It has always been a tough argument for me to convince some people that Political Islamism and Islam are not synonymous. One is a political ideology with carefully selected aspects of Islamic traditions and Qu’ranic attributions to justify almost anything. Like most totalitarian movements, it largely relies on fear and violence but is able to reshape itself for temporary reasons. So it was with the Muslim Brotherhood. It has an 80 year history of violence and intolerance, yet when the Muslim Brotherhood came to power in Egypt, the perennial apologists for radicalized Islamic movements, mostly found among left-wing academia and the “neo Arabists” of the West forecast a gradual moderation.
The Obama regime, as usual, relied upon these “experts” and the “Obama Effect.” Based upon the rapturous reception Obama received in from Cairo speech of 2009, he ,as usual in his massive egotism, assumed that not being Bush and using a few islamic phrases and Arabic words would precipitate a new era of Arab-American relations. Carried along by the first Egyptian revolution and fall of Mubarak, the Obama team also placed their bets on the Islamic movement. Never mind the embedded misogyny, medieval thinking, intolerance toward religious minorities, and general lack of tools to manage an economy.
This poster has been widely exchanged on social media by Egyptians.
So the clueless Obama team continued to support Islamist movements in Egypt, and in Syria. So what is the big lesson of the Egyptian second revolution. The more educated elements of the Muslim community of Egypt recognizes the threat to a civilized society presented by a cancerous political Islamist movement. The “experts” in the West and apologists apparently still do not. This is evidenced by the liberal blather over “a democratically ” elected government being overturned by a military coup. Indeed It was a coup, and the Morsi government was elected more or less democratically elected). Nevertheless it was becoming clear that this was the beginning of a “one man, one vote, one time, scenario. Morsi was moving to Islamize Egypt and a large percentage of people rose against that process. The incompetence of the Obama foreign service was typified by the vacuous remarks on several occasions by our ambassador in Egypt, Anne Patterson.
What come next I’m not sure. The problems have just begun, The Islamists have a loyal following in Egypt and they are financially supported by wealthy Sunni businessmen around the world, as well as the Qatari government with billions of dollars.
* The caption underneath the video reads in Arabic “The Egyptian people’s response to Obama’s interferences”.
