Egypt is collapsing!

[American Patriot]

June 15, 2012 7:17 AM

Egypt's democratic renaissance erased in a day


Egyptians protest against presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq in front of a blockade formed by Egyptian military police, outside the Supreme Constitutional Court, June 14, 2012 in Cairo, Egypt.


(Credit: Getty)


(CBS News) CAIRO - Sixteen months after it started, Egypt's transition to democracy is back where it began. The activists whose determination and mass rallies threw out the old order, are wondering how - even if - they can do it again.


The politicians who hoped to reap the legacy of the revolution by winning power are, again, at the mercy of the military generals who have ruled the nation since President Hosni Mubarak's ouster, and the streets are (by Cairo standards at any rate) their usual Friday holiday tranquil.


The hiatus is the result of yesterday's court ruling that new elections must be held to choose a lower chamber of parliament. The lower house was supposed to elect an assembly to draft a new constitution, but wrangling and jostling for power by the political parties meant the task had not even begun.


Now, that task will be back in the hands of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), which said following the court's ruling that they would soon hold their first meeting to start hand-picking the members of a constitutional assembly.


Video: Egypt court dissolves newly-elected parliament
Legal "coup" derails Egypt's democracy bid
Egypt authorizes military to arrest civilians


The generals now will essentially determine how much power to hand the candidate who wins this weekend's run-off elections for the presidency.
"The election of a president in the absence of a constitution and a
parliament is the election of a president with powers that not even the
most entrenched dictatorships have known," said Mohammed el-Baradei, a former head of the United Nations nuclear agency, and a leading figure in the popular uprising which ousted Mubarak.


Complete coverage: The Arab Spring
Muslim Brotherhood presidential candidate Mohammed Morsi speaks in Cairo, June 14, 2012.


(Credit: Getty)
The contest for the presidency is between Ahmed Shafiq, a former prime minister in the last days of Mubarak's reign, and Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood. Many believe that if Morsi wins, the president will be reduced to a figurehead, because the generals are no fans of the Islamist-oriented Brotherhood, while Shafiq is a former military officer; in effect, one of their own.


In a speech a few hours after the court decision, Morsi condemned what he saw as an effort by a corrupt clique to nullify the revolution.


"We will not allow any of those criminals to return to power," he said.



"We will continue to bring down what is left of the corruption and the corrupt regime. There is no real place for these criminals."


Another top Brotherhood official, Mohamed Beltagy went on state television to decry the Supreme Constitutional Court's decision as "a full-scale coup."


Former presidential candidate Abdel Moneim Aboul Fatouh said the military leaders were "deluding themselves if they think the youth will let this pass."


The young revolutionaries, however, are slowly coming to the realization that winning in the streets and being lionized on television is a far cry from being able to duck, weave and maneuver in the halls of power.
This story was filed by CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey, with editing by Tucker Reals and Khaled Wassef.

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BREAKING NEWS: 06.24.12 Egyptian Election Resuls Coverage


by John Galt
June 24, 2012 09:15 ET

I am following Al-Jazeera television live along with blogs in two English language newspapers in Cairo awaiting results of the Presidential election announcement which was due at 09:00 ET. As the news breaks, I shall post it here.

09:30 ET – UPDATE - Egyptian military just ordered journalists to turn off cell phones in the room where the announcement will be made. Per AJE, announcement is coming any moment now instead of at 45 minutes after.


From the Ahram online news blog (all times are local Cairo time):

15:12 Egyptian state TV says announcement of results will be delayed 30 minutes.

14:59 Ahram Online reporter Bel Trew describes scene around Tahrir Square where thousands of mainly Mursi supporters are demonstrating.

She says some supporters are riding around the square on the back of fun-buses, blaring music that proclaims “we are one hand”.

14:58 The Rafah crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip has been closed at the order of Egyptian authorities, according to an official from Hamas which governs the besieged territory.
Egyptian authorities are yet to make a statement on the matter.

14:55 Former presidential candidate Abdel Moneim Abul-Fotouh will hold a press conference on Monday to comment on the election results, his campaign managers say.
14:53 The headquarters of Egypt’s electoral commission in Nasr City are stepping up security ahead of the 3pm announcement.
Security barriers have been erected around the premises, while streets surrounding the bulding have been closed and no vehicles allowed in.

Journalists have been granted access on foot but are being extensively searched in an apparent attempt to prevent supporters of either candidate from causing trouble.

14:45 The Muslim Brotherhood is saying it won’t leave Cairo’s Tahrir Square, even if its candidate Mohamed Mursi is declared president.

Speaking to the local Dream TV channel on Sunday, Hassan El-Barnes – a leading member of the Brotherhood and a former MP for its Freedom and Justice Party – said the sit-in will continue.

“The protesters in Tahrir have demands, most importantly cancelling the constitutional addendum that makes the SCAF a state above the state and turns Egypt from a civilian state to a military one which limits the president’s powers,” El-Barnes said in an interview on ‘Sabah Dream’.
The Muslim Brotherhood’s official Twitter account posted the following a short while ago:

“Our protests will remain peaceful and we will not leave ‪#Tahrir until the peoples’ demands are met, including recent ‪#SCAF decrees.”

[Ryan Ruck]

White House Congratulates Muslim Brotherhood For Winning Egypt’s Presidential Election, Calls It a “Milestone” — UPDATE: Obama Calls Mohamed Morsi To Congratulate Him…

June 24, 2012

Unreal.

Via Politico:

The White House congratulated Egypt’s president-elect Mohamed Morsi on his victory in that country’s presidential election, calling it a “milestone” in the country’s transition to democracy.

“We look forward to working together with President-elect Morsi and the government he forms, on the basis of mutual respect, to advance the many shared interests between Egypt and the United States,” press secretary Jay Carney said in a statement.

Morsi, a member of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood party, was announced as the winner in the election Sunday morning — but the extent of the powers of the presidency are still in flux with Egypt’s military threatening to curtain the powers of the presidency.

“We believe that it is important for President-elect Morsi to take steps at this historic time to advance national unity by reaching out to all parties and constituencies in consultations about the formation of a new government. We believe in the importance of the new Egyptian government upholding universal values, and respecting the rights of all Egyptian citizens — including women and religious minorities such as Coptic Christians. Millions of Egyptians voted in the election, and President-elect Morsi and the new Egyptian government have both the legitimacy and responsibility of representing a diverse and courageous citizenry,” Carney said.

Update:

...“We look forward to working together with President-elect Morsi and the government he forms, on the basis of mutual respect, to advance the many shared interests between Egypt and the United States,” he said.

Morsi won 52 percent of the vote in a run-off election.

President Obama later called Morsi to offer his congratulations. He also called General Ahmed Shafiq, who was defeated by Morsi, and urged him to play a role in Egypt’s transition by supporting the democratic process.

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Unreal...really?

This is the Obama, Clinton, Soros, Carter, Brzezinski Anti-Israel plan.

Remove all the secular dictators throughout the ME and replace them with the Muslim Brotherhood having every country in the region united in forcing Israel into a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.

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Egypt’s new president: “You are all Hamas…brandish your weapons; Jerusalem is our goal”

Posted on June 24, 2012 by creeping

That would be the Islamic terrorist group Hamas. From Big Peace via MEMRI: Egypt’s New President: Our Capital ‘Shall Be Jerusalem, Allah Willing’.




And the more than 75% of Egyptian Americans who Voted for the Muslim Brotherhood & sharia are Hamas too, led in the U.S. by CAIR, and now led in Egypt by a strict Islamist educated at the University of Southern California!

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World
British Journalist Details Horrific Sexual Assault in Tahrir Square After Muslim Brotherhood Victory

• Posted on June 27, 2012 at 10:24am by Erica Ritz

Tahrir Square (AP File Photo/Fredrik Persson)

Tens of thousands of Egyptians crowded into Cairo’s famous Tahrir Square Sunday to celebrate the victory of presidential candidate Mohammed Morsi, but British journalist Natasha Smith is issuing a stern warning against getting caught up in the “wave of euphoria” like she originally did.

Despite the atmosphere of “jubilation, excitement, and happiness,” she said, the festive crowd quickly turned on her, pulling her from her male companion, ripping off her clothes, and violating her.

Natasha Smith explained on her blog [content warning; all emphasis added]:

Men began to rip off my clothes. I was stripped naked. Their insatiable appetite to hurt me heightened. These men, hundreds of them, had turned from humans to animals.
Hundreds of men pulled my limbs apart and threw me around. They were scratching and clenching my breasts and forcing their fingers inside me in every possible way.

So many men. All I could see was leering faces, more and more faces sneering and jeering as I was tossed around like fresh meat among starving lions.

I shouted “salam! Salam! Allah! Allah!” In my desperate state I also shouted “ma’is salaama!” which actually means “goodbye”…
[...]
At this point, I said aloud to myself, calmly, over and over, “please God. Please make it stop. Please God. Please make it stop.”

(Photo: Screen grab / Natasha Smith)

Eventually, Natasha says, her companion was able to find her and they were able to escape the tent she had taken refuge in with the help of a few friendly Egyptians, one of whom pretended to be her husband:

The men outside remained thirsty for blood; their prey had been cruelly snatched from their grasp. They peered in, so I had to duck down and hide. They attempted to attack the tent, and those inside began making a barricade out of chairs. They wanted my blood.
[...]
[The man who pretended to be my husband] pulled me through the crowds out of the back of the tent. He told me: “don’t cry. Do not cry. Look normal.”
I was barefoot, dodging broken glass and debris, trawling through mud and dirt. My inner reserves of strength kicked in, and I stopped crying and just thought “keep calm and carry on.”

Smith’s alleged treatment by authorities and hospital staffers immediately thereafter was almost equally disturbing, because it demonstrated such apathy for the crime:

Upon reaching a government hospital downtown, we tried to explain the situation. People stared at us blankly, sloping around the corridors. We were turned away and told to go to a nearby hospital instead. Nobody would take us; we just had to walk there.
Upon arrival, I was eventually ushered into a small cubicle. Two men asked “are you pregnant? Married? A virgin?” They seemed displeased by my response of “no”.
[...]
Finally our friends turned up with a lady from the embassy. I was taken to a private hospital where a doctor’s first question was “are you married?”, which is of course the most important question to be asking a victim of mass sexual abuse. He and a female nurse (who only reluctantly kept me covered up) looked briefly at the damage and just wandered off, saying that because I didn’t have internal bleeding, they couldn’t do anything.

CBS reporter Lara Logan (Photo: AP)

The Huffington Post notes:

Other female journalists have faced sexual assault while working from Egypt in the past. CBS News’ Lara Logan was attacked while reporting from Tahrir during the 2011 revolution.

She described the incident in an interview on “60 Minutes,“ saying that men in the crowd had ”raped me with their hands.” Egyptian journalist Mona Eltahawy also detailed her assault at the hands of Egyptian security forces, who detained her during protests in November.

The trend, however, is not limited to high-profile cases.

Egyptian women have reported widespread sexual harrassment and abuse, with 83% of local women saying in a 2008 study by the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights that they had been harassed. Earlier in the month, a group of women who attempted to protest such treatment wereabused themselves as they marched in the square.

Despite it all, Smith maintains a love for the country and hope for its people, saying that “this vicious act was not representative of the place I had come to know and love.”

Smith‘s blog post has received nearly 800 comments as of this article’s publication, and now that the story is being picked up by international outlets, that number is only likely to increase.

However, unlike many other stories, a shocking number of the commenters told their own stories of sexual abuse in Egypt, or what had happened to their friends and relatives.

“This is a consistent trend, and it has to stop,” Smith said.

(H/T: Weasel Zippers>international outlets, that number is only likely to increase.

However, unlike many other stories, a shocking number of the commenters told their own stories of sexual abuse in Egypt, or what had happened to their friends and relatives.

“This is a consistent trend, and it has to stop,” Smith said.
(H/T: Weasel Zippers

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Egypt's New Leaders Spark Outrage In US With Calls to Release Terrorist


Reuters
New government in Cairo riles US lawmakers with attempts to win release of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind cleric behind the 1993 attack on New York's World Trade Center.


Outrage builds as Egypt presses for release of blind sheik behind '93 WTC attack

By Perry Chiaramonte
Published July 03, 2012
FoxNews.com



Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, who masterminded the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, is in a North Carolina prison, but is revered as a hero in Egypt.

Egypt's new government is sparking growing outrage in the U.S. for its attempts to win the release of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind cleric behind the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

In Cairo, President-elect Mohamed Morsi proclaimed to hundreds of thousands of supporters in Tahir Square on Friday that he will gain the release of Rahman, who is in a federal prison in North Carolina after having been convicted of masterminding the bombing that killed six and unsuccessfully plotting to blow up other landmarks, including the United Nations.

Although a U.S. official told FoxNews.com the sheik will never be freed, the fact that Egypt's newly-installed Muslim Brotherhood government is asking has top elected officials here seething.

“It’s disgusting for a head of government to state in his inaugural speech that a man who attempted to commit mass murder should be freed,” Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., told FoxNews.com. “The fact that he said this in his first speech says to me that this is from the heart, and the Muslim Brotherhood has been trying to convince us that they have changed.

“It’s disgusting for a head of government to state in his inaugural speech that a man who attempted to commit mass murder should be freed.”

- Rep. Peter King, (R-NY)

“We need to be more on guard than ever,” King added.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., weighed in, calling Morsi's speech "an insult."

“President Morsi’s offensive statements are an insult to the memories of the victims of the World Trade Center bombing. ... Rest assured, (Rahman) will stay right where he belongs – in jail for the rest of his life,” Schumer said.

Hani Hour Eldin -- a member of Egypt's parliament, as well as a member of the State Department-recognized terrorist organization Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya -- recently traveled to Washington to press the case for Rahman's release but apparently was rebuffed. When asked for comment on Cairo's push for Rahman's release, State Department officials referred FoxNews.com to a prior statement by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in which she said Rahman guilty verdict and life sentence were “correct” and that the evidence was”clear and convincing.”

Talk of releasing Rahman is "a non-issue and it’s not going to happen,” said one U.S. official who asked not to be identified.

But with the new government of Egypt making Rahman's freedom a priority, many are concerned about the nation's new leadership.

“I was shocked over his call for the release," former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani told FoxNews.com. "This is a man who was going to virtually destroy New York City. I can’t imagine we would even consider releasing him.

“It seems as if (Morsi) wants to ingratiate himself with extremists. That’s something to consider. I always think we are better off being cautious than trusting.”

Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew McCarthy, who led the prosecution against Rahman in 1995, said it isn't surprising that Morsi believes he has a chance.

“Egypt is going to pitch this as a humanitarian gesture,” McCarthy said. “We have an administration which just issued a visa to Hani Hour Eldin, and he is a part of the Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya. This is an organization we use to take very seriously.

“So if you’re President Morsi and you’re are sitting back and seeing what’s going on, what stops you from making an appeal? Morsi has pressure on him. This agenda has been there the whole time.”

Rahman was convicted along with nine others of seditious conspiracy. He is being held in the Butner Federal Correctional Facility in North Carolina. He was accused of being the leader of Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya, which was responsible for numerous violent acts including the 1997 massacre of over 60 people in Luxor, Egypt.

Although the 1993 attack failed to seriously damage the World Trade Center, it left six dead and was a precursor for the 9/11 attacks eight years later.

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Egypt's First "Sex-Slave" Marriage

Over at Gatestone Institute (via RaymondIbrahim.com), I report on what has been dubbed as Egypt's "first sex-slave marriage," which, coincidentally, took place mere days after the Muslim Brotherhood's Muhammad Morsi was made president.

Last Monday, on the Egyptian TV show Al Haqiqa ("the Truth"), journalist Wael al-Ibrashi began the program by airing a video-clip of a man, Abd al-Rauf Awn, "marrying" his "slave."

Before making the woman, who had a non-Egyptian accent, repeat the Koran's Surat al-Ikhlas after him, instead of saying the customary "I marry myself to you," the woman said "I enslave myself to you," and kissed him in front of an applauding audience.

Then, even though she was wearing a hijab, her owner-husband declared her forbidden from such trappings, commanding her to be stripped of them, so as "not to break Allah's laws." She took her veil and abaya off, revealing, certainly by Muslim standards, a promiscuous red dress (all the other women present were veiled). The man claps for her as the video-clip (which can be viewed here) ends.

The owner-husband, Abd al-Rauf Awn, then appeared on the show, identifying himself as an Islamic scholar and expert at Islamic jurisprudence who studied at Al Azhar. He gave several Islamic explanations to justify his "marriage," from Islamic prophet Muhammad's "sunna" or practice of "marrying" enslaved captive women, to Koran 4:3, which commands Muslim men to "Marry such women as seem good to you, two and three and four… or what your right hands possess."

For all practical purposes, and to avoid euphemisms, "what your right hands possess"—also known in Arab as a melk al-yamin—is, according to Islamic doctrine and history, simply a sex-slave. Linguistic evidence further suggests that she is seen more as a possession than a human.

Even stripping the sex-slave of her hijab, the way Awn commanded his concubine-wife, has precedent. According to Islamic jurisprudence, whereas the free (Muslim) woman is mandated to be veiled behind a hijab, sex-slaves are mandated only to be covered from the navel to the knees—with everything else exposed. During the program Awn even explained how Caliph Omar, one of the first "righteous caliphs," used to strip sex-slaves of their garments, whenever he saw them overly dressed in the marketplace.

Awn further explained that sex-slave marriage is ideal for today's Egyptian society. He based his position on ijtihad, a recognized form of jurisprudence, whereby a Muslim scholar comes up with a new idea—one that is still rooted in the Koran and example of Muhammad—yet one that better fits the circumstances of contemporary society.

He argued that, when it comes to marriage, "we Muslims have overly complicated things," so that men are often forced to be single throughout their prime, finally getting married between the ages of 30-40 (when they might be expected to have a sufficient income to open a household). Similarly, many Egyptian women do not want to wear the hijab in public.

The solution, according to Awn, is to reinstitute sex-slavery—allowing men to marry and copulate much earlier in life, and women who want to dress freely to do so, as technically they are sex-slaves and mandated to go about loosely attired, anyway.

The other guest on the show, Dr. Abdullah al-Naggar, a professor of Islamic jurisprudence at Al Azhar, fiercely attacked Awn for reviving this practice, calling on him and his slave-wife to "repent" and stop dishonoring Islam, arguing that "there is no longer sex-slavery"—to which Awn responded by sarcastically asking, "Who said sex-slavery is over? What—because the UN said so?"

In many ways, this exchange between Awn, who advocates sex-slave marriage, and the Al Azhar professor symbolizes the clash between today's "Islamists" and "moderate Muslims." For long, Al Azhar has been primarily engaged in the delicate balancing act of affirming Islam while still advocating modernity according to Western standards, whereas the Islamists—from the Muslim Brotherhood to the Salafis—bred with contempt and disrespect for the West, are only too eager to revive distinctly Islamic practices that defy Western sensibilities.

While this may be the first sex-slave marriage to take place in Egypt's recent history, it is certainly not the first call to revive the practice. Earlier, Egyptian Sheikh Huwaini, lamenting that the "good old days" of Islam are over, declared that, in an ideal Muslim society, "when I want a sex-slave [I should be able to go] to the market and pick whichever female I desire and buy her." Likewise, a Kuwaiti female politician advocated for reviving the institute of sex-slavery, suggesting that Muslims should bring female captives of war—specifically Russian women from the Chechnya war—and sell them to Muslim men in the markets of Kuwait.

And so the "Arab Spring" continues to blossom.

[American Patriot]

God. Please smite those pigs.... Amen

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Arab Spring: 'Muslim Brotherhood' Starts Crucifixions

Opponents of Egypt's Muslim president executed 'naked on trees'

Published: 2 hours ago by Michael Carl
l

The Arab Spring takeover of Egypt by the Muslim Brotherhood has run amok, with reports from several different media agencies that the radical Muslims have begun crucifying opponents of newly installed President Mohammed Morsi.

Middle East media confirm that during a recent rampage, Muslim Brotherhood operatives, “crucified those opposing Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi naked on trees in front of the presidential palace while abusing others.”

Raymond Ibrahim, a fellow with the Middle East Forum and the Investigative Project on Terrorism, said the crucifixions are the product of who the Middle Eastern media call “partisans.”

“Arabic media call them ‘supporters,’ ‘followers,’ and ‘partisans’ of the Muslim Brotherhood,” Ibraham said.
Ibrahim also says the victims can be anyone, including Egyptians and Christians.

“It’s anyone who is resisting the new government,” Ibrahim said. “In this particular case, the people attacked and crucified were secular protesters upset because of Morsi’s hostile campaign against the media, especially of Tawfik Okasha, who was constantly exposing him on his station, until Morsi shut him down.”

Ibrahim said extra brutality is reserved for Christians, but the crucifixions are because of Islamic doctrine, and are required by the Quran. The time and other details about the crucifixions were not readily available.

“Mideast Beast: The Scriptural Case for an Islamic Antichrist” sorts out what this clash of civilizations is all about Center for Security Policy Senior Fellow Clare Lopez cited chapter and verse from the Quran to explain that crucifixions are not simply normal for Islam; they’re demanded.

“Crucifixion is a hadd punishment, stipulated in the Quran, Sura 5:33, and therefore an obligatory part of Shariah,” Lopez said. “It’s been a traditional punishment within Islam since the beginning, even though it’s not exclusively Islamic. The Romans used it too.

“So, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood haven’t the option to not include crucifixion within their legal code. It’s obligatory to comply with Shariah. And yes, it’s for shock value also to be sure,” Lopez said.


Continued:
http://www.wnd.com/2012/08/arab-spri...-crucifixions/

[American Patriot]

Just... wow.

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Raped, stabbed and nailed a cross in the mouth!

Posted: 8/19/2012 6:40:00 PM Opinions , different , Religion , Islam | By Constantine


The crime to be a Christian is punishable only with gruesome death! Who are the fascists again?

The crimes of Islam continues and silent ... Why?

Nice things happening on our planet.

From one fascism left, and Merry del want to convince us of the amount should be compassion "downtrodden" and the planet On the other the "victimized" warming that all slaughter and stab all!

The good ... the Egyptian Muslim raped, beaten, stabbed and nailed cross in mouth young woman who made ​​the ... "crime" to be a Christian. These t 'inhumane ktinoeidi want to impose on us.
(Imagine how many "dodekatheists" would like to imitate these ktinoeidi ...) George Metaxas

Simultaneously Qaeda in Pakistan their living in various countries of Africa (though not only) the decapitated toward exemplary and here we are ... threatened with war if not respect them! (Yes, and claimed he or fascistic kourada Aslam, brought up the slave trade!)

With my intelligence now impossible to play. I do not know what about yours though.

But ultimately let us have so much deception, literally thinks we live in a virtual reality!!

MUSLIMS THREATEN TO EGYPT WITH CLOSURE MEDICAL CENTER WHO SAVES CHILDREN WHY founded by Magdi Yacoub ... CHRISTIAN!

The closure of a charity medical center performs free surgeries to children threaten to close fanatical Muslims because it was founded by world-renowned surgeon Sir Magdi Yacoub, just because he is a Christian!

According to a statement of the organization "Barnabas Aid" Center located in the Egyptian city of Aswan performs free surgeries to children of Muslims and Christians. But radical elements of the Muslim community of Aswan want to close the center because of the Christian beliefs of its founder.

As told Egyptian television that Muslim director of the center's closure will be a great loss for the country. (source )

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Companion Thread:

• Obama gives a Billion-Dollar Egypt Bailout for the Muslim Brotherhood
• Is Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco and Libya Facing Real Unrest or a Manufactured Crisis?
  
• The Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated both the Clinton and Obama Administrations

To Back Democracy, U.S. Prepares to Cut $1 Billion From Egypt’s Debt

By STEVEN LEE MYERS

Published: September 3, 2012

WASHINGTON — Nearly 16 months after first pledging to help Egypt’s failing economy, the Obama administration is nearing an agreement with the country’s new government to relieve $1 billion of its debt as part of an American and international assistance package intended to bolster its transition to democracy, administration officials said.

Enlarge This Image

Asmaa Waguih/Reuters

President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood have made it clear that the struggling economy is their most urgent priority.

Related

• Egypt Requests $4.8 Billion From I.M.F. (August 23, 2012)
• Times Topic: Egypt News — Revolution and Aftermath

Egypt’s economy is increasingly precarious. The instability that followed the toppling of former president Hosni Mubarak devastated tourism, one of the country’s greatest sources of foreign currency.

The administration’s efforts, delayed by Egypt’s political turmoil and by wariness in Washington about new leaders emerging from its first free elections, gained new urgency in recent weeks, even as the United States risks losing influence and investment opportunities to countries like China. President Mohamed Morsi chose China for his first official visit outside of the Middle East, although a spokesman said the crisis in Syria was the main issue driving the visit.

In addition to the debt assistance, the administration has thrown its support behind a $4.8 billion loan being negotiated between Egypt and the International Monetary Fund. Last week, it dispatched the first of two delegations to work out details of the proposed debt assistance, as well as $375 million in financing and loan guarantees for American financiers who invest in Egypt and a $60 million investment fund for Egyptian businesses.

The assistance underscores the importance of shoring up Egypt at a time of turmoil and change across the Middle East, including the relatively peaceful uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, Libya’s unfinished transition, the showdown over Iran’s nuclear program and the war in Syria.

Mr. Morsi has called for President Bashar al-Assad of Syria to leave power and end the bloodshed there, while China, along with Russia and Iran, has been a supporter of Mr. Assad as his military assaults opposition strongholds and civilians.

Given Egypt’s influence in the Arab world, the officials said, its economic recovery and political stability could have a profound influence on other nations in transition and ease wariness in Israel about the tumultuous political changes under way.

The administration’s revived push came after Mr. Morsi won the presidency in June and overcame a constitutional showdown with the Egypt’s military rulers.

Mr. Morsi and his Islamic movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, have since made it clear that the struggling economy is their most urgent priority, brushing aside reservations about American and international assistance and outright opposition to it from other Islamic factions.

American officials say they have been surprised by how open Mr. Morsi and his advisers have been to economic changes, with a sharp focus on creating jobs.

“They sound like Republicans half the time,” one administration official said, referring to leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, which was long banned from office under the former president, Hosni Mubarak, a close American ally.

Hoping to capitalize on what they see as a ripening investment climate, the State Department and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce will take executives from nearly 50 American companies, like Caterpillar and Xerox, to Cairo beginning Saturday as part of one of the largest trade delegations ever. The officials and executives will urge the government to make changes in taxation, bankruptcy and labor laws to improve the investment climate.

“It’s important for the U.S. to give Egypt a reason to look to the West, as well as the East,” said Lionel Johnson, the chamber’s vice president for the Middle East and North Africa.

From the start of the popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt in 2011, President Obama and others argued that the United States and the rest of the world needed to address the poverty and joblessness that fueled popular anger and opposition to authoritarian governments in the region.

The assistance that Mr. Obama first pledged in a speech at the State Department in May 2011 has been slow in coming, because of the political turmoil and street unrest in Egypt, the sluggish bureaucracy in Washington and anger in Congress over the prosecution by Egypt of American nongovernmental organizations that promote democracy.

The delay has frustrated officials who fear that the United States has risked missing an opportunity to reshape a relationship that for decades was focused more on arms sales and security than on economic prosperity for a broad group of Egyptians.

“Our goal is to send a very strong message to Egypt that the government understands it’s not just about assistance,” Deputy Secretary of State Thomas R. Nides, who will travel with the Chamber of Commerce delegation, said in an interview. “It’s about growth and business.”

Egypt’s economy is increasingly precarious, with dwindling foreign-exchange reserves and nagging unemployment. The instability that followed the toppling of Mr. Mubarak devastated tourism, one of the country’s greatest sources of foreign currency.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar have stepped in to provide emergency infusions totaling $3 billion, while China offered Mr. Morsi a $200 million loan for Egypt and signed investment contracts in agriculture and telecommunications.

The director of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, took the unusual step of attending the opening negotiations for its $4.8 billion loan, underscoring the urgency of Egypt’s crisis and the international community’s determination to help. A year ago, when the military leaders dominated the transitional government, Egypt refused to even discuss a loan.

Egypt’s new prime minister, Hesham Qandil, said he hoped the loan would be completed by the end of the year. Officials from this week’s delegation have remained in Egypt to hammer out the details of the American debt assistance, which they said would be completed in conjunction with the International Monetary Fund program.

Egypt’s debt to the United States exceeds $3 billion, most of it from a program called Food for Peace that offered loans to buy American agricultural products after the Camp David peace accords with Israel during the Carter administration. The $1 billion in debt relief proposed by Mr. Obama has been cobbled together from unspent money from assistance programs.

The administration is negotiating whether to waive some debt payments altogether or allow “debt swaps,” in which the money that would otherwise pay down the American debt is spent on training and infrastructure projects in Egypt intended to attract private investment and create jobs. Congress has attached conditions to American assistance in Egypt, requiring Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to certify, among other things, that the country continues to abide by its treaty with Israel.

American and Israeli officials, including Michael B. Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, have sought to assure members of Congress that assistance should proceed, despite reservations about the Muslim Brotherhood’s political rise. They have argued that persistently high unemployment, especially among women and young people, could undermine Mr. Morsi’s government, causing further instability in Egypt and beyond. Robert D. Hormats, the under secretary of state for economic affairs, who led last week’s delegation, lavished praised on Mr. Morsi’s early stewardship. “The groundwork has been set with a new political leadership, a new level of energy and new opportunities to reform,” he said in Cairo on Wednesday.

Egypt also had some requests for the United States. Mr. Qandil, the new prime minister, raised the State Department’s longstanding travel warning for Egypt, which notes “the continuing possibility of sporadic unrest.”

Mr. Qandil asked Mr. Hormats to emphasize that disruptions were limited to small parts of the country.

[American Patriot]

Looks like Egypt is "breaking up" again.

Everyone is up in arms (quite literally) in Tarir Square - by the thousands and thousands.

Over Morsi.

[Malsua]

I guess Obummer didn't get the memo. Muslims can't rule themselves.

[American Patriot]

Explosions being reported.

[American Patriot]

Over 200,000 + being reported as "gathering"

[American Patriot]

Steve Harrigan, FNC is reporting there may be military troops moving in on/against the people "soon".

[American Patriot]

The people are gathering again today.

It sounds like it might go toward violence (when does ANYTHING in the Muslim world NOT go toward violence though?)

[Ryan Ruck]

FNC just said an Egyptian court just tried and sentenced to death, in absentia, 8 people behind the infamous "Prophet" video. Guess they didn't get the memo from the Obama administration the video wasn't at fault after all. LOL!