The anti-Islam movie “Innocence of Muslims” still manages to find its way onto front pages on Sunday alongside Egypt’s latest political controversies.
State-owned paper Al-Ahram leads with a story on a handwritten letter sent by US President Barack Obama to Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy Saturday rejecting the film while adding that “violence against the innocent is not justified.”
Obama also expressed his appreciation for Morsy’s statements following the protests targeting the US Embassy in Cairo that “condemned violence and stressed the protection for the diplomatic mission during the critical phase the country is going through,” the paper quotes presidential spokesperson Yasser Ali as saying.
The low-budget movie that insults the Prophet Mohamed sparked angry protests across much of the Muslim world including Egypt. On 11 September, demonstrators took to the US Embassy in Cairo calling on Morsy to cut off relations with the US.
Independent daily Youm7 publishes an eyebrow-raising piece on emboldened US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s statements against Obama. “The American president used the Muslim Brotherhood to turn Egypt into an extremist country and provide the group legitimacy,” reads a sub-headline on the daily’s front-page.
In a YouTube video that is part of his campaign ad series, Romney denounces Obama for allegedly supporting the Muslim Brotherhood’s ascension to power in Egypt: “Why, my president, why? They (Muslim Brotherhood) want to destroy Israel and improve strained relations with Iran, a state that wants to have nuclear weapons to smash the Israeli people … why did you send them US$1.5 billion of our tax money? Why did you appoint Huma Abedin as an aide to US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, despite [Abedin’s] strong roots with the group?”
The recently-established daily Al-Watan states that former presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabbahi officially launched the “Popular Current” in Cairo’s Abdeen Square on Friday, which he described not as a political party but a “popular organization for serving people,” saying, “Membership is open to all members of respectable parties.”
Sabbahi, who finished third in the first round of May’s presidential election, kicked off his speech by attacking the current Constituent Assembly and calling its drafted constitution invalid, the Al-Watan report says. During the inaugural conference, members of the Popular Current called for forming a new Constituent Assembly comprising all segments of society.
Ibrahim Eissa, independent Al-Tahrir’s editor-in-chief, predicts a scenario for the results of the upcoming constitutional referendum. In his op-ed, the vocal opposition writer urges people to decline the upcoming constitution drafted by the current Constituent Assembly, which he describes as not representing all of the country’s political movements.
Eissa writes that if the Islamists were not able to “brainwash” people, which he doubts given what he describes as their manipulating religious policies, Egyptians might realize the real aim behind the Islamists’ insistence on specific constitutional articles that give them the upper hand in the country’s politics.
Despite his fears of a non-transparent referendum, he expresses his belief that if political forces unite to save the country from the Islamists’ monopolization of authority and open people’s eyes to the flaws of the drafted articles, the country might have a second chance for a new constitution that represents the fundamental principles of the 25 January revolution.
“The Supreme Administrative [Court] ends the Brotherhood’s hopes of reinstating Parliament,” reads the main headline on Al-Shorouk’s front-page. The independent daily reports that the Supreme Administrative Court backed the dissolution of the elected People’s Assembly Saturday, affirming the verdict the Supreme Constitutional Court issued on 14 June.
The dissolution of the People’s Assembly was a hotly debated issue ever since the Supreme Constitutional Court ruled it unconstitutional for allowing partisan candidates to win Parliament seats allocated to independents.
The now-dissolved Parliament, which failed to act on most of the country’s crucial issues, was dominated by Islamists.
Egypt’s papers:
Al-Ahram: Daily, state-run, largest distribution in Egypt
Al-Akhbar: Daily, state-run, second to Al-Ahram in institutional size
Al-Gomhurriya: Daily, state-run
Rose al-Youssef: Daily, state-run
Al-Dostour: Daily, privately owned
Al-Shorouk: Daily, privately owned
Al-Watan: Daily, privately owned
Al-Wafd: Daily, published by the liberal Wafd Party
Youm7: Daily, privately owned
Al-Tahrir: Daily, privately owned
Freedom and Justice: Daily, published by the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party
Sawt al-Umma: Weekly, privately owned
Al-Arabi: Weekly, published by the Nasserist Party
Al-Nour: Official paper of the Salafi Nour Party
