November 18, 2011

Who's protesting military rule in Egypt?

"Although the demonstration was originally called by liberal activists..."
... most stayed away after it became clear that the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist political parties would dominate the day....

The spark for the Islamists’ protests was a recent set of declarations issued by the military-led government as ground rules for the drafting of a new Constitution. Many of its provisions sought to enshrine protections of individual liberties and minority rights that liberals have sought. But another provision granted the military a long-term political role as guardian of “constitutional legitimacy,” which many Islamists suspect is a reference to the secular character of the state and could give the military an excuse to intervene at will....

29 comments:

Shouting Thomas said...

Hope this isn't hijacking.

Take a trip over to Adbusters, the intellectual center of OWS, and you'll find that their model is the Arab Spring.

They don't have much to say about the reality of the takeover by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Erik Robert Nelson said...

Yay. A choice between military dictatorship and the Muslim Brotherhood. Wonderful.

coketown said...

May I suggest, perhaps, restoring the monarchy? You know...Pharaohs. They were quite prosperous back then. And they can still despise the Hebrews, so it's win-win.

Scott M said...

May I suggest, perhaps, restoring the monarchy? You know...Pharaohs. They were quite prosperous back then. And they can still despise the Hebrews, so it's win-win.

I think the Egyptians would have done this a long time ago, but their stargate is busted. It was broken by one of their more redneck pharaohs right after he was reported to have said, "Hey...watch this!"

traditionalguy said...

The Muslims have always held power in Egypt. But since the end of the 1973 War, the Egyptians were no longer ashamed of being beaten by Israel since they had won the first three days of the conflict planned by Egyptian Generals (Coptic of course)started with a joint Egyptian/Syrian surprise attack on Yom Kippur Day of fasting and Atonement in Israel when everyone is off duty so to speak.

But thanks to Nixon, the Israelis were resupplied at their darkest hour and won the war anyway. So Egypt needed the USA to save their butts from Israel.

That made realists out of Muslims like Mubarack who was the Head of the Egyptian Airforce at the time.

Begin and Sadat chose a peace treaty to return the Sinai to Egypt and then Sadad's man Mubarack went in as President and stopped the Muslims cold after they killed Sadat for making peace.

We are at the moment when realists will rule in Egypt and stay at peace, or Muslims will return to restart the war with Israel.

One guess whose side Obama and his antisemitic gang is on. They are assisting the Muslims who want to retake Palestine from dead Jews.

Joe said...

(The Uncredentialed, Crypto Jew)

May I suggest, perhaps, restoring the monarchy


You do know that prior to 1952 Egypt WAS a Monarchy…last king was Farouk, overthrown, ultimately, by Gamal Abdel Nasser.

coketown said...

You do know that prior to 1952 Egypt WAS a Monarchy…last king was Farouk, overthrown, ultimately, by Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Nope, I did not know that. Thank you for the irrelevant history lesson of the day.

Joe said...

(The Uncredentialed, Crypto Jew)

Nope, I did not know that. Thank you for the irrelevant history lesson of the day


Us Joooos we keep up with who’s ruling Egypt, now….

Jaske said...

ab absurdo

We don't work hard.
We expect hard work life.
0.5 percent fight for our lifestyle.

Romans where overcome by Picts and cowardice.

traditionalguy said...

Since European nations planned and built the Suez canal, Egypt had been a subsidiary of European Nations.

The Kings were figureheads only.

After WWII and the founding of the State of Israel the Arabs have been reasserting themselves with a sponsorship of the USSR or the USA.

Will the Obama Gang surrender Israel fast enough to appease the Muslims, that seems to be today's the question.

The surprise answer will be that Israel will emerge with the power over the area as the Muslims have always feared them doing since that Moses guy did his thing to Egypians who did not get passed over.

coketown said...

Us Joooos we keep up with who’s ruling Egypt, now….

That explains everything

Anonymous said...

Turkey has done just fine with the military as protectors of secular democracy. Undermining the military has been key to Islamist strategy there. (Interesting, Word doesn't recognize "Islamist" as a word.)

Time for Egypt's liberals to wake up and realize the best deal they're gonna get will come from the Army.

Lucius said...

I wonder if Bob Wright will still tell us about all the helpful liberals in the Middle East just looking for a little help and appreciation from us.

Does anyone know why Bob & Mickey haven't done a diavlog in forever? Have they fallen out? I can't find out anything.

Lucius said...

@Shouting Thomas: Everytime I've ever looked at an "Adbusters", it just looked like "i-D" or one of those hipster fashion magazines.

Are they even serious about the leftwing schtick, or is it just upscale, softcore porn, like certain music videos?

Jaske said...

Eygpt's armed is Islam. Now is the time to arm Israel. Just because.

edutcher said...

Another foreign policy win for the Administration, or does GodZero still not know in which time zone he is?

Peter said...

Well, they could follow the freedom-loving example of Iraq. Is it unresonable to expect anything better than this (From the Iraqi Constitution):

No law may be enacted that contradicts the established provisions of Islam
...
The Federal Supreme Court shall be made up of a number of judges,
experts in Islamic jurisprudence, and legal scholars

Jaske said...

You better understand this:
Islam want's control of the Middle East, vocal and Caliph, Veritas.

cassandra lite said...

Wow, who coulda seen this coming? Everyone, apparently, but the administration.

Carol_Herman said...

It's like watchig the plagues about to arrive. Starting with starvation. Or, perhaps, the thugs owning Cairo. And, people not able to buy propane.

Even bread will be scarce.

Too bad nobody's yet caught on that arabs aren't fans of democracy!

When we went to Irak? Most Americans thought (except for Bagdhad Bob), the arabs would jump for joy. And, love our soldiers. Did not!

So, the truth keeps hanging around.

Egypt won't get back its tourist trade, either.

And, the mask has fallen. It used to be said that "visiting Egypt" as a tourist was safe. That wasn't even all true during Mubarak's time.

Exactly what was the legitimate complaint against Mubarak?

Nora said...

Did you notice that in the Arab world the political fraction that demands freedom and democracy the loudest is religious extremists: Iran, Algeria, Taliban, PA ...

Eric said...

The surprise answer will be that Israel will emerge with the power over the area as the Muslims have always feared them doing since that Moses guy did his thing to Egypians who did not get passed over.

Eh? I can assure you the Muslims feared nothing until at least the 7th century A.D. Long after Moses.

Anonymous said...

"May I suggest, perhaps, restoring the monarchy? You know...Pharaohs. They were quite prosperous back then. And they can still despise the Hebrews, so it's win-win."

So let it be written. So let it be done.

.... ohh donuts!

Anonymous said...

You know that as I reflect on all things worldly it appears to me that Egyptians when kept busy tend to not involve themselves in idiotic adventures.

Perhaps the key is to get them building pyramids again. They could always use more pyramids for the tourist trade. Plus they can write interesting messages for future archeologists "don't you wish you'd gone into another line of work you yob!" and other such profound notes for posterity. Or posterior as the case may be.

I think it's win-win.

And I need to freshen my gin & tonic.

Darrell said...

Eric--Muslims will tell you that their ancestors were always Muslims back to the time of Adam and Eve. They just didn't have a name for it until the 7th Century A.D.

My first experience with this was in an argument about St. Paul (Saul).

Methadras said...

What part of I told you so do leftards not understand?

Pettifogger said...

traditionalguy said: "We are at the moment when realists will rule in Egypt and stay at peace, or Muslims will return to restart the war with Israel."

But Egypt is not self sufficient in food, and tourism was a critical source of foreign exchange for importing food. Tourism will not be coming back in the near future, so Egypt probably won't have the wherewithal to attack Israel any more than does Somalia.

We will soon be asked to donate to Egyptians who, through no fault of their own, will be in desperate straits. No fault of their own? Really? The evil Americans or the Jews ran off all their tourists?

David R. Graham said...

"When we went to Irak? Most Americans thought (except for Bagdhad Bob), the arabs would jump for joy. And, love our soldiers. Did not!"

Well, Carol, that does not square with the facts. Sorry to say it because rarely does your writing not square with the facts. In this particular, it does not.

US Armed forces in Iraq stopped nightly slaughter Iraqi-on-Iraqi, Sadarist-on-Sunni, AQ-on-everybody. The story never got told in the media, unsurprisingly. But that is what happened.

I won't be more specific, but I do want to demur this particular assertion of yours because I have knowledge that invalidates it.

David R. Graham said...

"But Egypt is not self sufficient in food ... "

The Bread Basket of the Roman Empire is not self-sufficient in food.

Because of ... what? A: Mohammedanism (i.e., clerics and scholars), who extol fate as Providence, sloth as Divine Mercy, hate as Enlightenment and God (aka clerics and scholars) as beyond scrutiny.