Egypt's Brotherhood claims win in run-off vote

Election officials sit in a bus with ballot boxes from a closed polling station going to a counting center in Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2011. The runoff for Egypt's first-round parliamentary elections has heated up tensions between competing Islamist groups that have so far dominated the vote, with scuffles breaking out and allegations of death threats. Arabic election poster showing candidates Ahmed Saleh, at right, and Nasser Fanous. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

CAIRO (AP) -- The Muslim Brotherhood's political party said Wednesday it had won a majority of the seats up for grabs in Egypt's run-off elections, which would give it at least 40 percent of the seats in parliament decided thus far.

The Freedom and Justice Party said in a statement that it won 36 of the 56 seats awarded to individual candidates in voting which concluded on Tuesday.

The Islamist group already won almost 37 percent of the vote in earlier polling, which awarded seats according to party lists.

The Brotherhood's political arm and other Islamist blocs have so far dominated the first election since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak in February, with liberal parties trailing.

The ultraconservative Al-Nour Party has come in second after the Muslim Brotherhood, winning nearly a quarter of the ballots cast in the late November vote for party lists.

Al-Nour, comprised of followers of the Islamic Salafi trend, adheres to strict religious observance and believes Islamic laws, or Shariah, should be the basis of the Egyptian state.

Al-Nour party spokesman Yousseri Hamed told The Associated Press on Wednesday that his group won at least five additional seats in runoffs. Votes are still being counted.

Some Islamists, however, faced a tough battle in Cairo. Candidate Mostafa al-Naggar of the newly-formed liberal Justice Party said he won against a Muslim Brotherhood candidate in the run-off vote.

The Brotherhood meanwhile said that one of their candidates had beaten a particularly controversial Al-Nour candidate, Abdel-Monem el-Shahat, in the northern coastal city of Alexandria.

El-Shahat caused a stir during the run-up to the vote by saying the novels of Egypt's Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz, read widely in Egyptian schools, are "all prostitution."

Both the Muslim Brotherhood and various Salafi groups have long offered social and medical services to millions of impoverished Egyptians, winning them political backing. Most of the parties formed after the downfall of Mubarak lack name recognition and thus have less clout, especially in rural areas.

The voting for the 498-member elected parliament is staggered over three stages, with two-thirds of the country yet to cast ballots.

Meanwhile, an interim government led by a prime minister appointed by the military is scheduled to be sworn in on Wednesday. It will likely only govern Egypt until elections for both houses of parliament conclude in March.

Kamal el-Ganzouri was named to the premiership last month after the previous interim administration resigned in the wake of violent clashes between protesters and police.

His appointment was supposed to meet public demand for a more empowered government, which could deal with lawlessness and instability, social unrest and a battered economy.

However, military rulers will retain power over the armed forces and the judiciary.

Muslim Brotherhood Takes Elections by Storm !!!

Islamist parties are expected to control Cairo's parliament by the spring with the Muslim Brotherhood projected to be in the driver's seat.

Israel National News:

Judges overseeing the vote count in Egypt’s parliamentary elections say Islamist parties have won a majority of the contested seats in the first round. The judges spoke on conditionof anonymity because official results are expected to be released later Thursday.

They say the Muslim Brotherhood could take 45 percent of the seats up for grabs. The liberal Egyptian bloc coalition and the ultra-fundamentalist Nour party are competing for second place.

Together, Islamist parties are expected to control a majority of parliamentary seats by March. This week’s vote was the first of six stages of parliamentary elections that will last until then.

Continued success by Islamists will allow them to give Cairo’s government and constitution a decidedly Islamist character. It could also lead Cairo to shift away from the West towards the Iranian axis.

It will also diminish the influence of Cairo’s caretaker junta, which has sought to maintain the Mubarak-era status quo and keep US foreign aid dollars – running into the billions per annum – flowing.

Analysts say Islamists may also seek to annul the 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty, which could prompt Israel to seize the Sinai Peninsula for the fourth time in its history to create a strategic buffer zone.

After reaching the Suez Canal in 1967 and controlling the Sinai for twelve years,, Israel ceded Sinai to Egypt under the 1979 treaty on condition it remains demilitarized.

The Muslim Brotherhood, which birthed the virulently anti-Israel Hamas terror militia, might also seek to effectively annex Gaza. Should Hamas be triumphant in future PA elections, they would also gain a foothold in Judea and Samaria

“One day we’ll kill ALL Jews,” says Barack Hussein Obama’s new BFF from the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo

MUSLIM HATE FEST: A Muslim Brotherhood rally in Cairo’s most prominent mosque turned into a venomous anti-Israel protest, with attendants vowing to “one day kill all Jews.” Some 5,000 people joined the rally, called to promote the “battle against Jerusalem’s Judaization.”

YNET NEWS  However, most worshippers who prayed at the mosque Friday quickly left it before the Muslim Brotherhood’s rally got underway. A group spokesman urged attendants to remain for the protest, asking them not to create a bad impression for the media by leaving.

Speakers at the event delivered impassioned, hateful speeches against Israel, slamming the “Zionist occupiers” and the “treacherous Jews.” Upon leaving the rally, worshippers were given small flags, with Egypt’s flag on one side and the Palestinian flag on the other, as well as maps of Jerusalem’s Old City detailing where “Zionists are aiming to change Jerusalem’s Muslim character.”

Spiritual leader Dr. Ahmed al-Tayeb charged in his speech that to this day Jews everywhere in the world are seeking to prevent Islamic and Egyptian unity. “The al-Aqsa Mosque is currently under an offensive by the Jews…we shall not allow the Zionists to Judaize al-Quds (Jerusalem.) We are telling Israel and Europe that we shall not allow even one stone to be moved there.”

Muslim Brotherhood spokesmen, as well as Palestinian guest speakers, made explicit calls for Jihad and for liberating the whole of Palestine. Time and again, a Quran quote vowing that “one day we shall kill all the Jews” was uttered at the site. Meanwhile, businessmen in the crowd were urged to invest funds in Jerusalem in order to prevent the acquisition of land and homes by Jews. Throughout the event, Muslim Brotherhood activists chanted: “Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv, judgment day has come.”

HT~  barenakedislam 

Watch live stream video from Tahrir Square, Cairo

 

BreakingNews: Watch live stream video from Tahrir Square, Cairo - http://t.co/kLGb4zuh http://t.co/UyJif9qv

Egypt riot police drive protesters from square

CAIRO (AP) -- Egyptian riot police beat protesters and dismantled a small tent city set up to commemorate revolutionary martyrs in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Saturday.

The clashes occurred after activists camped in the central square overnight following a massive Friday rally. The military tolerates daytime demonstrations in the central square, a symbol of the country's Jan. 25-Feb. 11 uprising, but claims that long-term occupation paralyzes the city.

The number of protesters swelled to nearly 600 people as news of the scuffles spread in the city, and thousands more riot police streamed into Tahrir Square blocking off the entrances and clashing with protesters.

Police were seen beating activists who challenged them and an Associated Press cameraman saw police arrest three people who refused to leave.

Stubborn protesters played cat-and-mouse with riot police as they were chased outside of the square and into side streets. "We are using side streets to pretend to run errands, but we are just regrouping and going back," said Sahar Abdel-Mohsen, who joined in the protest on Saturday afternoon, after a call went out on Twitter telling people to come down to Tahrir.

Protesters were chanting anti-security slogans including, "Riot Police are Thugs and Thieves" and "Down with the Marshal" referring to Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, Egypt's military ruler. Read More