Happy Spring: Sharia Will Rule Egypt
Egypt’s military junta oversaw the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi’s assumption of the presidency over the weekend. Some in the press have reported this as a transfer of power from the military to the new, freely elected president. That is wrong: Egypt does not have a new constitution yet, and it is not clear exactly what the presidency will be.
It could be a very powerful post if the Islamic supremacists (the Muslim Brotherhood and the so-called Salafists) who overwhelmingly won the parliamentary elections get to write the constitution. But the junta, under cover of a court opinion, disbanded parliament before the presidential election and indicated that the generals would form a constitution-writing committee. If a committee selected by the junta ends up writing the constitution, the presidency could be an essentially ceremonial office. It is, however, hard to imagine that the Islamic supremacists will quietly abide an arrangement in which both their seeming acquisition of legislative authority is voided by the military and the presidency they also won is made toothless. Expect lots more trouble, of the violent kind.
From the perspective of true democratic reform (as opposed to the hollow shell of democratic procedures, a popular election by which a largely Sunni supremacist population ushers enemies of real democratic culture into power), the frightful thing is that the Obama administration and the West have chosen the wrong side: they are pressuring the moderately pro-Western military to hand over power to the Brotherhood, which despises the West.
While that struggle ensues, the very alarming development over the weekend is that the Brotherhood and the Salafists, who are determined to exercise the parliamentary power they accurately say they won fair and square, have thrown down the gauntlet on sharia — Islam’s totalitarian legal framework for society. The Egypt Independent reports that the collaborating Islamic supremacist factions have agreed that sharia itself — not just guidelines gleaned from sharia principles — will be the primary law of Egypt. If that happens, Egypt will far more resemble Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the fundamentalist-controlled Aceh province of Indonesia than what we prefer to imagine as “moderate” Islamic countries.
In before someone can claim sharia is just like Jewish or Christian law. Which it’s categorically not.
Sharia was used as a founding justification for al Qaeda in Bin Laden’s 1996 and 1998 fatwas. The 1998 fatwa claims a fard ayn justification for jihad against the US whether military or civilian. “Fard ayn” being obligatory on the entire ummah under sharia when a certain non-Muslims dare set foot on ‘holy’ Muslim land.
Many forget that al Qaeda actually grew from US troops being sent to Saudi Arabia in order to defend it from Saddam Hussein.
More to the point in Egypt. Mursi will reject Camp David under sharia because a hudna (truce) can only last for ten years. Since Israel was once ruled by Muslims, under sharia Muslims must fight for all eternity in order to get it back.
Whatever you do, don’t think of this example when considering the merits or demerits of more Muslim immigration and mega mosque building all over the US. Could produce Islamophobia or wrongthink.
” . . . the frightful thing is that the Obama administration and the West have chosen the wrong side: they are pressuring the moderately pro-Western military to hand over power to the Brotherhood . . . ”
“when people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature, they will like the strong horse” – OBL
The ‘strong horse’ in our age is Islamism. It is confident and willing to sacrifice to meet its goals. A lot of people really believe in the power of political Islam. The ‘weak horse’ is our Western culture which is led by mostly people who do not believe in – or actually have contempt for – its basic principles, philosophy, religion and history.
Naturally the strong have contempt for the weak. The weak can not help but to subordinate itself to the strong. The vast difference in economic sophistication between their civilization and ours obscures this obvious point.
“OBL”
That particular strong horse was last pictured sitting on the floor in a crummy house wrapped in a flea infested blanket, watching endless loops of himself pontificating on an old television.
I think he may have tried to hide behind the young wife, but we’ll never get that story straight.
I will accept the premise that the appearance of strength is everything to islamism, along with avoidance of shame or humiliation.
Perhaps then our main weapon against them should be to continually shame and humiliate them?
Hmm…
The Egypt Independent reports that the collaborating Islamic supremacist factions have agreed that sharia itself — not just guidelines gleaned from sharia principles — will be the primary law of Egypt.
Morsi described as “ideologically rigid”
Ideologically rigid is the opposite of intelligent and enlightened.
(the current American president is ideologically rigid)
We do not say ‘our views on Sharia,’ but we say that we want the Sharia law revealed by God.
Proponents of that body of miniscule law known as Sharia continuously make a claim for its authenticity as God’s pure revelation.
Elaborated by self-interested man in the 14 centuries after Mohammed, that rationale is beyond absurd.
God really gets a bum rap from these guys.
For the Muslim Brotherhood, like Rick Santorum, the separation of church and state makes them want to vomit.
There is no such a thing as church or state in Islam.
There is only Islam, all encompassing and all purposeful.
And after November of 2012, the USA will be ruled by The Shari’ah as well.
I’ve got to agree with the preacher – “Why worry about Sharia Law?”. Is it materially different from “Bloomberg Law”, “Obama Law”, “Eric Holder Law”, or “John Roberts Law”? All of them say that there is no equality under the law, all say that the party in power constrains the law rather than the law constraining the party in power, all are forces for tyranny and all are ripe for abuse by the politically connected. Are you any less of a victim under Bloomberg Law or John Roberts Law? Why worry about Sharia Law when the concept of law is Supremely meaningless?
About the only reliable law left is “what goes around, comes around”.
Some call it karma.
Another reliable law, the law of unintended consequences.
That’s about it.
Given the Supreme meltdown, little if anything stands between the individual and whoever is making up the law in the moment.
“…— when you see money flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors — when you see that men get richer by graft and pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you — when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice — you may know that your society is doomed.”
Ayn Rand
Under Islamic Shariah, as opposed to Obama/etc. Shariah, the penalties for disobedience are generally higher, but I suppose that is a mater of degree rather than kind.
“The frightful thing is that the Obama administration and the West have chosen the wrong side: they are pressuring the moderately pro-Western military to hand over power to the Brotherhood, which despises the West.”
No, say it ain’t so. You mean to tell me that Obama and Clinton got this one WRONG again? Yup, they sure did. Not only did they get rid of one of the few pro-western dictators in the area, but they’re allowing a bunch of radical Islamists to take over the largest arab country there is. Way to go, team Obama. I don’t know whether to laugh at that sort of incompetence or cry. Lord save us from people who know nothing about foreign policy running our country.
You never, EVER, get rid of a dictator unless you know what’s going to replace him. Obama and Clinton just didn’t care because they didn’t want to “look” bad supporting Mubarak. Now they have to deal with the consequences of that decision. Hopefully, Clinton and Obama will be thrown out of office in November and then maybe we can salvage a relationship with Egypt. A good first step would be to do whatever it takes to keep the Army in power. At least the Army is pro-western and at least somewhat secular. The only other alternative is to allow things to keep going the way they are going and you will have a regime in Egypt that’s going to make Hezbollah and Hamas look like a joke.
You make a huge assumption, namely, that Obama/Clinton do not like the result that they are ushering in. Where is the evidence of this?
“at least the Army is pro-western”…………..courtesy of several billion dollars per year in US military aid; an action that goes back decades.
I haven’t seen any sign that Obama has tried to cut off the flow of goodies to the generals.
I think I’d trade some of their generals for some of our generals.
Borhamy’s zebibah must make all the other head-banging Quran-thumping bearded loons really jealous. Why, look at the size of that thing! It looks like he played defensive back without a helmet for forty years.
So Egypt, like Iraq and Afcrapistan, will have Islamic law enshrined in their constitution. Well at least we didn’t lose thousand of lives and trillions of dollars there anyway.
No lives, but we’ve certainly squandered billions of our tax dollars on the Egyptian military, ultimately to no purpose (like nearly all other government boondoggles).
If Egyptians, Iraqis, Afghans and others in that part of the world want to live under sharia tyranny, let them. They’ll simply get what they deserve, and deserve what they get. Over here, we can insulate ourselves against them by enacting a permanent ban on Muslim immigration, then declaring the Muslim immigrants already here persona non grata and deporting them to the Islamic autocracy of their choice.
“the frightful thing is that the Obama administration and the West have chosen the wrong side: they are pressuring the moderately pro-Western military to hand over power to the Brotherhood, which despises the West.”
Well Egypt having a moderately pro-Western military is something anyway. That’s more than I can say lately for our own military.
Good, they deserve Sharia and will get it hard and fast.
Short Egypt, Greece and Spain…
Egypt WELCOME to the 18th Century- You wanted democracy not you have Dictatorship & a brutal one to come