Militany Muslim Salafists Seize Church Land in Cairo in Protest of New Copt Leader
CATHOLIC ONLINE: Militants seize the South Mina Church in Shubra al-Kheima, in city's center

Nearly 100 Muslim extremists - the hard-line Salafists in Egypt, wielding sticks and rods seized land near the South Mina Church in Shubra al-Kheima last week. The seizure of the land in the middle of Cairo was in protest of the election of the new Copt leader, Patriarch Tawadros II, who was selected in a ceremony last week.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Police reportedly stood idly as the Islamists occupied the parcel of land for more than a day. Signs were erected which read "Al-Rahma Mosque." Law enforcement later moved in after the Interior Ministry was notified.

The demonstration deemed symbolic in nature was in reprisal against a statement by newly elected Patriarch Tawadros II against having Sharia law included in the new Egyptian constitution. Bishop Antonius Morcos, who is the spokesman for Patriarch Shenouda III's successor, heads the diocese. » | Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM) | Sunday, November 11, 2012

Egypt’s Salafists Deploy Virulent Rhetoric, Accuse Liberals of Being Foreign Agents

BIKYA MASR: CAIRO: On Friday, Mohamed Amr watched as ultra-conservative Salafists converged on Egypt’s iconic Tahrir Square. Their deafening chants of “Islamic state” resounding throughout downtown Cairo. For him, a liberal activist wounded in the January 2011 uprising that ousted the country’s long-time dictator Hosni Mubarak, it was frustrating.

“I am very worried about the future of the country and how the Salafists are trying to accuse liberals and those of us who fought and bled for change as foreigners in our own country,” he told Bikyamasr.com.

“It is a sad time for the Egyptian revolution. It might be dead and what we are seeing is something very scary,” the former member of the April 6 Youth Movement added.

Making matters worse for the left is the growing anti-liberal sentiment growing on the streets and in mosques.

On Friday, as thousands of puritan Salafists gathered in Tahrir Square to demand that the new constitution for Egypt be an Islamic one, member of al-Gama’a Islamiya Sheikh Mohamed el-Soghir accused secular and liberal activists of pushing a Western agenda.

“Our Prophet [Mohamed] fought the infidels of Mecca, who are now represented by the Liberals,” said El-Soghir in comments published by local media. » | Yussif Ibrahim | Sunday, November 11, 2012

Egypt Salafists Punish Man for 'Cursing' Islam

ARUTZ SHEVA: Salafist group in Egypt attacks a man for not allowing its member to use his toilet, orders to cut his brother's tongue for “cursing” Islam.

The “Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice Authority”, a Salafist group in Egypt, has attacked a man for not allowing its member to use his private toilet and ordered to cut his brother's tongue for “cursing” Islam, Al Arabiya reported on Thursday.

The report quoted Ahmed Gharib, a resident of Egypt’s eastern city of Suez, as having told the online newspaper al-Mowjaz that the problem started as he was in his shop when a “bearded man” rushed inside to use the bathroom.

“I told him that he needs to ask for permission to use the toilet,” said Gharib, “but he just responded with ‘we do not ask for permission.’”

A few minutes later, Gharib recalled, a group of 30 “bearded” men came to his shop and said they wanted to “discipline him for insulting a religious figure.”

“They tied me down and assaulted me,” he said. “They tried to cut off my hand for reaching for one of them,” he added.

They were unable to cut off his hand as [a] passersby intervened to stop the fight. Gharib sustained deep cuts.

It did not end there, however. Gharib’s brother, who had reached the shop later, angered with what had happened to his brother, insulted the men. In response, Gharib said, the “Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice” group ordered the cutting of his brother’s tongue, claiming he cursed Islam.

“They tried to catch him to carry out the order but he managed to escape with the help of neighbors,” said Gharib. » | Elad Benari | Friday, November 02, 2012

Tunisian Salafists Attack Alcohol Sellers in Capital

AHRAM ONLINE: A group of Tunisia Salafist Muslims attack alcohol vendors in one of the most secular Arab states

Clashes broke out between alcohol sellers and hardline Salafist Muslims in the Tunisian capital, a security official said on Sunday, wounding a police commander in the latest illustration of religious tensions in the home of the Arab Spring.

Tunisia, whose authoritarian president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, was overthrown by a popular uprising last year, now has an elected Islamist-led government.

The struggle over the role of religion in government and society has since emerged as the most divisive issue in the North African country, which for decades was considered one of the most secular countries in the Arab world.

On Saturday night, a group of hardline Salafist Muslims attacked alcohol vendors in their small shops, a security official said. Police intervened to stop the violence. » | Reuters | Monday, October 29, 2012

Salafists Blamed for Destroying Pagan Rock Carving in Morocco
CHICAGO TRIBUNE: RABAT (Reuters) - An 8,000-year-old rock engraving depicting the Sun as a divinity has been destroyed in the south of Morocco, local residents said, blaming Salafists seeking to impose their fundamentalist view of Islam.

Ahmed Assid, a prominent activist for the indigenous Amazigh people and member of the Royal Institute for Amazigh Culture (IRCAM), said the pagan rock engraving, known as a petroglyph -- was destroyed this week in the Toubkal National Park.

"The information we have received from Amazigh activists in the area suggests Salafists were behind the act," Assid told Reuters, noting however that he had yet to see pictures of the destroyed petroglyph.

"This act follows a noticeable rise in Salafist activities in predominantly-Amazigh regions of Morocco to enforce a puritanical interpretation of Islam," he added. » | Souhail Karam, Reuters | Wednesdday, October 17, 2012

Egypt's Hardline Islamist Party Unravels, Pointing to Fragility in Political Islam
FOX NEWS: CAIRO – Internal feuds are threatening to unravel the political party of Egypt's ultraconservative Islamist Salafis, as pragmatists try to shake off the control of hardline clerics who reject any compromise in their stark, puritanical version of Islam.

The fight for leadership could paralyze the Al-Nour Party, which rocketed out of nowhere to become Egypt's second most powerful political force, behind the Muslim Brotherhood. Together, the Brotherhood and Al-Nour embodied the rise of Islamists to prominence after last year's fall of Hosni Mubarak.

It also underlines the key dilemma in the project of political Islam — what to do when the maneuverings of democratic politics collide with demands for strict purity of religious ideology, particularly the unbending, black-and-white doctrine of the Salafis. Infighting among the Salafis could discredit their aims of radical Islamization of Egypt in the eyes of some Egyptians who saw the movement as pious and uncorrupt, calling for strict adherence to the Quran and the ways of the Prophet Muhammad.

"The party is exploding from inside," Mohammed Habib, who was once a leader in the Muslim Brotherhood, said of Al-Nour. "In the street, it has lost its credibility. People see clerics who they used to see as men of God engaging in earthy disputes. They used to trust them. This will have a negative impact not only on Al-Nour or Salafis but on all Islamists in politics."

Salafis are among the most hardcore conservatives in Egypt, with a stricter vision of Islam than the Brotherhood. » | Associated Press | Thursday, October 04, 2012

Lebanon’s Salafists to Enter Electoral Politics

NOW LEBANON: Salafists across the region have emerged from the Arab Spring with considerable power in countries like Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. In Lebanon, Salafists are also trying to broaden their political clout and have decided to enter electoral politics by establishing a new party that is expected to take part in the 2013 elections. While the move may create a rift among Salafist groups that prohibit political action, it is not expected to change the political dynamics in the country.

Salafism began in the 1950s with Sheikh Salem al-Shahhal, who founded the Islamic Association for Guidance and Charity in Lebanon to spread the call, or dawa. The association is now run by his son, Sheikh Dai al-Islam al-Shahhal. » | Nadine Elali | September 30, 2012

Aggressive Salafist Islamists Threaten Tunisia's Dream of Freedom

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: In Sidi Bouzid, birthplace of the Arab Spring, there is disillusion with the aftermath of the revolution and growing support for hardline Salafist Islamists

Luckily there were no sunbathers at the swimming pool when the mob of 80 Islamic hardliners arrived to smash up the Horchani Hotel, the only place in Sidi Bouzid where you could buy a cold beer.

Bearded, angry young men threatened the few staff who were around at lunchtime with iron bars, broke windows, smashed up ornamental fountains and threw bottles of wine and spirits into the empty pool, which is now full of shattered glass.

"They said if I serve alcohol again they will come back and burn down the hotel," said Jamil Horchani, 64, whose family has run the place since 1976.

The birthplace of the Arab Spring is a few streets away in the flyblown, ramshackle town four hours drive south of Tunis, the capital. A desperate young street vendor, Mohammed Bouazizi, set himself alight in December 2010, sparking protests which grew into an uprising and toppled the autocratic leader Zine el Abidine Ben Ali before spreading beyond Tunisia's borders.

The revolution, started by an act of despair, raised high hopes in Tunisia, a nation of 11 million which [is] has as much in common with the northern Mediterranean countries as the Arab ones on the southern shore; lively bars, beaches where Tunisian women wear bikinis, and universities which turn out well-educated young people who struggle to find work in the depressed post-revolution economy.

Sidi Bouzid, a backwater and unemployment blackspot, doesn't enjoy much of the capital's Tunisian dolce vita, and since its brief moment of glory last year not much has changed. At least the police who hounded Mr Bouazizi to his death have been withdrawn from the streets – their place filled by earnest young men in traditional robes with long beards. » | Nick Meo, Tunis | Saturday, September 22, 2012

Salafi Urges UN to Criminalise Contempt of Islam

THE EGYPTIAN GAZETTE ONLINE: CAIRO - Egypt's president and other Muslim leaders should demand the UN criminalise contempt of religion after the release of an anti-Islamic film and cartoons which demonstrate growing racism, said the leader of the biggest ultra-orthodox Islamist party.

Despite doctrinal and political differences with President Mohamed Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafist Nour Party played a key role in supporting it during presidential elections in June.

Led by Emad Abdel Ghaffour, it now ranks as the second-largest party in parliament and plays a formidable force in Egypt's new politics.

"We call for legislation or a resolution to criminalise contempt of Islam as a religion and its Prophet," said Ghaffour, one of four permanent assistants to the president, on Saturday.

"The voice of reason in the West will prevail if there is mutual respect, dialogue and efficient lobbying for this critical resolution," he told Reuters in an interview. » | Reuters | Sunday, September 23, 2012

Salafis Blamed for Libya Mosque Destruction
A mosque containing Sufi Muslim graves has been bulldozed in the centre of Tripoli, Libya, a day after Sufi shrines in the city of Zlitan were wrecked and a mosque library was burned. The demolition of the large Sha'ab mosque happened in broad daylight on Saturday, drawing condemnation from government officials and Libyans across the country and abroad. Witnesses say a group of Salafi Muslims who disapprove of shrines and tombs were behind the attack, and that it took place as security forces looked on. Al Jazeera's Omar al-Saleh reports.

Germany: "Radical Salafism Is Like a Hard Drug"
GATESTONE INSTITUTE: In an effort to improve their image, the Salafists have removed from their "information booths" all literature about the role of women in Islam or the supremacy of Islamic Sharia law over democracy. The German translation of the Koran has edited out many of the verses which call on Muslims to make war on non-believers.

German authorities have launched a major crackdown on radical Islamists suspected of plotting against the state.

The move reflects mounting concern in Germany over the growing assertiveness of Salafist Muslims, who openly state that they want to establish Islamic Sharia law in the country and across Europe.

In nation-wide raids on June 14, over 1,000 German police searched about 70 Salafist homes, apartments, mosques and meeting places in seven of Germany's 16 states in search of evidence that would enable the German government to outlaw some of the dozens of Islamist groups operating in the country.

German authorities believe the Salafists, who trace their roots to Saudi Arabia, want to create a Sunni Islamic Caliphate (Islamic Empire) opposed to Western democracy; and that some within the group support martyrdom and the use of violence, and are also fuelling militancy among German's socially alienated Muslim youth.

Announcing the crackdown, Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich said he had banned a Salafist group called Millatu Ibrahim, based in the western city of Solingen. "The Millatu Ibrahim group works against our constitutional order," he said, "and against understanding between peoples." Among other things, Millatu Ibrahim teaches its followers to reject German law and to follow Islamic Sharia law, and that "the unbelievers are the enemy." » | Soeren Kern | Tuesday, June 19, 2012

British Suspected Islamic Terrorist Arrested in Germany
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A major German security operation targeted "dangerous" Islamist extremists in dawn raids by 850 police officers on 70 mosques, schools and homes across Germany.

Hans-Peter Friedrich, Germany's interior minister, banned one Salafist network, Millatu Ibrahim, for "working against our constitutional order and against understanding between peoples".

He also announced an investigation into two other networks, Dawa FFM and "The True Religion", with a view to a seeking additional bans.

"We are ready to defend freedom and fundamental rights in this country and I hope this is understood by those who are of a different opinion," he said.

The Daily Telegraph understands that the raids followed a discussion of the risk posed by a pan-European network of Salafist Islamists at an EU meeting of interior ministers, including Theresa May, the Home Secretary, last week.

Last month, the G6 group of interior ministers from the EU's biggest countries met in Munich to discuss "suspicious patterns of movement". » | Bruno Waterfield, Berlin | Thursday, June 14, 2012

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