Muslim Brotherhood’s presidential candidate Mohammed Mursi’s surprise dawn media appearance in which he claimed victory in Egypt’s first free election was seen as a “preemptive maneuver” to thwart possible vote rigging by the election commission backed by the ruling generals. The vast and well-organized network of the Muslim Brotherhood began releasing instant results of
The Egyptian chapter of the “Arab Spring” ended not as it was scripted by the revolutionaries of Tahrir Square. They deposed a military dictator, secured the first free presidential race in their history, and then may have lost it to a die-hard Islamist president. Not only this. The generals who had stood behind Hosni
The Lebanese English-language news portal Lebanon Now eruditely points out that "Crazy religious nutjobs are still crazy." As published by the portal, a Salafist group that goes by the nom de politique
Iran, Russia, China and Syria are planning to hold the largest war games exercise in the Middle East in less than a month, Iran’s Fars media reported Tuesday. Citing “informed sources,” the report said that 90,000 soldiers from the four countries are to take part. The massive war games drill will include air
The Israel Air Force struck Gaza a second time Monday evening, killing at least two terrorists in the northern town of Beit Hanoun. The targeted terrorists were engaged in launching a rocket attack at civilians in southern Israel at the time they were attacked, the IDF Spokesperson's Office said in a statement. The
Speaking at a Likud faction meeting Monday afternoon, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu redoubled his commitment to completing a fence on Israel's southern border. In the wake of an attack by terrorists earlier Monday against workers who were building the fence, Netanyahu said that Israel would not be moved from its plans to finish the fence,
A court in Addis Ababa Monday found an Ethiopian security officer working for the U.N. and charged with having links to a banned armed group guilty of “participating in a terrorist organization.” “The defendant has not convinced us that he did not commit a crime... he’s guilty,” judge Mulugeta Kidane said. Abdurahman Sheikh
Last week, a white African-American friend and her husband returned to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) from a European trip and observed an American-Muslim woman from their flight navigating U.S. Immigration and Customs. The couple watched attentively as the covered woman approached the immigration officer, who avoided eye contact, glanced hastily at the woman's ID,
Events in Egypt, Bahrain and Syria illustrate the limits of U.S. influence in the Middle East following the Arab Spring and a U.S. reluctance, at times, to exercise such clout as it has. Court rulings in Egypt and in Bahrain this week, analysts say, show the ruling authorities’ desire to maintain their grip on
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Monday that there has been a "serious escalation" in the security situation along the Sinai border and that the lack of Egyptian security control in Sinai was "worrisome." "We are still under a terror attack in the south," Barak told reporters during his meeting with the Polish defense minister.
