Why the Palestinians Are Calling to Overthrow Abbas

by Khaled Abu Toameh • April 6, 2016 at 5:00 am

Abbas has used the dirtiest words: Peace with Israel. Abbas, of course, was speaking to the Israeli public, and not to his own people. He has always sent a conciliatory message to Israelis, but this is the same Abbas who whips his people into a frenzy by telling them that Jews are "defiling the Aqsa Mosque with their filthy feet," and the same Abbas whose media and officials glorify Palestinians who murder Israelis.
Abbas has only himself to blame for this morass. Like other Palestinian leaders, Abbas has become hostage to his own anti-Israel poison.
Perhaps this time, the international community can hear the truth: the Palestinian leadership does not educate the Palestinian people for peace with Israel. That is the real obstacle to peace.

The two faces of Mahmoud Abbas: The Palestinian Authority president speaks to Israelis about peace, while he whips his own people into a frenzy by telling them that Jews are "defiling the Aqsa Mosque with their filthy feet," and his media and officials glorify Palestinians who murder Israelis.

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas is reaping what he has sown. He is facing a firestorm calling for his resignation or overthrow.

The Palestinians are not up in arms about Abbas's eleventh year of a four-year term in office. They really do not seem to care about that, especially as long as he is paying salaries.

Most Palestinians are not objecting to his dictatorial rule, or staunch refusal to bring democracy and public freedoms to the Palestinians. Nor is he under attack for failing to implement reforms in the Palestinian Authority, or to combat financial and administrative corruption.

No, the trouble stems from a different corner entirely. Abbas has used the dirtiest words: Peace with Israel.

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Blasphemy Convictions Intensify in Sisi's Egypt

by Raymond Ibrahim • April 6, 2016 at 4:00 am

"There have been more blasphemy cases and convictions during the Sisi era than during the Morsi era." — Ibrahim Eissa, Muslim television host in Egypt.
Their crime was to have made a 20-second video on a mobile phone mocking the Islamic State -- an act interpreted as mocking Islam. In the video, the boys appear laughing and joking, as they pretend to be ISIS members praying and slitting throats. "The judge didn't show any mercy. He handed down the maximum punishment [five years]."
Egypt is becoming more like Pakistan. Although that nation also prohibits the defamation of all religions, only Christians and moderate Muslims are targeted and imprisoned; some, such as Asia Bibi, a 50-year-old Christian woman and mother of five, are on death row. Conversely, Muslims who openly defame Christianity -- and they are many -- are regularly let off.

Despite Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's many pluralistic words and gestures, he appeases the Islamist agenda by allowing the "blasphemy law" to target Christians and moderates. Pictured above: Sisi became the first Egyptian president ever to visit the St. Mark Cathedral during Coptic Christmas Eve Mass, on January 6, 2015. (Image source: YouTube video screenshot)

Despite Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's many pluralistic words and gestures, which have won him much praise from the nation's Christians and moderates, he appeases the Islamist agenda in one very clear way: by allowing the controversial defamation of religions law, colloquially known as the "blasphemy law," to target Christians and moderates in ways arguably worse than under the Muslim Brotherhood and Morsi.

Last month three Christian teenagers were jailed for five years for breaking the defamation of religions law. A fourth defendant, 15, was given juvenile detention for an indefinite period. [1] Earlier, they were detained for 45 days and subjected to "ill-treatment," according to a human rights group.

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