Osama Saad : March 14 Came to Sidon to Incite against Army, Their Statement Didn't Call for Holding Asir Accountable
Naharnet/Popular Nasserite Organization chief ex-MP Osama Saad on Sunday said that the meeting held by the March 14 forces in Sidon earlier in the day was aimed at “inciting against the military institution,” saying March 14 had not criticized the practices of Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir in the past, prior to his ouster from the city through a military operation. Saad described as “beautiful words” the content of the meeting's closing statement regarding “coexistence, civil peace, human dignity, the rejection of extremism and the just state.” “But if only the March 14 forces would act accordingly and turn words into deeds,” he added.
Earlier, the March 14 alliance called for announcing Sidon an arms-free city, saying the presence of an “illegitimate statelet” was the reason behind the violence in the southern city. “Unfortunately, the March 14 forces, topped by al-Mustaqbal movement, have only ruined coexistence and civil peace through the rhetoric of sectarian incitement and provocation and through keeping the situations tense for narrow political ends,” Saad added.
These forces “have only sponsored extremist movements, from Sidon to Tripoli and Arsal and other Lebanese regions,” the ex-MP said, reminding that “the deviant phenomenon of al-Asir would not have surfaced and grown without the political and security sponsorship and financial support of the al-Mustaqbal movement.”“If only the forces that convened today in Majdelyoun had raised the voice, even once, against Asir's practices and strenuous efforts to ignite sectarian strife and against his blocking of roads and attacks on citizens," Saad added.
"These forces only came to Sidon today, after a blow was dealt to Asir's deviant phenomenon and the removal of his security zone, and they came to incite against the military institution which offered martyrs in defense of Sidon and its people and to protect civil peace," he went on to say. Saad noted that “the Majdelyoun meeting ignored all of Asir's extremist and deviant practices, while exerting utmost effort to put the blame on others with the aim of acquitting him.” The Sidon leader condemned March 14's statement, which “did not include a call for holding accountable Asir and his followers, backers and financiers.”
The gunbattles, which left 18 soldiers and around 20 gunmen dead, were sparked after al-Asir's followers opened fire on an army checkpoint
 

Aoun defends Hezbollah role in Syria, says alliance intact
July 07, 2013/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun said over the weekend that his understanding with Hezbollah was still intact and defended the resistance group's intervention in Syria, saying it aimed at preventing a civil war in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. He also said that his recent meeting with Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awad Asiri was part of an initiative to show openness to all countries.
“The understanding with Hezbollah still exists on the strategic level. We are convinced that under the current circumstances, the resistance deters Israel and this preserves our security,” Aoun told Radio Monte Carlo Saturday.
In a rare move, Aoun, who signed a memorandum of understanding with Hezbollah in 2006, hosted Asiri for dinner last week. Ties between the FPM and Saudi Arabia, a major backer of the March 14 coalition, have been strained over the past years.The visit came as Aoun’s relationship with Hezbollah and other March 8 allies experienced tension.Aoun received later in the week Iran and Syria’s ambassadors to Lebanon Ghazanfar Roknabadi and Ali Abdel-Karim Ali respectively. Aoun said his recent meetings with diplomats reflected an initiative to show openness toward all sides. “Based on this initiative, there will be dialogue over problems in Lebanon resulting from the situation in the Middle East ... maybe we will propose some ideas that can help bringing rival groups together, “ Aoun said. The FPM leader denied that his group’s ties with Saudi Arabia were tense.He also explained that Hezbollah had interfered in Syria after the government failed to control the border, enabling Syrian rebels to move freely in and out of Lebanon.“The border stretching from Arsal to Akkar was abandoned, leading to Syrian rebels crossing in and from Lebanon. This almost led to a civil war between residents of Arsal and Hermel. Hezbollah then was forced to interfere in Syria and put an end to all this,” Aoun explained. “In principle, we are against meddling in the affairs of foreign countries. But on this specific issue, there are two point of views: one saying that Hezbollah should intervene to prevent the outbreak of civil war which is approaching the Bekaa [Valley] and another that says Hezbollah should not have intervened,” he added.Aoun said that Hezbollah was not the first Lebanese group to involve itself in the Syria crisis.“Haven’t many Lebanese from Tripoli and Akkar gone to [fight alongside rebels in] Syria ... similarly, Hezbollah went to Syria to fight alongside the regime. Any interference [in Syria] on the part of one group will lead to interference by rival groups,” he said. Asked to comment on the fact that Hezbollah had vowed to fight in Syrian areas other than Qusair, Aoun said: “It wants to deal with developments [in Syria] the way Turkey, Qatar and other states did. That’s its own business on which I do not comment.”

Two thirds of Syria's Homs rebel area destroyed: activists
July 07, 2013/Daily Star /BEIRUT: Intense fighting in the central Syrian city of Homs has left 60 to 70 percent of a besieged rebel-held district damaged, destroyed or uninhabitable, activists said on Sunday. The estimate from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights came nine days into an all-out army assault on the rebel-held Khaldiyeh and Old City neighbourhoods, which have been under siege for more than a year. On Sunday, regime forces subjected insurgent areas of the city to fierce shelling, said the Observatory."Sixty to 70 percent of buildings in Khaldiyeh are either totally destroyed, partially destroyed, or unsuitable for habitation," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. Homs is Syria's third-largest city, and tens of thousands of its residents have fled the fighting."Of all Syria's cities, Homs has suffered the highest levels of destruction... Images of Homs make it look like a world war has hit the city. Much of it has been flattened," he added.Amateur video posted online by activists on Sunday showed flames and thick black smoke rising from several empty burnt-out buildings already riddled with holes. Some structures shown in the video are barely standing. "Even if the regime takes the neighbourhoods back, there's barely a house left standing to return to," said Abdel Rahman.
"It would even be dangerous to return. People from Homs are constantly under regime surveillance wherever they are in Syria, because their city has served as a rebel bastion since early in the revolt" against President Bashar al-Assad. On Sunday, government troops used mortars, rocket fire and heavy artillery to target rebel areas in the city, the Britain-based Observatory said.
On the edges of Khaldiyeh, fresh clashes broke out between rebels and troops and pro-regime militiamen, it added. According to the United Nations, some 2,500 to 4,000 people are trapped in the besieged areas.
In Damascus, regime warplanes targeted Jubar in the east of the capital, while tanks hit Qaboon in the northeast, said the Observatory. Several mortar rounds hit Yarmuk Palestinian refugee camp in southern Damascus, it added, as rebels and troops clashed nearby.In northern Damascus, the army tried to storm Barzeh, where rebels are still holed up, the watchdog said.Syria's 27-month war has killed more than 100,000 people, the Observatory estimates.On Saturday alone, at least 69 people were killed nationwide, it said.
 

Syrian prison shelled, part of Aleppo battle
July 07, 2013/By Diaa Hadid/Daily Star
BEIRUT: Shells smashed into a central prison in the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo, killing some prisoners, activists said Sunday, part of a long battle for control of the ancient city, which has already suffered severe damage in the civil war. The explosions killed six prisoners, said the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which communicates with a network of activists on the ground. The explosives hit on Friday night, the Observatory said. It was not clear who fired the shells.An Al-Qaeda-linked group has been fighting for weeks to seize control of the prison, besieging it. The Observatory estimated some 120 prisoners have died in the Aleppo jail since April from fighting, illness and executions. Syria's state run news agency SANA said "a number" of rebels were killed in the shelling but did not give an exact number. Aleppo, Syria's largest city, is near the border with Turkey. Many of its ancient monuments and its marketplace, once a magnet for tourists, have been destroyed in fighting. Rebels and government forces also clashed near the Shiite towns of Nubul and Zahra in Aleppo province, the Observatory and pro-rebel activists reported. The towns have been besieged since at least May by hard-line Sunni rebels seeking to dislodge their enemies.The Observatory said fighting killed three regime troops, including one foreigner, code for a fighter from Hezbollah. Rebels claim that Assad's forces and Hezbollah fighters are in the two towns. A hard-line Sunni brigade warned last week it would punish Shiites for harboring the forces, suggesting the towns' populations of some 40,000 Shiites could be targeted. The fighting underscores the growing sectarian nature of the two-year uprising against Assad's regime. It began as peaceful protests but turned into an armed rebellion after a brutal government crackdown. It has since taken on regional dimensions, with Hezbollah fighters joining Assad's forces. Foreign Sunni fighters have joined predominantly Sunni Syrian rebels who are formed in bands ranging from secular to hard-line Islamists. At home, Assad draws support largely from Syria's minorities, including fellow Alawites - followers of an offshoot of Shiite Islam - as well as Christians, Shiites and Sunnis who fear the hard-line rebels.
In recent weeks, Assad's forces, bolstered by Hezbollah fighters, have pushed back to seize rebel-held areas in several parts of Syria.
In the central Syrian city of Homs, Assad's forces fired mortar shells from a stronghold of buildings on the edge of the rebel-held area of Khaldiyeh, trying to flush out fighters, said two activists.
Explosions could be heard as they spoke via Skype. The shells were exploding in the densely-built area surrounding the 13th-century mosque of Khalid Ibn al-Walid, famous for its nine domes and two minarets, said a Homs-based activist identified as Nedal. He said parts of the wall surrounding the historic complex were blown away. Other parts were damaged in previous rounds of fighting. Khaldiyeh-based activist Abu Bilal said fighters were low on weapons. He said the international community, despite promises to arm rebels, had left them hanging in Homs."They have sold Homs to the enemy," he complained. The U.N. warns the some 4,500 residents in besieged, rebel-held areas of Homs face a humanitarian catastrophe. On Friday, the divided U.N. Security Council failed to approve a statement calling on the Syrian government to allow immediate access to trapped civilians there. Russia, Syria's closest ally, demanded that the statement should also call for immediate access to the towns of Nubul and Zahra.

Splits in Egypt leadership amid new protests
July 07, 2013/Daily Star
CAIRO: Feuding erupted within Egypt's new leadership on Sunday as secular and liberal factions wrangled with ultraconservative Islamists who rejected their choice for prime minister, stalling the formation of a new government after the military's ouster of President Mohammed Mursi. At the same time, the shows of strength over the removal of Egypt's first freely elected president were far from ending, with tens of thousands in the streets Sunday from each side. The military deployed troops at key locations in Cairo and other cities amid fears of renewed violence. The Muslim Brotherhood pushed ahead with its campaign of protests aimed at forcing Mursi's reinstatement, bringing out large crowds in new rallies. Its officials vowed the group would not be "terrorized" by arrests of their leaders and the shutdown of their media outlets.
The Brotherhood's opponents, in turn, called out large rallies in Tahrir Square and other squares in Cairo and several cities to defend against an Islamist counter-push. Military warplanes swooped over the crowd filling Tahrir, drawing a heart shape and an Egyptian flag in the sky with colored smoke. Two days ago, clashes between the rival camps left at least 36 dead and more than 1,000 injured nationwide.
Senior Brotherhood members Saad Emara said there was no possibility for any negotiations with the new leadership after "all betrayed us," and following the military's clampdown on the group.
"We are not regressing to a Mubarak era but to ... a totalitarian regime," he told The Associated Press. "Anything other than protest is suicide."
Mursi and five top Brotherhood figures are currently in detention, and around 200 others have arrest warrants out against them. The group's TV station and three other pro-Mursi Islamist stations were put off the air. Among those detained is Badie's deputy Khairat el-Shater, seen as the most powerful figure in the group and its main decision-maker.
The wrestling over the prime minister spot underlined the divisions with the collection of factions that backed the military when it pushed Mursi out of office on Wednesday and installed a senior judge, Adly Mansour, as an interim president.
At center stage of the feuding is the ultraconservative Salafi al-Nour Party, the sole main Islamist faction that sided with the mainly secular groups that led the charge against Mursi. On Saturday, the party blocked the appointment of reform leader Mohammed ElBaradei, a favorite of liberal, leftist and secular groups, as prime minister. Another member of the coalition, Tamarod, the main organization behind the massive protests last week calling for Mursi ouster, said ElBaradei was still its candidate for the post. It railed against al-Nour on Sunday, accusing it of "blackmail" and "arm-twisting."
Showing the outside pressures on al-Nour, Emara of the Brotherhood said al-Nour "has lost credibility and trust after they sided with the takeover" - a sign the Brotherhood hopes to draw the party's Salafi supporters behind it in the streets alongside other Islamists. The prime minister is to be the real power in whatever interim government emerges, since the president's post will be largely symbolic. The prime minister will also likely have strong influence on the process of writing a new constitution.That's a major concern of al-Nour, which pushed hard for the Islamic character of the charter pushed through under Mursi's administration, which was suspended after his ouster.
Mohammed Aboul-Ghar, the leader of the liberal Egyptian Socialist Democratic Party, said al-Nour initially agreed to ElBaradei taking the post, but then shifted its position for unknown reasons. He said talks are still ongoing through mediators. Abdullah Badran, a leading al-Nour lawmaker, said there was "a misunderstanding" and that it hadn't accepted ElBaradei. The party has asked for 48 hours to propose alternatives, he said, adding that it will finalize its position but will not back ElBaradei.
"This sensitive period requires an independent who can win consensus not cause more divisions and polarization," he told The Associated Press. "We don't want prejudices because it would only lead to more divisions."
He said that objections to ElBaradei are rooted in his lack of popularity not only among Islamists but among a large sector of Egyptians.
ElBaradei, a 71-year-old Nobel Peace laureate for his time as head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, is an inspiring figure among the leftists, secular and revolutionary youth groups behind the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Word on Saturday that he would be appointed prime minister sparked cheers among many of their ranks, believing he can push a strong reform agenda.
But he is deeply distrusted as too secular among many Islamists and seen by much of the public as elite.
Walid el-Masry, of Tamarod, said al-Nour is using the ElBaradei issue to press liberals on the constitution, worried about changes to the Islamist-drafted charter.
"They are afraid about the articles that concern the state's Islamic identity," he said, adding that the liberals assured Salafis that they won't touch these articles.
Al-Nour was once an ally of Mursi but broke with him over the course of his year in office, saying his Brotherhood was trying to monopolize power, even over other Islamists. When the June 30 wave of anti-Morsi protests began, the party called on its followers to stay neutral. But it supported the military's intervention to remove the president, joining in talks with army chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.
Meanwhile, the Brotherhood and their opponents sought to show their power in the streets. The Islamists have denounced the removal of Mursi as an army coup against democracy. Their opponents have aruged the president had squandered his electoral mandate and that the Brotherhood was putting Egypt on an undemocratic path.
Tamarod, Arabic for "Rebel," called on its supporters to turn out to defend "popular legitimacy" and "confirm the victory achieved in the June 30 wave." By Sunday evening, large crowds filled Tahrir Square and the streets outside the Ittihadiya presidential palace. Pro-Mursi rallies turned out in several places around the city, centered outside the Rabaah al-Adawiya Mosque where they have been holding a sit-in for more than a week.
In a Facebook posting Sunday, the Brotherhood's supreme leader Mohammed Badie said the "leaders of the unconstitutional coup continue flagrant violations against the Egyptian people."
A Brotherhood spokesman, Gehad el-Haddad, said the military is not giving any positive signals for the group to be willing to talk, pointing to the arrests of the leadership figures and shutdowns of media.
"They are trying to terrorize us," he said. Outside Rabaa al-Adawiya, Brotherhood supporters waved flags as young men wearing makeshift helmets jogged in place and did calisthenics, as part of security teams the group says are to defend its rallies from attack. "Do we not deserve democracy, aren't we worth anything?" said an emotional Alaa el-Saim, a retired army engineer in a broad-brimmed hat to protect from the sun. He pointed to the shooting by troops on Friday of pro-Mursi protesters. "It's the first time I've seen that, the army shoots at us with weapons they bought with the taxes I paid."
Khaled Galal, a young bearded man in a skull cap, called the army's actions the "rape of legitimacy.""Muslims aren't allowed democracy, and when we pick up weapons to defend it we get called terrorists," he said.

Gunmen attack Sinai checkpoints close to Israel border
July 07, 2013/Daily Star/CAIRO: Armed men attacked four security checkpoints on Sunday in the North Sinai town of Sheikh Zuweid, close to Egypt's border with Israel and the Gaza Strip, part of an upsurge of violence there since Wednesday's overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi.Gunmen in pickup trucks exchanged gunfire with soldiers and police in the lawless province in the early hours of the morning, but there were no casualties, security sources said. Hardline Islamists have launched sporadic attacks in North Sinai since the ouster of longtime President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 created a security vacuum in the region.
On Friday, five security officers were killed in skirmishes with suspected militants in El Arish, the regional capital. On Saturday, a priest was also killed there by a group of militants, four other checkpoints were fired upon and an explosion hit an Egyptian pipeline supplying gas to Jordan. The fire caused by the explosion was under control by early Sunday morning, state media reported. The pipeline has been attacked more than 10 times since Mubarak's overthrow during the Arab Spring uprisings. It was not immediately clear if the latest attacks were linked to the ouster of Mursi, democratically elected a year ago, by the military after nationwide protests. His Muslim Brotherhood movement has since held its own protests in which dozens have been killed. On Sunday, the Salafi Jihadi group, one of the biggest Sinai-based Islamist militant groups, issued a statement on a jihadist website saying that "current events ravaging the country" were affecting Sinai. It also threatened attacks on the "repressive practices" of the police and military forces on people in Sinai.
The group has issued statements threatening attacks on Israel previously, but this was the first known direct threat they have issued against Egyptian security forces.
 

Abu Qatada denies Jordan terror charges after U.K. expulsion
By William James, Suleiman al-Khalidi/Daily Star
AMMAN: Islamist preacher Abu Qatada pleaded not guilty on Sunday to terror charges pressed by Jordanian military prosecutors just hours after his deportation from Britain, his lawyer said.
Britain's expulsion of the Palestinian-born preacher after a decade-long legal battle drew expressions of delight from Prime Minister David Cameron.Abu Qatada, who had been in and out of British prisons since 2002 even though he was never convicted of any offence, had once been described as now slain Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe. "Abu Qatada pleaded not guilty," defence lawyer Taysir Diab told AFP after the closed-door hearing before a military tribunal."I will appeal tomorrow (Monday) to the (state security) court to release him on bail," he added. The preacher was taken to the courthouse near Marka military airfield in east Amman just hours after he was flown in from Britain. "State security court prosecutors charged Abu Qatada with conspiracy to carry out terrorist acts," a judicial official told AFP."He was remanded in judicial custody for 15 days in the Muwaqqar prison" in eastern Jordan, he added. Muwaqqar is a maximum security facility built in 2007 that houses 1,100 inmates, most of them Islamist terror convicts. "Abu Qatada told prosecutors that it was his wish to return to Jordan and that he is satisfied with that," Diab told AFP.A date for the trial has not yet been set. "I still do not know if he is in solitary confinement. The prosecutors' decision did not specify," Diab said. Reporters were not allowed into the courtroom despite a pledge by Information Minister Mohammad Momani of "transparency" in Jordan's handling of Abu Qatada's retrial. Abu Qatada was condemned to death in absentia in 1999 for conspiracy to carry out terror attacks, including on the American school in Amman, but the sentence was immediately commuted to life imprisonment with hard labour.
In 2000, he was sentenced in his absence to 15 years for plotting to carry out terror attacks on tourists in Jordan during millennium celebrations.Jordanian law gives him the right to a retrial with him present in the dock. Cameron hailed the final removal of Abu Qatada from Britain after a legal battle that cost the taxpayer £1.7 million ($2.7 million, two million euros). "I was absolutely delighted. This is something this government said it would get done, and we have got it done," Cameron told reporters. "It's an issue that, like the rest of the country, has made my blood boil."Britain was finally able to expel the 53-year-old father-of-five to Jordan after the two governments last month ratified a Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters, guaranteeing that evidence obtained by torture would not be used in his retrial.
"His retrial will be conducted in line with international standards, protecting his rights and ensuring justice, fairness, credibility and transparency," Momani told the state-run Petra news agency. Abu Qatada's father and three brothers met him at the court. "I shook hands with Abu Qatada and kissed him and kissed his hands. I was surprised when I heard him talking to the prosecutors because he was calm. He was usually sharp-tongued," his brother Mohammad told AFP. "Abu Qatada kissed the feet and hands of my father. We all cried."London had been trying to deport Abu Qatada since 2005 but British and European courts had blocked his expulsion on the grounds that evidence might be used against him that had been obtained by torture. But after years of legal battles his lawyers unexpectedly said in May that he would return once the fair trial treaty was ratified by the Jordanian parliament.
He was taken from prison in an armoured police van to a military airfield on the outskirts of London, from where he was flown out at 0146 GMT.
Television pictures showed him dressed in a white robe as he boarded the aircraft at the RAF Northolt base. He had earlier left high security Belmarsh jail in southeast London in the van flanked by three police cars.
He was born Omar Mahmud Mohammed Otman in Bethlehem in the now Israeli-occupied West Bank, which was in Jordan at the time of his birth.
Videotapes of his sermons were allegedly found in the Hamburg flat of 9/11 ringleader Mohammed Atta.
Top Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon once branded Abu Qatada Bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe, although the preacher denies ever having met him.

The Shadow of the Murshid and that of the General
Ghassan Charbel/Al Hayat
Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei went to the Ittihadiyya Palace to meet with Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, upon the latter’s suggestion. Though the meeting was bilateral, the visitor felt others were present too. He saw behind the president the shadow of the Murshid – the Muslim Brotherhood’s ‘Supreme Guide’ – Mohammed Badie, and the shadow of his deputy Khairat al-Shater.
This kind of shadows is suspicious indeed. The visitor feared that the president’s real authority and reference came from the Murshid, and not the constitution. For this reason, ElBaradei told our newspaper “I met the president, I spoke with him, but I despaired of him.”
In turn, Hamdeen Sabahi went to the Ittihadiyya Palace. The insistence of the shadows to attend the meeting reminded him of what happened between him and Morsi before the run-off round of the presidential election. Hamdeen had obtained nearly five million votes in the first round, but he was out of the race. Morsi wanted to win over this bloc to guarantee his victory against Ahmed Shafik. Hamdeen Sabahi asked Morsi a difficult question; “In case you win, will you be a president who is independent from the will of the Muslim Brotherhood?” Morsi could not answer, and responded by offering Sabahi the post of vice president. Sabahi declined.
Amr Moussa also went to the Ittihadiyya Palace and met the president and his two shadows. After the meeting and throughout his observations of the president’s conduct, Moussa could not conceal his fear for Egypt that begot Taha Hussein and Naguiib Mafhouz, and played an enlightening role in the life of its nation. He feared for Egypt’s spirit.
This happened days before June 30, which the three men agreed was a landmark day. They understood that there is no choice but to hold early presidential elections to rescue the country from Morsi’s term, but it was clear that they also wanted to salvage Egypt from the great shadow looming over Morsi, that is, the Murshid’s shadow.
A journalist by virtue of their work must not fall under the spell of the oppositionists. For this reason, I went to the headquarters of the Freedom and Justice Party, the Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm. There, I asked the vice president of the party Dr. Essam el-Erian whether he had ever expected that President Hosni Mubarak would be ousted, and that Egypt would go on to live under the rule of a Brotherhood president.
I liked his answer; he said, “I am confident that this dream did not occur to any Egyptian. Any Egyptian who tells you that he expected the revolution to succeed, Hosni Mubarak to be deposed, and the presidency to go to Mohamed Morsi would be lying. Had the age of miracles not ended, I would have told you that we were living exactly in that age.”
Erian was not concerned about June 30. His confidence prompted him to say that Morsi would not only finish his term, but may also win a second term. He was confident and reassured, and invited us both, my colleague Mohamed Salah and me, to the office of Saad Katatni, the party chairman, where we also could not detect any concern.
The January revolution of 2011 caught the Murshid by surprise, just like it caught most senior general back then, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, by surprise. The two men acted under the impact of that surprise. But the voters’ keenness on excluding the shadow of President Mubarak and his generals caused them to be ensnared by Morsi and the Murshid’s shadow. Ultimately, Morsi could not undo the impression that “the Murshid was the president’s president.” His mistakes accumulated and the media did not show him mercy.
The concerns of millions of Egyptians about “al-Akhwana” – the imposition of the Brotherhood’s ideology on state and society – turned June 30 into a broad-based uprising against the president and the shadows lurking at his palace. In January 2011, Tantawi felt that the army had to join in with the public squares. In June 2013, Lt. General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi felt that the army must reconcile itself with the masses and accommodate them. It was thus that a massive uprising and a quasi-coup transpired.
But the Muslim Brotherhood has refused to come to terms with what has happened. The Islamist group has refused to stop and pore over the reasons that prompted millions to descent to the public squares, to chant against the Brotherhood.
The Muslim Brotherhood refused to acknowledge the millions who signed the Tamarrod petition. The group’s members opted instead to emphasize the actions of al-Sisi, to portray the Brotherhood as an oppressed victim. When the head of the Supreme Constitutional Court in the country Counselor Adli Mansour was sworn in as president, they elected to just see the shadow of al-Sisi behind him.
What Egypt witnessed yesterday was indeed troubling. Pushing the country into the tunnel of infighting, between the Murshid’s shadow and the general’s shadow, will have dire consequences. The Brotherhood made a gamble when they brought the Murshid’s shadow to the presidential palace. But toppling an elected president in what is half a coup and half a revolution also entails a gamble. There is no other solution but to quickly exit this tunnel, to reach an Egypt that lives under a constitution compatible with its spirit, and an elected president who is not shackled in the palace by the Murshid’s shadow or the general’s shadow.
 

The Second Chapter of the Spring
Mohammad el-Ashab/Al Hayat
Egypt is returning to the forefront, influenced by its street and influencing its surroundings, while the international reactions do not seem to be up to the level of the developments in the countries affected by the Arab spring. The Egyptian street is believed to have seized the opportunity produced by its Tunisian counterpart during the spring’s wave, but to correct the course of the revolution. The first time, this action was motivated by political tyranny which monopolized power and wealth. This time however, it was pushed by intellectual tyranny, of which the most dangerous facet is the fact that it hid behind a democratic cloak. Ballot boxes are not just about integrity and transparency, but also about the renewal of ideas and the elite. The democratic West was the first to discover the flaws of its systems which allowed extremism, racism, inequality, and tolerance. Hence, democratic practices were linked to plurality, diversity, the acceptance and non-exclusion of others, except when they exclude themselves ideologically and intellectually and consequently have to bear the repercussions of their actions and choices.
In that sense, the uprising of the Egyptian street against the regime of ousted President Mohamed Morsi was primarily intellectual, as it linked the flaws in the Muslim Brotherhood’s authority to the wish to impose monopolization, hegemony, and the annulment of the other. As for the controversy surrounding constitutional legitimacy, it only means the existence of a wish to use this principle for goals extending beyond the peaceful transition of power. Indeed, the ballot boxes are not a constant factor, but rather a mutating one based on the street’s inclinations. Had this not been the case, no party or political bloc would have accepted the defeat that made it leave power and move to the opposition seats. In reality, accepting this defeat allows the reassessment of the ideas, roles, mechanisms and the political elite without resorting to the street, while the winner in electoral competitions does not perceive this victory as being eternal.
Elections are a source of legitimacy and an expression of the will, far away from any pressures or threats. And the crowds that filled the squares in Egypt were doing so to express their will. However, the question that was not asked in regard about this legitimacy is the following: Why did all these crowds rebel at once? No wise rule can achieve such a high level of rejection unless its practices are undemocratic, recognizing the fact that Egypt’s revolution became a goal and not a means. The difference at this level resides between using the ballot boxes to respond to the aspirations which the people want to see on the ground, and between them being a mere means to impose the influence of a party, of money or power.
Morsi did not offer enough concessions to protect the democratic course, thus acting as the leader of the group rather than the head of the state, and provoking doubts surrounding his democratic commitments. In reality, the battles he waged against the judiciary, the imposition of the constitutional declaration and the attempts to tame culture and art, were done in the wrong place and were understood and interpreted as being reflective of a wish to monopolize power and not to draw up the project of the revolution in which all the Egyptian people participated.
Such mistakes increased the suspicions surrounding what he truly wanted, at a time when his time in power did not feature any economic or social measures to instate trust. At this level, it was not a coincidence that the stock market transactions peaked following the announcement of his exclusion, meaning that social and economic indicators were added to political hegemony, and led to the collapse of the democratic pact. And because he only listened to his own voice, the street had no other option but to rebel, considering that protests are usually staged after the negotiations between the political, economic and social partners reach a dead end. The problem is that dialogue was a recipe he refused to try under whichever form. The spontaneity of the revolution heralded the end of certain partisan and political practices. But instead of contemplating its backdrop and the facts it featured, Morsi chose the reproduction of the spirit of retaliation that does not make states. More importantly, what is happening in Egypt reveals two constant facts: the first is that the Arab spring is not over and that the failure to ensure its materialization will only fuel the action; the second is that the democratic face of a spring rallying everyone underneath its flowers and not its blood, is the only thing that can increase hope in the transitional phase.
The Egyptian lesson was strong and inspiring due to its position and influence, and it will be even stronger if the slide towards violence, infighting and the use of force is averted. And while the situation is different from the one seen in Algeria at the end of the 1980s – in terms of the repercussions of the coup on legitimacy – one should consider the outcome of that bloody conflict which thwarted Algeria’s dreams of instating peace and stability. But the Egyptian army had its say and it will not be part of the conflict, except when the issue is related to the protection of unity, peace and security.
The second chapter of the spring will undoubtedly depend on the seeds which might be applied to the soil, and if it does not rain, nature has granted Egypt its flowing Nile in compensation. Still, ideas and initiatives may have to flow as smoothly as this great river.