Egypt, Hamas and U.S. Aid

The trial of U.S.-financed democracy activists in Egypt began Monday in Cairo, but was quickly recessed for nearly two months amid intense talks between American and Egyptian officials about the case. Sixteen Americans are among the 43 people charged with running unlicensed non-governmental organizations backed by foreign financing.

The delay in the case is seen as a sign the talks may be making progress. To maintain U.S. aid to Egypt, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton must report to Congress by the end of April that the new government is moving toward democracy. That date coincides with the trial's scheduled resumption.

Politico's Josh Gerstein reports that there's another "point of tension in the already fraught relationship between Washington and Cairo." That's the U.S. indictment of Hamas political leader Mousa Abu Marzook. Marzook recently relocated from Syria to Cairo as Syria's bloody uprising drags on.

While the prosecution of the democracy activists commands current attention, Gerstein notes that the U.S. considers Hamas to be a terrorist group and does not communicate with it. Support for it has been against the law in the United States since 1995. And Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Sunday that Hamas support for Syrian opposition forces is one reason the United States is reluctant to offer weapons to anti-Assad forces.

"Hamas is now supporting the opposition," Clinton told CBS on Sunday. Are we supporting Hamas in Syria?"

This, though, raises another question. Leaders in both groups acknowledge that Hamas is part of the Muslim Brotherhood. And Brotherhood candidates swept into parliamentary majorities in recent Egyptian elections. If Hamas support in Syria is a cause for withholding support for rebels, how can the U.S. justify aid to a government dominated by Hamas' parent organization which now is sheltering a Hamas leader?

Zombie Law in Pennsylvania

A Pennsylvania judge is drawing flak from the right and the left after throwing out a case last week against a Muslim man accused of harassing an atheist who dressed as a "zombie Muhammed" in a Halloween parade.

In addition, Judge Mark Martin lectured the alleged victim, Ernie Perce, for his insensitivity toward Muslims. Initial reports had Martin identifying himself as a Muslim during his remarks from the bench, but in a subsequent statement, he said he is a Lutheran.

Perce, a member of a group called Atheists of Central Pennsylvania, dressed as "Zombie Muhammed" in the Mechanicsburg parade. He was accompanied by someone dressed as the "Zombie Pope," but his friend was not accosted. The defendant, Talaag Elbayomy, argued that Perce crossed a line in offending his prophet, and as a Muslim, he was obligated to respond. If anyone committed a crime, Elbayomy said, it was Perce.

Perce posted a video of the incident on YouTube. He claims he was grabbed and choked as Elbayomy tried to grab his sign identifying his costume as "Muhammed of Islam."

The judge sided with Elbayomy, an immigrant to the United States, saying it boiled down to Perce's word against Elbayomy's. But he also said Perce strayed "way outside" First Amendment protections. "I think you misinterpreted things. Before you start mocking someone else's religion you may want to find out a little bit more about it it makes you look like a doofus and Mr. (Defendant) is correct. In many Arabic speaking countries something like this is definitely against the law there. In their society in fact it can be punishable by death and it frequently is in their society."

The decision appears so flawed that it generated similar criticism from legal analysts Andrew McCarthy and Jonathan Turley, two people who rarely see eye to eye.

McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor who led the prosecution of blind Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, posted a transcript of Martin's remarks, writing that "one's 'attitude toward Muslims' is irrelevant to one's right in America to walk the streets and express opinions people may find offensive without being physically attacked and intimidated."

Martin's speech shows a bias that should have prompted his recusal from the case, rather than his "entertaining a sharia defense to a violation of Pennsylvania law," McCarthy wrote. "The judge had no business ridiculing an American citizen as a 'doofus' and hectoring him with Martin's views about Islam, its requirements, its purportedly extraordinary significance to Muslims (compared to other believers who, according to Martin, are less devoted to their faiths), or about the Muslim perception of 'ugly Americans.'"

Turley, who represents Palestinian Islamic Jihad member Sami Al-Arian, agrees: "I fail to see the relevance of the victim's attitude toward Muslims or religion generally. He had a protected right to walk in the parade and not be assaulted for his views. While the judge laments that '[i]t's unfortunate that some people use the First Amendment to deliberately provoke others,' that is precisely what the Framers had in mind if Thomas Paine is any measure."

Hamas Supporter Speaking on London Campus

London's Queen Mary University will allow Hamas-supporter Azzam Tamimi to address the student body on Tuesday, at a Palestine Solidarity Society event called "One State or Two State Solution." The move has sparked outrage on the campus because of Tamimi's outspoken support for terrorism and the destruction of Israel.

"Anybody in the world, with faith or without faith, must come together in order to eradicate this cancer from the body of humanity," Tamimi said about Israel on a 2006 YouTube video of a London "al-Quds Day" rally. "It is just a matter of time. You count my words and you remember these words. It's a matter of time – as they withdrew from South Lebanon because of the great jihad of Hizballah, and as they withdrew from Gaza because of the great jihad of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, this black chapter in the humanity of history will eventually come to an end."

In 2004 BBC interview, Tamimi claimed that he would carry out a suicide bombing if possible, and stated that his inability to travel to Israel was holding him back. "You see sacrificing myself for Palestine is a noble cause. It is the straight way to pleasing my god and I would do it if I had the opportunity," he said in the heated discussion with journalist Tim Sebastian.

Despite Tamimi's support for violence, a university spokesman defended the invitation, saying "freedom of expression and the sharing of ideas and beliefs are at the heart of Queen Mary's ethos." The head of the university, Professor Simon Gaskell, also didn't seem fazed by the activist's expressions of violence. "In making these arrangements we neither endorse nor deny the views expressed; rather we are allowing freedom of expression within the law," he told reporters. It was in the power of the students to make judgments about opinions and beliefs presented to them, he added.

Hamas Prime Minister Breaks With Syria

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh saluted the Syrian revolution during a rally Friday in Cairo, in the group's first sign of support for rebels fighting their former patrons. The comments indicate Hamas may be moving out of the Shiite Syrian-Iranian orbit, and into alliances with conservative Arabian Gulf countries and new Islamic regimes throughout the Arab world.

"I salute the heroic Syrian people, who are striving for freedom, democracy and reform," Haniyeh told thousands at a rally supporting the Palestinians and Syrians at Cairo's Al-Azhar mosque. "No Iran, no Hezbollah. Syria is Islamic," protesters chanted, referring to Iranian influence in Syria and particularly in suppressing pro-democracy protests.

The comments show a clear break against Syria, which has long supported Palestinian terrorist organizations in order to extend its power in the region. They follow the apparent relocation of Hamas politburo members out of Damascus, and Hamas' recent campaign to court new supporters in the Islamic world. This has included signing a new three-stage energy agreement with Egypt, which will provide Hamas' Gaza territory with fuel and electricity transfers, despite claims by former Egyptian diplomats that Hamas suppressed Egypt's pro-democracy uprising.

Hamas also faces additional indirect pressure from Israel, which has threatened Hamas rivals Fatah with isolation if it joins a coalition government with the terrorist organization. The coalition deal was considered controversial in Hamas, and has divided the organization into factions for and against union with Fatah.

Boko Haram – Symptom or Problem

Boko Haram, Nigeria's al-Qaida-tied Islamist terrorism organization, is part of a growing trend toward violent Islamism in Africa, writes Nigerian Tribune Regional Editor Olawale Rasheed. While military means are needed to defeat the movement, its ideology can be defeated only by cutting the funding supply to local extremists and empowering moderates.

"The problem is that even when the manifestation is destroyed, the ideology remains, leading to fears that in the future the ideology may sprout another manifestation with even more violent orientation," Rasheed says in a Feb. 17 article. "The nation cannot just fight the manifestation but should strategically tackle the ideology to prevent it from gaining permanent foothold in the country."

Boko Haram launches attacks almost daily, targeting Nigerian churches and government buildings.

The primary problems, Rasheed says, are money and ideology coming in from Saudi Arabia and the Arabian Gulf countries, as well the increasing radicalization of Muslim nations surrounding Nigeria.

Although Sufi Islam has long been the dominant tradition in Nigeria's Muslim areas, local moderates struggle to keep up with the funding and support provided by Saudi petrodollars. In a relatively short time, extremism in Nigeria has moved from support of outside terror groups to fundamentalist demands inside of Nigeria, including the ultra-conservative application of Sharia law. This has even led to persecution of the dominant Sufi majority by more radical Islamists, who are pushing for the control of mosques and Islamic organizations.

Rasheed suggests that the Nigerian government follow the solutions proposed by moderate Imams throughout the country. The state should monitor foreign funding of religious activities, including their motives. It could provide state support for Sufi Muslim leaders, who are already the vast majority in several Nigerian regions, and strengthen local traditions against foreign extremism. Downplaying talk about American involvement in counterterrorism would also take away some of the propaganda of the extremists.

Failure to break the extremist hold on the nation could be devastating. "A foreseeable scenario for the nation may be a Wahabi domination of the South and a Salafi entrenchment of the North, a possibility that may further heighten future fears of confrontations," Rasheed says. That means suffering for Nigeria's large Christian population and the growth of new and competing terrorist groups, even if Boko Haram were defeated.

Slain Iranian Scientist Wished for Israel's "Annihilation"

When Iranian nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan was killed in a Jan. 11 car bombing, it triggered a slew of angry criticism from the progressive blogosphere. Now that Roshan's wife, Fatemeh Bolouri Kashani, has publicly stated that her husband's "ultimate goal was the annihilation of Israel," it will be interesting to see if any of those who denounced his slaying have second thoughts.

Fars News Agency reported that Mrs. Kashani "underlined that her spouse loved any resistance figure in his life who was willing to fight the Zionist regime and supported the rights of the oppressed Palestinian nation."

Israel is widely suspected of killing Roshan, a supervisor at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility, which is believed to play a key role in Iranian efforts to produce weapons-grade uranium. "I don't know who took revenge on the Iranian scientist, but I'm definitely not shedding a tear," Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, Israel's military spokesman, said last month.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton strenuously denied Washington was involved. "I want to categorically deny any United States involvement in any kind of act of violence inside Iran," she said.

Clinton's denial didn't go far enough for the Los Angeles Times, which complained that Washington had not made a "strong statement that the United States decries political assassinations." The Times added that "state-sponsored extrajudicial killing is a serious violation of international law, and car-bomb assassination is a tactic little different from the methods used by terrorists."

Assassinating nuclear scientists is "morally bankrupt" and "If Israel is involved, it is a shameful and foolish policy," the paper said.

There remains debate about whether Iran's nuclear program is for peaceful means, as the mullahs claim, or to develop the means to act on threats and create a new holocaust. It's difficult to see how nuclear scientist's widow's emphasis on his dream of annihilating Israel fits with a program solely designed to produce energy.

Palestinians Victimized by Failed Leadership

Several newly published analyses illustrate that Palestinian Authority (PA) residents have more reason to fear their own leadership than they do Israel.

For example, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, blame for the electricity crisis now plaguing Gaza lies with Hamas, which shut down a major local energy plant when it ran out of fuel.

The Fatah regime in the West Bank and its Hamas counterpart in Gaza have alternated between fighting over energy supplies and collaborating on an electricity scam that has resulted in U.S. taxpayers providing financial support to Hamas in violation of law.

Veteran Israeli-Arab journalist Khaled Abu Toameh writes that when Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005, "the Palestinians had the opportunity to turn the coastal area into the world's Singapore. Everyone, including Israel and Jews living in the United States and Canada, was prepared to help the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip."

But instead of peace, Hamas and other jihadist groups turned the area into an armed camp, following a course of action that has "brought nothing but death and destruction to the residents of the Gaza Strip," Abu Toameh writes.

The violence appears to be chasing away potential aid donors. Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh returned from recent visits to countries including Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Qatar with numerous promises of financial aid to "rebuild" Gaza.

But over the years, Gazans have been promised billions of dollars' worth of assistance that has never materialized. Arabs and Muslims are reluctant to transfer funds to Gaza because they "know that money will go to purchasing missiles and ammunition there instead of building new schools and hospitals," Abu Toameh writes.

Commentary magazine's Jonathan Tobin provides a different example of how Palestinian leaders abuse their people – in this case, by recruiting children "into gangs explicitly tasked with starting violent confrontations with Israelis by the throwing of stones and other lethal weapons, hoping the [Israel Defense Force] soldiers will defend themselves and kill one of the kids."

On Sunday, the New York Times published a story about a 15-year-old boy who was arrested and interrogated by the Israeli military after joining one of these gangs. He told the Israelis the names of several of his confederates, who were arrested. After noting that the Times story focuses heavily on the boy's fear of the Israeli military, Tobin suggests this is a false narrative.

"More likely, he is afraid of revenge from other Palestinians who treat people who inform on those involved in violence as 'traitors,'" Tobin writes. "The real scandal is the willingness of Palestinians to sacrifice children…on the altar of hate for Israel."

Republican Senators Supporting Muslim Brotherhood, Islamists

Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham had warm words for the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's dominant Islamist party with a radical and hateful past, during a recent visit to the Middle East. The comments mark a disturbing growth in relations between some senior Republicans and Islamists, Andrew McCarthy writes in the National Review Online.

"I was very apprehensive when I heard the election results," Sen. Graham, R-S.C., said about the Brotherhood's victory in recent Egyptian elections. "But after visiting and talking to the Muslim Brotherhood, I am hopeful that they will be able to deliver not only for the Egyptian people, but that we can have a relationship with Egypt, with the Muslim Brotherhood as a strong political voice."

As McCarthy notes, this new relationship seems out of touch with reality and even Graham's previous apprehension about the group. The Brotherhood ideology hasn't changed since the revolution, and its Palestinian branch is the proscribed terrorist organization Hamas. The group even responded harshly to positive overtures by McCain about the arrest of American democratic activists. "Would America allow any foreign agenda or country to interfere in its affairs like this?" asked spokesman, Mahmoud Ghuzlan. "Then why should America expect Egypt to accept this kind of interference without an investigation or a trial?"

McCain, R-Ariz., also called for donations of weapons to Islamist Syrian rebels, whom McCarthy notes have connections to both the local Muslim Brotherhood branch and al-Qaida. "There are ways to get assistance ranging from medical assistance to technical assistance, such as GPS and other things we could provide," Senator McCain said in support of the Syrian rebels. "There are ways to get weapons into Syria. It is time we gave them the wherewithal to fight back and stop the slaughter."

McCarthy notes that the moves show McCain and Graham as wishy-washy on Islamism and the Brotherhood, one of the greatest threats to American democracy. "We did not get the McCain presidency, but we have gotten the McCain foreign policy where truckling to Islamists is concerned. When it comes to the Muslim Brotherhood, it turns out that mavericks and community organizers are on the same page."

Brotherhood, Mubarak Crony Attack U.S. NGOs

Despite a collapsing economy and deteriorating security situation, the Egyptian government appears determined to continue its harassment campaign against foreign nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).

Sixteen American citizens are awaiting trial in Egypt for accepting foreign money to promote democracy there, and close to 400 Egyptian organizations face similar politically driven investigations. On Capitol Hill, there is growing bipartisan support for ending the $1.3 billion Washington provides in annual military aid to Egypt.

By prosecuting Americans for aiding democracy, all major political forces in Egypt – the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF); the government and the Muslim Brotherhood "are embracing anti-American populism," David Schenker writes in the Los Angeles Times. "Egypt today is dominated by a coalition of military authoritarians and aspiring theocrats that views Washington with great suspicion."

The anti-American atmosphere in Egypt leaves the Obama administration and Congress with stark choices, says Schenker, director of the program on Arab politics at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

The United States "can employ the nuclear option – cut the assistance and test the durability of the U.S.-underwritten 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty – or continue to fund an increasingly hostile and unstable state in hopes that democracy will take root," he adds.

Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, met SCAT Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi during a trip to Egypt last week in an unsuccessful effort to defuse the crisis. Dempsey said he asked Tantawi if he was going to "preserve individual freedoms or deny them."

The Egyptian strongman didn't answer.

The prime mover behind the anti-NGO campaign is the SCAF-appointed Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Fayza Mohamed Aboulnaga – one of the few high-ranking Mubarak-era officials to have survived last year's revolution.

Just days after Dempsey met with Tantawi, the Egyptian government released a several-months-old report accusing the Obama administration of illicitly funneling cash to pro-democracy groups. Media reports quoted Aboulnaga asserting that the International Republican Institute (whose Egypt program director is the son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood) aimed to impose the Republican Party's agenda on Egypt. She accused the nonpartisan organization Freedom House, another NGO targeted by Cairo, as doing the work of a "Jewish lobby" targeting countries that criticize U.S. Middle East policy.

Both the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafist al-Nour Party have joined Aboulnaga in propagating conspiracy theories. Schenker writes that that a senior Muslim Brotherhood official published an open letter earlier this month warning of an "American-Zionist conspiracy" and claiming U.S. democratization funds had been funneled to "suspicious institutions." Al-Nour officials accused American NGOs of trying to "create discord" between Salafists and the Brotherhood, with one Salafist official saying that NGO workers "can be considered spies."

Read Schenker's article here.

MB Spokesman Describes Caliphate "Dream"

Having swept into majorities in Egypt's parliament, a Muslim Brotherhood spokesman is making it clear the group has ambitions far beyond Cairo.

"Concerning the Islamic caliphate, this is our dream, and we hope to achieve it, even after centuries," Brotherhood spokesman Mahmoud Ghuzlan told Egypt's Ahram news outlet in an interview Sunday. "It is the right of the Brotherhood that this is one of the pillars of its strategy. We are not concerned about the renaissance of the group only. Rather our first goal is the renaissance of Egypt, then the Arab world and then the Islamic world. This will come gradually."

Ghuzlan's statement echoes comments Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohammed Badie made during a speech in late December. In it, Badie explained Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna's original agenda remains intact. "It begins with the reform of the individual and then to start building the family and society, then the government; then the rightly guided caliphate, then instructing the world; instructing guidance, wisdom, truth and justice."

Neither Badie's comments nor Ghuzlan's interview have been picked up by American news media.

They should be, because if Ghuzlan speaks for his organization, then the incoming Egyptian government opposes American policy when it comes to peace efforts in the region and in trying to block Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. While the Brotherhood has issues with Iran, he said, it supports the Islamic Republic when they are in agreement, "such as its standing up against America and the West who are trying to abort its nuclear program."

Ghuzlan also affirmed the Brotherhood's relationship to Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist movement which controls Gaza. "Hamas is a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine and the last bastion to protect it considering that the group is scattered in about seventy countries. It is part of the Da'wa of the Brotherhood. Between the two is an intellectual and emotional link. Our position on them is like our position on any brothers in the world, particularly Arab countries. We do not interfere in its affairs, and give advice if requested; the Brotherhood in every country respecting and living in accordance with the constitution of this state and its laws."

In December, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh similarly acknowledged the connection. Hamas, he said, is the Brotherhood's "jihadist arm."

That raises additional question about the wisdom of engaging the Brotherhood as it assumes control in Egypt. The United States first branded Hamas a terrorist group in 1995, after President Clinton signed an executive order including it among groups responsible for "grave acts of violence … that disrupt the Middle East peace process [and] constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States."

Haniyeh and other Hamas officials have made it clear they have no intention of wavering from their rejection of any peaceful solution to the conflict with Israel, choosing instead to continue its violent jihad and its vow never to accept the state of Israel's right to exist.

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