارات الدفاع الأمريكية اللجنة السعودية العليا بتوصيل مساعدات وأسلحة إلي محمد فرح عيديد، وهو زعيم الحرب ذي الصلة بالقاعدة والمشار إليه في فيلم "سقوط الطائرة بلاك هوك." فقد خضعت الصومال لقرار حظر تسليح أصدرته الأمم المتحدة دخل حيز التنفيذ في يناير 1992.

لكن دعم السعودية للمقاتلين الإسلاميين في أفغانستان والبلقان أدي في النهاية إلي نتائج عكسية عندما عاد قدامي المجاهدين إلي ديارهم، حيث وضعوا حجر الأساس لتهديد القاعدة المتنامي في السعودية عام 2003. عند ذلك اعتمد سلمان علي حجة إسلامية مكررة لتفسير الهجمات التي تستهدف المملكة، حيث أعلن أن تلك الهجمات "مدعومة من قبل الصهيونية المتطرفة التي تهدف لصد الدعوة الإسلامية."

إلا أنه لا يبدو أن التهديد الجهادي الموجه صوب السعودية قد كبح رغبة سلمان في العمل المشترك مع ممولي الجهاد الإسلامي والشيوخ المتطرفين. حيث تتضمن "لجنة الموثوق بهم" الخاصة بمركز الأمير سلمان للشباب، والذي يرأسه سلمان نفسه، صالح عبد الله كامل، وهو ملياردير سعودي ظهر اسمه سابقا في القائمة المزعومة للداعمين المبكرين للقاعدة، والمعروفة باسم "السلسلة الذهبية." إلا أن صحيفة "وال ستريت جورنال" الأمريكية أوردت إنكار كامل دعمه للإرهاب. وبينما سعت الولايات المتحدة لإغلاق المنظمات الخيرية السعودية ذات الصلة بالإرهاب في أعقاب أحداث 11 سبتمبر، أدان كامل وسلمان تلك الجهود ووصفوها بأنها معادية للإسلام.

تبني الأمير سلمان عام 2002 احتفالية جمع تبرعات لثلاث جمعيات خيرية سعودية تحقق واشنطن بشأنها؛ وهي منظمة الإغاثة الإسلامية الدولية، ومؤسسة الحرمين، والندوة العالمية للشباب الإسلامي. ويجدر بالذكر أنه منذ أحداث 11 سبتمبر تم إغلاق بعض فروع المؤسسات الثلاثة أو فرضت عليها عقوبات إثر مزاعم حول تمويل الإرهاب ماليا. وعلق سليمان في نفس الشهر بأنها ليست مسؤولية المملكة إن استغل آخرون التبرعات السعودية في تمويل الإرهاب.

مع تشجيع أوباما للسعودية علي بناء "مجتمع قادر علي التجاوب مع متطلبات العصر الحالي،" يجب أن يضع في اعتباره دور سلمان في المساعدة علي تشغيل مؤسسة "عبد العزيز بن باز،" والتي سميت باسم المفتي السعودي الأكبر والذي توفي عام 1999. ويذكر موقع المؤسسة أنها "مباركة بالدعم المباشر والمستمر" من سلمان منذ إنشائها عام 2001.

يصنف بن باز الأخير كواحد من أكثر الشيوخ السعوديين تأثيرا علي شبكة الإنترنت، ويعود الفضل في ذلك جزئيا إلي هذه المؤسسة، حتي بعد موته. ويشير المؤرخ الإسلامي روفين باز إلي أنه عرف عن الشيخ "محاولاته المستمرة لتوجيه السعودية نحو التطرف المتشدد والخطير." فمن أحد فتاويه التي لا تنسي أن المرأة التي تدرس مع الرجال تعتبر في حكم العاهرة.

عقيل العقيل، هو مواطن سعودي فرضت عليه عقوبات أمريكية عام 2004 لقيادته لمنظمة زعم أنها قد ساعدت القاعدة في أكثر من 13 دولة، وكان أحد أعضاء مجلس إدارة مؤسسة "الباز." احتفظ العقيل بمنصبه في المؤسسة لعدة سنوات بعد فرض العقوبات. وعندما ترك المجلس أضافت المؤسسة داعية سعودي آخر، هو عائض عبد الله القرني، والذي أعلن في حديث عن الصراع العربي الإسرائيلي أنه "يجب قطع الرقاب وتحطيم الجماحم، وهذا هو طريق النصر."

ولكن القرني ليس أكثر الشيوخ الذين عمل معهم سلمان تشددا. فالملك الجديد تبني أيضا الداعية السعودي صالح المغامسي، والذي أعلن عام 2012 أن أسامة بن لادن "له قدسية وشرف أمام الله أكثر مما لليهود والمسيحيين والزراديشتيين والمرتدين والملحدين،" ببساطة لأنه مسلم، بينما وصف الآخرين بأنهم "كفار." إلا أن ذلك ليس نهاية علاقة سلمان بالمغامسي، فقد عمل سلمان مؤخرا كرئيس للجنة المشرفة علي مركز أبحاث المدينة والذي يديره المغامسي. وبعد عام من تعليقات المغامسي العدائية، رعي سلمان وحضر احتفالية ثقافية كبيرة نظمها الداعية. كذلك يعمل المغامسي كمستشار لاثنين من أبناء سلمان، حيث التقط أحدهما صورة شخصية له مع الداعية العام الماضي معبرا فيها عن إعجابه بالداعية.

أوضح مسؤولون أمريكيون أن الهدف من زيارة الرئيس أوباما هو صياغة "علاقة وثيقة" مع الملك السعودي الجديد وأتخاذ التدابير الملائمة مع الملك الجديد. وبينما يدرس مسؤولون غربيون كيفية التواصل بنجاح مع النظام السعودي الجديد، يجب وضع سجل سلمان من دعم وتبني المتطرفين في الحسبان. أسوء التصورات هو أن الملك الجديد يتشارك وجهات النظر مع المتشددين، وأفضلها هو أنه ببساطة انتهازي، قد يقبل بالتعصب حتي يمضي قدما نحو أهدافه.

يطمح الكثيرون في الغرب إلي ملك سعودي يمرر إصلاحات فعالة ويوقف التحريض الذي يمارسه المتشددون المحليون. ولكن مع الأسف، لا يبدو أن سلمان هو هذا الرجل.

#Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood militias hit Christian churches

After torching a Franciscan school, Islamists paraded three nuns on the streets like "prisoners of war" before a Muslim woman offered them refuge. Two other women working at the school were sexually harassed and abused as they fought their way through a mob.

In the four days since security forces cleared two sit-in camps by supporters of Egypt's ousted president, Islamists have attacked dozens of Coptic churches along with homes and businesses owned by the Christian minority. The campaign of intimidation appears to be a warning to Christians outside Cairo to stand down from political activism.

Christians have long suffered from discrimination and violence in Muslim majority Egypt, where they make up 10 percent of the population of 90 million. Attacks increased after the Islamists rose to power in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring uprising that drove Hosni Mubarak from power, emboldening extremists. But Christians have come further under fire since President Mohammed Morsi was ousted on July 3, sparking a wave of Islamist anger led by Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood.

Nearly 40 churches have been looted and torched, while 23 others have been attacked and heavily damaged since Wednesday, when chaos erupted after Egypt's military-backed interim administration moved in to clear two camps packed with protesters calling for Morsi's reinstatement, killing scores of protesters and sparking deadly clashes nationwide.

One of the world's oldest Christian communities has generally kept a low-profile, but has become more politically active since Mubarak was ousted and Christians sought to ensure fair treatment in the aftermath.

Many Morsi supporters say Christians played a disproportionately large role in the days of mass rallies, with millions demanding that he step down ahead of the coup.

Despite the violence, Egypt's Coptic Christian church renewed its commitment to the new political order Friday, saying in a statement that it stood by the army and the police in their fight against "the armed violent groups and black terrorism."

While the Christians of Egypt have endured attacks by extremists, they have drawn closer to moderate Muslims in some places, in a rare show of solidarity.

Hundreds from both communities thronged two monasteries in the province of Bani Suef south of Cairo to thwart what they had expected to be imminent attacks on Saturday, local activist Girgis Waheeb said. Activists reported similar examples elsewhere in regions south of Cairo, but not enough to provide effective protection of churches and monasteries.

Waheeb, other activists and victims of the latest wave of attacks blame the police as much as hard-line Islamists for what happened. The attacks, they said, coincided with assaults on police stations in provinces like Bani Suef and Minya, leaving most police pinned down to defend their stations or reinforcing others rather than rushing to the rescue of Christians under attack.

Another Christian activist, Ezzat Ibrahim of Minya, a province also south of Cairo where Christians make up around 35 percent of the population, said police have melted away from seven of the region's nine districts, leaving the extremists to act with near impunity.

Two Christians have been killed since Wednesday, including a taxi driver who strayed into a protest by Morsi supporters in Alexandria and another man who was shot to death by Islamists in the southern province of Sohag, according to security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information.

The attacks served as a reminder that Islamists, while on the defensive in Cairo, maintain influence and the ability to stage violence in provincial strongholds with a large minority of Christians.

Gamaa Islamiya, the hard-line Islamist group that wields considerable influence in provinces south of Cairo, denied any link to the attacks. The Muslim Brotherhood, which has led the defiant protest against Morsi's ouster, has condemned the attacks, spokesman Mourad Ali said.

Sister Manal is the principal of the Franciscan school in Bani Suef. She was having breakfast with two visiting nuns when news broke of the clearance of the two sit-in camps by police, killing hundreds. In an ordeal that lasted about six hours, she, sisters Abeer and Demiana and a handful of school employees saw a mob break into the school through the wall and windows, loot its contents, knock off the cross on the street gate and replace it with a black banner resembling the flag of al-Qaida.

By the time the Islamists ordered them out, fire was raging at every corner of the 115-year-old main building and two recent additions. Money saved for a new school was gone, said Manal, and every computer, projector, desk and chair was hauled away. Frantic SOS calls to the police, including senior officers with children at the school, produced promises of quick response but no one came.

The Islamists gave her just enough time to grab some clothes.

In an hourlong telephone interview with The Associated Press, Manal, 47, recounted her ordeal while trapped at the school with others as the fire raged in the ground floor and a battle between police and Islamists went on out on the street. At times she was overwhelmed by the toxic fumes from the fire in the library or the whiffs of tears gas used by the police outside.

Sister Manal recalled being told a week earlier by the policeman father of one pupil that her school was targeted by hard-line Islamists convinced that it was giving an inappropriate education to Muslim children. She paid no attention, comfortable in the belief that a school that had an equal number of Muslim and Christian pupils could not be targeted by Muslim extremists. She was wrong.

The school has a high-profile location. It is across the road from the main railway station and adjacent to a busy bus terminal that in recent weeks attracted a large number of Islamists headed to Cairo to join the larger of two sit-in camps by Morsi's supporters. The area of the school is also in one of Bani Suef's main bastions of Islamists from Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood and ultraconservative Salafis.

"We are nuns. We rely on God and the angels to protect us," she said. "At the end, they paraded us like prisoners of war and hurled abuse at us as they led us from one alley to another without telling us where they were taking us," she said. A Muslim woman who once taught at the school spotted Manal and the two other nuns as they walked past her home, attracting a crowd of curious onlookers.

"I remembered her, her name is Saadiyah. She offered to take us in and said she can protect us since her son-in-law was a policeman. We accepted her offer," she said. Two Christian women employed by the school, siblings Wardah and Bedour, had to fight their way out of the mob, while groped, hit and insulted by the extremists. "I looked at that and it was very nasty," said Manal.

The incident at the Franciscan school was repeated at Minya where a Catholic school was razed to the ground by an arson attack and a Christian orphanage was also torched.

"I am terrified and unable to focus," said Boulos Fahmy, the pastor of a Catholic church a short distance away from Manal's school. "I am expecting an attack on my church any time now," he said Saturday.

Bishoy Alfons Naguib, a 33-year-old businessman from Minya, has a similarly harrowing story.

His home supplies store on a main commercial street in the provincial capital, also called Minya, was torched this week and the flames consumed everything inside.

"A neighbor called me and said the store was on fire. When I arrived, three extremists with knifes approached me menacingly when they realized I was the owner," recounted Naguib. His father and brother pleaded with the men to spare him. Luckily, he said, someone shouted that a Christian boy was filming the proceedings using his cell phone, so the crowd rushed toward the boy shouting "Nusrani, Nusrani," the Quranic word for Christians which has become a derogatory way of referring to them in today's Egypt.

Naguib ran up a nearby building where he has an apartment and locked himself in. After waiting there for a while, he left the apartment, ran up to the roof and jumped to the next door building, then exited at a safe distance from the crowd.

"On our Mustafa Fahmy street, the Islamists had earlier painted a red X on Muslim stores and a black X on Christian stores," he said. "You can be sure that the ones with a red X are intact."

In Fayoum, an oasis province southwest of Cairo, Islamists looted and torched five churches, according to Bishop Ibram, the local head of the Coptic Orthodox church, by far the largest of Egypt's Christian denominations. He said he had instructed Christians and clerics alike not to try to resist the mobs of Islamists, fearing any loss of life.

"The looters were so diligent that they came back to one of the five churches they had ransacked to see if they can get more," he told the AP. "They were loading our chairs and benches on trucks and when they had no space for more, they destroyed them."

#Egypt: #Muslims_Brotherhood burn down 23 houses belonging to #Christians

Where is Obama's condemnation? There is none. Instead, just days before the protests, the Obama administration asked the Coptic Pope to urge the Copts in Egypt not to protest -- supporting sharia subjugation of Christians.
And yet when Muslims allege they are being persecuted, Obama jumps at their back and call (ie in Burma, where the Buddhists are fighting back against jihad). Obama has all but abandoned religious minorities living under the sharia. It is despicable.

Egypt: Muslims burn down 23 houses belonging to Christians Jihadwatch

As the Morsi supporter said in this video: "I am a religious Egyptian lady. I tell the Christians one word. You live by our side! We will set you on fire! We will set you on fire!" "Update: 23 houses belonging to Copts burned down," from DPA,

The situation has heated up in Naga Hassan village, west of Luxor, after the killing of a Muslim man and the injury of a Copt on Friday. The number of houses belonging to Copts that have been burned is now 23. Police fired teargas bombs to stop the clashes. Police are protecting dozens of Copts at the police station near the area where the clashes are taking place. Security has been enhanced around Dabe’iya church, for fear of an attack. The police and military troops have exerted a huge effort to end the clashes.

#Egypt 3 Dead and Dozens Injured in Another Terrorist Attack In #Sinai “graphic”

It has become a daily routine in Sinai to read that security checkpoints and army patrols are being attacked. It is not a shock anymore to read that someone is killed there from security forces. It also had become a norm to read that Christians in North Sinai not only are being attacked but also to be kidnapped and beheaded.

Today we woke up on horrible terrorist act where a bus carrying workers in Al Arish was targeted by RPG missile. According to the Egyptian armed forces spokesperson the unknown terrorists hit the bus by mistake as their main target was a police patrol. 3 workers were killed and more than 16 have been injured. Yes 3 were killed and not 20 as it had been spread like fire.

Dear friend Mohamed Sabry tweeted from there and covered the attack. Here is a Storify report from there. You can read it after the break. 

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#28June : A rehearsal For #30June #egypt

#28June : A rehearsal For #30June 

 

And people went to protest today. Egyptians vs. Egyptians , civilians Vs. Civilians or Non Islamists Vs. Islamists to be accurate.

Hundreds of thousands protests against Muslim brotherhood and Mohamed Morsi in rehearsal today across the country for the big day on the 30th. Also hundreds of thousands were there in Cairo protesting in solidarity with Muslim brotherhood and Mohamed Morsi.

The scene of Islamists was repetitive but the scene of angry citizens including first time protesters and NDPians in the protests along with the revolutionaries was rare.

Of course it was not that peaceful because clashes happened and we got over 500 injured. Ministry of health says that 3 have been killed including a US citizen who was stabbed in Alexandria unfortunately.  The death toll of the Muslim brotherhood is 5 up till now while 2 for the protesters as well 1 US citizen.

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Today several MB headquarters and branches have been torched and vandalized by angry protesters in Alexandria and Mansoura.

Here is a quick Storify report from photos and videos about the day. I am still updating it after the break.

Now leaks I knew earlier this week that things will be bloody in North Delta and the old NDPian leading figures will make it bloody in all possible ways so the army would intervene. I think I said it before. If you speak about peacefulness than you are either weak coward who lives in lala land or secret MB agent Online.

I do not underestimate the anger of the people nor the fact that everybody is denying that we are fully armed society now.

Tahrir square is full again but …

I can not be so happy that Tahrir square is full now , it has been full before by revolutionaries alone without MB or Mubarak loyalists or military loyalists. I can not be so happy because I see too much hate and anger blinding everybody.

Today I found a tweep comparing the Muslim brotherhood as the Jews in Germany before WWII reaching to the conclusion that a holocaust would be great for the Muslim brotherhood.

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I can not be so happy when I see that bearded men are being attacked in the streets and there are threats to butcher the Muslim brotherhood and their families like sheep.

I can not be so happy that Tahrir square is full when I see faces from those who called the martyrs of Tahrir and Mohamed Mahmoud street every possible name and accusing revolution of being a foreign plot bragging on how they are protesting in the square. Yes the square is for everybody but emotionally speaking I remember what everybody said in the past two years , it is curse. For God those people are still attacking the January 25 Revolution calling it a defeat , a setback and a foreign conspiracy.

Politically and realistically speaking I believe that we can not win the battle when we have different goals. This is the dilemma , the revolutionaries want their revolution back on track once again for democracy and freedom while the Mubarak loyalists want the military back and to end democracy.They got higher voice in the media now despite they need the revolutionary cover in front of the world.

Of course if anyone dares to speak about this matter online in Arabic he or she will be accused of being a secret MB cell spreading lies who is trying to split the unity of the great people’s revolution. I have had my share already for being called all sort of insults for saying this.

Anyhow to be realistic you do not need to be an expert to know that sooner or later the army will do something considering how the armed forces troops are deployed throughout the country. Whether it is going to be a full scale coup or soft coup I do not know.

Nevertheless I have to admit that greed and stupidity of the Muslim brotherhood will be studied and that the deep state in Egypt knew how to use that greed in order to return back to the scene just like knowing the weakness points of the 25 January revolutionaries. Unfortunately the revolutionaries and the people do not want to understand or learn from their mistakes like others.

'You Can't Eat Sharia' #EGYPT #Islamist #Ikhwan #salafi

Egypt is on the brink -- not of something better than the old Mubarak dictatorship, but of something even worse. 

BY MOHAMED ELBARADEI

Two years after the revolution that toppled a dictator, Egypt is already a failed state. According to the Failed States Index, in the year before the uprising we ranked No. 45. After Hosni Mubarak fell, we worsened to 31st. I haven't checked recently -- I don't want to get more depressed. But the evidence is all around us.

 

 

Today you see an erosion of state authority in Egypt. The state is supposed to provide security and justice; that's the most basic form of statehood. But law and order is disintegrating. In 2012, murders were up 130 percent, robberies 350 percent, and kidnappings 145 percent, according to the Interior Ministry. You see people being lynched in public, while others take pictures of the scene. Mind you, this is the 21st century -- not the French Revolution!

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The feeling right now is that there is no state authority to enforce law and order, and therefore everybody thinks that everything is permissible. And that, of course, creates a lot of fear and anxiety.

You can't expect Egypt to have a normal economic life under such circumstances. People are very worried. People who have money are not investing -- neither Egyptians nor foreigners. In a situation where law and order is spotty and you don't see institutions performing their duties, when you don't know what will happen tomorrow, obviously you hold back. As a result, Egypt's foreign reserves have been depleted, the budget deficit will be 12 percent this year, and the pound is being devalued. Roughly a quarter of our youth wake up in the morning and have no jobs to go to. In every area, the economic fundamentals are not there.

Egypt could risk a default on its foreign debt over the next few months, and the government is desperately trying to get a credit line from here and there -- but that's not how to get the economy back to work. You need foreign investment, you need sound economic policies, you need functioning institutions, and you need skilled labor.

So far, however, the Egyptian government has only offered a patchwork vision and ad hoc economic policies, with no steady hand at the helm of the state. The government adopted some austerity measures in December to satisfy certain IMF requirements, only to repeal them by morning. Meanwhile, prices are soaring and the situation is becoming untenable, particularly for the nearly half of Egyptians who live on less than $2 a day.

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The executive branch has no clue how to run Egypt. It's not a question of whether they are Muslim Brothers or liberals -- it's a question of people who have no vision or experience. They do not know how to diagnose the problem and then provide the solution. They are simply not qualified to govern.