In a speech last night, Hosni Mubarak said he would not run again for president of Egypt in the next election, slated for September. That’s hardly going to satisfy the protesters. In the words of almost every commentator I’ve read, it’s “too little, too late.” The protesters will settle for nothing but a total capitulation and a new government run by those who didn’t work with Mubarak.
But who will those people be?
A radical organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, wants to take advantage of this crisis to propel itself to the top. If that happens, it will not be an improvement. The Brotherhood is the umbrella group for all the terrorist movements in the Middle East, from Hezbollah in Lebanon to Hamas in the Palestinian territories. The Brotherhood has called for all-out war against Israel and seeks to kill every last Jew, if possible.
Is this really who we want in charge of Egypt?
Mubarak is no prize, but change for change’s sake is not true reform. A couple of political cartoonists have captured the point perfectly:
Careful—we might get snakebit.
In the midst of this chaos and possible takeover by Muslim extremists, what should America’s stance be? I realize we don’t have control over the situation; no president can dictate what will happen. Yet shouldn’t we be doing everything we can to prevent the Muslim Brotherhood from taking power? One would hope so, but President Obama seems to be “making nice” with the terrorists. As reported on the Hot Air blog:
Welcome to the new reality of cold, hard choices in Egypt, and the consequences of democracy in regions where radicalism thrives. In order to stay ahead of the crisis in Egypt, the Obama administration yesterday signaled that it supports the participation of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egyptian politics as long as they renounce violence and commit to democracy.
Oh, well then, that shouldn’t be too hard. Surely we can expect them to do us that tiny little favor, right? For some reason, the Obama administration believes that allowing them a place at the table in the Egyptian government will make them into peaceful, loving, small-d democrats.
As a historian, I remember another instance when a nation thought that would happen. It was Germany in 1933. The majority party concluded that by allowing Hitler into the inner circles of power that they could keep a better watch on him and possibly tame his wilder notions. That certainly worked out wonderfully, didn’t it?
The Muslim Brotherhood is a bloodthirsty, racist, Islamist-indoctrinated abomination. It deserves no place at any table. Will the U.S. administration wake up to that reality or not? If not—if we play a role in establishing them as “respectable”—we will suffer the consequences.