Egyptian Islamists Target Bikinis, Pyramids

With the Egyptian economy already worsening since the revolution began in January, Muslim Brotherhood operatives are demanding stricter regulations on behavior and dress that could damage the country's tourism industry.

The Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), which functions as the Brotherhood's political wing, wants to ban alcohol consumption on Egyptian streets and ban bikinis on the beach.

"Beach tourism must take the values and norms of our societies into account," FJP Secretary-General Muhammad Saad al-Katatny told Egyptian tourism officials Monday. "We must place regulations on tourists wishing to visit Egypt, which we will announce in advance."

For their part, Egyptian Salafists (who advocate a form of Islamism more extreme than that practiced by the Brotherhood) aren't just troubled by alcohol and bikinis. Abd al-Munim A-Shahhat, a spokesman for the Salafist group Dawa, said that the Egyptian pyramids, the sphinx and other monuments should be covered up with wax because they are "religiously forbidden."

Likening these relics to idols covering the walls of Mecca in pre-Islamic times, A-Shahhat said Wednesday that "The pharaonic culture is a rotten culture."

These comments follow a spate of dismal economic news including forecasts that Egypt's economy will contract by 3.3 percent this year, rather than the 2.5 percent estimated in February following the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.

According to EFG-Hermes Holding SAE, the biggest publicly traded investment bank in Egypt, the country's economy contracted at an annual rate of 4.2 percent in the first quarter.

Meanwhile, tourism revenue is projected to decline from $11.6 billion in 2009-10 to $10 billion in the fiscal year that began July 1.

Samy Mahmoud, a senior Egyptian tourism official, said no country seeking to promote tourism would impose restrictions such as a bikini ban. Mahmoud suggested the alcohol consumption curbs sought by the Islamists were anathema to potential Arab visitors. "Ninety-five percent of Arab tourists drink alcohol," he said.

The Brotherhood should create alternative jobs, he said, to support the people who would lose their jobs if the Islamists get their way. There are 1.8 million people working in the country's tourism industry, along with another 2.8 million people whose jobs are indirectly supported by tourism.

Some Egyptians believe the Brotherhood is taking the country down a dark road.

"This is how thinks began in Iran," Hani Henry, a psychology professor at the American University in Cairo, told The Media Line. "The moderate youth wanted to implement changes, but the mullahs hijacked the revolution. The same thing is happening now in Egypt with the Muslim Brotherhood."

Turkey Threatens Israel with Sanctions

A day before the scheduled release of the United Nations-commissioned report concerning the violent 2010 Gaza flotilla incident in which nine people died, Turkey is threatening sanctions against Israel if it does not receive an apology before the report's publication.

The Palmer Commission's report on the Israel Defense Force's raid of the flotilla has been postponed three times following agreements between Turkey and Israel. This time, however, Turkey refused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's request to extend the scheduled Sept. 2 release date.

"The release date of the UN report is the last date for us. We will put Plan B into play if no [Israeli] apology," Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu told the Turkish daily Today Zaman on Thursday.

In another statement, Davutoğlu added that Turkey planned to "impose sanctions which both Israel and other international parties are aware of," if Israel failed to comply with Turkey's demand for a public apology.

The two long-term allies were close to reaching an agreement on an acceptable resolution to the Flotilla incident, according to Davutoğlu, who blames "intra-coalition squabbles" in Israel for the breakdown of negotiations.

The report is expected to conclude that Israel's blockade on the Hamas government in Gaza is legal; that Turkey facilitated the flotilla, and that members of the Turkish group who led the trip wanted to provoke a violent confrontation with Israelis. It also is expected to say the Israeli troops used excessive force in defending themselves.

The Big Lie About Israel

One of the biggest slanders targeting Israel is the claim that that it is an "apartheid" state, Dennis Prager writes at NationalReview.com. Yet, the Durban III "anti-racism" conference, which takes place in New York on Sept. 22, is virtually certain to advance the canard.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who calls the Holocaust "a lie," is scheduled to speak at Durban III, which Prager terms a "U.N.-sponsored Hate Israel Festival." Like its predecessors, Durban I and Durban II, it will likely be a forum for attacks depicting Israel as a racist state that practices "apartheid."

The charge simply is false. From 1948 through 1994, apartheid was official policy in South Africa, Prager writes. Under that system, blacks were treated as inferiors - barred from voting and holding political office; relegated to inferior neighborhoods and schools; and prevented from using the same public accommodations as whites.

None of this applies to Israeli Arabs, who have the right to vote and enjoy representation in the Knesset. They own property and businesses and work in professions alongside Israeli Jews. The Israeli judge who sentenced former President Moshe Katsav, a Jew, to seven years in prison for rape earlier this year was George Kara, an Arab.

But reality doesn't slow Israel-haters from spreading the lie.

Muslim Public Affairs Council founder Maher Hathout has described Israel as "an apartheid state against every fiber of the modern world." At the University of California-Berkeley, the Muslim Students Association joined Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) to sponsor "Apartheid Week" events, in which students brandishing fake assault rifles accosted fellow students while yelling, "Are you Jewish?"

In October, Alkalima, (a Muslim student magazine that described itself as being "published by the Muslim Student Union of University of California, Irvine") hosted "Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner's Guide," along with SJP. MSU has hosted anti-Israel events including, "Israeli Apartheid Week: A Call to Boycott, Divest, and Sanction Israel."

Some critics suggest that Israeli counterterrorism measures such as the West Bank security barrier constitute "apartheid." To Prager, that's no more credible than terming the security fence built along the Mexican border to prevent illegal entry into the United States an example of "apartheid."

"Both barriers have been built to keep unwanted people from entering the country," he writes. "Israel built its security wall in order to keep terrorists from entering Israel and murdering its citizens."

Uzbekistan al-Qaida Affiliate Pushes Attacks Against Pakistan

The Mufti of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan [IMZ], a central Asian affiliate of al-Qaida, has called on Pakistani scholars to declare war on the nation's government. In published remarks to Pakistani scholars, the Mufti highlighted how suicide teenage bombers had empowered the movement but the militant scholars had yet to join the fight.

"Our small brothers and youth, his age is 16 … 15 years, he wraps his body and chest with this powder and blows himself up against the malignant cursed Pakistani army. So why don't you Ulema [scholars] speak," asked Abu Zar, Mufti of the Islamic Movement, in his meeting with a group of Pakistani scholars. "Five years ago we began this jihad, so O' Ulema we ask Allah that you be with us, be with the truthful."

According to Abu Zar, the Pakistani and Afghani jihads are a single front against the American-Pakistan government alliance. While the common people have taken up the call of jihad, convincing the scholars has proven more difficult.

"Every year more than one thousand Ulema [scholars] graduate from the Madrassas. But going to the battle, you will only find one Alim [scholar] that is good for the mujahidin," he said. "That's why I ask you, I hope from you to be with the mujahidin, to be with the fighters in combat. And urge your students in your universities, mosques and Madrassas."

Arab Spring and Attacks on Israel

Israeli security officials are on high alert after announcing "concrete intelligence" about a 10-man terrorist squad which hopes to launch an attack along Israeli-Egyptian border in the coming days.

Today's start of Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of Ramadan, may be seen as "the right time" to strike, Israeli Home Front Defense Minister Matan Vilnai said Tuesday.

The cell is believed to be part of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which Vilnai said has been determined to wage attacks from Sinai. It would be the second attempt by a large team of terrorists to penetrate the Egyptian border and strike inside Israel this month. Eight people died and 30 were wounded in a coordinated, multi-stage attack near Eilat Aug. 19.

Two highways in southern Israel have been closed due to the threat. Israeli security officials reportedly are coordinating with their Egyptian counterparts, but the relationship is described as "tenuous," in part due to changing Egyptian political dynamics following the fall of longtime dictator Hosni Mubarak. But other reports indicated Egypt's military attacked terrorist bases in Sinai today, with as many as 1,500 troops.

Meanwhile, concerns about Libyan weaponry being smuggled to terrorists may be realized in Gaza. Reuters reports that Palestinians in Gaza have obtained Libyan anti-aircraft and anti-tank rockets.

"We've been seeing more SA-7s and RPGs coming across," an Israeli official told Reuters. But "[i]t's not a major qualitative enhancement for them." Most of those weapons already were available in Gaza and anti-tank weapons were used in the Eilat attack and an April attack on a school bus that killed a teenager.

Libyan Arms Loose

Weapons are disappearing from Libyan government storehouses, raising concerns that they could end up in the hands of militants across Africa and beyond. In addition to the growing arms issue are concerns of how and when to release frozen government funds to the nation's rebels, who are still proving whether they can run the newly liberated nation.

"It's very hard to say what is actually out there. The large arsenals in the hands of Libyan armed forces have been plundered. This plundering has been very disorganized," Pieter Wezeman, a research arms transfer program research at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), told the Media Line. "People walk in and take whatever they need and load them onto trucks. No one knows where those trucks are going."

Jihadists have seized weapons on numerous occasions throughout the rebellion. Early in the Libyan conflict, a group calling itself the "Islamic Emirate of Barqa" stormed a Libyan military depot and seized large quantities of weapons. According to Libyan newspaper Oea, the militants were former al-Qaida fighters who had been released from jail. In 2009, Al-Fallujah forum reported that al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghrib [AQIM] managed to steal hundreds of rifles and grenades from a military base in Eastern Libya.

Besides weapons, questions remain about what to do with frozen Libyan assets. The New York Post reports that in New York alone, more than $1.1 billion worth of assets are being held. Goldman Sachs is reportedly holding of $604 million of Libyan government assets, while JPMorgan Chase has $513 million, and Wells Fargo and Bank of America have frozen sums under $1 million.

Cases of street justice against Gaddafi supporters, and even the lynching of darker Africans accused of being mercenaries of the regime, have raised concerns about the rebels' ability to govern and use transferred funds for civilian needs. Every new report of atrocities creates chaos and makes it more difficult for loyalist strongholds to surrender, and possibly face a vengeful justice.

Egyptian Government Press Rife with Anti-Semitism

In the aftermath of the Arab Spring in Egypt and recent violence along the Egyptian-Israeli border, some Egyptians are employing common anti-Semitic themes to demonize the Jewish people and assign them blame for recent conflicts, according to a recent report by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

In one recent article published by the Egyptian government press, Ahmad Ghurab, a columnist for the government daily Al-Akhbar, resurrected the age-old anti-Semitic views espoused in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in portraying the widespread Arab uprisings as part of a Jewish plot for world domination.

"I would not be exaggerating if I said that the fitna [internal strife] and machinations taking place in the Arab countries are a literal translation of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, especially the first, third, and fifth protocols, all of which focus on creating chaos and civil wars and on striving to forcefully corrupt rulers and peoples through money, power, and sex," wrote Ghurab in his article "The Satan of the Sons of Zion."

Ghurab pointed to recent publicized cases of Israeli espionage to support his assertions.

"[Attempts to implement these protocols] are clearly manifest in most of the espionage activities that have been exposed over recent years in many Arab and Islamic countries..." he noted.

Another article, written in the wake of the August 18 terrorist attack on the Egyptian-Israeli border echoed this distrust of Jews and called for not signing any agreements with "the descendants of apes and pigs."

"O Muslim community! For too long we have had faith in [our] agreements with the Jews. Does history not attest to their treachery?" wrote columnist Ibrahim Abu Kila in an August 23 article in the Egyptian daily Al-Gomhouriyya. "What the descendants of apes and pigs [did] on the border with the occupied Palestinian territories is not their last [act], since we still have mutual agreements, contracts, friendship [ties], and security [arrangements that will be violated] until the Day of Judgment."

Rare Saudi, Turkish Media Praise for Israel

Writing in the London-based Saudi newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat this week, a prominent Saudi academic says Arab rulers can learn lessons from the Israeli government's handling of social protests. The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reports that Amal Abd al-'Aziz al-Hazzani rejected assertions that military strikes following last week's Eilat terrorist attack were part of a plot to distract attention from social protests in Israel.

Many Arabs rejoiced "when the contagions of the Arab revolutions reach Israel," she wrote, thinking they would push that nation to the brink of collapse. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would use torture and repression to crush the protests and would seek emergency help from the United States. Under this scenario, "the long story of Israeli tyranny would end without a single Arab batting an eyelash."

But the reality proved far different. Netanyahu, who had been traveling abroad, returned to Israel to "propose swift solutions to what the street was demanding" because he must answer to Israeli voters, Hazzani wrote. The Israeli government's approach was dramatically different from that of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, "who deployed his tanks, nearly rusted from inactivity, against his own people."

When Israel targeted Gaza terror bases after Eilat, "the Arab League woke up from its slumber to condemn and censure" Israel. "We heard no such loud voice when the Syrian forces crushed the Al-Ramal refugee camp in Latakia," she added. "If only some of the Arab leaders would emulate Israel's leaders in their precision in dealing with their enemies."

In the Turkish daily newspaper Hurriyet, journalist Burak Bekdil noted that in January 2009, Islamist Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told President Shimon Peres to his face that Jews know "how to kill" – referring to Arab deaths in conflicts with Israel. On numerous other occasions, Erdogan has portrayed the Jewish state as the main obstacle to peace in the region.

But the number of Muslims killed in the conflict with Israel is small compared with the number killed by other Muslims. Eleven million Muslims have died in violence around the world since 1948, Daniel Pipes and Gunnar Heinsohn of the University of Bremen found in 2007 research. But only 35,000 – or 0.3 percent – died in Arab wars with Israel. By contrast, more than 90 percent were killed by fellow Muslims.

Government Project Targets Jihadist Video Gamers

Revelations about the Norway mass murderer's love of violent online video games have underlined concerns about the use of such games by jihadists. While other forms of online communication can be monitored, the government's "Reynard Program" is documenting the hole in online security presented by virtual world and mass online video games, according to Aaron Saenz of singularityhub.com.

"Hundreds of millions of people flock to massively multiplayer online role playing games like World of Warcraft, and revel in online virtual worlds like Second Life …and somewhere in those millions are terrorists looking to plot the next big attack against Western civilization," says Saenz. This follows revelations about government monitoring of online conversations by gang members, who were communicating about crimes while playing popular Play Station 3 and XBOX 360 shooting games.

The government's interest in the use of such games sparked the "Reynard Program," a multiyear monitoring effort carried out by the U.S. Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity. Reynard, launched in the last quarter of 2009 and ending next year, is designed to generate information about online users who may be planning violent or criminal activity. By developing a better understanding of who uses video games and for what purposes, the government hopes to develop strategies for plugging the security gap presented by online communities.

"While there have been noted examples of terror organizations like Al Qaeda recruiting members through email, porn sites, and other internet forums, considerably less is known about recruitment and training in online games," Saenz notes. However, jihadists have noticed the popularity of violent games with their fan base, and have developed modifications of existing games that appeal to them. They have also created violent cartoons to communicate their message.

Monitoring video games, especially violent ones, may also present an acceptable middle ground between those who play them and those that support their ban.

Egyptians Involved in Israel Attack

At least three of the perpetrators of last week's deadly terror attack near Eilat were Egyptians, investigations by Israel's and Egypt's armies have found. Despite this, Egyptian political activists are still demanding a "million man protest" on the Israeli embassy in Cairo.

Eight Israelis were killed and 30 injured in a coordinated, three-part attack by the Gaza-based Popular Resistance Committees.

A leading member of Israel's General Staff, Amir Eshel, traveled to Cairo this week to present photographic evidence of Egyptian involvement in the attack, according to Ynet news. Videos he presented show that Israeli attack helicopters avoided hitting Egyptian militant vehicles and troops along the border, instead directing their fire into open areas where the terrorist were hiding. Egyptian troops were also reluctant to confront the militants who were firing across the border, and they may have been killed when they finally left their positions to stop the shooting. Egypt has yet to carry out autopsies on the bodies of the dead soldiers.

An inspection of the bodies of the terrorist proved that at least three of the terrorists were Egyptian. Notably, one of the dead terrorists had been tried in Egypt for radicalism and imprisoned. He escaped along with hundreds of other terrorists during the first days of the overthrow of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Many of the escapees took refuge in Gaza, with Egypt pressing Hamas to extradite them back across the border.

Israel tried to avoid the release of embarrassing facts about the Egyptian army's response, to prevent a diplomatic crisis. Although an Egyptian inquiry into the event confirmed aspects of the Israeli account, Cairo's interim government is under tremendous pressure to sever relations with the Jewish state. Israel also avoided launching a major group operation in Gaza, an action that would have provoked a strong response from the Egyptian public.

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