Friday, August 23, 2013

US policy, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Islamist terrorism in Egypt


Muslim Brotherhood Striving for Worldwide Dominion, Egyptians 'Bewildered' by US Support, Egyptian Christian Radio Caller Claims

The Muslim Brotherhood is striving for worldwide dominion, or an Islamic Caliphate, according to a source close to the situation in Egypt, and the U.S. government's apparent support for the Brotherhood has left many Egyptians "bewildered and astonished."

The claims were made by an Egyptian Christian caller to the Frank Sontag Show on KKLA on Tuesday, who said that he lives in the U.S. and chose to be identified only by the name "Sam." He said that the Muslim Brotherhood is "the mother organization for all the splinter terrorist organizations everywhere around the world," including al Qaida, and claimed that their intentions in Egypt go far beyond destabilizing the region.

"Their goal is worldwide Islamic Caliphate. For the first time, they were able to get to power in Egypt, and that was only the first step toward that goal. Now with all the countries that experienced the Arab Spring, from Syria to Libya, all this has been replaced by fundamentalist Islamic governments. All the terrorist groups we have heard about, like al Qaida, they came from underneath the Muslim Brotherhood," the caller said.
Read more

Egyptian Christian Convert Condemns Obama's Foreign Policy for Egypt as 'Insanity'

A pastor who was sentenced to death in Egypt for converting from Islam to Christianity attacked President Obama's foreign policy as "the definition of insanity" on former Governor Mike Huckabee's radio show.

"The Americans supported Osama Bin Laden during the Afghanistan war with the Soviets and he turned against them. They supported Sadaam Hussein during the Iranian war and he turned against them. They supported the rebels in Libya, killed their American ambassador three months later. Now President Obama is supporting Muslim Brotherhood, supporting the rebels in Syria, and what's the definition of insanity? Repeating the same action and expecting a different outcome," said Majed El-Shafie, founder of One Free World International and author of Freedom Fighter: One Man's Fight for One Free World, on Tuesday's show.

As a Canadian and neither a Republican nor Democrat, the pastor said he has no interest in attacking Obama politically. "It's not a matter of politics, it's a matter of integrity," he said. Read more

Michael Nazir-Ali: When Egypt emerges from its bloody chaos, it needs true democracy, not a dictatorship of the majority

There is considerable anguish and hand-wringing amongst the armchair orientalists and strategists over the situation in Egypt. Those who thought that the "Arab Spring" was a harbinger of secular, Western-style democracy can now see it is nothing of the kind. Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood-led regime was headed inexorably towards a Sunni theocracy based on an unreconstructed imposition of Wahabbi-type Sharia which had led already, for example, to the harassment of women who would not abide by Islamist diktat over dress, freedom of movement and associating with unrelated males. Then there are those who had put their money on "moderate Islamism" being the future for the Middle East and beyond. If this meant sacrificing the freedoms of women, religious minorities and others, so be it. It had happened before, had it not, with Assyrians, Armenians and Jews? They have been surprised and even angered by the sudden reversal of fortunes.

The West has a long history of backing dubious Islamist groups in the region, often at the behest of this orientalist elite. By supporting the Mujaheddin in Afghanistan, for instance, in their struggle against the Soviet-backed government there, it unwittingly created not only the Taliban but, arguably, international Islamist radicalism and terrorism. Similar stories can be told of Libya, Syria, and now Egypt.

Fifteen million people signed the petition to remove the Brotherhood from power, and many more were involved in demonstrations up and down the country. In the absence of a parliament, how else was the will of the people to be expressed? Attempts were made, again and again, to make the government more inclusive of Egyptian society, but they were always thwarted by the intransigence of Islamists, who saw their chance of turning the largest Arab state into an Islamic one. Even after the intervention by the armed forces, offers were made to include Islamist representatives in the government, but they were rejected in favour of a "purist" rather than a "realist" solution. How unsuccessful does even a democratically elected government have to be before some kind of change becomes necessary? Read more

Chaos in Egypt

The political chaos in Egypt can only be resolved by Egyptians, the country’s Council of Churches has declared, warning foreign governments and jihadists to keep out of Egypt.

The Council, led by Pope Tawadros II, “affirmed the right of its citizens to defend themselves against terrorism.” It follows a weekend of anti-Christian violence and arson by members of the Muslim Brotherhood, who have destroyed over four dozen Christian churches and schools this week.

The 17 Aug 2013 statement from the pan-Christian council, which represents the Coptic, Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Anglican and reformed churches comes in the wake of reports that Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis had been detained by police after Muslim Brotherhood demonstrations were dispersed. Read more

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