Toppled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said that his decision to step down was his own, adding that he could have remained in power if he had wanted to, in an interview with Egyptian daily Al-Watan published on Wednesday.
Mubarak reportedly made the statements in an interview conducted at the Tora Prison Hospital in Cairo.
“I made the decision to step down myself. No one pressured me. It was possible for me to stay in power but I decided to step down to protect people’s lives and not shed blood,” Mubarak said, according to the paper.
Egyptians have voiced anger after Mohammed Morsi appointed an Islamist as provincial governor, who is linked to a deadly terrorist attack. Adel el-Khayat said he would not allow politics to influence his decisions.
Politicians, residents and activists in the Luxor province said they plan to seal off the office of the governor to prevent Adel el-Khayat from entering. Members of the tourism industry worry about the new governor's potential impact on tourism: The Islamist hard-liner comes from Gamaa Islamiya, a group that claimed responsibility for one of Egypt's bloodiest massacres.
A report published by the European Court of Auditors (ECA) is highly critical of EU aid spending to promote key areas of governance in Egypt in the periods before and after the Uprising of January 2011. “The ‘softly softly’ approach has not worked, and the time has come for a more focused approach which will produce meaningful results and guarantee better value for the European taxpayers’ money” stated Mr Karel Pinxten, the ECA member responsible for the report.
Here is what I wrote in October 2010. The leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Muhammad al-Badi, had just given a sermon calling for the overthrow of Egypt’s government, which happened four months later, and a jihad against the United States, a country he considered weak, foolish, and retreating from the Middle East. I declared that this was:
WASHINGTON, June 17, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Coptic Solidarity is taking up a critical issue this week through hosting their fourth annual conference titled To What Extent Will the U.S. and the International Community Support an Islamist Government in Egypt? This timely topic follows on the heels of the unprecedented attack on the Coptic Papal seat at St. Mark's earlier this year as well as continued systematic discrimination and persecution of Egypt's Coptic minority.
Coptic Solidarity Second Annual Conference _2011
- Details
- Published on Friday, 15 July 2011 20:37
PR Newswire – for immediate release
Policy Education Day July 8 & 9, 2011
WASHINGTON, July 15, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In an important show of support to the Copts as they, and Egypt, go through difficult times, eight U.S. Congressmen addressed a Policy Education Day organized by Coptic Solidarity on July 8. Altogether, some thirty five speakers took part in the two-day event, including policy experts, human rights and legal experts and representatives of several Middle Eastern minorities and indigenous communities. The conference, held under the theme of "Will Religious and Ethnic Minorities Pay the Price of the 'Arab Spring'?", discussed such issues as the geopolitics of the Copts in Egypt; democracy prospects in Egypt; respect of human and minority rights; persecution before and after the Arab Spring; Muslim Brotherhood, Salafists and the Copts; aid to Egypt; building alliances; role of the media; and the Coptic Youth in the Revolt and in the diaspora.
Key among the conference's resolutions:
Work in close alliance and coordination with genuine democratic, liberal and secular civil society forces in Egypt in order to save the country from the drastic consequences of falling under the control of a regime based on totalitarian religious ideologies;
Help the international community understand the strategic, long-term, negative impact of misunderstanding the nature of, or flirting with, the forces of religious fascism trying to dominate Egypt and the region;
Call upon the international community to tie any aid to Egypt to the country's abiding, constitutionally and legally, by its commitment to international human rights conventions and treaties; and to ear mark part of the aid to compensate victims of religious hate crimes.
Join hands with other N.E. religious minorities and indigenous communities to form a new regional organization that upholds values of secularism and human rights in the area;
Actively support the passage of resolutions H.R. 440 and S. 1245, on the appointment of a special envoy on religious freedom of N.E. religious minorities.
The Christian Copts are the native religious community of Egypt, descended from ancient Egyptians. They number around 15 million, including a large diaspora with more than half a million strong community of American Copts.
The Copts have been subjected to aggression and discrimination in Egypt at the hands of extremists and colluding authorities. Since the fall of Mubarak's authoritarian regime, the Coptic and other minority communities face an uncertain future shadowed by the prospect of a Muslim Brotherhood dominated government in the near future.
Coptic Solidarity is an INGO seeking to support of the Coptic community in Egypt and the protection of the fundamental human rights of all Egyptians.
For further information please contact:
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. - 202-725-3091
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. - 240-644-5153
SOURCE Coptic Solidarity
Donate
Coptic Solidarity is a U.S. public charity organization under section 501 (C) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions are deductible under Section 170 of the Code.
Fourth Annual Conference
Coptic Solidarity Fourth Conference
The next Annual Conference will be held in Washington, D.C. on June 20-22, 2013 (Register).
Press Releases
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
Comments (0)