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Rothschilds Stage Revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt To Kill Islamic Banks In Emerging North African Markets
01 March 2011 By Adam Johnson
Background:
Tunisia has undergone increasing economic
liberalization over the last decade: In the 2010-2011
World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness
Report, it was ranked as the most competitive
country in Africa, as well as the 32nd most
economically competitive country globally. North
Africa’s large Muslim populations are a vast business
opportunity for Islamic banking and other businesses.
Contrary to popular belief, the
world’s finances are controlled by privately-owned
“central banks” masquerading as federal government
banks in nearly every country in the world [The U.S.
Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, ruled that The
Federal Reserve (U.S.' central bank) was privately
owned in 680 F.2d 1239, LEWIS v. UNITED STATES of
America, No. 80-5905].
Though it is a carefully guarded
secret, the Rothschilds and their associates own most
the shares in the central banks (Federal Reserve
Directors: A Study of Corporate and Banking Influence,
Committee on Banking, Currency and Housing, House
of Representatives, 1976, Charts 1-5) (Mullins,
Eustice Secrets of the Federal Reserve 1983). With
extremely little government input, the economies of
Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Jordan, and Algeria are
strictly controlled by the Rothschild’s central banks
and their International Monetary Fund.
THE MOTIVE: FOLLOW THE
MONEY
Islamic banks have been eating
into Rothschild profits in the Middle East because:
they don’t charge interest (Shariah Law), they are
growing very rapidly among the world’s exploding
Muslim populations, and (in these catastrophic
economic times) they are more stable than western
banks.
While it is a very good thing
that people are freed from the tyranny of dictators,
they also need to be freed from the tyranny of
economic control and serfdom. The relevant moral
question is: Do the means justify the end?.
Deposed Tunisian President Ben
Ali’s son-in-law, Sakher El Materi, opened Tunisia’s
first Islamic bank, Zitouna Bank, on May 26, 2010. Zitouna
Bank is the first Islamic bank
in the Maghreb region [North Africa]. The
bank was a first step toward Ben Ali’s new program of
extensive reforms, “Tunisia, a Pole for Banking
Services and a Regional Financial Centre”, which would
have undermined the power and the profits of the
Central Bank of Tunisia (privately-owned by the
Rothschilds and their associates).
The Telegraph (October
19 2010) reported on the opening of the megaproject
Tunis Financial Harbour –President Ben Ali’s bid to
make Tunisia the regional financial centre of North
Africa and beyond: “Islamic investment bank Gulf
Finance House (GFH) and the Tunisian government have
created the first offshore finance centre in North
Africa. The centre will be part of Tunis Financial
Harbour, a $3 billion waterfront development in Tunis
. . . GFH, which is based in Bahrain, hopes the
centre will allow Tunisia to take advantage of its
strategic position on the Mediterranean sea, and
operate as a bridge between the EU and the rapidly
growing economies of North Africa [and subSaharan
Africa].”
“However, despite the current
poor climate, the potential for Islamic banking in
Egypt is huge, and one should expect more moves from
Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank into Egypt, possibly in the
form of a buyout,” Executive Magazine (Feb 8 2011)
reports, “A recent Middle East Business Intelligence
report said it best, when it opined, ‘If Abu Dhabi
Islamic Bank can make a success of offering Islamic
products, the whole market will open up. We have
already seen some of the local banks start to
advertise their Islamic products in view of the
competition for customers they see about to begin.’
“Clearly Islamic banks in the
Gulf are already anticipating the day when their home
markets are saturated. And it appears that Egypt will
be on the next front-line in the development of
regional Islamic banking and finance.”
“African countries such as
Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and Sudan are
keen on future sukuk exercises (issuing Islamic
bonds). Gambia debuted with a US$166m sukuk deal,
privately sold in the US in 2006.” [International
Finance Review (Reuters), 2008]
The New York Times
article “Islamic banking rises on oil wealth, drawing
non-Muslims” ( November 22, 2007) reported: “Rising
oil wealth is lifting Islamic banking – which adheres
to the laws of the Koran and its prohibition against
charging interest – into the financial mainstream.
. . . In addition to Islamic loans, there are
Islamic bonds, Islamic credit cards . . . Loans and
bonds that conform to the Koran are already available
in the United States. . . .
“’This is an industry on its way
from a niche industry to becoming a truly global
industry,’ said Khawaja Mohammad Salman Younis, the
managing director for operations in Malaysia for
Kuwait Finance House, the world’s second-largest
Islamic bank. ‘In the next three to five years you’ll
see Islamic banks coming out in Australia, China,
Japan and other parts of the world.’
“In Islamic banking, financiers
are required to share borrowers’ risks, meaning that
depositors are treated more like shareholders, earning
a portion of profits. Financing deals resemble
lease-to-own arrangements, layaway plans, joint
purchase and sale agreements, or partnerships.
“The stampede into Islamic
finance is mostly an effort to tap an estimated $1.5
trillion of funds sloshing around the Middle East,
largely from higher oil prices. . . .Those
investments have helped ignite an economic revival
throughout the Muslim world at a time of increasing
religious conservatism among Islam’s 1.6 billion
faithful. A result is expanding demand for financial
services that adhere to Islamic law . . .
“And while the biggest Islamic
banks are in the wealthy Gulf states, the most
attractive potential markets are in Turkey and
North Africa (emphasis added)
and among European Muslims. . . .
“. . . even non-Muslims are
taking advantage of a growing range of Islamic
products offering competitive returns. For instance,
David Ong-Yeoh, a public relations executive tired of
fretting over the rising interest rate on his
adjustable rate mortgage, refinanced to a 30-year
fixed loan from an Islamic financial institution. Now,
he pays regular installments that include a
predetermined profit margin for the bank.
“’The terms are better than on
conventional loans,’ said Ong-Yeoh, 41.
“Islamic finance also avoids
other prohibited practices. Shariah-compliant bankers
cannot receive or provide funds for anything involving
alcohol, gambling, pornography, tobacco, weapons or
pork. Proponents of Islamic banking say these are
limits any socially conscious investor can support,
Muslim or not. They also envision wider appeal for
Islamic banking’s ban on interest, which stems from
the Koran’s prohibition against usury.
“This is a view that has a long
religious and historical tradition. Interest is
repeatedly condemned in the Bible. Aristotle denounced
it, the Romans limited it, and the early Christian
church prohibited it. . . .
“The belief that all interest
charges are unjust now underpins Islamic finance. . .
.Hoarding is frowned upon in the Koran, so savings
earn no return unless put to productive use.
“’Money should be used for
creating better value in the country or the economy,’
Maraj said. ‘Money cannot generate money.’
“Nor can Islamic banks simply
trade money. ‘In the Islamic finance model, the banks
are supposed to mobilize funds through a fund
management concept,’ said Rafe Haneef, head of Islamic
banking in Asia for Citigroup.
“Indeed, Islamic banking is
supposed to function more like private equity firms
than conventional banking. ‘Private equity is an
Islamic concept,’ Haneef said.
“Industry proponents say this
risk-sharing requirement helps reduce the kind of
abuses that led to the subprime mortgage mess in the
United States. Scholars consider it un-Islamic to
overload a customer with debt or invest in a company
with excessive debt.”
The Washington Post,
“Islamic Banking: Steady In Shaky Times” (Oct 31
2008), reported: “As big Western financial
institutions have teetered one after the other in the
crisis of recent weeks, another financial sector is
gaining new confidence: Islamic banking. Proponents
of the ancient practice, which looks to sharia law for
guidance and bans interest and trading in debt, have
been promoting Islamic finance as a cure for the
global financial meltdown.
“This week, Kuwait’s commerce
minister, Ahmad Baqer, was quoted as saying that the
global crisis will prompt more countries to use
Islamic principles in running their economies. U.S.
Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert M. Kimmet, visiting
Jiddah, said experts at his agency have been learning
the features of Islamic banking.
“Though the trillion-dollar
Islamic banking industry faces challenges with the
slump in real estate and stock prices, advocates say
the system has built-in protection from the kind of
runaway collapse that has afflicted so many
institutions. For one thing, the use of financial
instruments such as derivatives, blamed for the
downfall of banking, insurance and investment giants,
is banned. So is excessive risk-taking.
“’The beauty of Islamic banking
and the reason it can be used as a replacement for the
current market is that you only promise what you own
[contrast to western banks fractional reserve system].
Islamic banks are not protected if the economy goes
down — they suffer — but you don’t lose your shirt,’
said Majed al-Refaie, who heads Bahrain-based Unicorn
Investment Bank.
“The theological underpinning of
Islamic banking is scripture that declares that
collection of interest is a form of usury, which is
banned in Islam. In the modern world, that translates
into an attitude toward money that is different from
that found in the West: Money cannot just sit and
generate more money. To grow, it must be invested in
productive enterprises.
“’In Islamic finance you cannot
make money out of thin air,’ said Amr al-Faisal, a
board member of Dar al-Mal al-Islami, a holding
company that owns several Islamic banks and financial
institutions. ‘Our dealings have to be tied to actual
economic activity, like an asset or a service. You
cannot make money off of money. You have to have a
building that was actually purchased, a service
actually rendered, or a good that was actually sold.’
“Islamic bankers describe
depositors as akin to partners — their money is
invested, and they share in the profits or,
theoretically, the losses that result. (In interviews,
bankers couldn’t recall a case in which depositors
actually lost money; this shows that banks put such
funds only in very low-risk investments, they said.)”
It is easy to see why the
Rothschilds and their network of conventional western
banks would be threatened by competition from the more
appealing, more conservative Islamic banks.
Late in 2008, French Finance
Minister Christine Lagarde announced France’s
intention to make Paris “the capital of Islamic
finance” and said several Islamic banks would open
branches in the French capital in 2009. French
sources estimate this area of the financial market is
worth from 500 to 600 billion dollars and could grow
by an average 11 percent a year.
John Sandwick, managing director
of Swiss asset management firm Encore Management,
characterized the opening of several Swiss Islamic
banks as, “the race to control the rich prize: which
today is worth hundreds of billions, but in the future
will be trillions of dollars of Islamic wealth.”
“According to Standard and
Poor’s, Islamic banking assets reached about $400
billion throughout the world in 2009. In November
2010, The Banker published its latest authoritative
list of the Top 500 Islamic Finance Institutions with
Iran topping the list. Seven out of ten top Islamic
banks in the world are Iranian according to the list.”
(iStockAnalyst, Feb 8, 2011)
BEN ALI’S SON OPENS FIRST
ISLAMIC BANK IN ATTRACTIVE NORTH AFRICAN MARKET
Commenting on the opening of
Zitouna (Islamic) Bank, International Business Times
(May 28 2010) reported, “North Africa has begun to
embrace Islamic finance after years watching from the
sidelines, partly to channel more Arab Gulf
petrodollars into the region. . . .Tunisia has one of
the most open economies in the region and attracts
substantial investment from the European Union,
something that is expected to accelerate after 2014,
when the government has said it will make the currency
(the Tunisian dinar) fully convertible.”
Global Islamic Finance News (May
31, 2010) reported, “Zitouna Bank also seeks to impart
a regional dimension on its activities, particularly
in the Maghreb region [North Africa], all the more so
that it is the first specialised bank not belonging to
a foreign banking group,” and went on to add, “The
Bank will also seek to forge strong relations with the
Maghreb and Mediterranean banks to ensure needed flow
of financial operations for its customers. The bank
officials stressed that the financial institution has
established relations with 12 Islamic banks in
collaboration with the Institute of Islamic banks in
Bahrain.
Zitouna bank’s formation had been
announced earlier in the Official Gazette of the
Republic of Tunisia on 10 September 2009. Tunisia
and Morocco authorized Islamic finance in 2007, partly
to channel more investment into their fast-growing
tourism and real estate industries.
Due to his being the son-in-law
of President Ben Ali, El Materi’s Zitouna Bank was
expanding in Tunisia to the level of monopoly. El
Materi had built a powerful business empire: he ran
businesses in News and Media, Banking and Financial
Services, Automotive, Shipping and Cruises, Real
Estate and Agriculture, Pharmaceuticals and last
November 22 he bought a 50% stake in Orascom Telecom
for 0.2 billion.
The newly-opened Tunis Financial
Harbour was on the brink of becoming the regional
financial centre of North Africa and, with its
strategic position on the Mediterranean sea, becoming
a bridge between the EU and the rapidly growing
economies of North Africa and subSaharan Africa.
On January 20 2011, ZItouna
Bank, Tunisia’s first Islamic bank was seized by the
Central Bank of Tunisia (Rothschilds). The bank owned
by Sakher El Materi, the thirty-year-old son-in-law of
deposed Tunisian leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali has
been placed under “the control” of the central
bank. Materi is presently in Dubai. The move came
a day after 33 of Ben Ali’s clan were arrested for
crimes against the nation. State television showed
what it said was seized gold and jewellery.
Switzerland has also frozen Ben Ali’s family assets.
EGYPT’S ISLAMIC BANKS
THREATENED BY ROTHSCHILD REVOLUTION: OLD MAN POTTER
VS HARRY BAILEY
The following scenario is right
out of the 1946, Frank Capra film It’s a Wonderful
Life with Old Man Potter (Rothschild) creating a
run on Harry Bailey’s traditional Savings and Loans
(Islamic bank):
Islamic (halal) banking products
have not made significant inroads in North Africa yet,
except in Egypt. “. . . There are several Islamic
banks operating in Egypt: Faisal Islamic Bank, Al
Baraka Egypt (Al Ahram Bank) and Abu Dhabi Islamic
Bank NBD . . . There may be others as well,” says
Blake Goud, an expert on Islamic Finance (The Review –
Middle East, Jan 31 2011), “. . . and the risks of a
run on the bank should concern those interested in
Islamic banking around the world because it could
provide a test of how resilient Islamic banks really
are to crisis.
“What I mean is that the Egyptian
situation, which could be a fantastic opportunity for
the Egyptian people, could expose a weakness within
the Islamic banking industry if it is problematic. The
main risk to any bank is that there is a run and the
bank cannot meet depositor withdrawals with the cash
available on hand. This forces the bank to raise cash
from other means. In most cases, it can either get an
inter-bank loan from another bank overnight that
allows it to handle withdrawals. If other banks are
hesitant to lend to a given bank because of fears of
asset quality, then the bank will usually have access
to an overnight borrowing facility with the central
bank, which operates as the lender of last resort.
“The key for Islamic
banks is that they are not able to take advantage of
the inter-bank lending market, nor are they able to
borrow from (or lend to) the central bank
(emphasis added) because those loans are
interest-bearing. The only alternative is to find
other banks (mostly Islamic banks) willing to extend
Shari’ah-compliant, bilateral loans often using
commodity murabaha. In a country like Egypt where the
Islamic banking industry is a small portion of the
total banking system, it does not create a systemic
risk if Islamic banks fail, but it does matter a lot
to the depositors of other Islamic banks in the
country and globally. If there is the potential that a
run on an Islamic bank will not be stopped by someone;
whether that is a foreign bank, a multi-lateral bank
like the Islamic Development Bank or the central bank
of Egypt (through emergency measures), then it could
hurt confidence in Islamic banks.
“If neither of these options are
available, the bank will have to try to raise funds by
selling its assets, most of which (loans) are illiquid
in the short run. It will have to take a loss on the
sale to realize the cash it needs to meet withdrawals.
If this continues and the bank sells enough assets at
a discount to the value they are held on the balance
sheet, the bank’s equity will be negative (the value
of assets minus liabilities) and it will become
insolvent (having earlier only been illiquid). This is
the fundamental danger in banking from a financial
stability perspective. If enough banks face runs and
have to sell assets, the run could become
self-sustaining and contagious. Even a healthy bank
facing a run can become insolvent.
“The loss of confidence is more
than just a reputational hit and a hit on the egos of
Islamic bankers. It would make it more difficult for
Islamic banks to attract and retain depositors and it
could raise the cost at which it can attract
depositors. This would make the bank, all other things
equal, less profitable (it makes profit of the spread
between the return on invested funds and the cost of
funds borrowed from depositors). Lower profitability
will lower the attractiveness of Islamic banks to
equity investors limiting their ability to increase
capital through equity offerings (or at least
increasing the dilution to current shareholders). It
will lower the amount available to supplement capital
as well as pay dividends to its shareholders.
“Therefore, it is important that
the Islamic banks in Egypt make it through the ‘run’
that is predicted if it materializes, not just for
those banks’ shareholders, but also for the Islamic
banking industry.”
In contrast, Bloomberg reports,
“Egypt’s banks may risk a surge in customer
withdrawals when they open for business, placing them
among companies worst hit by the nationwide uprising
against President Hosni Mubarak. … Central Bank
Governor Farouk El-Okdah said in a telephone interview
Jan. 29 that his bank has $36 billion in reserves,
enough to accommodate investors should they wish to
withdraw funds. His deputy, Hisham Ramez, said
interbank lending “will function properly” when banks
are reopened. He said the security situation will
determine when that is possible.
“Asked about the risk of a bank
run, Mohamed Barakat, chairman of state-run Banque
Misr and head of the country’s banking association,
said in a telephone interview that Egyptian lenders
are ‘very liquid,’” with average loan-to-deposit
ratios of 53 percent. […] “The Egyptian interbank
offered rate, the rate banks charge to lend to each
other, is at a 16-month high of 8.5 percent.”
THE MEANS: SPONSOR
PRO-DEMOCRACY ACTIVISTS
These Rothschild revolutions are
done under the pretense of bringing democracy and
deposing despots, but the real aim is to initially
create chaos and a leadership vacuum, then quickly
offer a solution: install a puppet that will do the
economic bidding of the Rothschilds. The citizens
gain freedom of speech and association, but become
economic serfs.
These revolutions are most likely
coordinated at the highest levels by the Rothschild’s
International Crisis Group. Mohamed ElBaradei is
already being touted as a new leader for Egypt.
ElBaradei is a trustee of the International
Crisis Group. Another board member of this group is
Zbigniew Brzezinski. George Soros sits on the
executive committee. The later two are ubiquitous
front men for the Rothschilds.
The revolutions are from the same
playbook as the fairly nonviolent “color
revolutions”. These revolutions have been successful
in Serbia (especially the Bulldozer Revolution (2000),
in Georgia’s Rose Revolution (2003), in Ukraine’s
Orange Revolution (2004), in Lebanon’s Cedar
Revolution and (though more violent than the previous
ones) in Kyrgyzstan’s Tulip Revolution (2005), and
Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution. Iran’s Green
Revolution (2009) was unsuccessful.
The Guardian reported (Nov 26,
2004) that the following were “directly involved” in
organizing the colour revolutions: George Soros’ Open
Society Foundation, the National Endowment for
Democracy (NED), the International Republican
Institute, and Freedom House. The Washington Post
and the New York Times also reported substantial
Western involvement in some of these events.
Activists from Otpor in Serbia
have said that publications and training they received
from the US based Albert Einstein Institution staff
have been instrumental in the formation of their
strategies. The Albert Einstein Institution is
funded by the Soros Foundation and NED. (Wikipedia)
In the article, “Georgia revolt
carried mark of Soros” (November 26, 2003), the
Globe & Mail reported, “[Soros' Open Society
Institute] sent a 31-year-old Tbilisi activist named
Giga Bokeria to Serbia to meet with members of the
Otpor (Resistance) movement and learn how they used
street demonstrations to topple dictator Slobodan
Milosevic. Then, in the summer, Mr. Soros’s foundation
paid for a return trip to Georgia by Otpor activists,
who ran three-day courses teaching more than 1,000
students how to stage a peaceful revolution.”
Several protest organizers on the
streets in Egypt last week were wearing Otpor
t-shirts. These t-shirts are given out by Otpor at
training sessions. This is only to say that there may
be a link here, between Soros and Tunisian protesters.
In 2007-08, Freedom House [funded
by Soros and the Middle Eastern Partnership Initiative
(MEPI)] ran the following program: “New
Generation of Advocates, a MEPI-funded
program that supports young civil society activists
working for peaceful political change in the Middle
East and North Africa, spearheaded the “Lawyers
against Corruption” campaign in Tunisia.”(Freedom
House website). The group of “journalists, lawyers,
and other activists who advocate for democratic
reform” had a meeting with then Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice, on a trip to Washington on
International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2008. In
May 2009, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met
with the group of activist/dissidents. Freedom House
reported on their website that the group also visited
“U.S. government officials, members of Congress, media
outlets and think tanks . . . After
returning to Egypt, the fellows received small grants
to implement innovative initiatives such as advocating
for political reform through Facebook and SMS
messaging.” (emphasis added)
And also from the Freedom House
website: “From February 27 to March
13 [2010], Freedom House hosted 11 bloggers from the
Middle East and North Africa for a two-week Advanced
New Media Study Tour in Washington, D.C.”
In 2010, Soros’ Open Society
Institute funded a grant called ‘Can It Tweet its
way to Democracy? The promise of Participatory Media
in Africa’ described on the OSI website as “. . .
. Ethiopia and Egypt have been the current focus of
the research programme; the OSI funding will allow
the project to be expanded to include: Uganda,
Zimbabwe, Tunisia, Eritrea and Rwanda. . . . it is
hoped that it will contribute to the understanding of
the new media in Africa and its links to
democratization. It is also intended that the study
will be used as a source material for future
research.”
Facebook and Twitter were the
primary means of organizing the revolution in Egypt:
“Activists from Egypt’s Kifaya (Enough) movement – a
coalition of government opponents – and the 6th of
April Youth Movement organized the protests on the
Facebook and Twitter . . . .” (Voice of America)
In the Foreign Policy
Journal, Dr. D.K. Bolton (Jan 19 2011) writes,
“NED [National Endowment for Democracy] and Soros work
in tandem, targeting the same regimes and using the
same methods. . . . At least ten of the twenty-two
directors of NED are also members of the plutocratic
think tank, the Council on Foreign Relations . . . .”
(The Council of Foreign Relations is the American
sister of the Rothschild’s Royal Institute of
International Affairs in Britain: both are
instruments of plutocratic control hiding in plain
sight.
The following is a partial list
of grants from the NED website for 2009 (the latest
year available):
In Tunisia the focus was on
training youth activists:
“Al-Jahedh Forum for Free Thought
$131,000 To strengthen the capacity and build
a democratic culture among Tunisian youth activists.
“Mohamed Ali Center for Research,
Studies and Training $33,500 To train a core
group of Tunisian youth activists on leadership and
organizational skills to encourage their involvement
in public life. [MACRST] will conduct a four-day
intensive training of trainers program for a core
group of 10 young Tunisian civic activists on
leadership and organizational skills; train 50 male
and female activists aged 20 to 40 on leadership and
empowered decision-making; and work with the trained
activists through 50 on-site visits to their
respective organizations.
“Association for the Promotion of
Education $27,000 To strengthen the capacity
of Tunisian high school teachers to promote democratic
and civic values in their classrooms. APES will
conduct a training-of-trainers workshop for 10
university professors and school inspectors, and hold
three two-day capacity building seminars for 120 high
school teachers . . . .”
The above organizations and
others have been recipients of ongoing NED grants in
Tunisia, as the following list from previous years
indicates:
2008: Al-Jahedh Forum for Free
Thought received $57,000 to train Tunisian activists;
Mohamed Ali Centre for Research got $37,800;
Tunisian Arab Civitas Institute, $43,000 for training
teachers in “civic values” and the Center for
International Private Enterprise, $163,205 “to
inculcate free enterprise doctrines among Tunisian
businessmen, which reflects what NED is really aiming
for in its promotion of “democracy and civil values”:
globalization” (Bolton, 2011)
2007: AJFFT received $45,000 to
develop Tunisian Activists; The Arab Institute for
Human Rights got $43,900; The Center for
International Private Enterprise (CIPE) $175, 818;
The Mohamed Ali Center for Research, Studies, and
Training $38,500; Moroccan Organization for Human
Rights $60,000 “To strengthen a group of
young Tunisian attorneys as they mobilize citizens on
reform issues.”
In Egypt, the number of NED
grants doubled in 2009 to 33 democracy projects
totaling $1.4 million and the focus changed from
promoting private enterprise to training young
human-rights lawyers, and identifying and training
youth activists. It will be interesting to see when
(if?) NED publishes its 2010 grants. From the NED
website—a sample of the grants for 2009:
Egyptian Union of Liberal Youth (EULY)
$33,300 To expand the use of new media among
youth activists for the promotion of democratic ideas
and values. EULY will train 60 youth activists to use
filmmaking for the dissemination of democratic ideas
and values. The Union will lead a total of four
two-month long training workshops in Cairo to build
the political knowledge and technical filmmaking
skills of participating youth involved in NGOs.
Andalus Institute for Tolerance
and Anti-Violence Studies (AITAS) $48,900 To
strengthen youth understanding of the Egyptian
parliament and enhance regional activists’ use of new
technologies as accountability tools. AITAS will
conduct a series of workshops for 300 university
students to raise their awareness of parliament’s
functions and engage them in monitoring parliamentary
committees. AITAS will also host 8 month-long
internships for youth activists from the Middle East
and North Africa to share its experiences using
web-based technologies in monitoring efforts.
Bridge Center for Dialogue and
Development (BTRD) $25,000 To promote youth
expression and engagement in community issues through
new media. BTRD will train youth between the ages of
16 and 26 in the use of new and traditional media
tools to report on issues facing their communities.
BRTD will also create a website for human rights
videos and new media campaigns in Egypt.
Egyptian Democracy Institute
(EDI) $48,900 To promote accountability and
transparency in parliament through public
participation, and to build legislative capacity. EDI
will produce quarterly monitoring reports and hold
seminars to discuss the overall performance of
Parliament and offer recommendations on legislation
proposed in the People’s Assembly. EDI will monitor,
collect, and document evidence of corruption in Cairo
and Alexandria
Lawyers Union for Democratic and
Legal Studies (LUDLS) $20,000 To support
freedom of association by strengthening young
activists’ ability to express and organize themselves
peacefully within the bounds of the law. LUDLS will
train 250 youth activists on peaceful assembly and
dispute resolution
Our Hands for Comprehensive
Development $19,200 To engage Minya youth in
civic activism and encourage youth-led initiatives and
volunteerism. Our Hands will hold two public meetings
for local youth to discuss challenges and to identify
youth leaders who would benefit from additional
training courses. Participants will produce a short
film on youth political participation, and develop and
implement action plans for resolving problems facing
youth in the governorate. Our Hands will also provide
Minya youth an opportunity to learn from the
experience of and network with Cairo-based activists
and NGOs.
“Youth Forum $19,000 To
expand and maintain a network of youth activists on
Egyptian university campuses and to encourage the
participation of university students in student union
elections and civic activities on campus. . . .”
NED and Soros have been injecting
millions of dollars into the training of North
African, pro-democracy teachers, lawyers, journalists
and youth activists. In 2009 they more than doubled
their training efforts. Why, at this time, has the
30-year support of these dictators been undermined?
The prize is the rapidly-rising economies of North
Africa. It coincides with the efforts of Ben Ali to
make Tunisia the financial center of North Africa and
to promote Islamic banking. The Rothschilds want
North African Muslims to borrow from Rothschild banks
and pay interest at rates the Rothschild central bank
decides: they do not want them to be able to borrow
from Islamic banks and not pay any interest. The
Rothschilds want Muslims to trade their present
political oppression at the hands of brutal dictators
for future economic serfdom under the control of
banker Lord Rothschild.
©
EsinIslam.Com
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