جمهوريّة مصر العربيّة
EGYPT - NOVEMBER 2011
محمد حسين طنطاوى سليمان
Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi
Mohamed Hussein Tantawi Soliman - born October 31, 1935) is an Egyptian Field Marshal and statesman.
He is the commander-in-chief of the Egyptian Armed Forces and since February 11, 2011, he has been simultaneously the Minister of Defense, and Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, the de facto head of state of Egypt.
Tantawi has served in the government as Minister of Defense and Military Production since 1991 and was also Deputy Prime Minister in January–February 2011.
Tantawi, who is of Nubian origin, received his commission as a military officer on April 1, 1956 serving in the infantry.
He took part in the Sinai War of 1956, the Six-Day War of 1967, and the Yom Kippur War of 1973, all against Israel.
He held various commands and was assigned as military attaché to Pakistan.
Tantawi has served as Commander of the Presidential Guard and Chief of the Operations Authority of the Armed Forces.
In 1990/1991 he also took part in the U.S.-led Gulf War against Iraq to force it to pull out its troops from Kuwait, which it invaded on 1990 by commanding an Egyptian army unit deployed in the Gulf theater of operations.
On May 20, 1991, following the dismissal of Lt. General Youssef Sabri Abu Taleb, Tantawi was appointed as Minister of Defense and Military Production and commander-in-chief of the Egyptian Armed Forces.
He was also appointed as Field Marshal.
It is believed that Tantawi would have succeeded Mubarak as president of Egypt, had the assassination attempt in June 1995 been successful.
Early in 2011, Tantawi was seen as a possible contender for the Egyptian presidency.
Tantawi, who is of Nubian origin, received his commission as a military officer on April 1, 1956 serving in the infantry.
He took part in the Sinai War of 1956, the Six-Day War of 1967, and the Yom Kippur War of 1973, all against Israel.
He held various commands and was assigned as military attaché to Pakistan.
Tantawi has served as Commander of the Presidential Guard and Chief of the Operations Authority of the Armed Forces.
In 1990/1991 he also took part in the U.S.-led Gulf War against Iraq to force it to pull out its troops from Kuwait, which it invaded on 1990 by commanding an Egyptian army unit deployed in the Gulf theater of operations.
On May 20, 1991, following the dismissal of Lt. General Youssef Sabri Abu Taleb, Tantawi was appointed as Minister of Defense and Military Production and commander-in-chief of the Egyptian Armed Forces.
He was also appointed as Field Marshal.
It is believed that Tantawi would have succeeded Mubarak as president of Egypt, had the assassination attempt in June 1995 been successful.
Early in 2011, Tantawi was seen as a possible contender for the Egyptian presidency.
ميدان التحرير
Tahrir Square - Cairo - Egypt
Tahrir Square (English: Liberation Square) is a major public town square in Downtown Cairo, Egypt.
The square was originally called Ismailia Square, after the 19th-century ruler Khedive Ismail, who commissioned the new downtown district's 'Paris on the Nile' design.
After the Egyptian Revolution of 1919 the square became widely known as Tahrir (Liberation) Square, but the square was not officially renamed until the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, which changed Egypt from a constitutional monarchy into a republic.
The square is a focal point for the Egyptian Revolution of 2011.
At the centre of Tahrir Square is a large and busy traffic circle. On the north-east side is a plaza with a statue of nationalist hero Omar Makram, celebrated for his resistance against Napoleon I's invasion of Egypt, and beyond is the Omar Makram Mosque.
The square is the northern terminus of the historic Qasr al-Ayni Street, the western terminus of Talaat Harb Street, and via Qasr al-Nil Street crossing its southern portion it has direct access to the Qasr al-Nil Bridge crossing the nearby Nile River.
The area around Tahrir Square includes the Egyptian Museum, the National Democratic Party-NDP headquarters building, the Mogamma government building, the Headquarters of the Arab League building, the Nile Hotel, Kasr El Dobara Evangelical Church and the original downtown campus of the American University in Cairo.
The Cairo Metro serves Tahrir Square with the Sadat Station, which is the downtown junction of the system's two lines, linking to Giza, Maadi, Helwan, and other districts and suburbs of Greater Cairo. Its underground access viaducts provide the safest routes for pedestrians crossing the broad roads of the heavily trafficked square.
Tahrir Square - Cairo - Egypt - 22 November 2011
REFLECTIONS
The so called Arab Spring seems to be achieving very little.
Tunisia has had its election - but then no one is very interested in what happens in Tunisia.
In Libya the internal 'coup', disguised as a revolution, continues on its way with the announcement of a provisional government.
With the leaders of the Gaddafi tribe either killed, missing, or, in the case of the leader, Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar Gaddafi, brutally tortured and murdered, the Western backed coup is yet another Arab case of 'moving the deckchairs on the Titanic'.
The foolish Egyptians deluded themselves into believing that the removal of the geriatric Mubarak would suddenly bring with it a torrent of Mercedes, designer jeans and Nokia and Apple i-phones, and maybe some much wanted jobs.
Instead the Army simply ushered Mubarak into the dictator's retirement home, and continued to rule Egypt, with the promise of elections in the near future.
I have watched, first hand, during the rule of Mubarak, as many Egyptians went from mud brick hovels to concrete and brick houses - from black and white televisions to wide screen, colour satellite TVs. From bicycles to motorbikes, and from motorbikes to cars. From no telephone to mobiles, even for the children.
And what thanks did Mubarak get for all that ?
I have watched, first hand, during the rule of Mubarak, as many Egyptians went from mud brick hovels to concrete and brick houses - from black and white televisions to wide screen, colour satellite TVs. From bicycles to motorbikes, and from motorbikes to cars. From no telephone to mobiles, even for the children.
And what thanks did Mubarak get for all that ?
Egypt is one of the most inefficient countries in the world, and the only institution that operates with any degree professionalism is the armed forces, and in particular the Army.
Whilst guaranteeing the security of the country, and guaranteeing law and order, the Army also controls about forty percent of the Egyptian economy.
Undoubtedly many of the officers in the army are corrupt - but then that is the norm in all Arab countries.
Equally, I can say from my own experiences in Egypt, that almost all Egyptians are corrupt, from the lowliest stall-holder to the highest officials in the Azhar.
Equally, I can say from my own experiences in Egypt, that almost all Egyptians are corrupt, from the lowliest stall-holder to the highest officials in the Azhar.
When the rioters (protesters or freedom-fighters ?) accuse the military of corruption, it is like the 'pot calling the kettle black' - but of course, what the rioters really want is their grab at the power, and their resulting share of the corruption.
When the new round of rioting began, the rioters began by tearing down the election posters - so what hope for a fair and free election in the near future ?
And if Tantawi goes, and the army goes, as the rioters demand, who will hold the state together ?
The parties are ramshackle groups of amateurs, with no real plan for Egypt's future.
These groups are in no way capable of bringing order, stability and prosperity to to country which has, for as long as I have known it, been on the brink of disaster.
These groups are in no way capable of bringing order, stability and prosperity to to country which has, for as long as I have known it, been on the brink of disaster.
Only one group - the sinister Muslim Brotherhood - الإخوان المسلمون/المسلمين - stands quietly in the wings, waiting for disaster.
And them it will probably step in, and impose a theocratic regime, a Sunni version of the Iranian regime - and then we will see how the Egyptian people will like that !
And them it will probably step in, and impose a theocratic regime, a Sunni version of the Iranian regime - and then we will see how the Egyptian people will like that !
AND THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT HAS HAPPENED !
محمد محمد مرسى عيسى العيا
24 June 2012
Muhammad Morsi Isa' al-Ayyat, is now the President-elect of Egypt.
Since April 30, 2011 he has been Chairman of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), a political party that was founded by the Muslim Brotherhood after the 2011 Egyptian revolution.
From 2000 to 2005, he was a Member of Parliament.
He stood as the FJP's candidate for the May–June 2012 presidential election.
On June 24, 2012, Egypt's election commission announced that Morsi has won Egypt's presidential runoff.
Morsi won by a narrow margin over Ahmed Shafiq, the last prime minister under deposed leader Hosni Mubarak.
The commission said Morsi took 51.7 percent of the vote versus 48.3 for Shafiq.
Morsi was born in the Sharqia Governorate, located in the northern area of Egypt.
He received a Bachelor's and Master's Degree inengineering from Cairo University in 1975 and 1978, respectively.
He received his Ph.D. in engineering from the University of Southern California in 1982.
He was an Assistant Professor at California State University, Northridge from 1982 to 1985.
In 1985, he returned to Egypt to teach at Zagazig University.
Two of his five children were born in California and are U.S. citizens.
Morsi served as a Member of Parliament from 2000 to 2005; he was elected as an independent candidate because the Brotherhood was technically barred from running candidates for office under President Hosni Mubarak.
He was a member of the Guidance Office of the Muslim Brotherhood until the foundation of the Freedom and Justice Party in 2011, at which point he was elected by the MB's Guidance Office to be the first president of the new party.
After Khairat El-Shater was disqualified from the 2012 presidential election, Morsi, who was initially nominated as a backup candidate, emerged as the new Muslim Brotherhood candidate.
Following the first round of Egypt's first post-Mubarak presidential elections where exit polls suggested a 25.5% share of the vote for Morsi, he was officially announced as the president on the 24th of June 2012 following a subsequent run off vote.
Morsi supporters in Cairo's Tahrir Square celebrated, and angry outbursts occurred within the Egypt Election Authorities press conference as the result was announced.
He came in slightly ahead of former Mubarak-era prime minister Ahmed Shafik and has been noted for the Islamist character of his campaign events.
Since the initial round of voting on May 23–24, 2012, Morsi has attempted to appeal to political liberals and minorities while portraying his rival Ahmed Shafik as a Mubarak-era holdover.
On May 30, 2012, Morsi filed a lawsuit against Egyptian television presenter Tawfiq Okasha, accusing him of "intentional falsehoods and accusations that amount to defamation and slander" of Morsi. According to online newspaper Egypt Independent, an English-language subsidiary of Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Youm, Okasha spent three hours on 27 May criticizing the Muslim Brotherhood and Morsi on air.
After Okasha aired a video allegedly depicting Muslim extremists executing a Christian whilst asking "how will such people govern?", some analysts suggested that this was in reference to Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood party.
On 24 June 2012 he was annouced as a winner in the election.
جماعة الاخوان المسلمين
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| Is this the future for Egypt ? |
The Muslim Brotherhood - (gammāʿat al-ʾiḫwān/al-ikhwan/el-ekhwan al-muslimūn) in Egypt is an Islamist religious, political, and social movement.
Following the 2011 Revolution the group was legalized, and with an estimated 600,000 members or supporters it's considered the largest, best-organized political force inEgypt.
Its credo is, "God is our objective; the Quran is our constitution, the Prophet is our leader; Jihad is our way; and death for the sake of God is the highest of our aspirations."
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| حسن أحمد عبد الرحمن محمد البنا Hassan al Banna |
Founded in Egypt by حسن أحمد عبد الرحمن محمد البنا (Hassan al-Banna) in March 1928, the group spread to other Muslim countries but has its largest, or one of its largest, organizations in Egypt despite a succession of government crackdowns in 1948, 1954, 1965 after plots, or alleged plots, of assassination and overthrow were uncovered.
Banna was born in 1906 in Mahmoudiyah, Egypt (north-west of Cairo in the Nile delta).
His father, Sheikh Ahmad 'Abd al-Rahman al-Banna al-Sa'ati, was a local imam (prayer leader) and masjid teacher of the Hanbali rite. His brother is Gamal al-Banna. He was educated at Dar Al-Uloum school in Cairo.
He wrote and collaborated on books on Muslim traditions, and also had a shop where he repaired watches and sold gramophones.
Though Sheikh Ahmad al-Banna and his wife owned some property, they were not wealthy and struggled to make ends meet, particularly after they moved to Cairo in 1924.
Like many others, they found that Islamic learning and piety were no longer as highly valued in the capital, and that craftsmanship could not compete with large-scale industry.
When Hasan al-Banna was twelve years old, he became involved in a Sufi order, and became a fully initiated member in 1922.
At the age of thirteen, he participated in demonstrations during the revolution of 1919 against British rule.
It was to spread this message that Al-Banna launched the society of the Muslim Brothers in March 1928. At first, the society was only one of the numerous small Islamic associations that existed at the time.
Similar to those that Al-Banna himself had joined since he was 12, these associations aimed to promote personal piety and engaged in charitable activities.
By the late 1930s, it had established branches in every Egyptian province.
A decade later, it had 500,000 active members and as many sympathizers in Egypt alone, while its appeal was now felt in several other countries as well.
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| Unrest in Egypt -1930s |
The society's growth was particularly pronounced after Al-Banna relocated its headquarters to Cairo in 1932. The single most important factor that made this dramatic expansion possible was the organizational and ideological leadership provided by Al-Banna.
In Ismaïlia, he preached in the mosque, and even in coffee houses, which were then a novelty and were generally viewed as morally suspect.
At first, some of his views on relatively minor points of Islamic practice led to strong disagreements with the local religious élite, and he adopted the policy of avoiding religious controversies.
He was appalled by the many conspicuous signs of foreign military and economic domination in Isma'iliyya: the British military camps, the public utilities owned by foreign interests, and the luxurious residences of the foreign employees of the Suez Canal Company, next to the squalid dwellings of the Egyptian workers.
He endeavored to bring about the changes he hoped for through institution-building, relentless activism at the grassroots level, and a reliance on mass communication.
He proceeded to build a complex mass movement that featured sophisticated governance structures; sections in charge of furthering the society's values among peasants, workers, and professionals; units entrusted with key functions, including propagation of the message, liaison with the Islamic world, and press and translation; and specialized committees for finances and legal affairs.
In anchoring this organization into Egyptian society, Al-Banna relied on pre-existing social networks, in particular those built around mosques, Islamic welfare associations, and neighborhood groups.
This weaving of traditional ties into a distinctively modern structure was at the root of his success.
Directly attached to the brotherhood, and feeding its expansion, were numerous businesses, clinics, and schools.
In addition, members were affiliated to the movement through a series of cells, revealingly called usar (families. singular: usrah).
The material, social and psychological support thus provided were instrumental to the movement's ability to generate enormous loyalty among its members and to attract new recruits.
The services and organizational structure around which the society was built were intended to enable individuals to reintegrate into a distinctly Islamic setting, shaped by the society's own principles.
Rooted in Islam, Al-Banna's message tackled issues including colonialism, public health, educational policy, natural resources management, Marxism, social inequalities, Arab nationalism, the weakness of the Islamic world on the international scene, and the growing conflict in Palestine.
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| Symbol of British Rule in Egypt - Sheperd's Hotel |
By emphasizing concerns that appealed to a variety of constituencies, Al-Banna was able to recruit from among a cross-section of Egyptian society — though modern-educated civil servants, office employees, and professionals remained dominant among the organization's activists and decision-makers.
Al-Banna was also active in resisting British rule in Egypt.
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| Mahmoud an-Nukrashi Pasha |
Between 1948 and 1949, shortly after the society sent volunteers to fight against Israel in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the conflict between the monarchy and the society reached its climax.
Concerned with the increasing assertiveness and popularity of the brotherhood, as well as with rumors that it was plotting a coup, Prime Minister Mahmoud an-Nukrashi Pasha disbanded it in December 1948.
The organization's assets were impounded and scores of its members sent to jail. Following Pasha's assassination, Al-Banna promptly released a statement condemning the assassination, stating that terror is not an acceptable way in Islam.
This in turn prompted the assassination of Al-Banna.
On February 12, 1949 in Cairo, Al-Banna was at the Jamiyyah al-Shubban al-Muslimeen headquarters with his brother in-law Abdul Karim Mansur to negotiate with Minister Zaki Ali Basha who represented the government side.
Minister Zaki Ali Basha never arrived.
By 5 p.m., Al-Banna and his brother-in-law decided to leave.
As they stood waiting for a taxi, they were shot by two men. He eventually died from his wounds.
In honor of his death in 1949, he was often referred to as "As-Shaheed Imam Hassan Al-Banna" (Martyr Imam Hassan Al-Banna).
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