By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
In the wake of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s announcement that he will not run for re-election this year, a leading expert on Islamic jihadists is warning that a group dedicated to “eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within” is poised to take power in Egypt.
In a column appearing in Human Events yesterday, Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch, a program of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, and the author of ten books, warns that the Muslim Brotherhood, a terrorist group, has entered talks with other opposition groups in Egypt to form a national unity government when current president Hosni Mubarak ultimately falls.
The Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in 1928 in order to restore, in Egypt and worldwide, the prerogatives of political Islam, Spencer explains, which is a state in which Islamic law (Sharia) is the law of the land and the freedom of speech, the freedom of conscience, and legal equality for women and non-Muslims consequently restricted.
An international group, the Brotherhood’s goal for the U.S., which was found in documents uncovered during the 2007 trial of the Holy Land Foundation, is to “eliminate and destroy the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotage’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”
Spencer says this same group “now has its best chance in decades to seize power there [in Egypt] and establish an Islamic state, which bodes ill for both the United States and its most reliable Middle Eastern ally, Israel.”
Evidence of the Brotherhood’s intentions in Egypt can be found on the border with Gaza where armed members of the Palestinian terrorist group, Hamas, which calls itself the “Muslim Brotherhood for Palestine” are already crossing into Egypt.
Another worrisome development in this troubling picture is the ascendency of Muhammad ElBaradei, the former Director General of the UN’s nuclear watchdog group, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), who is joining forces with the Brotherhood in Egypt in a bid to take over when Mubarak falls.
ElBaradei who is suspected of being an Iranian sympathizer, was known for having played a “double game” with Iran over its nuclear program, downplaying its seriousness while criticizing the country for not cooperating with sanctions. The U.S. was so suspicious of his motives that they made an unsuccessful attempt to block his second term as IAEA chief in 2005.
“Last summer, when ElBaradei floated the possibility of running for President of Egypt, the Brotherhood strongly supported his candidacy,” Spencer points out.
“And so now, with the prospect of a Muslim Brotherhood/ElBaradei regime in Egypt closer to reality than ever, the United States faces an ominous replay of the events in Iran in the late 1970s: an authoritarian pro-American regime was toppled by pro-democracy forces that were forthwith co-opted by Islamic supremacists who installed a fanatically anti-American Sharia regime that turned out to be far more repressive and draconian than the one that had been toppled.”
In spite of these dangers, The Los Angeles Times is reporting that on Monday, the Obama Administration expressed support for the first time for groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood in a reformed Egyptian government. The White House made the support conditional by saying any nonsecular group that come to power must reject violence and recognize democratic goals if the U.S. is to become comfortable with it.
Spencer points out that the Obama Administration is home to several fierce anti-Israel players, such as Samantha Power, who is a member of the National Security Council.
Spencer criticizes the U.S. for refusing to properly evaluate the global jihad threat.
“Inside the Beltway there have been numerous calls to engage the Brotherhood as a ‘moderate’ group’: the Mubarak regime has never entertained such comforting illusions. Perhaps if the State Department had shed them long ago and directed its copious aid to Egypt to limiting the Brotherhood’s scope and influence, we wouldn’t be in this fix now.”
© All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly®/Women of Grace® http://www.womenofgrace.com
