Guess Who Is Smiling on the Protests in Egypt?
Iran’s leaders are gleefully watching the Egyptian protests. “To those who do not see the realities, I clarify that an Islamic Middle East is being created based on Islam, religion and democracy with prevailing religious principals,” said senior Iranian cleric Ayatollah Seyyed Ahmad Khatami, according to the government-controlled Islamic Republic News Agency.
“I herewith proclaim to those (Western leaders) who still do not want to see the realities that the political axis of the new Middle East will soon be Islamic rulership and a democracy based on religion,” he said.
“All these protests in Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan and Yemen are inspired by Iran’s Islamic revolution and these countries are de facto rocked by the aftershock of the Iranian Revolution,” he continued.
He has good reason to be jubilant. As a former Israeli national security adviser and senior research fellow at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies, Maj.-Gen. (res.) Giora Eiland, said, “There’s a reasonable chance that if a revolution takes place in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood would rise to power. That would be bad not just for Israel but for all democracies.”
The terrorist group Muslim Brotherhood has called for Egypt to set up a regime similar to Iran’s, where religious leaders dominate the government. Iran has maintained informal ties with the group for years. Both strongly back Hamas against Israel. The Brotherhood’s leader, Muhammed Mahdi Akef, has no problem with Iran’s Shia Islam and does not oppose its spread in Egypt.
An Egypt led by the Muslim Brotherhood would get on very well with Iran.
On Friday, demonstrations in Egypt picked up after Egyptians visited their mosques for prayers. A spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood said Friday’s protests would be an “intifada.” He said that the Brotherhood was encouraging members of its youth organization to join.
Another leader of the opposition movement is the former head of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (iaea) Mohamed ElBaradei. Caroline Glick points out, “As iaea head, ElBaradei shielded Iran’s nuclear weapons program from the Security Council. He repeatedly ignored evidence indicating that Iran’s nuclear program was a military program rather than a civilian energy program. When the evidence became too glaring to ignore, ElBaradei continued to lobby against significant UN Security Council sanctions or other actions against Iran and obscenely equated Israel’s purported nuclear program to Iran’s.”
No wonder ElBaradei has the support of the Muslim Brotherhood. And he defends the Brotherhood in the foreign press.
The Muslim Brotherhood is Egypt’s most popular party. If Mubarak goes, it will likely take control. Just as the Bolsheviks hijacked the Russian revolution and caused Russia to emerge seven months later as a Communist nation, so too will the Brotherhood hijack Egypt’s revolution. The demonstrations may favor democracy now, but a radical Islamic state is certain to emerge.
At that point, Iran would really have much to be happy about. “Owing to that U.S. aid, the Egyptian military today makes the military Israel barely defeated in 1973 look like a gang of cavemen,” writes Glick. “Egypt has nearly 300 F-16s. Its main battle tank is the M1A1 which it produces in Egypt. Its navy is the largest in the region. Its army is twice the size of the [Israel Defense Forces]. Its air defense force constitutes a massive threat to the [Israeli Air Force]. And of course, the ballistic missiles and chemical weapons it has purchased from the likes of North Korea and China give it a significant stand-off mass-destruction capability.”
The Trumpet has been prophesying for 20 years that Islamists will take over Egypt. To see what is behind these forecasts, see Brad Macdonald’s latest column, “Is a Revolution Under Way in Egypt?”