Some other aspects of the deal between the Muslim Brotherhood and Egypt's military are coming to light.
After a pro forma congratulations to Mohammed Morsi, the New Muslim Brotherhood President, losing candidate Ahmed Shafik fled with his family to the UAE, amid charges of corruption. According to my sources, allowing him and several other former high ranking members of the Mubarak Regime to get out of the country was part of the deal negotiated between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Supreme Council of The Armed Forces as part of the power transfer mandated by the Obama Administration.
Needless to say, the corruption accusations are an ideal way of appealing tothe Muslim Brotherhood's supporters while ensuring that 'undesireables' don't attempt to return and cause dissension. The Iranians used the exact same strategy when Khomeni took over in 1979. And in fact, Shafik appears ot have turned over some assets to the Brotherhood as the price for his freedom. No doubt others will do the same.
The Brotherhood also has seen to it that the martial law proclaimed by the military was rescinded.
Their biggest project, of course remains Islamizing Egypt and laying the ground for the new Caliphate, to be ruled by sharia.
To that end, a plan by high ranking Brotherhood figures has been put together known as the “Jazira Plan” and was it personally approved by Mohammed Badi, the Supreme Leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.
While the plan is to be applied gradually, it calls for the strict implementation of sharia law, the abandonment of western based film and "artistic heritage," and memorization of the Qu'ran a condition for advancement in school.
The plan also calls for replacing the current national anthem with something called the anthem of the Islamic Caliphate,and the abolishment of Egypt's Ministry of Information and it's replacement by "an Islamic media organization".
How quickly this plan is implemented depends a great deal on the Egyptian military and how much and how quickly they can be subordinated to the regime's agenda. Tayyipp Erdogan and the AKP took almost a decade to do it in Turkey,but the Turkish military had a constitutional mandate to keep Turkey secular that went back to the days of Ataturk, and they were also fairly popular with the Turkish people.
In Iran, on the other hand,the transition happened fairly quickly because the military had no such legal role and because they had been identified with the deposed Shah,especially the higher ranking officers,most of whom either agreed to support Khomeni's regime, fled or were executed.
Egypt's military likewise has no legal role and the Brotherhood has been quite successful in identifying the military, especially the SCAF with Mubarak and with 'suppressing the Revolution'.
I'd put my money on a transition more on a timeline like Iran than Turkey.
Rest assured that we won't even recognize Egypt in two years time.
Can Egypt survive economically for the next two years? Iran has oil and Turkey hasn't chased away most investors. From what I understand, the Egyptian economy is in poor shape and won't improve under these political conditions. So, how do they manage to survive for the next few years?
ReplyDeleteSo much for tourism bucks and seeing the pyramids in my lifetime...that's off the bucket list....
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