Amanda Meyers said:
Sharia law simply means following the Islamic way, (the actual definition of sharia is a broad visible path to a large body of water, the water as a metaphor for G-D) that in itself is not bad, once again the point is when it turns to radical thinking. The Muslim Brotherhood along with a host of other radical Islamic groups have repeatedly tied themselves to Nazi and NeoNazi groups, one book in particular tthat establishes some connections The Merger, the Conglomeration of International Organized Crime. These Islamic radical groups, like radical groups from many ideologies operate in organized crime....drug, human and weapons trafficking to name a few....
Sahria Law is very complex and it is different in each sect, there are many, but all are bad. Primarily because it is based in part that living like Mohammed is perfection, that alone should scare everybody. He was a war lord that would justify any evil he choose to approve. It is also a dual law, one set for Muslims (which is unkind to women in that husband owns them as property) and aweful and in humane set for non muslims else. It is not a law of a liberty - it is by definition of what is written, Anti American. BTW, it also praises those whom kill the people of Sunday and Saturday (that means Christians and Jews). Is that not enough! I will provide exact references if people want this. Muslims squirm when they see this, in truth, I have seen many did do not even know that it is there.
Amanda Meyers said:Sharia law simply means following the Islamic way, (the actual definition of sharia is a broad visible path to a large body of water, the water as a metaphor for G-D) that in itself is not bad, once again the point is when it turns to radical thinking.
Actually, it is very, very, bad. Theocratic government, based on ANY religion, is one of the greatest evils that can befall a country. That is true whether the Theocracy was one which declared the rulers themselves to be divine, ala late Rome or whether the defacto rulers "merely" claimed to be the priesthood of whatever god was represented.
Since the world began, more people have been killed over religion than over all other differences combined.
Even (or perhaps even moreso) with Christianity, given the number of differing denominations represented, each of which is sure in its heart that it has found the one true way. Imagine if the United States, at the very best case possible, adopted a democratically elected, but Theocratic government. There would have o be a "party" for each major denomination, including one for the Jews and several coalition parties for the smaller denominations. Now imagine that each person in the country felt both a moral imperative, based on the necessity of smoothing their fellow American's path to heaven, to see that their particular denomination/party won each election, and a religious imperative to avoid eternal damnation themselves if they did not succeed. Not a pretty picture.
- "Man is the only animal with the One True Religion - several of 'em." S.L. Clemens
- "Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and unto G_d that which is G_d's" Jesus
'Nuff said!
John Dummett said:
Don't be sorry about not voting for me. Cast your vote for whom you think is best. Mark my words though, Mubarak will be deposed and the Muslim brotherhood will have another Arab nation to where they will be able to do something like shutting down the Suez Canal and Barrack Obama will not do anything about it. There is only one course of action to take and we will not do it because we approach the problem like Americans and not Arabs. Say good bye to the only friendly nation to the United States in the area. It is a done deal. Continue voting for professional politicians and Ivy League educated lawyers and we are doomed as a nation and it won't take years or generations to happen. Send Hillary over there. She knows how to handle arab misogynists. Brain dead Americans who think we can force our cultural system down thier throats is a much better way of doing things is it not? To live through the overthrow of the SHAH of Iran was disasterous for the United States of America and we are about to make the same mistake except the outcome will be a million times more detrimental to the United States of America. But heck, what do I or any of us know. We are all too stupid to understand what is happening in government or worse yet there are certainly a lot of know it alls out there.
onathan Cousar said:Tami M just posted a link to this article http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/8289686/Egypt-protests-Americas-secret-backing-for-rebel-leaders-behind-uprising.html
Looks like I was RIGHT! Our government does support this overthrow. Everytime you hear them say that REFORMS MUST BE ACHIEVED in Egypt - that is code for MUBARAK MUST GO!
The big problem that I have with that article is its sudden appearance, the timing if you will, of its release. In addition, now that wikileaks has been validated by proxy by our Government, does this mean that anything, and I do mean anything, that is published as a "secret document released by wikileaks" is to be considered authentic? Because, imagine this. You or I or anyone could drum-up a forgery and put it out on the Internet claiming George Bush was caught humping a goat in the oval office and people would believe it.
So, suddenly this document shows up supposedly proving that we had a hand in this just months before Obama was elected and, guess what, no matter what happens it is Bush's fault. Think about it. Something is just not jiving, not kosher about all of this.
It doesn't make sense.
Furthermore, and I know this to be fact because I have friends over there right now, one who has been working in Alexandria for the past 14 years, who is telling me that this uprising, this revolution if you will, is unique in that it contains ALL segments of their population from the rich and poor, Shiite and Sunni, young and old, male and female. Everyone is sick of the guy and they just want him out, plain and simple.
I do agree ... Obama's people are getting some very bad advice from somewhere. I have told others from the beginning that it is probably M.K. Albright and some of her cronies, et al., but we're positioning ourselves to fail because to the Egyptians this looks like massive disloyalty from all angles.
Now, the Chinese could give a rat's backside about all of this but you can bet the Russians and Iranians are poising themselves, along with the Muslim Brotherhood, to make a move if a power vacuum exists once all the chips have fallen and we, via our great and fearless savior Obama, are letting it happen right before our eyes.
Edited: Trying to figure out the formatting structure of this forum. Whew. I have not had to play with html in some time.
Play CBS Video Video Fighter Jets Used to Intimidate Egyptian Protesters
F-16 fighter jets have begun to fly over the growing crowds and protesters in Egypt as a display of force to intimidate the uprising citizens. Elizabeth Palmer reports.
Video Egypt's Tipping Point
President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year regime has fueled the uprising in Egypt and many citizens are going to continue their fight until they topple his reign. Elizabeth Palmer reports.
Egyptian dissident Mohamed ElBaradei attends a demonstration in Tahrir Square in Cairo, January 30, 2011, where he told thousands that they were "beginning a new era." (Khaled Desouki/AFP/Getty Images)
(CBS/AP) Last Updated 4:17 p.m. ET
Egypt's most prominent reform advocate called on Sunday for President Hosni Mubarak to resign after the powerful military stepped up its presence across the anarchic capital, closing roads with tanks and sending F-16 fighter jets streaking over downtown.
The army's show of force appeared aimed at quelling looting, armed robbery and arson that broke out alongside pro-democracy protests and have turned the cultural heart of the Arab world into a tableau of once-unimaginable scenes of chaos.
The military made no attempt to disperse some 5,000 protesters gathered at Tahrir Square, a plaza in the heart of downtown that protesters have occupied since Friday afternoon. They have violated the curfew to call for the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak's regime, which they blame for poverty, unemployment, widespread corruption and police brutality.
Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei appeared in the square around 7 p.m.
"You are the owners of this revolution. You are the future," he told the cheering crowd. "Our essential demand is the departure of the regime and the beginning of a new Egypt in which each Egyptian lives in virtue, freedom and dignity."
Live Blog: Egypt in Crisis, Day Six
Earlier Sunday, ElBaradei spoke to CBS' "Face the Nation," and said that the current unrest has been "many, many years in the making."
He said that the only option for his country is for the president to go.
"You can't run a country on repression, detention, torture, lack of economic opportunity for 30 years," ElBaradei said.
ElBaradei: 85M Egyptians Want Mubarak Gone
One of the senior leaders of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, which wants to establish an Islamist state in the Arab world's most populous nation, told The Associated Press he was heading to Tahrir, or Liberation, Square to meet with other opposition leaders.
"You can call this a revolution, you can call this an uprising," Essam el-Erian said.
On the first day of trading across the Mideast after a weekend of protests and violence, nervous investors drove stocks down sharply. Crowds of foreigners filled Cairo International Airport, desperate and unable to leave because dozens of flights were canceled and delayed.
Gangs of armed men attacked at least four jails across Egypt before dawn, helping to free hundreds of Muslim militants and thousands of other inmates. Young men with guns and large sticks smashed cars and robbed people in Cairo.
The official death toll from five days of growing crisis stood at 97, with thousands injured, but reports from witnesses across the country indicated that the actual toll was far higher.
The lawlessness, uncertainty, and indications of an attempted exodus from Cairo were gravely damaging Egypt's economy, particularly tourism, which accounts for as much as 11 percent of the country's gross domestic product.
Speaking with CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday, CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer described the scene in Cairo as "a total breakdown in order."
"The army is deployed all over the city - in a very unthreatening way, but a way that shows muscle," she told CBS' Bob Schieffer. "The context is that overnight … parts of the city were sacked. The police were nowhere to be seen. People were taking to their own neighborhoods in militias to protect their houses."
"There's a total breakdown of order that is only being held together by what the citizens can do and also by the show of muscle by the army - who in fact has been attacking looters and so on, arresting and in some cases killing them," Palmer continued. "This is a whole new escalation. Perhaps to make the crowd understand that they will use force."
Banks were closed on orders from Egypt's Central Bank, and the country's stock market was shut on what is normally the first day of the trading week.
An unprecedented Internet cutoff remained in place for a third day after the country's four primary Internet providers stopped moving data in and out of the country early Friday in an apparent move by authorities to disrupt the organization of demonstrations. Egyptian mobile-phone networks were back up but with text-messaging widely disrupted.
The U.S. Embassy in Cairo told its citizens in Egypt to consider leaving the country as soon as possible, and said it had authorized the voluntary departure of dependents and non-emergency employees, a display of Washington's escalating concern about the stability of its closest Arab ally.
Armed Gangs Attack Egypt Jails, Free Militants
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said on "Meet the Press" that the U.S. expects the protests will lead to free and fair elections as part of a transition that will "meet the needs of the Egyptian people and that will truly establish democracy."
"What really was at the core of the protests, which were people saying, 'Hey, we deserve a better life. We deserve more opportunity to be respected and responded to.' That is what we've been conveying," Clinton said. "That's what we will continue to make very clear. We stand ready to assist."
Israel's prime minister told his Cabinet that he was "anxiously following" the crisis, saying in his first public comments on the situation that Israel's three-decade-old peace agreement with Egypt must be preserved.
Widespread looting and attacks erupted after police virtually disappeared on Friday evening, creating a security vacuum only partially filled by the presence of army troops backed by tanks at key sites around this city of 18 million people.
The military has been generally welcomed by demonstrators across Cairo, unlike the widely despised police, and the army sent hundreds more troops and armored vehicles onto the streets starting Sunday morning.
In the afternoon, truckloads of hundreds of police poured back into Cairo neighborhoods and took up positions on the streets.
Interior Minister Habib al-Adly told police commanders said he was ordering security forces to return to the streets in Cairo and elsewhere to work in tandem with army troops to restore order.
"It is necessary that the police role is quickly restored and that there should be cooperation in the field with the armed forces ... to defend the presence and future of the nation," he said.
In some spots, cops were jeered by residents who chanted anti-police slogans and demanded that they only be allowed to deploy jointly with the military.
In one part of Tahrir Square, soldiers working with civilian protester volunteers were even checking IDs and bags of people arriving at the square, saying they were searching for weapons and making sure plainclothes police did not enter the square.
"The army is protecting us, they won't let police infiltrators sneak in!" one volunteer shouted.
Then, minutes before the start of a 4 p.m. curfew, at least two jets roared over the Nile and toward Tahrir Square in the heart of Cairo, where thousands of protesters have gathered each day to demand the end of the administration.
The jets made several passes over the square, dropping lower every time and setting off alarms in parked cars.
Some protesters clapped and waved to them while others jeered. Lines of army tanks jammed a road leading into Tahrir, and a military helicopter hovered overhead.
"This is terrorism, they are trying to scare the people with the planes and the tanks. They are trying to make people afraid and leave the square," said Gamal Ahmed, a 40-year-old air-conditioning technician.
By evening the presence of overtly pious Muslims in the square was conspicuous, suggesting a significant Muslim Brotherhood representation. Hundreds performed the sunset prayers. Veiled women prayed separately.
ElBaradei, the former head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog left after his brief appearance, and some demonstrators dismissed him as an expatriate long removed from the country's problems.
"Many people feel he loves prizes and traveling abroad," said Muhammad Munir, 27. "He's not really one of the people."
Mubarak, 82, perpetuated the overriding role of military men in Egyptian politics on Saturday by naming his intelligence chief, former army general Omar Suleiman, to the new role of vice president. Ahmed Shafiq, the outgoing civil aviation minister and Mubarak fellow former air force officer, was named prime minister.
Egyptian Uprising: A Long Time Coming
State TV Sunday showed images of Mubarak during what it said was a visit to the country's military command center. The president looked somber and fatigued in his first public appearance since he addressed the nation late Friday to promise reform and annouce the dismissal of his Cabinet.
The brief footage appeared designed to project an image of normalcy.
But Egyptian security officials said that overnight armed men fired at guards in gun battles that lasted hours at the four prisons including one northwest of Cairo that held hundreds of militants. The prisoners escaped after starting fires and clashing with guards.
Those who fled included 34 members of the Muslim Brotherhood, whose lawyer, Abdel-Monaem Abdel-Maqsoud, told The Associated Press they were among scores rounded up by authorities ahead of large anti-government demonstrations on Friday. The escapees included at least seven senior members of the group.
The security officials said several inmates were killed and wounded, but gave no specific figures. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share the information with the media.
The officials told The Associated Press that army troops were hunting for the escaped prisoners, in some cases with the help of the police. State television also showed footage of what it said was dozens of prisoners recaptured by the army troops, squatting on dirt while soldiers kept watch over them.
In the southern city of Assiut, officials said riot police stormed the city's main prison to quell a prison riot, using tear gas and batons against inmates. An Associated Press reporter saw army tanks were deployed outside the prison, on bridges straddling the Nile and at the police headquarters.
Thousands of Alexandrians met to pray in downtown Alexandria, a Mediterranean port city that is a stronghold of the Muslim Brotherhood. After prayers, the crowd marched towards the city's old mosque to pray for the souls of those who died in the protests.
FROM MEMRI.ORG: Prominent Salafi-Jihadist Cleric on the Situation in Egypt: We are on the Verge of an Historic Stage in the History of the Islamic Nation; Toppling the Egyptian Regime – an Earthquake Similar to 9/11
This really supports my view that this is NOT what the media is portraying it to be... innocent students protesting for freedom and Democracy. Looks like the Islamists are behind it all. Their article continues:
In a new fatwa published on the Salafi-jihadi website Minbar Al-Tawhid Wal Jihad, prominent Salafi-jihadist cleric Abu Mundhir Al-Shinqiti rules that participation in the protests in Egypt is permissible and recommended, since they might bring about the fall of the current Egyptian regime. Al-Shinqiti's fatwa demonstrates the high expectations Salafi-jihadis have regarding the outcome of the current uprising in Egypt. In their view, not only will the fall of the Mubarak regime change the political situation in Egypt itself, but it will also cause the West to lose an important ally and signal a new era in the Arab and Islamic world.
Tami M said:
You are correct, Mark, in not trusting this administration. The squatter in the WH is not an American but he IS a muslim. He said he would side with them in his own book and we all saw the pictures of him bowing to the Saudi king. I almost lost my lunch when I saw that. An American President *bowing* to any other human being is beyond vile. He is nothing but a metrosexual marxist and poser.
I was in a "debate" with a liberal over that "bow". She insisted he did not do it.........I sent her this picture, clearly shows he is bowing and his frickin' head is bowed in respect also. What a jerk!
