Editorial Note: The following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology. Comments are in parentheses.

 
Pro-Morsi Poster at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem Criticized  

Pro-Morsi poster on the entrance of Al-Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem, Palestine, July 13, 2013 pic	Pro-Morsi supporters massacred by the Army in Cairo, July 8, 2013 pic

Morsi, leader of the Nation, poster at Al-Aqsa Mosque, July 12, 2013 ma'an

 

Pro-Palestinian Authority Media

Abbas phones interim Egypt president Mansour

13/07/2013 11:03

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) –

President Mahmoud Abbas telephoned his Egyptian counterpart Adli Mansour on Friday to congratulate him on the occasion of Ramadan.

Abbas reiterated that the Palestinian leadership would continue to respect the Egyptian people’s will and abstain from intervention in Egypt’s internal affairs.

Abbas highlighted that Egypt had always played a leading role in the Arab world and would continue to play that role, according to Wafa, the PA's official news agency.

The Egyptian president, for his part, reiterated that there has historically been a special relationship between the Egyptian and the Palestinian people, Wafa reported.

Poster of ousted Egypt president sparks Aqsa controversy

Published today (updated) 13/07/2013 10:00 JERUSALEM (Ma’an) –

Thousands of worshipers who flooded Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque Friday encountered a huge poster of ousted Egyptian president Muhammad Morsi.

Worshipers were asking who raised the photo, why Palestinians were intervening in Egyptian affairs, and what Morsi has done for Al-Aqsa that motivated them to raise his photo in the holy mosque.

Witnesses told Ma’an that dozens of worshipers raised Morsi’s photo as they marched inside the mosque compound in solidarity with the Muslim Brotherhood and their ousted president.

“Morsi isn’t only a president of Egypt, but rather a leader of the whole nation,” read one of several posters the activists raised as they chanted slogans supporting Morsi and slamming Egypt’s minister of defense Abdul-Fattah al-Sisi.

The “coup” in Egypt serves “colonization” and is never in the interest of the Egyptian people, one said.

Separately, worshipers told Ma’an that a preacher known as Abu Arafeh was expelled from the mosque in the afternoon because he took advantage of being in the mosque to deliver a speech defending Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Palestinian minister of endowments Mahmoud Al-Habbash rejected the use of the mosque as a forum to intervene in the internal affairs of Arab countries. Regardless of who was behind it, he told Ma’an, both incidents were attempts to wedge Palestine into internal affairs of Arab nations, and this is completely unacceptable because it is against the policy of the Palestinian leadership.

He added that the ministry of endowments wouldn’t allow preachers to take advantage of mosques to address controversial issues. “We have one basic plight, which is the Palestinian cause and so all platforms should focus only on confronting occupation.”

Similarly, Fatah spokesman Ahmad Assaf slammed the pro-Morsi demonstration inside the mosque and described it as intervention in Egyptian affairs as well as siding with one party at the expense of another.

This partiality, he said, by Hamas and by the Islamic movement in the Arab towns in Israel, is a proof that they are loyal to the Muslim Brotherhood but not to Palestine.

Our people’s priorities, added Assaf, are to free al-Aqsa Mosque and to establish a Palestinian state instead of fighting marginal battles. A photo of Yasser Arafat should have been raised in the mosque instead because he “died defending al-Aqsa Mosque,” added the spokesman.

Assaf criticized Hamas-affiliated al-Aqsa satellite TV and Islamic Jihad-affiliated al-Quds station for broadcasting special Ramadan evening prayers from the Rabia al-Adawiyya Mosque in Cairo where supporters of Morsi usually hold their protests.

"Why didn’t they broadcast prayers from al-Aqsa Mosque?" he wondered. "Has Rabia al-Adawiyya mosque become as important to Muslims as al-Aqsa Mosque? Muslims were asked at the beginning to face the direction of al-Aqsa Mosque during prayer, and the mosque is considered the third holiest place in the world for Muslims."

The ministry of endowment also criticized solidarity with Morsi inside the mosque. Director of the ministry’s Jerusalem department Sheikh Azzam al-Khatib told Ma’an the al-Aqsa Mosque should never become a forum for internal conflicts.

“We want worshipers who come to the mosque to be able to perform their prayer quietly, and we don’t side with anybody. Worshipers from all political factions visit al-Aqsa Mosque, and we can’t deny anybody entry to the mosque.”

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Pro-Hamas Media:

Most Palestinians still supportive of President Morsi

[ 12/07/2013 - 11:00 PM ]

Form Khalid Amayreh in Occupied Jerusalem

As tens of thousands of Muslims converged on the Aqsa Mosque to perform the congregational prayers of the first Juma'a (Friday) of the holy month of Ramadan, worshipers displayed prominently portraits of the deposed Egyptian President Muhammed Mursi.

"Muhammed Morsi: you are not only President of Egypt alone, you are the leader of the entire Arab and Muslim world", read one of the large placards.

Many worshipers marched through the Aqsa esplanade, carrying Morsi's portrait aloft along with the Egyptian flag.

They saluted hundreds of thousands of Egyptian Islamists rallying in Cairo, demanding the reinstatement of the elected president.

More than 76 people, mostly members of the Muslim Brotherhood, were murdered in cold blood last week when Egyptian soldiers acting on instructions from Sissi opened fire indiscriminately on supporters of Morsi outside the Republican Guard headquarters as they were performing the dawn prayers.

The MB called the shooting a real massacre of innocent people who were performing prayers.

The pro-coup Egyptian media sought to find extenuating circumstances to mitigate the impact of the carnage.

Support for Morsi

The vast majority of Palestinians continue to support Morsi viewing his deposition by the Egyptian army as an Israeli-American conspiracy taking the form of a military coup.

Israeli and other anti-Islamic circles have reacted euphorically to the removal of the legitimate and democratically-elected Egyptian president.

The secular Palestinian Authority (PA) reacted negatively to the pro-Morsi demonstration at one of Islam's holiest sites.

The PA views the Muslim Brotherhood with a lot of consternation because of strong ties between the MB and Hamas.

PA officials and spokespersons criticized the Palestinian Islamist camp, including Hamas and the leadership of the Islamic movement in Israel, especially Sheikh Raed Salah, for interfering in Arab internal affairs.

"Taking sides in the current Egyptian crisis undermines the Palestinian national cause. Palestinians must refrain from taking sides either in favor or against Morsi," said Muhammed Assaf, a PA spokesman.

Many Palestinians, intellectuals and ordinary people alike, are viewing last week's coup against Morsi as a Zionist conspiracy.

Jamal Muhammed, who holds a Ph.D. in Engineering, opines:

"This is a real multi-party conspiracy. The players include the strong Mason movement, the Coptic Church, the CIA, the Saudis and the so-called Deep State in Egypt ."

The Palestinian professor said he was sure that the conspiracy against the Islamists in Egypt would eventually fail, arguing that most Egyptians would soon find out that the military would take the country into a deeper crisis at all levels.

"The military know how to shoot people. They know how to murder and suppress human rights and civil liberties. But they have no idea how to run an economy that is in the worst possible shape, they don't know how to feed 90 million Egyptians, they don't know how to fight corruption since they themselves are the most corrupt elements in society."

Hamed Abu Hussein, another Palestinian intellectual from the Hebron region, described the removal of President Morsi as "a colossal crime against the people of Egypt and the honor of Egypt ."

"Could it be that the Egyptian people who endured dictatorship and tyranny for so many decades can't really tolerate a few months of democracy", asked the Islamic educator.

"Morsi didn't steal the people's money, he didn't suppress human rights and civil liberties, and he was not corrupt by any standards of imagination. Yet we had an ignorant army Gen. who could barely read a single correct Arabic sentence depose a democratically elected President who has a Ph.D. in engineering. Isn't this strange?"

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Egypt security forces kill dozens of pro-Morsi protesters

By Jeffrey Fleishman

July 8, 2013, 4:40 a.m.

Los Angeles Times, CAIRO --

The shooting started during morning prayers.

Soldiers and security forces opened fire on an encampment of anti-military protesters outside the barricades at the Republican Guard headquarters. Witnesses said demonstrators fled through tear gas and shotgun pellets, the dead and wounded ferried away by motorcycles, ambulances and in the arms of relatives.

"We were praying, and at 3:30 a.m. we were surprised by gun fire and tear gas all around us,” said Mahmoud Mohamed, a lawyer who was shot in the arm. "We had women and children with us. The shooting went on for a long time. They didn’t give us a chance to retreat. They met us from every direction."

It is not clear what led to the onslaught that killed at least 42 people and injured hundreds. The protesters, mostly Muslim Brotherhood supporters demanding the reinstatement of deposed President Mohamed Morsi, said they were in the third day of a sit-in when they were attacked by army and Interior Ministry forces.

A military statement said a "terrorist group" attempted to storm the Republican Guard facility, killing one soldier and wounding 40.

Images of the dead lying beneath sheets and national flags inflamed a nation already on the brink of chaos. The military coup that deposed Morsi last week infuriated his Brotherhood supporters, who have vowed not to leave the streets until the president, believed to be held by the Republican Guard, returns to office.

"While we prayed, they shot us,” said Fatma Alzomor, who wailed near the Rabaa al Adawiya mosque about two miles away from the Republican Guard headquarters. “Witness free world, what is happening. We are being sprayed with blood. You must hear me.”

A man standing nearby told a journalist: “Write this: Today, freedom has been killed.”

Men wearing hard hats and carrying sticks, clubs and knives guarded the street leading to the mosque, where over the last week thousands of Morsi supporters have camped in tents. Boys carried shields, bandaged men curled in the shade, women wept from behind face veils and the summer heat of a new day rose through the murmurs of clerics.

“I was praying,” said Dr. Ismail Hashish, a surgeon at a makeshift field hospital. “We heard screams from the stage of the mosque, telling the protesters not to go to the Republican Guard. I myself have seen nine dead. We have a huge number of cases. A lot of gunshot wounds to the chest and head. The casualties became much greater than what we could handle.”

The incident further jolted the nation’s political disarray.

The military-installed president and disparate political parties have yet to agree on a prime minister. The killings also created a new danger for the military after the ultraconservative Salafis in the prominent Nour Party withdrew from negotiations for a coalition government. Nour was an adversary of the Brotherhood, but now, under pressure from Islamists, may move closer to the group.

Opposition figures who backed the coup were careful in how they worded statements on Monday’s attack. “Violence begets violence and should be strongly condemned. Independent Investigation a must. Peaceful transition is only way,” Mohamed ElBaradei, a Morsi foe and Nobel Peace Prize winner, said on his official Twitter account.

The Brotherhood was shaken and enraged. After one year of controlling the government, it has reverted back to its old role as the opposition under growing pressure from a military determined to clip its influence even as the economy tumbles and crime and social unrest spread.

“What happened today is a massacre,” Essam Erian, deputy leader of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice political party, said outside the field hospital. “They [the military] brought this on themselves. To this chaos there is no exit unless Mohamed Morsi returns to office. There is no exit. ... Our blood will overcome their weapons.”