Religious Violence, Uncertainty in Post-Mubarak Egypt Threatens Ties to Israel, U.S.
In the eight months since the Egyptian Revolution, radical Islamic groups are rising to power, the army seems unwilling or unable to stop a growing rash of sectarian violence and the long-standing friendship between the U.S., Israel and Egypt is in serious question.
“I am the enemy of democracy,” Hesham al Ashry said in an interview with Fox News in his Cairo tailor shop. The devout Muslim is a main organizer in a group called the Salafists, which is working to bring Shariah law to Egypt. They, along with the Muslim Brotherhood, have risen quickly in the past eight months to fill the power vacuum left in post-Mubarak Egypt.
Update: New Libyan Government Tries to Calm Sharia Fears, Tells World We ‘Are Moderate’
On Sunday The Blaze reported that leaders of the transitional government in Libya are calling for Sharia to be the basis for all law in the country. Now, however, National Transitional Council leader Mustafa Abdul-Jalil is attempting to assuage the fears of Western democracies over the revelation that a new Libya will be governed by Sharia.
TRIPOLI, Libya (The Blaze/AP) — After giving a speech that emphasized the Islamization of Libya, the head of the transitional government on Monday tried to reassure the Western powers who helped topple Moammar Gadhafi that the country’s new leaders are moderate Muslims.
Just as in neighboring Tunisia and Egypt, Islamists have emerged from yet another Arab Spring uprising as the most powerful group in the country. How far they will go will be decided at the ballot box – in Tunisia this week, in Egypt in November and in Libya within eight months.
