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Archive for May, 2013

International Union Of Muslim Scholars Member Spews Antisemitic Diatribe, ‘If Only Hitler Had Finished Them Off’

05/09/2013 1 comment

Tareq Hawwas, International Union of Muslim Scholars, Lebanon TV 4/18/2013: “The Jews are among the true enemies of the Islamic nation. Their enmity began with the beginning of the call to Islam. It is well established among Islamic scholars that the Prophet Muhammad died as the result of eating poisoned meat, given to him by that Jewish woman in Khaybar… Thus, the scholars consider the Prophet Muhammad to be a martyr because he died from the poison given to him by the Jews… The Jews are the enemies of this nation, and they spare non effort in preventing this nation from gaining power… anybody who knows what the Jews are like knows that this type of conduct is not out of character. First of all, they are among the people most rejecting of Allah… they are the slayers of prophets… they are cowards… the most miserly of all peoples… think nothing of violating treaties… have never respected, for a single day, any international agreement or treaty that they signed.. If only Hitler had finished them off, thus relieving humanity of them…” Listen to the insanity here.

Categories: Radical Islam, Wars and Rumors of War

Aspiring Islamic Terrorists In Via Rail Bombing Plot Discussed Alternative Plans To Poison Air/Water To Kill Up To 100,000 People

05/09/2013 Leave a comment

This Canadian Muslim wanted to kill 100,000 people. For peaceful purposes …

By JESSICA MURPHY, QMI Agency – “WASHINGTON, D.C. – An FBI sting operation scooped up a third man in the foiled plot to derail a Via passenger train between Toronto and New York, U.S. authorities said Thursday.

Ahmed Abassi, a Tunisian citizen who previously lived in Canada, is charged with two counts of knowingly making false statements in an application to immigration authorities for a green card and work visa in order to facilitate an act of international terrorism.

Each count carries a maximum penalty of 25 years in jail.

‘As alleged, Mr. Abassi came to the United States to pursue terrorist activity and support others in the same shameful pursuit. What Mr. Abassi didn’t know was that one of his associates, privy to the details of his plan, was an undercover FBI agent,’ FBI assistant director-in-charge George Venizelos said in a statement.

Authorities arrested Abassi on April 22, the same day Canadian law enforcement nabbed Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, of Montreal and Raed Jaser, 35, of Toronto.

The U.S. Department of Justice only only unsealed Abassi’s indictment Thursday in Manhattan federal court.

Esseghaier and Jaser appeared in Canadian court April 23 charged with a series of terrorism-related offences, including conspiring to murder people and to interfere with transportation facilities for a terrorist group.

In its release, the Department of Justice alleges it was Abassi who was responsible for radicalizing Esseghaier and met with him in New York City after travelling from Canada to the Unites States in mid-March. It is unclear where Abassi lived in Canada and how long he was there.

In his recorded conversations with Esseghaier and the undercover FBI agent, Abassi reportedly talked about his desire to commit terrorist acts in the U.S. and other countries and his intention to provide support and funding to terror organizations including an al-Qaida in Iraq affiliate called the al-Nusrah Front.

It’s also alleged he had plans to recruit others to his cause.

In a statement, the RCMP said they worked closely with their American counterparts in the parallel investigation…

Abassi’s next court date in New York City is set for June 11.

Two of the suspects in the Via Rail bombing plot discussed alternative plans to poison the air or water to kill up to 100,000 people, according to U.S. Department of Justice documents.” Read more.

Categories: Radical Islam

Lebanon: Nasrallah Says Syria Will Supply ‘Game-Changing Weapons’ To Hezbollah ‘That The Resistance Has Never Obtained Before’

05/09/2013 1 comment

Be forewarned, Assad. Any “game-changing weapons” used against Israel by Hezbollah will not only invoke a punishing response against Lebanon, but against Damascus as well …

By AP and Times of Israel – “BEIRUT — Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said on Thursday that Syria will supply his Lebanese militia with ‘game-changing weapons,’ describing the move as Syria’s response to airstrikes earlier in the week.

Nasrallah spoke less than a week after unnamed Israeli officials said Israeli aircraft twice struck shipments of advanced weapons in Syria believed to be bound for Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel did not officially confirm responsibility for the early Friday and Sunday strikes around Damascus.

‘Syria’s response to Israel’s air strikes is to tell Israel that if your goal was to prevent boosting the resistance’s capabilities then take note … [Syria] will give the resistance arms,’ Nasrallah said, according to a translation posted on the website of the Lebanese Daily Star newspaper.

‘And it will provide the resistance with sophisticated weapons that the resistance has never obtained before,’ he said during the televised address.

Israeli officials said the Lebanese militia has tens of thousands of rockets, but that most of them are unguided. Israeli officials said the shipments targeted twice last week included precision-guided Fateh-110 missiles.

Syria has been the main conduit for Iranian weapons to Hezbollah.

Nasrallah also said Syria had opened up the Golan Heights for ‘resistance groups’ to fight against Israel.

‘Whoever wanted a war on Syria, the response was to open the Golan front for any popular resistance groups,’ he said.

He added that Hezbollah would aid any group attacking Israel from the Syrian side of the Golan.” Read more.

Assad: Syria Will ‘Give Hizbullah Everything’ – “Syria will ‘give Hizbullah everything’ in recognition of its support and will follow the terrorist group’s model of ‘resistance’ against Israel, a Lebanese newspaper on Thursday quoted President Bashar al-Assad as saying. His comments, published by Al-Akhbar, reportedly came during meetings with Lebanese visitors in Damascus and appeared intended to refute any suggestion that Israeli raids on Syrian targets would halt assistance to the Shiite group Hizbullah in Lebanon… ‘We have decided to give them everything,’ the newspaper quoted him as saying, without elaborating.” Read more.

Flashback: Hezbollah On Jerusalem: We Can Kill ‘Tens Of Thousands’ Of Israelis And Turn The Lives Of Millions Into Hell – “Hezbollah Secretary General, Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah, says that [Hezbollah] can turn lives of millions of Zionists into real hell. Commemorating the International al-Quds [Jerusalem] day, Hezbollah held a ceremony in Beirut’s southern suburb … stressing that the resistance would defend the country against any Israeli attack, and would not wait for any permission to do so. His eminence noted that the price of this attack would be very expensive to the extent that ‘we can talk about tens of thousands of killed.’” Read more.

Categories: Radical Islam, Wars and Rumors of War

Senior PA And Fatah Official On Lebanese TV: ‘If We Had A Nuke, We’d Have Used It This Very Morning’

05/09/2013 Leave a comment

Thank goodness these guys are Israel’s partners in peace, otherwise they’d want to completely destroy the state of Isr… hey wait a minute …

Lebanese TV Moderator: “The American [John Kerry] came to the PA. They are talking about reviving negotiations, about getting back to the table with the Israelis… Will you go back to the negotiations game?”

PA/Fatah Official Jibril Rajoub: “There is no going back to negotiations unless the source of authority is the international resolutions, with a time frame and with the freezing of all unilateral Israeli steps: Jerusalem, the fence, settlements and prisoners.”

Lebanese TV Moderator: “You’ve heard Israel’s refusal.”

PA/Fatah Official Jibril Rajoub: “That doesn’t matter. Listen. We as yet don’t have a nuke, but I swear that if we had a nuke, we’d have used it this very morning.”

Flashback: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas: Palestinians Who Kill Jews Cannot Be Punished – “Because to punish Palestinians for killing Jews would, in their mind, be punishing someone simply for following the commands of their “prophet” Mohammed. He was, after all, a “perfect example for mankind” to follow whose teachings are “the fire with which” they “harvest the skulls of the Jews.” It is therefore an act of worship to kill Jews, and an act that draws them closer to “Allah” is an act that must be revered, not punished …” Read more.

Flashback: Palestinian Authority Religious Official Publicly Calls for Genocide of Jews as a Religious Islamic Goal – “The principal Palestinian Authority’s religious leader, the Mufti Muhammad Hussein, presented last week the killing of Jews by Muslims as a religious Islamic goal. Hussein made the comments at an event celebrating the 47th anniversary of the founding of the Fatah movement, which is headed by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. He cited the Hadith (Islamic tradition attributed to Muhammad) saying that ‘the Hour [of Resurrection] will not come until you fight the Jews. The Jew will hide behind stones or trees. Then the stones or trees will call: ‘Oh Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.’” Read more.

Categories: Radical Islam

Thousands Of ‘Free Syrian Army’ Fighters Joining Al-Qaeda Affiliated Rebels, ‘Entire Units Have Gone Over’

05/09/2013 Leave a comment

But, surely, they’re still “reflective and representative enough of the Syrian population” right? …

By Mona Mahmood and Ian Black, The Guardian – “Syria’s main armed opposition group, the Free Syrian Army (FSA), is losing fighters and capabilities to Jabhat al-Nusra, an Islamist organisation with links to al-Qaida that is emerging as the best-equipped, financed and motivated force fighting Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Evidence of the growing strength of al-Nusra, gathered from Guardian interviews with FSA commanders across Syria, underlines the dilemma for the US, Britain and other governments as they ponder the question of arming anti-Assad rebels.

John Kerry, the US secretary of state, said that if negotiations went ahead between the Syrian government and the opposition – as the US and Russia proposed on Tuesday – ‘then hopefully [arming the Syrian rebels] would not be necessary’.

The agreement between Washington and Moscow creates a problem for the UK and France, which have proposed lifting or amending the EU arms embargo on Syria to help anti-Assad forces. The Foreign Office welcomed the agreement as a ‘potential step forward’but insisted: ‘Assad and his close associates have lost all legitimacy. They have no place in the future of Syria.’ Opposition leaders were sceptical about prospects for talks if Assad remained in power.

Illustrating their plight, FSA commanders say that entire units have gone over to al-Nusra while others have lost a quarter or more of their strength to them recently.

‘Fighters feel proud to join al-Nusra because that means power and influence,’ said Abu Ahmed, a former teacher from Deir Hafer who now commands an FSA brigade in the countryside near Aleppo. ‘Al-Nusra fighters rarely withdraw for shortage of ammunition or fighters and they leave their target only after liberating it,’ he added. “They compete to carry out martyrdom [suicide] operations.’

Abu Ahmed and others say the FSA has lost fighters to al-Nusra in Aleppo, Hama, Idlib and Deir al-Zor and the Damascus region. Ala’a al-Basha, commander of the Sayyida Aisha brigade, warned the FSA chief of staff, General Salim Idriss, about the issue last month.” Read more.

Flashback: ‘Nowhere In Rebel-Controlled Syria Is There A Secular Fighting Force To Speak Of’ – ” In Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, rebels aligned with Al Qaeda control the power plant, run the bakeries and head a court that applies Islamic law. Elsewhere, they have seized government oil fields, put employees back to work and now profit from the crude they produce. Across Syria, rebel-held areas are dotted with Islamic courts staffed by lawyers and clerics, and by fighting brigades led by extremists. Even the Supreme Military Council, the umbrella rebel organization whose formation the West had hoped would sideline radical groups, is stocked with commanders who want to infuse Islamic law into a future Syrian government. Nowhere in rebel-controlled Syria is there a secular fighting force to speak of.” Read more.

Categories: Radical Islam, Wars and Rumors of War

‘Every Muslim Is A Potential Terrorist’: Ex-Muslim Warns West About Islam, ‘If A Muslim Takes His Faith Seriously … He Is A Warrior For God’

05/08/2013 3 comments

Nasim Ben Iman, Ex-Muslim: “For Muslims it is a special honour to kill for Islam and a greater honour to die for Islam … One has learned from the start [as a child] that the highest demands on a Muslim life is to give everything for Allah, whether it makes sense, whether it’s inhuman or inhuman, nobody asks. The Jews, I hated naturally it didn’t need much teaching for that. Why? Well, I had been to the Koran school before I was in Germany, then in school in the Arab country I come from from the start, everywhere in the society one heard only one thing: ‘The Jews are bad, the are the enemies of God, they are not human, they are damned by God, some of them were turned into apes’, as the Koran says it … I hated, despised them, wanted to kill them, but this concerns not only the Jews, but also Christians and all non-Muslims. For Muslims, all non-Muslims are non-believers… The world has to be Islamised, that is taught by Islamic scholars and clerics and propagated by the leaders in the Islamic world. The non-Muslim world is the ‘House of War’. Where Islam is … the ‘House of Peace’. This means that knowledge [teachings] ‘the world has to be Islamised’ has always existed and those who love Islam, and of course I did, as a good Muslim is eager to make it so, i.e. to Islamise Germany and Europe to fulfill the demands of Mohammed … If a Muslim takes his faith seriously, when a Muslm returns to the words of Mohammed and what is in the Koran, – if he is an exemplary Muslim – then tomorrow he is first of all a warrior for god … I can say from my own experience that I can confirm that (between) what is said publicly and what is told to Christians, and that which is said behind closed doors in the family, in Muslim society, in the mosque, there is a difference like night and day.” Watch more below.

Categories: Radical Islam

Morocco: Muslim Cleric Condemning Violence In Islam’s Name Is Declared An Apostate And Threatened With Death

05/08/2013 Leave a comment

Revelation 13:15, “The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed.”

Like a destructive contagion, fundamentalism begets fundamentalism and promotes the homicidal fixation to empower and enforce the dictates of Mohammed as written in the Qur’an, breathing new life into the “new-and-improved” radicalized world of Islam …

By Robert Spencer, Jihad Watch – “From modern, moderate Morocco comes yet another example of why we don’t see more sincere Muslim reformers. Ahmed Assid said: ‘To call [upon people] to follow Islam by the use of violence and constraint is an act of terrorism.’ For that, he has been condemned, declared a non-Muslim, and threatened with death.

Now wait a minute. We’re constantly told that the overwhelming majority of Muslims condemn violence and terror and abhor the violence done in Islam’s name. So why isn’t Ahmed Assid celebrated as a hero, instead of fearing for his life?

Tiny Minority of Extremists Update: Morocco: Comments About Islam Spark Firestorm,’ by Mohamed Saadouni for Magharebia, May 7 (thanks to Twostellas):

Casablanca — Moroccan activist Ahmed Assid has unleashed a torrent of criticism, including a takfir fatwa from a leading salafist preacher, for making controversial comments about Islam.During a three-day seminar at the 10th national congress of the Moroccan Association of Human Rights (AMDH) in Rabat, which ended on April 21st, Assid suggested that religious school textbooks lured youths to violence.

To call [upon people] to follow Islam by the use of violence and constraint is an act of terrorism,” he said.

Assid should be sued for insulting the prophet and ridiculing Islam, salafist preacher Sheikh Mohammed Fizazi said during a lecture at Ibn Tofail University in Kenitra.

Yet the strongest reaction came from Sheikh Hassan Kettani, who accused Assid of kufr. In describing him as a “criminal” and “enemy of God”, Kettani issued a call for “silencing his voice”.

In a statement posted on Facebook, Kettani said that Assid had “crossed all lines in provoking Moroccans in particular and the ummah of Islam in general by deliberately insulting and desecrating each and every one of their sanctities”.

“In his impudence, he [Assid] went as far as to claim that the Quran contains no eloquence, ridiculing and underestimating the language of Quran,” Kettani’s statement went on.

By this Kettani apparently means that the Qur’an teaches violence, and so Assid is ridiculing the Qur’an by rejecting violence.” Read more.

Categories: Radical Islam

Spectacular ‘Ring Of Fire’ Solar Eclipse Expected This Week

05/08/2013 Leave a comment

Fox News – “On Thursday and Friday, skywatchers in parts of Australia and the Pacific region will be treated to a spectacular ‘ring of fire’ solar eclipse, in which the moon blots out all of the sun except for its outer edge.

Here’s what you need to know about this stunning skywatching event, which is also known as an annular solar eclipse.

What is an annular eclipse?

The orbit of the Earth around the sun is an ellipse, not a circle. This means that sometimes Earth is closer to the sun than at others. The same goes for the moon’s orbit around Earth, which is also elliptical rather than circular. [See Spectacular Photos of a ‘Ring of Fire’ Solar Eclipse]

We are fortunate to live in a time when the sun and the moon are very close to the same apparent size in our sky. This is an illusion of perspective: The moon is small (2,159 miles wide) and close by (238,855 miles away) while the sun is large (865,278 miles wide) and far away (92,955,808 miles).

Notice that the sun is about 400 times larger than the moon in diameter. It is also about 389 times farther away. This explains why the two appear to be almost the same size in the sky. But ‘almost’ is not exact, which explains why there are different kinds of solar eclipses — partial and total…

On May 10, the moon will appear to be 30 arcminutes in diameter, since it is only a few days away from its farthest retreat from Earth, which occurs on May 13. A 30-arcminute moon doesn’t quite cover a 32-arcminute sun, so the sun peeks out as a ring all around the moon. ‘Annular’ is Latin for ‘ring,’ so the resulting event is called an annular eclipse. [How to Safely Observe the Sun (Infographic)]

Astronomers tend not to get as excited about an annular eclipse as they do about a total eclipse. Because the moon doesn’t cover the sun completely, you don’t see the prominences and outer solar atmosphere, which are the most exciting parts of a total eclipse.” Read more.

Categories: Cosmic Craziness

Minnesota: Officials Worried After 7000+ Pounds Of Fish Die In Beaver Lake ‘Even Though There Is An Aeration System’

05/08/2013 1 comment

CBS Minnesota – “ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) – The spring weather brought with it something pretty unsightly near St. Paul. Hundreds of fish recently died in Beaver Lake, and many of them ended up all along the shoreline.

Fish kills are not unusual this time of year, but this one has Ramsey County officials worried. The fish died even though there is an aeration system in Beaver Lake.

Ruth Klabunde walks her dogs around the lake about three times a week. The first thing she noticed was the smell.

‘This is a really fun little lake to walk around,’ Klabunde said. ‘And the stench was kind of bad.’

And then Klabunde says she saw the source.

‘This whole little bay area here was thick with dead fish,’ she said.

When the ice finally went out on Beaver Lake a week and a half ago, it left behind schools upon schools of dead fish.

It’s estimated that more than 7,000 pounds of dead fish – mostly catfish, sunfish and bass – have been taken out of Beaver Lake. But what caused this unusually large fish kill is still a mystery.

Beaver Lake has an aeration pump that can be turned on when oxygen levels get low.” Read more.

Categories: Mass Animal Deaths

US Backed Rebels In Syria Destroy Christian Church In Deir Ezzor

05/08/2013 1 comment

By Global Research News – “‘There was an explosion near our church in Deir Ezzor that destroyed it,’ writes Br. Antoine Haddad, Viceprovincial Minister of Lebanon, in a message to us.

The news was picked up by the media because the two Capuchin friars who lived there, with the help of the Lebanese and Syrian International Red Cross, and the nuncios of Lebanon and Syria, left with the Sisters of Mother Teresa and about ten seniors who lived in our place.

They were the last remaining Christians in the area to leave. The church was completely destroyed, but until now it was not possible to know if the friary was hit or not, because there are no longer any Christians in Deir Ezzor, apart from one who returned because he lived in the ‘quieter’ area of the city. His attempts to get to the scene did not succeed because of intense gunfire. Until recently, our church of Deir Ezzor was the only one left almost intact. But then a few months ago there was a video on YouTube in which you could see the church with the door and side wall gutted and soldiers entering.

‘Deir Ezzor is a city in the east of Syria, on the Euphrates, between Palmyra and the Iraqi border.—Br. Antoine explains—Our presence there goes back to the thirties of the last century, but our presence in the area goes back a lot farther. We also have another house to the south of Syria, in As-Suwayda, an area that is still quiet for the moment, where there are two brothers. Our Viceprovince, in almost four centuries of history, has always suffered destruction, persecution, martyrdom…But always, like the legend of the Phoenix—the mythological bird known for being reborn from its own ashes—our Viceprovince rose again with the Risen Christ. Recently, we have recovered, after thirty years, another property (Abey), destroyed by the war in Lebanon: it too has begun to rise again…this church of stone will also be rebuilt one day when there is a springtime of peace in our Mediterranean world.'” Source – Global Research News.

Flashback: Horror In Syria: ‘Free Syrian Army’ Rebels Executing Soldiers Were Reportedly Executing Christians – “Reports from Syria indicate members of the Free Syrian Army have started executing Christians while claiming they’re shooting Syrian soldiers. A video of a Nov. 1 attack in which black-clad Syrian rebels reportedly killed 28 men has been posted on Youtube.com. An Agence France-Presse story on the attack identified the victims as Syrian soldiers. But Religious Freedom Coalition President William Murray said two of the victims were associated with his cooperating organization in Syria, which distributes aid. The victims were not soldiers, he said, but civilians from the same neighborhood, ‘so they were all probably Christians.’” Read more.

Categories: Radical Islam, Wars and Rumors of War Tags:

Turkey: ‘Islamic Life Coach’ Says Men Kill Wives Because They Talk Too Much, ‘It Is The Woman’s Fault If She Is Killed … That’s How It Is In Our Religion’

05/08/2013 3 comments

So yes, it has everything to do with that peaceful, compassionate and kind religion …

Today’s Zaman – “A controversial figure who calls herself an ‘Islamic life coach’ has said that women are to blame for the rising number of incidents of domestic violence and violence against women.

She said that because women are economically empowered they have inflated egos and talk too much. ‘It looks better on a woman to be naive, polite and soft, and that’s how it is in our religion,’ she maintained. Üresin also said that even when a woman is more knowledgeable about a subject then her husband, she should keep silent. ‘Really, I know some women that never shut up. It is very normal that her husband’s going to go crazy. The biggest weapon a woman has is her ability to hold grudges and show that through her attitude, but men resort to violence, because they are built that way.'” Source – Today’s Zaman.

Turkey: 62% Of Turkish Men Support Wife Beating, Murder Rate Of Women Increases 1400% Since Election Of Islamist AKP Party – “This couldn’t possibly have anything to do with that religion again, could it? To the Islamist mind, a woman’s uncovered head is sinful. But beating and even killing a woman for ‘disobedience’? Why, that’s just splendid. As Turkey’s government pushes Islam down the collective throats of each and every citizen, the mistreatment of women is something that Muslim men are now finding much easier to swallow …” Read more.

Flashback: Turkey: Women’s Protection Law Watered Down – “Concepts such as ‘equality of woman and man,’ ‘de facto equality,’ ‘gender equality in society,’ and ‘domestic violence’ were removed from the draft law. Funny how that keeps happening: resistance to reforms in favor of protection and expansion of women’s rights in Islamic societies routinely invokes Islamic law and principles. The proverbial elephant in the room is the content of Qur’an 4:34: ‘Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other …’” Read more.

Flashback: Turkish Think-Tank Recommends Turkey as ‘A Useful Model for New Arab Regimes’ – “For many in the Arab world, Turkey embodies something of an elusive ideal: an Islamist-based democracy with a strong economy. A survey published Thursday by the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation, a non-governmental think-tank, found almost 80 percent of respondents in the Middle East had a favourable view of Turkey, and three out of five considered the country a model for a modern Islamic state.” Read more.

Flashback: Top 10 Qur’an Quotes Every Woman Must See – “Islam in its purest form honors and elevates women, we are often told. But does it? All too often, textual reality (the Quran) matches up with the historical reality of seventh—century Arabia. Gender inequality and oppression in the Quran reflect the culture of seventh century desert nomads. If Allah and Muhammad improved on this patriarchy, then they did not go far enough for a religion with a claim to universality. Here are the top ten rules in the Quran that oppress and insult women.” Read more.

Categories: Radical Islam

Lawlessness: Egyptian Investment Collapsing As Citizens Turn Into Vigilantes

05/08/2013 1 comment

By Tarek El-Tablawy, Mariam Fam and Salma El Wardany, Bloomberg – “In a dimly lit Cairo workshop, Hussein spins a metal pipe on a lathe, sending sparks flying. In a few minutes, it’ll become the barrel of a gun. Sometime after that it will join the growing arsenal of illegal weapons on the streets of Egypt.

Artisans who make machine parts by day are turning into bootleg gunmakers at night, says Hussein, 54, who asked not to be identified by his full name for fear of prosecution. He only sells to a middleman because ‘trust the wrong person and you’re going to jail.’ He can make as much as 3,000 pounds ($435) per gun — about 20 percent of what a legally licensed one costs.

‘Fear is big business nowadays,’ Hussein said. ‘People buy the guns because they’re afraid. People buy the guns because they want to scare others. We’re in a jungle now.’

More than two years after the fall of President Hosni Mubarak, the proliferation of weapons and a spate of vigilante killings, violence and sexual attacks are eclipsing the hope born from the revolt. Fueled by political deadlock and economic stagnation, the security breakdown threatens to put solutions beyond the reach of President Mohamed Mursi.

A growing number of Egyptians think that ‘you can actually achieve your goals using violence,’ said Ezzedine Choukri Fishere, a political scientist at the American University in Cairo. Beneath that lies the ‘dashed expectation and hope of the youth,’ he said…

Net foreign direct investment was negative for the first time in 2011, according to the World Bank. Investment will be 15.5 percent of gross domestic product in 2013, the lowest since records began in 1980, according to the International Monetary Fund, which is in talks with Egypt for a $4.8 billion loan.

Foreign portfolio investors have also fled, driving a slump in Egypt’s stocks and bonds. The benchmark equity index, the EGX 30 (EGX30), is down about 20 percent since the uprising, after climbing 85 percent in the preceding two years.

The yield on benchmark dollar bonds due in 2020, which was below 5 percent in late 2010, was at 7.17 percent on May 7. The Egyptian pound has weakened 11 percent to a record low since the central bank started limiting access to U.S. dollars in December to shield reserves, which dropped more than 60 percent since the uprising.

‘The emerging security deterioration is going to dissuade potential investors,’ Hanna said. Egypt’s political, economic and security crises are ‘all interlinked,’ he said.” Read more.

Categories: Anything Else, Man-Made Disasters, Radical Islam, Wars and Rumors of War