[Israeli Prime Minister's Office, Jan. 29, 2012,http://www.pmo.gov.il/PMOEng/Communication/EventsDiary/eventireland290112.htm]

Last week, PA TV rejected this condemnation saying it was not honoring the killers by inviting their family members to publicly send them greetings, but that it was a "humanitarian" gesture to the prisoners. PA TV also indicated they were caught by surprise by the glorification of the terrorists as heroes, as it was "a live broadcast," during which the "mother spoke with complete spontaneity," and therefore PA TV is not responsible. 

PA TV Claim of Ignorance and Innocence is False

PA TV's claim that it did not intend to glorify the terrorists is false. For years, PA TV has had a policy of honoring terrorists specifically through this long-running weekly program and others, which present terrorists as heroes and role models to the Palestinian population. The following are some examples:

Terrorist: Abbas Al-Sayid 

Crimes: Serving 35 life-sentences for sending suicide bombers to attacks that killed 35, including Park Hotel Passover suicide bombing that killed 30. 

PA TV honor: PA TV visited his home and invited released terrorists and others to talk about him. 

PA TV broadcast glorification by others:

Released female terrorist, Du'a Al-Jayousi: "He was an example and role model for us, we wanted very much to meet him."
Released male terrorist, Muayyad Al-Jallad: "I do not forget our neighbor and brother, Abbas Al-Sayid. He is the crown on our heads... He is honor to the nation, and there is no doubt that he makes us proud. Allah willing, he has enough patience and will... We are all familiar with his manly qualities of heroism and strength."

PA TV itself glorified the terrorist:

PA TV host: "We are outside the home of the patient, heroic fighter who is resolute, overcoming his chains, desiring freedom - Abbas Al-Sayid, the lion of the prison cells... the leader, hero, defeater of the enemies, defeater of the dungeons, and lion under interrogation."

[PA TV (Fatah), Oct. 25, 2011]

Click to view

Terrorist: Ahlam Tamimi : Suicide Bomber Mission

Crimes: Led a suicide bomber to his attack at the Sbarro pizza shop in Jerusalem in August 2001. 15 people were murdered in the attack, 7 of them children. 

PA TV honor: PA TV glorified her while visiting the home of another terrorist involved in the same terror attack.

PA TV itself glorified the terrorist:

PA TV host: "We, [at] the program In a Fighter's Home, send best wishes of loyalty to Ahlam Tamimi. We wish her freedom - she and [the rest of] our glorious female prisoners. Special wishes to you, Ahlam, from the program In a Fighter's Home and from the program team, from the home of the heroic fighter prisoner, Muhammad [Wael Daghlas]. You both belong to the same group."

[PA TV (Fatah), Aug. 10, 2011]

Click to view

Terrorist: Muhammad Wael Daghlas

Crimes: Serving 15 life sentences for planning and sending the suicide bomber to his attack at the Sbarro pizza shop in Jerusalem. 

PA TV honor: PA TV visited his home.

PA TV itself glorified the terrorist:

PA TV host: "... from the home of the heroic fighter prisoner, Muhammad [Wael Daghlas]."

[PA TV (Fatah), Aug. 10, 2011]

Click to view

Terrorist: Salim Hajja

Crime: Serving 16 life sentences for involvement in three suicide bombings; the bombing of the Dolphinarium night club in June 2001 in which 21 were murdered and 120 wounded; the Sbarro restaurant bombing in Aug. 2001 in which 15 people were killed and over 100 wounded; and a suicide bombing of a bus in Haifa in Dec. 2001 in which 15 were killed and 40 wounded.

PA TV honor: PA TV interviewed his family in their home.

PA TV broadcast glorification by others:

Prisoner's mother-in-law: "Praise to Allah... Omar [son of Salim] will follow in your (Salim's) footsteps, and praise to Allah he will be a hero like you, Allah willing. As Allah lives, I am proud of you, that you are the husband of my daughter. I swear to Allah - I am proud of you. My daughter's husband. I hold my head up high when someone says to me that my son-in-law is a prisoner. ... Inside, I am proud of him, that he is my son-in-law."
Prisoner's son: "Daddy is a hero. I am very proud of him."

PA TV itself glorified the terrorist:

PA TV host: "Well, come along with us, our prisoner brothers, for a visit to the family of the heroic fighter prisoner, of course - Salim Hajja, and I want to greet his father, his mother Taibe, his brother Mustafa, the whole family, his wife and his son, and of course you, Mustafa (i.e., she means Salim). Allah willing you will live a free life - you, your son, your wife and your family, in a normal way, like the other families in the world and in this country. Allah willing."

[PA TV (Fatah), Aug. 11, 2011]

Click to view bulletin

Terrorist: Darin Abu Aisheh

Crimes: Carried out a suicide bombing at a roadblock in 2002, wounding three Israelis.

PA TV honor: PA TV interviewed her mother in her home. 

PA TV broadcast glorification by others:

Poster of the terrorist displayed in the mother's home: "The Palestinian National Liberation Movement - Fatah - Beit Wazan branch is happy to announce [the death of] the heroic Martyrdom-seeker, Darin Muhammad Tawfiq Abu Aisheh Member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades."

[PA TV (Fatah), Aug. 3, 2011]

Click to view

Terrorist: Anas Jaradat

Crimes: Headed the Islamic Jihad in Jenin and was responsible for 3 car bombings in Israel, causing the death of dozens.

PA TV honor: PA TV visited his home and interviewed his father and a Fatah official about him.

PA TV broadcast glorification by others:

Jaradat's father: "I send greetings to [my son] Anas, who is a real hero. When I say 'hero' I recall all the actions which he carried out. (i.e., 3 car bombings) He is a hero in the full sense of the word. The reports that we hear confirm his heroism."

Secretary of the Fatah branch in Jenin, Ata Abu Ramila: "We say to brother Anas - the heroic Jihad-fighter prisoner Anas Jaradat - and to all the heroic prisoners: ... What Anas and all the heroic prisoners did is a glorious deed (i.e., 3 car bombings), a badge of honor for him, for his family... for our Palestinian people, and for all the free and noble people of our nation. The occupation (i.e., Israel) will pass away, Allah willing. The occupation will pass away only through the pure blood which has poured from our courageous Martyrs, and through the suffering of our heroic prisoners, first among them this heroic prisoner, Anas Jaradat."

PA TV itself glorified the terrorist:

PA TV host, addressing Jaradat's father: "You are the hero's father. We don't want to see the hero's father cry."

[PA TV (Fatah), Aug. 3, 2011]

Click to view

Terrorist: Amer Abu Sarhan

Crimes: Convicted of stabbing 3 Israelis to death in 1990. 

PA TV honor: PA TV visited his home and interviewed the District Governor of Bethlehem about him.

PA TV broadcast glorification by others:

District Governor of Bethlehem, Abd Al-Fattah Hamayel: "I'm glad to be in this thriving home, home of the father of the heroic prisoner, Amer Abu Sarhan. We honor him greatly through you [PA TV]. To all his fellow prisoners -- the brave and heroic who are resolute in Ribat [religious conflict] -- to the glorious female prisoners in the occupation's prisons -- we salute you and express our utmost appreciation and pride."

PA TV itself glorified the terrorist:

PA TV host: "Welcome, dear viewers, to this episode about the heroic prisoner Amer Abu Sarhan from Al-Abidia."

[PA TV (Fatah), Aug. 2, 2011]

Click to view

Terrorist: Yusuf Shaker Al-Asi

Crimes: Built bombs for Fatah's military wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades

PA TV honor: PA TV interviewed his mother, showing a poem and a poster of the bomb maker with an inscription praising Martyrdom for Allah.

[PA TV (Fatah), Aug. 2, 2011]

Terrorist: Yasser Al-Sharbati

Crimes: Involved in planning a suicide bombing in Jerusalem.

PA TV honor: PA TV visited his family's home with PA Minister of Prisoners' Affairs, Issa Karake, and District Governor of Hebron, Kamel Hamid.

[PA TV (Fatah), Aug. 15, 2011]

The above are just a few of the many terrorists honored during the weekly broadcasts of For You and In a Fighter's Home on official PA TV, in addition to the many video clips celebrating terrorists and terror attacks, official ceremonies, and more. The policy of official PA TV is to honor and glorify terrorists and present them as role models for society. 

Finally, in this specific case several facts indicate that PA TV was aware of the identity of the relatives of the Fogel killers before permitting them to speak on air:

1. The PA TV host knew who she was interviewing and introduced her as the "family of Hakim Awad" - the terrorist
2. The identity of the callers - "family of Hakim Awad" was written on the screen.
3. The interview was broadcast live on Jan. 19 and rebroadcast on Jan. 21. So even if the first time PA TV was surprised - they made a decision to rebroadcast the terrorist glorification. 

PA TV is run from the office of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

The following is the PA response and denial of knowingly broadcasting glorification of the Fogel family murderers:

Headline: "PA TV: Netanyahu's claims are an attempt to hide Israel's crimes"

"PA TV said that the claims by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, concerning the prisoners' program [For You, a recent episode which included greetings to the murderers of the Israeli Fogel family] are meant to hide Israeli crimes, especially those against prisoners. It should be noted that Netanyahu demanded that the PA 'condemn PA TV for accepting a telephone call from the mother and aunt of prisoner Hakim Awad, who carried out the Itamar operation (i.e., Hakim Awad's killing 5 members of an Israeli family in their sleep).' In its press release, a copy of which was obtained by WAFA, PA TV emphasized today: 'The prisoners' program is meant for the purposes of [maintaining] humanitarian contact between the prisoners - especially those who are not permitted visitors - and their family members. The call on the episode of Jan. 26, 2012 was by family members of the prisoner, and in a live broadcast. What the mother said with complete spontaneity, does not reflect any official view or position of PA TV or of the Palestinian Authority.' The press release called upon anyone interested, and all journalists, to watch the filmed footage which had been aired, and not to rely on Netanyahu's words. It should be noted that official Israeli circles constantly take care to invent and blow up events, with the aim of hiding the violations, the racist activities, and the crimes against humanity which they are carrying out against our people everywhere."

[WAFA, Jan. 30, 2012

© Palestinian Media Watch – www.palwatch.org

"Anyone who wants to affront the shari'a and become a heretic, anyone who behaves stupidly, thinking that this is a game, should not think that this will go unpunished. Today, these criminals want us to become used to this. They want us to hear this and remain silent. When someone curses our Lord, [they want us to say]: 'Never mind, this is democracy, freedom, and so on. Let's keep quiet about it.' Absolutely not! This will never be. One must never remain silent before the people of Falsehood. When Allah made a covenant with the people of knowledge, 'You shall make it known to people and not hide it.' Beheading them should be easier than cutting the buttons off their shirts.

"The truth should not be open to discussion, and the people of Truth should lie in wait for the people of Falsehood. They should not keep silent about a single word. If we give them leeway once, we will never be able to close the door. If a criminal affronts the shari'a and people keep quiet about it – even once – he will not keep quiet anymore. That's it – the door has been opened.

"What encouraged that criminal heretic to say that Allah has nothing to do with politics? He saw an even greater heretic say worse things about Allah. If not for the first, the second would not have committed heresy either. But if the first heretic had been beheaded – if the court had sentenced him to death for apostasy, everybody would have known that Islam was the official religion of this country, and that nobody could affront it.

"Could any of those cockroaches go to Israel and talk about Judaism that way, or even talk about it in his own home? Could any of those blabbermouths talk about Judaism? Could they doubt the Holocaust – that thing in which they say the Jews were massacred, and so on? If it really happened, they deserved it. Do any of them dare to doubt the Holocaust?

"And what about our 'geniuses' whose tongues are as long as that, and who affront only the religion of Allah, because they know that it has nobody to defend it? Nobody defends Islam, so they can bully it. But do any of them dare to appear on one of their despicable TV programs, and talk about the Jews, curse one of their leaders, or reject any of their myths? The whole world would be up in arms against him, and he would learn a moral lesson that he would never ever forget. […]

"In Islam, an apostate is punished by death. There is no dispute about this. Let none of those blabbermouths say to you: 'There's no punishment for an apostate in Islam. I've never seen such a thing.' Fine, so you're blind, what do you want from us? You have no sight and no sight. How could you not see it?! It is in all the books of jurisprudence. […]

"Our religion is tolerant, merciful, and all those nice things, but there is no such thing as tolerance towards what is wrong. What do they do with a killer anywhere in the world? Do they caress, hug, and kiss him? Or do they kill him, or at least sentence him to life in prison? The killer should be killed. He should be sentenced to death. Don't we have the death sentence? It exists in all the laws in the world.

"Doesn't that constitute cruelty, violence, even terrorism? 'No,' they say – 'not at all. It is in order to reduce crime. The crime he committed is worse than his punishment.' Well, we have such a thing as well. We have a punishment for apostates. There are people who deserve such a punishment. What is the difference? Why do you have reservations when it happens here, but are pleased about it when it happens over there? Why don't you tell them, in America and Europe, to ban capital punishment, to ban life terms, and to shut down Guantanamo? In Guantanamo there are torture methods that do not exist anywhere in the world, except in Egypt. Nobody tops them but our own security agencies." […]

SOURCE: MEMRI

© 1998-2012, The Middle East Media Research Institute All Rights Reserved.

The following are excerpts from the sermon, which was posted December 29, 2011 on the Muslim Brotherhood website ikhwanonline.com:

"Praise be to Allah, and Allah's prayer and peace be upon the Messenger of Allah and his Companions.

"A sensible man must set a goal and a great purpose for himself to achieve, so that he may gain happiness in whatever he aspires to do, in this world or in the next or in both... What applies to an individual also applies to a group, and indeed to the nation as a whole. A group or a nation becomes enlightened and serious once it sets a goal and a great purpose [for itself] and strives to achieve it in the easiest, shortest and most direct manner.

"Our generous Prophet set us the greatest of examples by never wavering in his determination to achieve his goal, no matter how tough it got or how much his enemies conspired against him, and no matter how connivers tried to tempt him... He said 'I swear in the name of Allah that, [even] if they [promise to] place the sun on my right and the moon on my left if I give up Islam, I will  not desist from it until Allah makes it triumphant or else I die defending it.'

"The Muslim nation followed this example in [carrying out] its first mission, that is to say, in [spreading] the call to [worship] Allah – [a call] that guides the perplexed to their true Lord, educates the human race, elevates morals and conduct, promotes virtue and perseverance,  [and teaches] to resist obstacles and to cleave to the truth.

"This [mission] was followed by a blessed migration [hijra] to a good land [Medina], where [the Prophet found] sincere helpers, and later by the establishment of a rightly-guided state based on truth and justice. Then came [the stage of] defending this great religion and spreading its message throughout the world...

"[Our] Long-Term Goal... Involves Changing and Transforming All the Exiting Conditions, So that the Islamic State and the Law of the Koran May Live Again"

"In our modern age, the Muslim Brotherhood launched its call [to Islam] in attempt to guide the nation and reawaken it, so as to bring it back to its [former] status and to its mission after a long period of backwardness and lethargy. At the Sixth [Muslim Brotherhood] Congress, [Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan] Al-Bana, defined two goals for [our] blessed organization: '... [One is] an immediate goal, which becomes evident and yields fruits as soon as a person joins the Brotherhood. It starts with purifying the soul, amending behavior, and preparing the spirit, the mind and the body for a long struggle... [The second goal is] a long-term goal, which requires utilizing opportunities, waiting for the right time, making preparations and planning in advance. It [entails] a total reform of all domains of life, in which all the nation's forces should participate, and [also] involves changing and transforming all the exiting conditions, so that the Islamic state and the law of the Koran may live again...'

"Al-Bana set out the stages and detailed the means by which this great goal [might be achieved], starting by reforming the individual, followed by building the family, the society and the government, and then the rightly guided Caliphate, and finally [achieving] mastership of the world – a mastership of guidance, instruction, truth and justice. [Al-Bana] explained that all these purposes and goals, having been defined and clarified, must be realized through earnest, persistent and gradual effort, through unity of ranks [not division], by persuasion, not coercion, and by love, not by force. [We] must be steadfast in [our] course, no matter obstacles, hardships, traps or conspiracies [we encounter].

"In the same message, [Al-Bana] said further: 'The formation of nations, education of peoples, realization of hopes, and struggle for principles require the nation attempting this, or the groups calling for this, to possess great spiritual strength, manifest in several qualities: a strong will immune to all weakness; steadfast loyalty resistant to all change and treachery, and [readiness for] noble sacrifice unhindered by greed or avarice. [Also],  full knowledge and faith in the principles... which make one immune to error and to deviation from [the principles] and immune to bargaining about them or trading them for other [ideas].'"

"The Goal of the Revolution... [Is the Establishment of] a Parliament that Truly Represents the People... with the Participation of All the Political Forces and Social Sectors [in Egypt]"

"In our blessed revolutions in this Arab Spring, the rebelling people's resolve – [namely their adherence] to clearly defined, agreed upon goals which they refused to give up – was a major factor in the [successful] realization of their [wish] to eliminate the unjust regime, the oppressive rulers, and the entire system of corruption which lay heavily upon our country, causing it to decay and to regress [by] robbing its resources and blocking its progress. We came close to realizing [the even greater] purpose of setting up a just and rightly guided regime with all its institutions. Our enemies and opponents try, whether deliberately or not, to stop us or to preoccupy us with marginal struggles, using arguments that are dazzling but false, by which they rend the nation asunder and drown it in futile debates... So much so that [the country] is being dragged into various battles and confrontations, even to the [point of] spilling of pure, innocent blood. [The purpose] of all this is to stop the progress, abort the revolution, and detract us from our great purpose and defined goals. However, with Allah's grace and with the blessing of the [Muslim Brotherhood Shura] Council, we shall continue persistently on our path in order to achieve the goals of the nation.

"The goal of the revolution, for which it strives, is to crystallize the forces of our millions-strong nation into a parliament that truly represents the people, and which will launch the process of establishing the institutions of the rightly guided state and government – a state of liberty and equality and a government of truth and justice – with the participation of all the political forces and social sectors [in the country]. We advise ourselves, our brethren, and our associates in the country not become mired in marginal battles or futile polemics, and not to let our enemies lead us into torturous paths in order to sidetrack us from our great goals and noble purposes... We also warn against attempts... to split up the united ranks [of the nation] and drive a wedge between young and old, men and women, Muslims and Christians, and [different religious] schools and groups. We need all the potential and expertise of the nation, [both] the enthusiasm and strength of the young and the wisdom and experience of the old... [We must be] united by sincere love, dedication, trust and common purpose. Let us heed the words of our martyred leader [Hassan Al-Bana] in his address to the loyal members, both young and old: 'You must restrain the misguided wanderings of emotion with rational thinking, while [letting] the flame of emotion light up the radiance of reason. You should temper [your] imagination with the accuracy of truth and realty, while [letting] the light of imagination illuminate the facts. Do not completely turn away [from either one or the other]. [Also,] do not fight the ways of the world because they are overpowering. [Instead], try to overcome them, use them, change their course, and pit some of them against others...'"

SOURCE: MEMRI

© 1998-2012, The Middle East Media Research Institute All Rights Reserved

The idea of negotiating with the Taliban is not new. Talks, as distinct from negotiations, in which specific terms are hammered out, have gone on for some time now. Several previous attempts have ended in failure, including one instance when the supposed representative proved to be a fraud. However, according to the Times report, the negotiations took on a degree of specificity last summer. They began in November 2010, initiated by a man named Tayyab Agha, who claimed to speak for Mullah Omar. The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama regards authenticating the present offer as unimportant and the intermediary as having authority; the question on the table is the release of Taliban captives as a token of American seriousness.

The Taliban see themselves as already having made a major concession. Their original demand was the complete withdrawal of Western forces from Afghanistan as a precondition for negotiations. The talks have continued in spite of the U.S. refusal to comply. The Taliban shifted their position to a very specific timetable for withdrawal, something Panetta may have been hinting at last week, though not on a timetable to the Taliban's liking. Two more years of combat operations -- not to mention an unspecified time in which U.S. special operations forces will continue working in Afghanistan -- is a long time. In addition, the United States has not delivered on the release of the Taliban, an issue that has not emerged as a campaign issue in the U.S. presidential election.

Still, U.S. operations have become less aggressive. This is in part due to the season: It is winter in Afghanistan, a time of year when large-scale operations are not practical in many areas. At the same time, we are not seeing the level of operations we have seen in previous winters after Obama increased the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. This in part reflects a realization of the limits of U.S. military power in Afghanistan. Regardless of the motive, the Taliban interpret it as a signal -- and it is understood in Washington as a signal, too.

The Pakistani-Taliban Channel

To get negotiations going, the United States had to reach two conclusions. The first was that negotiations could not happen without Pakistani involvement. U.S. accusations that current and former military figures in Pakistan maintained close ties with the Taliban undoubtedly were true. Conversely, this meant Pakistan represented a clear channel the United States could use to reach the Taliban. That channel permitted the Obama administration to conclude that it had no hope of meaningfully dividing the Taliban.

Certainly, the Taliban are an operationally diffuse group. Even so, Mullah Omar is at their center, with the political operatives surrounding him representing the political office of the Taliban. The line of communications with the Taliban runs through Pakistan and terminates with Mullah Omar. This means that U.S. hopes of splitting the Taliban politically and conducting factional negotiations are not realistic. Particularly after a series of attacks and suicide bombings in Kabul last fall, it also became apparent that the United States would not be able to manage negotiations at arm's length using Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his advisers as the primary channel.

The Pakistanis and the Taliban also had to face certain realities. The Taliban had claimed that the United States and its allies in Afghanistan had lost. This underpinned their demand for an immediate U.S. withdrawal; their offer to permit this without harassment was made under the assumption that the United States had a defeated military force at risk.

The reality was that, while the United States had not won the war in Afghanistan and in all likelihood could not defeat the Taliban militarily, it was far from defeated. The United States remained, and remains, able to conduct operations in Afghanistan as and where it wishes. The Taliban have not reached the point where they can operationally defeat the forces arrayed against them. Where large Western forces exist, the Taliban must decline combat and disengage or be annihilated. As important, there is no overwhelming pressure from the American public to withdraw -- something not true of some U.S. allies. However, in this election, Obama is likely to be challenged by candidates supporting his position in Afghanistan or wanting a more aggressive stance. Mitt Romney, for example, not only rejected the idea of releasing Taliban fighters, but also said in response to a question that his strategy in Afghanistan was to "beat them."

The United States could hypothetically remain in Afghanistan indefinitely given the current cost and force structure. But we would argue that defeating a guerrilla force with sanctuary and support across the border in Pakistan, an excellent intelligence capability and units able to operate independently is unlikely. But neither, for that matter, can the Taliban defeat the coalition forces.

Stalemate in Afghanistan

This makes for a stalemate, one the Americans hope to solve by creating an Afghan state under Karzai and a security and military force able and willing to engage the Taliban. As I have argued in the past, the core problem with this plan is the same problem that existed during the Vietnamization phase of the Vietnam War. The Afghan military must recruit troops, and some of the most eager volunteers will be Taliban operatives. These operatives will be indistinguishable from anti-Taliban soldiers, and their presence will have two consequences. First, the intelligence they will provide the Taliban will cause the Afghan army offensive to fail. Second, shrewd use of these operatives will undermine the cohesion and morale of the Afghan forces. Surprise is crucial in locating, engaging and destroying a guerrilla force. Afghan security forces will face the same problem the South Vietnamese army did; namely, they will lack the element of surprise and at least some of their units will be unreliable.

Accordingly, the U.S. strategy of using the stalemate to construct a capable military force accordingly looks unlikely to succeed even leaving aside the issue of the fragmentation of the Afghan nation and the Karzai government's internal problems. The Taliban are intimately familiar with the U.S. dilemma and are positioned to choose from two strategies. One is to increase their tempo of operations and so increase American casualties prior to the November elections. But this strategy would see Taliban casualties increase even more dramatically, and its impact on the elections would be unclear to say the least. The Taliban are more likely to pursue the second strategy, which involves accepting the stalemate and permitting the United States to try to build an Afghan military.

Like the Taliban, the United States is aware of the difficulty of building an Afghan army. It also understands that deploying troops in Afghanistan is unlikely to lead anywhere. It does not have to flee defeat in Afghanistan, but there are strategic reasons for leaving, beginning with the fact that the military situation is about as satisfactory as it likely ever will be. Improving the situation would incur costs without yielding anything like victory. With the United States reducing its military budget, serious issues emerging in Iran and throughout the Arab World, and a new emphasis by the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force on the Pacific, the world is moving on. A violent yet frozen conflict in Afghanistan simply does not benefit the United States.

This, of course, leaves a crucial question: Will Afghanistan become a base for al Qaeda or follow-on transnational jihadist groups in the event of a U.S. withdrawal? It is true that these groups can form anywhere, but the fact is that they did form in Afghanistan while Mullah Omar was in charge. The negotiators undoubtedly have promised that, in exchange for withdrawal, they will take responsibility for suppressing jihadist elements. But trusting the Taliban, or trusting those in Pakistan who took violent offense at the killing of Osama bin Laden, poses obvious risks for the United States. In truth, it does not increase the risk much: Afghanistan is not necessary for the jihadists, but it is naturally fragmented and the threat of its re-emergence as a sanctuary is always there. Even so, the issue will remain a sticking point in the negotiations. The United States will want a residual force to deal with the jihadist threat, something the Taliban and Pakistan will oppose.

The Pakistani Role

In this sense, the negotiations really come down to Pakistan and the burden it is willing to undertake in the event of a U.S. withdrawal.

The United States does not trust the Taliban or many of those Pakistani officials speaking to and for the Taliban. But the United States also knows two things. First, that the future of Afghanistan is of fundamental interest to Pakistan. Instability or Indian or Iranian influence in Pakistan is not in Pakistan's interest. Therefore, the Pakistanis will play a leading role in Afghanistan as they did after the end of the Soviet occupation. Second, the United States knows that India remains Pakistan's major adversary. The Pakistanis have tried to play the China card to make the United States nervous about Pakistan. But the fact is that the Chinese People's Liberation Army does not have the training and logistics to support Pakistan against India, and the last thing Pakistan wants is a large Chinese military deployment in Pakistan. Indeed, that is the last thing China wants.

The issue over time will boil down to this: The United States will want a coalition government in which Taliban elements take Cabinet positions in the current structure of the Karzai regime. The Taliban will want an entirely new government in which elements of the existing power structure (Karzai has promised not to seek a third term when his current one ends in 2014) might have a position but that would be an altogether new regime. In either case, the Taliban assume, as the North Vietnamese assumed a generation ago, that a political settlement followed by a U.S. withdrawal would, after a "decent interval," result in a Taliban-dominated regime.

Ultimately, the United States could remain in Afghanistan indefinitely and there is nothing the Taliban could do about it. But the United States cannot defeat the Taliban. The Taliban have nowhere to go and no desire to leave. The United States has other issues to attend to and no overriding strategic interest in Afghanistan. From the American point of view, its presence in Afghanistan does not reduce Islamist threats to the homeland but it does absorb military resources.

What the United States is engaged in now, as it was in 1971, is the complex process of crafting a political path from the current situation to the inevitable end. This isn't easy, since the manner in which the United States withdraws will influence its position in the region as much as its indefinite presence would. This is why the administration is so eager to pursue the current initiative and prepared to release prisoners as a gesture. It is also why the Taliban will accept a coalition government for a while, and why Pakistan will make and likely honor guarantees.

However this war is brought to an end will be a complex and time-consuming process, during which the fighting will continue. But then the how is never trivial in ending a war.

SOURCE: Stratfor

Stratfor is a subscription-based provider of geopolitical analysis. Individual and corporate subscribers gain a thorough understanding of international affairs, including what’s happening, why it’s happening, and what will happen next.

Two little words come to mind.  And neither of them is “thanks.”                                                                                                          

That’s precisely what happened this week, when Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced via the Washington Post that “there is a strong likelihood that Israel will strike Iran in April, May or June – before Iran enters what Israelis described as a ‘zone of immunity’ to commence building a nuclear bomb.”  What was the point of spilling the beans?  To scuttle the attack, of course.  According to the Post, “President Obama and Panetta are said to have cautioned the Israelis that the United States opposes an attack, believing that it would derail an increasingly successful international economic sanctions program and other non-military efforts to stop Iran from crossing the threshold.”

This has become pattern for the Obama Administration.  Back in June 2010, you’ll recall, the London Times reported that the Saudi Arabians had cut a deal with the Israelis to allow them to use Saudi airspace for a strike on Iran.  Where did the Times learn this?  According to the Jerusalem Post, “The report cited a US defense source as saying the Saudis have already done tests to ensure no jet is shot down in the event of an Israeli attack.  The source added that the U.S. State Department is aware of the agreement.”

Well, isn’t that odd – two blown secrets, two references to the U.S. Defense Department.

The real problem isn’t just the blown secret, of course.  It’s the signal it sends to the Iranian regime.  By letting the cat out of the bag, the United States has signaled to the Iranians that the Israelis are on their own – that the Israelis are in fact a rogue state operating outside the bounds of conventional international politics.  By signaling open opposition to the Israelis defending themselves, the Obama Administration has demonstrated to the Iranians in crystalline fashion that even if Iran develops weapons, and even if the Iranians hand those weapons off to a terrorist group for use against Israel, America may stand idly by.

There is an obvious question here: why?  Why is the Obama Administration so intent on stopping an Israeli attack on the Iranian nuclear facilities?

There are three answers.  The first is ideological, the second political, the third electoral.

First, the ideological.  President Obama believes that he is a global leader, and that in order to be viewed as a global leader, he must play “honest broker” between America’s allies and her enemies.  That means that if Israel has covert nuclear weapons, Iran might as well have them too – for the sake of fairness, you understand.  Obama has made every effort throughout his tenure to reach out to Islamists across the Middle East, from Tunisia to Libya to Iraq to Egypt to Afghanistan – and he has succeeded in empowering Islamists to attack Western interests across the region.  In Obama’s “world citizen” view, this is a good thing: if America is willing to subsume her own interests in favor of the interests of others, Obama believes, such international altruism will bear the fruits of peace.

Second, the political.  There is something bizarre about using the Defense Department as a leak-source for anti-Israel activity.  Typically, the Arabist State Department is all too happy to undermine Israel; the Defense Department, which works closely with the Israelis, is the friend of Israel in the room.  But Obama has a political problem: he’s seen as weak.  That means he must use the Defense Department as a tool for his pusillanimous foreign policy.  Ripping the steel out of the Defense Department’s spine has become a mission for the Administration; if Obama can get the Defense Department to fall in line behind him, he can look the hawk while playing the dove.

Finally, the electoral.  Wonder why Panetta said Israel might attack in April, May, or June?  Why not July, August, September?  The answer’s obvious: Obama is hoping to delay an Israeli strike for several months.  If it does happen close to the election, he’ll back Israel’s play to make a stab at the Jewish vote in Florida.  It would create a rally-round-the-flag situation for many Americans close to November 6 – a perfect storm for Obama.

All of these considerations undoubtedly came into play.  Only one consideration did not: the safety and security of America’s strongest ally in the Middle East.  That was a minor matter for Obama and his cronies.  After all, when you’re president of the world, what does a few hundred thousand Jews matter here or there?

SOURCE: FrontPage Magazine

Ben Shapiro is an attorney and writer and a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, and author of the new book “Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How The Left Took Over Your TV” from Broadside Books, an imprint of HarperCollins.

Sicily is, of course, a highly symbolic location for Italy's multiculturalists, who often tout the island as the quintessential interfaith utopia. Never mind that Christians and Jews were famously persecuted during the two centuries that Sicily was dominated by Muslim rule.

The Muslim occupation of Sicily came to an end in 1222, when the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II de-Islamicized the island in response to an ill-conceived revolt by Ibn Ibbad, the last Emir of Sicily.

Muslims began returning en masse in the 1970s, thanks to immigration from North Africa and the Middle East. They also began building mosques.

In 1980, Catania, a city on the eastern coast of Sicily, became home to Italy's first modern mosque. Also known as the Omar mosque, the mosque in Catania was financed by Libya's Muammar Gaddafi.

The Catania mosque was followed by the mosque in Segrate near Milan (1988), and run by the Muslim brotherhood. This was followed by the mega-mosque in Rome (1994), financed by Saudi Arabia.

The Mosque of Rome, which can accommodate more than 12,000 people, is one of the largest mosques in Europe. The imam of the mosque, an Egyptian Islamist unable to speak Italian, was suspended after preaching Jihad to Rome's 90,000 Muslims.

Fast forward to 2012: there are now an estimated 500 mosques in Italy, not to mention thousands of informal Islamic prayer centers and Koranic schools, most of which are housed in basements, garages and warehouses.

Many of the mosque projects in Italy have been promoted by leftwing politicians, who are waging an ideological war with the Roman Catholic Church. As in many other European countries, multiculturalists in Italy hope that by promoting Islam, they will eventually succeed in destroying the country's Judeo-Christian heritage.

Not surprisingly, most Italians are opposed to the idea of turning Italy into an Islamic republic. Polls show that many Italians view mosques as a "symbol of occupation" and more than a third do not want a mosque in their neighborhood.

Public backlash over the construction of mosques picked up steam in 2006, when the multicultural mayor of Colle di Val d'Elsa, a picturesque Tuscan town situated on the road between Florence and Siena, decided his town would be the perfect location for Italy's second-biggest mosque.

The town council, dominated by leftwing do-gooders, donated the land for the mosque, which is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. Funding to the tune of €500,000 ($650,000) came from Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the oldest bank in Italy.

Local residents were livid and have repeatedly succeeded in postponing the opening of the mosque. The activism prompted citizens in other parts of Italy to block the construction of dozens of new mosques in towns and cities across the country.

In 2007, the mayor of the northern Italian city Bologna postponed the construction of a mega-mosque (described as a "massive 6,000 square meter mosque inside a 52,000 square meter Islamic citadel") after it emerged that it was being financed by L'Unione delle Comunità e Organizzazioni Islamiche in Italia (UCOII), the largest Muslim Brotherhood organization in Italy.

After it came to light that an estimated 60% of the mosques in Italy are controlled either directly or indirectly by the Muslim Brotherhood, Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni called for a moratorium on the building of new mosques until a new national law could be written to regulate the phenomenon.

According to Manes Bernardini, a politician with the Northern League in Bologna, "Mosques are springing up like mushrooms, and mayors can do nothing about it because there is no national law to regulate the proliferation of these structures."

After years of complaints from local residents, the Italian government in July 2008 ordered the closure of theinfamous Viale Jenner mosque in central Milan. Thousands of Muslims attending Friday prayers spilled out onto the streets, creating an "unsustainable situation."

Although the mosque's imam, the Egyptian-born Abu Imad, was jailed on terrorism charges in April 2010, the mosque remains open.

In another act of defiance described by some as "an incredible provocation," more than 5,000 Muslim immigrants occupied the central piazza in front of the Duomo of Milan to pray toward Mecca.

According to Mario Borghezio, an Italian MEP, "The prayer to Allah recited by thousands of fanatical Muslims is an act of intimidation, a slap in the face for the city of Milan, which must remain Christian."

Many Muslims do not see it that way. In 2010, a group calling itself the Association of Italian Muslim Sisters sponsored a conference called "Islam in Italy: Fulfilling the Prophecy" which focused on Islamic eschatology and the belief that Islam will one day conquer Rome.

Another reason Italy's anti-mosque activism is unlikely to succeed over the long-term is that Italy no longer has enough Italians.

Speaking at a conference in Rome in July 2011, Emma Bonino, a leftwing Italian politician and militant euthanasia activist who founded the Milan-based Information Center on Sterilization and Abortion, said (without a hint of irony) that in order "to respond to the demographic decline, Italy will need at least 260,000 immigrants per year over the next ten years, almost three million new immigrants by 2020."

Most of these new immigrants will be Muslims.

SOURCE: STONEGATE Institute

Soeren Kern is Senior Fellow for Transatlantic Relations at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him on Facebook.

The new People's Assembly includes 10 women (2%), two of whom were appointed by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) as part of its right to nominate 10 of the Assembly members (2%). As for Coptic candidates, six were elected to the People's Assembly and another five were appointed by the SCAF.[3]

Tally Sheet for "Revolutionary Parliament" Elections[4]

It should be noted that the legitimacy of the elections is under heavy suspicion, due to allegations of massive electoral fraud involving millions of votes, which are currently being reviewed by the Egyptian court. These claims are not about sporadic cases of fraud in various localities, though complaints of this sort are being investigated as well. The allegations of massive fraud were filed by eight candidates from different precincts, who demanded to annul the elections on the grounds that the number of votes cast was higher than the number of eligible voters as published by Egypt's Supreme Elections Committee and by the Central Bureau of Statistics. According to the appellants, there is a discrepancy of 2-12 million votes. The fraud was perpetrated, they said, by repeating the names of thousands of eligible voters in the electronic database, thus allowing the same people to vote at different polling stations up to 32 times.[5] The Egyptian court has not yet ruled on the allegations, which will be discussed in a separate MEMRI report.

The following report will examine the causes underlying the election results:

The Muslim Brotherhood – A Success Story

The sweeping victory of the MB's Freedom and Justice party comes as no surprise. The MB is a veteran social movement which for years has provided community services to Egypt's poor and middle class. It successfully filled gaps in public needs which the Mubarak regime failed to address satisfactorily, gradually taking over the country's civil society. The MB's involvement in politics began unofficially as early as the 1970s, and it enjoys a firm hold on a large number of the country's trade unions.

In fact, as part of his campaign against Egypt's extreme jihadi elements, Mubarak occasionally permitted MB activity and the dissemination of its more moderate ideology, despite its status as an illegal movement. At the same time, he prevented the growth of any true opposition within parliament, thereby allowing the MB to become the best-organized and strongest extra-parliamentary opposition force in the country. Egyptian publicist 'Abd Al-Mun'im Mounib wrote that by the time Mubarak understood the ramifications of the situation he had enabled, "the MB's organizational and political strength, and its abstention from violence, denied the regime the possibility of employing the same violence against [the MB] that it used against the jihadis... The Mubarak regime understood that it was no longer possible to eradicate the MB from the political map in Egypt, though it did occasionally pressure this movement with arrests and trials. The MB thus continued to develop its organizational, da'wa, and political abilities, while scrupulously avoiding any decisive conflict with the regime..."[6]

The MB's Freedom and Justice party is regarded positively by many Egyptians today, as representing a nonviolent, relatively moderate, and centrist stream compared to the ultra-conservative Salafis.[7] Its ability to convey an image combining religious authenticity with modern progress, and to use Islamic sources to justify Western norms such as democracy, human rights, and minority rights, has won it widespread support. In an era of aversion to anything reminiscent of the toppled Mubarak regime, the MB is seen as this regime's antithesis and its uncompromising opponent. This gives it an advantage over traditional oppositionist forces, which have a long-standing reputation of being oppositionist in name only.

The MB's success can be attributed especially to its adaptability, pragmatism, and opportunism over the years, and in particular since the January 2011 revolution. Its messages to the public, which are propagated efficiently through the various media outlets and on the internet, are catchy and unifying, but at the same time they are vague, giving no clear indication of how the country would look under MB rule. The messages are also variable, changing to suit circumstances and interests. For instance, the MB party has struck from its platform clauses that met with public criticism when they were first published in 2007, such as clauses barring women and Copts from serving as president, a clause on establishing a clerical body dealing with legislation, and a clause on obligating tourists to adhere to Islamic custom.[8]

Moreover, the MB leadership's tactic of assuring the public on the eve of the elections, e.g., by declaring that the movement had no desire to monopolize the government or the parliament, or to field a presidential candidate, but rather wished to advance a coalition government representing all of society's factions, gained the Freedom and Justice party further credence. The MB reinforced this impression by running for parliament as part of a coalition with other parties from all ends of the political spectrum, including the left and liberal streams.[9]

The MB's robust organizational and propaganda mechanisms in Egypt's rural towns and governorates allowed its party to field candidates in most of the country's election zones. In addition, the MB enjoys diverse sources of funding, including monthly membership fees and large donations from businessmen and other wealthy supporters. Some claim that the movement also receives funding from other Arab countries, chiefly Qatar,[10] though Qatar and the MB leadership have denied this.

Though the elections were considered fair compared to those held in previous years, human rights organizations that oversaw them filed hundreds of complaints with Egypt's courts over the MB's alleged employment of religious propaganda and slogans, provision of transportation services to voters, payment of election bribes, and the lack of legal oversight at some of the polling stations. It was also claimed that veiled women had been allowed to vote without being required to identify themselves. The MB responded by leveling similar accusations at its political rivals, especially at the Egyptian Bloc coalition and the Salafis.[11]

The MB's intensive religious activity must not be overlooked as a factor in its popularity. In an article published on the MB website, titled "Why Did the Islamists Succeed and the Liberals Lose?" the author, Tamer Bakr, quoted one of the movement's supporters on Facebook: "The strength of the MB lies in the fact that it is striving for a goal, and that goal is to satisfy Allah and [attain] Paradise. That is why you see them investing and working as much as they can, day and night... I think they will achieve a shining success, because he whose goal is [to please] Allah will surely be granted assistance and success by [Allah]..."[12]

Egypt's "New Look"[13]

The Salafis – A Dark Horse Victory

The victory of the Salafi parties, which won over 20% of the seats in the People's Assembly after participating in the elections for the very first time, came as a surpise to many, including the Salafis themselves. This is especially true considering that the Salafis did not take part in the mass demonstrations that led to the ouster of Mubarak, but were in favor of remaining obedient to him. The secret of their success may lie precisely in the fact that they are new to Egyptian politics, leading many to give a them a chance as a stream yet untainted with failure or corruption. As part of the complex system of checks and balances Mubarak maintained vis-à-vis the MB and their rivals, the Salafis and jihadis, he granted the Salafis operational freedom in the domains of da'wa and public services in rural towns, in exchange for their obedience – particularly when he felt the MB was gaining too much strength.

The Salafi movements have always focused most of their efforts on activitiy in mosques, hence their success in enlisting grassroots support, thanks to which they were able to quickly become a real political force after the revolution. This success, like that of the MB, is ultimately a result of the Salafis' ties to the Egyptian street, and their response to the needs of the Egyptian population in the domains of religion, welfare, education, and health, and provision of services to the poor, elderly, and orphans (their activity in these domain began in the 1920s and has intensified since the 1970s). Following the revolution, the Salafi parties had the sense to unite into a single coalition, which facilitated their impressive entry into the political arena.

Some attribute the success of the MB and the Salafis to the diminished status of Al-Azhar, due to its longstanding dependency on the Egyptian regime.[14] Though Al-Azhar has played an important role since the revolution by serving as common ground for the country's rival political groups, it has nevertheless suffered from competition with the charismatic preachers of the Salafi stream. The latter enjoy widespread popularity, appearing on a number of Salafi satellite TV channels, such as Al-Nas, Al-Rahma and Al-Hikma, which were licensed by the Mubarak regime in 2006 and have widely propagated Salafi da'wa. Understanding the danger posed by these channels, Mubarak shut them down shortly before his ouster, but following the revolution, they soon came back on the air. It should be noted that the Mubarak regime never allowed the MB to operate a TV channel.[15]

In any case, there is no doubt that the Salafis' success is due in part to the religious propaganda they employ. Their preachers have claimed that the Salafi victory was foretold in the Koran, and some have accused their political opponents of apostasy.[16]Likewise, a number of fatwas were released obligating the believers to vote for the Salafi parties and forbidding them to vote for secular, liberal, or Coptic candidates,[17] based on the religious duty to support the establishment of a religious state and the implementation of the shari'a.[18] As mentioned, human rights organizations that oversaw the elections filed hundreds of complaints with Egypt's courts over the illegal use of religious propganda and slogans at and around the polling stations, especially by members of the MB and Al-Nour parties.[19]

Lebanese cartoon shows "Egyptian parliament" composed solely of bearded Islamists[20]

Complaints were also filed over election bribes in the form of money, gifts, food, and cellular phones, allegedly paid to obtain votes for the Al-Nour party. Other complaints charged that Al-Nour members removed their adversaries' voting slips from some of the voting booths.[21] In addition, the Salafis, like the MB, have been accused of receiving funding from foreign countries, especially from the Gulf – a charge they have denied.

The Defeat of the Liberals and Left

Salah 'Issa, editor of the weekly Al-Kahira, explained that the liberals had only had a small chance in the parliamentary elections to begin with, due to their inability to compete with the religious and sectarian propaganda of their Islamist rivals: "The main reason for the liberals' failure is that these elections are not even political, but rather religious and sectarian. The liberal parties, though politically capable, are unable to play this sectarian or religious game. The people gave their voice to the [Muslim] Brotherhood and the Salafis based on their religious affiliation, and did not give heed to the [full range of] existing political blocs..."[22]

In general, the liberal, left, and Coptic streams suffer from a negative public image. They are seen as aloof, elitist, and Westernized, seen more on TV than among the public in the streets. Their discourse is largely above the layman and cannot compete with the magnetism of the religious discourse. Dr. Osama Ghazali Harb, founder of the liberal Democratic Front party – which did not reach the minimum threshold in the elections – explained that Egypt's high rate of poverty and ignorance made it difficult for non-religious slogans to take root in the hearts of voters.[23]

The liberals vs. the Islamists in Egypt[24]

Moreover, the veteran parties in the country, such as Al-Wafd and Tagammu', are seen as tainted with the corruption that characterized the Mubarak regime, and as oppositionist only in name. The fact that some of their candidate lists included former members of the Mubarak regime did not help to alter this conception. Ultimately, these parties, which also suffered internal disputes, failed to renew themselves in the spirit of the revolution and to capture the hearts of the Egyptian people.[25]

The weakness of Egypt's left-wing parties seems to reflect a global trend that has persisted since the fall of the Soviet Union. The decline of socialist ideologies and the concurrent rise of neo-liberal capitalism has increased economic polarity and strengthened religious elements in society, which took the place of the socialists as a refuge for Egypt's extensive low-income populations. Dr. Muhammad Al-Sa'id Dawir, of the left-wing party Tagammu', explained that the ongoing decline of the Egyptian left was due to "the collapse of the world socialist bloc and the increase of socio-cultural pressure exerted by the forces of political Islam upon the ummah's consciousness. Added to this pressure was the craving for economic openness, which is organic to world imperialism, and the poor internal administration of the socialist and progressive organizations and parties in Egypt. All these harmed the Egyptian left and undermined it ideologically, organizationally, and in terms of its popularity..."

According to Dawir, another reason for the left's weakness is that it merely "reacted to the ideas and plans raised by pan-Arabism, whose political forces controlled some of the Arab countries... The Egyptian left failed to propose or propagate a real plan for building [the country]. Although the socialists were willing to sacrifice and fight for their ideas, they lacked the necessary abilities... to take up public action or offer services based on the socialist approach. They are an aloof cadre that looks at the world from behind the pages of a book, and forms personal ties chiefly with members of its own school. We created for ourselves a world detached from the [real] world. Many of us settled for the power of the idea and for general programs. We severed the very hands that should have been outstretched to the masses..."[26]

Wahid 'Abd Al-Magid, columnist for the government daily Al-Ahram and coordinator for the Democratic Alliance for Egypt coalition headed by the MB, claimed that the main reason for the decline of Egypt's left was its decision to join the liberals in the debate over the identity of Egypt, while abandoning its central message of promoting social justice. He said that the left had erred in choosing to fight for Egypt's identity under the slogan of preserving the civil state, which most Egyptians interpreted as loyalty to the Mubarak regime.[27]

Another factor behind the defeat of the secular streams was their failure to form a unified front as a strong and viable alternative to the Islamist parties, even after the results of the first round of elections indicated a clear victory for the latter. The Egyptian Bloc coalition did see some success as an umbrella organization uniting the veteran left-wing party Tagammu', the Egyptian Social Democratic party, and the Free Egyptians party, which is chiefly identified with the country's Coptic minority. However, this coalition suffered after one group split off from it to form the Revolution Continues coalition, and because other non-Islamist parties failed to join it. In addition, the Bloc's affiliation with the Coptic minority facilitated its portrayal as Christian-oriented by its Islamist opponents.

The Defeat of the Revolutionary Youth

The greatest disappointment of the first post-revolution elections was that the youth parties failed to harness the momentum of protest to become an influential political force. This failure resulted from their political inexperience, in contrast to the well-oiled organizational machine of the MB, and in particular from technical reasons, including: insufficient time to organize and gain popularity on the Egyptian street; inability to fund an effective political campaign; and Egypt's multitude of voting districts, which made it difficult for the youth's propaganda to reach all areas of the country. In essence, it seems the youth parties wasted much of their energy and resources on efforts to postpone the elections until after the redrafting of the constitution, instead of focusing on preparing for the elections.

From the January 25 Youth blog[28]

Moreover, the revolutionary youth did not rally around a united charismatic leadership, nor did they succeed in coalescing into a single representative body. The mutliplicity of political groups purporting to represent the voice of Al-Tahrir Square led to a diffusion and division of power, and gave rise to sham groups that ultimately undermined those with real potential. For the most part, Egypt's larger parties did not endorse the youth protest movements, and when they did, the youth candidates were placed last on the party lists. The youth parties themselves pinned their failure on the mentality of the Egyptian voters, who they said still voted according to family ties and narrow interests, and on the official media, which they said had waged a propaganda campaign against the protestors, portraying them as the cause behind the country's economic crisis.

Ideologically, the youth parties' campaigns drew mainly on revolutionary slogans, without presenting an actual program for development and progress in either domestic or foreign policy.[29] Throughout the elections, the youth kept up their protest in Al-Tahrir Square against the SCAF, but failed to get the latter to hand over the government to civilian hands or to effect substantial changes in accordance with their demands.

'Ali Al-Sayyed, columnist for the Egyptian daily Al-Masri Al-Yawm, wrote: "The revolution happened, but the revolutionaries lost. Those who gained are the streams and groups for whom the revolution was an impossible or forbidden notion. The youth lost because the media placed on them a burden they could not bear and put them in situations unsuitable to them. 'The big boys' left them [to protest] in the square so they themselves would be free to rake in the political spoils. [The youth] lost because the political elders led them astray..."[30]

Deal between military and Islamists comes at the expense of the revolutionary youth[31]

Disappointing Results for Women Candidates

According to data published by the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights, 984 women applied for candidacy in the elections, the greatest number in Egypt's history. However, women attained only 10 seats in the People's Assembly (2% of the house). This result occurred despite the major role played by women in the demonstrations that led to Mubarak's ouster, and despite the high turnout among women voters. Explaining the reasons for the disappointing results, the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights stated that many women had withdrawn their candidacy at the last moment in protest over the takeover of party lists by former NDP members, and also out of fear of the Islamists, and because some parties had demanded they pay to be included on their lists.[32]

It should be noted that in the era of president Anwar Sadat, 30 seats in parliament were reserved for women. A constitutional amendment passed in 2009, under Mubarak, raised this number to 64 seats, but this clause was not in effect during the recent elections due to the suspension of the constitution. During these elections, the law required each party to include only one woman on its list, and these candidates were usually placed last.

The members of the Al-Nour Party list (the woman candidate, on the bottom left, is represented by an empty  frame)[33]

Columnist Sa'id Abu Sha'ban wrote in the daily Al-Ahram: "[The results] are a blow to Egyptian women, a setback after a struggle that started nearly nine decades ago, in 1925... The parties and other political forces still place women behind the scenes... This situation does not result from the rise of conservative [political] streams, but from the character of [Egyptian] society, and the conservative approach that prevails in most sectors and regions, which are still controlled by tribal and family frameworks that are essentially patriarchical..."[34]

Appendix: The Larger Parties Elected to the People's Assembly

Following is a list of the main parties that won seats in the People's Assembly in the recent elections:

1. The Democratic Alliance for Egypt

The Democratic Alliance for Egypt is a coaltion of parties, chief of which is the Freedom and Justice party, the political wing of the MB. The coalition began with more than 30 parties, headed by the MB and the veteran Al-Wafd party, in an attempt to form a wide front of political streams. In the months following the revolution, it was joined by the Salafi parties, but these as well as Al-Wafd dropped out of the coalition in response to the preferential treatment it showed the MB. Apart for the Freeom and Justice Party, the coalition was left with 10 parties, most of them new. The most well-known of these is the Ghad Al-Thawra party, headed by Ayman Nour; the Nasserite Al-Karama party, headed by former People's Assembly member Hamdin Subahi; and the Al-'Amal Al-Masri party, a veteran Islamist-oriented socialist party headed by Magdi Ahmad Hussein.

2. Islamic Alliance

The Islamic Alliance is a coalition which fielded almost 700 candidates for the People's Assembly, running for approximately 90% of the total seats. It includes the following Salafi parties:

a.       The dominant party in the coalition is Al-Nour, headed by 'Imad 'Abd Al-Ghaffour. It was established by the Salafi Da'wa (Al-Da'wa Al-Salafiyya), one of the popular Salafi movements in Egypt today that was founded in Alexandria in the 1970s under the influence of Saudi Salafi circles and which clashed with the Mubarak regime.

Al-Nour considers the second clause of the Egyptian constitution, which defines Islam as the state religion and the principles of the Islamic shari'a as the primary source of legislation, as the regime's supreme source of authority and an overarching framework encompassing all domains – political, legislative, social, and economic. At the same time, it promises Copts freedom of religion and the freedom to be tried in accordance with their faith in matters of personal status.

The party's platform calls for reforms in education and the removal from school curricula of anything that contravenes Islam. It also calls to free Al-Azhar from dependency on the regime and to turn it into a kingpin in fostering the public awareness of the ummah. Its plan for reviving the Egyptian economy proposes that the interest-based economy be replaced by an Islamic system of collective participation in profits and production, and the establishment of an economic union among Arab and Islamic countries.[35]

b.      The Al-Asala party was established by Dr. 'Adl 'Abd Al-Maqsoud 'Afifi, who previously founded the Salafi Al-Fadila Party, and was joined by the Al-Nahda party, founded by Mamdouh Isma'il. Al-Asala defines itself as a political party with an Islamic source of authority, which strives for justice and equality in line with the principles of Islamic shari'a. It aspires to promote shari'a values, traditions, and customs, but rejects theocratic rule in the sense of clerics ruling by divine right. In its view, the second clause of the Egyptian constitution should define the dictates, rather than the principles, of theshari'a as the primary source of legislation. The party supports the right of non-Muslims to be judged according to their own beliefs on matters of personal status.

Al-Asala holds that the first step to be taken is to reform the people's hearts and minds, followed by a reform in the domains of science and education. Only then will it be time for political reforms leading to freedom from tyranny, implementation of the principle ofshura (consultation), and peaceful transfer of power. The party's platform commits to promoting freedom of opinion and respecting human rights, and supports parliamentary rule with prime ministerial and presidential elections, and the restriction of the president's authorities. It also supports the people's right to formulate laws via an elected parliament, and to change laws and the constitution if necessary, as long as there is no violation of the shari'a.

As for foreign policy, Al-Asala supports peaceful relations with other countries on the basis of mutual respect, rather than on the basis of unequal relations between a stronger party and a weaker one, and opposes signing international agreements affecting Egypt's security or financial resources without the people's consent – meaning the approval of parliament. It also demands a reassessment of many of the international economic and political agreements that discriminate against the Egyptian people. (This phrasing is commonly used to refer to the peace agreement with Israel). The platform expresses support of the Palestinian people's right to a free country, with Jerusalem as its capital, and calls for the cancellation of the superpowers' veto rights in the UN.[36]

c.       The Al-Binaa Wal-Tanmiyya party, the political wing of Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiyya, was founded by Tareq Al-Zumar, who was released from prison at the end of the Mubarak era, after serving a long sentence for his involvement in the assassination of Anwar Sadat. The party was initially banned by the Party Commission on the grounds that its platform is based on a religious foundation, which is illegal in Egypt. The supreme administrative court accepted Al-Zumar's appeal and approved the founding of the party after sections dealing with the codification of shari'a punishments were stricken from its platform.[37]

3. The Al-Wafd Party

The veteran Al-Wafd party stresses in its platform that it supports the demands of the revolution, such as cancelling the emergency law. It supports democracy based on a pluralism of parties and ideologies; respect for human rights and general freedoms; and a transition of power by free and fair elections under full legal supervision. It champions democracy grounded in the rule of law, an independent justice system, and free press and media. Furthermore, Al-Wafd believes in social justice based on fair distribution of income and minimizng societal gaps, while guaranteeing minimum wage for every citizen.

In its platform, it defines Islam as the religion of the state, and the principles of Islamicshari'a as the primary source of legislation, while supporting the right of members of other monotheistic faiths to be judged accoding to their own beliefs in matters of personal status and in internal religious affairs. Al-Wafd objects to secularism in the sense of separating religion and state, and to theocracy in the sense of a rule of clerics.

Al-Wafd wishes to restore Egypt's leading regional role in the Arab, Islamic, and African circles, and to base regional and international relations on friendship, cooperation, and mutuality, without harming Egypt's priorities and its affiliation with the Arab world. It views the Palestinian problem as one of the mainstays of Egyptian foreign policy, and advocates restoring relations with Russia and China, while reassessing relations with the US, in order to distance Egypt from dependence on foreign hegemony.[38]

4. The Egyptian Bloc Coalition

This coalition, which ran 412 candidates for the People's Assembly, was established by the left-wing Tagammu' party after it withdrew from the MB-led Democratic Alliance for Egypt, following the acceptance of the Salafi parties into the latter coalition. It champions defense of a civil, non-religious state in Egypt, and is idenitified with the Copts. (In fact, there were rumors that the Church had called on Christians to vote for it).

The coalition includes three parties:

a. The Social Democratic Egyptian party – a new liberal party with a socialist bent, which supports full adoption of democracy in politics, economics, and society, and redistribution of wealth for the benefit of workers, as part of a market economy.

a.       The veteran left-wing Tagammu' party, which was established in 1976. The party supports state defense of citizens against economic exploitation; inter-Arab solidarity; independence from Western imperialism; and democracy as a guarantee of stability and a peaceful transfer of power. It has approximately 22,000 members and is headed by Rif'at Sa'id.

b.      The Free Egyptians party – a new party founded by Coptic millionaire Naguib Sawiris, who is currently standing trial in Egypt for harming Islam after posting on the Internet pictures that were considered harmful to Muslims[39] and calling to cancel the second clause of the constitution. Sawiris' party defines itself as a civil party that champions the separation of religion from the state but not from the citizen's life. The party sees religion as part of Egypt's identity and supports respecting religious practices and Egyptian traditions and values, while preserving the rule of law, freedom of religion, and full equality among citizens, regardless of religion, gender, wealth, origin, ethnicity, or culture.[40]

5. The Al-Wasat Party

Al-Wasat was first established in early 1996, but was not officially approved by the Party Commission. In 1998, its founders established the Al-Wasat Al-Masri party with a different platform that defined it as a civil party with an Islamic source of authority, independent from the Muslim Brotherhood; however, the commission again refused to approve the party, and also refused two subsequent requests in 2004 and 2009. According to its most recent platform from 2009, Al-Wasat sees wasatiyya (the middle path) as a national cultural worldview, according to which Egypt's revival will be achieved through justice, freedom, and national self-building and self-confidence, while drawing on the Egyptian-spirited values of Arab and Islamic culture, whose characteristics will be anchored in the constitution.

According to Al-Wasat, political and constitutional reform is one of the methods for revival and a necessary condition for fulfilling the public interest and preventing foreign intervention. It supports protecting the citizen's dignity, rights, and freedoms, including freedom of press, opinion, and information, and views the people as the source of rule. It supports a separation and balance of powers, and the citizen's right to make laws according to his interests. It advocates full gender equality in public employment and in law; the freedom to establish political parties, unions, and civil organizations; and the right to peacefully protest and strike. According to Al-Wasat, citizenship is the common bond of all Egyptians, and it rejects discrimination based on religion, color, origin, or wealth, including in the right to run for president. Al-Wasat advocates respecting human rights according to tenets of the monotheistic religions and to the international treaties; freedom of religion, and full freedom of worship.

Al-Wasat supports the demands of the revolution to cancel the emergency law, to cease political arrests, and to grant freedom of action to professional and student unions. It also advocates an independent legal system, reducing the president's authority according to the constitution, and limiting his time in office to two four-year terms. It seeks economic revival by investing in the Egyptian human capital, while supporting economic freedom, but not free market economy. Al-Wasat also emphasizes education reform.

Al-Wasat views the Palestinian problem as a central issue for Egyptian national security and supports the Palestinian people's right to self-determination, the refugees' right of return, and the right to resist the occupation by every legitimate manner, including armed force. It sees the development of Sinai as another central issue for national security.[41]

6. The Revolution Continues Coalition

The Revolution Continues coalition broke away from the Egyptian Bloc coalition and lies further left in the liberal camp. It champions safeguarding the achievements of the revolution and fulfilling its goals – security, freedom, and social justice. It is made up of the Revolutionary Youth coalition and five parties: the Egyptian Stream, an Islamic youth party that broke away from the MB; the Center, Equality, and Development party; the Free Egypt party; the Popular Socialist coalition; and the Egyptian Socialist party. The coalition strives to establish a democratic state based on equal rights and banning discrimination, and on respecting civil and political rights and freedoms, especially freedom of expression, assembly, and protest. The coalition calls to promote free education and healthcare, and budgetary preference to combat poverty, while stressing Egypt's Arab identity and restoring its leading regional role.[42]

7. Parties Formed by Former NDP Members

Approximately 10 new parties were established on the ruins of the NDP, the ruling party during the Mubarak era, which was dismantled during the revolution. In addition, some former NDP members ran as independents. These parties and individuals did not form a coalition but ran separately; in fact, some of them even spread blacklists calling to avoid voting for their political rivals from the NDP. Jointly, they won fewer than 20 delegates in the People's Assembly. The parties include:

a.  The Reform and Development Party

Established by Anwar 'Ismat Sadat in 2009, it was not approved by the Party Commission until after Mubarak was ousted. It ran over 200 candidates for the People's Assembly. It supports a civil state; citizen participation in political life; fighting corruption through legisative reform; transfer of power via fair elections; determining standards of national responsibility; ensuring a life of honor for all through economic reform; and encouraging a free market economy and small-business intitiaitves. The party supports continued relations with Israel and the U.S. on the basis of equality.[43]

b.   The National Egypt Party

Founded shortly after the revolution by former NDP member Tal'at Sadat, who briefly served as speaker of the parliament before it was disbanded by the SCAF. Sadat died before the elections were held^.[44]

c.   The Freedom Party

Established in July 2011, and led by brothers Mamdouh and Mu'ataz Hassan, whose father was once a committee head in the People's Assembly. The party has some 15,000 members, especially from Upper Egypt – Qena and Luxor – and ran over 500 candidates for the People's Assembly.

d.   The Egyptian Citizen Party

Established in July 2011 and led by contractor 'Ala Hasballah, this party has some 15,000 members, including several former NPD members and ministers. It fielded over 450 candidates for the People's Assembly.[45]

e. The Union Party

Founded after the revolution by Houssam Badrawi, who served as secretary-general of the NDP during its final days and resigned one day prior to Mubarak. The party supports fighting corruption and unemployment, and strives for democracy, justice, equality, welfare, and national revival, as well as developing the Sinai and youth projects. The party ran approximately 500 candidates for the people's council.[46]

f. The Conservative Party

Established by Akmal Kortam, head of Sahara Petroleum Services Company (SAPESCO), who ran for parliament in 2010 under the NDP.[47]

8. The Al-'Adl Party

A civil liberal party that ran 167 candidates for the People's Assembly, it defines itself as a centrist alternative to the MB and as a representative of all groups in society. It supports establishing a modern, civil, and free state. It was founded by Mustafa Al-Naggar, a member of the Coalition of the Youth of the Revolution, who was once a member of the National Foundation for Change, established by Mohammad ElBaradei, and a former member of the MB. Al-'Adl ran independently in the elections, after breaking away from the Democratic Alliance for Egypt, which is headed by the MB.

Al-'Adl supports adhering to Egypt's international treaties, but rejects normalization with Israel until the Palestinian territories are restored and hostilities against them cease. It also supports the Palestinians' right to establish an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital. Political commentator 'Amr Al-Shubaki is a member of this party.

9. The Democratic Peace Party

10. This party, which is a union of several groups, was established in 2005 and is headed by Ahmad Al-Fadali. It promotes striking those clauses from the peace agreement with Israel that deal with Egyptian sovereignty and peacekeeping in Sinai; strenghtening Egypt's ties with Lebanon and Syria, and renewing Egypt's nuclear program for peaceful purposes. The party ran 27 lists for the People's Assembly.[48]

11. The Arab Egyptian Union Party

Established in April 2011 and headed by 'Amr Al-Mukhtar Samida, this party defines itself as a civil democratic party that advocates reviving Egypt's Arab character and restoring the country to a leading role in the Arab world by establishing an Arab economic bloc and developing the Arab League.[49]

*L. Lavi is a research associate at MEMRI.

SOURCE: Memri

© 1998-2012, The Middle East Media Research Institute All Rights ReservedAbout MEMRI

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) explores the Middle East through the region's media (both print and television), websites, religious sermons and school books. MEMRI bridges the language gap which exists between the West and the Middle East, providing timely translations of Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, Pashtu, Dari, Hindi, and Turkish media, as well as original analysis of political, ideological, intellectual, social, cultural, and religious trends in the Middle East.

Founded in February 1998 to inform the debate over U.S. policy in the Middle East, MEMRI is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit, 501(c)3 organization. MEMRI's headquarters are in Washington, DC, with branch offices in London, Rome, Jerusalem, Baghdad, Shanghai and Tokyo. MEMRI research and translations appear in several languages - English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Polish, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, and Hebrew.

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CHINA

AUTHORITIES AGAIN DENY FACILITY TO SHOUWANG CHURCH

January 3 (Compass Direct News) – Authorities in China again thwarted efforts by Shouwang Church to lease a worship facility at the year’s end, and the Beijing congregation again met outdoors on Sunday (Jan. 1) – resulting in the arrest of 48 members, sources said. “The church tried three times to rent three different venues, but it was all to no avail because of the authorities’ intervention,” a source close to the church told Compass. Shouwang had signed a rental contract with a new landlord on Dec. 17, but the landlord terminated the contract due to pressure from “the local police station, the housing management office and leaders of various government agencies,” church leaders announced to members on Dec. 23. Church leaders had arranged to have an indoor meeting on Sunday (Jan. 1) in a room they had leased from the Beijing Parkview Wuzhou Hotel on Dec. 17, according to a post on Shouwang’s Facebook page. But due to police interference and the cancellation of the lease, they moved to Plan B – a continuation of the outdoor worship services held every Sunday since April 10. Shouwang began meeting outdoors last year after authorities blocked their attempts to rent worship venues or use a building they had purchased for use as a church. Church leaders had hoped the situation would change early in the new year. Police detained at least 48 church members who gathered for outdoor worship on Sunday (Jan. 1), releasing 40 of them by midnight, Shouwang’s governing committee stated on its Facebook page.

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INDIA

KARNATAKA MOST DANGEROUS STATE FOR CHRISTIANS ***

January 13 (Compass Direct News) – Attacks on Christians accelerated over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays in the south Indian state of Karnataka, which was identified as the most unsafe place for the religious minority for the third consecutive year in 2011. With 49 cases of violence and hostility against Christians in 2011, Karnataka remained the state with the highest incidence of persecution, according to the Evangelical Fellowship of India’s annual report, “Battered and Bruised…” The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), which is based in Karnataka, documented at least six anti-Christian attacks between Christmas Eve 2011 and New Year’s Day. On the evening of Dec. 25, about 20 people beat Christians with stones and wooden clubs as they celebrated Christmas at a house in the Maindguri area, near Surathkal, a few miles from the city of Mangalore, in Dakshina Kannada district, according to the GCIC. The attackers, allegedly from a local extremist Hindu Jagran Vedike (Hindu Revival Forum), attacked the Christians, including women and children, indiscriminately. A 27-year-old man identified only as Joyson fractured his leg; a pastor’s wife identified as Lata, sustained chest injuries; a 29-year-old woman identified as Roshini and another woman identified as Annamma received head injuries; and a 23-year-old man identified only as Deepak broke his nasal bridge in the attack. A local Christian told Compass by phone that police arrested five of the attackers, but that they had been released on bail. The attacks on Christians in Karnataka are “shameful” and “a blot on the secular and democratic India,” GCIC President Sajan K. George said. The local government and authorities were “complicit in the persecution against Christians,” he added.

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INDIA

TENSIONS RISE IN KASHMIR AFTER ‘GUILTY VERDICT,’ FATWA

January 20 (Compass Direct News) – Christian workers are fleeing India’s Kashmir Valley after a sharia (Islamic law) court issued a “guilty” verdict against three Christian leaders, issued a fatwa against Christian schools and allegedly launched a door-to-door campaign to bring converts “back” to Islam. The court, which has no legal authority, found the Rev. Chander Mani Khanna, pastor of All Saints Church in Srinagar, Dutch Catholic missionary Jim Borst and Christian worker Gayoor Messah guilty of “luring the valley Muslims to Christianity,” The Times of India daily reported on Dec. 19. The three had already left the region apparently due to rising tensions. Headed by Kashmir Grand Mufti Bashir-ud-din Ahmad, the sharia court also “directed” the state government to take over the management of all Christian schools in the region, the daily added. “I fled with my wife and children, as I was not feeling safe in Srinagar,” a Christian worker from Kashmir told Compass on condition of anonymity. “A group of Muslims visited my house twice, threatening my parents with a social boycott if they failed to produce me.” Another source told Compass that some men had visited his family and those of his friends in Srinagar, warning that if they did not “reconvert” to Islam they would be ostracized. The source added that those who have fled may not be able to return to their homes for at least a year. Besides the “guilty verdict” against Pastor Khanna, Borst and Messa, mufti deputy Nasir-ul-Islam reportedly said an investigation against Parvez Samuel Kaul, principal of a local Christian missionary school, was underway. The court also ordered all Christian schools to teach Islam and other faiths. 

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INDIA

RECENT INCIDENTS OF PERSECUTION

January 31 (Compass Direct News) – A Hindu extremist in Adigar, Phulbani, Kandhamal district on Jan. 25 attacked a pastor’s hut and harassed his family, according to the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC). Jaleshwar Pradhan threw stones at the home of Pastor Patiba Mohan Kota while he was away, verbally abused his wife and pushed his daughters, shouting, “You Christians must not live here – it is not your land; the last time your houses were only damaged, this time all of you will be buried here,” the GCIC reported. Though damage to the house was minimal, the pastor and his family were anguishing in fear as Hindu extremists have previously tortured him physically, causing partial loss of eyesight and hearing, reported the GCIC. The pastor was among those whose houses were destroyed during anti-Christian violence in 2008. Pradhan was booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, reported the GCIC.

Karnataka – Hindu extremists from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Jan. 23 barged into a prayer meeting led by Pastor Chandrakanth Chavan of New Life Fellowship in Haliyal, Kanara, beat him and stripped him naked. The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) reported that the extremists shouted at the Christians in coarse language as they started beating and kicking Pastor Chavan and Kishore Kavalekar before parading the naked pastor in a procession throughout the village. At about midnight they tied the pastor to a tree near a temple and sent for police. Haliyal Police Sub-Inspector Umesh Shet and a dozen officers took Pastor Chavan and Kavalekar into custody for questioning, according to the GCIC. Both were charged and locked up but were released the same night.

Orissa – Raikia police on Jan. 9 arrested Pastor Sukadeb Digal from his home in Sipainju (or Sipainjari) village, Tiangia, G-Udayagiri Block, in Kandhamal district on false charges of forced or fraudulent conversion. The Global Council of Indian Christians reported that police incarcerated him. Digal, pastor of Danekbadi Baptist Church at Daringbadi, remained in jail at press time.

Karnataka – Armed Hindu extremists on Jan. 9 beat Christians at a prayer service in Anekal, Bangalore, seriously injuring a pastor and others and accusing them of forceful conversion. The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) reported that a pastor identified only as Shanthakumar had organized the service at the home of another Christian where about 20 people had gathered in the Coogur area. At about 10:30 p.m. some 20 Hindu extremists attacked with huge clubs and iron rods, ranting in foul language and accusing them of fraudulent and forcible conversion, according to the GCIC. In the beatings, Pastor Shanthakumar lost one finger, and a church member identified only as Yashodamma received treatment for head and nerve injuries at Anekal Government Hospital. Another church member identified only as Vijay suffered a serious leg injury. The Christians reported the matter to the police; officials have held an inquiry and registered a First Information Report against the extremists, but no arrests have been made.

Andhra Pradesh – Hindu extremists from the Bajrang Dal on Jan. 17 beat a pastor and another church member in Yadagirgutta, accusing them of forceful conversion. The All India Christian Council (AICC) reported that the pastor, identified only as Kiran, and another Christian were on their way to visit a church member who works with the tourism department in Yadagirigutta, Bhogri, a Hindu pilgrimage town, when the extremists took notice and gathered a mob to attack them. As is customary in India, police arrived and arrested the victims. After area Christian leaders’ intervention, the accusations against the two Christians were found to be baseless, and they were released without charges, according to the AICC.

Karnataka – Hindu extremists from the Bajrang Dal on Jan. 1 attacked a New Year’s prayer service and accused a pastor of forceful conversion in Humnoor, Bagalkot. The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) reported that the extremists stormed into the prayer meeting led by Pastor Siddu Seemanth Gunike of Blessing Youth Mission Church, ordered it to stop and beat the pastor, alleging that he was involved in fraudulent and forced conversions. After manhandling the pastor and other Christians, the extremists sent for Jamkhandi police, according to the GCIC. The sub-inspector and a few other officers arrived and began questioning those present. Area Christian leaders intervened, and police took a written statement from the extremists that they would not disturb the Christians again; officers advised the Christians to continue their prayer services.

Karnataka – About a dozen Hindu extremists in North Kanara forced their way into a New Year’s Eve prayer service, ordered Christians to stop praying and beat them. The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) reported that extremists led by Biju Nair and a friend identified only as Venkatesh accused the Christians of fraudulent and forcible conversions. The extremists informed police, and two police constables arrived and joined in harassing the Christians, threatening to harm them. The officers ordered the pastor to go to the police station the next morning, and on that day Christians filed a police complaint against the extremists and the two constables for trespassing on church property and for their heavy-handed tactics, according to the GCIC. Later, the Christians met with Ramnagar Police Sub-Inspector Babu Madar and briefed him about the incident. The sub-inspector reprimanded the two constables and advised the pastor to continue the prayer services without fear.

www.compassdirect.org

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INDONESIA

ANTI-CHRISTIAN INCIDENTS NEARLY DOUBLED IN 2011

January 4 (Compass Direct News) – Acts of violence and intolerance against Christians in Indonesia almost doubled in 2011, with an Islamist campaign to close down churches symbolizing the plight of the religious minority. The Indonesian Protestant Church Union, locally known as PGI, counted 54 acts of violence and other violations against Christians in 2011, up from 30 in 2010. The number of such incidents against religious minorities in general also grew, from 198 in 2010 to 276 in 2011, but the worst is perhaps yet to come if authorities continue to overlook the threat of extremism, said a representative from the Jakarta-based Wahid Institute, a Muslim organization that promotes tolerance. Rumadi, who goes by a single name, said his Wahid Institute also observed an attempt to institutionalize intolerance; at least 36 regulations to ban religious practices deemed deviant from Islam were drafted or implemented in the country in 2011. Indonesia’s hot-bed of extremism is West Java, the most populous province that includes the nation’s capital city of Jakarta. This province alone witnessed 160 incidents against religious minorities. Churches in West Java, which has about 520,000 Christians, also suffered the most last year. On Christmas Day, two churches in West Java’s Bogor city bore the brunt of growing extremism. “Islamist vigilantes screamed and yelled at us and threatened us, as we sought to hold a Christmas service,” a leader of the Gereja Kristen Indonesia, also known as the GKI or the Yasmin Church, told Compass in an email.

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NIGERIA

PERSECUTION INCREASED MOST IN SUDAN, NIGERIA, REPORT SAYS ***

January 4 (Compass Direct News) – Sudan and northern Nigeria saw steeper increases in persecution against Christians than 48 other nations where Christians suffered abuse last year, according to an annual ranking by Christian support organization Open Doors. Sudan – where northern Christians experienced greater vulnerability after southern Sudan seceded in a July referendum, and where Christians were targeted amid isolated military conflicts – jumped 19 places last year from its 2010 ranking, from 35^th to 16^th, according to Open Doors’ 2012 World Watch List. In northern Nigeria, a rash of Islamist bombings, guerrilla-style attacks and increased government restrictions on Christians contributed to the region leaping by 10 on the list, from 23^rd to 13^th place. “Nigeria continues to be the country where the worst atrocities in terms of loss of life occur, with over 300 Christians losing their lives this year, though the true number is thought to be far higher,” according to the Open Doors report, noting that the Islamic extremist Boko Haram became increasingly violent across the reporting period through most of 2011. As it has the previous nine years, North Korea topped the list as the country where Christians are most persecuted, with a persecution index of 88. The persecution index for three other countries rose by at least 5 points – Egypt from 47.5 to 53.5, Ethiopia from 30 to 36, and Indonesia from 26.5 to 31.5. Most of the countries on the list, 38 out of 50, have an Islamic majority – including nine of the top 10.

*** A photo of Nigerians killed in Vwang Kogot, Plateau state is available to subscribers, to be used with credit to Compass Direct News. A high resolution photo is also available; contact Compass for transmittal.

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NIGERIA

COMPASS DIRECT NEWS’ TOP 10 STORIES OF 2011

January 6 (Compass Direct News) – Unceasing, accelerating incidents of bloodshed in Nigeria topped Compass’ top 10 news stories of 2011 as Boko Haram and other Islamic extremists lashed out at Christians. Following this top news story was the assassination of Pakistan’s only Christian cabinet member in March 2011; the upholding of the death penalty for a pastor in Iran who refused to recant; Islamist violence unleashed in Egypt; and increased anti-Christian hostilities in Sudan following the secession of South Sudan. The complete list follows.

1 – Firestorms of Violence in Nigeria

A presidential election and an acceleration in Boko Haram Islamic extremist attacks led to firestorms of violence against Christians in Nigeria in 2011. Bomb explosions by Boko Haram came with seemingly unceasing guerrilla-style attacks on Christians by other Islamic extremists in remote areas far from the mainstream media’s view.

The first wave of attacks hit Plateau state in January after Christmas Eve bombings of churches by Islamic extremists, with the resulting tit-for-tat violence killing more than 200 people in Plateau state, according to Human Rights Watch. Then the April 16 election of a Christian president triggered attacks that killed hundreds of Christians and destroyed more than 100 church buildings, again drawing in retaliating youths from Christian families.

While media attention was riveted on a Boko Haram bomb blast of a U.N. building on Aug. 26 and on other attacks on government installations, Muslim extremists with the help of Nigerian army personnel killed 24 Christians in Plateau state that month with little attention from the mainstream press. Plateau Gov. Jonah Jang called for immediate withdrawal of the Nigerian Army, saying Muslim soldiers had taken sides with Islamist assailants. In September, a rash of attacks by armed Muslim extremists on villages in Plateau state left more than 100 Christians dead, and the next month Nigerian soldiers summoned to stop inter-religious fighting between Muslim and Christian youths shot and killed a Christian mother of five in the Yelwa area of Bauchi city. Boko Haram extremists on Sept. 22 killed five Christians in Niger state, and other Muslim extremists killed three Christians the previous week in the north-central state of Kaduna, including a 13-year-old girl.

In November, 200 members of Boko Haram stormed Damaturu, Yobe state, killing some 150 people – at least 130 of them Christians, according to church sources. The destruction included the bombing of at least 10 church buildings. Later in the month, Fulani Muslim herdsmen along with Muslim soldiers killed at least 45 ethnic Berom Christians in Plateau state. Smaller attacks beginning on Nov. 20, reportedly over allegations by Fulani Muslims of cattle theft, preceded an attack on a Barkin Ladi church on Nov. 23 that killed four Christians, and an assault the next day left 35 Christians dead in Barkin Ladi and nearby Kwok village. The attacks began Nov. 20 with the killing of three Christians outside Barkin Ladi, and then two Christians in the town were killed on Nov. 21. The next day, a Christian was beheaded in town behind a popular hotel known as the White House.

A Christmas Day suicide bomb attack by Boko Haram on St. Theresa’s Catholic Church, outside the Nigerian capital of Abuja in Madalla, left at least 45 people dead and 73 others injured. Three of the 45 confirmed dead were policemen on guard duty at the time of the attack, and most of the rest were parishioners.

On Dec. 31, President Goodluck Jonathan declared areas of Borno, Plateau, Yobe and Niger states to be under a state of emergency due to the Boko Haram attacks.

2 – Christian Member of Cabinet in Pakistan Gunned Down

Unidentified gunmen in Islamabad on March 2 shot dead Federal Minister for Minority Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti, then Pakistan’s only cabinet-level Christian and an outspoken critic of the country’s widely condemned “blasphemy” laws. Suspected Islamic extremists from Pakistan’s Taliban and al Qaeda left a letter at the scene saying those who try to change Pakistan’s blasphemy laws would be killed. The murder came two months after Punjab Gov. Salman Taseer was killed by his bodyguard for supporting Asia Noreen (also known as Asia Bibi), the first Christian woman sentenced to death in Pakistan on blasphemy charges.

The assailants sprayed 25 to 30 bullets at Bhatti’s car after he came out of his mother’s home in a residential area of the Pakistani capital to attend a meeting of the federal cabinet. The federal government had provided bodyguards for Bhatti, but they were not present at the time of the attack. A letter found at the scene, purportedly from Pakistani Taliban and al Qaeda terrorists, claimed responsibility for the killing. Police sources said the letter accused Bhatti of waging a campaign to amend the blasphemy law. Bhatti had defied death threats after the Jan. 4 assassination of Taseer, conceding in several interviews that he was “the highest target right now” but vowing to continue his work and trusting his life to God.

3 – Pastor’s Death Sentence Upheld in Iran

A death sentence was upheld for a pastor in Iran convicted of “apostasy,” or leaving Islam, even though a court determined that he was never a practicing Muslim. Authorities had arrested Yousef (also spelled Youcef) Nadarkhani in his home city of Rasht in Oct. 2009 on charges that he questioned obligatory religion classes in Iranian schools. After finding him guilty of apostasy, the court of appeals in Rasht in November 2010 issued a written confirmation of his charges and death sentence. At an appeal hearing in June, the Supreme Court of Iran upheld Nadarkhani’s sentence but asked the court in Rasht to determine if he was a practicing Muslim before his conversion. The court declared that Nadarkhani was not a practicing Muslim before his conversion, but that he was still guilty of apostasy due to his Muslim ancestry.

The Supreme Court had also determined that his death sentence could be annulled if he recanted his faith. The Rasht court gave Nadarkhani three chances to recant Christianity in accordance with sharia (Islamic law), but Nadarkhani refused to do so. The head of Iran’s Judiciary, Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani, reportedly ordered the presiding judge over the trial in Rasht to do nothing for one year. The nation’s Islamic authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, was to make a ruling on the sentence.

Authorities have also continued to pressure Nadarkhani to recant his faith while in prison. In September they gave him Islamic literature aimed at discrediting the Bible, according to sources, and instructed him to read it. The court reportedly has been told to use whatever means necessary to compel Nadarkhani to recant his faith.

4 – Islamist Violence Unleashed in Egypt

Coptic Christians in Alexandria, Egypt began 2011 with a bomb blast after a New Year’s Eve Mass celebration that killed at least 22 people, and less than two months later the country’s “Arab Spring” demonstrations brought down the Egyptian government – unleashing Islamist aggression that culminated in an Oct. 9 massacre of 27 people, including at least 23 Christians.

In the wee hours of Jan. 1 in Alexandria, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the Coptic Orthodox church of St. Mark and Pope Peter, or “(Two) Saints Church.” Several Facebook sites and other websites sprang up in Egypt in support of the violence, and the sentiment was echoed in the comment sections of the online versions of several Egyptian newspapers.

The political chaos that followed the Feb. 11 resignation of President Hosni Mubarak helped create conditions for a series of attacks, including a Muslim mob in Sool village south of Cairo on March 4-5 burning down a church building and nearly killing a parish priest after an imam issued a call to “Kill all the Christians.” The attack on the Church of the Two Martyrs St. George and St. Mina started on March 4 and lasted through most of March 5. On Sept. 30, a 3,000-strong mob of hard-line and Salafi Muslims attacked Mar Gerges Church in the Elmarenab village of Aswan, torching the structure and then looting and burning nearby Christian-owned homes and businesses.

These attacks set the stage for the Egyptian Army’s Oct. 9 massacre of demonstrators, mostly Christians, protesting the Mar Gerges destruction at the television and radio broadcasting building commonly known as the Maspero Building. The army shot into the crowd and rammed riot-control vehicles into the protestors.

5 – In Sudan, Anti-Christian Hostilities Galvanize in North

The secession of South Sudan in July left Christians in the north more vulnerable to the Islamist bent of President Omar al-Bashir, and territorial warfare in states along the north-south divide targeted Christians. The Sudanese leader, wanted for crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court, vowed to impose a stricter form of Islam on Sudan, but some local officials and citizens were already emboldened to vent anti-Christian aggression – sending ominous text-messages to Christian leaders, demolishing and threatening to demolish church buildings and attacking Christians. On July 18 Muslim extremists attacked the home of Anglican Church of Sudan Bishop Andudu Adam Elnail in an attempt to kill him and two other pastors, Luka Bulus and Thomas Youhana, who all happened to be out of the house at the time. No one was hurt, but the assailants left a threatening letter warning them of similar attacks.

Muslims in Omdurman West long opposed to a Sudanese Church of Christ near Khartoum attacked Christians trying to finish constructing their building on Aug. 5, claiming that Christianity was no longer an accepted religion in the country. Muslims in the north, where an estimated 1 million Christians still live following the secession of South Sudan on July 9, fear the potential influence of the church. “They want to reduce or restrict the number of churches, so that they can put more pressure on believers,” said one church leader.

In the border areas of Abyei, South Kordofan and Blue Nile, Christian communities and church buildings have been targeted. In Sudan’s embattled South Kordofan state, military intelligence agents killed one Christian, and Islamic militants sympathetic to the government slaughtered another in June after attacking churches. Sudan Armed Forces Intelligence (SAF) detained Nimeri Philip Kalo, a student at St. Paul Major Seminary, on June 8 near the gate of the United Nations Mission in Sudan in Kadugli’s al Shaeer area and shot him in front of bystanders. Kalo and other Christians were fleeing the town after Muslim militias loyal to the SAF attacked and looted at least three church buildings in Kadugli, they said. On June 8, Islamic militants loyal to the SAF slaughtered a young Christian man by sword in Kadugli Market. Adeeb Gismalla Aksam, 33, was a bus driver whose father is an elder with the Evangelical Church in Kadugli. The Islamic militias were heard shouting Allahu-akbar (God is greater) as they began shooting at a Roman Catholic Church building the same day.

6 – Shouwang Church Members Arrested Weekly in China

One of the largest unregistered Protestant churches in Beijing was subjected to weekly arrests when it began worshipping outdoors on April 10, after authorities pressured landlords to keep them out of their purchased and rented properties. Leaders of the 1,000-member church said the landlord of their venue had been under mounting pressure from authorities to terminate the lease, and the government also prevented the church from using the premises it had purchased in late 2009. Shouwang had paid 27 million yuan, or about US$4 million, for the second floor of the Daheng Science and Technology Tower in northwest Beijing’s Zhongguancun area. Authorities interfered, and the property developer refused to hand the key over to the church.

The members of the church’s governing committee, two pastors and three elders, and other major co-workers have been under house arrest for the whole or much of the time since April 9. Hundreds of other people, including many Shouwang parishioners and some members of other churches in Beijing and other cities, were detained for between a few hours to two days.

The church was unwilling to be subject to the controls and restrictions of the official Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM), as it disagrees with TSPM beliefs and controls. Many unregistered evangelical Protestant groups refuse to register with TSPM due to theological differences, fear of adverse consequences if they reveal names and addresses of church leaders or members or fear that it will control sermon content.

Shouwang signed a rental contract with a new landlord on Dec. 17, but the landlord terminated the contract due to pressure from “the local police station, the housing management office and leaders of various government agencies,” church leaders announced to members on Dec. 23. Church leaders had arranged to have an indoor meeting on Sunday (Jan. 1) in a room leased from the Beijing Parkview Wuzhou Hotel on Dec. 17, but due to police interference and the cancellation of the lease, they continued meeting outdoors for services – with the arrests also continuing.

7 – Afghan Convert from Islam Released from Prison

After intense diplomatic pressure, Afghan authorities in February released Said Musa, who had been in prison for nearly nine months on charges of apostasy, or leaving Islam, punishable by death under Islamic law. The 46-year-old Musa (alternately spelled Sayyed Mussa) left the country.

Musa had written a series of letters from his prison cell, the last one dated Feb. 13, in which the Christian amputee and father of six said representatives of embassies in Kabul visited him and offered him asylum; after the representatives left, however, Musa was taken to another room where three Afghan officials tried to convince him to recant his faith. They promised to release him within 24 hours if he would do so. He refused and was sent back to his cell. “I told them I cannot [follow] Islam,” he wrote in his letter. “I am Jesus Christ’s servant. They pushed me much and much. I refused their demands.”

Details of Musa’s release remained confidential in order to protect him and his family.

The country’s most popular broadcaster, Noorin TV, broadcast images in May of Afghan Christians worshiping, putting in motion the events that got Musa and other Christians arrested. The hour-long TV show sparked protests throughout the country against Christians and a heated debate in parliament. In early June, the deputy secretary of the Afghan Parliament, Abdul Sattar Khawasi, called for the execution of converts from Islam.

Before being transferred to Kabul Detention Center in the Governor’s Compound in November 2010, Musa had suffered sexual abuse, beatings, mockery and sleep deprivation because of his faith in Jesus in the first months of his detention.

8 – New Level of Violence in Indonesia

A suicide bombing of a church in Central Java, Indonesia on Sept. 25 pointed not only to a new level of attacks on religious minorities in the world’s largest Muslim-majority country but to a political bent accommodating Islamist extremism. Pino Damayanto, aka Ahmad Yosepa Hayat, who blew himself up and wounded more than 20 members of the Sepenuh Injil Bethel Church (Bethel Full Gospel Church) in Solo, apparently believed it was his religious duty to kill “the enemies of Islam.”

Extremism has grown since the fall of the authoritarian President Suharto in 1999, who kept radical groups under control. A leaked U.S. diplomatic cable dated May 9, 2006, published on the WikiLeaks website in May, revealed that a member of the National Intelligence Agency told the U.S. Embassy that a top official of the national police had “provided some funds” to the hard-line Front Pembela Islam (Islamic Defenders Front or FPI), and that police were using the FPI as an “attack dog.” Extremist groups and officials close to them flout laws and violate the rights of minorities with almost complete impunity, sources told Compass. Extremist groups have infiltrated at all levels, including the clerical body representing all Indonesian Muslim groups to the government. “The government has no will to control extremist groups,” said Rumadi of the Wahid Institute, adding that the government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono doesn’t want to be seen as “anti-Islamic.”

This dynamic was most clear in West Java, where the Bogor mayor’s refusal to obey a Supreme Court order to restore a congregation’s permit cast doubt on the ability of the Indonesian government to enforce the rule of law. Muslim demonstrators and area police have continued to obstruct the services of the Indonesian Christian Church (Gereja Kristen Indonesia, or GKI) congregation in the Yasmin area of Bogor, West Java, which was worshiping on a roadside or in a member’s home as the Bogor city government sealed its building in 2010.

9 – Al Shabaab Continues Slaughter of Christians in Somalia

Islamic extremists from the al Shabaab militia vying for control of Somalia continued their campaign to rid the country of Christians, seeking out secret believers and publicly executing them. The extremists cut the throat of a Christian mother of four on Jan. 7 on the outskirts of Mogadishu. Asha Mberwa, 36, was killed in Warbhigly in front of villagers who came out of their homes as witnesses. She was survived by her children – ages 12, 8, 6 and 4 – and her husband, who was not home at the time she was apprehended.

Others known to be killed by al Shabaab in 2011 were Guled Jama Muktar, beheaded on Sept. 25; Juma Nuradin Kamil, whose decapitated body was found on Sept. 2; and 21-year-old Hassan Adawe Adan, shot on April 18. With estimates of al Shabaab’s size ranging from 3,000 to 7,000, the insurgents seek to impose a strict version of sharia (Islamic law), but the government in Mogadishu fighting to retain control of the country treats Christians little better than the al Shabaab extremists do. While proclaiming himself a moderate, President Sheikh Sharif Sheik Ahmed has embraced a version of sharia that mandates the death penalty for those who leave Islam.

Following the Oct. 13 kidnapping of two Spanish aid workers from a refugee camp in Dadaab, on the Kenyan border with Somalia, and the kidnapping and murder of foreigners at tourist sites, Kenya on Oct. 16 began air strikes on al Shabaab territory in southern Somalia.

10 – Christian Leaders in Laos Imprisoned

In one of the more telling of many incidents in Laos, eight Christian leaders in Boukham village, Savannakhet Province, were arrested on Dec. 16 after they had gathered some 200 church members for a Christmas celebration. Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF) reported that the leaders had secured permission for the event from Boukham’s village chief, but village security forces entered the site and marched the eight leaders to the Boukham government headquarters, where they were detained without being charged. Four of the detainees were placed in handcuffs and wooden stocks, while the other four were left unrestrained. “While they were held without formal charges, it is quite clear that they were arrested for gathering people for worship,” an HRWLRF spokesman told Compass.

Lao Evangelical Church representatives on Dec. 18 managed to negotiate the release of one of the detainees held in stocks, who goes by the single name of Kingnamosorn, after paying a fine of 1 million kip (US$123) to the village chief (the average monthly wage for an unskilled laborer in the province is close to US$40). The chief later ordered the other four unrestrained detainees to be placed in stocks as well. Boukham village authorities later moved six of the detained Christians to an animal pen, blocked visits from family members and banned direct delivery of food. The other detainee was released temporarily to attend a government training session but was then held with the others – all seven in wooden stocks. When last seen, the health of one of the detained leaders, identified as Puphet, had deteriorated; Puphet suffers from a kidney ailment. The legs of six of the detainees, but particularly those of Puphet, Wanta and Oun, were swollen and infected, according to HRWLRF. Family members feared that authorities would employ starvation tactics in order to force the six to give up their faith.

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NIGERIA

DEATH TOLL CLIMBS IN ISLAMIST ATTACKS IN NORTHEAST ***

January 9 (Compass Direct News) – The number of Christians killed in an Islamic extremist attack here on Thursday (Jan. 5) has risen to nine, and over the weekend the same terrorist group killed at least 21 Christians in neighboring Adamawa state, sources said. Members of the Boko Haram group that seeks to impose sharia (Islamic law) on Nigeria emerged from a mosque near the Deeper Life Bible Church in the Boso area of Gombe, capital of Gombe state, at about 7:30 p.m. and shot Christians attending a weekly meeting known as “The Hour of Revival,” area sources said. Silas Ugboeze, who was in coma for three days at the Federal Medical Centre in Gombe, died 20 minutes after Compass arrived on Saturday (Jan. 7), bringing the death toll to nine and the list of those wounded in the attack to 19. Ugboeze’s son Gideon was also killed, and his 12-year-old daughter, Victoria Silas Ugboeze, was wounded in both breasts. She has thus far survived along with her brother Daniel, who was also shot. Ugboeze’s widow was overcome with grief at the hospital, able to say only, “Lord, where are you? This burden is too much for me to bear.” Boko Haram had published an ultimatum in a newspaper on Tuesday (Jan. 3) threatening violence if Christians did not leave predominantly Muslim northern Nigeria in three days. Since then, the group has claimed responsibility for killing at least 44 people in four states. In Adamawa, on Friday night (Jan. 6), 11 people were killed and many others injured at the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) in the Nasarawa area of Yola, the state capital. Earlier on Friday, 12 persons were reportedly killed when armed men claimed by Boko Haram shot a gathering of Christian traders holding a prayer session before opening their shops in Mubi, Adamawa. The gunmen also shot at another group of Christians meeting at a town hall to arrange for the transportation of relatives slain the previous day, bringing the total of those killed in Mubi to 21.

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NIGERIA

SEVEN CHRISTIANS KILLED IN BAUCHI STATE

January 24 (Compass Direct News) – Early morning attacks in Tafawa Balewa, Bauchi state on Sunday (Jan. 22) left at least seven Christians dead and a church building destroyed. The attack on the Evangelical Church Winning All Church 2, residents of Tafawa Balewa said, was carried out by area Islamic extremists alongside members of the Boko Haram sect, with the church building and surrounding houses bombed. Yunnana Yusufu, pastor with the Church of Christ in Nigeria in Tafawa Balewa, told Compass that the assailants arrived in the early morning hours and began shooting at Christians in the town, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of Bauchi City. “I saw seven dead bodies of some of the Christians killed,” Yusufu told Compass by phone. “The situation is terrible, and I am about to go out to other parts of the town, to see the extent of the damage caused by the attackers.” Yusufu said that many other Christians were injured. Bauchi Police Commissioner Ikechukwu Aduba reportedly confirmed the attack on Tafawa Balewa, saying two soldiers and a policeman, as well as eight civilians, were later killed in a gunfight. He added that six suspects had been arrested. Police also reported that bombs were thrown at a Catholic church building and an evangelical church building in Bauchi City, causing little damage and no deaths or injuries. Two weeks ago, gunmen believed to be Muslim Fulani herdsmen attacked three Christian farmers on their farms in Pyakman village, near Tafawa Balewa, killing the three. Corpses recovered from the farms had bullet wounds and machete cuts, said Bukata Zhadi, secretary of the Christian Elders Council in Tafawa Balewa.

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PAKISTAN

CHRISTIAN CHARGED WITH ‘BLASPHEMY’ DENIED BAIL

January 30 (Compass Direct News) – A judge has denied bail to a young Christian man charged with desecrating the Quran under Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws despite the lack of evidence against him, sources said. Police in Shahdara, near Lahore, had arrested 23-year-old Khuram Masih on Dec. 5 and charged him with desecrating the Quran after his landlord, Zulfiqar Ali, alleged that he had burned pages of the book in order to prepare tea. Masih has said that he was falsely accused in the case because he had had an argument with Ali, his landlord. Section 295-B makes willful desecration of the Quran or use of an extract in a derogatory manner punishable with life imprisonment. Masih’s previous lawyers, Muhammad Farhad Tirmizi and Liaqat John, on Jan. 3 petitioned for his bail. In their petition, they stated to Additional Sessions Judge Anjum Raza Syed that police had registered a false case against Masih based on hearsay, and that police had not found any incriminating evidence. Judge Syed, however, refused to grant bail to Masih on grounds that the case was “very sensitive, and bail to the accused would fan religious sentiments and cause a great mishap.” Asif Aqeel, executive director of the Community Development Initiative, an affiliate of the European Centre for Law and Justice, told Compass that the lawyers hired by Masih’s relatives should not have petitioned the trial court for Masih’s bail so soon in the Muslim-majority country. “There’s no use moving for bail in the trial court, because the lower courts cannot sustain pressure in such cases,” Aqeel said. “The judges in trial court are under extreme pressure from religious quarters and simply cannot set a blasphemy accused free on bail after just a month of the incident.”

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SOMALIA

CONVERT FROM ISLAM WHIPPED IN PUBLIC

January 10 (Compass Direct News) – A Somali convert from Islam was paraded before a cheering crowd last month and publicly flogged as a punishment for embracing a “foreign religion,” sources said. Sofia Osman, a 28-year-old Christian from Janale city in Somali’as Lower Shabelle region, had been taken into custody by Islamic extremist al Shabaab militants in November; the public whipping was meant to mark her release. She received 40 lashes on Dec. 22 while jeered by spectators. “Osman was whipped 40 lashes at 3 p.m., but she didn’t tell what other humiliations she had suffered while in the hands of the militants,” an eyewitness, told Compass, adding that whipping left her bleeding. “I saw her faint. I thought she had died, but soon she regained consciousness and her family took her away.” The whipping was administered in front of hundreds of spectators after Osman was released from her month-long custody in al Shabaab camps. Nursing her injuries at her family’s home, in the days after the punishment she would not talk to anyone and looked dazed, a source close in touch with the family said. “Please pray for her quick recovery,” the source said.

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SUDAN

GOVERNMENT THREATENS TO ARREST CHURCH LEADERS

January 18 (Compass Direct News) – Sudan’s Ministry of Guidance and Religious Endowments has threatened to arrest church leaders if they carry out evangelistic activities and do not comply with an order for churches to provide their names and contact information, Christian sources said. The warning in a Jan. 3 letter to church leaders of the Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church (SPEC) arrived a few days after Sudan President Omar al-Bashir told cheering crowds on Jan. 3 that, following the secession of largely non-Islamic south Sudan last July, the country’s constitution will be more deeply entrenched in sharia (Islamic law). “We will take legal procedures against pastors who are involved in preaching or evangelistic activities,” Hamid Yousif Adam, undersecretary of the Ministry of Guidance and Religious Endowment, wrote to the church leaders. “We have all legal rights to take them to court.” Sources said the order was aimed at oppressing Christians amid growing hostilities toward Christianity. “This is a critical situation faced by our church in Sudan,” said the Rev. Yousif Matar, secretary general of the SPEC. Christians in (north) Sudan celebrated last Christmas amid several threats from officials in Khartoum, and some followers of Christ were arrested for their faith, sources said. Yasir Musa of the Sudanese Church of Christ was arrested along with two other church members by national security agents in Khartoum on Dec. 23; they were detained because they were Christians and therefore suspected supporters of southern military forces. Released shortly afterward, they said authorities threatened to arrest them again if they did not comply with orders not to carry out Christian activities in the Islamic nation.

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SUDAN

POLICE BEAT, ARREST EVANGELIST

January 20 (Compass Direct News) – Police this week beat and arrested a church leader in Khartoum, sources told Compass. Evangelist James Kat of the Evangelical Church of Sudan was arrested on Tuesday morning (Jan. 17), with officers beating him as they took him to a North Division police station, the sources said. He was released on bail the same day. Kat, who lives at the church site, was apparently arrested for using the place as his home. Another church leader was arrested on Monday (Jan. 16) in a Sudanese Presbyterian Evangelical Church (SPEC) church property dispute in which police and courts have been unjustly biased in favor of Muslims, Christian leaders said. Officers arrested SPEC worker Gabro Haile Selassie, as he lives on the church property that has been transferred to a Muslim businessman in a disputed agreement; he has refused to be evicted without police providing him an official document indicating the basis for the action. Selassie, who was released on bail after a few hours, said he fears being arrested again; officers have already started demolishing the church compound fence, Selassie added. “They will definitely demolish my house” he told Compass. Armed police were deployed Sunday evening (Jan.15) to the site to take the property by force, as authorities are supporting Muslim businessman Osman al Tayeb’s efforts to take control of the plot as part of a planned confiscation of church property, church leaders said. “The government is still trying to get involved in the affairs of the church by supporting people like Osman al Tayeb,” said one church leader.

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SUDAN

TWO CATHOLIC PRIESTS KIDNAPPED

January 25 (Compass Direct News) – South Sudanese militia loyal to Sudan's Islamic government have kidnapped two Catholic priests in Rabak, Christian sources said. A large truck smashed through the gates of the St. Josephine Bakhita’s Catholic Church compound in Rabak, 260 kilometers (162 miles) south of Khartoum, on Jan. 15 at 10 p.m., and the assailants broke down the rectory door, the sources said. The Rev. Joseph Makwey and the Rev. Sylvester Mogga were kidnapped at gunpoint. On Jan. 19, the kidnappers forced the two priests to call their bishop with a ransom demand of 500,000 Sudanese pounds (US$185,530), 250,000 Sudanese pounds each. Auxiliary Bishop Daniel Adwok told Compass by phone that there was no direct communication between the bishop and the kidnappers, though the priests managed to convey that they were being mistreated. “We are worried about the two priests,” he said. “They are not treating them well.” The kidnappers have attempted no communication with church leaders since then, Adwok said. Neither Makwey, in his 40s, nor Mogga, in his mid-30s, are supporters of southern Sudan military forces in territorial conflict with Sudan over border areas, he added. Eyewitnesses told Compass that they saw the assailants severely beating the priests while abducting them. The kidnappers also looted the priests’ living quarters, stealing two vehicles, two laptops and a safe. The incident caused panic and terror among Christians in Rabak, with church leaders saying they fear for their lives as they become targets of the Islamic government and its allied militias.

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UGANDA

GIRL TORTURED FOR CHRIST REGAINING USE OF LEGS ***

January 16 (Compass Direct News) – A 15-year-old Christian girl in western Uganda who lost the use of her legs after her father locked her in a room for six months for leaving Islam has begun to take tentative steps. Susan Ithungu of Isango village, Kasese district, had been hospitalized since September 2010 after neighbors along with police rescued her from her father, Beya Baluku, who had given her hardly any food or water. In March 2010, Susan had trusted Christ for her salvation – prompting her father to threaten to slaughter her publicly with a knife. Neighbors who discovered that the girl was locked in a room with almost no food or water notified authorities. They took her to a hospital on Sept. 6, 2010; she would not be discharged from hospital care until Oct. 19, 2011. She now lives in a rented house in an undisclosed location. “Well-wishers have been paying the house rent and buying me food and clothing,” said Susan, who added that she has forgiven her father. A member of the Bwera Full Gospel Church in Kasese, Biira Dreda, left her own four children under the care of her mother in order to look after Susan while she was hospitalized. A member of a Pentecostal church, Susan has begun to walk with support. She cannot squat or stand upright because she lay on one side for such a long time, besides suffering a bout of malaria. “I thank all those who have continually supported me spiritually, materially and even morally,” Susan said. “I am also thankful to Biira Dreda, who stood by me in the hospital, and to date she is still with me when none of my family members has come to see me.”

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UGANDA

CONVERT FROM ISLAM SURVIVES SOCIETAL HOSTILITIES

January 23 (Compass Direct News) – Hassan Muwanguzi, a convert from Islam in Uganda who lost his family and job because of his Christian faith, is thankful after fighting off the latest attack – an attempt by Muslims to imprison him and shut down the school he started. Following his conversion in his early 20s in 2003, Muwanguzi’s family immediately kicked him out of their home, and enraged Muslims beat him, he said. His wife left him that same year, and he lost his job as a teacher at Nankodo Islamic School, near Pallisa. Undaunted, a year ago he opened a Christian school, Grace International Nursery and Primary School, at Kajoko, Kibuku district, 27 kilometers (17 miles) from Mbale town; the area’s population of 5,000 people is predominantly Muslim. Incensed by his boldness, an Islamic teacher, Sheikh Hassan Abdalla, filed a false charge that Muwanguzi had “defiled” his minor daughter. Together with his Muslim countrymen, Abdalla filed a case at the chief magistrate’s court in Palissa-Kalaki, and a warrant for Muwanguzi’s arrest was issued on April 1, 2011. Initially he was locked up for three weeks, he said. On April 22, he was released on bail when the complainant did not appear at his hearing, and the sheikh didn’t show up at hearings each of the next four months, either, Muwanguzi said. “The judge found out it was a false accusation, hence the case was dropped,” Muwanguzi said. “I had been subjected to humiliation, but I forgave them for the sake of my Christian outreach in the area.”

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UGANDA

FORMER MUSLIM EXTREMIST FLEES WRATH OF EX-COLLEAGUES

January 27 (Compass Direct News) – A former member of a Muslim extremist group in Uganda who converted to Christianity is in hiding in Kenya, his movements severely restricted following threats to kill him. Hassan Sharif Lubenga, 54, was a sheikh and member of the Buk Haram, a violent group of Islamists whose name suggests that the Bible is corrupt and therefore forbidden. Originally from Chengera, seven kilometers from Kampala, the husband to four wives began his conversion process four years ago; in June 2011, he said, after dreams and visions in which Jesus appeared to him, he made a full commitment to follow Christ. In 2009, he said, a message from Jesus came to him in a vision: “Do not hide your Christian faith.” Within a few months, a threatening letter arrived: “If you do not join Islamic Jihad, then we shall kill you.” His father, Morshid Kabide, came to his house in July 2010 to establish the truth of the rumors he had heard, Lubenga said. When he affirmed his faith in Jesus, his father was crestfallen; he later committed suicide, leaving a letter that read, “I have decided to kill myself because my son became a Christian” and urged all family members to curse him. Lubenga said that since then he has been in hiding, growing more terrified as threats intensified. “But I kept my faith in Jesus,” he said. “I sold some of my belongings to build the church structure at Chengera, outside Kampala.” As a result of this act, threats on his life grew more shrill, and he fled to Kenya.

Compass Direct News is distributed monthly to raise awareness of Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith.  

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The campaign posted an action alert on its website last Friday asking its readers not to support JNF's "Green Sunday" on Feb. 5. "Don't be taken in," the alert reads. "The JNF's tree planting is a cover for ethnic cleansing."

Despite its shrill and nonsensical premise, the "Stop the JNF Campaign" has garnered support from organizations across the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries around the world. It also has spread to American and Canadian college campuses.

Vilifying labels such as "ethnic cleansing" and "regime of apartheid" are used by anti-Israel activists to demonize the State of Israel. Hebrew University Professor Emeritus Gideon Shimoni has explained that the false equation between Israel and apartheid in South Africa is a "deceptive device [which] functions much like use of the term 'holocaust' to describe any and all human disasters. It obscures apartheid's constitutive core, racism, as well as its actual historical context, South Africa."

The false notion that Israel engaged in "ethnic cleansing" of Palestinians cheapens actual cases of ethnic cleansing, including the Bosnian genocide committed by Bosnian Serbs, the ethnic cleansing of Armenians during World War I, Nazi Germany's persecutions and expulsions of Jews which culminated into the Holocaust, the Sudanese campaign against black ethnic groups in Darfur, among many other examples.

A look at the founders of the Stop the JNF Campaign helps explain its outrageous agenda. It was started by the Habitat International Coalition (HIC), the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN), the Scottish Solidarity Campaign (SPSC) and the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC).

IJAN is a radical organization that advocates the destruction of Israel as a Jewish state. The organization was a sponsor of last year's "Never Again For Anyone" tour across the U.S. and in Toronto, Canada, which featured speakers who equated Israel's treatment of the Palestinians to that of the Nazis' treatment of Jews during the Holocaust.

The Scottish Solidarity Campaign (SPSC) is a fringe anti-Israel organization that repeatedly uses the Holocaust to demonize Israel and has served as a platform for Holocaust deniers and Hamas supporters. The chairman of SPSC, Mick Napier, tried to justify a horrific terrorist attack in Israel by spewing lies about the school that was targeted and writing, "Palestinians continue to resist and we should be inspired by their courage, fortitude and endurance against an enemy that threatens them openly with a 'Holocaust'." In March 2008, a terrorist entered the Mercaz Harav yeshiva in Jerusalem and opened fire, killing eight students and wounding nine more. The massacre was praised by Hamas and supported by 84% of Palestinians, according to a poll taken shortly after.

BNC is the Palestinian coordinating body for the worldwide Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign. BDS is a worldwide initiative to encourage companies, consumers, universities, cultural centers and more to boycott and divest from all Israeli interests and bodies. On college campuses, BDS often takes the form of student groups and professors pushing for universities to divest from companies that have holdings with Israel or do business with Israel.

The Stop the JNF Campaign is one initiative of the worldwide BDS campaign. Its launch last March was announced on the BDS website. BDS leaders, such as Omar Barghouti, single out Israel, apply double standards to the state, and often use the "apartheid" myth and false "ethnic cleansing" charge.

Canadian Foreign Minister John Bard criticized "the constant barrage of rhetorical demonization, double standards and delegitimization" of Israel as the "new anti-Semitism" on Monday during a conference in Israel. "Harnessing disparate anti- Semitic, anti-American and anti-Western ideologies, it targets the Jewish people by targeting the Jewish homeland, Israel, as the source of injustice and conflict in the world, and uses, perversely, the language of human rights to do so," he added. "We must be relentless in exposing this new anti-Semitism for what it is."

Last July, Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd visited an Israeli-owned business in Melbourne after it was attacked by demonstrators. "I don't think in 21^st-century Australia there is a place for the attempted boycott of a Jewish business," Rudd said. "I thought we had learned that from history," he added.

Unfortunately, the BDS campaign is gaining ground among youth in the United States. This weekend, the 2012 National BDS Conference is being held at the University of Pennsylvania. The conference is organized by PennBDS, a recognized student group at the University. The university is not sanctioning nor sponsoring the conference.

BDS tactics have not achieved many practical results, and seem more symbolic in nature. This holds true for the Stop the JNF Campaign. Just last week Israel's Ministry of Environmental Protection in cooperation with the Jewish National Fund held aninternational conference on Climate Change & Forest Fires in the Mediterranean Basin: Management & Risk Reduction. The conference drew approximately 150 participants including lecturers and guests from Jordan, Kosovo, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Canada and the U.S. Additionally, JNF maintains partnerships with government and professional organizations in the United States, Egypt and Jordan.

If planting trees has become an act of evil, it may be time to re-evaluate your thinking

On June 28, 2009, Taraneh Mousavi, a young Iranian woman, was literally scooped off the streets without any provocation on her part and with no arrest warrant. This young woman was take to one of the Islamists torture chambers where she was repeatedly brutalized, raped, and sodomized by Ahmadinejad’s agents and with the consent of the “supreme leader” Ali Khamenei.·

Near death from repeated beating, raping and sodomizing, the fragile young woman, bleeding profusely from her rectum and womb, was transferred to a hospital in Karaj near Tehran. Eventually, an anonymous person notified Taraneh’s family that she had had an “accident” and had to be taken to the hospital.

News report on the murdering of Neda Agha Sultan

The devastated family rushed to the hospital only to find no trace of their beloved daughter because, the gang of Islamic thugs, the foot-soldiers of Allah’s “divine representative” Ali Khamenei, decided to eliminate all traces of their savagery. These beasts of Allah removed the dying woman from the hospital before the family’s arrival, burned it beyond recognition and dumped her charred remains on the side of the road.·

Taraneh means melody in Persian. According to her bereaved family and friends, true to her name, she used to sing with a beautiful warm voice and played the piano with skill. It is beyond imaginable cruelty to have her precious young life extinguished after an extended period of torture and rape.·

Like Neda, another young woman, whose chest was ripped by the bullet of a murdering Islamist as she peacefully walked along with a throng of peaceful demonstrators, Taraneh’s tragedy gives a glimpse of the true face of Islamic fascism and its brutality. The Taranehs and Nedas of Iran shall remain as eternal testaments to the depravity of Islamic fascism and the horrors it has visited on innocent people. And these young victims of the Islamic tyranny are by no means isolated cases. Tragically, women as a gender bear the brunt of Islamic misogyny. Women are systematically exploited, maltreated and disenfranchised from their God-given rights.·

How did Taraneh end up in the hands of the Islamist murderers?  According to numerous reports, the 19-year-old Taraneh Mousavi, was among hundreds arrested on June 28, 2009 in Iran’s post-election aftermath. She was standing outside her school when she was arrested, along with a group of about 14 others, blindfolded and taken to an interrogation and torture center.·

Witnesses present at the scene have reported that the basijis militia—hired government thugs–were giving the exceptionally beautiful Taraneh a particularly hard time. When the other detainees were allowed to contact their families and she was not, she sensed there would be trouble and gave her parents’ telephone number to a few of the women there who in turn contacted her family after being released.·

Our great Zoroaster, the luminous ancient prophet of Persia, spoke of the ongoing battle between the forces of good under Ahuramazda—God, and the forces of evil directed by Ahriman—the Satan. Zoroaster warned us not to fall for the enticements or be deceived by the machinations of Ahriman.  He further informed us that evil can be recognized by the deeds of its people; people who would oppose the precepts of Ahuramazda.

The savage Islamists killed the magnificent child-woman, Taraneh, after a long period of tortuous imprisonment and rape. By killing her, the agents of evil aimed to silence freedom loving Iranians. But assuredly they can never kill freedom. They only kill the body, but the spirit of freedom lives on.

According to the Islamic Sharia practiced by the Islamic Republic of Iran, it is impermissible to execute a woman if she is virgin. A handy excuse for the torture savages to satisfy their beastly lust by arranging a “wedding” ceremony before the eventual execution of the victim. The female prisoner is forced to consummate the “marriage” by submitting sexually to one of the chosen jail-keepers. A virgin woman gets forcibly raped before being hanged. This is yet another gift from Islam to humanity!

Lest reports of horrific mistreatment of innocent prisoners of conscience be taken as baseless rumors and innuendoes, in a letter dated June 12, 2009, a Presidential candidate, Mehdi Karoobi, explicitly states the violations. The letter addressed to the head of the Assembly of Experts on Leadership—the highest body of the ruling gang of clerics—Karoobi demands that an impartial commission be appointed to investigate the torture and rape reports of detainees, both women as well as men.

Mr. Karoobi writes: “I do not think that prisoners in the pre-revolution regime (i.e. the Shah’s) had seen or heard of such crimes. Some detained individuals have reported such savage rapes that have left the women victims with physical scars and ruptures in their reproductive systems. At the same time, young imprisoned boys have been raped in such atrocious ways causing them depression, physical and psychological pain, leading to their complete withdrawal from everybody.”

For the past 33-years, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been denying and violating a long-suffering people of all its human rights. The regime is guilty of beating, torturing, raping, and killing prisoners of conscience—political, religious, intellectuals, artists and others.

Women, chronically oppressed and denied their basic human and family rights, have been the ones most viciously abused by the Islamic system and its hired plain clothes and Basij members. To maintain its suffocating rule, the regime metes out punishments reminiscent of the worst governments in the annals of human history. Amputation of hands and feet, blinding of eyes, hanging, and stoning victims after perfunctory trials in kangaroo courts without legal representation is common-place under the terror rule of the Islamists.

The Islamists’ ruling Iran—the curse of Allah—heartlessly hang gays on the grounds that same sex relationship is a capital offense according to the Islamic ethos. Yet, these same beasts gang rape innocent young men in their medieval dungeons, after having arrested them for participating in peaceful demonstrations.

The horrors visited on innocent Iranian detainees by the goons of the Islamic Republic with the consent of the head-criminal, Ali Khamenei, and the orders of the brutal “President” Ahmadinejad, make every decent human shudder with revulsion. It is sadly reminiscent of Nazi Germany. The Nazi’s use of piano wires for nooses to torment maximally their victims by slow death has been matched by the Islamist Fascists’ resort to sexual brutalization that eventuates in death.

Freedom-lovers and decent humans like Taraneh and Neda, like millions of others, did not believe that a murdering Islamist Ahmadinejad was their President. They did not approve of his rabid attacks on Israel, demanding its eradication; they did not condone his largess on Islamist terrorists such as Hizbollah and Hamas; they did not want religious minorities, such as Baha’is, to be deprived of their rights of citizenship simply because they did not believe in his religious zealotry; they did not want to live as second class citizens because of their gender.

Tragically, there are people in position of power who turn a blind eye to these horrors with their sole concern for their own self-interests. When Robert Gibbs, former spokesman for the White House, shamelessly declares that Mahmood Ahmadinejad, the fraud, is the elected President of Iran, one wonders about Gibbs’ humaneness. How would Gibbs feel if Taraneh was his daughter and Ahmadinejad had her blood on his hands? Would Gibbs, or for that matter President Obama, call this murderer Ahmadinejad, a duly elected President worthy of shaking his bloodstained hand?

In short, the Islamic Republic of Iran represents devastation and death if not immediately disempowered by all people and nations that value the Universal Human Rights for all. It is timely to bring to mind the warning of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” The Islamic Republic of Iran is indeed a miscarriage of justice, a cruel repressive rule, and an imminent threat not only to Iranians but also to the world at large.