The protests against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak show little sign of relenting. The dismissal of the previous government, andswearing in of new ministers Monday did little to assuage those demanding Mubarak’s ouster. There are calls for1 million people to take to the streets of Cairo Tuesday.One report says demonstrators are giving the army until Friday to choose sides between the government and the people before protesters march on the presidential palace.
Meanwhile, former International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohammed El-Baradei may be making progress in his campaign to become the consensus candidate to lead a future Egyptian government. The Muslim Brotherhood has been content to lurk in the background throughout the weeklong uprising against Mubarak’s government.
It has supported the protests and helped organize local vigilante efforts against looting and vandalism. And it has endorsed El-Baradei’s campaign, creating concern over how much power and influence the Brotherhood might enjoy under an emerging Egyptian government.
Divergent views of what that means for the Egyptian people, the United States and its allies have emerged in recent days. Former CIA officer Bruce Riedel, now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Saban Center, wrote that Brotherhood power might be troublesome but is not a cause for anxiety. Likewise, analyst Peter Bergentold CNN that the Brotherhood “could well play a quite constructive role.”
Both men argue that the Brotherhood is a relatively moderate movement in a sea of Islamic radicalism. The group has renounced violence, both say, and are far from subscribing to the blood-lust ideology driving al-Qaida.
That view glosses over the Brotherhood’s core fundamentalist attitude that could subject women and Egypt’s religious minorities to second-class status, threaten the 30-year peace between Egypt and Israel, and benefit terrorist groups including Hizballah and Hamas, a group created by the Brotherhood to carry out terrorist violence against Israel.
In a sane world, watching this guy cravenly avoid straight talk on America’s fiscal crisis in order to talk about salmon and high-speed rail would have lost him 10 points overnight. At the very least, one would think the sheer tedium of his laundry-list approach might have cost him a point or two. Nope.
The Egyptian army has said it will not use force against protesters calling for the removal of President Hosni Mubarak ahead of a “million people” march. (Source)
Mohamed Ghanem, one of the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, calls Egypt to stop pumping gas to Israel and prepare the Egyptian army for a war with it’s eastern neighbor. (Source)
Soros blames da Jooozzz
Few would argue that the imminent collapse of the Mubarak regime (and other Middle East dictatorships) derives from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Neither Egyptians nor Tunisians are risking and losing their lives for Palestinians. They are doing it for themselves. They want freedom.(Source)
“Freedom?” Ridiculous. Most of them wouldn’t even know how to spell it…..
I wish there is a long bloody civil war where the jihadis kill each other and the copt take over. I realize this is very unlikely but a wish is still a wish 😉 The Egyptian Revolution is Jihadi
Not true, of course. There are multiple reports of some Copts joining the protests. But bear this in mind if/when the Muslim Brotherhood gets its seat at the table in the new government and the inevitable whitewash among U.S. analysts begins. The Christian leaders who know them best, who’ve co-existed with them for decades, still prefer an out-and-out fascist to whatever the Brotherhood has in mind.
Fear of what may follow the removal of Mr. Mubarak, a secular strongman who has ruled the country for the past 30 years, is making reluctant supporters out of the country’s Christians, an estimated 10% of Egypt’s 80 million population. Mr. Mubarak has been aggressive in pursuing perceived Islamist extremist groups, a policy that has endeared him to Coptic Christians, not to mention the U.S.
Many Copts worry that Mr. Mubarak’s exit would leave them dangerously exposed—either by chaos, or to a government that may be more tolerant of Islamist extremists.
Pope Shenouda III, head of the Coptic Church, expressed support for Mr. Mubarak in an interview with Egyptian state television on Monday. “We have called the president and told him we are all with you and the people are with you,” Mr. Shenouda said, according to a transcript of the interview on the state television’s website.
The White House says it’s had no contact with the Brotherhood thus far, but that’s bound to change soon. Speaking of which, what do the group’s spokes-fundies think about the protests and the prospects of a new government?
It is morally good for the US to speak about support for protesters, but it is also quite dangerous. Mubarak may go, but his regime is necessary for US and Israeli security, regional stability, and keeping at bay the Islamic extremists that would rise in its place. Obama must support it.
By Barry Rubin
There is no good policy for the United States regarding the uprising in Egypt, but the Obama administration may be adopting something close to the worst option. It seems to be adopting a policy that, while somewhat balanced, is pushing the Egyptian regime out of power. That situation could not be more dangerous and might be the biggest disaster for the region and Western interests since the Iranian revolution three decades ago.
Experts and news media seem to be overwhelmingly optimistic, just as they generally were in Iran’s case. Wishful thinking is to some extent replacing serious analysis. Indeed, the alternative outcome is barely presented: This could lead to an Islamist Egypt, if not now, then in several years.
There are two basic possibilities: the regime will stabilize (with or without President Hosni Mubarak), or power will be up for grabs. Here are the precedents for the latter situation:
Remember the Iranian revolution of 1979, when all sorts of people poured out into the streets to demand freedom? Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is now president.
Remember the Beirut Spring of 2005 when people poured out into the streets to demand freedom? Hezbollah is now running Lebanon.
Remember the democracy and free elections among the Palestinians in 2006? Hamas is now running the Gaza Strip.
Remember democracy in Algeria? Tens of thousands of people were killed in the ensuing civil war that begin in 1991 and endured over a decade.
It doesn’t have to be that way, but the precedents are pretty daunting. And what did Egyptians tell the Pew pollsters recently when asked whether they liked “modernizers” or “Islamists”? Islamists: 59 percent; Modernizers: 27 percent.
Found it at a libtard site that I monitor. The fool was complaining about it. I think it is a great piece. Keep up the great work Breitbart. We need you now more than ever.
Did Muslim Brotherhood Learn ‘Day of Rage’ Egypt Protest Tactics From Obama Allies Bill Ayers and Code Pink? Bill Ayers and his wife Bernardine Dohrn in Egypt 2009/2010. “We hope the Egyptians get so annoyed they just want to get rid of us.” Jodie Evans, Cairo, December 29, 2009 Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans meets with President Barack Obama weeks after meeting the Taliban, Oct. 15, 2009.
One year ago, Big Government reported the anti-American global left, led by Code Pink, traveled to Egypt to undermine the blockade of Hamas-controlled Gaza.
President Barack Obama funder and Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans, accompanied by Obama’s Hyde Park friends and neighbors – the former Weather Underground terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn – organized an inside-outside game of political theater to bring pressure on the Mubarak regime to allow the aid for Hamas to be delivered though Egyptian checkpoints.
On one hand, Evans and Code Pink lobbied Mubarak’s wife for assistance, as well as the U.S. embassy in Cairo. On the other hand, the group led hundreds of Western leftists in challenging the Egyptian government with boisterous street protests. Read the rest of this entry »
The medical students marched and sweated in protest.
“The fear is broken,” yelled Bahaa Mohammed. “We want freedom.”
“And Islam,” said his friend. “We need Islam.”
Aww, dude! Shh! Not now!
“Yes,” said Mohammed, hushing the young man. “But first freedom and the will of the people.”
The exchange in the streets of Cairo between the students, both members of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, is a telling glimpse into the Arab world’s largest Islamic organization as it joins other opposition groups seeking to overthrow President Hosni Mubarak. The Brotherhood is muting its religious message amid a popular revolt that is not driven by Islam or politics.
Today, the Egyptian regime faces its gravest threat since Anwar Sadat’s assassination 30 years ago. As protesters take to the street for the third day in a row demanding the overthrow of 82-year-old President Hosni Mubarak, it is worth considering the possible alternatives to his regime.
On Thursday afternoon, presidential hopeful Mohamed El Baradei, the former head of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency, returned to Egypt from Vienna to participate in anti-regime demonstrations.
As IAEA head, El Baradei shielded Iran’s nuclear weapons program from the Security Council.
He repeatedly ignored evidence indicating that Iran’s nuclear program was a military program rather than a civilian energy program. When the evidence became too glaring to ignore, Elbaradei continued to lobby against significant UN Security Council sanctions or other actions against Iran and obscenely equated Israel’s purported nuclear program to Iran’s.
As IAEA head, El Baradei
shielded Iran’s nuclear weapons program
from the Security Council
His actions won him the support of the Iranian regime which he continues to defend. Just last week he dismissed the threat of a nuclear armed Iran, telling the Austrian News Agency, “There’s a lot of hype in this debate,” and asserting that the discredited 2007 U.S. National Intelligence Estimate that claimed Iran abandoned its nuclear weapons program in 2003 remains accurate.
U.S. border authorities have arrested a controversial Muslim cleric who was deported from Canada to Tunisia three years ago and was caught earlier this month trying to sneak into California inside the trunk of a BMW, according to court documents.
Said Jaziri, the former Imam of a Muslim congregation in Montreal, was hidden inside a car driven by a San Diego-area man who was pulled over by U.S. Border Patrol agents near an Indian casino east of San Diego. Jaziri allegedly paid a Tijuana-based cartel $5,000 to get him across the border near Tecate, saying he wanted to be taken to a “safe place anywhere in the U.S.”
Members of the Islamic Action Front, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood and Jordan’s largest opposition party have joined what al-Jazeera calls ‘trade unions and leftist organizations’ in widespread anti-government protests across Jordan.
That alliance between the Left and the Islamists is a key one, as both favor an end to western-style free market capitalism.
Jordan is similar to Egypt in having no oil to buy off a compliant population with subsidies, in being a US client state, in having a strong Islamist movement and in having a population beset by economic turmoil.
The key difference is one of tribalism.
When the British drew a line in the sand in 1923 and established the Kingdom of Jordan, it was intended to be the division between the Arab part of Palestine and the Jewish state the British had agreed to establish in Palestine under the League of Nations Mandate and later, the San Remo Agreement.
The majority of Jordan’s population were ‘Palestinian’ – Quraysh Arabs, who were town dwellers as opposed to the Bedouin, who were desert dwellers. King Faisal, leader of the Bedouin Hashemite tribe had aided Britain in a minor way in fighting the Arab’s former Ottoman rulers during WWI, and the British rewarded King Faisal’s sons with thrones.
I wrote here about how Islamic supremacists were trying to take advantage of events in Tunisia; popular uprisings in majority-Muslim countries will generally tend to work in favor of pro-Sharia forces, which (despite the universal assumption in the West that they constitute a Tiny Minority of Extremists™) enjoy broad popular support. Calls for democracy effectively amount to calls for Islamic rule.
“Shia cleric praises new ‘Islamic Mideast,'” from the AhlulBayt News Agency, January 28 (thanks to Twostellas):
(AhlulBayt News Agency) – The leader of Tehran’s interim Friday Prayers was referring to the recent historic revolution in Tunisia and massive protests in Egypt, Jordan, and Yemen.”Incidents that are happening in the Middle East and the Arab world should not be regarded simply,” he told worshippers on Friday.
“To those who do not see the realities I clarify that an Islamic Middle East is being created based on Islam, religion, and democracy with prevailing religious principals [sic],” Ayatollah Khatami said.
Proof the egyptian rioters are anti Semitic jihadis. I for one hope for a long bloody civil war where idiots like this are killed. The Egyptian Revolution is Jihadi
Stop fooling yourselves about the wonderful “democracy” evolving in Egypt.
CNN’s Nick Robertson speaks with some of the “Democracy seeking” Muslim protesters who have nothing but genocidal remarks to offer him. This wasn’t shown on CNN in the USA (to the best of my knowledge)
Jimmy Carter told an audience yesterday that the current Arab crisis, “The most profound situation in the Middle East since I left office.”
Carter also said Mubarak must go. Read the rest of this entry »
Hamas opens Palestinian front against Egyptian regime
Gunmen of Hamas’s armed wing, Ezz e-Din al Qassam, crossed from Gaza into northern Sinai Sunday, Jan. 30 to attack Egyptian forces and push them back. They acted on orders from Hamas’ parent organization, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, confirmed by its bosses in Damascus, to open a second, Palestinian front against the Mubarak regime. The Muslim Brotherhood is therefore more active in the uprising than it would appear.
DEBKAfile‘s military sources report that Hamas gunmen went straight into battle with Egyptian Interior Ministry special forces (CFF) in the southern Egyptian-controlled section of the border town of Rafah and the Sinai port of El Arish. Saturday, Bedouin tribesmen and local Palestinians used the mayhem in Cairo to clash with Egyptian forces at both northern Sinai key points and ransack their gun stores.
Sunday, Hamas terrorists aim to follow this up by pushing Egyptian forces out of the northern and central regions of the peninsula and so bring Egypt’s border with the Gaza Strip under Palestinian control. Hamas would then be able to break out of the Egyptian blockade of the enclave and restore its smuggling routes in full. Officials in Gaza City confirmed Sunday that Hamas’s most notorious smuggling experts, including Muhammad Shaar, had broken out of the El Arish jail Saturday and were heading for Gaza City.
Our military sources further report that the Multinational Force & Observers (MFO), most of whose members are Americans and Canadians, are on maximum alert at their northern Sinai base, while they wait for US military transports to evacuate them to US bases in Europe. Read the rest of this entry »
hopefully they change things there. It seems as if the Jew hating Jihadis took over. 
Bill Ayers and his wife Bernardine Dohrn in Egypt 2009/2010.
Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans meets with President Barack Obama weeks after meeting the Taliban, Oct. 15, 2009.
Avid Editor's Insights 