Eugene Robinson’s recent “Our challenge with Islam” is the epitome of why we cannot seem to defeat what is the clearest threat to our national survival since the Cold War: the ideology of radical Islam. Robinson starts with his “pie in the sky” prescription to ending the barbarism to which we have all grown accustomed over the past 13 years, most recently in Iraq and Syria under ISIS.
According to Robinson, “Finding ways for fundamentalist Islam to express itself peacefully is a bigger, tougher and more important project (than defeating ISIS).” He goes on further to praise the potential of the Muslim Brotherhood, the head of the snake for the radicalism we see throughout the Middle East. He claims that “Mohamed Morsi had the chance to show the world that a government led by an Islamist party could be fair, tolerant and effective. The United States and its allies had the chance to help Morsi succeed. He failed, and so did we.”
This article is not about Islam as a religion or most of the world’s Muslims. It is about combating an extreme version of Islam that is defined as Political Islam that claims to be the only true representation of the religion of Islam.
Political Islam and its hateful tentacles are as dangerous for the welfare of American Muslims as it is for non-Muslim citizens. Most global Muslim populations reject Political Islam as they are more apt to be victimized by its irrational fanaticisms than are non-Muslims.
The black flag: Middle-Eastern minorities are facing genocide (illustration by Michael Daley)
How we read the news is important. As far as the Middle East is concerned, the news is often slanted towards Western interests, whether commercial, military or security-related. It is not, of course, wrong to report and to interpret events in this way but, in doing so, we can miss something crucial that is going on in a nation or a region. It is even possible to say that what is missed could become crucial to international security or trade. That is not my primary concern here which is, rather, to ask what the events mean for the people living in these parts of the world, especially the minorities and the disadvantaged. That is to say, the "invisible" people.
Dr Patrick Sookhdeo, International Director of Barnabas Fund
Last month I was in Damascus. I had the great privilege of meeting Dr Ahmad Badr Al-Din Hassoun, the Grand Mufti ofSyria. He is a man of peace who pleads repeatedly for equal and harmonious relations between Muslims, Christians and followers of all religions as members of one human family. Because of this stance, he has endured great abuse and criticism from some of his fellow Muslims and was targeted for assassination by the Saudis. Knowing that he would have good security and protection, the group of Islamist hit-men were instructed that, if they could not kill the Grand Mufti himself, they should kill one of his sons instead. In due course they murdered his teenage son. After some months, two of the perpetrators were caught and imprisoned. The Grand Mufti asked to see them and they were brought to him blindfolded. He instructed their blindfolds to be removed, and the two young men, discovering themselves face to face with the head of Sunni Islam inSyriaand the father of their victim, shook with fear. But, to their astonishment, the Grand Mufti gently reached out his hands to them and told them not to be afraid. He said that he did not want their mothers to weep as his own bereaved wife had wept for her son, and therefore he forgave them.
Dr Ahmad Badr Al-Din Hassoun, the Grand Mufti ofSyria
Last week I was in northernIraqand came face to face with the stark reality of another face of Islam, that of ISIS (the Islamic State ofIraqand the Levant, now calling itself simply the Islamic State). The sheer brutality of this face of Islam cannot be comprehended. It kills men, women and children, the elderly, the poor and the weak. It cuts in half little children and commits acts of ethnic cleansing that border on genocide. This behaviour is pure barbarism reminiscent of the early Assyrians and later Babylonians who once inhabited this region and were known for their immense cruelty.
The barbaric murder of American journalist James Foley by the radical Islamic caliphate Islamic State this week is a prime example of how President Obama just does not understand the world in which we live.
Back in January, President Obama spoke of Islamic State to theNew Yorker:
The analogy we use around here sometimes, and I think is accurate, is if a jayvee team puts on Lakers uniforms that doesn’t make them Kobe Bryant. I think there is a distinction between the capacity and reach of a bin Laden and a network that is actively planning major terrorist plots against the homeland versus jihadists who are engaged in various local power struggles and disputes, often sectarian.
A member loyal to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) waves an ISIL flag in Raqqa June 29, 2014.
Credits: REUTERS/Stringer
FARZANA HASSAN | QMI AGENCY
News from abroad about Islamist expansion makes for sombre reading.
The past weeks have plunged the world into a new wave of depravity, with reports of brutalized women, children buried alive, even severed heads.
But all that is, at least, "over there." What we do not expect is calls for jihad, the creation of caliphates and oppressive sharia regulations in the Greater Toronto Area.
I recently stumbled upon a gathering in the GTA promoting just such a revolution.
A caption announcing "Talk on Gaza and Al-Sham" (Syria) caught my eye.
Noon is the Arabic letter that represents (n) in English.It is the first letter in the Arabic word "Nasrani."This word was used in reference to Christians in the Quran. The letter, “Noon,” was the mark that “ISIS” painted on the homes of the Christians of Mosul, Iraq.It identified the home and business owners as citizens targeted for expulsion from the city where their Christian ancestors have lived for thousands of years.
ISIS later renamed itself as the "Islamic State."It invaded the Christian areas and took control.Soon after, they attacked the homes of Christians, their churches, and monasteries.They plundered household valuable and looted and destroyed irreplaceable archaeological treasures. In the end, they issued a statement to the Christians whom they had labeled “Nasrani” that they had only a few hours to make three monumental coerced decisions.
تمثيل الكنيسة للأقباط سياسيا لا يخدم الكنيسة أو الأقباط
بقلم منير بشاى
عاد موضوع تمثيل الكنيسة السياسى للاقباط للاضواء من جديد. وكان نيافة الانبا يؤنس اسقف الخدمات قد ادلى بتصريح للمهندس عزت بولس، مدير موقع الاقباط متحدون، ضمن حوار بمطار زيورخ، فى 6 يوليو 2014. حيث سأله المهندس عزت "هل الكنيسة ما زالت الممثل السياسى للاقباط؟" فكان رده "بالطبع الكنيسة هى الممثل السياسى للاقباط وستظل كذلك" ثم اضاف "ولكن نحن فى زمن يمكن لأى فرد ان يتحدث ويتكلم ولا يمكن منع أحدهم من التعبير عن رأيه".
والغريب ان ياتى هذا التصريح فى وقت كنا نظن ان الموضوع قد تم حسمه وان التوجه العام للكنيسة فى عهد قداسة البابا تواضروس هو الابتعاد بالكنيسة عن معترك السياسة، وهو ما اعلنه قداسته اكثر من مرة.
هذا الكلام خطير أتمنى ان يكون تعبيرا فقط عن رأى نيافة الانبا يؤنس وليس رأى قيادة الكنيسة كلها. ووجه الخطورة ان نيافة الاسقف يقدمه كمبدأ عام وليس كحالة طارئة اضطرت الكنيسة معها القيام بهذا الدور فى غياب دور علمانى فعّال.
Summer test for "Islamic State" call to young European radicals-EU official
* Caliphate declaration may attract radical students on summer break
* Caliphate, violence in Iraq show need for "immediate action"
* Nine EU countries agree to measures to counter jihadist risk
By Steve Scherer and Ilaria Polleschi
MILAN, July 8 (Reuters) - The long summer break will test the ability of the militant "Islamic State" group led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to draw radical Islamist students in Europe to fight in Iraq and Syria, an EU official said in Milan on Tuesday.
Dick Cheney: Obama Refusing to Recognize Global Spread of Radical Islam
By Sandy Fitzgerald
The United States is in "big trouble ahead" because of President Barack Obama's "refusal to recognize reality" and his emphasis on getting the United States to withdraw from the Middle East, according to former Vice President Dick Cheney.
OLD HABITSof denial die hard, even as we watch the 'Trojan Horse' disgorge its sinister cargo on our television screens. After the Ofsted report into an alleged plot by Islamist hardliners to take over Birmingham community schools, several Anglicans emailed me this week saying things like: 'I am so confused about this issue and torn between my views of tolerance and religious freedom and what seems to be going on. Also don't want to be gripped by fear.' And 'It’s hard to stay focused and to know whom to trust when I try to read articles on the political and social ramifications of Islam and Islamicism in Britain.'
Operation Trojan Horse is an alleged plot by Islamists to take over schools in England and run them to their agenda. The name, based on the Ancient Greek myth, came from a leaked letter discovered in March 2014, alleged to be from Islamists in Birmingham, specifying the steps to take in order to get a school under control and speculating on the possibility of expanding the conspiracy to other cities. While some staff have stated that they were removed from their posts in manners similar to those described in the letter, a number of governors and the Muslim Council of Britain have dubbed the reaction of authorities to the alleged plot a "witch hunt".[1][2][3]
Confidence in the ‘noble knight’: Gezery. Photo: Jayson Casper
THE FOUNDING FATHER of modern Coptic activism retires a happy man as Egyptian Christians celebrate the election of a new president as hope dawns for equality.
Two days before the vote that saw Abdel Fattah al-Sisi elected president, Hany el-Gezery, the 60-year old founder of Copts for Egypt, announced the dissolution of his pioneering movement.
Muslim Brotherhood, The beginning; The dream of restoring Khelafa and apply Sharia:
The idea of Muslim Brotherhood was born in Suez Canal city of Ismaelia in 1928 by primary school teacher, Hassan Elbana, following the fall of the Ottoman Empire with the aim to restore “Khelafa Islamiah” i.e Islamic Super state with a Muslim ruler who apply Sharia Islamiah “Islamic Rules and jurisprudence” to the full. The Muslim Brotherhood motto has always been “Allah is our goal, Quran is our constitution, the prophet is our leader, Jihad is our way and death in the cause of Allah is our highest objectives”, the emblem is here, two crossing swords under the Quran and below them is the Arabic word “Be prepared” a reminder of the Quranic verse “And prepare against them whatever you are able of power and of steeds of war by which you may terrify the enemy of Allah” Surah Al-Anfal 8.60. It is a call for war.
For the time being, Washington should pay no attention to anything Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood says in English and little attention to any private "assurances" it offers.
Amid new strains in U.S.-Egypt ties, some in Washington are studying the tensions and results of recent voting for indications that democracy can take hold. Those who say the Muslim Brotherhood is showing new signs of moderation should compare its message to outsiders, in English, with its message to Egyptians and other Arabs, in Arabic.
Armenian Christians are once more fleeing from the aggression of
Turkey and not surprisingly the Western nations sprouting international
law at the Russian Federation are deadly silent. Indeed, NATO Turkey is
allowed to occupy Northern Cyprus, cleanse Orthodox Christianity and to
create Turkish settlements based on their conquest; to enter Northern
Iraq in order to attack the Kurds when it pleases the elites in Ankara;
and NATO Turkey is allowed to be a base for international jihadists and a
zone for supplying military arms to terrorists, sectarians, and
mercenaries, that fight against the Syrian government. Therefore, the
recent involvement by Turkey in the cleansing of Armenian Christians in
Northern Syria appears to be one long continuation of past misdeeds.
Conversations between Morsi and terrorist leader revealed. By Raymond Ibrahim February 5, 2014 (Morning Star News) – As former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi’s trials continue, it’s enlightening to consider what is likely to be one of the centerpieces: longstanding accusations that Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood party worked with foreign terrorist organizations, including Al Qaeda, against the national security of Egypt.
Based on these accusations of high treason, Morsi and others could face the death penalty.
Some in Egypt hail the overwhelming backing of last week’s constitutional referendum as a repudiation of the 2012 constitution approved during the Morsi era. However, most Egyptians would tell you a “yes” vote was not about the substance of the constitution, but a vote for moving Egypt forward, whatever “forward” might mean.
Regardless of where one stands on Egypt’s constitutional referendum and further steps in the post-June 30 roadmap, one thing is certain: the ideals of the January 25, 2011 revolution remain unfulfilled. The once-touted “democratic transition” has become an experiment gone haywire, characterized by repeated setbacks and government stifling of all kinds of dissent.
Egyptians say Yes to Newly Drafted Constitution and a Lot More…
By Mounir Bishay
On the 14th and 15th of January 2014, the people of Egypt voted in a referendum for a new Constitution to replace the pro-Brotherhood Constitution of 2012. The new Constitution was approved by unprecedented majority of 98.1%, 19.1 million out of 20.6 said yes, while only 331 thousands (1.9%) said no. On the other hand, the Brotherhood Constitution of 2012 was approved by only 62% and was marred by reports of vote fraud.
Though valid, the new constitution's high approval margin could raise doubts in the minds of some people in the West. They are not accustomed to seeing political issue votes reflect anything near unanimity. It is commonly understood in the West that a sign of a healthy democracy is diversity of opinion.
Michele Bachmann writes: Muslim Brotherhood: A history of terror
Michele Bachmann
By Michele Bachmann
If the decision of the interim government of Egypt is to consider the organisation of the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organisation, then the United States should follow.
From the time of Hassan al-Banna and the “secret apparatus” staging terror attacks across Egypt and the assassinations of Prime Minister Mahmoud an-Nukrashi Pasha and judge Ahmed El-Khazindar in 1948, to the ongoing attacks on Coptic Christians and churches and the terror campaign targeting the military in the Sinai and elsewhere, the Muslim Brotherhood has always kept terrorism as part of its arsenal and living up to their motto, “Jihad is our way.”
MCT Casanova / MCT Photo BY MICHAEL GERSON This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
In some parts of the world, Herod’s massacre of the innocents is a living tradition. On Christmas Day in Iraq, 37 people were killed in bomb attacks in Christian districts of Baghdad. Radical Islamists mark — and stain — the season with brutality and intolerance.
الجالية المصرية في بريطانيا تحتفل بنصر أكتوبر في أمسية بعنوان "مصر جميلة"
لجنة من الجالية تبعث برسالة لـ"منصور" و"السيسي" تحثهما فيها على "التقدم بخطى ثابتة نحو المستقبل"
كتب : محمد مجدي
تقيم الجالية المصرية في المملكة المتحدة، اليوم، أمسية تحت عنوان "مصر جميلة"، احتفالا بنصر أكتوبر، استضافت الشاعر الكبير أمين فؤاد حداد، والباحث إسماعيل السعداوي، الذي ألقى محاضرة بعنوان "الجيش في مصر القديمة".
وعلى هامش الاحتفالات زارت نخبة من أبناء الجالية تضم الدكتور حازم الرفاعي، والدكتور سميح عامر، الملحق الطبي المصري، والدكتورة شيرين صالح، المصابين من رجال الأمن المصري الذين استدعت أصاباتهم نقلهم إلى مستشفيات لندن لتلقي العلاج.
وتحتفي اللجنة ببعض المصابين من رجال الأمن تعبيرا عن العرفان والتقدير لهم أسوة بأبطال نصر أكتوبر المجيد لما بذلوه من تضحيات فداء لأمن وسلامة الوطن، وقررت اللجنة تكريمهم وتحيتهم على هامش احتفالات نصر أكتوبر، كما وجهت الجالية رسالة تقدير وإعزاز للمستشار عدلي منصور، رئيس الجمهورية وللشعب المصري ولأبطال القوات المسلحة البواسل في ذكري النصر العظيم.
Orthodox Christian worshippers hold crosses as they take part in the Eastern and Orthodox Church's Good Friday procession along the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem's Old City. (Reuters)
Whether the words are “Merry Christmas” or the more politically correct “Happy Holidays,” late December merriment is a given in many parts of the Western world. Either in honor of Jesus’ birth or just because it’s a colorful, glittery season, warm-hearted toasts to friends and loved ones are in order.
Thirty million people in the streets of Egypt, with the help of the Egyptian military, have saved the United States from the consequences of its disastrous policy of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood since President Barack Obama came to office. Just months after his inauguration in 2009, Mr. Obama appeared in Cairo to address the Muslim world. He ensured that members of the Muslim Brotherhood were seated in the front row of the auditorium at Cairo University. Since the group was still officially banned in Egypt, no one from President Hosni Mubarak’s administration could attend. The message from the seating arrangement was unmistakable: even at the price of snubbing his official host, Mr. Obama recognized the Muslim Brotherhood as a legitimate player in Egyptian politics. Already, this was clearly interference in the internal affairs of the Egyptian state.
Former British ambassador Charles Crawford later characterized Obama’s quixotic address in the following way: “It boiled down to a well delivered speech full of clever emollient phrases that ultimately sent a message of appeasement to militant Islamist tendencies: Under my restrained leadership the United States will respect and accept conservative forms of Islam. Even if Islamism gets too aggressive we don’t plan to do much about it.”
Egypt’s New Draft Constitution Raises Concerns Over Defining Islamic Sharia Law
By Mounir Bishay
Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt on February 9, 2011/Wikimedia Commons
A new Constitution for Egypt has just been drafted and sent to the interim president Adly Mansour for his approval before putting it to a popular referendum. A committee of fifty representing various factions of Egyptian society, as well as ten specialists in constitutional law, worked on the project that ultimately produced the final draft containing 247 articles. If approved, the 2013 Constitution would replace the 2012 Constitution known as the Brotherhood Pro-Islamic Constitution enacted during the rule of ousted President Mohammed Morsi (June 30, 2012 to July 3, 2013).
In her debut performance as national security adviser, confronting the Egypt crisis, Susan E. Rice (and her boss, President Obama) failed miserably.
The failure is particularly acute on the part of Mrs. Rice, though. After all, she was the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, where she was amply exposed to the meaning of the phrase “strongly condemns,” the one chosen Thursday by the president and his national security team to castigate Egypt’s interim government and military for its crackdown.
Surely, Mrs. Rice’s experience with U.N. Security Council resolutions taught her the consequences of the words “strongly condemns.” In deeming one party’s action to be those of an aggressor, license is given to the “victim” to engage in an expanded notion of self-defense.
INTERVIEW WITH MOUNIR BISHAY: THE CHRISTIAN-MUSLIM FAULT LINES IN EGYPT AND THE MIDDLE EAST
“The Obama administration’s new found love affair with the Muslim Brotherhood is astounding, to say the least. It has to be based on false perceptions and deceitful promises made by an organization that historically has been stained by the blood of innocent Egyptians, including Coptic Christians. Regardless of what the Muslim Brotherhood says, America, to them, will continue to represent an infidel country that must be conquered and converted to Islam.” – Mounir Bishay
By Georgiana Constantin
Introduction
Christians in Egypt are facing hardships not only in practicing their religion, but also in living normal, peaceful lives. This has unfortunately been the case for centuries.
News abounds with the tragic stories Copts live every day. And it appears that this region is going to keep offering the media sorrowful and terrible accounts to report on, as there doesn’t seem to be any hope of change, while the Obama administration remains virtually silent.
Now that the Egyptian military has finally begun to neutralize Muslim Brotherhood terrorist bases, the so-called mainstream media are doing what they do best—twist reality to the Islamists’ benefit by casting them as innocent victims merely “holding vigil” only to be slaughtered, while calling for the prosecution of the military for “human rights abuses.” They essentially follow the pro-Brotherhood Al Jazeera’s lead of portraying these bases in Rab‘a al-Adawiya and elsewhere as peaceful “sit ins.”
Peanut Butter Bomb and the Mango Bang: Secret diary of 'White Widow' terrorist reveals how she planned to open her own juice bar
Samantha Lewthwaite also wrote of her recipe for a happy marriage: 'Wife beautiful, food prepared, kids clean, immediately he will forget the pain of his day'
Widow of July 7 bomber planned classes for pregnant mothers to keep fit with exercises which are '100% safe'
Lewthwaite, 29, is accused of murdering seven in Kenya including two radical Muslim clerics and two Protestant preachers
Recognize Muslim Brotherhood for the hate group it is
By Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper
From his historic Cairo Speech President Obama sought to empower moderate Muslims, including the ‘moderate’ Muslim Brotherhood. The election of Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamad Morsi was hailed as a slam-dunk for democracy and earned Washington’s backing.
But a year later, 22 million Egyptians saw things differently, returning to Tahrir Square and prompting the military to give Morsi and company the boot.
Secretary of State Kerry is to be commended for declaring that the Egyptian military was "restoring democracy" by deposing Morsi. Now the U.S. should drop its flawed Muslim Brotherhood policy. Never a force for moderation, it should be recognized for what it is: An enemy of freedom and tolerance-- a hate group with a long enemies list.
Dagestan: Muslim children make videos imitating jihadis, threatening to kill unless they get money and good grades
They've taught their children well: "If you don’t do that, I’ll first kill Khalimat and Nurmagomed and then come at you. Insha'Allah." Even if these children are just playing around, it is clear what kind of values the adults around them are demonstrating and instilling in them.
"Trick-or-treat: Children in Russia’s North Caucasus record militant-style threatening videos," from RT, November 15:
Egypt must protect Christians from turmoil: rights groups
CAIRO
CAIRO (Reuters) - Security forces must do more to protect Egypt's Christian minority in the turmoil following the military overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Mursi, rights groups said on Tuesday, citing the mob killing of four near the southern city of Luxor.
Coptic Christians account for about a tenth of Egypt's 84 million people. They have suffered discrimination for decades, but communal tensions and attacks rose sharply under Mursi, who was elected president a year ago following the fall of strongman Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
The army deposed Mursi on July 3, unleashing violent street clashes and exposing deep fissures in the Arab world's most populous nation.
Cairo, Egypt - As Gabr sat in a seafront cafe in his hometown of Alexandria, he spoke about his past opinion of atheists. "I used to think that they should be killed," he said matter-of-factly.
Gabr - not his real name - was brought up in a moderate Muslim family before becoming a Salafi, a follower of a literalist and puritanical form of Islam. He eventually underwent a radical shift in belief to become one of those people he used to despise: an atheist, an apostate, a kafir - a group of people who feel under threat in Egypt because of their lack of belief in God.
The killing of more than 50 people at a demonstration in support of ousted Egyptian President Morsi in Cairo on July 8 has justifiably horrified many in Egypt and internationally. The pro-Morsi elements have placed the blame on the military forces, while the military claims it was attacked with live ammunition. While accusations are hurled back and forth, a new aspect to this story is emerging – the presence of a third force, namely snipers stationed on rooftops firing at both sides of the conflict. This revelation raises serious questions about the true nature of the conflict in Egypt and the disturbing similarities between this incident and similar ones in Syria, Thailand, and elsewhere.
The Cairo Massacre
As thousands gathered near the Republican Guard headquarters where many believe the Egyptian military is holding former President Morsi, violence erupted, killing at least 51 people and injuring hundreds. The bloody incident marked a clear transition from a purely political conflict to a potential civil war.
According to military officials, pro-Morsi “terrorists” attempted to storm the building, thereby eliciting a violent response from the military forces defending themselves. Colonel Ahmad Mohammad Ali, a spokesman for the Egyptian military claimed that police personnel were attacked while attempting to secure the area. He noted that, “They were on top of buildings…they either fired or threw things down…they were firing live ammunition and the military had to defend itself.” Colonel Ali’s comments have been echoed by most major media outlets in Egypt which are largely controlled by forces sympathetic to the military and the former Mubarak regime. However, the Muslim Brotherhood and other pro-Morsi forces paint a distinctly different picture.
Persecution threatens 'extinction' of Christianity in ancient homelands, warns Baroness Warsi
Christianity is threatened by extinction in some parts of the world where Christian communities are persecuted because they are a minority, a Government minister has warned.
Christians are being driven out in regions such as Syria and Iraq, places where the religion first took root, Baroness Warsi said.
She used a speech at Georgetown University in Washington DC to express her concerns that Christians were being persecuted and called for a "cross-faith, cross-continent" response to the problem
Editor's note: H.A. Hellyer is a non-resident fellow at the Brookings Institution and ISPU. A writer on Egyptian politics, he held senior posts at Gallup, and the University of Warwick.
(CNN) -- Was the ousting of democratically-elected Mohamed Morsy in Egypt a coup? Answering that question is clear, but not without a very clear qualification. It is a popularly legitimate coup -- and focusing on it is now far less important than what comes next.
Maryam Namazie: Limitations on the veil in schools and an all-out ban on the burqa or niqab are often seen to be authoritarian. Your views?
Marieme Helie Lucas: First of all, it is useful not to conflate the two issues: that of veiling girls in schools and banning the face covering. I will thus answer them as two separate questions.
When talking of veils in schools, one automatically refers to the veiling of under-aged girls, i.e. not the veiling of women. The question thus becomes: who is to decide on girls’ veiling - themselves or the adults who are in charge of them? And which adults?
Democracy doesn't on its own mean effective government
Bringing about stability in the Middle East is not somebody else's job, it's ours. It will be a difficult and expensive struggle, and it is essential the people of the region know the west is on their side
Stone-throwing protesters standing on a tank in Cairo. Photograph: Ahmed Ali/AP
The events that led to the Egyptian army's removal of President Mohamed Morsi confronted the military with a simple choice: intervention or chaos. Seventeen million people on the street is not the same as an election. But it is an awesome manifestation of people power. The equivalent turnout in Britain would be around 13 million people. Just think about it for a moment. The army wouldn't intervene here, it is true. But the government wouldn't survive either.
The Muslim Brotherhood was unable to shift from being an opposition movement to being a government. Of course governments govern badly or well or averagely. But this is different. The economy is tanking. Ordinary law and order has virtually disappeared. Services aren't functioning properly. Individual ministers did their best. A few weeks back, I met the tourism minister, who I thought was excellent, with a sensible plan to revive Egypt's tourist sector. A few days ago, he resigned, when the president took the mind-boggling step of appointing as governor of Luxor (a key tourist destination) someone who was affiliated to the group responsible for Egypt's worst-ever terror attack, in Luxor, which killed more than 60 tourists in 1997.
An Egyptian woman mourns during the funeral of several Copt Christians who were killed in Warraq’s Virgin Mary church in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, Oct. 21, 2013. Egypt’s Christians were stunned Monday by a drive-by shooting in which masked gunmen sprayed a wedding party outside a Cairo church with automatic weapons fire, killing several, including two young girls, in an attack that raised fears of a nascent insurgency by extremists after the military’s ouster of the president and a crackdown on Islamists. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
The persecution of any religious minority anywhere by anyone is an evil injustice. It requires all persons of conscience to speak out and, when possible, take action.
Egypt and the Real Arab Spring: Muslim Brotherhood and Obama on the Wrong Side of History
Murad Makhmudov and Lee Jay Walker
President Obama and important inner circle leaders had hoped to install the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and throughout other parts of North Africa and the Middle East. Issues related to enforced dhimmitude on Coptic Christians, the future rights of women, mainstream Islam, secular Egypt and a whole array of countless different thought patterns all faced a grim future. Even Saudi Arabia, a close ally of America, was watching events uneasily because the tentacles of the Muslim Brotherhood and their real objectives remain masked in uncertainty.
The billions of dollars from the Obama administration to the Muslim Brotherhood led President Morsi (Mursi) which was a continuation of past economic policies under Hosni Mubarak – without the Islamist angle – meant that vast numbers of Egyptians couldn’t trust Morsi or Obama. Now the Obama administration is threatening to withhold military assistance to Egypt by dancing around formalities which can be bypassed with ease if desired. After all, shipping military weapons to third parties which benefit al-Nusra and other al-Qaeda affiliates is a cinch when it comes to trying to defeat the government of Syria. Just like invading Iraq under a false pretext but suddenly Obama is using lofty ideals which don’t exist in reality under his leadership. However, he may be forced to backtrack on military assistance because being on the wrong side of history he now needs to play catch up because Egypt is too powerful to ignore.