Tunisia

[SAT]

Yesterday...
(Today on the news the estimates were close to a million people)

hundreds of thousands of mourners chanting anti-government

http://www.boston.com/news/world/mid...GpL/story.html

Today...
Tunisian Islamists rally to show "power of street"

About 6,000 supporters of the ruling Ennahda movement rallied

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...91806C20130209


Just thought the numbers were telling and quite interesting.

[SAT]

Re: Tunisia

South Sudan

Yesterday...

Mali Islamists flee to Sudan's Darfur region
http://news.yahoo.com/mali-islamists...085136977.html

Today...

New fighting in borderland between Sudan and South Sudan
http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=302733

[SAT]

Re: Tunisia

Egypt

Muslim Brotherhood want aide as top Egypt cleric

"However such a selection will fuel more public anger and show the Brotherhood lacks the vision to see the impact of such a decision on the stability of the country," he told Reuters. "It also shows more growing influence of Islamists in Egypt."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...91906I20130210

[SAT]

Re: Tunisia

Brotherhood man spurned for role as Egypt's top cleric

http://news.yahoo.com/brotherhood-ma...143736690.html

The man the Brotherhood wanted and prepared for a year didn't even make it into the top three.


Reminder from another thread......

Iran president accuses parliament speaker's family of corruption

Egypt's top Sunni Muslim scholar told Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Shi'ite Iran on Tuesday that his country must give full rights to Sunnis living in Iran and refrain from interfering in the affairs of Gulf Arab states.

Grand Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the head of al-Azhar mosque and university, also urged Ahmadinejad to "respect Bahrain as a sisterly Arab state", according to a statement issued by al-Azhar's media office.

It said Sheikh al-Tayeb also rejected "the extension of Shi'ite reach" in Sunni countries.

But the Shi'ite Iranian leader received a stiff rebuke when he met Egypt's leading Sunni Muslim scholar later at Cairo's historic al-Azhar mosque and university

Egyptians challenge Mursi in nationwide protests

QUOTE
Some scholars from the prestigious al-Azhar mosque and university joined Tuesday's protest, showing that Mursi and his Brotherhood have alienated some more moderate Muslims. Members of Egypt's large Christian minority also joined in.



ElBaradei: Fear growing over possible Islamist constitution

QUOTE
There is growing concern in Egypt that the Muslim Brotherhood will draft a new constitution with "Islamist undertones," Egyptian opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei told Germany's Der Spiegel in an interview published Monday.

"We all fear that the Brotherhood will pass a document with Islamist undertones that marginalizes the rights of women and religious minorities," the Nobel laureate stated.

http://wedg.millenniumweekend.org/fo...light=al-Azhar

Those at the "al-Azhar's university " are playing a part.

[SAT]

Re: Tunisia

A comment I had to quote

Shadi Hamid, research director at the Brookings Doha Center, argued in the Washington Post Thursday that the problem was not Ennahda’s performance in Tunisia or the performance of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Hamid, who was in Tunis, said polarization between the region’s secular and Islamist political groups was inevitable. He argued that what is occurring is not chaos, it is an epic power struggle.

“There is a fundamental ideological divide in the Arab world — let’s not pretend that it’s purely political,” he said. “There is a battle for the future of these countries and what they should look like.”

The stakes are enormous. Stay tuned.

http://blogs.reuters.com/david-rohde...assassination/

[SAT]

Re: Tunisia

U.S. says Egypt needs to move fast to fix economy

The United States has urged Egypt to move fast to agree a loan deal with the IMF, reform its energy sector and guarantee investors against "arbitrary acts" to avert a deeper slide in its economy.

In unusually blunt comments, U.S. Ambassador Ann Patterson said Egypt's government and opposition must stop ignoring economic problems and work together to fix them.

"The talks with the International Monetary Fund need to be brought to closure."

Prime Minister Hisham Qandil met IMF chief Christine Lagarde in Davos, Switzerland, last month and said an IMF mission would return to Cairo within two weeks to conclude an agreement, but there has been no sign of a resumption of talks and the government has yet to issue an updated fiscal plan

http://news.yahoo.com/u-says-egypt-n...-business.html


J'lem official: Turkey hurting NATO by undermining Israel

Turkey continues to undermine Israel-NATO cooperation, and Ankara should be clearly told this hurts the NATO alliance and is no way for a member of the alliance to act, Eran Lerman, the deputy head of the National Security Council, said Monday

Lerman, speaking to the annual meeting in Jerusalem of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said Turkey was undermining Israeli participation in NATO, and that Ankara should be told that this was not to Israel’s detriment, but rather to NATO’s, and that it was not proper for a member of the alliance to undermine the organization’s capacity

http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPol...ID=302901&R=R1

[Andy]

Re: Tunisia

What a mess

[SAT]

Re: Tunisia

Indeed
This is very important.
Egyptian police have now had their own protest, declaring they don't want to be used as political tools for the Brotherhood.

http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-hundreds...133752573.html