Egypt

As I write this post, the unrest in Egypt with street protests against the rule of President Hosni Mubarak is nearing the two week mark. Protesters numbering nearly a million are still occupying the central Tahrir Square in Cairo as well as several million others rallying in towns and cities across the nation. Banks reopened for a few hours on Sunday after being closed for more than a week. Opposition groups want new government proposals on how to end the political crisis. The Obama Administration has been pushing for a regime change, but Mubarak insists that he must stay in order to prevent a larger crisis.

As I read the reports and saw the pictures of destruction and standoffs between the protesters and the military, the entire scene took on new meaning for me. I suddenly remembered that my friends Linda and Dave were in Egypt, and I wanted to know where they were and if they were safe. After several days of questioning people, I was finally able to learn that Linda was in Germany and Dave was safe. Imagine my joy to walk into Church on Sunday and come face to face with my friend Linda. She shared some of her experiences in Egypt and indicated that it was a scary situation. She even wondered if she would ever be able to return to Egypt.

Media sources are reporting that the protesters want democracy, but cries for democracy might be a front. There are many questions about the future of Egypt and what kind of government will eventually take control. Egypt is not a third world country; it is a star in the Middle East. Egypt or at least Mubarak has been an important ally for the United States as well as a friend to Israel. Whatever happens in Egypt will impact all the nations in the Middle East and the United States.

I found a very interesting article written by Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa, former head of Romania's Presidential House, on americanthinker.com. Lt. Gen. Pacepa was once a top figure in the KGB intelligence community before coming to the United States for safety and has written of his experiences in a book entitled Red Horizons. He indicated the crisis in Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East looks like "an updated version of the Kremlin's highly secret Cold War effort to turn the Islamic world into an enemy of the United States.
"It is noteworthy that the current Middle East rebellion is taking place only in Islamic countries that are pro-American and that the people demanding democracy there are burning the flag of the … United States. It is remarkable that these `mass uprisings' were so secretly planned that the entire U.S. intelligence community was taken completely by surprise….
"Even more significant is that the Hezb'allah representatives demonstrating on the first day of the Cairo uprising were carrying flags displaying the hammer and sickle. That was evidently a mistake caused by overzealousness…. In Cairo, the error was quickly rectified, and now the hammer and sickle is nowhere to be seen."

Lt. Gen. Pacepa explained how he can no longer document the involvement of the Soviets, but he knew from past experience working within the KGB how Russians "went to great lengths to transform an Egyptian-born Marxist, Mohammed Abd al-Rahman Abd al-Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini, nom de guerre Abu Ammar, into a Palestinian-born Yasser Arafat. It took us years to credibly falsify his birth certificate and other IDs, to build him a new past, and to train him at the KGB Balashikha special-operations training school east of Moscow." It took even more years and the help of "former Egyptian ruler Gamal Abdel Nasser, another Soviet puppet, to catapult the newly-created Arafat into his position as chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (also created and financed by the KGB)."

He explained that this Mohamed Mustafa ElBaradei, who has recently appeared on the scene, seems to be the new Soviet-anointed leader for Egypt. He described how he had a part in trying to convince the late Anwar Sadat to become one of the Soviet puppets, but Sadat "got religion" and refused to work with the Soviets. In fact, he "expelled the Soviet advisers from Egypt" in 1972, "visited the U.S." in 1975, and "became the first Eyptian president to visit Israel" in 1976. "In 1981, Sadat paid with his life for his courageous decision to break with the Kremlin…."

In addition to the Soviet influence in the Middle East (including Iran's dictator, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad), we also have the Muslim Brotherhood taking a large role in the talks in Egypt as well as other organizations such as Hamas, Hezb'allah, and ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) ("an offspring of the Workers World Party [WWP], an organization created by the KGB community while I was still living in Romania") operating among the protesters in Egypt. None of these groups are pro-America or pro-Israel.

Lt. Gen. Pacepa is not the only one who is concerned about the fate of Egypt. Columnist Jeffrey T. Kuhner wrote the following quote that appeared in patriotpost.us on February 7, 2011: "Years ago, Washington should have encouraged civil society and political reform. America could have fostered a secular democratic opposition. Instead, by blindly backing Mr. Mubarak, the United States enabled the most militant, unified and organized Islamist party to take advantage of the growing discontent: the Muslim Brotherhood. It is the Brotherhood's supporters who fill the ranks of the protesters. The Muslim Brotherhood very likely will join a national unity government and eventually seize control. Its goal is to erect a Sunni version of Iran's Shiite theocracy. It champions the hatred of America, war with Israel and a global jihad against the West. It supports Hamas in the Gaza Strip and other terrorist groups. In short, the post-Mubarak regime most probably not only will be anti-Western but will have ties to al-Qa'ida and Iran's mullahs. Egypt is not some strategic backwater; it is not Yemen, Tunisia or Jordan. Rather, it is the cultural linchpin of the Arab world.... If the land of the pharaohs should go Islamic, it will reverberate across the entire region."

I have done a little study about the Muslim Brotherhood and am very concerned about this organization. Its slogan is "Islam is the solution" and its stated goal is to instill the Qur'an and Sunnah as the "sole reference point for … ordering the life of the Muslim family, individual, community … and state" (wikipedia.org). It seeks an Islamic state in Egypt and has already called for Egyptians to "prepare for war with Israel."

Israel and the United States both need Egypt on our side! There is much concern about what action the United States should take now, but maybe Lt. Gen. Pacepa has the right answer: "Rather than crucifying Mubarak for refusing to become a Moscow puppet -- as other Arab leaders did -- the government of the United States would do well to thank him for thirty years of loyal cooperation, and to work with him toward preparing Egypt for a smooth transition to an Egyptian version of democracy. Otherwise, Egypt may become another long-term nightmare in the Middle East…."


UPDATE: President Mubarak resigned on February 11, 2011, and turned the government over to the military. I think that this is probably the best way out of the chaos in Egypt, but I wonder how the military will handle the power that has been handed to it. Will the military commander be like George Washington and hand power over to a person chosen by the people, or will he be like Napoleon? Egypt is now under martial control, but Egyptians are dancing in the streets of Cairo and saying, "Egypt is free."

What happens in Egypt now is anyone's guess, but the well-planned revolution was supported by communists, socialists, extreme Islamists, and community organizers. More days of "rage" are being planned for the following week. Will revolutions "cascade" over Jordan, Yemen, and other Middle Eastern countries and then move into European countries? People on the left are calling for revolution in America. Even President Obama said that the Egyptian unrest was caused mainly by young people and that the "change in Egypt will change the world." Are his words "code" for the young people in America to rise up? Only time will tell what happens, but democracy, liberty, and freedom are being strengthened worldwide!

Leaders of Germany, Great Britain, and France have all made statements about multiculturalism being bad for their countries, and yet leaders in America continue to support and defend people and religions that are calling for the downfall of democracy, capitalism, and the United States.