Here is a great Arab proverb in my translation: "Like the ram attacking a mountain, breaking its horns, but not the mountain."
The Muslim Brotherhood, once mixing faith with politics, has signed on its warrant for gradual extinction. Not only in the New Egypt, but anywhere it claims representation. Born 88 years ago near where I grew up in Egypt, it started with advocacy for Islamic reform under the guidance of Hassan El-Banna. Then degenerated into a call for Islamic rule.
The murder in 1947 of Egypt's Prime Minister, Al-Naqrashi Pasha by the Brotherhood signaled its descent on a slippery slope to an accelerated end. Under Prime Minister Ibrahim Abdel-Hadi, Al-Naqrashi's successor, secular Egypt liquidated Hassan El-Banna in 1948. That revenge took place only hours before El-Banna was about to flee to Syria.
Al-Hodheibi, as a successor of El-Banna, was less militant. But the seeds of suspecting every move by the Brotherhood had already been sown. The fact that the Brotherhood had infiltrated Egyptian impoverished masses through bread, sugar, tents and aspirin was of no use for its longevity.
Its penetration of the armed forces led to a short period of good feelings about the movement. The shot fired at Al-Manshiah, Alexandria, in 1954, at Nasser, who had dislodged Naguib out of the leadership of the coup against the monarchy, was a shot heard around the Muslim world. Whether it was a real or a fake attempt on the life of that rising dictator, cannot be proven by probative evidence.
What is ascertainable is the placement of the Brotherhood under a ban since 1954 till the January Revolution of January 25, 2011. Nearly 6 decades out in the cold. In spite of Nasser's liquidation of the great judge Abdel-Qader Auda in the 1950s and Sayed Qutb in the 1960's, the Brotherhood continued to cater to the religious masses.
The assassination of Nasser's successor, President Sadat, in October 1981 at the hands of Al-Islambully, an Islamist, jolted the Brotherhood into silence verging on being underground. But again, that historic crime signaled two convictions: the sword was a Muslim Brotherhood tool of last resort; and that the Brotherhood's Guidance Bureau was divided upon itself like a Mafia family.
From 1981 to 2011, a period of 30 years of being "the Disbanded Group" (Al-Jamaa Al-Monhallah), the Brotherhood under Mehdi Akef kept its head down, unable to match the power, the resources, or the discipline of the Egyptian Armed Forces.
Then the Brotherhood took two roads, both of which led to dead ends.
The first path to nowhere was reliance on internal as well as external funding. But funding does not create lasting loyalty. It only provides temporary energy for mercenaries (the Mamelouk phenomenon). The second path to nowhere was reliance on public propaganda, especially in Asia, Europe and North America. Their megaphones inflated their numbers in Egypt to 30% of the population.
That percentage is a big fat lie. There are no 30 million loyal Brotherhood adherents in Egypt. How do I know? As an attorney, when you do not have the census to provide evidence, you rely on circumstances. There has never been social science research in Egypt to prove by figures who is who, politically and socially.
Thus the smoke screen of the Brotherhood was the rally (like the Trumpist rallies of disaffected Americans).
But rallies do not legislate. They only indicate the popular depth of attitudes. As in the case of 35 million Egyptians rising on June 30, 2013 against the Brotherhood's rule. That was a corrective revolution constituting lawful popular recall of Morsi as president, in the absence of a Constitutional provision.
After the Battle of the Camel in Cairo on January 27/28, 2011, the Brotherhood which had described the rebellion against Mubarak unislamic, joined the Revolution. It was the winning side. And the Brotherhood, being imbued by opportunism, and getting recognition and the protection of the Armed Forces, sought to become the post-Mubarak regime.
Egypt obliged. The elections, pitting Muhammad Morsi of the Brotherhood against General Shafik, were held in June 2012. That was before the Constitution was drafted and legislated. A typical case of putting the cart before the horse. I voted for Morsi -a big mistake!! But within 5 months of Morsi becoming President, he pre-empted the Constitution by declaring himself in November 2012 to be exempt from the application of the law. A new combination of Sultan and Califah was now in power.
The Islamic Constitution of 2012 was not "Made in Egypt." It was "Made By the Brotherhood." And it ran counter to Egypt's DNA -a 7000 year secular State. Islam did not create a State, it created a community; Egyptian sovereignty does not permit of ceding Sinai to Hamas immigration; and the Armed Forces are the guarantor of that sovereignty, their being the only permanent institution in terms of cohesion and loyalty to the motherland. Above all, diversity of faith has always been an Egyptian hallmark.
The companion revolution of June 30, 2013 against the Islamic rule was a revolt against the Brotherhoodization of Egypt: No to the creation of Brotherhood militias; no to suppression of the Copts, women, and Shiis; no to any affinity with ISIS marauders; no to having Qatar or Turkey or any outside entity dictating how should 100 million Egyptians govern themselves.
And no to a white robe, a long beard, a pair of sandals, a raisin-like spot on the forehead, and a skull cap being the manifestations of authority. Faith and governance cannot mix; religion has been defined as "how others are treated" (Al-Din Al-Moaamalah); and Sharia is supplemented by legislation.
The expulsion of Morsi and Islamic rule on July 3, 2013, was a classic process of recall by the popular will manifested on June 30, 2013. The Islamic Constitution of 2012, now replaced by the secular Constitution of June 2014, contained no provision allowing for a legislated recall of Morsi.
Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, together with an amalgam of civic, secular and religious leaders, including the Coptic Church, failed through 4 days of negotiations with Morsi to start again through a new plebiscite. The Brotherhood refused to participate in those attempts as they regarded the presidency of Morsi as the only legitimacy (Shariyah) they can recognize.
To them the majority of the Egyptian people, including the Armed Forces, were usurpers. Even clearing the Brotherhood occupation of the Rabaa and Al-Nahda public squares in August 14, 2013, was propagandized by them as a brutal attack on human rights.
How can that be? Two main public squares in the capital of Egypt being occupied by a Brotherhood rebellion for six weeks!! Declared them Islamic Emirates was a case of internal rebellion presaging civil war. Throughout those six weeks, the Government continuous appeals to the marauding occupants went unheeded. So went the Brotherhood's calls for external intervention by force in Egypt under the false label of "humanitarian intervention." The mere passage of American naval vessels in the Suez Canal was hailed by the Brotherhood as the start of a forceful abrogation of the new secular established order!!
In Rabaa, hundreds died. Not by Government designs, as the Brotherhood propagandizes. But by the criminal designs of Brotherhood gangs who, like ISIS and its affiliates, sought victimhood (Shahadah) as a means of legitimation.
Yet more Brotherhood propaganda spewed out, especially abroad, that El-Sisi's presidency lacks legitimacy!! More advocacy by some Egyptians in New Jersey, such as a TV broadcaster named Ayat Orabi, declaring on social media obscenities such as "the Egyptian Armed Forces are a collection of whores!!" More visits to Washington by Brotherhood sympathizers to demonstrate against El-Sisi!! All in vain!!
Secular Egypt marched steadily on. The administration of interim President Adly Mansour handed power to its successor administration, that of El-Sisi. These steps came about after approval by plebiscite of the 2014 secular Constitution. These were open and fair elections (El-Sisi vs. Hamdain Sabbahi). El-Sisi, the former Defense Minister and the mediator with the Brotherhood for participation, was the choice of the majority.
El-Sisi did not come to the presidency on top of a tank. He was given the baton in an orderly democratic process of post-Islamization in an Egypt which was spared the agony of civil war.
A series of failed mischief by the Muslim Brotherhood which, among other things, tried to marginalize Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, the citadel of an inclusive and universalistic Islam. Jihadism is now being confronted by "The New Islamic Religious Revolution" on which I am authoring a book.
The word "Idea" comes from the Greek "to see." It is a pattern that enables you to understand the true nature of a phenomenon.
The phenomenon of the Muslim Brotherhood, now declared in its birthplace, Egypt a terrorist organization is not hard to understand. Its idea is "Islam as a path to a fascist theocracy." The firewall against its conversion of Egypt into an emirate is the Armed Forces. Its enablers, especially those in America, such as Ayat Orabi of New Jersey, and Sheikh Salem Abdel-Galeel in Cairo are, judging by their false propaganda, sheer haters of interfaith harmony.
With the Egyptian arena preempted by secularism, the Muslim Brotherhood is in hot pursuit for life support overseas. Their megaphones, whether in Qatar, Turkey, or America, produce echo chambers. Collapsing the New Egypt is nothing but a pipe dream.
Their abuse in America of the freedom of speech is an overreach. It has turned into calls for violence against Christians, into a jihadi call for criminalized hatred.
Their mischievous veil of "political opposition" behind which they hide their calls for sectarian violence might be pierced through legal means. They have no idea (means of understanding) of the consequences of their unending mischief.
"Virtue" in Latin means "strength." Just show me one single virtue which the Muslim Brotherhood can claim!! Even the "Rabaa Salute," depicting their claimed victimhood at Rabaa Square on August 14, 2013 when hundreds died, is a crooked finger!!
NOTE: New blog postings will resume on a monthly basis until my new book is ready for the press this Fall. Its title: "War On Jihadism Ideologically: The New Islamic Religious Revolution"
