Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for December 31/12
Lebanese Press round-up: December 29, 2012/Now Lebanon
Al-Rahi Urges Politicians Not to Tamper with Nation's Fate
Social Affairs Minister Wael Abou Faour Reveals Syrian Refugees Security Plan in the Making
Derailed pro Axis of evil Micheal Aoun Says Mockingly that Fighting is Alternative to Dialogue
Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani Visits Karami in Tripoli, Insists on Holding Elections of Higher Islamic Council
Lebanese Army Deploys after Priest Assaulted in Tripoli's al-Zahriyeh
7 Skiers Stranded in Lebanese Mountain Rescued after Accident
Nazem al-Khoury Defends Suleiman's Stance on Role of Diplomats in Lebanon
Jumblat Denies Holding Secret Talks with Aoun
Brahimi Says has Syria Plan that World Powers May Adopt
19 Shiites Heading to Iran Killed in Southwest Pakistan Attack
Rebels Storm Key Syrian Army Post, Airbase
French Paper to Publish Comic Book on Life of Prophet Mohammed
4 Boko Haram Extremists, Policeman Killed in Northern Nigeria Battle
Israel indicts ex-minister Lieberman
Egypt pound hits record low under new currency regime
Russia sends landing ships to Syria: report

Al-Rahi Urges Politicians Not to Tamper with Nation's Fate
Naharnet /Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi stressed on Sunday the need for honest dialogue and urged politicians not to tamper with the fate of the nation and the people. In his sermon during mass in Bkirki, al-Rahi said there was no excuse for fears not to hold dialogue.
The March 14 opposition has boycotted the national dialogue, saying it would not sit at the same table with Hizbullah.
Politicians should end corruption and squandering of public funds which al-Rahi said are leading to deteriorating economic conditions and creating more poverty among the people.
They should also stop making counter-accusations and tampering with the fate of the state and its people, the patriarch added.
Al-Rahi met with Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun before presiding mass in Bkirki.

Social Affairs Minister Wael Abou Faour Reveals Syrian Refugees Security Plan in the Making
Naharnet/Social Affairs Minister Wael Abou Faour said Sunday that the government should adopt a new plan to confront the social, economic and security challenges that Lebanon is facing by the rising influx of Syrian refugees.
In remarks to An Nahar daily, Abou Faour said a ministerial committee tasked with finding solutions to the rising number of displaced Syrians will hold a meeting under the chairmanship of Premier Najib Miqati at the Grand Serail on Wednesday. The meeting will precede an extraordinary cabinet session that is set to tackle the issue on Thursday.
“I believe that the relief plan is ready but it would require the adoption of another program that deals with the security of the Lebanese, the Syrians and the Palestinians,” Abou Faour told the newspaper.
“The displaced are putting a huge pressure on Lebanon socially, economically and security wise,” he said.
The suggested plan is entitled “Lebanon's obligations towards helping and protecting the displaced within (the framework of) Lebanese laws and the state's sovereignty,” Abou Faour said without giving further details. The U.N. is calling for $1.5 billion (750 million euros) to help through June nearly one million Syrian refugees and four million other Syrians affected by the conflict but who remain the country.
The U.N. high commission on refugees registered 500,000 Syrian refugees, of those 170,637 are in Lebanon.

Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani Visits Karami in Tripoli, Insists on Holding Elections of Higher Islamic Council
Naharnet/Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani said on Sunday that the elections of the Higher Islamic Council, which will become illegitimate after the end of its term, should be held within the legitimate timeframe.
Following a visit to former Prime Minister Omar Karami at his residence in the northern city of Tripoli, the mufti said the members of the Council will be elected after the list of names of eligible voters is issued.
“Its three-year term ends on Monday and it will no longer have legitimacy,” he said three days after he canceled his decision to call for the election of the 32-member Council.
Qabbani stressed that his deputy has no right to call for any Council session or chair any meeting in his absence.
Last week, the Shura Council suspended the elections set by Qabbani for Dec. 30 after 21 Higher Islamic Council members, who are close to ex-Premier Saad Hariri's al-Mustaqbal Movement, filed a challenge against the Mufti's call.
They described the elections for the Council that elects the mufti and organizes the affairs of Dar al-Fatwa as illegal over Qabbani's failure to consult them before making his call.
Karami stressed for unity following his meeting with the Mufti, urging Prime Minister Najib Miqati to “make a real initiative to find solutions” to the spat between the Council's members.
“The differences should be resolved through the elections to preserve the unity of the (Sunni) sect,” he said. Miqati, who met with Qabbani the day he reversed his call for the elections, proposed holding elections within a period of two or three months with members of the current Council remaining in office until polls are held to avoid a vacuum.

Aoun Says Mockingly that Fighting is Alternative to Dialogue
Naharnet/Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun announced on Sunday readiness to meet with his foes to find a solution to Lebanon's political crisis, saying mockingly that fighting is the alternative to dialogue among bickering politicians. “I am ready to meet with anyone to find a solution” to the political crisis, Aoun said following talks with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi in Bkirki. “The solution doesn’t come through the boycott of dialogue,” he told reporters at the seat of the Maronite church. "Not holding dialogue is a crime against the nation." Asked what was the alternative to dialogue, he quipped by saying “fighting.”
The head of the Change and Reform bloc was referring to the opposition's boycott of the national dialogue called for by President Michel Suleiman at Baabda Palace on January 7. Several opposition March 14 alliance leaders reiterated in the past week that they would not attend the talks in the presence of Hizbullah. Their conditions further exacerbated the efforts of Suleiman to bring the rival parties together when al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc chief Fouad Saniora said March 14 will return to the national dialogue once Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah announces his readiness to discuss putting his party's arms under the authority of the Lebanese state. Asked by reporters if he was ready to meet with Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat, a centrist, Aoun said: “If there is a need for a meeting with Jumblat then I would do so.”Jumblat denied on Sunday a media report that he had held secret talks with Aoun. The FPM chief also hoped that Lebanon would witness political and security stability through the offshore exploration of oil and gas. “We hope that 2013 would bring good to Lebanon particularly that we have oil resources that should be used in the interest of all Lebanese and to serve stability,” he said. On Thursday, the cabinet set the first tender for oil and gas exploration for Feb. 1 and set March 21 to publish the list of qualified firms. Aoun said he discussed with al-Rahi general issues and they agreed on several contentious points.

Lebanese Press round-up: December 29, 2012/Now Lebanon
Note: There is no press round-up on Sundays.
An-Nahar
An-Nahar quoted key sources as saying that “there will be a roadmap for the parliamentary subcommittee tasked with examining the electoral law. The subcommittee will start meeting on January 8, 2013 and its members – at least those who so wish – will stay at a hotel near the Parliament building.
The sources added that “despite current data, which does not encourage anyone to expect some breakthrough due to the intransigence of all parties and their attachment to their well-known positions, all forces have agreed to head to parliament to settle the electoral law issue.”
Still according to the sources, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea’s open letter to President Michel Suleiman regarding the dialogue aimed to demonstrate how serious March 14 forces are committed to going all the way to the end in electoral law discussions.
The sources added: “Several things have been already agreed upon before March 14 forces gave their final approval to resuming subcommittee meetings.”
Speaker Nabih Berri told An-Nahar: “Lebanon has started the practical phase of oil drilling and we can now say that [our] debt concerns the future of oil rather than our children’s future.”
Within the course of evaluating the positive events that occurred in 2012 in Lebanon, he said: “These include addressing the oil and Litani issues and Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Lebanon.”
Speaker Berri denied any knowledge of March 14 forces proposing candidates for a neutral cabinet, adding: “The most important thing is for the parliamentary subcommittee to play its part in order to submit its conclusions to the plenary session [of parliament] so that it has the final say on the expected electoral law.”
Sources close to former PM Fouad Siniora told An-Nahar that the stances he expressed yesterday aimed primarily to stress the conditions enabling the success of the dialogue to which President Suleiman is calling, knowing that the former prime minister voiced several alternatives to this dialogue.
The sources asserted that communication between the former prime minister and the president is ongoing.
An-Nahar has learned that PM Najib Miqati held consultations yesterday with Mufti Sheikh Mohammad Rashid Qabbani who had requested a 24-hour deadline to respond to the proposal put forth by the prime minister two days ago [with regard to the Higher Religious Council].
Qabbani, however, did not have a positive response to PM Miqati’s proposed mechanism, whereby the Mufti is to call for a meeting of the Higher Religious Council during which he would be tasked with taking measures to prepare for the elections and set a date for them.
Qabbani would have widespread prerogatives at the Council’s helm and the Council would remain in office until election results are promulgated.
The said mechanism aimed to avert any void in the Council, but the Mufti voices reservations in this respect and his phone conversation with PM Miqati did not alter his position.
Al-Akhbar
The Lebanese Armed Forces: Agents are recruited to work abroad by e mail and phone.
Against a backdrop of ongoing political and media tensions between March 8 and March 14 forces, intelligence services are operating via phones and websites to gather information and recruit agents.
PM Najib Miqati asked: “Is opposition for the sake of power worth undermining state components? Whoever instigates against the state and state institutions will have to pay the price one day.”
Amidst the maelstrom of petty political squabbles, the Lebanese Armed Forces’ Command warned the Lebanese against suspicious foreign intelligence services that are making intensive efforts via electronic means to gather information from Lebanon, including using the SMS bulk messages technique, recruiting agents via websites and spreading malware programs to gather information from Lebanese computers.
The LAF Command called on all citizens to notify it immediately if they receive any suspicious messages or access any such websites.
As-Safir
Miqati to As-Safir: Let us make a consensus choice regarding elections.
PM Najib Miqati said: “The resumption of the parliamentary subcommittee meetings is a good and useful thing and I hope its daily open meetings will lead to understandings that dispel the concerns of all parties without any exceptions.”
PM Miqati reported that Speaker Nabih Berri told him during their meeting yesterday that he instructed committee members to hold intensive meetings and put all draft laws and law proposals on the agenda of discussions, including with the cabinet draft, the Kataeb and Lebanese Forces draft (based on 50 constituencies), the Orthodox Gathering draft and the draft submitted by the National Commission chaired by former Minister Fouad Boutros.
PM Miqati said: “The committee will discuss the positives and negatives of all these drafts and others. The cabinet will abide by any law that gains the broadest consensus possible, and I have not been – and will never be – an obstacle to any electoral option that consolidates consensus and national unity in the country.”
PM Miqati asserted that he does not mind adopting Fouad Boutros’ draft as it is or with amendments, saying: “The important thing for us is to abide by constitutional deadlines, to hold the elections according to their constitutional deadline and based on a modern, consensual electoral law that meets the Lebanese people’s ambitions, especially the youths who harbor ambitions for reforms and developing political life.”
Al-Joumhouria
March 14 sources to Al-Joumhouria: Our stance on the dialogue will not change.
March 14 leadership sources called for implementing the memorandum they filed to President Michel Suleiman, particularly the chapter regarding Lebanese-Syrian relations, the need to expel Syrian Ambassador Ali Abdel Karim Ali from Lebanon and deploy the Lebanese Armed Forces along the border, and the abrogation of bilateral treaties as a prelude to redefining relations and striking new agreements with the new Syrian regime.
The sources told Al-Joumhouria: “Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour took up the Syrian ambassador’s defense upon the request of the Syrian regime in order to support Ambassador Ali’s campaign against Lebanese institutions, especially against the president whose pro-sovereignty stance in the Council of Ministers annoyed the axis of rejectionism.”
According to the sources, “Mansour’s coverage for Ambassador Ali is further prove to the cabinet’s Syrian loyalty and the inability of centrist forces to confront the reality allowing this cabinet to endure despite the direct offense dealt to the president by the Syrian ambassador and the foreign minister.”
On another level, the sources went on saying that the March 14 stance on the [national] dialogue “will not change as long as current data are unchanged, or else March 14 forces would be yielding to the killing machine and resuming dialogue with a cabinet that provides legitimacy and cover to political crime, and with a party that refuses to discuss weapons it holds as eternal.”

New Year's Eve in Beirut
Now Lebanon/Unlike in other capitals around the world, Downtown Beirut is not the main attraction on New Year's Eve, but it still gathers a crowd for the final countdown
New Year's Eve is just around the corner and Lebanon is getting ready for the countdown, but when it comes to blowout celebrations Downtown Beirut will not even attempt to match the likes of New York's Times Square. Whilst many capitals around the globe have already prepared the show, set up the stage and are rehearsing the fireworks, the Lebanese have made it a tradition to celebrate in private.
Neither fireworks nor entertainment are planned for the final countdown of 2012. On Friday night, just three days before the big night, Downtown Beirut was full of tourists; delighting restaurant managers in the area who sent employees to the street to harass passersby with the offer of tea or a tabbouleh.
"New Year's Eve in Lebanon is about private parties and paying tons of money," 28 year-old reveller Charbel el Khoury told NOW in Downtown Beirut on Friday night. "In other cities around the world you have great celebrations. In our Place de L'Etoile nothing is ever organised."
But Beirutis and tourists alike usually gather regardless in the center of Beirut for the countdown, many bringing their own fireworks. "I came here last year with a friend. It was packed, mostly with families and young people. Not just the square, but also the streets around it," explains 25 year-old Naji Maalouf. "People come here with a bottle of champagne and some also bring their own fireworks. Some of the restaurants also organize small fireworks and they even put the countdown on loud speakers," he continues.
"The city takes care of itself, when the government does nothing. Many people can't afford a very expensive party in a hotel or restaurant, so they come here," he added.
The New Year private parties in Beirut's restaurants and hotels are pricy for the average Lebanese. A ticket for dinner in one of the restaurants in Gemmayze, Monot or Hamra is over $120 per person, which usually includes a meal, open bar and the champagne at midnight. New Year's Eve at the famous Sursock Palace is $150 for an open bar and a live jazz band show - it will set you back a further $125 if you also want to have dinner. Dinner and latino music in an Argentinian restaurant like Estancia or the adjacent Gardel pub in Gemmayze is $140. In a Lebanese style restaurant like Al Falamanki, the price does not get much lower: $135 per person.
Nightclubs are another option, and also offer their dance floors and maybe a show, but are likely to charge as much. Democratic Republic of Music has a Musicians of the Nile show starting at 9 pm, with Brazilian dancers until 4 am. Metro al Medina Theater in Hamra charges $165 for a cabaret show, premium bar, three course dinner and a traditional cotillon dance. BO18, Beirut's underground bunker-turned-nightclub, promises to bring Times Square to Beirut. The show costs $125 standing, $175 if you want a seat at the bar and $250 for a table. A ticket for the already traditional New Year's Eve concert at Biel, featuring famous singers Haifa Wehbe and Assi El-Helani, costs $250, open bar included.
Monot bars are usually quieter and less pricey. Monot was famous in the 1990s when it temporarily took Hamra's place as party central, but the old classics Gemmayze, Mar Mikhael and Hamra soon re-took the reigns. No longer leading the party culture, Monot does not attract as many people in 2012 as it did ten years ago, and some of its fancier pubs, like Baracuda did not survive. This New Year's Eve in Monot, you can get an open bar for $60 in a British pub like Pints or a bottle of vodka and 4 sushi platters for your group of friends for $70 at Hangover.
In Gemmayze and Hamra only the famous pubs charge an entrance fee. Dany's in Hamra has an open bar and snacks for $75. De Prague is also open for the first time on New Year's Eve, with the managers deciding not to take any reservations or charge on the door. Many bar managers in Gemmayze have decided to open their doors and serve customers just as on any other night of the year. "The only difference is that for New Year's Eve we have decided to take table reservations," Godot's manager Elie Hassoun told NOW. Hassoun says he loves spending New Years Eve at the bar: "At midnight everybody goes to the street for fireworks and champagne. There is no traffic, no cars parked on the street, as the police usually close it down completely."It is in such circumstances where traditional Lebanese spontaneity finds a fertile environment free from a hefty entrance fee. Hassoun enthuses, "it gets crazy sometimes, two years ago somebody managed to get permission to bring in a school bus, and they were showering people with champagne from the roof. It's going to be fun to see what surprises this year will bring."

Persona non grata in Beirut
By: Michael Young /Now Lebanon
The sudden departure from Beirut of the Syrian interior minister, Mohammad al-Shaar, was a sign of how much has changed in the Syrian-Lebanese relationship. Shaar allegedly took to the skies after being warned by the Lebanese that Interpol might issue an arrest warrant for him, and that Lebanon would have to implement it.
Shaar was brought to town after he was injured in a bomb explosion at the Interior Ministry in Damascus. According to physicians familiar with his case, he mainly suffered burns, but nothing that warranted an extended stay in the Lebanese capital.
The Shaar episode tells us a great deal about what the Assad regime has lost in Lebanon in the past eight years, since the withdrawal of the Syrian army in April 2005. It comes after a Lebanese indictment was issued against the pro-Syrian Lebanese former minister Michel Samaha and against Ali Mamlouk, a senior Syrian security official. But the Shaar incident tells us more. It shows that when the Lebanese face international demands, they will respect them, regardless of how this may damage Beirut’s ties with countries in the Middle East.
Of course, there are limits. The Special Tribunal for Lebanon has requested, to no avail, that four Hezbollah operatives be taken into custody for their alleged participation in the assassination of Rafiq Hariri, the former prime minister. However, this only affirms that Syria doesn’t have the same pull in Lebanon that it once had, with Shaar standing out in grim contrast to the Hezbollah suspects.
If Lebanon no longer represents a fallback refuge for Bashar al-Assad’s entourage, especially those who have led the vicious repression at home, then what is its ultimate value for the Syrian regime? Lebanon always served as a convenient extension of Syria, a place where Syrian officials could do as they pleased, and where the risk and blame was invariably pushed onto the Lebanese.
This is particularly true of the welfare of the Assad regime’s financial assets, which has been threatened by the imposition of sanctions on Syrian officials, as well as by other pressures from Western countries. The fear among Lebanese banks that they may be punished for acting on behalf of Syrian regime figures is the financial side of international retaliation against the repression in Syria, of which Shaar’s potential arrest would have represented the human rights side.
Among those who will be watching the aftermath of Shaar’s escape is the Syrian ambassador to Lebanon, Ali Abdel Karim Ali. The ambassador was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department in September 2011 and accused of being responsible for the harassment and disappearance of Syrian dissidents who had fled to Lebanon.
Hezbollah, too, will observe what happens in the future. The party has resisted all efforts to deliver its members to the Lebanese authorities. However, this won’t make their problem go away. If the state begins to bend to foreign requests, Hezbollah may be caught in the middle. For instance, once a trial in absentia begins in The Hague and details emerge on the specifics of the Hariri killing, it could be much more difficult for the party, and for the Lebanese government, to simply do nothing about the four suspects.
Lebanon is being pried open by other demands coming from outside. For instance, the American Internal Revenue Service will impose on Lebanese financial institutions by the start of 2014 legislation known as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA. FATCA compels financial institutions worldwide to report on their American clients for tax purposes, or else risk seeing the US withhold 30 percent of their income on American financial assets. In a place that swears by banking secrecy, FATCA is no less a challenge to Lebanon’s traditional red lines than would have been Shaar’s arrest.
That doesn’t mean that FATCA, for all its faults, is equivalent to an Interpol arrest warrant. But Lebanon realizes that its latitude to resist demands from abroad is limited, so that one imposition, like the other, confirms the further breakdown in Lebanon’s ability to say “no.” In that context, the Syrian-Lebanese relationship is bound to be harmed even more in the coming years, as Syrian officials are sought out by international bodies for one reason or another. Syria is used to hitting out against the messenger, and Lebanon is a vulnerable target. Yet the Lebanese are willing to absorb punishment if they can avoid more damaging retaliation from the international community. The choice between satisfying regional countries with an agenda in Lebanon and those further afield will hardly be easy. Beirut’s airport could be busy as individuals leave a city they had once thought safe, international opprobrium biting at their heels.
**Michael Young is opinion editor of The Daily Star newspaper in Lebanon. He tweets @BeirutCalling.

Brahimi Says has Syria Plan that World Powers May Adopt
Naharnet/International peace envoy for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi said on Sunday he has a proposal to end the deadly 21-month conflict there "that could be adopted by the international community."
"I have discussed this plan with Russia and Syria... I think this proposal could be adopted by the international community," the U.N. and Arab League envoy said in Egypt after meeting League chief Nabil al-Arabi.
The situation in Syria "is very bad and getting worse by the day," added Brahimi a day after warning that Damascus faced a choice between "hell or the political process."
Brahimi held talks in Moscow on Saturday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on his end-of-year bid to accelerate moves to halt the conflict that monitors say has killed 45,000 people.
The talks came amid signs that key Syrian ally Russia was beginning to distance itself from Assad's government.
Lavrov said both he and Brahimi agreed there was hope for a solution as long as world powers put pressure on both sides.
"The confrontation is escalating. But we agree the chance for a political solution remains," Lavrov said.
Agence France Presse

19 Shiites Heading to Iran Killed in Southwest Pakistan Attack
Naharnet/A car bomb attack on buses carrying Shiite Muslim pilgrims to Iran killed 19 people and injured 25 in Pakistan's insurgency-hit southwest on Sunday, officials said. The remotely-triggered bomb hit a convoy of three buses in Mastung district and set one of them ablaze, said Tufail Baluch, a senior government official in the district.
"At least 19 people have been killed and 25 injured. All of them were Shiite pilgrims," he told Agence France Presse, adding most of those killed were burnt to death.
"The bomb was planted in a car. The condition of some of the injured is critical," Baluch said.
Some 180 Shiite pilgrims were on their way to Iran in the buses when the bomb ripped through one of them, said Akbar Hussain Durrani, a senior government official in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province.
One bus carrying some 45 pilgrims was badly damaged, he said. Mastung is some 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of Quetta. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
The province has become an increasing flashpoint for sectarian violence between Pakistan's majority Sunni Muslims and minority Shiites, who account for around a fifth of the country's 180 million people.
Baluchistan is also rife with Islamist militancy and with a regional insurgency which began in 2004. The insurgents demand political autonomy and a greater share of profits from the region's oil and gas resources.
Agence France Presse

Egyptian Cleric Threatens Christian Copts with Genocide
by Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/December 28, 2012
http://www.meforum.org/3417/egypt-cleric-threatens-copts-genocide
Islamic leaders continue to portray the popular protests against President Morsi and his recently passed Sharia-heavy constitution as products of Egypt's Christians. Recently, Muslim Brotherhood leader Safwat Hegazy said in an open rally, as captured on video:
A message to the church of Egypt, from an Egyptian Muslim: I tell the church — by Allah, and again, by Allah — if you conspire and unite with the remnants [opposition] to bring Morsi down, that will be another matter…. our red line is the legitimacy of Dr. Muhammad Morsi. Whoever splashes water on it, we will splash blood on him."
More recently, Dr. Wagdi Ghoneim — who earlier praised Allah for the death of the late Coptic Pope Shenouda, cursing him to hell and damnation on video — made another video, entitled, "A Notice and Warning to the Crusaders in Egypt," a reference to the nation's Copts, which he began by saying, "You are playing with fire in Egypt, I swear, the first people to be burned by the fire are you [Copts]." The video was made in the context of the Tahrir protests against Morsi: Islamic leaders, such as Hegazy and Ghoneim, seek to portray the Copts as dominant elements in those protests; according to them, no real Muslim would participate. Ghoneim even went on to say that most of the people at the protests were Copts, "and we know you hid your [wrist] crosses by lowering your sleeves."
The heart of Ghoneim's message was genocidal: "The day Egyptians — and I don't even mean the Muslim Brotherhood or Salafis, regular Egyptians — feel that you are against them, you will be wiped off the face of the earth. I'm warning you now: do not play with fire!"
Along with trying to incite Egypt's Muslims against the Copts, and threatening them with annihilation, Ghoneim made other telling assertions, including:
Addressing the Christians of Egypt as "Crusaders," once again showing Islam's simplistic, black-and-white vision, which clumps all Christians — of all nations, past and present, regardless of historical context and denomination — as one, in accordance with an Islamic tradition that states "All infidels are one religion."
Comparing Christian Copts to animals: "Respect yourselves and live with us and we will protect you… Why?… because Allah has forbidden me to be cruel to animals. I'm not trying to compare you to animals … but if I am not cruel to animals or plants, shall I be cruel to a soul created by Allah? You are an infidel in Allah's sight — and it is for him to judge you. However, when you live in my country, it is forbidden for me to be unjust to you — but that doesn't mean we are equal. No, oh no."
Telling Copts: "I want to remind you that Egypt is a Muslim country…. if you don't like the Muslim Sharia, you have eight countries that have a Cross on their flag [in Europe], so go to them. However, if you want to stay here in Egypt with us, know your place and be respectful. You already have all your rights — by Allah, even more than Muslims… No one investigates your homes, no one investigates your churches. In fact, in the past, the Islamic groups used to fake their IDs and put Christian names on them when they would go out for [jihadi] operations, so that when the police would catch them, they would see they are Christians and be left alone." Ghoneim misses the irony of what he says: Police know that Egyptian Christians are not going to engage in terror; Egyptian Muslims are suspect.
Saying, in mocking tones, towards the end: "What do you think — that America will protect you? Let's be very clear, America will not protect you. If so, it would have protected the Christians of Iraq when they were being butchered!" — a reference to the fact that, after the U.S. ousted Saddam Hussein, half of Iraq's Christian population has either been butchered or fled the nation, and all under U.S. auspices.
Claiming that the Copts are only four million while the Muslims are 85 million — even as Coptic Orthodox Church registries maintain that there are more than 15 million Copts, and most outside analysts say 10 million, in Egypt— and adding that Morsi was only being nice by saying, as he did during one of his speeches: "There are no minorities in Egypt." Ghoneim fails to explain, if Copts are so few — four million compared to 85 million — how could they be so influential, and flood the Tahrir protests with such large numbers?
Mocking new Coptic Pope Tawadros—not surprising considering his great hate for the former Pope—by claiming that the new Pope urged Copts to protest; that the new Pope wants to see Morsi and Sharia law fall, and by adding, "Is it not enough that you have all those monasteries?"
Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.