‘To Jerusalem we go …’

On Friday, as we wrote about here, Egypt welcomed home Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who had been living in exile for decades. For 30 years, Hosni Mubarak had banned the “father figure” of the Muslim Brotherhood from preaching in Egypt. But just seven days after Mubarak’s resignation, Egypt rolled out the red carpet for this wildly popular sheikh, whose extremist views call for the extermination of Jews. Qaradawi also supports suicide bombings aimed at civilians.

An estimated one million people gathered in Tahrir Square for Friday’s “day of victory” rally. According to the Los Angeles Times, “Revelers who couldn’t get into the crowded square extended into the surrounding streets chanting, The people want the purification of their land.”

As Prof. William Jacobson of Cornell Law School writes at his blog, Egypt’s “yuppie revolution” appears to be over—the Islamist revolution has now begun.

Here is a video of the celebration. According to Israel Matzav, the crowd is chanting in Arabic: “To Jerusalem we go, for us to be the martyrs of the millions.”