NEWS FOR TODAY:
Why Americans should care about
what happens in Egypt
This weekend the country of Egypt faces a critical juncture as thousands of citizens protest the government of President Honsi Mubarak. There is a very real possibility of the protest movement turning into a full-scale revolution that brings about a new government in the country. The result of this weekends’ events will dramatically affect the lives of approximately 80 million human beings, which is reason enough to care about the story. Still, some may need some additional motivation to pay attention to what happens in Egypt. So, with no further delay, here are three reasons every American should care about Egypt.
[Slideshow: Dramatic images from the protests in Egypt]
The Suez Canal
The country of Egypt contains a crucial choke point for transportation called the Suez Canal. The canal connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea. Without the canal, ships are forced to go all the way around the southern tip of Africa. A significant amount of oil travels through the canal, and United States warships frequently are transported through the canal. Simply put, the canal holds vital economic and strategic importance. Over 60% of the world's known oil reserves are in the Middle East. The United States imports approximately 9 to 12 million barrels of oil each day just to keep up with the massive demand of the economy, and much of that oil comes through the Suez canal. At least one United States aircraft carrier fleet is always stationed in the area.
If the Egyptian government falls into chaos, it could endanger the continued operation of the canal. If the country is taken over by a government unfriendly to the United States, it could seriously endanger the ability of the United States to use the canal.
Oil Prices
As stated above, the United States is still tremendously reliant on oil from the region. Yesterday crude oil prices spiked 4.3% on news of the unrest within in Egypt. The country of Egypt actually has very little crude oil reserves. The larger concern is that the Suez Canal could cut off transportation of crude oil from the region, or that the unrest spreads to other countries like Saudi Arabia that do have more oil. Many analysts believe the current protests in Egypt were inspired by those in Tunisia over the last month. The large-scale protest in Egypt may spur movements in other countries and cause instability in a region that is responsible for keeping American cars running. At the very least, the unrest in Egypt alone is likely to cause gas prices to rise over the next month.
Stability in the Middle East
As undemocratic as the country of Egypt may be, the United States has still viewed the nation as a source of stability in the relatively volatile Middle East over the last three decades. Egypt has a long-standing peace agreement with Israel. Egypt was supportive of the United States' first war in Iraq, and has been called a close ally in the United States' fight against terrorism in the region.
Under the best case scenario, the authoritative regime of Mubarak falls and a new, democratically-elected, peaceful government is installed in its place. However, the best case scenario may not unfold. In fact, history tells us that revolutions quite often result in an even worse government than that which was overthrown. A weaker government in Egypt may allow for a growing influence of terrorist groups within the country. Under the worst case scenario, an even more ruthless anti-Israel regime would take over - similar to what happened in Iran after the revolution in that country during the late 1970’s. •
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An unidentified protester in Egypt stands before a fiery background (courtesy: Al-Jazeera)
Worldwide Islamist revolution explodes – Aaron Klein www.wnd.com
As powder keg spreads across Mideast, clerics celebrate rise of Muslim power
TEL AVIV – Islamists, in particular the anti-Western Muslim Brotherhood, seem poised to take power throughout the Middle East as a result of riots that have already toppled one Arab regime and are threatening others, in what some are calling only the latest wave of an Islamic "tsunami" sweeping the globe.
In Egypt, members of President Hosni Mubarak's family reportedly have fled the country as a flood of violent, fatal street protests threatens the stability of this most populous Arab nation, a longtime U.S. ally and the only Muslim nation with a long-lasting peace agreement with Israel.
The White House has been championing the protests, calling for a transition to democratic rule in Egypt, where the Muslim Brotherhood formed the main opposition to Mubarak.
The Obama administration's support for the unrest is strikingly reminiscent of Jimmy Carter's support of the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, which marked the birth of modern Islamist expansion now seemingly sweeping the Mideast.
In fact, some Muslim clerics are already calling the riots in Egypt simply an extension of 1979's Islamist conquests.
"Thirty-one years after the victory of the Islamic Republic, we are faced with the obvious fact that these movements are the aftershocks of the Islamic Revolution," said Iranian cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, as reported by Iran's Radio Zamaneh. "The fate of those who challenge [our] religion is destruction."
Speaking of media and government leaders, Khatami added, "They want to highlight the labor, liberal and democratic issues, but the most important issue, which is the religious streak of these protests, [is] being denied."
The leader of Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood, Hammam Saeed, warned that the unrest in Egypt will spread across the Mideast until Arabs succeed at toppling leaders allied with the United States.
"The Americans and Obama must be losing sleep over the popular revolt in Egypt," Saeed said at a sympathy protest held outside the Egyptian Embassy in Amman. "Now, Obama must understand that the people have woken up and are ready to unseat the tyrant leaders who remained in power because of U.S. backing."
And on the Internet, the Middle East Media Research Institute reports, prominent Salafi cleric Abu Mundhir Al-Shinqiti issued a fatwa in the website Minbar Al-Tawhid Wal Jihad encouraging the protests in Egypt, claiming Islamist jihadis are now on the verge of a historic moment in the history of the Islamic nation, an "earthquake" he likened to the Sept. 11 attacks in New York City.
As the clerics are accurately noting, Egypt is only one of many recent cases where Islamic unrest has surged in the Middle East and North Africa.
In Tunisia, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was toppled following rioting and street protests and widespread looting.
In Yemen, last week witnessed the largest protests in years against Yemen's leader, Ali Abullah Saleh, who is considered a crucial ally in the U.S. fight against al-Qaida in his country and in the Middle East. The protests further escalated yesterday.
Banners wielded by protesters in Yemen demanded the country's president abandon changes to the constitution that would grant Saleh another 10 years in power.
Algeria, Jordan and Morocco are taking note, fearing similar outbreaks.
In Pakistan, even the "peace-promoting," so-called "moderate" Islamic Barelvi sect is organizing rallies demanding the release of a policeman who confessed to the assassination of Punjab governor Slaman Taseer, a liberal politician who criticized federal blasphemy laws.
In Lebanon, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia seems to be hijacking the country's government using legal means.
Earlier this month, Hezbollah used its veto power to topple the government of the Western-oriented prime minister, Saad Hariri. Hezbollah feared Hariri would use security forces to arrest members of its militia following indictments expected to be issued in the near future against Hezbollah for the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.
Last week, the Hezbollah-backed candidate for prime minister, Najib Mikat, seemed poised to form the next government, sending Hariri into the opposition amid the threat of sectarian clashes.
Hezbollah members reportedly deployed on the streets of Beirut this week in a clear signal intended to deter Hariri backers from rioting.
The news media largely have painted the revolts in Yemen, Tunisia and Egypt as popular unrest, citing the use of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to make the arrangements for the demonstrations.
White House championing
The White House itself has been almost openly championing the unrest.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today called for an "orderly transition" to democracy in Egypt, where the Muslim Brotherhood is the main opposition group.
Obama himself reportedly voiced support for an "orderly transition" in Egypt that is responsive to the aspirations of Egyptians in phone calls with foreign leaders, the White House said.
Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough, speaking in a White House webcast, also urged the government and protesters in Egypt to refrain from violence.
Egyptian officials speaking to WND, however, warned the Muslim Brotherhood has the most to gain from any political reform.
The Brotherhood seeks to spread Islam around the world, in large part using nonviolent means. Hamas and al-Qaida are violent Brotherhood offshoots.
An Egyptian security official noted the Muslim Brotherhood was directly involved in protest organization.
Similarly, it is Islamists allied with the Muslim Brotherhood who stand to gain in Pakistan, Jordan, Tunisia and Yemen. Already, the Shiite fundementalist Hezbollah organization is poised to exert enormous influence over Lebanon.
WND reported the Egyptian government suspects elements of the current uprising there, particularly political aspects, are being coordinated with the U.S. State Department.
A senior Egyptian diplomat told WND the regime of Mubarak suspects the U.S. has been aiding protest planning by Mohamed ElBaradei, who is seen as one of the main opposition leaders in Cairo.
ElBaradei, former International Atomic Energy Agency chief, has reinvented himself as a campaigner for "reform" in Egypt. He is a candidate for this year's scheduled presidential elections. ElBaradei arrived in Cairo just after last week's protests began and is reportedly being confined to his home by Egyptian security forces. He is seen as an ally of the Muslim Brotherhood, the main opposition force in Egypt.
Last week, ElBaradei gave an interview to Der Spiegel defending the Brotherhood.
"We should stop demonizing the Muslim Brotherhood. ... [They] have not committed any acts of violence in five decades. They too want change. If we want democracy and freedom, we have to include them instead of marginalizing them," he said.
Just today, the Muslim Brotherhood said it was in talks with other anti-government figures, including ElBaradai, to form a national unity government without Mubarak.
David Rubin, former mayor of the Israeli town of Shiloh and author of the book "The Islamic Tsunami," however, warns that the Obama administration cannot continue to ignore the Muslim Brotherhood's and other Islamist groups' greater goals.
"There is a plan to take over Western civilization," Rubin told The Washington Times, "and we need to recognize it for what it is."
"Confronting the growing threat to Western civilization first involves admitting the problem exists, something President Obama not only refuses to do but strongly denies," a Times editorial on Rubin continues. "The administration has censored any discussion of the problem in these terms within the government, preferring to focus on ill-defined 'violent extremism' when the real extremist threat is only partly violent and wholly Islamicist."
Muslim Brotherhood declares war on U.S.
Multiple prominent U.S. commentators have also been claiming the Muslim Brotherhood is a moderate organization and denying any Islamist plot to seize power.
On Friday, President George W. Bush's former press spokeswoman, Dana Perino, told Fox News, "Don't be afraid of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. This has nothing to do with religion."
Bruce Reidel, a former CIA analyst and advisor to President Obama, penned a Daily Beast article in which he claimed, "The Egyptian Brotherhood renounced violence years ago. … Its relative moderation has made it the target of extreme vilification by more radical Islamists."
Reidel's assertion the Brotherhood renounced violence, however, is contradicted by the Brotherhood's own statements in recent months, including a call to arms against the West.
In November, the Brotherhood's new supreme guide, Muhammad Badi, delivered a sermon entitled, "How Islam Confronts the Oppression and Tyranny."
"Resistance is the only solution," stated Badi. "The United States cannot impose an agreement upon the Palestinians, despite all the power at its disposal. [Today] it is withdrawing from Iraq, defeated and wounded, and is also on the verge of withdrawing from Afghanistan because it has been defeated by Islamist warriors."
Badi went on to declare the U.S. is easy to defeat through violence, since it is "experiencing the beginning of its end and is heading toward its demise."
Barry Rubin, director of the Global Research in International Affairs Center, noted Badi's speech evidenced "the likelihood that more Brotherhood supporters in the West will turn to violence and fund-raising for terrorism."
Frank Gaffney, president of the American Center for Security Policy, takes it a step further.
"In short, the Muslim Brotherhood – whether it is operating in Egypt, elsewhere in the world or here – is our enemy," he wrote.•
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Blessings to you in these troubled times. -Missygirl*
# posted by Missygirl : 10:37 AM
