Egyptian Gov't Freezes Assets of 29 MB Members in Custody

In another major blow to the Muslim Brotherhood and Egyptian economy, the Prosecutor General issued an order to freeze the assets of more than 29 members of the MB, including, Khayrat el Shater, Youssef Nada, Hassan Malek, Abdel Rahman Saudi, Dr. Khaled Ouda, Medhat el Haddad, and Dr. Essam Hashish, all are leading society figures or prominent businessmen who run a number of successful companies and invest hundreds of millions of dollars into Egypt’s economy. The decision applies to bank accounts, cash, and all properties or companies owned by the 29 detainees or their families. The court will review the case on January 30 and will issue its ruling whether or not to uphold the Prosecutor General’s decision.
The Muslim Brotherhood condemned the decision, which it considered unjustified and extremely harsh and will harm the country’s struggling economy. The Muslim Brotherhood complained that its detainees are respected and patriotic citizens including university professors, talented scientists and successful businessmen who have not committed any crimes and are only being tried because of their political background
Dr. Mohamed Habib, MB First Deputy Chairman, stated that these companies although owned by individuals affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, but are completely independent and are not connected with any of the Muslim Brotherhood’s activities. He warned that such actions by the Egyptian government would have a negative impact on investments, which in turn will hurt the economy and raise the unemployment rate. Dr. Habib denied that the decision to freeze assets of MB members and shut down their companies will cripple the group’s activities “The Muslim Brotherhood activities are financed by its members through their personal contributions and do not rely on companies or businesses because we know that the government will resort to such actions anytime as it did in the past”
The Prosecutor General charged the defendants of belonging to an illegal organization-Muslim Brotherhood- and the attempt to revive its activities. Among the charges also is forming an underground militia, similar to those in Palestine and Iraq, to undermine the regime; referring to the handful of students who participated in an artistic show at al Azhar University wearing masks and performing martial arts.
It is widely expected that the MB members currently in custody will be eventually referred to military tribunal as it did several times in the past using emergency laws, which the government mainly apply against political opponents primarily the Muslim Brotherhood.
Full list of MB detainees government ordered their assets frozen 1-Khayrat el Shatter2-Mohamed Ali Bishr3-Medhat el Haddad4-Essam Hashish5-Khaled Ouda6-Amir Bassam7-Youssef Nada8-Hassan Malek9-Mohamed Hafez10-Ahmed Shosha11-Asaad el Shikha12-Ahmed Abdel el Wareth13-Sadek al Sharkawy14-Hassan Zalat15-Fareed Galbat16-Gamal Shaaban17-Mohamed Kora18-Yasser Abdu19-Abdel Rahman Saudi20-Osama Abdalla21-Saied Abdu22-Mohamed Abdel Gawad23-Ahmed el Nahass24-Dayaa Farahat25-Fathi el Kholy26-Ali Mahmoud27-Youssef Tawfeek28-Ibrahim Zayad29-Ahmed Abdel Atti

Helwan University Dismisses MB Students for 2 Academic Yrs

The disciplinary board in the Faculty of Commerce, Helwan University, punished 13 students by dismissing them for two full academic years, and four students for one academic year, and punished three others by dismissing them for a term.
The disciplinary board was headed by Dr. Khairi Abdul Hadi Mehassab the dean of the faculty, in addition to the faculty vice-principal.
Also, Helwan University president, Dr. Abdul Hayy Ebeid, referred Dr. Yahya Al Gazzaz, a professor at the Faculty of Science in the university and a member of 9th March Movement, to a disciplinary board scheduled to be held on Jan. 30, 2007, after Dr. Al Gazzaz refused to the university administration's demand of not supporting students in internal issues, specially his participation in the conferences of the free student union.
The dismissed students consider the punishments as illegal and unconstitutional and they haven't been imposed because of organizing parallel elections. Through these severe punishments, the university president, a top member in the National democratic Party, wants to show that he is loyal to the party through persecuting students and destroying their future while any one belonging to the Muslim brotherhood is facing detentions and intimidations under a flagrant media escalation against the group.
The students said in a statement:" The disciplinary board witnessed many conflicting situations indicating that the faculty dean isn't seemingly aware of what he is doing, the most prominent of which is that his being surprised that many of those dismissed students were under arrest when the charges were directed against them.
The dismissed students are:
Students who have been punished by dismissing them for two full academic years:
1-Ibrahim Rabiei Ibrahim (Fourth graders)
2-Mohamed Abdul Khalek Abdul Gawaad (Fourth grader)
3-Mahmoud Hussein Al Zawi (Fourth grader)
4-Haggag Shaban Shahat (Fourth grader)
5-Marzaq Saber Rizk (Fourth grader)
6-Morsi Rajab Morsi (Fourth grader)
7-Said Mahmoud Mohamed (Fourth grader)
8-Nasr Mohamed Gaber (Third grader)
9-Ali Sobhi Mohamed (Third grader)10-Ibrahim Ghazi Ibrahim (Third grader)
11- Khaled Abdul Fattah (Second Grader)
12-Mohamed Nasser Haggag (Second Grader)
13-Mahmoud Abdul Qader (Second Grader)
Students who have been punished by dismissing them for a full academic year:
1-Abdul Aziz Mohamed Ali Mogahed ( ex-secretary-general of the university's free student union) third grader.
2-Ahmed Eid Al Hanbouli (fourth grader)
3-Ali Mohamed Mansour (third grader)
4-Bahi Adel Bahi (first grader) earlier, the dean of the Faculty of Education referred three students to a disciplinary board and they were accordingly dismissed for a full term.
the students are:
1-Mahmoud Abdul Magid Abdul Hafiz.
2-Mohamed Hamdi Mohamed.
3-Ahmad Bahjat.
As for the Faculty of Social Work, 9 students were referred to disciplinary boards and are still expecting the punishment.

Human Rights Organizations Condemn Gov't Crackdown on Opposition

Eight human rights organizations issued a joint statement to condemn the policy of detentions that the Interior Ministry escalated in last period, specially against the Muslim Brotherhood group.The statement voiced its fears that detention is the only means adopted by the Egyptian regime to deal with its opponents or what it calls troubles that can't be solved, according to the regime, except through throwing troublemakers behind bars .
The statement attributed this security crackdown the group's declaring its plans for establishing a political party, something that the Muslim Brotherhood was faced with on newspapers pages: request forming a political party" instead of working in the dark " .Also, the statement denounced arresting another group, called Salafis, and were accused of being Muslim Brotherhood supporters.
The organizations that signed the statement said:" while today's detentions hit the Muslim Brotherhood more than others, past detentions hit the supporters of the movement of the judges for a judicial independence, and those calling for democracy and those who rejected rigging the referendums and the constitutional amendments that approves maintaining the system of emergency and torture; while we are about to enter into a new phase of constitutional amendments, which are approved only by the ruling party, and that will probably legalize the state of emergency through issuing " the anti-terrorism law", 2007 is expected to be full of protests and accordingly full of repression, detentions and tortures ."
The signatories demanded the powers struggling for democracy including public figures, civil society groups and organizations and parties to declare their rejection to the policy of detentions which is violating human rights whatever the one's ideology or political attitude, and to declare their rejection to the policy of detentions which is currently the only instrument used by the Egyptian regime to deal with opponents, and they should exercise pressures to release all political and non-political detainees, and to lift the Interior Ministry's tight grip over the country.
The statement was signed by:
The Egyptian Association Against Torture
The Arab organization for Criminal Reform
Nadim Center for Rehabilitating victims of Violence
The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information
The Human Rights Society of helping prisoners
Hesham Mubarak's Centre for Law
The Institution of Freedom of Thought and ExpressionSociety for Legal Aid to Human Rights

Marking 4th Anniversary of Torturing State Security Detainee No.25

This night four years ago, specifically on Jan. 14, 2003, they entered, asked me to hood my face and took me … to where?

Four years ago, we were arrested by the state security service; we were 14 persons affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood and we were in an organizational meeting rejecting the war on Iraq; our meeting in Al-Zaytoun district, east of Cairo, was stormed in a horrible and frightening way that reminds us of Jews’ incursions against houses of the Palestinian resistance elements; they ordered us lie on the floor and they tied us from the back.
We appeared before the state security prosecution on charge of belonging to an outlawed group (the Muslim Brotherhood); the prosecution jailed us for 15 days of provisional detention pending trial in Tora farm prison.

On Jan. 14, 2003 in the morning, we appeared again before the prosecution that ordered resuming our jail for 15 more days; we rode the deportations car that took us not towards Tora prisons but to another prison inside the region, the reception prison.

The officer who is responsible for moving us said:” We will be forced to hold you in this new prison for one single night because there is an inspection on Tora farm prison… I wasn’t astonished because I do not know what will happen!!

Just a Little Walk

We entered the new prison in which we were supposed to stay for one single night. At about 12.00 AM, the warden entered our cell and demanded us be ready to get out. Will we return to our original prison" we asked. No' he replied " you are going on just a one-hour little walk and you will return back here but every one of you should take something to cover his neck because it is too cold".

Because I didn't understand anything and because it wasn't too cold, I got out of the cell without taking any such thing"
The warden surprised me by saying:" please, take something clean with you to blindfold your eyes instead of blindfolding your eyes with something unclean".
"Blindfold my eyes" I wondered "where are we going?".
Ayman Abdul Ghani (currently detained) called me and said: Abd Al-Moneim, they are likely taking us to Nasr City based State Security Police, may Allah support all of us.
Ayman gave me a T-Shirt and I blindfolded myself.
We went to the main prison hall accompanied by soldiers from the prison to be stunned by coarse voices ordering us not to speak and to leave our belongings in the prison.
I said to the one with a coarse voice:" I only have a holy Qur'an and prayer beads.

"No bastard, you won't need them" he replied impolitely.
Then, the one with a coarse voice cuffed my legs and made me ride a car and ordered me to sit down and I sat in the same place I was standing up in, thinking that it is a prisoners car, to be stunned by a severe slap in my face ( a blow of a boxer) saying: don't you see the chair son of a ….( bitch).
I said to my self: How can I see and I am blindfolded" and I was very terrified.
The vehicle which seemed to be a big bus moved.

Guantanamo Reception

Suddenly, the bus stopped and moved in a sharp slope as if it is going to a place underground.
Then, they ordered us to get out of the car while we were being showered with dirty insults and put us in a line.
Then came a man with a sonorous and coarse voice to say:" welcome, I'd like to inform you where you are ...you are here in Guantanamo", adding": here, we have tortured the top militants of Al-Qaeda...You are here to know your real identity, bastards. Do you think that you are really a group...you are bastards here.

After that he said: Here you aren't human beings; your just figures; any one who is asked about his identity and says his name will face hell.

That's true; we were identifying ourselves through numbers; I was cellmate "25"; whenever any one was asking about my identity, I would say:" I am 25 sir" whoever forgets and tells his real name, he would be dealt a series of severe beating for forgetting his code name in the torture headquarters.

He ordered us to take off our shoes and our socks to remain barefoot throughout our 13-day detention in this place, with our faces to the wall; we remained standing up barefoot on the ceramic floor for more than about 14 hours; whoever fells on the ground out of fatigue would be helped to stand up with beatings and slaps.

When our cellmate, Dr. Mohamed Al Qadi, a university professor, shouted ate them, saying:" We want to perform the dawn prayers which passed since a while and we are still standing.
A guard or officer answered him: perform the prayers with your eyes, you bastard, you aren't in a mosque here.
After the fourteen hours of standing up, they sent us to solitary grave-size cells; every one of them has a cement terrace, a primitive WC and a water tap.
After I entered the cell and closed the door, I tried to remove the blindfold, assuming that I will remove it while I am in the cell.
Suddenly, the door was opened ....I saw him and he saw me…He seemed to be a powerful stout a guard.
He directed several severe punches in my face and insulted me, saying:" Why have you removed the blindfold!!??".
Since then, I didn't remove the blindfold during the 13 days to the extent that I was asking the interrogator during the investigation to fix it well lest it fall an I face more punches because they fear that I may see them.

The Prison System

I stayed during the 13 days in 2×3 m cell; I spent in it five full days sleeping, praying and using the WC while I was handcuffed from the back, except at mealtime the guard would make me handcuffed from the front. I was obliged to remain on this cement terrace all the time, including performing the prayers because the floor was not clean; I remained throughout this period without any sheet to cover me although we were in January, a very cold winter month.

We had three meals a day:

Breakfast: a loaf of bread with a very small piece of cheese, a smaller piece of halva, or five to ten grains of bean and a small piece of jam, the same has been served in the dinner.

As for lunch: it was a loaf of bread with a very small amount of rice and a small piece of meat or chicken.
A doctor was passing everyday in the mornings and evenings to cure any wounds and to give us tablets demanding us to swallow them.
I was throwing them in the WC immediately after he got out.
Every two or three hours, a guard was passing and I was obliged to stand up as soon as I see the door is opened.
If I lingered for a moment or two, I would be showered with a series of dirty insults and beating.
It was impossible to sleep in this cell: first because most investigations were starting at midnight until dawn; second: because all night long the guards were awake smoking cannabis and exchanging very dirty insults in extremely loud and troublesome voices.

The Investigations

In the first night in which I appeared before an investigator- definitely a state police officer, I was handcuffed from the back, blindfolded and barefoot, the investigating officer shouted at the guard and said to him: You donkey, when he comes here, before the investigation, he should be handcuffed from the front. At the beginning the investigator dealt with me in a decent manner, saying: We are sorry, Abd Al-Moneim on the methods here; this is actually our job and this is the system of the place; then he said:" you seem to be a respectable highborn man and don't deserve bad treatment; and you will certainly help me and won't lie to me" I was recognizing his method of affecting me to make me disclose the secrets of the group.

Suddenly, the interrogator stopped talking and silence prevailed, to be broking by screams coming from outside the room ; a man was screaming out of torture and saying:" stop torturing me, I will speak out, I will tell you everything, to raise his screaming again".
Then, the interrogator spoke again and said to me:" Sit down, you are tired" and I sat on the floor.

Then, he said again:" Do you know whose voice is this Abd Al-Moneim!!! - ( I was silent as I can't speak out of extreme fear).
This is Ibrahim Al Dib(the owner of the house in which we were detained)" he said" because he is lying to us and doesn't want to speak"
I felt that he was frightening me and threatening me to disclose everything I know about the Muslim Brotherhood.
Suddenly the door was opened with the man of the sonorous coarse voice who shouted at the investigator, saying:" How can you allow him to sit down" then he showered us with a series of dirty insults, and said: Start torturing him.

The investigator said:" excuse me sir, Abdul Moneim is a good guy and he will tell us everything"
I felt then that they are trying to intimidate me.
The investigations continued with me for eight consecutive days and they were held twice a day; he was asking me about every thing that I was doing in my life and what I was doing in the university (he had accurate tips); when I deny his charges or refuse to talk, I was severely beaten by the guard with the feet and fists; this was definitely taking place on a daily basis during the period of the investigation.

The investigation with me ended after eight days but I was held for more five days in my cell to increase the psychological pressure; I was also hearing the screams of my colleagues, and they were hearing mine, while they were beaten by the guard.

Ending Investigations

The investigations with all the group; they released us from cells in the middle of the night and gave us our shoes and we rode a bus which seemed to be the same that brought us here; but while returning, they ordered us to put our heads under chairs they covered us with blankets.
"Any one raising his head will be blown up" said a guard.

We returned again to the reception prison; the warden came to us and said that we will have a little walk and ordered us to remove the blindfolds to see each other for the first time after this long period.
In the morning, we returned to the first prison at Tora farm and we decided to inform the prosecution of what happened to us, the illegal kidnapping from prison and our facing physical and psychological tortures.

In the prosecution headquarters, Mr. Abdul Moneim Abdul Maqsoud, the lawyer who defended us advised us not to raise this issue because there were no signs of torture on our bodies and so that they don't refer us to the forensic medicine that will never issue a report condemning the police.

We didn't speak out and the prosecution ordered prolonging our detention that lasted up to six months and the last one of us was released later last June.

But our silence gave the state security police the opportunity to repeat the same crime against another case that involved some Muslim Brotherhood members in 2004 but one of them died of torture, Eng. Akram Zohairi.

The Group of 14 Case No. 56 High State Security of the year 2003

Engineer Ahmed Shousha - 48 years of Cairo (currently detained on Al-Azhar case) - a businessman.

Engineer Ahmed Mahmoud - 51 years- Suez- power engineer

Engineer Tarek Sobhi 49 years- Cairo- a businessman

Engineer Ayman Abdul Ghani 39 years- Cairo- civil engineer - (currently detained on Al-Azhar case, the fourth time to be detained since 2003).

Engineer Abdul Magid Mashali 32 years-Cairo- QC engineer- was detained in 2006.

Engineer Amin Abdul Hamid 35 years- Sharqiya – chemist.

Dr. Mohamed Al Qadi 35 years- Cairo- a professor in Helwan University

Ibrahim Al Dib 36 years- Mansoura - accountant

Mohamed Nagm 36 years- Cairo- accountant

Abdellah Ibrahim 25 years- Sharqiya – accountant

Mostafa Ismail 25 years-Al Fayyum – pharmacist

Tarek Abdul Gawaad 23 years-Asyut - Marketing manager

Mohamed Saqr 34 years- Mansoura - a sales manager

Abdul Moneim Mahmoud 23 years- Alexandria - journalist

The Day of the Black Soldier

This was my experience with the State Security Service; it recurred with other persons whether they were political detainees who were held without any legal foundation and some of them died of torture like Mossad Qotb who died of torture in the state security headquarters in Giza in 2002 and many undisclosed numbers of people faced death; torture hasn't been confined to politicians only but suspects in criminal cases were tortured as well in the police stations; the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights picked up in one of its reports 41 typical cases of torturing citizens inside police stations including 15 deaths that the organization is nearly certain that the death was due to torture and abuse.
This was in one single report; torture in Egypt is a continuous policy and a method of a regime; so, we should expose them and publish the news of tortures every where.

I have a suggestion: that we show the torture cases to the Interior Ministry and the regime on 25 January, the Police Day, a day that honours all Egyptians, not only policemen.

But the state security gangs of Habib Al-Adli steal that day an attribute it to themselves and the country honours them although they are criminals.

Let's expose this on this day and call it "the Day of The Black Soldier", and post on our web sites and weblogs the crimes committed by the Interior Ministry and its officers; let's stage a vigil against the black soldier on 25 January.

Al Katatni: We Reject NDP Tailored Constitutional Amendments

The Muslim Brotherhood parliamentary bloc in Egypt managed to run a political and legal movement through its performance in Parliament, to the extent that most security crackdowns that the group faced since 88 of its members won the 2005 parliamentary elections are attributed to- according to experts- the effective performance of the Muslim Brotherhood MPs, their opposition to the government and their adopting issues of common interest for the freedom of the country, like the judicial independence, the freedom of journalists and fighting the corruption of top figures. Egypt is witnessing, nowadays, constitutional amendments that analysts described as nothing but an attempt at excluding the Muslim Brotherhood and its MPs from the political life. Dr. Mohamed Saad Al Katatni, the chairman of the MB Parliamentary bloc in the People's Assembly thinks that the popularity and credibility of the group among Egyptian citizens are more important than many attempts of legally outlawing it; he said in an interview with Ikhwanweb that the regime may legally outlaw the group, but it will never remove its popularly. This is the transcript of the interview: The group respects the principle of citizenship and considers it as a main factor for democracy; why does the parliamentary bloc object to amending the fifth article of the constitution which stipulates banning exercising any political or party activity based on religion, race or origin? This amendment is conflicting with the second article of the Egyptian constitution stipulating that Islam is the religion of the state and Arabic is its official language, and the Islamic Sharia principles are the main source of legislation. The amendment proposed for banning any political or party action based on religion excludes citizens right in exercising the political action according to their intellectual and ideological affiliations; this is because the development of the political life is based on the regimes ability to deal with the society’s trends and people’s desires, something excluded by this amendment. We respect the principle of not differentiating among compatriots because of their religion, race or origin because this is a principle which is ordained by the Islamic Sharia. But you lodged a bill law that rejects establishing parties on a religious basis? This is true; we reject establishing political parties on a religious basis according to the concept of the religious country, because we basically reject the idea of a religious country because it is a country in which the ruler and clerics are considered infallible. We demand a civil country that has an Islamic reference; the people are the source of authorities; thus, the country and part we seek don’t contradict with the current constitution and they don’t even contradict until with the amendment of the fifth article that bans establishing a party on a religious basis; this is because our reference is constitutional, which is the second article of the constitution. According to the proposed amendments, the Muslim Brotherhood's activity will be outlawed according to the constitution; will the group establish a political party to bypass the attempts of outlawing it? The idea of establishing a party has been on the table for a long period of time; we don’t want to be an outlawed entity; it is the regime that imposed this ban despite our popular legitimacy; but the committee of parties affairs is an unconstitutional committee, making us stop short of requesting to establish a party before this committee which is headed by the Egyptian Shura Council speaker who is also the Secretary-General of the National Democratic Party; even forming it and choosing the public figures inside it is determined by the president who is also the chairman of the National Democratic Party. The National Democratic Party won’t approve establishing a strong party like the Muslim Brotherhood Party. But the president said in his latest statements that the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood movement is a threat to the security of Egypt! The president’s statement was politically motivated; he did not speak as a president to all Egyptians but as a president to the National Democratic Party and he knows well that the Muslim Brotherhood is the biggest rival for him on the ground. But we say that the real threat to the security of Egypt is the corruption of the National Democratic Party and that what makes investors escape with their investments from this country is the unsuccessful policies of the this party which is headed by president Mohamed Hosni Mubarak. The proposed amendments covered various axes, like the judicial supervision on elections, the electoral system and the presidential conditions and others...What is your opinion regarding these amendments? These amendments establish tyranny and prepare for the hereditary transfer of power to Mubarak Jr. and decreasing the margin of freedom that the Egyptian people obtained during the last two years. While we demand expanding the judicial supervision over the elections, we are stunned by amendments that want us to return back under the false claims of reducing the role of the judge on the ballot box and holding all the elections in one day after they were held in three stages and in three days, and attempting to change the electoral system itself from the individual system to a party slate which means marginalizing 97 % of the Egyptian people who aren’t affiliated to political parties; when he doesn’t even discuss amending article 77 to allow a peaceful transfer of power and that defines the term of the president, this is a strong indication that there are no plans for discussing such a transfer. But the amendments included positive articles like reducing the president’s powers...! This is a good indication: reducing the president’s powers for the Prime Minister, but what are the powers that will be reduced; will they be superficial or will they be real powers; this isn’t clear until now. You have been demanding canceling the emergency law; the amendments will present a new law to protect the country from terrorism while the state of emergency will be canceled; why do you fear such a law? People have been demanding abolishing the state of emergency imposed on the country and keeping the law, but the regime will take these articles and this state and put them in a permanent law called “anti-terrorism law”; the other worry is that there is no specific definition for terrorism, which will make this law a new instrument to intimidate people and violate their freedoms which are guaranteed by the third chapter of the constitution. You have a complete view towards amending some articles of the constitution; why haven’t you present them to the People's Assembly? Article 189 of the constitution allows the president or one third of the People's Assembly members to introduce amendments in the articles of the constitution on condition of the approval of two thirds of MPs, a high ceiling of MPs to present such a request; the Egyptian parliament’s history hasn’t witnessed such an incident in which MPs introduce amendments in the constitution because the majority of the National Democratic Party blocks such attempts; we once attempted to introduce an amendment in an article in the Assembly’s bylaw and this required the same quorum, but the NDP’s majority blocked it to close the door in front of any one thinking about amendments. Which is better for Egypt: amending some articles of the constitution or changing it totally? The best is, of course, introducing a new constitution that addresses the current stage; this is because this constitution was drafted in a time and era which are different from ours. However, this is actually unavailable; we can’t do but deal with status quo imposed on us; the amendments included 34 articles across all the chapters of the constitution; this will lead to some kind of inconsistency between some amended articles and other old articles because the constitution is supposed to have a general philosophy it is founded on; the current constitution is based on a socialist system and the coalition of the labor force, which aren’t found in the current stage, making the president offer to amend it; the most appropriate is drafting a new constitution. Analysts point out that these amendments aim at excluding the Muslim Brotherhood group from the political life in Egypt; do you think so? Yes, we feel that these amendments aim at marginalizing and excluding the role of the Muslim Brotherhood; however, the Egyptian people and its love to the Muslim Brotherhood and its feeling in the credibility of this movement will abort such attempts; I think that they may succeed in outlawing the Muslim Brotherhood, but they can’t exclude us as much as the popular aspect is concerned. The People’s Assembly will discuss these amendments in the coming days; what is the attitude to be taken by the parliamentary bloc towards these amendments inside the Assembly? We will reject the amendments as a whole because we refuse the principle of introducing amendments at such a unsuitable time in which the political and constitutional reform process is retreating and while the society is facing very bad conditions that require finding a suitable climate for ending political tensions. The amendments are proposed by president Mubarak who is the president of the National Democratic Party; they are proposed without holding any wide popular dialogue around them; he is only using his NDP majority in the parliament to pass his amendment, although these amendments need a consensus among all Egyptians, not only the National Party whose members are no more than 2 million members, according to the NDP's statistics, while the Egyptian population is more than 78 millions; this is considered an exclusion of most Egyptian people including their various political spectrum through preventing them from exercising their rights and imposing a one-sided view that sends Egypt back to eras of backwardness and tyranny

Opposition Rejects Mubarak's Amendments

The members of parliament affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood, other opposition parties and independents declared on Tuesday their rejection to president Mubarak's 34 constitutional amendments.

The Muslim Brotherhood parliamentary bloc and MPs of Tagammu' Party, Al-Ghad, Al-Karma, and the independents declared their tentative rejection to the proposal that president Hosni Mubarak lodged to both the People's Assembly and Shura Council for amending 34 Articles of the constitution. This took place while the report was discussed by the Assembly's general committee which is related to the constitutional amendments.

Mohamed Saad Al Katatni said, in his speech before the Assembly:" We are in a historical moment in which the people need a clear decision; unfortunately, these amendments are incomplete and are expressing a one-sided view that does not reflect the status quo of the society; they also neglect the suggestions presented by the members of parliament when they were asked to give their opinion last year .

While the National Democratic Party and Wafd Party MPs approved the amendments, the house speaker, Dr. Fathi Serour said:" These amendments are considered a key turning point in the Egyptian constitutional system as they are widest since 1980 and come under president Mohamed Hosni Mubarak's interest in increasing the democratic practice and improving the constitutional structure of our political system in a way that supports the course of reform and development in Egypt. "

Amendments of NDP's Mubarak Rejected

Saad Al Katatni, the chairman of the Muslim Brotherhood parliamentary bloc, said in a statement to Ikhwanweb that they reject the amendments altogether because time isn't suitable while the political and constitutional reform process is retreating and while the society is facing very bad conditions that require finding an appropriate climate for ending the political tensions; he confirmed that these amendments establish tyranny and set the scene for the hereditary transfer of power to Mubarak Jr., and decrease the margin of freedom that the Egyptian people obtained during the last two years.

He noted also that Mubarak's amendments don't include amending article 77 that allows a peaceful transfer of power and that defines the president's term, a strong indication that there are no plans for making such a peaceful transfer.

Al Katatni said that " The amendments are proposed by president Mubarak who is the president of the National Democratic Party; they are proposed without holding any wide popular dialogue around them; he is only using his NDP majority in the parliament to pass his amendment, although these amendments need a consensus among all Egyptians, not only the National Party whose members are no more than 2 million members, according to the NDP's statistics, while the Egyptian population is more than 78 millions; this is considered an exclusion of most Egyptian people including their various political spectrum through preventing them from exercising their rights and imposing a one-sided view that sends Egypt back to eras of backwardness and tyranny."

That's Enough Mubarak!!

While a member of parliament who belongs to the National Democratic Party supported Mubarak's right in dissolving the People's Assembly, another NDP, Mohamed Hussein, shouted " Everything is centered around Mubarak…. Everything is centered around Mubarak…that 's enough that's enough…..it is unbearable" and he unbuttoned his shirt amid the astonishment of the MPs.

The House Speaker said to Hussein:" I will ask the Assembly to drive you out of the session; get out or we will drive you out."

Movie Clears Islamists of Persecuting Copts

Rahina (The Hostage), is a new movie directed by Sandra, written by Dr. Nabil Farouk. Its scenario is written by Nader Salahuddin; the film tells the story of Mostafa, an Egyptian young man who traveled to Ukraine seeking a job opportunity. In the plane, he gets acquainted with a Christian Egyptian scientist called Makram Sahab who won Nobel Prize and is being kidnapped in the airport just after his arrival, by “Luhay” companions who seemingly belong to Islamic groups; this is the plot of the movie: its message and inquiries about the sectarian violence and persecuting Copts.

Mostafa attempts to search for the kidnapped scientist who left with him his own Laptop that contains his scientific projects on the nuclear energy while the kidnappers are seeking the laptop and confront Mostafa and his Muslim and Christian friends.
Then, the kidnapers declare, in a videotape broadcast on a satellite TV channel, killing the "infidel Christian" scientist who received the international prize through a nomination from an infidel Christian-leaning international scientist; a sedition erupts; the Muslim and Christian friends declare that they weren’t troubled by killing the Egyptian Christian scientist; Makram’s cousin emerges to represent the Diaspora Copts with their severe attack against Egypt, repeating accusations that Egypt has failed the Christians and doesn’t defend them.

After that, the gang kidnaps also Kilawy, Mostafa’s Christian friend, to negotiate with him on handing over Makram’s Laptop which he delivered to the embassy.
Mostafa goes to Farouk the security official in the embassy and demands to give him back the laptop; otherwise, he would confirm to the media that Egypt is not actually caring for the safety of Christians; thus he gives him the laptop; the writer indicates from this that there are attempts to blackmail Egypt under allegations of violence against Copts.

Mostafa goes to the gang that turns out to be a hired mafia gang, that it consists of non Muslims and that the Egyptian scientist Makram hasn’t been killed; he is actually kidnapped to benefit from his knowledge on the nuclear energy.

Mostafa- helped by the movie director’s (Sandra) unacceptable actions- manages to save his friend Kilawy and Makram Sahab through an extraordinary style that the story writer Nabil Farouk is used to write about the superhero of his thrillers, Adham Sabri.

Makram Sahab returns again and declares in a press conference that he is alive and demands the Egyptians in a very direct and clear message not to believe the rumors of sedition whether among Shiites and Sunnis in Iraq or among Muslims and Christians in Egypt, saying " Don’t believe their reported rumour that there is a sedition among Sunnis and Shiites and that it is caused by Al-Qaeda or Al-Zarqawi, or that the Copts are persecuted in Egypt by Islamic groups or Copts, the source of seditions is an enemy to all of us who is always keen to ignite them"; after that, the gang leader, Nour, appears again after escaping a plane crash (!!!) with something like the Star of David drawn on her shoulder, indicating that the Zionists have a role in igniting this sedition.

The film is good as a whole; it has tackled a sensitive issue in a distinguished manner, specially that the message is clear and direct to confirm the national unity and to give a wake-up call against the real enemy that plots against our Arab and Islamic world; we see- for the first time- a fair and unbiased view towards religiousness in the cinema like what is said by Bakr, a religious young man and the third friend of Mostafa; he says for example:" This doesn't mean that every one with a beard is a terrorist "; and he also gives a logical view after all broadcast rumours and even after the statements declared by certain Islamic movements.
The cinematography was excellent with Sandra's direction and her well designed battle scenes..

However, the dialogue is sometimes flawed as it disappeared in important areas of the movie for the sake of action; there is another mistake: that the movie makers did not separate between the figments of imagination of Nabil Farouk who writes this imagination on paper, and applying this imagination in a movie; this is because many unrealistic incidents took place in the battles, the most prominent of which is that Ahmed Ezz (Mostafa) fell twice in the sea (the first in a car and in the second he was aboard a plane) and he managed- in both incidents- to escape death and he even rescued those accompanying him.

The other mistake is in the same scene of the car in which the he is riding with Yasmin Abdul Aziz falls from above a mountain and he is driving the car saying ironically:"Peac and prayers be on the messenger of Allah" in a way indicating that he is confident that he won't die? I am not specialized in movie or entertainment criticism but these are my impressions about the movie that may be considered- if mistakes avoided- a distinguished model of a movie, taking into consideration that it is a good valuable work of art.