.Editorial: Mideast Dominoes Near Tipping Point
Instability: It began in Tunisia, spread to Egypt and might expand to Jordan, Yemen and even Saudi Arabia. Are we seeing the "untamed fire of freedom" George W. Bush envisioned, or a new Mideast Dark Age?
In his second inaugural address six years ago, then-President Bush, pointing to the liberation of Iraq, boasted that "we have lit a fire" that "warms those who feel its power, it burns those who fight its progress, and one day this untamed fire of freedom will reach the darkest corners of our world."
Egypt certainly resembles an untamed fire right now, but is it a fire of freedom? Egypt's President Mubarak is reviled by protesters as a tyrannical modern-day pharaoh, yet the great beneficiary of his waning power right now is the jihadist Muslim Brotherhood.
In spite of a government ban, it's the largest opposition bloc in Egypt's Parliament, getting its members elected as independents.
The Brotherhood has no more to do with democratic freedom than does Hamas in the West Bank or Hezbollah in Lebanon — two other terrorist organizations that exploit democratic processes.
Were the Brotherhood to gain power, the obvious comparison would be Algeria 20 years ago, when the pro-Shariah Islamic Salvation Front gained parliamentary dominance and the army stepped in to prevent "one man, one vote, one time."
Founded in Egypt over 80 years ago, this oldest and biggest of all Islamist political organizations has tentacles reaching virtually every Islamic nation and extending into the U.S. as well.
The geopolitical implications of the Brotherhood gaining power in the Middle East's most populous Muslim country are chilling — possibly the start of a well-organized pan-Islamist wildfire that could mean takeover of a whole series of Muslim governments by a unified political force adamantly hostile to Western civilization.
National Review's Andrew McCarthy, who as a federal prosecutor convicted the 1993 World Trade Center bombers, exposes the Brotherhood in his new book, "The Grand Jihad." The U.S. government "has long been in possession of the Muslim Brotherhood's playbook — in multiple iterations, as a matter of fact," he notes.
For instance, a 1991 Brotherhood memorandum obtained by the FBI outlined "civilizational jihad" — "eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within," while a post-9/11 raid by Swiss authorities of the home of Brotherhood financier and suspected al-Qaida money launderer Youssef Nada yielded a 14-page, 12-point "master plan" written in Arabic.
Titled "The Project," it told how to "establish an Islamic government on Earth" by coupling terror with global strategies like immigration, propagandizing and political protest.
Yet Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, "along with her top aides, personally held two days of intensive briefings in late January 2010" with associates of the group, McCarthy writes.
And President Obama invited 10 Muslim Brotherhood members to his June 2009 Cairo University speech fictionalizing the history and philosophical and scientific achievements of Islam.
This is the group Jordan's King Abdullah met with Thursday after replacing his Cabinet on Tuesday. Jordan, like Egypt, was hit by street protests, but unlike Egypt, government power there is less centralized and demonstrations weren't directed against the king.
Still, Jordan does suffer both economic hardship and governmental corruption.
In Saudi Arabia, per capita income exceeds $20,000 a year, dwarfing that of Egypt. So presumably its danger of instability is less.
By treating the Muslim Brotherhood as statesmen, will moderate Arab leaders like Abdullah appease a group that seeks global Shariah? Or will the move backfire, set the dominoes falling and allow such jihadists to reset the Mideast playing board?
Investors
In his second inaugural address six years ago, then-President Bush, pointing to the liberation of Iraq, boasted that "we have lit a fire" that "warms those who feel its power, it burns those who fight its progress, and one day this untamed fire of freedom will reach the darkest corners of our world."
Egypt certainly resembles an untamed fire right now, but is it a fire of freedom? Egypt's President Mubarak is reviled by protesters as a tyrannical modern-day pharaoh, yet the great beneficiary of his waning power right now is the jihadist Muslim Brotherhood.
In spite of a government ban, it's the largest opposition bloc in Egypt's Parliament, getting its members elected as independents.
The Brotherhood has no more to do with democratic freedom than does Hamas in the West Bank or Hezbollah in Lebanon — two other terrorist organizations that exploit democratic processes.
Were the Brotherhood to gain power, the obvious comparison would be Algeria 20 years ago, when the pro-Shariah Islamic Salvation Front gained parliamentary dominance and the army stepped in to prevent "one man, one vote, one time."
Founded in Egypt over 80 years ago, this oldest and biggest of all Islamist political organizations has tentacles reaching virtually every Islamic nation and extending into the U.S. as well.
The geopolitical implications of the Brotherhood gaining power in the Middle East's most populous Muslim country are chilling — possibly the start of a well-organized pan-Islamist wildfire that could mean takeover of a whole series of Muslim governments by a unified political force adamantly hostile to Western civilization.
National Review's Andrew McCarthy, who as a federal prosecutor convicted the 1993 World Trade Center bombers, exposes the Brotherhood in his new book, "The Grand Jihad." The U.S. government "has long been in possession of the Muslim Brotherhood's playbook — in multiple iterations, as a matter of fact," he notes.
For instance, a 1991 Brotherhood memorandum obtained by the FBI outlined "civilizational jihad" — "eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within," while a post-9/11 raid by Swiss authorities of the home of Brotherhood financier and suspected al-Qaida money launderer Youssef Nada yielded a 14-page, 12-point "master plan" written in Arabic.
Titled "The Project," it told how to "establish an Islamic government on Earth" by coupling terror with global strategies like immigration, propagandizing and political protest.
Yet Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, "along with her top aides, personally held two days of intensive briefings in late January 2010" with associates of the group, McCarthy writes.
And President Obama invited 10 Muslim Brotherhood members to his June 2009 Cairo University speech fictionalizing the history and philosophical and scientific achievements of Islam.
This is the group Jordan's King Abdullah met with Thursday after replacing his Cabinet on Tuesday. Jordan, like Egypt, was hit by street protests, but unlike Egypt, government power there is less centralized and demonstrations weren't directed against the king.
Still, Jordan does suffer both economic hardship and governmental corruption.
In Saudi Arabia, per capita income exceeds $20,000 a year, dwarfing that of Egypt. So presumably its danger of instability is less.
By treating the Muslim Brotherhood as statesmen, will moderate Arab leaders like Abdullah appease a group that seeks global Shariah? Or will the move backfire, set the dominoes falling and allow such jihadists to reset the Mideast playing board?
Investors
posted by madtom at 11:01 PM
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