August 31, 2015 at 05:47PM

The smoke from Shubra's big fire smoke is still there and can be see from Nile street in Agouza #Cairo #Citizenjournalism #Blogger August 31, 2015 at 05:47PM via Instagram http://ift.tt/1X5VCgt

Kodak Agfa Presents : August’s Full Moon

Meet August’s amazing Full Moon.

Those are not the best shots for the full moon for real as I am sick and I could not stand too late tonight

Regarding the #AJTrial in Cairo and its media Circus : Prove that You are journalist

This post is about the Al Jazeera journalists retrial earlier, its meaning and the media circus followed it.
Earlier Saturday , a Cairo Criminal court sentenced six defendants including three journalists to three years in jail for broadcasting false news and working without a permit. The Al Jazeera international journalists Peter Greste , Mohamed Fadel and Baher Mohamed were convicted in the retrial of the famous controversial case.
Students Sohip Saad , Shady Abdel Hamid and Khaled Abdel Raouf were also found guilty in the case and were sentenced for 3 years in the trial.
Sohip Saad  has already been referred to a military court last week for allegedly participating in a terrorist organization.
TV producer Baher Mohamed was sentenced for additional 6 months in jail for possessing “illegal arms” aka an ammunition casing he brought from Libya during his work there covering the Libyan revolution.

Baher Mohamed standing at the court room before
the start of the trial "Heba El-Kholy" 

Baher Mohamed was celebrating his son Haroon’s birthday yesterday. Haroun was born last year when Mohamed was in detention.

Baher with his children on Friday "Abdullah Shamy" 

The court also acquitted two defendants Khaled Abdel Rahman and Noura Hassan ElBanna.

The Mother of Khaled Abdel Rahman writes on paper "Acquitted"
so her son can read it at the sealed glass cage "Heba El-Kholy" 

Peter Greste was sentenced in absentia as he was already deported in February 2015 to Australia according to the extradition law amended by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi late last year. That law stipulates that the foreign convicted can be extradited to his country where he serves his jail term there. Australia did not sentence or jail Greste because he simply did not break any law there.
Greste slammed online the verdict describing the conviction of the journalists in this trial including his as “politically motivated” vowing to use every diplomatic , legal, political and social tool to free the rest of Al Jazeera staff.

Down with the Arab Rulers Zillion times “+18”

One day we will tell our children how we seek refuge in Europe, how Syrians were drowned and how thousands of martyrs were killed. The day will come and we will our children that the Arab and Muslim States were closer to us "The Syrian refugees" but they closed the doors in our faces, the day will come and our children will say down with the Arab rulers. 

A Syrian refugee reaching to the Greek shores after seeing the rest of the refugees coming with him in a boat drowning.

Rare video shows a number of #Syria|n migrants between the bodies of drowned refugees off the coast of #Greece. pic.twitter.com/4rbOqfMyHg

— Sakir Khader (@sakirkhader) August 16, 2015

I do not know the name of the refugee or when the video was filmed, but those few words became a quote that did not only spread but now attributed to foreign leaders like Angela Merkel instead of that unknown Syrian survivor
Down with the Arab Rulers Zillions times from the Gulf to the Ocean.
Down with the fake Pan-Arabism and its empty slogans and words.
I curse the Arab rulers with no exception especially those supporting Bashar El-Assad and those who sponsored the making of ISIL directly and indirectly.

The EU by Banksy 

I do not blame Europeans or EU for what is happening to the Syrian refugees as much I am blaming the Arab countries and its rulers with no exception including Egypt and rich Gulf.

And this is how Esraa El-Taweel looks like now

Freelance Photographer Esraa El-Taweel had another date with the High State security Prosecution earlier Wednesday and once again they renewed her detention pending investigation for another 15 days.
We only had the opportunity to see her pictures for the first time since her forcible disappearance in early June and then reappearance in detention pending investigation.

Esraa coming down the prison vehicle by Sameh Abo Hassan

waving to her family  by Sameh Abo Hassan

She has become so fragile.
El-Taweel is accused of joining a banned organization and sending false news about protests Egypt in order to defame the Egyptian regime.
Esraa’s doctor warned her family that she may lose her ability to walk again if she does not return back to treatment and proper medical care.
Esraa’s friends Sohip and Omar are referred to the military court.

Too much Freedom of Press For two weeks

In the past two weeks, three newspapers have been confiscated because they dared to speak about President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi directly and indirectly.
From two weeks ago, Weekly “Sout Al-Omma” newspaper’s first edition on Thursday was confiscated at the state-owned Al-Ahram Printing Press because it published a report about El-Sisi’s sick mother during then.

Sout Al-Omma's original Front page before confiscation

“The President’s Sadness” was about El-Sisi and his visits to his sick mother at the hospital despite his schedule.
Hours later, the once-strong vocal newspaper against Mubarak, SCAF and Morsi changed its first page and removed the report and posted instead of it a report about the Prime minister.

The Frontpage  after changing the content. 

Days later, El-Sisi’s mother passed away.
Once a strong opponent to Mubarak, the newspaper's editor-in-chief Abdel Halim Qandil is a strong Sisi supporter. Nasserites have that thing for the military after all.
Qandil stated that he was not angry because “it happens with everyone” despite the decision to
He also added that despite it was more of a social news or rather a humanitarian news meant to make the people know more about the President as a human , the newspaper was confiscated.
On Saturday, a group of the newspaper journalists and reporters organized a protesting standing at the Journalists Syndicate staircase against the decision to confiscate the first edition.

Kodak Agfa Presents A Night at Khan El-Khalil

Last Ramadan just like many Egyptian families, I visited Khan El-Khalili with my family where we had our breakfast and spent a very good time there
Million of Egyptians go to Khan Al-Khalili and Al-Hussein area in Ramadan to pray and to spend real good time.
As usual, I took more dozens of photos for this beautiful place Islamic Cairo. I went there before in 2012 and I took a couple of photos but this time I took more.
Anyhow without further talk, Kodak Agfa proudly presents Khan Al-Khalili 2015.
Originally built as a Market in the time of the Mamluks from 6 centuries ago at least, Khan El-Khalili is still keeping its character for real in the ever-changing Cairo. Of course, now it is a touristic attraction with bazaars attracting foreigners more than locals, yet it is still active.
Of course in Ramadan, it had more Egyptians than any other nationalities.

Khan El-Khalili alley street sign 

I do not know the historical reason why you can find Belly dancers suits in Khan El-Khalili but they attract tourists whether Westerns or Arabs very well.

Traditional, short and sequin belly dance suits in a shop at the entrance of the Khan 

Of course, besides Belly dancers shiny suits you can find traditional cotton galabiyas and scarfs with their traditional and oriental prints.

Traditional galabiyas inside the Khan

Copper products are everywhere whether lanterns or copper handmade shiny plates like those below. 

The copper products are made in workshops inside and nearby the Khan.

Copper plates

And more Shiny souvenirs.

Animal souvenirs 

#ShubraBombing : And Mohamed Ali Palace is another victim

As soon as the news came that the National security aka State security building in Shubra El-Kheima city was bombed , Heritage activist Sally Soliman was worried about one thing “ Mohamed Ali Palace of Shubra” which is two blocks away from the security building.
The explosion sound reached as far as to Cairo and Giza so you can imagine what it can do to a nearby old Palace that needs to be saved in the first place.
As you can see the palace after the bombing from the official photos published by the ministry of antiquities, there was  damage in the place.

According to the minister of the antiquities who visited the location on Thursday, two buildings inside the palace were badly damaged. The two buildings are “The fountain” and “The Gabalaya” building.
Here are more photos from Ahram Arabic News website. 

The Shubra El-Kheima bombing that was heard everywhere !! "Updated"

From half an hour ago, people in different areas in Cairo and Giza heard huge and loud explosion sound.
From half an hour, people were speculating the source of the sound and whether it was a bomb like the Italian Consulate or just another F16 breaking the sound barrier for no reason at 2 AM.
Unfortunately, I did not hear anything because I was watching Mortada Mansour slammed by Capitan Zizo with headphones on “Football fans will relate”
Now the Egyptian State TV is saying the source of that big explosion sound is an explosion at the State security “National security” building in Shubra El-Khaimah.
Yes, the State security building in Shubra El-Khaimah was bombed tonight. Now more websites are reported that three bombs detonated at the building parameter. The ambulance authority is reporting that at least 6 people were injured.
@3:42 AM: at least 20 were injured and transferred to a hospital, no fatalities have been reported so far. 
The bombing was too strong that parts of the building were destroyed according to the photos taken by Al Masry Al Youm journalist Omar Al-Hady.

The building after explosion by Omar Al-Hady

The building after the explosion by Omar Al-Hady 

Anyone following that action in Libya !?

There is a  very serious developments taking place in Libya and surprisingly no one is paying it proper attention in the media.
According to Ahram Arabic website, the Egyptian forces near the borders with Libya issued a High-alert warning after the disappearance of the Libyan security forces from Musaid Border crossing a few days ago.

Musaid border crossing 

I have not seen anyone paying attention to this news.
Already this news comes after the clashes between Egyptian armed forces and “Terrorists” South East Siwa oasis in the Western Desert last week.

The Years of Living dangerously as a photojournalist in Egypt

That Sunday Morning when Ahmed Ramadan picked up his photography gear and headed to the Police academy in New Cairo to cover the Morsi’s espionage trial as usual, he did not imagine that

Ahmed Ramdan 

by afternoon his life would change upside down because of a nasty lie made by ironically a colleague.

The Photographer working in Tahrir newspaper was heading to the courtroom set up at the Police Academy as he used to when he suddenly found himself arrested by security forces and accused to be a Muslim Brotherhood member who entered the court without a permit claiming to be a journalist.

It was shocking for the young photographer who began his career as professional news photographer during the 25 January revolution in 2011 especially that he got his newspaper card and he was registered as photographer who used to cover trials at the Police academy.

But having the permits and getting arrested was not the only shock because it turned out that a colleague was behind his arrest.
Oh yes, it turned out that A video journalist from Youm 7 reported Ramadan to the security forces at Police Academy as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Video Journalist Amany Al-Akhras reported her ex-colleague at Youm 7 to the security forces claiming that he was fired from the Pro-regime newspaper and website because he was allegedly a member of the Brotherhood according to other eyewitnesses and reporters at the court !!!!

Ramadan who is not a member of any political group or party was fired along a group of photographers and journalists from Pro-regime Youm 7 last year and as far as I know for “Non-political” reasons.

Remembering The Unforgettable Rabaa

Yesterday was the second anniversary of the Rabaa sit-in Massacre and people launched that hashtag “#RememberRabaa” and I am wondering how can anyone living in Egypt can forget Rabaa sit-in and its bloody dispersal in the first place !??

By Mosa'ab El-shamy from Rabaa sit-in dispersal on August 14 , 2013

Personally I believe whether you are totally against the forcible dispersal of Pro-Morsi Sit-in or support, you can not deny that after 14 August 2013 things went from bad to worse in Egypt.

I won’t speak about humanity because it is useless to speak about the value of human life when people are still discriminating between humans because of their political affiliation and religious beliefs as well race then there is no use. I am tried debating about fundamental universal beliefs, especially debating with hypocrites.

When I read in the media so-called internationally claimed human rights activist describing the forcible dispersal of Rabaa sit-in as a great day in the history of Egypt then I should not speak with her about fundamental human rights now.

When I read all day long about how the Muslim Brotherhood members are bad and God’s worst criminals on earth in a way to justify what happened in a dispersal that is described by the State’s National council for human rights as “ extreme forcible” one then there is no use.

#WorldElephantDay : The elephant of Giza zoo

The world is celebrating Elephants on the occasion of the World Elephant Day today and I will just seize the opportunity once again to re-post photos I took from Egypt's Giza zoo in 2013.
In 2013 , Giza zoo got one sad African elephant called Naima

Lonely Naima at her big cage "The elephant house" 

Closing down #Tahrir academy , another setback to #Jan25

Because we do not have bad news enough in Egypt now, the famous Tahrir Academy NGO is going to close down after 3 years of success full of international recognition and awards.
Yes the Non-profit online collaborative learning platform producing educational videos  to the 13- 18-year-old Egyptian students covering for free and in simple way subjects like physics,math and Arabic Grammar is going to close down because of the new NGOs law and its restrictions on funding.
In a statement on its online FB page, the NGO collaborative announced that it was going to shut down on Monday.

أكاديمية التحرير توقف نشاطهاالقاهرة في 10 أغسطس 2015 - على مدار 4 سنوات، كانت مهمة أكاديمية التحرير -وهي مؤسسة تعليمية...
Posted by ‎Tahrir Academy - أكاديمية التحرير‎ on Monday, August 10, 2015

We had to downsize our activities and our employees in Tahrir academy as well to sell the assets of academy because of the lack of the funding. As the founders cannot continue in funding the project from their own money and we were unable to collect enough donations, the Egyptian law bans the commercial activities for the NGOs even the commercial activities financing those NGOs. Thus all that prevented us from keeping a proper finance to the NGO. Nevertheless we are still till this moment trying to find any way to continue the project under the umbrella of any other NGO.

I am not familiar with all the articles of the new NGOs law but I think in the past NGOs were allowed to have commercial activities in order to finance their activities if I am not mistaken like Resala which sells tissues boxes.
Nevertheless, I totally respect the decision of its founders including its CEO Seif Abou Zeid, renowned political activist Wael Ghonim and entrepreneur Perihan Abou-Ziad.
Updated:
Tahrir academy is owned by Nabada NGO Foundation which was founded
 The Tahrir academy was founded in 2011 by Seif Abou Zeid. There were lots of hope that it would bring positive change in education in Egypt like Khan academy.

World Lion Day : The Lions of Giza

I am going to seize the opportunity of the World Lion Day to post a couple of photos I took last year for the lions at the Giza Zoo.

 

 

ABM is back as ugly and brutal as usual

Last Wednesday Islamic State group-affiliated Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis a.k.a Sinai Province issued a new Video message to the Egyptian government threatening it that it would kill a foreign hostage it kidnapped in Egypt if it did not comply to its demands in 48 hours a day before the inauguration of the new Suez Canal extension.
Now 72 hours have passed and we do not know and fear the fate of that hostage.

A Message to the Egyptian government by ABM "SITE" 

The Sinai-based militant group threatened to kill 30-years old Croatian Hostage called Tomislav Salopek if the Egyptian government did not release who they refer to as “The Muslim women Prisoners” in 48 hours following the release of the video.

The video showed the 30-years old Croatian who was captured on 22 July while wearing a jumpsuit on his knees in some undisclosed desert location. A Masked ABM-militant wearing a camouflage attire carrying a knife was standing behind Mr. Salopek. Unlike the infamous Jihadi John , he did not speak.

A screen capture from the video "SITE' 

The father of two who lives originally in Zagreb was the one who spoke in English and it was a heart breaking scene.
The video is available on Internet Archives and other sites.
The heartless group even published a countdown for his execution.
Tomislav Salopek  is a topographer who works at French Compagnie Generale de Geophysique “CGG” was kidnapped last 22 July. According to the Company officials, CGG reported the kidnapping Egyptian authorities since then but nothing happened. 
 Checking the news back then in Egypt , I found nothing but AP published the news on 24 July about the kidnapping of a Croatian citizen by an unidentified militant group in Cairo two days earlier according to the Croatian ministry of foreign affairs.
Salopek’s father called for his son’s release. Here is a raw video for Mr. Salopek speaking to journalists in Zagreb. Here is a raw video from AFP and Getty.

Esraa El-Taweel writes about "The Graveyard of the Living Dead"

Freelance Photographer Esraa El-Taweel wrote a new letter from detention at Qanatar Women Prison describing it as “The Graveyard of the Living Dead”. If I am not mistaken, this is the second long detailed letter Esraa writes from behind bars. This time she goes in details about her time in detention. I copied the translated letter from her father, Mr. Mahfouz El-Taweel’s Facebook account.

On the 27th of July, 2015 I had a showing in front of the Supreme State Security Prosecution. I had a different prosecutor this time than the one handling my case. This time I considered the trip to the State security

prosecution as an outing/break that I am having away from prison. I hate prison and what I hate the most is that it is full of women, and whoever knows me well knows that most of my close friends are guys, can you imagine how tragic this is? smile emoticon. On my way out of the State security prosecution to ride the deportation vehicle (after I was ordered another 15-day remand in custody) I saw Nahla, Sarah, Aisha, Sara, Abdel-Hameed, Ali, my mama, Duaa, Alaa and Nouran.
For a second I was happy that I saw them, but then I started crying. Nahla told me "don't cry". I wished I can greet them well and give them a big hug. I am even denied the right to say a proper hi to my friends. However this Monday was a beautiful day just because I saw them. I used to think "Did my friends forget all about me? Two months have passed!".
Why the hell am I shown for prosecutors interrogations and my friends and family outside where there is a wall between us that cannot be crossed? Will I enter the deportation vehicle again and go back to prison? How insane is that? I wish that all such injustices are put to an end. Yet again, I am really glad I saw my friends. Even though, the officer in commission "Ahmed Shawky" didn't allow me to shake hands with them or even receive a sandwich since I was hungry.. nevertheless my friends' presence made me happy.

August 07, 2015 at 08:20PM

Another view for Field Marshal #Tantawy Mosque in New #Cairo #Egypt #Buildings #Citizenjournalism #Blogger August 07, 2015 at 08:20PM via Instagram http://ift.tt/1gQ7QJE

August 07, 2015 at 08:13PM

At Field Marshal #Tantawy #Mosque in New #Cairo #DailyLife #Blogger #Citizenjournalism #Egypt #Buildings August 07, 2015 at 08:13PM via Instagram http://ift.tt/1IrsyZ8

August 07, 2015 at 07:40PM

An Egyptian wedding at Field Marshal #Tantawy in New #Cairo #Egypt #Weddings Mabrook/Congrats @passant.darwish #DailyLife #Blogger #Citizenjournalism August 07, 2015 at 07:40PM via Instagram http://ift.tt/1Pbfyt2

August 07, 2015 at 03:47PM

An Egyptian couple married at Field Marshal #Tantawy in New #Cairo #DailyLifeCairo #Weddings #Citizenjournalism #Blogger August 07, 2015 at 03:47PM via Instagram http://ift.tt/1ginSuT

August 07, 2015 at 03:37PM

Field Marshal Tantawy #Mosque in New #Cairo.It is constructed and owned by the Egyptian armed forces #Blogger #Citizenjournalism #Mosques August 07, 2015 at 03:37PM via Instagram http://ift.tt/1NeIkYq

August 07, 2015 at 03:32PM

Field Marshal Tantawy #Mosque #Egypt #Cairo #Citizenjournalism #Blogger #Mosque August 07, 2015 at 03:32PM via Instagram http://ift.tt/1SZkK8Y

Celebrating The Not-So-New-Old-New Suez Canal

The country is living those historical moments of inaugurating the New expansion in the Suez Canal and you can feel over-enthusiasm in the mainstream media as if we dig a true canal that connect between the Red Sea and Mediterranean again
That hysteria reached to the level of claiming that the idea of the New Suez Canal “Yes the regime calls the expansion and bypasses as a New Canal” was better than the idea of the original Suez Canal in Youm7 !!!
I do not know what logic is that but without the Old Suez Canal, there would be no so-called New Canal or expansion or bypass.

The first Suez Canal: de Lesseps's idea, France Money and Eugenie
was the star of the inauguration
The new Suez Canal: An Egyptian paid digged by Egyptians with their
money and Egypt is the star of the inauguration 

Yesterday  we found out that Minister of investment Ashraf Salaman saying on air that one of the scientists told him that the digging of the new expansion in the canal was equal 100 times the construction of the great pyramid !!! We do not know till this day how the Great pyramid was constructed in the first from 3200 years B.C.
It is not a new Suez Canal for real, it is more of an expansion or rather a bypass like any other expansions and bypasses done in the Suez canal since the 1940s.
Now the ironically the Suez Canal exposes the lack of creativity of the Egyptian government and officials in Egypt’s Modern History  when it comes to the naming of the Suez Canal’s extensions as the New Suez Canal. Oh yes, El-Sisi’s New Suez Canal is the not the first New Suez Canal.
That was an issue of Akher Sa’a Magazine in 1949 speaking about how the Suez Canal gave a birth to a New Suez canal aka The Farouk I Canal which was a bypass.

The New Suez Canal in 1949 !! 

The Good Civilian

Last week the head of Egypt’s Military academy said a very important statement that reveals a lot when it comes to the Egyptian Military Mindset.
In an interview with Daily Al-Masry Al-Youm , Major General Esmat Mourad spoke about the graduation of students from the Military academy answering a question about the students’ qualification to join directly the Egyptian armed forces. Here is what the man said.

Within days the Military academy graduates a student that knows how to differentiate between humanity , compassion , work and commitment “!!” , that student like other 100,000 fighters graduated from the Military academy in the past 40 years. Everybody works and follow the orders. The students of Military academy know very well that they will be the leaders of the future from ministers, governors , ambassadors , Presidents and managers thanks to their sacrifices and their serious work. 

The Major General forgot the most important job for those graduates that they have to know  , their main job to be precise is to protect Egypt as military officers  before becoming ministers, governors, ambassadors, presidents and managers. He forgot to say they would be Egypt’s professional fighters and defenders in the first place before they would presidents, ministers, governors.
Realistically speaking the Egyptian Military academy did graduate most of Egypt’s presidents, governors, Public sector companies managers, ambassadors and ministers in the past 60 years. We had three civilian presidents in those 60 and something years, two of them were interim and the third was ousted by the army.
Of course, the graduates are appointed in those positions for security reasons as we all know and because Egypt’s rulers prefer trustworthy over experience.
That quote of Major General Mourad reveals a lot.

August 03, 2015 at 10:34PM

kasr Al Nil bridge Nil covered in those lights hanged all over the bridge to celebrate the inauguration of New Suez Canal on Thursday #Citizenjournalism #Blogger #Cairo #Egypt August 03, 2015 at 10:34PM via Instagram http://ift.tt/1KMWM9S

August 03, 2015 at 10:10PM

This building has been renovating for ages. I do not know what is but it follows the ministry of culture in #Egypt #Cairo #Citizenjournalism #Blogger August 03, 2015 at 10:10PM via Instagram http://ift.tt/1MI3Yq5

August 03, 2015 at 10:07PM

New Suez Canal celebrations in #Tahrir square. #Egypt #Cairo #downtowncairo #Blogger #Citizenjournalism August 03, 2015 at 10:07PM via Instagram http://ift.tt/1gFam5v

#GUC students union members punished for defending their colleague's right

Do you remember what happened in the German University in Cairo following the death of student Yara Tarek in March? 
Do you remember when the security forces arrested in May three students from the GUC student union for the protests and sit-in over the death of their colleague? 
Well despite the three students were released later after huge news that reached to the level of

contacting the German Patron Universities and meeting with officials from the German embassy in Cairo , there has been unfortunate update last week regarding this issue.
The GUC administration has decided to expel one student permanently for his involvement in the sit-in.
Student Karim Nagib , the vice-president of the Student Union is permanently fired.
Student Hazem Abdel Khalek , the president of the Student Union is suspended for a year and half.
Student Hisham Al-Ashram , the former President of the student Union is suspended for one year
Student  Mohamed Tayel is suspended for one year
Student Omar Moslam is suspended for one year
Student Mahmoud Essam is suspended for half a year.
Student Alaa El-Attar is not allowed to use the University's services.
According to GUC's Insider newspaper, the students were demanded to apologize for what they had done during the Yara Tarek's sit-in but they refused because they did not do anything wrong.
The students stood for their rights and in return they are being punished.
You can read more about it here. 
I think I said it before, this is more than Yara Tarek issue, it is about teaching the students and youth in Egypt not to dare to stand for their rights.

Step Aside ABM , Now we got Al-Morabtoon

Another belated post that should have been finished and published from a couple of weeks ago. I have been suffering from a bad blogger’s block and I pushed myself to finish it sooner, but I failed.

On 21 July 2015 , US-based intelligence affairs website “Site Intelligence Group” published news that “an audio attributed to former Egyptian special forces officer-turned Jihadist calls Muslims for Jihad” was released online. The words “former Egyptian special forces officer-turned Jihadist” attracted the attention of Reuters and soon it released the news about in the world.
According to the news former Egyptian special forces-turned Jihadist Hisham Ali Al-Ashmaway ; aka Abou-Omar , the Emir “Prince” of Al-Morabtoon” group released that 6-minutes audio speech on the occasion of Eid El-Fitr calling the people to join Jihad against El-Sisi.
Later Egyptian journalists searched and found that account “@OmanOman53Oman2” published a link of an audio file of that alleged speech at SendSpace Website.

#المرابطون كلمة صوتية( وَيَوْمَئِذٍ يَفْرَحُ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ )للأخ المجاهد / أبي عمر المهاجر - أمير جماعة المرابطين https://t.co/9YW5rsx753

— المقنع (@omanoman53oman2) July 21, 2015

Hours later and the audio file became a video file that found its way on the YouTube with “Al-Morabtoon” watermark.
Here is a copy of the video uploaded by Toto Koko on 22 July. Yes “Toto koko”

Hisham Al-Ashamawy speaks in an audio message.

Now interestingly the name of Hisham Al-Ashmaway and his background were already known for couple weeks now in Egyptian media as leading figure in “Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis” {ABM} but I think we should first stop at some important remarks in the video or the audio message. 

• It started with an introduction from an old speech by Al-Qaeda leader Ayman El-Zawahiri and Al-Qaeda black flag is there.This is Al-Qaeda affiliated group announcement, not an ISIS-affiliated group.
• The speech by the former special forces officer is simply about the importance of Jihad as in fighting tyrannies and calling the Muslims to fight Sis whom he compared to Moses’ pharaoh.
• He also slammed El-Sisi’s media as the Pharaoh’s wizards who stood against Moses in Egypt. “According to Quran , the pharaoh’s wizards believed in God eventually so I do not know why Islamists keep using this reference”
• He mentions that there is injustice in the following Islamic countries: Burma “which is not a Muslim country but its Muslim minority suffers from huge discrimination and autocracies by its junta”, Palestine, Iraq and Levant. He did not mention Yemen nor Libya, two countries with very strong Al-Qaeda presence.  
• When you play the 6-minutes audio file in any audio player or just watch the video on YouTube , you will notice that the album art is two photos showing Abu-Omar aka Hisham Al-Ashmaway in his days as an army officer and allegedly at the current time as a Jihadist fighter in some place despite his face is not clear.

A screen shot showing the Before and After Al-Ashamawy

The Not-So-Blue Moon

Here is the Not-so-Blue Moon as captured in Giza last Night.

The Blue Moon 

Another shot for the moon

Of course Blue Moon is not a true blue Moon .
The Moon can turn blue in certain atmospheric conditions like for instance volcanic eruptions as well in certain illustrations like this 😇