In October I suggested that Egypt and Tunisia might be headed for Counter-Islamist revolutions. Now the small sparks of revolution have exploded into a firestorm in Egypt and to a lesser extent in Tunisia, where the violent Anti-Islamist protests have mostly been ignored.
These protests are mostly a showdown between Islamists and Leftists, and, yes, both hate America, and we needn't even go into what they think of Israel, but choosing the lesser of two evils is in this case a viable strategy. The lesser of those evils was Mubarak, but thanks to Obama and his idiot neo-conservative allies, that is no longer on the table, barring another military coup. These days it's the left and, while I hardly want to do any cheers for a possible El-Baradei presidency, it's better than Egypt's firepower falling into the hands of an international terrorist organization which then uses the country's large population as suicide bomber cannon fodder, all with a view toward creating a Caliphate.
The American media has taken a cautious approach to the protests, taking its cue from the Obama White House, which continues to back Morsi, issuing a general "stop the violence, everybody" message. The European media has been far less discreet, because the old Tahrir Square alliances are still there between Arab Socialists and European Socialists.
The Arab Spring II protesters have shown a good deal of staying power. They have tested the military and won. They have gotten back around the Presidential Palace, and as of this writing, appear to have forced Morsi to postpone the referendum, though this is likely to be another fake compromise. For the protesters the challenge is to use popular unrest as leverage, while the Muslim Brotherhood wants to capitalize on its democratic leverage to ram through Islamic law with Western approval.
Morsi assumed that Egypt would fall just like Turkey. He appears to have made a very grave error. Turkey did have sizable anti-Islamist protests, but never to this scale, in part, because Erdogan and the AKP in Turkey moved much slower than Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood did in Egypt. That is what Erdogan has probably privately told his advisers. The Egyptian Islamists, whether in the ranks of Al Qaeda or in the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, were notorious for lacking patience. They wanted their victories right now. The assumption that they had learned anything from their failed terror campaigns does not appear to have been borne out. The Brotherhood may well lose Syria to Al Qaeda and it is at risk of losing Egypt all over again.
INSIDE THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD'S TORTURE CHAMBERS
You're no one in the Middle East if you don't have your own torture chambers.
The central chamber was located at the gate of the palace in front of Omar bin Abdel Aziz Mosque on Merghany Street. The chamber was cordoned by iron barriers and Central Security Forces.
Police officials in uniform were present inside the chamber, as were plainclothes officers from the Nozha police station. Fifteen Brotherhood members were also present, supervised by three bearded men who decided who should be there.
Opposing protesters were brought to the chambers after being detained by Brotherhood members. The kidnappers would take the detained person’s ID card, mobile phone and money before beginning “investigations,” which included intervals of beating to force the confession that he or she is a “thug.”
One pleaded, “I’m a bearded sheikh… It’s Safwat Hegazy who will restore my rights. I’m a friend of all sheikhs.” A bleeding man cried, “I’m an educated person. I have a car. Do I look like a thug?”
After a while, a captive would be transferred to a central chamber, where a Brotherhood lawyer would hand his or her ID card and personal belongings to a senior police officer, who was the head of the “investigations department” in the chamber.
There was blood visible on the pavement outside the chambers. Some Brothers covered it with dust to try to hide it, but some of it remained visible.
This scene, and all those that will follow, has been brought to you by the letter O.
Daniel Greenfield is a New York City writer and columnist. He is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and his articles appears at its Front Page Magazine site.
