Islamist Wave 2013 - Overview & Updates

10 posts

Niccolo and Donkey
Christians Targeted for Retribution in Egypt

Angocachi
Angocachi
[​IMG]

Support for Sharia in the Muslim World according to Pew and Gallup polls.

Unfortunately much of the Muslim world hasn't been polled, though a lot can be taken from those that have.

My stock map, which differentiates Muslim/non-Muslim majority sub-regions of the world has been updated with new demographic data from Sub-Saharan Africa. It's far more precise now.

What we can determine from this map is;
-Southeast Asia is engulfed in Islamist sentiment.
-The Indian Subcontinent, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan are similarly awash in Islamist popular appeal.
-Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, Morocco, Yemen and Egypt are solidly Islamist.
-Though we don't have data on Somalia, it appears the rest of the Horn of African Muslims are Islamist.
-The West Sahel; Mali, Niger, and Nigeria are bastions of Islamist peoples.

On the other hand;
-There is a strong swath of Secularism gripping Balkan, Anatolian, South Caucasian, and West Turkestani Muslims. Furthermore, Lebanese Muslims earn their reputation for separation of Mosque & State. Byssus Bronze Age Pervert niccolo and donkey
-The Muslim inhabited East Tanzania is not interested in Sharia, but for ~37% of them.

Political battle grounds, where the Islamist population is about even with the Secularist population;
Syria, Libya, Uzbekistan, Tunisia, Iran, Chad, Ghana, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Russian Muslims, Liberian Muslims, and Cameroonian Muslims.

The most disjointed piece of info in this whole thing is the sky high, fervent Secularism of Turkey in light of it's electing Erdogan and his 'moderate Islamist' party.
Another key point is that the countries with high Secularism in the public are not host to overt Jihadist activity, with the exception of Lebanon (?). It's the countries with high Islamism that are home to Jihadist insurgencies and Islamist uprisings, even ones that are unpopular with most of the locals.
Angocachi
If you go to imgur you'll come across images like these, followed by countless comments commending her courage...

[​IMG]



Most Pakistanis don't seem to buy the story.

http://www.theatlantic.com/internat...-malala-yousafzai-conspiracy-theories/277350/
Big in Pakistan: Malala Yousafzai Conspiracy Theories


She's an international icon for her girls-rights activism, but what's popular opinion make of her back home?
After Malala Yousafzai, the 15-year-old advocate for girls' education in Pakistan, was shot in the head by the Pakistani Taliban last October while riding home on a school bus, she almost instantly became a global icon -- and remarkably, remains one.
A few small data points: Nearly every time we posted a story about Malala on TheAtlantic.com in the weeks and months after the assassination attempt on her, there was unusually strong traction for the story by way of Google News, showing massive reader interest from around the world. "I am Malala" remains a widely recognized slogan of international solidarity. And there are less conspicuous signs of Malala's enduring global influence than the fact that she was asked to speak remotely to the opening session of this year's Aspen Ideas Festival .
Among the reasons why Malala's story is so striking is the optic it's given the world into the extent of radicalization in extreme Islamist segments of Pakistani society. But how has that story been perceived in Pakistani society more broadly? According to Shiza Shahid, who supported Malala's work in Pakistan for five years, and who spoke at the Aspen Ideas Festival this morning, conspiracy theories have come to play a major role:
In Pakistan, there was a moment when you saw people coming out on the streets, and it was the first time that people named the Taliban and said, "I am Malala. I am not the Taliban." And you even saw right-wing journalists getting up and saying, "This is unacceptable."
But it was a very, very fleeting moment; and very soon the narrative started to come:
"Well, if the West loves her so much, she must be a CIA agent."
"Well, you know, now that her father is going around speaking about peace in the U.S., he must have planned this."
Or:
"You know, she was never really shot; this is all a conspiracy."
It became very prevalent, and I don't think it would be far-fetched to say that the majority of Pakistanis now believe that Malala is a conspiracy. And I think the tragedy of the story is that this is a girl who gave her heart and soul, her life, to Pakistan, still continues to do so, is loved everywhere, and will continue to fight for girls in Pakistan.
​
Angocachi
“What is truly regrettable is the rallying of thousands of duped Muslim youth in voter queues before ballot boxes instead of lining them up to fight in the cause of Allah.” - Ayman al-Zawahiri
"The Muslim Brotherhood should perhaps learn a little from the lessons of history and those ‘democratically elected’ before them in Algeria or even Hamas. . . It’s now time for the MB to revise its policies, adjust its priorities and turn to the one and the only solution for change: jihad . . . It’s time to remove those rose-tinted spectacles and see the world as accurately as it is, change comes by the bullet alone; NOT the ballot.” - As Shabaab

As predicted...
Egyptian army plans operation against terror in Sinai


The Egyptian military is planning an imminent offensive in Sinai against hardline Islamist militants, after suspected jihadists killed an Egyptian police officer and wounded a second in an attack on a checkpoint in the peninsula on Friday.
Militants have staged almost daily attacks on security checkpoints in Sinai since the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected leader.
Arab daily Al-Hayat reported on Friday that the Egyptian military decided to go ahead with a plan of cleansing Mount Halal in Sinai, which houses "armed gangs and terrorists."
Such an operation would include artillery and air power in order "to resolve the battle quickly." However, the army would first give the militants a chance to surrender.
Meanwhile on Friday an Egyptian military helicopter briefly crossed into Israeli-controlled airspace over the Gaza Strip, however security sources in Egypt and Israel both described the flyover as a navigational error.
"The helicopter mistakenly crossed into Gazan airspace and immediately returned to Egypt," the Israeli security source said. Witnesses in Gaza said it stayed on their side of the border for about 10 minutes before returning.
Separately, Egyptian authorities arrested three Palestinian gunmen on Friday during "an attempt to attack vital sites in Sinai," Egyptian state media reported.
Egyptian daily al-Ahram reported on Friday that Sudan thwarted an attempt to smuggle weapons and ammunition into Egypt.
Another step reportedly taken by the Egyptian army to quell terrorist attacks in the peninsula was closing the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip "indefinitely," according to an official source talking to Al-Masry Al-Youm .
Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, denies Egyptian accusations that it has an armed presence in Sinai.
It remains unclear when this offensive will take place, as the military is currently heavily focused on maintaining order in the streets of Cairo, where its tanks are deployed, following Morsi's overthrow.
http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Egyptian-army-plans-operation-against-terror-in-Sinai-319667


Mount Halal, BTW, is in the North Sinai, closer to the Israeli border than it is to the Suez. When the army goes in they're likely to meet minimal resistance, except for those units eager to inflict casualties on the Egyptian military and achieve martyrdom. Mount Halal only stands at an entrance to the Jihadist stronghold in the Sinai, but it's the closest nest of camps to Gaza and so has priority in keeping that place besieged.

Jordan Joins Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Assad in Hailing Morsi's Ouster
By Mussa Hattar (AFP) – Jordan breathed a sigh of relief when Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood president was ousted because of the influence of its own opposition Islamists who have pressed for reforms, analysts say.
King Abdullah II and the government were quick to congratulate Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court Adly Mansour hours after he was declared caretaker president by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi following Mohamed Morsi’s ouster on July 3, stressing support for “the will and choice of the great Egyptian people”.
“Jordan swiftly and clearly welcomed the ouster of Morsi. Just like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Jordan has a problem with the Muslim Brotherhood,” analyst Oraib Rintawi, who heads the Amman-based Al-Quds Centre for Political Studies, told AFP.
“There is no doubt that decision-makers in Jordan and the regime are relieved now. Even friends of the Muslim Brotherhood in the kingdom are doubtful now about Islamist reform plans.”
Rintawi said opposition Islamists, the country’s main political party, “need to double their efforts to convince people of their credibility, and bridge the gap between them and their traditional allies”.
Moderate Islamist parties from Egypt to Morocco have won major shares of contested seats in elections, reaping the rewards of new democratic freedoms brought by the Arab Spring.
“Following the failure of the Islamists in Egypt, it has become hard for people to believe the talk of the Brotherhood here about pluralism and democracy,” Rintawi said.
In 1946, Jordan officially recognised the Brotherhood as a charity that in 1992 formed its political arm, the Islamic Action Front (IAF), which has never called for an Islamist state in the kingdom.
The IAF is not represented in parliament because the Islamists boycotted a general election in January over what they called lack of reform.
The Islamists have wide grassroots support, and they are tolerated by the regime but their relations with the authorities remain tense.
“What happened in Egypt directly affected the Islamists in Jordan,” political analyst Hassan Abu Hanieh, an expert on Islamist groups, told AFP.
“Jordan welcomes the downfall of the Brotherhood in Egypt and hopes it will be the end of Islamist power there to get rid of the main opposition group in the kingdom, the Islamists.”
Opposition Islamists in Jordan have staged street protests almost every week since 2011, demanding sweeping political and economic reforms and a tougher fight against corruption.
“The Muslim Brotherhood in the country is weaker now. As a result the regime is in a better situation and faces less pressure,” political writer and columnist Labib Kamhawi told AFP.
“This gives the regime a chance to meet the people’s demands for reform without becoming worried about the influence of the Islamists.”
Zaki Bani Rsheid, deputy leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, shrugged off the criticism.
“The way Jordan quickly welcomed what happened was politically incorrect and unbalanced. It was not in Jordan’s interest and shows that Amman backs military coups and work against the will of the people,” Bani Rsheid told AFP.
The military ouster of Egypt’s first democratically elected president after massive protests calling for his resignation has pushed the divided country into a vortex of violence. In the bloodiest incident, clashes around an army building on Monday left 53 people dead, mostly Morsi supporters.
Jordan’s Islamists have condemned the ouster of Morsi, who was elected in June last year, calling it “a US-led conspiracy”.
Morsi’s first year of turbulent rule was marked by accusations that he failed the 2011 revolution by concentrating power in Brotherhood hands and letting the economy nosedive.
“Jordan is part of this conspiracy. But this will not stop our peaceful reform demands which are not linked to any party outside the country,” Bani Rsheid said.
http://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2013/07/12/jordan-relieved-at-downfall-of-egypt-islamists/
Angocachi
Egyptian coup apologists offer lame rationalizations: Siddiqui

Two sets of unholy alliances are rationalizing the Egyptian military coup — one domestic, the other foreign.
The latter are led by Barack Obama. He has the quiet backing of Canada and the European Union, and the unapologetic support of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. The oil sheikhs have pledged $12 billion — a bigger package than what the International Monetary Fund had been dithering over for months with the now ousted Mohammed Morsi.
Obama, who for 18 months has acted helpless to stop the slaughter in Syria, has not lifted a finger at the Egyptian coup and the army’s slaughter of at least 55 protesters, 51 of them at close range Monday. His pretence has been that he’s not taking sides in an internal civil war. In fact, he is. He has been coordinating with the Gulf autocrats, funding anti-Morsi forces and he is continuing America’s annual $1.3-billion largesse to the Egyptian army.
The aid has been flowing since 1979 to safeguard the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. But that treaty hasn’t been in danger in years. Even Morsi strongly backed it, indeed brokered a ceasefire in Gaza in November between Israel and Hamas. American dollars have only aided and abetted the Egyptian generals’ power and perks. The tear gas and the ammunition they have shot at the civilians may have been American.
Yet the White House is lobbying Congress to keep the cheques and military supplies coming, after Republican Senator John McCain, a powerful member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, demanded a cut-off “because the Egyptian military has overturned the vote of the people. We cannot repeat the same mistakes that we made in other times of our history by supporting removal of freely elected governments.”
The African Union, long infamous for standing by fellow leaders no matter how evil, has swiftly suspended Egypt, making it only the fourth country after Madagascar, the Central African Republic, Guinea-Bissau and Mali to be so sanctioned.
Inside Egypt, the coup has been backed by disenchanted youth, discredited functionaries and crony capitalists of the despotic administration of Hosni Mubarak, the Coptic Church and the arch-conservative Islamists known as Salafists, belonging to the Al Nour party, a rival of Morsi’s moderate Muslim Brotherhood.
Politics makes for strange bedfellows but this takes the cake — secularists and fundamentalists, liberals and autocrats, pious and the corrupt, the Copts and their historic tormentors.
It is the Salafists who’ll likely benefit the most in the long run — just as did Hamas (initially encouraged by Israel), the Taliban (mollycoddled by Pakistan) and India’s Sikh militant separatists in the 1980s (encouraged by Indira Gandhi, whom they ended up assassinating).
Apologists for the Egyptian coup, including many Egyptian Canadians, are offering lame rationalizations:
  • The situation was chaotic and the economy in ruins — someone had to restore order. That’s the standard excuse for military coups . Besides, the army itself encouraged the undermining of Morsi by Mubarak-era courts, Mubarak-era police and Mubarak-era financiers who backed mass demonstrations. They created the upheavals that killed tourism and stifled the economy.

Morsi only controlled the parliament where his Muslim Brotherhood had nearly half the seats. But the assembly was dismissed by the courts, leaving him only his own elected legitimacy — and that was what was systematically destroyed.
  • Morsi was partisan and unilateral. He was — but far less so than, say, Stephen Harper and the Republicans in Congress. He appointed no more party loyalists and nincompoops than Harper has to the Senate or other public institutions.

  • Morsi had only a “narrow mandate,” at 52 per cent in a two-way race. But his was a bigger margin than Obama’s. And in multi-party elections, the Brotherhood proportionately won more seats than either Harper’s or David Cameron’s Conservatives.

  • Morsi was taking orders from the Muslim Brotherhood. He no doubt was but no more so than members of the Congress sing their key funders’ tunes.

  • He was advancing sharia or he may have been preparing to do so. In fact, he fought off Salafist demands for constitutional guarantees for Islamic law.

Ironies abound.
Many of those who accused him of being authoritarian were themselves beneficiaries of Mubarak’s authoritarian rule. The same people who skewered him for abrogating too much power through a temporary presidential decree last fall were mute when the courts dismissed the elected assembly. Those who called him undemocratic are applauding the coup. Those who blamed him for rushing the constitution through a parliamentary panel are now confronted with the army’s plan to hand-pick a panel that is to complete the constitutional amendments within the next 15 days.
The army is promising free and fair parliamentary elections in six months, followed by a presidential election. Yet it is keeping Morsi and hundreds of his party members in detention and has issued warrants for dozens more, including the Brotherhood’s top leader It has closed down the Brotherhood headquarters and silenced its media, while anti-Morsi forces have trashed dozens of Brotherhood offices across the country.
The idea is to either disallow the Brotherhood from running in the elections or discredit or destroy it so that it never wins again.
Morsi was incompetent and made grave mistakes. But the coup is a far greater crime. He and the Brotherhood would have self-destructed. By strangling that natural democratic evolution, Egypt is going down a dangerous alley — and with it those who are following its generals.

Haroon Siddiqui’s column appears on Thursday and Sunday. hsiddiqui@thestar.ca
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/comm...sts_offer_lame_rationalizations_siddiqui.html

Democracy good for everyone but ‘Islamists’

Hatred of “Islamists” trumps avowed fidelity to democracy. That’s the main take-away from the military coup in Egypt.
Easier to comprehend was the joy expressed by Bashar Assad of Syria, as well as the kings of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — autocrats preferring generals in command of the neighbourhood, rather than a grassroots organization given to democratic mobilization.
More telling have been the contortions coming from the democratic capitals of the world — the reluctance to call the coup a coup, the mealy-mouthed expressions of hope for “inclusivity” and the near-silence over the toppling of an elected president, the detention of hundreds of senior members of the ruling political party, the suspension of a constitution approved by Egyptians in a referendum, and the silencing of selected media.
Coups follow a familiar script. Jets are scrambled, tanks moved and troops positioned at key spots. Phone lines are cut, television stations secured. Generals appear on TV to pronounce that they have taken over only in order to save the nation from chaos, having no interest whatsoever in power themselves. They, and the technocrats assisting them, would be gone the day order is restored, whenever.
Apache helicopters circled Cairo’s Tahrir Square, fighter jets screamed across Egypt, tanks rolled. Mohammed Morsi and dozens of others were detained and banned from travel, arrest warrants issued for nearly 300 others on trumped-up charges.
Morsi’s website was disabled, a video he had placed minutes earlier gone. Four TV channels that belonged to or had been sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood were taken off the air, their staff detained. Other TV stations blacked out pro-Morsi demonstrations. Associated Press Television News was ordered not to provide Al Jazeera with a live feed from anti-coup protests. Western advocates of free speech remained mostly mute.
Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and associates duly announced that they were merely carrying out the will of the people. They gave no timetable for restoration of civilian rule. They paraded a cast of characters, including a rented mullah, to bless the coup which was, of course, not a coup.
Their Orwellian formulation was repeated by American and European leaders, as well as the media that argued, seriously, that elections didn’t really mean much in a democracy.
Barack Obama avoided the C-word, so as not to run afoul of American law. The Foreign Assistance Act prohibits American aid to “any country whose duly elected head of government is deposed by military coup d’état,” or where “the military plays a decisive role” in a coup. Such aid must remain suspended until “a democratically elected government has taken office.”
He is continuing America’s $1.3-billion a year aid to the Egyptian military, given mainly to ensure Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel.
So, democracy is for one and all except the “Islamists.”
“The hypocrisy will not be lost on a large swath of Egyptians, Arabs and Muslims,” noted a Morsi aide, predicting that this latest proof of the futility of pursuing democracy might fuel more terrorism than the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Many anti-Morsi forces were clearly angered by his inept rule that exacerbated economic misery. The young, who helped topple Hosni Mubarak, felt disenchanted. But the logistical and financial backing for the anti-Morsi revolt came from discredited former operatives of the Mubarak regime and corrupt capitalists. Some of them were in Tahrir last week, waving Mubarak pictures. Thugs hired by pro-Mubarak elements reportedly raped more than 100 women in recent days, with nary a peep from western feminists.
“In the end, the revolution and the coup worked in tandem—a ‘revo-couption,’” writes Prof. Juan Cole of the University of Michigan, an expert on the relationship of the West and the Muslim world.
The army is back in the saddle, belying assertions that Morsi had been in bed with the generals all along. Also back are many Mubarak-era functionaries. The judge who undermined Morsi from the bench, through several rulings, is interim president. A Mubarak-appointed former prosecutor-general, who was the target youth protests and whom Morsi had fired, has got his job back.
Besides wanting to reclaim power, much of the anti-Morsi movement was driven by a pathological dislike of Muslim Brotherhood people, writes Esalm Al-Amin , author of The Arab Awakening Unveiled : “The level of hostility and hatred spewed against them was reminiscent of the 1930s Nazi propaganda against the Jews.”
Adds John Esposito, a professor at Georgetown University who co-ordinates Gallup Poll studies of Arab and Muslim public opinion around the world: “We have witnessed a cultural war between elected Islamists and unelected liberals and illiberal secularists.”
Canada should be calling for the release of all political prisoners, full restoration of free speech, and restoration of the right to free assembly. We should insist on, and provide help for, the earliest possible presidential and parliamentary elections, internationally supervised. Failing that, we would become a party to the crushing of a nascent democracy.

Haroon Siddiqui is the Star's editorial page editor emeritus. His column appears on Thursday and Sunday. hsiddiqui@thestar.ca
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2013/07/07/democracy_good_for_everyone_but_islamists.html
Angocachi
Buddhists in Myanmar in Violent Campaign Against Muslim Rohingyas

A monk leading a nationalist movement challenging the "threat of Islam" in Burma is blamed for inspiring sectarian violence against the country's Muslim minority.


[​IMG]

Radical buddhist nationalism is sweeping Burma, and at the forefront of the movement is a group more commonly associated with peace and tolerance: monks.
The most prominent among them is the controversial cleric U Wirathu, who gives passionate sermons from his Mandalay base calling on Buddhists to stand up against the "Muslim threat".
"I believe Islam is a threat not just to Buddhism, but to the [Burmese] people and the country," says the monk, whose boyish face and toothy grin belie the name his critics have given him: "the Buddhist bin Laden".
The 46-year-old has been blamed for inspiring sectarian violence, which began in the long-volatile western state of Rakhine bordering Burma's mostly Muslim neighbour, Bangladesh, but has spread to areas unused to such tension.
Hundreds of Muslims have been killed, mosques burned and many thousands driven from their homes.
Burma's president, Thein Sein, will face demands to rein in anti-Muslim violence when he arrives on an official visit to Britain on Sunday. He has been invited by David Cameron to reward the gradual moves towards restoring democracy to Burma that began with the release from house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader, in 2011.
The former general, once a part of the military junta that ruled Burma for almost 50 years, has been criticised for allowing the ethnic attacks to continue. He will also be questioned over official tolerance of outspoken figures such as Wirathu who are blamed by many for whipping up hatred against Muslims.
It is an accusation Wirathu denies, instead blaming all the religious violence on Burma's Muslims, who make up 5 per cent of the population.
In the leafy courtyard of the New Masoeyain monastery, where he lives and teaches, billboards display gruesome images of butchered and burned monks and of Buddhist women raped and killed – alongside pictures from around the world depicting Islamist violence.
He insists he does not believe in, and has not encouraged Buddhist attacks such as the riots a year ago in Rakhine that left 200 people dead and up to 140,000, mainly Muslims, homeless. Nor, apparently, has he joined those monks who have reportedly taken part in attacks.
He has, however, previously compared Muslims to "mad dogs" and called them "troublemakers". Monks hold considerable sway in Burma, so when they condemn a single ethnic group at a time of political upheaval and uncertainty, critics say it is hardly surprising if violence flares. The solutions Wirathu offers to the perceived threat to Burma's Buddhist majority are certainly provocative.
"I don't know how you tame a wild elephant in your country," he told The Sunday Telegraph , when asked what exactly he means when he says Buddhist Burmese should "stand up for themselves", "but here the first thing you do is take away all their food and water. Then when the elephant is starving and weak you give him a little bit of water and teach him one word. Then you give him a little bit of food and teach him some more. That's how we tame the elephants here."
This is his metaphor for the imposition of economic sanctions on Muslims, who are also known as Rohingya, an ethnic grouping in the northwest that has long been denied Burmese citizenship. Buddhists, he insists, should not shop in Muslim stores, nor sell land to Muslims. This principle is being promoted by a movement, which he started in conjunction with other monks from southern Burma, known as 969.
Those figures are said to represent Buddhist virtues. In the form of a logo, however, they are a badge used to help supporters identify businesses as Buddhist-run.
It adorns videos distributed by the group showing scenes of destruction and violence supposedly caused by Muslims. It is also appearing increasingly at rallies, such as one held in Rangoon last week to protest against a front cover of Time magazine which described Wirathu as "The Face of Buddhist Terror".
Wirathu has also proposed a ban on marriage between Buddhists and Muslims. "Women should not get married to Islamic men. If one Buddhist woman gets married to an Islamic man, it's not just one less Buddhist [because Islam requires her to convert], but they will have one more and they will have lots of children so the population balance can change quickly."
The poet and artist Soe Wei, who was a political prisoner of the Burmese military junta for two years, says that like many Burmese he finds it difficult to criticise a monk, though he does not share all of Wirathu's opinions. Pressed on whether he sees Wirathu as a figure of terror or a man of peace, Soe Wei shakes his head then smiles wryly.
"I don't see him as a man of peace. I've never seen anyone in authority really willing to have peace in Myanmar."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...ar/10177815/Burmas-bin-Laden-of-Buddhism.html
Angocachi
A great account of the Sinai insurgency. Daily fighting and insurgent attacks, Jihadists promise to evict the Egyptian military, establish a Sinai Emirate, and confront Israel. With Morsi's ouster, it stands as the epicenter of Islamist defiance in Egypt. Sandwiched between Gaza and the Suez Canal, Egypt must regain administration of the Sinai or risk an IDF campaign that could plunge the country into anti-Zionist riots.
[​IMG]
Military attack helicopters rattle over the impoverished desert towns of northern Sinai and the sound of gunfire erupts nightly, raising fears among residents of a looming confrontation between Egypt's military and Islamic militants who have intensified attacks since the ouster of President Mohammed Morsi.
Militant groups have grown bolder, striking security forces almost daily and also turning on local Christians. Some are now openly vowing to drive the military out of the peninsula on the borders with Israel and Gaza and establish an "Islamic emirate." Further fueling the turmoil is the longtime resentment among many in the Bedouin population over decades of neglect and harsh security crackdowns by the state.
The military and security forces have widened their presence, and military intelligence officials told The Associated Press an offensive is being planned, but no further details were given.
In a rare move, the Egyptian military sent a helicopter across the border to fly over the southern end of the Gaza Strip early Friday. Egyptian security officials said it was intended as a warning to its Hamas rulers amid concerns that Gaza militants are trying to cross to back those in the Sinai. The security and intelligence officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.
Israeli security officials say their military has not taken any special precautions, but it is watching the situation carefully. They say they remain in close contact with their Egyptian counterparts, and that Egypt has coordinated its security moves in Sinai with Israel, as required by their 1979 peace treaty.
"The situation is not secure. It is better to be home than to go out into the street," said Moussa el-Manaee, a resident in the northern Sinai town of Sheikh Zuweyid, which has a heavy presence of jihadi groups. "I am afraid to ride my car and catch a stray bullet."
Sinai has been the most lawless corner of Egypt since the ouster of autocrat Hosni Mubarak in early 2011, with increased violence. Police stations were torched and security forces kicked out of tribal areas where they were notorious for abuses. Shootings took place regularly on police and military outposts.
But after the military deposed the Islamist president on July 3, militant groups have lashed out.
In the past 10 days, at least eight security officers have been killed, the most recent on Friday. Two Christians have also died, one a priest. A gas pipeline to Jordan was bombed, ending a lull in such strikes.
Gunmen carried out a bold attack on the military section of an airport in the northern Sinai capital of el-Arish. They also opened fire on the convoy of the commander of the 2nd Field Army, who escaped, but a 5-year-old girl was killed in the subsequent gunbattle.
Morsi supporters around the country are protesting to demand his reinstatement, saying the army's ouster of the country's first freely elected leader has wrecked democracy. His removal came after millions around the country joined anti-Morsi protests.
For militants in Sinai, however, restoring Morsi is not the priority — they have said their goal is to drive out the military and the authority of the central government. His removal, however, took away a leader seen as reining in security crackdowns.
"Morsi had given them cover to a certain extent," said Ahmed Salama, who works for a leading civil society group in northern Sinai. Now extremists fear "the army can go after them," and at the same time "they see this as an opportunity to kick the army out of Sinai."
Shortly after Morsi's was removed from office, thousands held a rally in northern Sinai proclaiming over loudspeakers the formation of a so-called "war council." They proclaimed that "the era of peace is over" and vowed security forces would be expelled.
"Ansar al-Shariah wants to create an Islamic Emirate," said al-Manaee, a businessman with tribal links to extremists, referring to one of the militant groups operating in the area.
Extremist groups in Sinai had a complicated relationship with Morsi. The groups reject as too moderate the ideologies of his Muslim Brotherhood and even of the ultraconservative Salafis, viewing their participation in elections as heresy. Instead, they demand imposing a strict implementation of Shariah.
Salafis often mediated with militants and urged them to give the president a chance. The Salafis have wide influence in Sinai, and many of them sympathize with the extremists' goals, if not their violent methods.
At the same time, Morsi warned against heavy security crackdowns that fueled local outrage in the past, preferring negotiations and promises of development. Critics accused him of being reluctant to go after militants for fear of alienating ultraconservative allies, while locals say his government failed to improve the quality of life in Sinai.
The approach emerged in two major attacks the past year. Last Ramadan — in August — just weeks after Morsi took office, gunmen killed 16 Egyptian soldiers, stole armored vehicles and drove into Israel to attempt an attack there. The military responded with a major security operation in Sinai.
Soon after, Morsi said security forces had a chance to strike at suspects but did not in order to avoid killing civilians. The suspects have not been named and remain at large.
Then in May, militants kidnapped six policemen and a border guard. Morsi vowed to track them down but also warned against a heavy hand that could hurt the captives or the captors. After a week, the seven were freed, apparently after Salafi mediation. The kidnappers were never caught.
Brotherhood officials say any Sinai anger over Morsi's removal is because of public support for his policies. His government repeatedly announced increased development funds to the peninsula.
Brotherhood spokesman Gehad el-Haddad said Morsi worked to reverse decades of state neglect.
Sinai residents "felt as if they were Egyptian citizens and that there was a functioning state delivering services to them," he said, adding that the army broke the people's trust when they "wiped out" the democratic process.
At a pro-Morsi rally in Cairo, prominent Brotherhood figure Mohammed el-Beltagy told the crowd that "what is happening in Sinai as a result of the military coup will stop the second that (army chief) Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi announces a reversal of the coup, fixes the situation and the president is reinstated."
That is echoed by Asad el-Beyk, a Morsi supporter in Sinai who calls for peaceful protests. He runs a privately-owned Shariah Court in el-Arish that rules on disputes for those who want decisions based on Islamic law rather than civil courts.
"The entire situation in the country will not stabilize until Morsi is reinstated," he said.
However, al-Manaee, from Sheikh Zuweyid, said the ousted government's policies brought little improvement for residents.
"I respect Morsi, but in Sinai he didn't do anything," al-Manaee said.
The towns dotting the arid, mountainous Sinai have long been neglected, with investments directed to tourist cities along its southern Red Sea coast. The northern stretch along the Mediterranean relies heavily on smuggling, including trafficking of migrants and drugs, and trade through underground tunnels to Gaza.
Egypt had closed its border crossing with Gaza for 10 days after Morsi's ouster and clamped down on tunnels. It re-opened the border for limited hours earlier this week.
Egyptian military intelligence officials said they are keeping a close watch on extremist brigades in Gaza close to Hamas. They said Israel has been providing intelligence on the groups' movements. They spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to release the information.
Hamas official Salah Bardawil denied the group is interfering.
"We are concerned about Egypt's security and a stable and strong Egypt means stability for us," he said.
But the military faces the same dilemma as in the past: a heavy crackdown risks further alienating Sinai's population.
"We are likely to see just security measures being taken," said Brookings Institute analyst Khaled Elgindy. "The problems in Sinai are much deeper; they relate to governance, economics, development."
http://news.yahoo.com/egypts-sinai-militants-intensify-attacks-120847031.html
Angocachi

The same size as West Virginia and about as mountainous, the Sinai is 60,000 km2 (23,000 sq mi) in area, it is bigger than...


127 [​IMG] Croatia 56,594
(21,851) 55,974
(21,612) 620
(240) 1.1
128 [​IMG] Bosnia and Herzegovina 51,197
(19,767) 51,187
(19,763) 10
(3.9) 0.02
129 [​IMG] Costa Rica 51,100
(19,700) 51,060
(19,710) 40
(15) 0.08
130 [​IMG] Slovakia 49,037
(18,933) 48,105
(18,573) 930
(360) 1.9
131 [​IMG] Dominican Republic 48,671
(18,792) 48,320
(18,660) 350
(140) 0.72
132 [​IMG] Estonia 45,227
(17,462) 42,388
(16,366) 2,840
(1,100) 6.28
133 [​IMG] Denmark 43,094
(16,639) 42,434
(16,384) 660
(250) 1.53 European territory (metropolitan Denmark) only, without Greenland and Faroe Islands . [Note 34]
134 [​IMG] Netherlands 41,850
(16,160) 33,893
(13,086) 7,650
(2,950) 18.41 Includes the special municipalities , but excludes other countries in the Kingdom of the Netherlands , shown separately. [Note 35]
135 [​IMG] Switzerland 41,284
(15,940) 39,997
(15,443) 1,280
(490) 3.1 [Note 36]
136 [​IMG] Bhutan 38,394
(14,824) 38,394
(14,824) 0
(0) 0
137 [​IMG] Taiwan 36,193
(13,974) 32,260
(12,460) 3,720
(1,440) 10.34 [Note 37]
138 [​IMG] Guinea-Bissau 36,125
(13,948) 28,120
(10,860) 8,005
(3,091) 22.16
139 [​IMG] Moldova 33,846
(13,068) 32,891
(12,699) 960
(370) 2.84 [Note 38]
140 [​IMG] Belgium 30,528
(11,787) 30,278
(11,690) 250
(97) 0.82
141 [​IMG] Lesotho 30,355
(11,720) 30,355
(11,720) 0
(0) 0
142 [​IMG] Armenia 29,743
(11,484) 28,203
(10,889) 1,540
(590) 5.18
143 [​IMG] Solomon Islands 28,896
(11,157) 27,986
(10,805) 910
(350) 3.15
144 [​IMG] Albania 28,748
(11,100) 27,398
(10,578) 1,350
(520) 4.7
145 [​IMG] Equatorial Guinea 28,051
(10,831) 28,051
(10,831) 0
(0) 0
146 [​IMG] Burundi 27,834
(10,747) 25,680
(9,920) 2,150
(830) 7.73
147 [​IMG] Haiti 27,750
(10,710) 27,560
(10,640) 190
(73) 0.68
148 [​IMG] Rwanda 26,338
(10,169) 24,668
(9,524) 1,670
(640) 6.34
149 [​IMG] Macedonia 25,713
(9,928) 25,433
(9,820) 280
(110) 1.09
150 [​IMG] Djibouti 23,200
(9,000) 23,180
(8,950) 20
(7.7) 0.09
151 [​IMG] Belize 22,966
(8,867) 22,806
(8,805) 160
(62) 0.7
152 [​IMG] El Salvador 21,041
(8,124) 20,721
(8,000) 320
(120) 1.52 Smallest country in continental North America .
153 [​IMG] Israel 20,770
(8,020) 20,330
(7,850) 440
(170) 2.12 [Note 39]
154 [​IMG] Slovenia 20,273
(7,827) 20,151
(7,780) 122
(47) 0.6
155 [​IMG] New Caledonia ( France ) 18,575
(7,172) 18,275
(7,056) 300
(120) 1.62
156 [​IMG] Fiji 18,272
(7,055) 18,274
(7,056) 0
(0) 0
157 [​IMG] Kuwait 17,818
(6,880) 17,818
(6,880) 0
(0) 0
158 [​IMG] Swaziland 17,364
(6,704) 17,204
(6,643) 160
(62) 0.92
159 [​IMG] East Timor 14,874
(5,743) 14,874
(5,743) 0
(0) 0
160 [​IMG] Bahamas 13,943
(5,383) 10,010
(3,860) 3,870
(1,490) 27.88
161 [​IMG] Montenegro 13,812
(5,333) 13,452
(5,194) 360
(140) 2.61
162 [​IMG] Vanuatu 12,189
(4,706) 12,189
(4,706) 0
(0) 0
163 [​IMG] Falkland Islands ( United Kingdom ) 12,173
(4,700) 12,173
(4,700) 0
(0) 0
164 [​IMG] Qatar 11,586
(4,473) 11,586
(4,473) 0
(0) 0
— [​IMG] Nagorno-Karabakh 11,458
(4,424) [Note 40]
165 [​IMG] Gambia 11,295
(4,361) 10,000
(3,900) 1,295
(500) 11.47 Smallest country in continental Africa .
166 [​IMG] Jamaica 10,991
(4,244) 10,831
(4,182) 160
(62) 1.46
— [​IMG] Kosovo 10,887
(4,203) [Note 41]
167 [​IMG] Lebanon 10,452
(4,036) 10,230
(3,950) 170
(66) 1.63 Smallest country in continental Asia .
168 [​IMG] Cyprus 9,251
(3,572) 9,241
(3,568) 10
(3.9) 0.11 [Note 42]
169 [​IMG] Puerto Rico ( United States ) 8,870
(3,420) 8,870
(3,420) 4,921
(1,900) 35.69
— [​IMG] Abkhazia 8,660
(3,340) [Note 43]
170 [​IMG] French Southern and Antarctic Lands ( France ) 7,747
(2,991) 7,668
(2,961) 79.8
(30.8) 1.03 Excludes claim on Adélie Land in Antarctica. [Note 44]
171 [​IMG] United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges 6,959.41
(2,687.04) 22.41
(8.65) 6,937
(2,678) 99.68
172 [​IMG] State of Palestine 6,220
(2,400) 5,640
(2,180) 220
(85) ?
​

That there is the immediate potential for an Islamic Emirate on such a large territory, larger than Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, or Cyprus... on the border with Israel, Egypt, and Hamas... on the Suez Canal... a short boat ride from Saudi Arabia... is phenomenal.
Angocachi
[​IMG]

[​IMG]
[​IMG]