Egypt marches toward Islamist future

Muslim movements organized by the Muslim Brotherhood are receiving a surge of support throughout Egypt.

Reporting from Cairo, the Telegraph’s Damien McElroy reports how the rapid spread of Muslim political parties ahead of parliamentary elections in September has strengthened fears that radical Islamic movements will dominate Egypt’s new democracy.

“The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest Islamic movement and the founder of Hamas, has set up a network of political parties around the country that eclipse the following of the middle-class activists that overthrew the regime,” he writes. “On the extreme fringe of the Brotherhood, Islamic groups linked to al Qaeda are organizing from the mosques to fill the vacuum left by the collapse of the dictatorship” (April 17).

The Muslim Brotherhood’s leader, Mohammed Badie, has predicted that his party would win 75 percent of the seats it contested. Islamic fundamentalist factions are also emerging as parties. One al-Qaeda-linked group is using its mosques as a political base for the first time in over 30 years. On the other hand, “the April 6th movement that spearheaded protests has no clear plan for party politics” (ibid.). Egypt is clearly headed for an Islamist future.

“Although the leading contenders for Egypt’s presidency are independents, many have begun wooing the Muslim blocs,” writes McElroy. “Frontrunner Amr Moussa, the Arab League president, has conceded that it’s inevitable that Islamic factions will be the bedrock of the political system.”

This is a reality the Trumpethas predicted for 18 years would eventuate.

As Islamists press their advantage, the 10 percent of the population that is Christian is feeling it. More and more of Egypt’s Christians are fleeing the country. Moreover, the Islamists are now demanding that the governor of the southern city of Qena, Emad Shehata Michael, a Coptic Christian and one of the few Christians serving in the government, be removed.

The New American reports, “Adherents of the so-called Salafi movement—Muslims claiming to take the first three generations of Mohammed’s followers as their guide—are threatening to destabilize the area and demanding that the governor be removed so a Muslim will implement sharia law” (April 20).

Associated Press reports that the hard-line Islamists are conducting a campaign of civil disobedience in Qena, sitting on train tracks, taking over government buildings and blocking main roads.

While Egypt’s deputy prime minister has said that the governor will keep his post, leading opposition figure Ayman Nour, who is running for president, is inciting the mob by claiming that Michael tortured him when he was arrested in 2007. Nour, who has also said Egypt should rethink its peace treaty with Israel, has “expressed his solidarity with the people of Qena” (AbramOnline, April 19).

Expect further such persecution of Christians in Egypt as the country falls increasingly under the influence of the Islamists.

Meanwhile, the true colors of potential Egyptian presidential candidate Mohamed ElBaradei are becoming increasingly evident. On April 4, the former UN nuclear watchdog chief and Nobel Peace Prize laureate declared that “if Israel attacked Gaza we would declare war against the Zionist regime.” In an interview with the Al-Watan newspaper, he said, “In case of any future Israeli attack on Gaza—as the next president of Egypt—I will open the Rafah border crossing and will consider different ways to implement the joint Arab defense agreement.”

The Egyptian opposition figure on Tuesday also welcomed the arrest of former President Hosni Mubarak. “This takes our revolution an important step further,” Elbaradei said in an interview with Germany’s Spiegel magazine.

Mubarak and his two sons were arrested April 13 and are being detained for 15 days for questioning. This is clearly a move by the military council currently ruling Egypt to not only placate the people on the street, but to appease the most powerful force in the country, the Muslim Brotherhood.

“This step may have come a bit late, but it is a step in the right direction,” said the Brotherhood’s Mohamed Beltagui. “No one is above the law.”

Keep watching Egypt. Editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote five years ago, “The time is coming when the MB could gain heavy influence or even control over Egypt. … A change of leadership will occur—and probably sooner rather than later.” Read “Prophecy Comes Alive in Egypt!” for the prophetic significance of this.