Sonia Farid

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/perspective/analysis/2015/08/27/Russia-Egypt-relations-Farewell-to-old-alliances-.html

For the third time since becoming president of Egypt, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi heads to Russia amid another round of official propaganda about the significance of the fast-growing strategic alliance. The remarkable development in bilateral ties in the past year has been received with a mixture of skepticism and enthusiasm, bringing back memories of friendship with the Soviet Union while promising new possibilities away from what is seen as a suffocating uni-polar world order.

Egypt and Russia have never been that close since the era of late President Gamal Abdel Nasser, said journalist Mustafa Bassiouni, specifically referring to the level of military cooperation, which culminated in naval maneuvers codenamed “Friendship Bridge 2015.”

Bassiouni said following the Syrian conflict, Russia lost “the only breather it was allowed in the Mediterranean” – the Tartous naval base. “Russia is not sure it will ever get it back with the escalation of the conflict in Syria, and needed to look for new alliances in the region.”

Russia’s need for new alliances, he added, has to be seen in light of the conflict with Ukraine, which earned Russia the hostility of the West. “Egypt suffered the same hostility from the U.S. and the EU following the toppling of Muslim Brotherhood rule, therefore also needed to forge new alliances, especially upon seeing its military aid from the U.S. threatened.”

Bassiouni, however, finds the comparison with Egyptian-Soviet relations in the 1960s far-fetched. “Back then it was the Soviet Union, but now it is the Russian Federation, which is driven by protecting its interests rather than ideology,” he said. “Egypt is not the same country too.”

Political analyst Samuel Plank said apart from losing its strategic place in Syria, Russia is generally keen on a strong presence in the Middle East, particularly Egypt. “Russian support of Sisi means cooperation with the Egyptian military establishment, which is tremendously powerful, both in terms of armament and the financial resources that it controls,” he wrote. “A partner with that level of strength gives Russia influence over the politics of the region.”

The West

While acknowledging possible American consternation over growing cooperation between Egypt and Russia, Plank dismisses claims of the return of a “Cold War-style proxy battle.” It would “would require a tremendous amount of political capital” for Washington “to stage any intervention – diplomatic, economic, or otherwise – to regain the influence lost in Egypt,” he said.

The United States would also benefit from Egyptian-Russian cooperation in the war on terrorism in the region, which is seen as one of the main reasons for Sisi’s third visit to Moscow: “Russian cooperation with Egypt to target radical groups like the Islamic State does not undermine American foreign policy in the region.”

Journalist Emad al-Sayed said the recent alliance with Russia earned Egypt a lot of political gains that might not have been possible had Cairo “remained under the U.S. and European Union umbrella, or followed them in their relations with a strong country like Russia.”

Getting close to Moscow, Sayed said, played a major role in restoring Egypt’s relations with the West. “Egypt managed to partly restore the positive convergence with important international powers,” he said. “It recovered its strategic relations with the U.S. using the Egyptian-Russian convergence as its playing card, and got closer to main European powers such as Germany and France.”

Mohamed Abdel Qader, analyst at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, agreed about the impact of close ties with Russia on easing U.S.-Egyptian tension. “The U.S. is using political and military tools to re-incorporate the Muslim Brotherhood in the political scene. It froze some aid and military agreements. The decision to go East contributes to consolidating Egyptian-U.S. relations,” he said, calling the alliance with Russia “part of a consistent strategic plan.”

However, Abdel Qader said U.S.-Egyptian relations will never go back to the way they were under former President Hosni Mubarak.

Regional dimension

Political science professor Mohamed Kamal said Sisi’s visit to Russia was far from confined to bilateral relations, as important as these were. “This visit has an important regional dimension, which mainly focuses on the Syrian crisis,” Kamal said.

“Russia is the country with the biggest influence on the Syrian regime and will, therefore, play a major role in resolving the conflict. This kind of influence is driving several countries in the region to seek closer ties with Russia.”

Strategic expert Mahmoud Zahr said Russia needed regional support to reach an agreement on Syria, and this was one of the topics to be discussed during the visit. “Russia is trying to formulate an initiative that would push the Syrian regime to hold presidential elections, and the inclusion of countries in the region is crucial since preserving the unity of Syrian territories is in their best interest.”

Alexander Shumilin, a Russian expert on the Middle East, said Iran was another contributing factor to establishing stronger ties between Cairo and Moscow: “Russia is the ideal mediator between Egypt and Iran, and will work on alleviating Egypt’s concerns over Iran and preparing for Iran’s integration into the region especially after the signing of the nuclear deal.”

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http://english.alarabiya.net/en/perspective/features/2015/08/25/Can-the-Pink-Taxi-solve-Egypt-s-harassment-problem-.html

For years, Egypt has been grappling with the growing phenomenon of sexual harassment. Rights organizations have launched a wide range of initiatives mainly aimed at encouraging women to report verbal and physical harassment. While recent jail sentences against men proven guilty of sexual harassment have been greeted with relative optimism, preventive measures on the ground remain lacking.

The introduction of the women-only Pink Taxi is, in this sense, seen as a positive step toward making Egyptian women feel safer in public. The ability of the project to tackle such a large-scale problem has, however, been questioned from the outset.

Criticisms

Azza Kamel, a women’s rights activist and head of the Appropriate Communication Techniques center (ACT), said the Pink Taxi “encourages segregation of the sexes, and this undermines the cause of fighting against harassment. Women have the right to feel safe while men are around. It is a society made up of men and women, and they have to coexist safely.” Kamel expressed concern that the project would promote segregation as a means of solving the problem in other fields such as education.

Intesar al-Saeid, a lawyer and director of the Cairo Center for Development and Human Rights, said the project promoted taking Egyptian women back to “the era of the harem,” and widened the class gap.

“The Pink Taxi is only for women who can afford taking taxis, and ignores other women who use public transportation,” she said, adding that all such projects are useless if the law is not strictly applied to sexual offenders, and if no effort is made to change the culture of Egyptian society.

Journalist Wael Abdel Fattah also used the word “harem” in reference to the project. “What this project does is locking women up instead of changing their surroundings,” he wrote. “The Pink Taxi only highlights the gravity of the problem but will never solve it.” Abdel Fattah compared the Pink Taxi to upscale gated communities in which people “pay millions to isolate themselves from the rest of the community,” and called both “a consumerist” way of escaping the problem.

In addition to agreeing that the project undermines calls for gender equality, sociology professor Ahmed Yehia Abdel Hamid finds the Pink Taxi less safe. “A taxi with women only is more subject to acts of aggression like harassment and kidnapping,” he said. “This will especially be the case if the taxi breaks down in a deserted area.”

Nehad Abul Qomsan, head of the Egyptian Center for Women Rights, said the project would not give women more freedom, as it claims. “Starting such a tradition will lead women to see taxis driven by men as dangerous, and there will never be enough pink taxis to accommodate women who use taxis,” she said. “The end result is that women will become more restricted and more isolated.”

Support

Fouad al-Saeid of the National Center for Social and Criminological Research said: “In a city like Cairo, our priority should be looking for as many practical solutions as possible to the problems, and the Pink Taxi is one such solution.”

He added that separating men and women in public transportation is not new. “For years, we’ve had women-only cars in the Cairo subway and this protects them from harassment.” Saeid said the project promotes equality by allowing women to occupy jobs customarily reserved for men, such as driving taxis.

Pink Taxi driver Inas Hassan said women feel much more at ease when the driver is also female. “We talk about women issues, and if they are tired they would sleep through the trip, which is something they don’t do if the driver is a man,” she said. “Also, when they know me, they trust me with their children, also something they wouldn’t do with male drivers. I once drove a third-grade child from east of Cairo all the way to the west.”

Professor of political sociology Saeid al-Sadeq said the project was the inevitable result of the security vacuum that followed the Jan. 25 revolution, which led to an increase in sexual harassment among other crimes. “Women were not only harassed but sometimes kidnapped, and many of them were grounded because they are afraid of taking a taxi, especially that women in Egypt are not trained to defend themselves against assaults,” he said.

Sadeq added that the Pink Taxi was one of the immediate reactions that would solve the problem at the moment, until further long-term actions are taken. “While providing those solutions, we can start working on other issues like the phenomenon of moral deterioration among youths in Egyptian streets.”

Despite supporting the project as a means of giving women more freedom of movement, Mona Abdel Radi, spokesperson for the Women of Egypt Front, criticized restricting the service to relatively well-to-do women. “The project needs to be implemented on a larger scale so that, for example, women-only buses are made available,” she said.

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http://english.alarabiya.net/en/perspective/analysis/2015/08/18/The-Brotherhood-s-Istanbul-conference-Turkey-s-message-to-Egypt-.html

The Conference for Countering Despotism and Bloodshed, held on Aug. 8-9 in Istanbul, slammed Egypt’s government – referred to as “the coup” – for its clampdown on the Muslim Brotherhood during the past two years. It was organized by the Union for Sunni Scholars, an association known to be pro-Brotherhood, and hosted affiliated Islamic associations.

The closing statement, read out by a number of leading preachers, said Egypt’s government was illegitimate, so “people should not abide by any of the state’s decrees and should, instead, strive to rise against them.” The statement, which accused the government of state terrorism and crimes against humanity, specifically slammed death sentences against Brotherhood leaders, including former President Mohammad Mursi.

“These are politicized sentences and if they are executed the consequences are bound to be grave on the domestic, regional, and international levels,” said the statement. “Stopping the execution of those sentences is a legitimate, moral, and human right.” The statement argued that by “waging a war against Islam,” the state drove Egyptians to either atheism or extremism.

It said Aug. 14, which marks the second anniversary of the dispersal of protest sit-ins in Cairo, would be a day of “popular uprising against tyranny” under the leadership of Islamic scholars. The statement held the government responsible for the death in jail of Essam Derbala, a former Islamist militant and leading figure in the movement Al-Gamaa al-Islamiya: “When you intentionally stop giving a sick man his medication, then this is pre-meditated murder for which you will burn in hell.”

The statement delivered “a message for the apostate Abdel Fatah al-Sisi [Egypt’s president]: You are a criminal and a murderer… you and all your thugs from ministers of interior all the way down to prison wardens. You are all murderers.”

Reactions

Egypt’s Dar al-Iftaa, the governmental body in charge of issuing religious edicts, said the conference was another attempt by Islamist factions to legitimize violence and spread chaos across the country. “This is especially clear in the choice of venue. Turkey’s hostility towards Egypt is no secret and so is the role it is trying to play in the region,” said a statement issued by the Fatwa Monitoring Observatory at Dar al-Iftaa.

The statement said the conference “was attended by the most extremist of Islamist preachers who are willing to receive foreign funding to further their goals.” It cited the focus on the Sunni nature of the conference as proof of collaboration between factions of political Islam and external powers. “This rhetoric corresponds to foreign agendas that aim to divide the region along sectarian lines.”

Al-Azhar deputy Abbas Shouman objected to conference participants presenting themselves as representatives of Sunni scholars: “Who gave them the right to claim this? Isn’t Al-Azhar the world’s biggest Sunni institution?” Shouman said what was common among participants was not that they were Sunni scholars, but that they were all members or supporters of the Brotherhood. “Was there one single scholar there who wasn’t tied to the Brotherhood?”

Emirati writer Mariam al-Kaabi said the conference was one of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s tools to achieve his regional ambitions under the pretext of religion. “Turkey hosted a conference whose main purpose is inciting violence against Egypt and its leaders because Erdogan cannot let go of his dream of restoring the Islamic caliphate under his leadership and is using religion and sectarianism to achieve this goal,” she wrote. Kaabi adding that the Brotherhood was Turkey’s main agent in weakening Egypt’s regional influence. “Turkey has been helping the Muslim Brotherhood in every possible way.”

Former Brotherhood leader Tarek al-Bishbishi said the group “wants to ward off the charge of terrorism by holding conferences in which members and supporters of the group condemn extremism and highlight the difference between the Brotherhood and other militant groups such as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS].”

The Brotherhood, Bishbishi added, was now fighting for survival. “In addition to proving it isn’t a terrorist group, the Brotherhood is also desperate to seek help from sympathetic countries so it can guarantee it won’t be eliminated,” he said. “This shows the group is starting to realize that its end is near.”

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http://english.alarabiya.net/en/perspective/analysis/2015/08/06/How-significant-is-Egypt-s-New-Suez-Canal-to-the-world-.html

Preparations for the inauguration of the new Suez Canal are being accompanied by a variety of nationwide festivities for a project marketed by the state as the most vital since the High Dam, and the biggest triumph since the 1973 war with Israel.

Main squares across Egypt are decorated, statues are erected at the entrances of canal cities, and the site of the canal is being prepared for a gala event to be attended by VIPs from around the globe.

Meanwhile, TV channels display the countdown to the inauguration as they broadcast patriotic songs, some made especially for the occasion, and host analysts who innumerate the benefits of the canal. Yet amid this jovial ambiance, a few skeptical voices can still be heard, questioning how representative the propaganda is of the actual value of “Egypt’s gift to the world.”

“Cutting construction time doubled the expenses,” he said, referring to the 19.5 billion Egyptian pounds ($2.49 billion) that constitute the total excavation cost.

Kaddour explained the motivation behind the timing thus: “The project was announced at a time of instability and political divisions. A national mega project was necessary to unite Egyptians over a common cause.”

Rasha Qennawi, a member of the Popular Front for the Suez Canal Corridor, said: “Instead of building a new canal, the area surrounding the old one could’ve been fully developed. This is what would really increase economic growth, job opportunities, and the state’s resources.”

Khaled Abdel Fattah, an economic expert and professor of investment, said the project, which he called a “branch” rather than a canal, would not benefit Egypt’s economy. “Talk about increasing the revenue of the canal is incorrect. There’s no relation between revenue and the digging of a branch of the Suez Canal,” he said, adding that revenue is only linked to global trade.

“Only 1-2 percent of global trade passes through the Suez Canal, and the new branch will not increase it.”

Wali added that from 2009, the number of vessels crossing the canal daily had decreased to 47 in 2014. “This means there was no need for another canal, since the old one isn’t working with full capacity,” which is 76 vessels daily.

Optimism

Economic expert Fakhri al-Feqi said according to feasibility studies, the revenue of the canal is expected to rise from $5.3 billion to $13.5 billion over the coming eight years. “Global trading is expected to increase by more than 10 percent with the opening of the new canal, because with the digging of another waterway the waiting time of each vessel will be minimized,” he said, adding that the new canal is the first step toward developing the surrounding area.

Adel Amer, chairman of Al-Masreyin Center for Political and Strategic Studies, said: “This is a mega project that isn’t limited to the digging of a passageway. The entire area will be developed, and a vital trade center will be established. Think of the job opportunities this would bring.” Amer added that the new project would allow the Suez Canal to compete with the Panama Canal.

Businessman and economic analyst Hussein Sabbour said the new canal aborted foreign conspiracies against Egypt. “There was a scheme to divert traffic from the Suez Canal, and Egypt had to act quickly,” he said. “Plus, because of climate change a new trade route is expected to emerge in the North Pole in the coming 50 years, so Egypt had to take serious steps toward utilizing the strategic location of the canal.”

Sabbour added that the construction of the new canal, and the presence of dignitaries from all over the world at the opening, will attract investors to Egypt and open the door for more projects that will boost the economy.

Economic researcher Hisham Khalil said the new canal is a mega project that cannot be underestimated. “Constructing the canal in one year is indeed an engineering miracle, and we have to give credit to all those who worked on completing it and accepted such a tough challenge,” he wrote.

The problem, he said, was not the canal itself but the priorities. “The topmost priority of the state should be human beings – their health and education. This is the most important investment” he wrote. “Yet the state seems to care more about publicity.”

Khalil said while the new canal was a major achievement and the state must have meant well when it initiated it, the project could have been postponed until more important problems that require huge funds were solved. “The state acted like a man with 10 children who decided to send one of them to Harvard while the other nine are starved.”

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http://english.alarabiya.net/en/perspective/analysis/2015/08/04/The-curious-case-of-Egypt-s-banned-preacher.html

“May God avenge us on those who spilt our blood and orphaned our children… May God avenge us on corrupt politicians, those who oppressed us, violated the sanctity of our homes… May God avenge us on tyrants and despots,” said preacher Mohamed Gibril in the sermon he delivered at a Cairo mosque in the last week of the holy month of Ramadan.

Gibril dedicated just under half the 40-minute sermon to “corrupt politicians who divided the Egyptian people,” and particularly those “who killed youths in the squares” and “imprisoned thousands unjustly.”

He pleaded with God to help the families of martyrs, detainees and exiles. Gibril cried while reciting the supplication, and a large number of worshippers followed suit as they repeated: “Amen.” Shortly after, Gibril was banned from preaching in Egypt, then banned from leaving the country.

“We’ll never allow places of worship to be used for political purposes,” said Minister of Religious Endowments Mohamed Mokhtar Gomaa, who decreed the ban against Gibril. “Mixing politics with religion has inflicted a lot of harm on the country, and we need to make sure this never happens again.”

Gomaa equated Gibril’s sermon with the previous use of mosques for electoral campaigning by the Muslim Brotherhood, and said the ministry would monitor mosques across Egypt and take serious measures against any that allow political talk during sermons.

“The ministry will request that Egyptian TV doesn’t broadcast any of Gibril’s sermons, and that no Arab country or no country at war with terrorism allows him to preach at its mosques. We won’t give him another chance to emotionally manipulate the people,” Gomaa said, adding that anyone proven to help Gibril deliver sermons or give religious lessons would be penalized.

The ministry filed a complaint against Gibril, accusing him of “supporting extremism” and citing his use of expressions previously used by Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badei, such as comparing government officials and pro-government journalists to “the pharaoh’s sorcerers.”

Mohamed al-Shahat al-Guindi, a member of the Islamic Center for Research, said Gibril was serving the Brotherhood’s agenda, even if unintentionally. “Instead of calling upon the Egyptians to unite, he’s turning them against each other through inciting supplications,” he said. “This is exactly what the Muslim Brotherhood wants: to see Egyptians divided.” Guindi said the Brotherhood also took advantage of the incident to attack the regime. “Now they’re saying the Egyptian state is persecuting religious figures, and this isn’t true.”

Salafi Sheikh Mohamed Saeid Raslan said whoever attacked the Egyptian state was a “traitor,” and this applied to Gibril. “If you find a preacher attacking the state, then be sure he has a hidden agenda and wants to incite sedition among the people,” he said, adding that worshippers who responded to Gibril were also traitors because they support his scheme.
Raslan accused Gibril of ingratitude since he attacked the very government that gave him the opportunity to become a renowned preacher. “How did he get to preach at the first mosque in the African continent?” Raslan asked, referring to Amr Ibn al-Aas Mosque in Egypt’s old capital Fustat. “Is that how he repays the state that raised him to this rank?”

Overreaction?

TV anchor Tamer Amin said Gibril’s penalty was in no way equal to his offense. “Yes, he made a mistake when he mixed religion with politics, but it was enough to suspend him or refer him to a disciplinary committee. Banning him from traveling is taking it a little too far,” Amin said, adding that Gibril’s offense was administrative, not criminal. “This way the state isn’t abiding by the law, and is only demonstrating that opposition won’t be tolerated.”

Journalist Reda Hamouda said Gibril’s punishment was part of a plan by the state to eliminate all Islamist voices, which he argued constitute the main opposition bloc against the current government. “This is despite the fact that this same regime came to power through opposition,” Hamouda wrote. “It looks as if the regime is worried that what it did to its predecessor would be done to it if it does not eliminate voices of dissent.”

While agreeing that Gibril had an agenda when he included politics in his sermon, journalist Emad al-Din Hussein criticized the state for its reaction. “Through its exaggerated response, the state made a sermon heard by a few people the talk of the town, and made a hero out of Gibril,” he wrote. “If he belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood, then this is the best propaganda ever for them.”

Hussein said the state looked extremely insecure when it took such extreme measures without tangible proof of who Gibril meant in his sermon. “The question that inevitably poses itself now is: Why was the state infuriated with a preacher who prays to God against tyrants?”

Political activist Gamal Eid sarcastically responded to the measures against Gibril with a counter-supplication: “May God grant tyrants victory and endow despots with strength. May God avenge us on those who seek justice and strike the insightful with blindness and cast his fury upon supporters of democracy.”

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http://english.alarabiya.net/en/perspective/analysis/2015/07/31/Screaming-against-the-Egyptian-Coptic-church-over-divorce.html

Egyptians associate the word “tamarod,” Arabic for “rebellion,” with the campaign launched in 2013 to topple President Mohamed Mursi. Now, the name is bestowed upon an unprecedented movement calling for the resignation of Pope Tawadros II, head of the Egyptian Coptic Church. The campaign was launched by a group called Al-Sarkha (The Scream), which demands reform of the Coptic Personal Status Law, particularly regarding permission to divorce.

This is a challenge to the authority of the pope, who is to remain in his position for life, and shows how vocal opponents of church policies have become. Ishak Francis, founder of the group and the campaign, said the idea came to him after the church insisted on ignoring the demands of Copts and refused to change the Personal Status Law.

“The church claims it’s looking into our problems, but it doesn’t keep its promises. Had any progress been noticeable, this campaign wouldn’t have started and gained momentum,” he said, adding that he has so far collected 7, 562 signatures in Cairo alone, including 10 from Saint Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral, the seat of the pope. Francis said the pope had repeatedly made fun of Copts, including himself, who demand a reform.

“The pope even started turning in his critics to the police,” he said, referring to Adel Sedki, who was detained by priests in the cathedral then taken to the police station and charged with “disrupting security” after leading a delegation that attempted to talk the pope into changing the law. Francis dismissed claims that he was part of a conspiracy against the Coptic Church.

“Whenever faced with our demands, the church claims there’s a conspiracy instead of listening to our grievances and attempting to solve them.” Francis added that the church’s decision to make adultery the only legitimate cause for divorce is not based on the Bible or the teachings of Christ. Francis criticized the pope for other matters that he saw as detrimental to the Coptic Church.

“He accepts the baptism of Catholics, is trying to coordinate Easter date with other sects, and has been busy with visits to Europe and the United States while neglecting his own people.” In response to a question about the impossibility of deposing the pope, Francis replied that “nothing is impossible.”

No-confidence vote

The Christian Youths Movement for Orthodox Copts said the no-confidence vote that the Tamarod campaign seeks is not applicable to the pope, since he is “divinely chosen” and not a government official. “A vote of no confidence can apply to a president,” said Christian Youths founder Nader Sobhi. “In the church, it might be applicable to priests who prove inefficient since they’re chosen by human beings.”

Sobhi questioned the validity of the signatures the movement claims to have collected. “If the forms don’t have the national ID numbers of citizens and their signatures, they don’t count,” he said. Sobhi threatened to send the movement’s members to jail if the forms proved to be fake. “We’ll make sure to carefully examine those forms and contact the signatory to ensure their authenticity.”

Deposing the pope is also seen as unthinkable by Copts who demand reform of the Personal Status Law and who have personally suffered from restrictions on divorce. The League of Personal Status Victims, which includes leading critics of the divorce law who have for years been lobbying to change it, slammed The Scream’s Tamarod campaign for “the absurdity of its demands.” The league’s leader Hani Ezzat al-Masry said the papal seat should remain above all disputes in the church.

“The pope is a red line, and the stability of his position is an integral part of the stability of the church and Egypt as a whole,” he said. “Our problem is only with procrastination and mismanagement, but has nothing to do with the pope.” Masri called the Tamarod campaign members “traitors” and “agents of foreign powers,” and accused “forces of darkness inside the church” of trying to create a rift between the church and state.

Divine choice

Official spokesman of the Coptic Church, Father Boules Halim, said the ordination of the pope was not open to discussion. “The pope is chosen by the clergy and representatives of the congregation, and most important of all by God through the continuous praying and fasting of the entire church until the names of candidates for the papacy are revealed,” he said.

“The rules of the church stipulate that the pope remains in his seat for all his life, and no violation of such rules is accepted.” Halim added that the vast majority of Copts, both clergy and laymen, would never accept a campaign aimed at deposing the pope, who is “the father of all Copts.”

Nader al-Serafi, founder of the reformist Copts 38 Coalition – named after the 1938 law that allowed divorce for nine reasons, including chronic illness, impotence, abandonment and irreconcilable differences – said the idea of deposing the pope is not new to the Coptic Orthodox Church.

“It happened in 1954, and took a more violent turn when members of the group called the Society of the Coptic Nation kidnapped Pope Yousab II, who they charged with corruption,” Serafi said, adding that the pope was then forced to sign his resignation and new papal elections were held. “There are many similarities between both cases, mainlythat both popes were victims of a conspiracy that took advantage of the turmoil through which the country was going.”

Serafi underlined the intervention of late President Gamal Abdel Nasser in favor of church laws with the arrest of members of the rebellious group. “That’s why I think the ball is in the court of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who needs to intervene to end this fray.”

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http://english.alarabiya.net/en/perspective/analysis/2015/07/24/Will-Egypt-ever-get-its-looted-money-back-.html

For the past few years, a sizable portion of the Egyptian public has been preoccupied with the wealth of former President Hosni Mubarak and his clique. Getting this money back was a major demand of the revolution of Jan. 25, 2011. Since 2011, there has been much talk of efforts to reclaim it, but nothing has materialized. With Mubarak, his sons and several top aides acquitted of several of the charges they had faced after the revolution, hope has started to fade.

The issue sprang back to life in June 2015, with Switzerland extending the freezing of the funds of Mubarak and 31 of his clique until 2017, and the subsequent presidential decree establishing a new committee to look into the matter once more. The National Committee for the Repatriation of Egyptian Money and Assets Abroad was not greeted with the same old enthusiasm, as many wondered if it would be any different from its failed predecessors.

Former Prime Minister Ali Lotfi said several factors contributed to the failure of the previous four governmental committees to reclaim the money. “The lengthy judicial process in Egypt was a major obstacle. The money will only be returned after the verdict against the person who owns it is final,” he said.

“A sentence in the text of the verdict has to clarify that the money of the defendant belongs to the Egyptian state and has to be returned, and this did not happen.” Lotfi added that the state should have hired international lawyers to handle the case. “Instead, millions were spent on committees that did not do anything.”

Lawyer Samir Sabry filed a lawsuit with the Public Funds Prosecution against the previous committees, which he accused of squandering public funds. “The total expenses of those committees has reached half a billion Egyptian pounds, and nothing was achieved,” Sabry wrote in the complaint. “If we go on like this, we will spend the amount we are working to get back.” Sabry also objected to the details of the expenses of such committees not being made public.

Foreign involvement

Moataz Salah al-Din, coordinator of the non-governmental Popular Initiative for the Repatriation of Smuggled Money, said relying on court rulings alone was a mistake. “Egypt should have also addressed relevant countries in the context of the U.N. convention against corruption,” he said, adding that some countries are usually more cooperative than others.

“Switzerland is the most likely to return the money, since Swiss public opinion and several NGOs there are supportive,” he said. “The United States has so far been the most intransigent, as it refused a request by the Egyptian government to freeze the accounts of 103 officials from the Mubarak regime.”

The changes through which Egypt has gone since the revolution, Salah al-Din added, made the success of such committees much harder. “The process was delayed by several regime changes, which also gave an impression to the involved countries that the Egyptian state is not stable enough to handle the smuggled-money file,” he said.

Court rulings

Wahid Abdel Maguid, researcher at the Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, said the new committee would never be able to progress in the absence of court rulings. “The formation of the committee is only a bureaucratic step,” he said. “A judicial action is needed, but courts in Egypt are preoccupied with domestic cases.”

Abdel Ghaffar Shokr, deputy chairman of the National Council for Human Rights, agreed that the committee would be useless without court orders. “True, it was a positive step on the part of the president to revive the matter, but the judiciary has to be quick in issuing final verdicts that can be immediately put into force.”

Financial analyst Hani Mahmoud said banks would not return the money without a court ruling. “The country demanding the return of the money has to provide proof that this money was obtained illegally,” he said.

A report by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights said providing such proof was far-fetched, adding: “Technically, this money is not blood money since it is not obtained through illegal activities in the conventional sense like, for example, drug dealing or arms trade.”

Optimism

Professor of international law Ahmed Refaat said he was optimistic about the new committee, adding that it was different from the others since it allowed reconciliation between the state and those accused of smuggling money abroad. “The accused will make restitution of the looted funds in exchange for dropping charges against them. Egyptian law allows reconciliation in several matters, including currency, tax and customs-related issues,” he said.

“The possibility of reconciliation will save time and huge amounts of money paid for international law firms and travel allowances for the members of the relevant committees.” Refaat said this might be the only realistic means of getting the money back, since traditional legal means might not work, especially with countries whose economy strongly relies on banking.

“If those countries restituted these funds, depositors’ confidence in these banks relying on foreign remittances would be shaken, which would lead to reluctance to deposit funds in these banks and cause the collapse of these countries’ banking systems.”

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http://english.alarabiya.net/en/perspective/analysis/2015/07/11/Egypt-vs-ISIS-Is-Sinai-now-an-official-battlefield-.html

The July 1 Sinai attacks were not the first, but they were the most shocking. They followed the assassination of the prosecutor general, which made linking the two incidents inevitable, especially since they both took place around the second anniversary of the June 30 protests that toppled former President Mohamed Mursi.

Confusion ensued due to contradictory reports on the number of deaths, with an official figure of 21 but local sources saying 70-100. The media described the battle, between Islamist militants and the army, as the fiercest since the 1973 war between Egypt and Israel. Meanwhile, officials are trying to alleviate fears over the growing power the militant group Sinai Province, which is affiliated to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Syria and Iraq

“This specific attack is by far the worst we’ve ever seen,” said Daniel Nisman, CEO of the Levantine Group Risk Consultancy, adding that the danger lies mainly in a plan to take over Sinai. “It’s not a hit and run – this is what [ISIS] used in places like Syria and Iraq to capture and hold territory.” Nisman said the operation underlined the shortcomings of the “scorched land” strategy of the Egyptian army, as it makes it harder for the state to garner local support.

Sinai security expert Zack Gold described the attack as “new and worrying,” and said militants either aimed to take over the city of Sheikh Zuwaid, where the attacks took place, or wanted to drag the army into an actual battle. “Either one is unprecedented.” However, he said comparing Sinai to Iraq and Syria was unrealistic, and the success of militants in the peninsula was extremely unlikely.

“Egypt isn’t Iraq; this isn’t Anbar. The [Egyptian] military is more cohesive, has more firepower, and has the capability to get them out,” Gold said, adding that the main obstacle is the number of civilians that could be killed in the process.

Journalist Adel al-Qadi said the analogy with Syria and Iraq is not far-fetched. “For the first time, Sinai Province manages to control the streets and military checkpoints of Sheikh Zuwaid, and to besiege police stations and security camps, in addition to planting IEDs [improvised explosive devices] on highways to prevent rescue. All this while simultaneously attacking 15 targets with all sorts of weapons,” he wrote. “This looks like real war.”

Tactics

Qadi noted the large number of militants who took part in the attack – estimated at 300-500 – and the advanced training they must have received, especially in the use of anti-aircraft missiles.

Eissa al-Kharafin, one of the elders of the northern Sinai tribe of Armilat, said the militants exhibited unusual power in the attack. “We were shocked to see them roaming the streets of Sheikh Zuwaid freely, and to see military facilities besieged,” he said, adding that the army was taken by surprise.

Aref al-Akour, a chieftain of Al-Sawarka tribe, blamed the state for following the same strategy after every attack. “With every attack, the state imposes harsher measures, but apparently militants are not affected and civilians in the region are the only ones who really suffer,” he said.

Yehia Abu Nassira, also of Al-Sawarka, said launching airstrikes is not the solution, especially in light of civilian casualties. “Terrorism will only be eliminated through cooperation between the state and the locals of Sinai,” he said. “The state needs to use their help instead of only pointing fingers at them. We have reached the point where almost all members of tribes are considered suspects.”

Khaled Abdel Rahman, political analyst and member of the Revolutionary Socialists Movement, also underlined the tense relation between the state and Sinai residents. “According to the Egyptian state, if you are from Sinai then you are guilty until proven innocent,” he wrote.

Abdel Rahman added that militants in Sinai keep making a more powerful comeback each time, which was obvious in the last attack, because they are technically in a more advantageous position than the army. “The mountainous nature and rugged terrains of Sinai serve them well. Plus, they know that the Egyptian army is not trained to engage in guerrilla wars.”

Mistakes

While admitting that the last attack was like no other in terms of tactics, weaponry and purpose, writer Fahmi Howeidi said Sinai Province committed a grave mistake by assuming they could capture Sinai or even a small part of it. “It seems the group was tempted by the relative success it has achieved in Syria and Iraq, and accordingly decided to follow the same pattern in Egypt,” he wrote.

“They totally overlooked the fact that Egypt is different; it is a proper state that has a powerful army and a population of 90 million, and is not plighted by sectarian wars as is the case in Iraq and Syria.” Assuming that Egypt is a failed state doomed their plans, Howeidi added.

However, the state made two major mistakes, he said. “The first is insisting on a military rather than political and social solution, and this has not proven successful at all. The second is putting all Islamists in one basket and considering them all suspects, which increases resentment against the regime.”

Foreign involvement

However, the military approach is supported by numerous experts who believe confrontation is inevitable. General Abdel Rafea Darwish, co-founder of the Knights of Egypt party for army veterans, said the state needed to officially declare war in Sinai due to the sophistication of militants’ training and ammunition.

“The weapons used in the last attack proves that militants are receiving foreign funding,” he said, adding that the United States and Israel are most likely implicated and refuting claims about the involvement of Qatar and Turkey.

Zakaria Hussein, professor of strategic studies and former head of the Nasser Military Academy, said Sinai was already a war zone. “Militant groups have already declared war against the state, and this war is ongoing since terrorism is not eliminated,” he said.

General Moustafa Kamel, professor of political and strategic sciences, agreed that the war was far from over. “In fact, it is impossible to predict when it will end since there are foreign powers behind it,” he said, without specifying which countries.

General Farid Haggag, member of the London-based International Center for Strategic Studies, said the state needed to take stricter measures to speed up the elimination of terrorism in Sinai. “All residents of border areas have to be evacuated to create a buffer zone that no one from outside the army can have access to,” he said. “Anyone who tries to trespass is to be killed immediately.”

Haggag said the state should reveal the countries funding terrorist operations in Sinai and sever diplomatic ties with them. “This will make it harder for those countries to keep the funds coming, and will thus weaken militants.”

Brigadier General Mohamed Samir, official spokesman of the Egyptian Armed Forces, said all Sinai is currently under state control, and reassured civilians that the army would make sure it safeguards their lives and property while targeting militants. “I want everyone to rest assured that the militants’ days in Sinai are numbered,” he said. “It is only a matter of time before terrorism in Sinai is totally eliminated.”

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On June 1, three young Egyptians – a female and two males – went out for dinner together and never came back. For more than two weeks, their families failed to obtain information about their whereabouts despite contacting all relevant security bodies, including the Ministry of Interior and Military Prosecution. The issue went viral on social networking websites as concern over their safety heightened with each passing day.

On June 18, news of the female, photojournalist Israa al-Tawil, appeared for the first time when a judiciary source told the press that her arrest warrant was issued by the National Security Prosecution, and that she was detained pending interrogation.

“She is charged with spreading false news about Egypt,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “She accused the Egyptian judiciary of inaccuracy, and sent photos to foreign organizations to be used as proof of violent suppression of protests by security forces.”

Shortly after, the Facebook page Freedom for the Brave, which focuses on political prisoners, announced that the other two, political science student Sohaib Saad and engineer Omar Mohamed, were seen in detention together. No official announcement has been made about them yet, so the exact charges leveled against them remain unknown.

Despite relative happiness that the three turned out to be alive, their initial disappearance has become a source of major concern, especially after other names, reportedly disappearing in the same manner, started emerging.

Following Tawil’s disappearance, the National Council of Human Rights (NCHR) said it received dozens of complaints about disappearing citizens. “We received complaints about 50 cases, while other independent organizations such as Freedom for the Brave documented 163 cases since April,” said activist and NCHR member George Ishak.

Nasser Amin, head of the NCHR complaints committee, said the council will officially address the prosecutor general and the Ministry of Interior to inquire about those cases. “The authorities should inform the families of the detainees’ whereabouts as soon as they are arrested,” he said. “They also have to clarify the charges they are facing and the dates of their trials.” Amin added that the committee is going to sort out the cases to decide which of them can be categorized as “forced disappearance” according to international criteria.

A different number appeared in the info graph issued by the Egyptian Coordination of Rights and Freedoms (ECRF), which said 786 people disappeared between March and May. “The estimate provided by Freedom for the Brave is much lower than the actual figures,” said ECRF director Ezzat Ghoneim. “Organizations working on this issue will never get the same numbers, since it mainly depends on the number of people working for each organization on the ground.”

Legality

In a report entitled “Forced disappearances: Egypt in the footsteps of totalitarian regimes,” the Human Rights Documentary Organization (HRDO) said the detainees lose all their legal rights when their whereabouts are unknown, which is against all international agreements and charters. According to the report, forced disappearances mirror the state’s inability to deal with its problems in accordance with regular procedures.

“Making people disappear betrays a great deal of inefficiency on the part of the state since it prioritizes stability and security over its citizens’ rights and the rule of law,” said the report. “This is exactly what is done in Iran and North Korea.” The report noted that arbitrary arrests were against the constitution, particularly Article 54 on personal freedom.

According to the article, “citizens may only be apprehended, searched, arrested, or have their freedoms restricted by a causal judicial warrant necessitated by an investigation.” The article also says all detainees must be allowed to contact their families and lawyers.

Lawyer Hoda Abdel Moneim, spokesperson of the Egyptian Women’s Revolutionary Union, said disappearances raise concerns about the health of detainees, especially those requiring special medical care such as Tawil, who has a leg injury and needs regular physiotherapy. “I am holding the Interior Ministry accountable for any deterioration in her condition,” Abdel Moneim said.

Mona Seif, activist and founder of No to Military Trials for Civilians, said forced disappearances usually involve arbitrary arrests by people who do not present themselves as policemen. “Usually people are taken from the street by men in civilian clothes without being told what their charges are. Then security bodies would deny knowing anything about them.” This, she said, was the case with the three disappeared youths.

While human rights organizations almost unanimously agree that the frequency of forced disappearances has become quite alarming, political parties disagree over the gravity of the situation.

The Egyptian Social Democratic Party issued a statement calling on the president to intervene. “The president is responsible for ensuring that the law and the constitution are respected, and this is not the case with forced disappearances, where the detainees are not informed of their offenses and are detained without trial,” said the statement.

Abdel Aziz al-Husseini, secretary general of the Karama party, said since the constitution was voted on by most Egyptians, violating it implies disrespect for them. “This is an attack against all Egyptians,” he said, also calling on the president to intervene.

Sceptics

Other parties say the matter has been blown out of proportion. Ahmed Ezz al-Arab, deputy chairman of the Wafd Party, said reports about forced disappearances are issued by domestic and foreign bodies that aim to destabilize Egypt and tarnishing its image.

“Human rights organizations are not to be trusted, since they always focus on the rights of detainees and overlook the offenses they might be involved in or the people they might have harmed,” he said. “How can they be sure that those so-called ‘disappeared’ are not criminals?”

Nagi al-Shehabi, head of Al-Geel Party, said he did not believe the numbers announced by the NCHR. “These are exaggerated figures that only aim at making a fuss about nothing,” he said, calling for the restructuring of the council so it can be purged of “members with ulterior motives.”

Shehabi said the term “forced disappearance” was inaccurate. “Disappearances are quite common. People can just leave, and their families would not know anything about them for years and maybe for life. How can we know that they were taken against their will and did not leave voluntarily? And we never heard about security forces being held accountable for the disappearance of people except now.”

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On June 29, Egyptian Prosecutor-General Hisham Barakat was killed in a bomb attack that targeted his motorcade. Being the first terrorist attack to target a top Egyptian official since the failed attempt on the life on the interior minister in 2013, the assassination brought back concerns about the growing strength of the attackers and the corresponding weaknesses of the security system.

The attack also brought back to the forefront earlier threats by extremist groups to target the judiciary. Such threats did not prove hollow with the assassination in May of three judges in the Sinai Peninsula. In fact, the Wilayet Sinai (Province of Sinai) militant group, which pledges allegiance to ISIS, posted a video of the assassination of the judges a few hours before Barakat was killed under the title “The liquidation of judges.” The timing of the assassination is also quite revealing since it took place one day before the second anniversary of the June 30 protests that toppled the Muslim Brotherhood that was regarded by the group and its supporters as a military coup. All those links are expected to provide definitive answers to the reasons behind the assassination, but do they?

Pointing the finger of blame

In his article “From al-Khazendar to Hisham Barakat,” political commentator Khaled Ammar holds the Muslim Brotherhood accountable for the assassination and argues that it has been common for the group to target members of the judiciary in retaliation for sentences they issue against them. “It started in 1948 with the assassination of Judge Ahmed al-Khazendar who was at the time in charge of a case about the involvement of the Muslim Brotherhood in the bombing of a movie theatre,” he wrote.

“When arrested, the attackers were found to possess documents that proved their affiliation to the Muslim Brotherhood and the first suspect turned out to have been the secretary of the group’s supreme leader Hassan al-Banna.” Ammar added, noting that at the time, Banna denied having known about the assassination plot. Ammar also referred to the failed attempt on the life of Judge Moataz Khafagi who was in charge of the case known as “the guidance bureau incidents,” in which Muslim Brotherhood members were accused of murder and attempted murder as well as to the killing of the three judges in Sinai. While stressing that it is not possible to determine the culprits at the moment, historian and manuscripts professors Emad Abu Ghazi said that the Muslim Brotherhood has had the biggest share of political assassinations in Egypt, especially senior officials. “In addition to Khazendar, they killed Prime Minister Mahmoud al-Nokrashi when he decided to disband the group and tried to kill president Gamal Abdel Nasser when he disagreed with them,” Ammar said.

Targeting Barakat

Nagi Shehata, known as the “judge of executions” for the death sentences he issued against members of the Muslim Brotherhood, said that like other members of the judiciary, Barakat was targeted because of his determination to fight terrorism. “I know that I for one am at the top of this hit list,” he said in a press interview. For Shehata, eliminating terrorist attacks against judges would only be possible through the modification of the Criminal Procedures Law. “Sentences should be implemented immediately following their ratification by the president instead of allowing them to be appealed,” he explained. “Slow justice is a form of injustice and the possibility of getting away with crimes encourages more crimes.” For Justice Minister Ahmed al-Zend, the assassination of the prosecutor-general is bound to intensify the state’s efforts to eliminate terrorism. “And judges will now be more determined to make sure terrorists do not escape punishment,” he said. “We are going to avenge not only judges, but all the victims of terrorism, ” he said.

Journalist and former MP Moustafa Bakri accused political activists of playing a role as major as that of the Muslim Brotherhood as far as incitement of violence in concerned. “Activists who condemned the assassination of the prosecutor general did previously support terrorists involved in similar attacks. Those same activists were at the morgue supporting the families of executed terrorists in the Arab Sharkas case,” he wrote in reference to the controversial execution of six suspects found guilty of terrorism in what was seen as a retaliation to the killing of the Sinai judges. Bakri, however, did not mention names of the activists he referred to.

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