Democracy? Egyptian Muslims Protest Coptic Christian Governor
- Posted on April 18, 2011 at 6:35pm by
Jonathon M. Seidl
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CAIRO (AP) — Protesters led by hardline Islamists in southern Egypt held their ground Monday, saying they won’t end their campaign of civil disobedience until the government removes a newly appointed Coptic Christian governor.
The protesters, many from the ultraconservative Salafi trend of Islam, have been sitting on train tracks, taken over government buildings and blocked main roads in the southern city of Qena, insisting the new governor won’t properly implement Islamic law.
Attempts by the newly appointed interior minister, who hails from the same area, to defuse the crisis were rebuffed and protesters insisted their sit-in, which began Friday, would continue.
Since the Feb. 11 ousting of President Hosni Mubarak in popular protests, Islamist groups have have been flexing their muscles and are vowing to take a more active political role as Egypt is still drawing its transition to democracy.
The prominent role of these ultraconservative Islamic movements, which were once politically quiescent, has worried many, including the secular activists and youth groups that were the driving force behind the uprising.
Egypt’s Coptic minority, which makes up about 10 percent of the country’s 82 million population and have long complained of discrimination in the country, have also been deeply unsettled by the developement.
The new governor’s predecessor was actually a Christian and a former police general as well, but he was appointed by Mubarak and was much reviled for his incompetence, security background, and close ties to the regime, enabling the Salafis to draw on local dissatisfaction in their current campaign.
“They started out by camping at the local government’s office. Then they set up a tent on the railroad tracks,” said local resident Wafy Nasr. “They also tried to block the road and stopped buses to separate men and women passengers.”
He said tensions were so high that the local Christian residents had to stay inside and couldn’t go to church to celebrate Palm Sunday.
A video posted on the YouTube website showed a speaker telling a crowd at the government office: “This won’t work. A Copt won’t implement Islamic law.” According to the constitution, Islamic law is supposed to be the primary source of legislation in the country.
The civil disobedience campaign prompted Egypt’s top security official, Interior Minister Mansour el-Eissawi, to visit Qena to try to defuse the situation, but he wasn’t able to sway the protesters.
“When there is a decision to change the governor to a civilian Muslim, we will end the strike and life will return to normal,” said Sheik Qureishi Salama, the imam of the local mosque, questioning why their impoverished province kept getting Christian governors.
“Why is Qena becoming a testing ground for Christians?” he asked. “We aren’t guinea pigs.”
Diaa Rashwan, an expert on Islamic groups and a native of Qena, said for the majority of residents, the problem with the new appointment was that it continued the trend of installing former police generals as governors.
“The Salafis mobilized many people, many of them religious by nature,” he said.
The fall of Mubarak and the opening of the political system has prompted an explosion of political activity in Egypt.
The country’s most organized political opposition group, the long-banned Muslim Brotherhood, has also become more vocal about its plans, drawing on its large network of social groups and followers, which it had for long to operate under strict security oversight from the Mubarak regime.
A senior group leader caused an uproar after he was quoted in local papers as saying his group seeks to establish an Islamic state, imposing Islamic punishments – including amputating hands for theft.
“We can’t sleep anymore, so we give room for this religion to thrive in Egypt. Don’t let us waste this opportunity,” Saad al-Husseini, a Brotherhood leader, said, according to the daily Al-Masry Al-Youm.
—–
Associated Press reporter Haggag Salam, in Luxor, Egypt contributed to this report.
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Comments (48)
DallyWama
Posted on April 19, 2011 at 2:41amObama. Creating a terrorist state in a country near you. After this failure is through in 2012 we will inevitably have to send troops to Egypt to destroy the terror state he created.
Report Post »RightPolitically
Posted on April 18, 2011 at 11:05pmThis will be another Obama backed DISASTER!
Report Post »geonj
Posted on April 18, 2011 at 11:03pmbut the egyptian revolution was supposed to be a democratic revolution, not a fundamentalist islamist movement. people are so naive. all of islam must be removed from the face of the earth before they kill all of us infidels.
KORAN commands to kill infidels:
Allah is an enemy to unbelievers. – Sura 2:98
On unbelievers is the curse of Allah. – Sura 2:161
Slay them wherever ye find them and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution is worse than slaughter. – 2:191
Fight against them until idolatry is no more and Allah’s religion reigns supreme. (different translation: ) Fight them until there is no persecution and the religion is God’s entirely. – Sura 2:193 and 8:39
Fighting is obligatory for you, much as you dislike it. – 2:216
(different translation: ) Prescribed for you is fighting, though it is hateful to you.
….. martyrs…. Enter heaven – Surah 3:140-43
If you should die or be killed in the cause of Allah, His mercy and forgiveness would surely be better than all they riches they amass. If you should die or be killed, before Him you shall all be gathered. – 3:157-8
You must not think that those who were slain in the cause of Allah are dead. They are alive, and well-provided for by their Lord. – Surah 3:169-71
Let those fight in the cause of God who sell the life of this world for the hereafter. To him who fights in the cause of God, whether he is slain or victorious, soon we shall give him a great reward. – Surah 4:74
Those who believe fight in the cause of God, and those who reject faith fight in the cause of evil. – 4:76
But if they turn renegades, seize them and slay them wherever you find them. – 4:89
Therefore, we stirred among them enmity and hatred, which shall endure till the Day of Resurrection, when Allah will declare to them all that they have done. – 5:14
O believers, take not Jews and Christians as friends; they are friends of each other. Those of you who make them his friends is one of them. God does not guide an unjust people. – 5:54
Make war on them until idolatry is no more and Allah’s religion reigns supreme – 8:39
O Prophet! Exhort the believers to fight. If there are 20 steadfast men among you, they shall vanquish 200; and if there are a hundred, they shall rout a thousand unbelievers, for they are devoid of understanding. – 8:65
It is not for any Prophet to have captives until he has made slaughter in the land. – 8:67
Allah will humble the unbelievers. Allah and His apostle are free from obligations to idol-worshipers. Proclaim a woeful punishment to the unbelievers. – 9:2-3
When the sacred months are over, slay the idolaters wherever you find them. Arrest them, besiege them, and lie in ambush everywhere for them. – 9:5
Believers! Know that idolators are unclean. – 9:28
Fight those who believe neither in God nor the Last Day, nor what has been forbidden by God and his messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, even if they are People of the Book, until they pay the tribute and have been humbled. – 9:29 (another source: ) The unbelievers are impure and their abode is hell. (another source: ) Humiliate the non-Muslims to such an extent that they surrender and pay tribute.
Whether unarmed or well-equipped, march on and fight for the cause of Allah, with your wealth and your persons. – 9:41
O Prophet! Make war on the unbelievers and the hypocrites. Be harsh with them. Their ultimate abode is hell, a hapless journey’s end. – 9:73
Allah has purchased of their faithful lives and worldly goods, and in return has promised them the Garden. They will fight for His cause, kill and be killed. – 9:111
Fight unbelievers who are near to you. 9:123 (different translation:
Believers! Make war on the infidels who dwell around you. Let them find harshness in you. (another source: ) Ye who believe! Murder those of the disbelievers….
As for those who are slain in the cause of Allah, He will not allow their works to perish. He will vouchsafe them guidance and ennoble their state; He will admit them to the Paradise He has made known to them. – 10:4-15
Allah has cursed the unbelievers and proposed for them a blazing hell. – 33:60
Unbelievers are enemies of Allah and they will roast in hell. – 41:14
When you meet the unbelievers, smite their necks, then when you have made wide slaughter among them, tie fast the bonds, then set them free, either by grace or ransom, until the war lays down its burdens. – 47:4
(different translation: ) When you meet the unbelievers in the battlefield, strike off their heads, and when you have laid them low, bind your captives firmly.
Those who are slain in the way of Allah – he will never let their deeds be lost. Soon will he guide them and improve their condition, and admit them to the Garden, which he has announced for them. – 47:5
Muslims are harsh against the unbelievers, merciful to one another. – 48:25
Muhammad is Allah’s apostle. Those who follow him are ruthless to the unbelievers but merciful to one another. Through them, Allah seeks to enrage the unbelievers. – 48:29
Prophet! Make war on the unbelievers and the hypocrites and deal sternly with them. Hell shall be their home, evil their fate. – 66:9
The unbelievers among the People of the Book and the pagans shall burn forever in the fire of hell. They are the vilest of all creatures. – 98:51
Report Post »BannedByHuffpo
Posted on April 18, 2011 at 10:54pmislamists ARE the 21st century’s “nazis”. If you don’t deal with these filthy sub-human scum now, your children and grandchildren will play hell dealing with them twenty years from now.
Report Post »scrapadapolis
Posted on April 18, 2011 at 10:10pmThis Is why the Obama clan want to unarm america.I for one have the will to kill for my rights and freedom as an AMERICAN against any and all terrorist foregin or domestic to be totally held accountable for my actions in the duty of my country…so help me god..
Report Post »ED4237
Posted on April 18, 2011 at 9:51pmThought these guys that took over Egypt were about peace and tolerance? This is what you can expect all over if the big lefty movement world wide continues in the mideast. They are not for tolerance or freedoms like we know or should say knew them to be, the islamist need a big government telling them what to do all day long.
Report Post »heavyduty
Posted on April 18, 2011 at 8:52pmSo much for the peace and tolerant religion. Islamist is exactly what hardcore is all about.
Report Post »Patriot Z
Posted on April 18, 2011 at 8:38pmjust goes to show the only‘moderate’ muslim is a dead one. freedom of religiondoent mean wehave totolerate them, but they can kill us.
Report Post »JEANNIEMAC
Posted on April 18, 2011 at 8:30pm“The secular activists and youth groups” which were supportive of the uprising, and are now worried about the Islamist takeover, are the “useful idiots” spoken of by Stalin. They are brought together by
Report Post »“ community organizers” and used for demonstrations and cannon fodder. When their usefulness is over,
they will be disposed of, as were the teenage “Red Guards” of the Chinese revolution.
Mister_Bill
Posted on April 18, 2011 at 8:23pmWhy do I not hear this on the nightly news? If this was a Tea Party exercise, there would be pundits out there espousing on the rigidity of the unbending closed mind thinkers. When they are Muslim Extremists it’s ok? I don’t think so.
Report Post »Its Gonna Getcha
Posted on April 18, 2011 at 8:18pmA good example of why “democracy” among people is an evolutionary process, lots of steps forward, many steps back, and so forth.
Report Post »mossbrain
Posted on April 18, 2011 at 8:14pmIt‘s obvious isn’t it, so called democracy after democracy turned into theocracy.
I don’t know how accurate the below is. I was googling Iran democracy to see if they were considered a democracy.
Iranians do not need or want us to teach them about liberty and representative government. They have long embodied this struggle. It is we who need to be taught. It was Washington that orchestrated the 1953 coup to topple Iran’s democratically elected government, the first in the Middle East, and install the compliant shah in power. It was Washington that forced Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh, a man who cared as much for his country as he did for the rule of law and democracy, to spend the rest of his life under house arrest. We gave to the Iranian people the corrupt regime of the shah and his savage secret police and the primitive clerics that rose out of the swamp of the dictator’s Iran. Iranians know they once had a democracy until we took it away.
Report Post »Joshua7
Posted on April 18, 2011 at 8:01pmThis will never work. If Egypt ever find true freedom it won’t be like this. As far as I can tell, the egyptian people and the Muslim Brotherhood are a match made in…well, you can get the picture.
Report Post »nptden
Posted on April 18, 2011 at 7:55pmObama is a Fraud: Did Bill Ayers get him a phony Social Security Number? and Why?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZlaIS5o9Vs&feature=youtu.be
Report Post »SilentReader
Posted on April 18, 2011 at 7:34pmThe Coptic Christians in Egypt are the indigenous Egyptians who have been systematically wiped out by the warring Islamists from the advent of Islamism in 622 AD. Why should they change now? Especially when they are so close to installing their evil Muslim Brotherhood whose leader, Yusuf al Qaradawi, would do anything to kill a Jew from his wheelchair.
The frenzied Islamists do not care about any law except brutal Sharia, where they stone women to death and hang homosexuals, and they will do anything to make sure that the Coptic Christians are forever made second class citizens in their own country where they cannot get and ID card or government jobs and are relegated for the rest of their lives to picking up garbage and living in the garbage dumps.
Every day they are killing Christians in the Islamic countries with impunity and it’s ignored by the government MSM. And the corrupt U.N. just sits by watching them do it, while they find time to demonize Israel on a daily basis for defending itself against these frenzied Islamic killers who would horrifically mass-murder a Jewish family including their little baby.
Hey, we shouldn’t be at all worried about these Islamic murderers sitting on the train tracks wanting to remove the Egyptian Christian Coptic governor from his post. I‘m sure we’ll be hearing shortly about his being executed by them. Again with impunity and no outcry from the corrupt U.N. and their thug-leaders who presume to tell America and Israel what to do while they continue to condone mass-murder by the Islamists throughout the whole Middle East and the world.
The corrupt U.N. and their OIC block and thug-leaders should be defunded and deported and the U.N. building bulldozed to the ground and in it’s place we should build a resurrected “twin towers” and call it Freedom Towers, with a stipulation that thug leaders, communists, Islamists and dictators need not apply.
Long live freedom. The American way!
Report Post »NOBALONEY
Posted on April 18, 2011 at 7:31pmThere are 196,000 coptics in egypt, and once the islamic government is formed, they’re toast.
Report Post »Exrepublisheep
Posted on April 18, 2011 at 7:29pmWhat? I can’t hear you! Someone just blew themeselves up and killed all of the protesters! Oh wait…
Report Post »BetterDays
Posted on April 18, 2011 at 8:54pmtwitter just in from your boss, ” Get closer to the guy wearing that vest with wires!”.
Report Post »endgamer
Posted on April 18, 2011 at 7:16pmRemember.. We need a reason to bomb them!! Let them start taking rights away and killing people we’re settting them up!
Report Post »momprayn
Posted on April 18, 2011 at 7:05pmDon’t understand those of us that think “democracy” can be successfully brought about in Muslim countries. Americans have no clue about these people & continue making huge mistakes by trying to nation-build them. They simply do not think like we do or even WANT what we want. Their idea of “freedom” is not ours. Mubarek was better for us than probably anyone else – I hear the Muslim Brotherhood is taking over. I could go on but it seems useless. History and common sense should prevail but it doesn’t. I hope and pray the Repub. party will be taken over by Tea Party types and like Rand and Ron Paul re anti-nation building, unwinnable wars like Afghan & now Libya. We are stretched much too thin and our enemies will no doubt take advantage of our weakened conditions & see Obama as their friend since he’s anti-Semitic and hates the traditional America/capitalism too (along with the left). Trump is right about all that. We are being laughed at and taken advantage of.
Report Post »alienguns
Posted on April 18, 2011 at 7:02pmIf we didn’t buy so much oil from them they would still be riding camels and herding goats….I say let them go back to that…don’t waste another dime on the barbaric thugs……who cares if they wipe themselves out….not me
Report Post »momsense
Posted on April 18, 2011 at 6:59pmHow much can Christians depend on Muslims to protect them—-answer anyone?
Report Post »myrkat
Posted on April 18, 2011 at 6:48pmThe Coptic (Orthodox) Christians have been persecuted in Egypt for years, this is nothing new – just more widely disseminated (thank you Blaze.com). Only the U.S. seems to see religion and world issues though a haze of political correctness; go to the actual countries and you’ll find rampant sexism, racism, intolerance and rude attitudes to anyone who is different. This goes for all religions/races/etc. Our country just has a habit of trying to put everything in a box, label it, and put it on the shelf, never to change. It is a rather odd behavior.
Report Post »GONESURFING
Posted on April 19, 2011 at 1:34amI totally agree with you, good post.
Report Post »V-Forge
Posted on April 18, 2011 at 6:47pmPull away and let these people kill each other. defend Israel but let these animals starve in the sand. Drill our own damn oil and dig some coal but it is time to let them have what they think their god will bring them. Do no business with any man that helps them and kill any man that would attack you. These people had a chance to be humans but as far as i am concerned they are animals now. Let the things earn their own freedom from their oppressors.
Report Post »riseandshine
Posted on April 18, 2011 at 8:06pmIsrael is capable of defending itself…it isn’t American territory
Report Post »Nervous Investor
Posted on April 18, 2011 at 6:44pmWas Glenn Beck correct? I think so.
Report Post »Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
Posted on April 18, 2011 at 6:39pmThe peaceful religion probably just wants him dead. Non-believers.
Report Post »Robert-CA
Posted on April 18, 2011 at 6:43pmof course he’s an infidel a traitor an enemy .
Report Post »chirodoc007
Posted on April 18, 2011 at 6:51pmAs Sharia takes hold Christians will be forced into accepting Dhimmi status and Dhimmitude. They will live as second class citizens, pay additional fines/taxes, and be forced from any office of power. This is just the beginning.
Does anyone still think that getting rid of Mubarak was a good thing?
Meanwhile Quaddafi is kicking ass in Libya. Anyone still glad that we got involved there as well?
Report Post »independentvoteril
Posted on April 18, 2011 at 6:58pmthe should have let the trains go on through .. cars too.. time to let them die by the sword they choose..
Report Post »MEESHEL
Posted on April 18, 2011 at 7:06pm“…insisting the new governor won’t properly implement Islamic law.”
Yes… these are the bastions of peace-loving folk that our Campaign-in-Chief wants us to cozy up to. Niiiiice.
Report Post »lovenfl3
Posted on April 18, 2011 at 7:26pmI’m sure the Muslim Brotherhood has nothing to do with this at all. Check out this video to see who these guys really are. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcRU63qCJkw Check out how MSNBC mocks Glenn Beck for reporting the facts. The MSM needs to be held responsible in this whole thing.
Report Post »nptden
Posted on April 18, 2011 at 7:46pmDidn‘t Hillary and Barry say there was no possibility of the ’Muslim Brotherhood’ taking over in Egypt???
Report Post »Wake up America, Hillary and Barry are Communists, just playing the Muslims until they get us to take them out, then their buddies in China and Russia will take us out.
BetterDays
Posted on April 18, 2011 at 8:56pmSEEMS to me that we need to start applying the rule of opposites to what ever schmaltz comes from the Administration. If we do this well get all the right news all the time.
Report Post »Watch the OTHER hand.
jzs
Posted on April 18, 2011 at 10:44pmWhat an outrage, Muslims who don’t want a Christian in government! Muslims simply don’t understand Democracy and freedom of religion!
You guys are such hypocrites. You cheer for a Presidential candidate who proclaims outright he’ll not have Muslim in his Cabinet, nor nominate a Muslim to a Federal judgeship, in strict violation of both the letter and spirit of the Constitution.
The people in this article are exactly like you: prejudiced against another religion. Yeah, sure, you’re right, they’re wrong, just like everything in grade school. But the fact is in the grownup world, when you read this article and feign outrage, you actually are looking straight into the mirror. At yourself.
Report Post »GONESURFING
Posted on April 18, 2011 at 11:09pmJZS, not sure if you are supporting the Islamists or not but you don’t seem to get it. We are not like the Islamists in Egypt who would implement Shria Law, restricting womens rights and everyones rights for that matter. I support freedom for everyone unless they want to restrict my freedom. We in America are still a long way from these problems, but Europe is being dragged back into the dark ages by Islamists who would impose Shria, given the chance.
Report Post »banjarmon
Posted on April 18, 2011 at 11:14pmIslamic Shariah law CAN NOT exist with any other laws…BEWARE America
Report Post »restorehope
Posted on April 19, 2011 at 12:17amThe AWOL Dem senators in WI sure have a lot in common with these Egyptian Muslims. Walk out, sit down on railroad tracks, do whatever it takes to get your own way. Obeying the law is necessary only if it is helping their cause.
Report Post »KICKILLEGALSOUT
Posted on April 19, 2011 at 12:38amWhere is the Muslim outrage? Where is all the “peaceful” and “tolerant” Muslims that are constantly touring around our country telling about how Islam is not a threat to America? The more Muslims we continue to immigrate to this country the more trouble we are going to have in this country, Why are we to believe that letting Islam flourish in this country will have any different end result as any other! We need to end foreign immigration and especially from Muslim countries!
Report Post »