Morsi's Cleric - Banish the Sleep from the Eyes of All Jews


Michael Stuart Kelly

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Morsi's Cleric - Banish the Sleep from the Eyes of All Jews

 

Mohammed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood candidate, won Egypt's election.

 

Here is a video of Egyptian cleric Safwat Higazi introducing Morsi's campaign on May 1, not even two months ago.

 

Bretibart stepped all over itself earlier this morning by identifying Higazi as Morsi and this even popped up on Drudge for a bit. What's worse, Bretibart didn't need to spin the truth at all.

 

The video below is not the one I saw earlier, but that's no real consolation for Islamists trying to hide their message. Here are some choice quotes:

 

"The capital of the caliphate - the capital of the United States of the Arabs - will be Jerusalem, Allah willing."

 

"Millions of martyrs march toward Jerusalem."

 

"Banish the sleep from the eyes of all Jews."

 

The other video I saw earlier showed those and much worse quotes, like exhorting Muslims to die as martyrs at the threshold of Jerusalem and proclaiming everyone is Hamas now.

 

The problem isn't one man saying this. The problem is the crowd chanting it in call and response. And chant it they did. Over and over. With Morsi sitting up there in a totally satisfied pose.

 

 

I have a feeling this isn't going to end well.

 

Michael

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Reaction from Israeli officialdom is striking. From Haaretz:

Mixed messages from Israel as Islamist Morsi wins Egypt presidency

Israel voiced respect on Sunday for the victory of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt's presidential election, calling on the new administration in Cairo to maintain the countries' landmark peace accord.

"Israel appreciates the democratic process in Egypt and respects its outcome," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement after the Brotherhood's candidate, Mohammed Morsi, was declared successor to the U.S.-aligned Hosni Mubarak, who was toppled last year.

From the Jerusalem Post:

Mohamed Morsy wins Egypt presidential election

Opposition Leader Shelly Yechimovich also commented on the Egyptian elections, saying that peace with Egypt is of the highest strategic importance, and that Israel must do everything within its power to maintain it. "Despite the complexity entailed in it, we must conduct a dialogue with whoever is elected to lead Egypt," she said.

Brotherhood officials, speaking as supporters turned Cairo's Tahrir Square into a roaring sea of flags and chants of "Allahu akbar!" (God is greatest), said they would press on with protest vigils to demand that the ruling military council cancel this month's dissolution of the Islamist-led parliament and a decree which gave the generals powers that will restrict the president.

From the Egyption Independent:

Israel respects Morsy's win, seeks cooperation

Israel voiced respect on Sunday for the victory of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt's presidential election, calling on the new administration in Cairo to maintain the countries' peace accord.

"Israel appreciates the democratic process in Egypt and respects its outcome," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement after the Brotherhood's candidate, Mohamed Morsy, was declared successor ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

"Israel expects continue cooperation with the Egyptian administration on the basis of the peace accord between the two countries, which is in the interest of the two peoples and contributes to regional stability," the statement said.

Also from the Independent:

Meet your president: Mohamed Morsy

Morsy was born in 1951 in the Delta province of Sharqiya. He studied engineering at Cairo University before he went to the University of South California to pursue a PhD. According to his resume posted on a Muslim Brotherhood’s website, Morsy worked as assistant professor at California State University Northridge in the early 1980s.

He returned to Egypt in the mid-1980s to teach at Zagazig University’s Faculty of Engineering.

Unlike many leading brothers, Morsy’s legacy does not emanate from many years of imprisonment or decades of sacrifice to the long-persecuted organization. His name began to echo within the Muslim Brotherhood only in the early 2000s after his victory in parliamentary elections.

Michael's uneasiness with Egypts first democratic presidential election is justified, I think. The uneasiness is justified by the Unknown. It is part of the human repertoire of behaviour to fear (or at least anxiously anticipate) an unknown future.

I do not think it is important or useful to simply cringe or wail on the sidelines -- especially if the cringing and wailing (Hi Commander Wiig) is accompanied by bone-deep ignorance and a depresing bigotry.

The uncertainties in Egypt are many. The uncertainties are firstly what power will the new president have -- since the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces issued a decree limiting the power of the presidency. Added to the uncertainty is the dissolution of the entire newly elected Parliament by Egypt's highest court.

The constitutional decree by the SCAF is in dispute, but at the moment, they have the power, and it is the SCAF's decisions to relinquish power to civilians that are under scrutiny.

I suggest to all who follow Egyptian news to follow Egyptian news directly, read Egyptian media and analyses -- the filter of USA and other Western media outlets is constant. The filters are (rightfully) US and European (and Israeli) interests. The interests of the USA were long served by the Egyptian military dictatorship under Mubarak.

The interests of the USA are not entirely clear. Objectivist Living commentators can certainly write their prognostications and their perceptions and their fears, but it is difficult to assess the future prospects without understanding the past.

Easiest to do is to imagine the harshest, most demented sectarian/ideological tirades (as from the cleric) will be the policy of the new government, once it is announced and begins its activities.

A mirror to American political propaganda provides a partially-corrective angle on events in Egypt.

Did the nightmare vision of Obama Nation come to life? Some may say indeed it did, that FEMA camps await dissidents and that the Deep Government in control is moving swiftly towards the Final Days.

To those who prefer a swamp of fear and ignorance (like OL's resident talking chimpanzee), Morsi's win can only be a cheerful thing: Morsi is a follower of the US-based conspiracy movement surround the attack of September 11th; like the chimp and a large handful of OLers, Morsi believes it was an inside job ...

Here is an article from an agent of Deep Government, in Foreign Policy. The author, Shadi Hamid, asks "Should Americans be worried?" [about Morsi] and details his interactions with the new Head of State.

Brother Number One

"When you come and tell me that the plane hit the tower like a knife in butter," he said, shifting to English, "then you are insulting us. How did the plane cut through the steel like this? Something must have happened from the inside. It's impossible."

Welcome to the Twilight Zone.

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I suspect the new President of Egypt will use the military to buffer his relationship with the U.S. to keep the money coming and the military will let him know privately the limits of how he can comport himself.

--Brant

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William,

With all that call and response about Jews, I wish the UNKNOWN were a bit less known.

It's almost as if a USA Presidential candidate were surrounded by KKK in white spooky garb shouting and looping in call-and-response, "Watch out, n****r, the KKK's getting bigger!" two months before the election. Except the candidate doesn't participate. He just looks on benevolently. Then he gets elected and we talk about the reasonableness of being uneasy with the Unknown.

Well... yes... technically you could call it the Unknown...

And technically he did not shout out the nasty stuff...

But he was there soaking it up.

Technically speaking, of course.

(btw - That used to be an actual KKK chant.)

What I'm hoping for is the trappings of power to soften Morsi on his radicalism. If not, I am pretty sure he will make a mess. His opponents are already going to make one. Cleanup is going to be painful.

Talk about a situation ripe for assassination...

By friend and foe alike of the new Pres...

Michael

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I suspect the new President of Egypt will use the military to buffer his relationship with the U.S. to keep the money coming and the military will let him know privately the limits of how he can comport himself.

Your suspicions are borne out by fact, Brant. You obviously are keeping track of the details -- the SCAF issued a constitutional declaration that sharply reduced the powers of the President. This President simply will not be able to exercise the power of a Mubarak-style military dictator.

You may or may not be familiar with a few other facts about Morsi. He has five children. Two are US citizens, having been born during his academic years in the USA. His doctorate in Engineering came from USC (University of Southern California). His wife lives in a tent (with eye-holes).

Since the Breitbart-highlighted May 1st speech by Reverent Wright (er, Higazi), Morsi was forced to respond, and to issue pointed answers to the fraught questions raised by Higazi. Does Morsi seek a Caliphate? No. Does he intend to install an FJP premier? No. Will he tear up the Israel/Egypt treaties? No.

Or so he says.

The good things about Egypt are Egyptians. No one has a monopoly, and SCAF will not allow a monopoly. As you have alluded to, Brant, the military holds trump cards, and it will be a slow process to return power to civilians. Defense and Foreign Affairs will -- for the foreseeable future -- be decided by SCAF.

What I will look out for is the identity of the Prime Minister and the composition of the Cabinet Morsi summons. Will the PM be FJP or from a 'civil' party? We do not know for sure, but Morsi has indicated he will appoint a non-FJP personnage, a 'consensus' candidate.

It's almost as if a USA Presidential candidate were surrounded by KKK in white spooky garb shouting and looping in call-and-response, "Watch out, n****r, the KKK's getting bigger!" two months before the election. Except the candidate doesn't participate. He just looks on benevolently. Then he gets elected and we talk about the reasonableness of being uneasy with the Unknown.

I reject your analogy, as usual. But I do see its persuasive power, its 'marketing' appeal, so to speak. Better to be vague about just what is feared, and to rely on third-hand (botched) analyses from media in the Comfort Zone.

Yes, fear Morsi and the future (or be apprehensive). Be alert to all the promises made that can be broken. Be alert to the words and actions of Morsi. Be vigilant (as the USA is) and use the enormous economic power and influence of USA subsidies to guide the former FJP leader to What Is OK and What Is Not OK.

I agree with the import of the awkward phrase/hope that "the trappings of power ... soften Morsi on his radicalism." Of course, accurately assessing Morsi's presumed "radicalism" is not so simple. What makes his radicalism different from Khater`s radicalism, or Ghannouchi`s radicalism, or Saudi radicalism or Qatari radicalism? Can one measure and assess this radicalism?

Indeed, does "radicalism" need to be demonstrated or merely assumed? I tend to go with the Alarmists -- fear the Worst (the worst imaginings) and give hard alarmist spin to any news out of Egypt -- reinforce that fear alarm. Alarmism pays the bills, after all, whether at Breitbart or Woods Hole. Better to be alert to the possibilty of murky horrors rather than dismiss them as unlikely ...

If anything, Morsi to me sounded like a Jesus Republican in his speech today (carried live by Al-Jazeera), a God-bothered Republican accepting office; the speech was long on Gawd, 'unity' boilerplate, recognition of Egyptian social reality (enduring civil society, non-Muslims) and the margin of maneuver left to him by SCAF ... and not-so-oddly, repeated assurances to women, Copts, secularists and those hoping for a time of stability to usher in necessary economic reforms and reconstruction. Independent judiciary, a reduction in the scope of the ability of the military to arrest, try and jail civilians, a flowering of independent economic enterprise ... blah blah blah.

Edited by william.scherk
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i haven't had a good night's sleep since Friday.

Ba'al Chatzaf

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Ba'al, bear in mind, Arabs like sounding off, with flourishes. When they stick to peaceful subjects it can be very poetic. One should accept that battle rhetoric like this has been streaming from radio stations in Cairo, Baghdad, Damascus, etc - ever since the late '40's, EVERY DAY, and will go on indefinitely. Of course, Israelis pick it up and are generally inured to it, or laugh about it. I'd guess it is part unifying-rallying-cry, part standard politics (the equivalent of "And I will lower income taxes!! - YAY!!!) part bravado and self-esteem building. As any leader, it's expected of you to hammer at the Jews.

I heard some broadcasts in the early '60's when I was in Israel. When translated for me, I was horror-struck: hours and hours of screaming "We will throw the Yehudis into the sea" stuff.

My relatives advised me not to fret about it, to see it as a joke. A few years after, though, they did attack. So it's best not to ignore the rhetoric completely, as I'm sure Israel is not at the moment.

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Ba'al, bear in mind, Arabs like sounding off, with flourishes.....

So did the Nazis. I have been targeted along with my children and grandchildren.

I take these people literally and at their word. They mean it.

Ba'al Chatzaf

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My relatives advised me not to fret about it, to see it as a joke. A few years after, though, they did attack. So it's best not to ignore the rhetoric completely, as I'm sure Israel is not at the moment.

I have six million reasons for seeing it otherwise. And you may be sure the Israelis are not going to let down their guard. Once bitten, twice warned. Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on you. Jews have been targets of destruction since the end of the Babylonian Exile. How often does our blood have to flows before the world can see we are not paranoid?

When someone paints a target on one's pink ass, it is only logical to expect aimed fire.

So I will ignore (for my sake and that of my children) your wonderfully cheerful estimate of matters.

Ba'al Chatzaf

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No. Not cheerful. As pragmatic as Israelis are, and have to be. If you do not see

that it's important to laugh in the face of daily danger, you're not tough enough to have ever survived in Israel.

I believe Israelis figure that losing one life for every one million words of hatred

is a bearable loss - and you know the value of each life to Jews. And they're not going

to lose perspective on their long-term goal.

Egpyt will again become a physical threat to Israel one day, it is clear - but not yet. Not for quite a while, I think.

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My relatives advised me not to fret about it, to see it as a joke. A few years after, though, they did attack. So it's best not to ignore the rhetoric completely, as I'm sure Israel is not at the moment.

I have six million reasons for seeing it otherwise. And you may be sure the Israelis are not going to let down their guard. Once bitten, twice warned. Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Jews have been targets of destruction since the end of the Babylonian Exile. How often does our blood have to flows before the world can see we are not paranoid?

When someone paints a target on one's pink ass, it is only logical to expect aimed fire.

So I will ignore (for my sake and that of my children) your wonderfully cheerful estimate of matters.

Ba'al Chatzaf

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