This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com.
- Two different demonstrations fill Egypt’s Tahrir Square
- Egypt’s Salafist al-Nour party draws strength from rural villages
- Around the world, people turn to religion in a generational crisis era
- The ‘Vogue of the Veiled’: High-fashion headscarves in Turkey
- Saudi law permitting women to sell lingerie draws fire overseas
- Dramatic political upheaval moves Hamas from Iran to Turkey’s Sunni bloc
- Forced selling of Portugal’s bonds after downgrade to junk
- China clamps down on Tibet during New Year celebrations
Two different demonstrations fill Egypt’s Tahrir Square
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Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Wednesday
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Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in Egypt on Wednesday, on the first anniversary of the beginning of the Egyptian Revolution that began last year on January 25. Many were protesters complaining that Egypt was worse than it was before the revolution, since the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) is still ruling Egypt, and is following many of the same policies as the deposed dictator, Hosni Mubarak. But there was a second, perhaps larger group of demonstrators who were celebrating — the huge victory of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) in the recent free Parliamentary election, winning 41% of the seats. The young protesters that filled Tahrir Square a year ago now fear that the revolution has been hijacked by the Muslim Brotherhood, and that the Brotherhood has made a corrupt deal with SCAF so that they’ll both remain in power — something that the Brotherhood denies. Al-Ahram (Cairo)
Egypt’s Salafist al-Nour party draws strength from rural villages
The surprise of Egypt’s Parliamentary elections was the strength of the religiously conservative Salafist al-Nour party, winning 27% of the seats, showing strength particularly in rural areas that were ignored for decades under the rule of Hosni Mubarak. The Muslim Brotherhood has been putting some distance between it and the al-Nour party, but the al-Nour supporters in Egypt’s rural areas do not hesitate to make their beliefs clear:
“Islam is clear. If someone steals his hand will be cut off, killers will be killed, and adulterers will be stoned to death. In that way the whole country will be made safe.”
Another supporter adds, “If in this village someone steals something and their hand is cut, do you think someone else will then think about stealing something?” BBC Read More »
Navy: we get to keep ours
Navy planes stay, Air Force goes?
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COIN Claims Another Two American Casualties in Afghanistan
Military censorship only goes so far. Now we know, contrary to official reports, at least two US Marines were hit by the bomb driven into the Kajaki Sofla bazaar by a suicide bomber on a motorcycle on January 18, 2012. Corporal Phillip McGeath, 25, was killed; Corporal Christopher Bordoni, 21, was critically wounded.
Why the official silence? And why the frustration, almost palpable in the public affairs office emails last week, over reports that break the silence?
Maybe it’s because Kajaki is supposed to be, has been reported as a shining COIN success story. On January 12, 2012, for example, six days before the suicide bomb in the bazaar, the US government spelled it all out in a story headlined: ”Soccer field, symbol of hope to Kajaki Sofla children”:
Operation Eastern Storm began in October, when the men of 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment conducted a large-scale, helicopter-borne insertion aimed at routing insurgents from the valley.
The Marine casualties in the bazaar attack were from the 1st Battalion, 6th Regiment. Read More »