Hours later, the Egyptian army issued a statement that it would guarantee that Mubarak kept his word.
All that wasn’t good enough for US President Barak Obama, who issued his own statement expressing frustration that Mubarak had not thrown in the towel and created a power vacuum.
“Too many Egyptians remain unconvinced that the government is serious about a genuine transition to democracy,” insisted Obama, who described Mubarak’s promises as neither “immediate, meaningful nor sufficient.”
Meanwhile, Obama’s top officials continued to lay the groundwork for a Muslim Brotherhood takeover in Egypt that would be accepted and recognized by the international community. In what was either an unprecedented display of naivete or a revelation of what the Obama Administration’s true agenda is, US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper had this to say during a House Intelligence Committee hearing on Thursday:
“The Muslim Brotherhood is a very heterogeneous group, largely secular, which has eschewed violence and has decried al-Qaeda as a perversion of Islam. …There is no overarching agenda, particularly in pursuit of violence, at least internationally.”
In an interview with Fox News earlier in the week, Obama himself refused to describe the Muslim Brotherhood as an Islamist threat. He also brushed off speculation that the Brotherhood will take over if Mubarak is toppled, arguing that the group is not a majority in Egypt. The president’s reasoning completely ignored the fact that neither Hamas nor Hizballah enjoy majority support among their respective peoples, yet managed to rise to power anyway.
The White House appears determined to downplay the severity of what a Muslim Brotherhood takeover would mean. But the Brotherhood itself has been kind enough to clarify exactly what it is all about.
In a recent interview with Japanese television, Rashad al-Bayumu, the group’s second-in-command, stated clearly that if the Brotherhood comes to power it will cancel Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel.
A few years ago, Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohammed Mahdi ‘Akef told the Egyptian newspaper Al-Karama that ultimately, the Islamic, and not the Western, version of democracy will rule in Egypt.
The Muslim Brotherhood’s official website continues to promote jihad as the duty of all Muslims who wish to achieve global domination for their religion and the establishment of a new Islamic empire.
The book “Jihad is the Way,” written by former Brotherhood leader Mustafa Mashhur, continues to be a guiding text for the group. In it, Muslims are told that Allah wants them to use all means at their disposal to conduct jihad with the goal of eventual global domination. The book, which was written in 1995, has been translated by Palestinian Media Watch and is being posted online.
Israeli officials have expressed concern and even outrage at the behavior of the Obama Administration, warning that a Brotherhood-led Egypt, or even an Egypt under the influence of a Muslim Brotherhood operating behind the scenes would represent a new “Islamic Republic,” like Iran.
Israel has not been alone in feeling this way. The leaders of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates all reportedly called Obama this week to urge him to lay off Mubarak, lest the Muslim Brotherhood move in to take his place.
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