Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi fled the presidential palace in Cairo and returned, in the face of huge opposition to his attempt to turn his country into an Islamist state, but he is not out of the picture -- not by a long shot.
Yes, some police officers have sided with the protesters, but Morsi, (who will likely lay low for a while so as to not offend his political and financial patrons in the West), still has a huge base of support in the Muslim Brotherhood, which seeks to dominate the largest Arab country in the world. The Muslim Brotherhood, which has been on the sidelines of power since its founding in the 1920s, will stop at nothing to maintain its power. Credible reports indicate the organization has sent out teams of thugs to attack their secularist opponents in Tahrir Square and in front of presidential palace.
These are the tactics of fascism; and while Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood will stop at nothing to remain in power, it is clear that they, like all fascist movements, have no interest or desire to wield power for the benefit of the people they govern, but are instead intent on using the country they dominate to create an Islamic millennial utopia, through violence if necessary.
Morsi's indifference to the well-being of Egyptian citizens became evident in the aftermath of a train accident that took place in the Egyptian province of Assiut on Saturday, Nov. 17, 2012. CNN provided details about the accident, which killed more than fifty people, mostly elementary school children: "The train dragged the bus for nearly half a mile. Children's shoes, books and school bags were strewn across the tracks. The twisted shell of the bus was left under the train."
One father, Hamada Noor Abdul El-Rashid, lost his four children. He stated that he was thankful that he found their bodies in one piece, unlike many other parents.
The cause of the accident is still being investigated, but it appears that the attendant responsible for lowering the gate to stop automobile traffic from crossing the tracks when trains approach was taking drugs prior to the collision. The prospect of that the attendant was under the influence of drugs threatens to obscure another scandal.
Why is it that Egypt, one of the leading countries in the Middle East, is relying on an antiquated manual system to manage its railroad crossings? It's part of a bigger problem of unsafe railways and roads that has plagued Egypt ever since the British were tossed out in the 1950s.
Egypt's medical system is also in shambles. The survivors of the Nov. 17 accident were rushed to nearby hospitals that lacked the medicine needed to treat them. Parents and doctors were frantically looking for medical supplies and the necessarily medications -- especially the ones that stop bleeding -- to help the children.
While Egypt was unable to provide medicine to the victims of the crash in Assiut, it has sent millions of dollars worth of medicine to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
On October 24 2012, when it was becoming increasingly evident that a showdown between Hamas and Israel was imminent, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi gave a major speech from Al Azhar University in Cairo, in which he promised to send tons of medical supplies to Hamas in Gaza. He said that supporting Gaza in its fight with Israel is a religious and political duty.
How about fixing the roads in Egypt? And how about making sure that the hospitals in the country have the medicine they need to treat Egyptians? Morsi may be president of Egypt, but he is not governing the country for the benefit of its citizens. He is using it as a platform to implement the objectives of the Muslim Brotherhood.
This is also evident in the content of Morsi's public speeches. The day before the accident, he gave a speech in which he condemned Israel in angry and emotional terms for 25 minutes. The day of the accident in Assiut, Morsi spoke about the tragedy for about two minutes, in rambling and incoherent terms.
Dealing with the material needs of the Egyptian people is not high on Morsi's agenda. A few weeks ago, his government indicated its goal of raising $100 million dollars to block pornographic websites in Egypt. However, they have done little, if anything about Egypt's major drug problem, which apparently played a role in the tragedy in Assiut.
Morsi's actions and public statements demonstrate that he and the Muslim Brotherhood are committed to furthering the international Islamist agenda – not Egypt's well-being. The Brotherhood's main objectives are to restore a caliphate, drive the kuffars [infidels] out of the Middle East and spread Islam to the rest of the world. Those who will not convert to Islam must, under shariah [Islamic religious law], accept second-class status.
The Muslim Brotherhood's hands, in its efforts to achieve this agenda, are covered with Egyptian blood. A member of the Muslim Brotherhood is said to have killed Egypt's Prime Minister Mahmud Fahmi al-Nuqrashi in 1948. A few years later, members of the Brotherhood attacked Egyptian Jews and ransacked their businesses in Cairo to drive them from the country. Muslim Brothers plotted to kill President Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1954. An offshoot group, Islamic Jihad, led by Ayman al-Zawahiri, assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Al-Sadat in 1981, and tried multiple times to kill President Hosni Mubarak.
It continues: in the past few days, Islamists in Egypt have called for a jihad to assist Hamas. Mohammed Badie, the Muslim Brotherhood's supreme leader, a follower of Sayyd Qutb and, like many Muslim Brotherhood leaders, a jihadist who spent years fighting in Yemen, may have helped start the conflict between Hamas and Israel by calling for a jihad against Israel in July.
The Muslim Brotherhood simply cannot be trusted on either a domestic or international level. Dishonesty is part of the organization's DNA, as evidenced by its broken promises to the Egyptian electorate and by Morsi's double-dealing in regards to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip: first he allowed weapons into Gaza and encouraged Hamas; then, once the fighting started, he played the peacemaker. Before the last election that raised Morsi to the presidency, the group promised that if elected it would spend $200 billion dollars on repairing Egypt's infrastructure as part of a "Renaissance Project." Gamal Al Banna, the youngest brother of Hassan Al Banna, a prominent historical figure in the Muslim Brotherhood, warned Egyptians not to believe the organization's promises. Gamal was right. After the election, the group said its promises were just an idea that needed further development.
During the election, Morsi also promised that he would pick a Coptic Christian as his vice president. He did not. And since becoming president, he has given almost 60 speeches -- one almost every two and a half days -- mostly in mosques. Since becoming a President, he has yet to visit a church. He promised to attend the seating of the new Coptic Pope, but did not show up.
The Muslim Brotherhood has also deceived the international community, which is all too willing to view him as a pragmatic "peacemaker." Yes, Morsi engineered the ceasefire that brought an end to the recent fighting between Hamas and Israel, but it was he who helped bring the fighting about by allowing missiles built in Sudan's Yarmouk weapons factory to pass through Egypt on the way to the Gaza Strip. And before he brokered the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, he encouraged Hamas to start the aggression against Israel. He never objected to the many calls for jihad against Israel and the West.
Under the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood and its feckless president Mohammed Morsi, Egypt is headed for another train wreck that will devastate the lives of its own citizens, especially its Christian Copts, as well as the lives of its neighbors.
Western leaders cannot afford to sleep through this; the consequences are simply too grave.
Michael Armanious, a Coptic rights activist blogs at The New Egypt. His writings have appeared in The Boston Herald, PJ Media, and The Commentator.
