“President Obama extended an invitation to President Mursi to visit the United States when he attends the U.N. General Assembly in September,” Egyptian aide Yasser Ali said after Mursi met U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns in Cairo…
“We have taken careful note and appreciated President Mursi’s public statements about a commitment to international obligations and we certainly attach great importance to Egypt’s continuing role as a force for peace,” Burns said.
Mursi (often spelled ‘Morsi’) is the political face of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. His comments about the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel have been ambiguous, but it is unlikely — at least in the near term — that he will stand up and announce that he is calling everything off and returning to a state of war with Israel. That would be counterproductive, since the US might cut off the $1.3 billion dollars in military aid it sends to Egypt each year (one wonders exactly what all those tanks that they buy with it are needed for).
But he could certainly make things hot for Israel by supporting Hamas — the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood — by failing to control terrorist groups operating in the Sinai, etc. It’s even imaginable that he could allow Egyptian ‘volunteers’ to fight alongside Hamas while the peace treaty technically remains in force.
Why might he do this?
The Islamist ideology of the Brotherhood is, like that of its Hamas branch, uncompromisingly opposed to the continued existence of a Jewish state. If you think that this is not a problem, that even Islamist politicians are pragmatists for whom development is more important than ideology, remember that in an Islamist state the temporal authorities are subordinate to the religious leadership (Iran, where the Supreme Leader dictates to the President, is an example).
Let’s look at what the “General Guide” of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, Muhammad Badi, had to say in a recent sermon (spotted by Raymond Ibrahim):
According to last Thursday’s edition of Al Wafd, during his weekly sermon, “Muhammad Badi, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Supreme Guide, confirmed the necessity for every Muslim to strive to save al-Quds [Jerusalem] from the hands of the rapists [Israelis] and to cleanse Palestine from the clutches of the occupation, deeming this an individual duty for all Muslims.”
More specifically, he “called on all Muslims to wage jihad with their money and their selves to free al-Quds”—the same exact language one finds in al-Qaeda’s tracts.
Here is a short video with translation by MEMRI in which Badi explains the need for jihad against the “Zionists:”
But perhaps President Obama is thinking, “well, sure they want to destroy Israel, but that isn’t a reason that the US shouldn’t engage with them.”
Guess what, Mr. President: they have plans for us, too. Thanks to to the perspicacious Raymond Ibrahim, we have this from January 2012:
Dr. Muhammad Badi, supreme leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, said: “The Brotherhood is getting closer to achieving its greatest goal as envisioned by its founder, Imam Hassan al-Banna. This will be accomplished by establishing a righteous and fair ruling system [based on Islamic sharia], with all its institutions and associations, including a government evolving into a rightly guided caliphate and mastership of the world.”
…
The leader of the Brotherhood continued: “The Imam [Banna] delineated transitional goals and detailed methods to achieve this greatest objective, starting by reforming the individual, followed by building the family, the society, the government, and then a rightly guided caliphate and finally mastership of the world.” [emphasis added by Ibrahim].
Raymond Ibrahim is a Coptic Christian and certainly has reason to oppose Badi and his functionary Morsi. But the links to the Arabic text are there, and Google Translate is close enough to verify that this is what they said.
Morsi himself has not always been careful of what he says. On May 30, Ibrahim reported,
According to the popular Egyptian website, El Bashayer, Muhammad Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood presidential candidate, just declared that he will “achieve the Islamic conquest (fath) of Egypt for the second time, and make all Christians convert to Islam, or else pay the jizya,” the traditional Islamic tax, or financial tribute, required of non-Muslim “dhimmis.” …
When asked what he thought about many Christian Copts coming out to vote for his secular opponent, Ahmed Shafiq, Morsi reportedly said, “They need to know that conquest is coming, and Egypt will be Islamic, and that they must pay jizya or emigrate.” [my emphasis]
Did Mr. Burns of the State Department check out this public statement as well? What message does it send to American non-Muslims — Christians, Jews and all the rest –Â that this person will be an honored guest in our country?
Technorati Tags: Muhammad Badi, Muhammad Morsi, Egypt, President Obama
I am not sure that this move by Obama is the wisest politically. True most Americans do not pay much attention to foreign policy. True also that those who cannot stand Obama will continue to not stand him. But should the real meaning of the Islamist message be brought out it might well deter some voters from supporting Obama.
Perhaps that is wishful thinking.
There is too the possibility that Morsi will decide not to go, so as to not show himself similar to his predecessor i.e. a vassal of the Evil American Empire.