US Embassy – The Peanut Gallery

New State Department travel alert is bad news for Egypt
By Max Fisher, Published: February 6, 2013 at 4:05 pm

Last month, thugs twice attacked the Semiramis Intercontinental Hotel in Cairo. (REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh)

Wednesday brought another troubling development for the Egyptian economy, which relies heavily on tourism and has suffered mightily since protests broke out in January 2011:

The U.S. State Department has issued a scary-sounding travel alert that it says applies through May. The alert cites ongoing violence, political unrest that could trigger yet more clashes and the proximity of demonstrations to the U.S. embassy compound in Cairo, which protesters attacked head-on in September.

Though such travel alerts are common, it’s a reminder that the State Department is not exactly encouraging Americans to visit Egypt in droves, not that they have been since 2011 anyway.

The relevant information from the travel alert is below. I visited Egypt in August 2011 and found the hotels and museums all but empty. August is always slow in Egypt – it’s hot, and that year it was the holy month of Ramadan – but everyone I spoke to emphasized that it had been a painful year for the all-important tourism industry.

Since then, things have only worsened, with hotel occupancy rates hitting all-time lows. In late January, a band of thugs attacked the popular Semiramis Intercontinental hotel two nights in a row.

Continue reading “New State Department travel alert is bad news for Egypt – WaPo Re-Blog” →

Peanut Gallery: Current events in Yemen further jeopardize the lives of the few hundred believers from a Muslim background in this country of 24.8 million. Open Doors describes the flight of Christian ex patriots after the “Arab Spring” riots – click here.

Islam is the state religion and source of legislation. The few hundred Christians from a Muslim background meet secretly as they face persecution from authorities, family and extremist Islamic groups. In the north, no church buildings are allowed. There is some religious freedom for foreigners but evangelism is prohibited. There are four official churches in Aden for the several thousands of Christian expats and refugees living in the country but large numbers have left as a result of the Arab Spring riots.

But that was a year ago… before current events. Please pray for believers’ safety, protection and peace.

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4.6-7 NLT

Turmoil Spreads to U.S. Embassy in Yemen

SANA, Yemen — Turmoil in the Arab world linked to a contentious video denigrating the Prophet Muhammad spread on Thursday to Yemen, where hundreds of protesters stormed the United States Embassy, two days after assailants killed the American ambassador in Libya and crowds tried to overrun the embassy compound in Cairo.

News reports also spoke of a separate protest in Tehran, where around 500 Iranians chanting “Death to America” tried to converge on the Swiss Embassy, which handles United States interests in the absence of formal diplomatic relations with Washington. Hundreds of police officers held the crowds back from the diplomatic compound, which Swiss officials had evacuated as a precaution, Agence France-Presse said.

For a third straight day, protesters scuffled with police in Cairo, news reports said, while in Iraq, a militant Shiite group, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, once known for its violent attacks on Americans and other Westerners, said the video “will put all American interests in danger.”

In Sana, witnesses said Yemeni security forces had tried to disperse a crowd at the fortified embassy compound in the east of Sana, the capital. But protesters broke through an outer perimeter protecting the embassy, clambering over a high wall and setting fire to a building.

They were forced to retreat after trying to plunder furniture and computers, the witnesses said. Continue reading “Please pray for believers in Yemen” →