Posts Tagged ‘Egypt’

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Mubarak Resigns, Hands Control Over to the Military

Friday, February 11th, 2011

According the latest news flash. I’m guessing the military finally told him they’d had enough.

What’s next? Anyone’s guess. If I had to venture a guess, I’d say talks with some elements of the opposition together with a crackdown against others.

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This Week in Jihad for February 9, 2011

Thursday, February 10th, 2011

Things have been relatively quiet on the Jihad front this week, but there’s always something happening:

  • BBC Presenter: “Islam must not be offended at any price, although Christians are fair game because they do nothing about it if they are offended.”
  • Synagogue torched in Tunisia.
  • Reading the Bible? You know that’s a shooting.
  • Meet Yussuf al-Qaradawi, the Egyptian version of the Ayatollah Khomeini.
  • Over at JihadWatch, Roland Shirk offers up parallels between the modern Middle East and World War I.
  • Egyptian blogger Sandmonkey reveals identity.
  • Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu sees more parallels between the Iranian revolution and the situation in Egypt.
  • Geert Wilders: “All over Europe multicultural elites are waging total war against their populations. Their goal is to continue the strategy of mass-immigration, which will ultimately result in an Islamic Europe – a Europe without freedom: Eurabia.”
  • “Renegade ex-MILFs burn Christian village.” (Attention Farkers: This link is probably a lot less gratifying than you might believe…)
  • Pakistani suicide bomber kills 31 at army base.
  • Today’s latest American convert to Islam Jihadi comes to you from Baltimore.
  • Georgia is the latest state to ban Sharia.
  • German state Hesse bans face veils for public workers.
  • “Islam: The Religion of Sauron”. (No, really, that is the title. I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that this comparison is a tad overwrought…)

    • (Hat tips: JihadWatch, Fark, Instapundit, Michael Totten, and the usual suspects.)

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    Leon Panetta: Mubarak Will Step Down Today: Mubarak: The Hell I Will

    Thursday, February 10th, 2011

    Despite the predictions of all the Usual Supects, Mubarak isn’t stepping down. I guess my low opinion of the sagacity of Leon Panetta has been borne out.

    In email, Stratfor is saying that Rather than letting protesters storm the Presidential Palace, or firing on them to prevent same, the Egyptian military will replace Mubarak in a coup. I remain skeptical; except for a couple of signs early in the crises, they has been no hard evidence that the army has ever wavered in its support of Mubarak.

    It is hard to tell at this remove how effective the calls for a general strike have been. Those claiming the strike is widespread have tended to be left-leaning publications that celebrate just about any strike.

    The Magic 8-Ball has the same answer it’s been giving since unrest began: ANSWER CLOUDY, ASK AGAIN LATER.

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    Mubarak to be Replaced by Military?

    Thursday, February 10th, 2011

    So goes the rumor de jour. Of course, since Obama’s CIA director Leon Panetta is one of the sources of information, I would take that with a huge grain of salt…

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    This Week in Jihad for February 3, 2011

    Thursday, February 3rd, 2011

    All eyes are still on Egypt, but that’s not the only hotspot for jihad:

  • Suicide bomber prematurely detonates thanks to spam text message. (Via Slashdot)
  • “Barack Obama has endorsed a role for the Muslim Brotherhood in a new, post-Mubarak government for Egypt.”
  • The current unrest in Egypt makes makes things look pretty grim for the Copts: “I’ve pored over every news report I can find, and have seen no sign that local Christians are involved in this uprising against Mubarak. This tells me all I need to know about the calls for ‘democracy’ and ‘reform’ in Egypt. They know that Mubarak’s fall would mean to them what Hussein’s fall meant to Iraqi Christians: the end.”
  • More from JihadWatch’s indefatigable Robert Spencer on the Muslim Brotherhood’s involvement in the unrest in Egypt. The amount of writing and analysis keeps up on the topic of jihad is positively dizzying. It’s hard to keep up just summarizing him…

    Egyptian blogger Sandmonkey (whom I linked to a few days ago), has been arrested and then released by the Egyptian government. “I am ok. I got out. I was ambushed & beaten by the police, my phone confiscated , my car ripped apar& supplies taken”

  • While everyone was paying attention to Egypt, Hamas fires rockets into Egypt.
  • Fifteen-year old Bangladeshi girl whipped to death in Koranic punishment for fornication.
  • Tell a Muslim their food smells bad and lose your house in Canada. This decision was overturned, but it proves Mark Steyn’s point that all Canadian “Human Rights Tribunals” need to be eliminated as threats to free speech…
  • Add New York City building code to the list of rules that are no longer applicable to Muslims.
  • A white Vietnam Veteran jihadi?
  • More reports of an al Qaeda dirty bomb.

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    Mubarak is Lying. Mubarak is Telling the Truth

    Thursday, February 3rd, 2011

    The latest from the beleaguered President of Egypt:

    Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has said he would like to resign immediately but fears the country would descend into chaos if he did so.

    In his first interview since anti-government protests began, he told ABC News he was “fed up” with power.

    It came as Cairo saw another day of violence with clashes between the president’s opponents and supporters.

    Mr Mubarak warned that the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood party would fill any power vacuum if he stepped down.

    Mubarak is lying. Dictators almost never want to give up power, except to pass it on to their heirs. (There are exceptions, such as Turkey or Chile, where a military dictator stepped in to prevent a radical regime from inflicting further damage, only to step back and restore control once the danger (and the lives of some political opponents) had passed, but these are the exception rather than the rule.) If Mubarak was really tired of power, he could have stepped down any time in the last 30 years.

    However, his statement that that the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood party would fill the power vacuum are, sadly, probably true.

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    What’s Going On In Egypt?

    Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011

    Good question. Wish I knew. Or, more accurately, wish I knew more than what I can glean from various reports, which is that anti-Mubarak forces are getting a smackdown from pro-Mubarak forces, including (reportedly) police (secret and otherwise) in disguise. Beyond those clashes, its hard to tell what is going on. Maybe Mubarak waited until popular rage had run its course, and delayed the crackdown until fears of disorder and looting drove the majority of non-hardcore protesters off the street before beginning the crackdown.

    The more I’ve read the past few days, the more I think that Mubarak survives until his promised stepping down in the September elections. What I’ve seen is lots of anti-Mubarak forces saying he has to step down now, he can’t survive, etc., as well as similar noises from various international governments, but no reports of Egyptian generals or colonels saying the same thing.

    A few other interesting articles on the situation:

  • First-hand report of The Battle of Tahir Square
  • A summary of events as they have unfolded so far. It talks about Gamal Mubarak’s technocrat friends working economic miracles but their takeover of the ruling ruling NDP party alienated the army, which saw the NDP as a rival power.
  • Michael Totten interviews Abbas Milani on parallels between Egypt today and the fall of the Shah in Iran.
  • The ever readable Christopher Hitchens on Mubarak’s shaming Egyptians. “It’s possible that people will overlook outright brutality sooner than they will forgive undisguised contempt.” (David Pryce-Jones also made much of the Arab shame/honor response in The Closed Circle.)

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    Egypt: A Fist, Slowly Clenching

    Monday, January 31st, 2011

    Hosni Mubarak seems to have adopted an interesting strategy to deal with the unrest gripping his country: Let the worst of it rage with a minimum of reprisals and crackdowns, and then slowly but surely reassert his control using the police and the military. Such a strategy walks the fine line between appearing weak enough to let the revolution push him out of power, and a Tienanmen-type crackdown that leaves thousands dead. So far it seems to be working: Despite some blips and waivers, the army still appears to be following Mubarak’s orders. If they continue to do so, it’s hard to see how the called-for general strike can be total enough to paralyze the nation. And if gas and food continue to make it through, it’s hard to see the general masses being radicalized enough to join the call to oust Mubarak.

    Also, National Review reminds us that the Muslim Brotherhood is bad news.

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    Egypt Update for Monday, January 31

    Monday, January 31st, 2011

    The situation this morning looks much the same as it did last night: neither side backing down, the army following Mubarak’s orders (for now).

    Once again the live update pages have changed:

  • BBC
  • Al Jazeera

    • And here’s an interesting article placing the Egyptian situation in the context of higher global food prices, which is driving global unrest. So ethanol subsidies, which were supposed to ween us from dependence on unstable Middle Eastern sources of oil, are helping destabilize the Middle East. Good work, guys!

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    Stratfor: Police and Army Redeploying, Both Suporting Mubarak For Now

    Sunday, January 30th, 2011

    Or so say their sources:

    The Egyptian military and internal security forces have coordinated a crackdown for the hours ahead in an effort to clear the streets of the demonstrators. The interior minister has meanwhile negotiated his stay for the time being, in spite of widespread expectations that he, seen by many Egyptians as the source of police brutality in the country, would be one of the first ministers that would have to be sacked in order to quell the demonstrations. Instead, both Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and al-Adly, the two main targets of ire for the demonstrators, seem to be betting that they can ride this crisis out and remain in power. So far, the military seems to be acquiescing to these decisions.

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