Globe Trot: Egypt braces for 'Day of Rage'

The Muslim Brotherhood has begun another Friday “Day of Rage” protest in Cairo. The images of the week’s violence, which has left at least 638 Egyptians dead, show not only the lethal crackdown of Egypt’s security forces but the deadly determination of Muslim Brotherhood, pro-Morsi supporters—spurred by radical Islamist inciters—to fight on.

Protesters have attacked at least 25 churches across Egypt during the violence, and two storefronts belonging to the Bible Society of Egypt report being torched.

Those involved in Christian ministry in Egypt say they “are appalled” at the way international media has “portrayed the Muslim Brotherhood as the victims of injustice.” This statement from key leaders highlights the illegal moves by the Morsi government that have led most Egyptians to support his ouster and why most Egyptians support the military taking action to clear this week’s protesters.

John Piper has written his second “news poem” on events in Egypt.

Obama golfs and Kerry lectures as Egyptians die. As with Syria, it’s now too late for the United States to intervene meaningfully, even though Egypt is the second largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid. Said Hudson Institute expert Sam Tadros, “As to outside powers, I am afraid it is too late now. This is a zero-sum game and one side has to win.”

The business of winding down wars is running counter to the narrative of what Islamic radicals actually are up to in the Muslim world:

“For those in the Obama administration who want to believe the world is no longer a dangerous place, holding close to “cherished beliefs and comforting assumptions” about the nature of radical Islam can indeed provide respite from the war on terror. But in the brutal world of the Islamic radical, not everyone can be trusted to act with reason.”

Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens gives a cogent five-minute analysis of the crisis, and raises the possibility of Israel working in tandem with Egypt’s military (as we’ve seen already in Sinai) to rout Islamists and what Stephens says was quickly becoming a Muslim Brotherhood dictatorship.

Al-Qaeda linked militants in Syria have killed an Italian Jesuit priest who disappeared inside Syria last month. Paolo Dall’Oglio, who had worked in Syria for decades and was instrumental in restoring a monastery in Syria, actually sided with rebel forces.

On the 10-year anniversary this week of Gene Robinson’s election as the first openly gay Episcopal bishop in America, the archbishop of Uganda writes that the “unbiblical decision” by the church “threw the entire global Anglican Communion into chaos.”

A man using the British Library’s wi-fi network was denied access to an online version of Shakespeare's Hamlet because the text contained “violent content.”

Saints, Catholic and otherwise, “are bracing reminders that the transformation of spirit promised by religion—so elusive for most of us—is possible in this life,” writes Andy Crouch in today’s Wall Street Journal.