Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Western Nile Delusion Syndrome

What's happening in Egypt should not surprise anyone.  It is a traditional country and its people express traditional views.
We can’t do anything about the disposition of the Egyptian electorate, but we could at least stop deluding ourselves. (Mark Steyn – Brother’s Day)
Everyone is wondering how the Muslim Brotherhood candidate won in Egypt, and how they won so many seats in parliament. What happened to the secular, sexy and cool revolution?

A simple reading of Egyptian polling data predicted this:

* 95%: Say it's good that Islam plays a large role in politics
* 54%: Believe men and women should be segregated in the workplace
* 82%: Believe adulterers should be stoned
* 84%: Believe apostates from Islam should face the death penalty
(Source:  Globe and Mail PEW Survey Results)

We’ll see how “sexy and cool” this all is a year from now…

38 comments:

Fredd said...

A year from now, they will be back at Israel's throat, threatening war. Just like the good ol' days, when Nassar was calling the shots.

Hack said...

Mark my words, a second 6 Day War will be upon us before we know it. If it happens before the election I wonder who Obama would back...Egypt or Israel? (not like it matters)

Anonymous said...

What else is the point of flooding the country with these illegals unless they can vote? Good intentions ? Don't make me laugh! Obama dos'nt have an "Good Intentions" everything he does is foe himself! This was all done to get illegal aliens voting for the Democrats.

The left is having a colossal meltdown and is running as scared as a rabbit being chased by a Lion.

Lets face it, Flop ears with no experience was elected because of his color, it certainly wasn't because if his experience or even his ability.

Flop ears and his union thugs, black panthers, his fellow commies, socialist's and the Sharpton/Jackson race baiters are already working in the shadows to organize the greatest case of voter fraud in the history of the United States. They are not going to go down without attempting the biggest voter fraud ever seen.

Always On Watch said...

Wave good-bye to the Camp David Accords.

Hell, maybe they'll even desecrate Anwar Sadat's grave. I wouldn't be surprised.

Silverfiddle said...

Neither would I, AOW. And Sadat supposedly had that worn spot on his head from hitting the prayer mat so many times...

The Air Force put me in electronics school after basic training, and we had all services and many foreign nationals there.

I became buddies with a Moroccan officer, and we went out to a local pub one evening with a group of Egyptian soldiers.

It was a few years after his assassination, and I brought up his name, and they all started wailing and crying, saying what a good and pious man he was. He evidently was beloved by the military.

The Debonair Dudes World said...

What more could the Muslim Brotherhood ask for but a modern equipped army bought and paid for by the US to help destroy Israel !!.

Ducky's here said...

There's still the matter that Parliament has been dissolved. It's clear that the military has a few tricks left in its bag.
I imagine they'll burn a few Christian churches to demonstrate how much firm rule is needed and take over.

But since this election isn't approved by Israel it must be invalidated.

Alligator said...

Syria will soon follow the Egyptian model. My aunt lived in Egypt years ago and the attitudes of the "man on the street" she described weren't much different than what the Egyptian polling data shows now. It's just that in the Middle East, dictators like Hussein, Assad, Mubarak and Gaddafi kept a lid on the pressure cooker.

I don't think all these Arab Springs will produce one monolithic caliphate though. There is far too much tribalism in those cultures. However, I think they can unify around two central themes: hatred of the West and hatred of Israel.

Always On Watch said...

Silverfiddle,
Anwar Sadat was an interesting man. I remember his words, the gist of which is the following: "We, Jew and Arab, are brothers in Abraham. We must stop this fighting. We are annihilating each other."

I did shed tears when Sadat was assassinated.

Always On Watch said...

I concur with Debonair Dude:

What more could the Muslim Brotherhood ask for but a modern equipped army bought and paid for by the US to help destroy Israel !!.

Exactly what is happening.

Hideous all around -- and not only for Israel.

Reaping the whirlwind.

Bunkerville said...

Just maybe we would be better off looking a bit more as to how they are doing here in the U.S.

The American branch of the Muslim Brotherhood from 1991 states that its "work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within."

Z said...

Sadat's death was a nightmare.
Imagine how Israel feels about this election's results?

I'm sorry and surprised to read this polling data because, on the news, I saw so many women in burkas wailing over the win of the muslim brotherhood...
and I thought the vote was very close.

98ZJUSMC said...

* 95%: Say it's good that Islam plays a large role in politics
* 54%: Believe men and women should be segregated in the workplace
* 82%: Believe adulterers should be stoned
* 84%: Believe apostates from Islam should face the death penalty
(Source: Globe and Mail PEW Survey Results)


I suddenly understand why the left loves these people so much.

Anonymous said...

The Middle-East is going to fester until it boils over. Democracy was never meant for such people.

98ZJUSMC said...

Bunkerville said...
Just maybe we would be better off looking a bit more as to how they are doing here in the U.S.

The American branch of the Muslim Brotherhood from 1991 states that its "work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within.


Nah,....they're just misunderstood is all. Nothing to be alarmed about.

Jersey McJones said...

Many revolutions over the course of history have been corrupted by religious zealots. From Cromwell to the Terror to Iran. Eventually, the zealots always overreach and are deposed and disgraced.

Give it time. It always happens in the end.

JMJ

Silverfiddle said...

I don't completely disagree, Jersey, but we're still waiting in the case of Iran...

Jersey McJones said...

Well, we saw movement against the theocracy there just a year ago. I believe, from what I've read and Iranians I've known, that the mullahs will be deposed within the next decade.

JMJ

Finntann said...

@Everyone is wondering how the Muslim Brotherhood candidate won in Egypt, and how they won so many seats in parliament.

I'm surprised that anyone is surprised.... HELLO!

Ducky's here said...

Juan Cole points out a few things, among them:

The Muslim Brotherhood hasn’t anyway actually come to power in Egypt, still being constrained by the military, the courts and other, stronger political movements. Having the civilian presidency in a military-dominated state only amounts to so much.
----------------------

But just say MB and the right wing gets the vapors. The Egyptian military is still in charge and we will do our best to ensure they remain. The Egyptian people be damned, they're Muslims.

Jersey McJones said...

Egypt has been the second largest recipient of US military aid for many years now. It is not just vital to their military, but a substantial chunk of their entire economy.

Ducky is making, to me very clearly, but to some it's just not getting through: Whatever the people of Egypt may want or believe they have attained, the military is not going to surrender their annual US endowment.

You guys were talking about Nasser and Sadat and Begin and all - well, remember, Carter got that that deal between Israel and Egypt by essentially bribing them. Israel wanted, quite understandably, strategic control over the Sinai, West Bank, Golan Heights, and Gaza.

All but the Sinai was realistic. And that's because of the Suez Canal.

So the US, being the most important economy in the world, made a deal with Israel and Egypt: Knock it the fuck off and we'll provide you with military aid forever.

So, like Ducky said, I wouldn't knee-jerk freak out over some MB guy getting elected whatever in Egypt.

JMJ

Silverfiddle said...

Jersey: Again, I agree with you. We did bribe them to keep the peace.

However, I'd like you and Ducky both to go back and read the post. I'm not knee-jerking and I'm not getting the vapors, just pointing out that the press was, once again, full of it. The BBC has now chimed in and said the coverage could have been more even-handed.

Jersey McJones said...

I'm sorry Silver, I should have explicitly excluded you from some of what I wrote. I was responding to responses with that last comment.

As for the BBC, they go out of their way sometimes, and I say good for them, even when it's wrong. Ducky would probably disagree with me on that. But I think you have to walk a line in the news biz.

JMJ

Ducky's here said...

Well, I have to say that when you start quoting the likes of Middle East scholar and noted dipstick Mark Steyn your objectivity is in the dumper.

The post is nothing but the usual boiler plate about how bad the MB and a blatant failure to realize that we will allow the Egyptian military to subvert any democratic growth as Jersey and I have tried to point out.

Les Carpenter said...

I think I want some of whatever ir is Jersey and Ducky are smoking.

Ducky's here said...

You want to make a reasoned response or just pull your dick like a right wing diaper pisser?

viburnum said...

I think it's likely the mandate gets struck down, which renders several other provisions, guaranteed coverage for instance, untenable. It's a giant step beyond that to quash the entire bill, and send Congress back to the drawing board, but that's truly what needs to be done. Who knows? Maybe this time they'll actually read the damn thing first?

viburnum said...

Unintentionally off topic.

ROFLMAO! How the hell did I do that? That was supposed to go to Z's

Finntann said...

Ducky, how is either the Steyn article or this post "usual boiler plate about how bad the MB" is?

Neither says anything bad about the MB, the worse they imply is not much is going to change. Which supports your position that the military is as in charge as they ever were.

Are you disputing the polling data? Which seems pretty consistent with just about any middle eastern public opinion poll I've seen.

Cheers.

Ducky's here said...

Finntann, the noted Muslim scholar and comic dipstick, Steyn spends his article dropping critical analysis like this:
"America’s director of national intelligence, who presides over the most lavishly funded intelligence bureaucracy on the planet, was telling the world that the Muslim Brotherhood is “largely secular.” So that’s okay."

... of course Steyn knows better ... how?

Face it, he has one function, keep The Ladies Who Lunch clutching their pearls.

We should be ashamed of ourselves.

Finntann said...

@"America’s director of national intelligence, who presides over the most lavishly funded intelligence bureaucracy on the planet, was telling the world that the Muslim Brotherhood is “largely secular.”

Hmmm Ducky, I don't know...

"In the case of Egypt a a very heterogeneous group, largely secular which has eschewed violence and decried al qaeda as a peversion of islam, they have pursued social ends, betterment of the political order, etc."

James Clapper Director of National Intelligence in testimony before the House Intelligence Committee.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/video/james-clapper-muslim-brotherhood-largely-secular-12886575

What I want to know is how Steyn is making those words come out of Clapper's mouth.

Cheers!

Silverfiddle said...

No Ducky, the DNI is stroking liberal fantasists like you.

Does it feel good?

Finntann said...

Here's something that will make you feel good.

With 32,000 people evacuated from fire zones...

Only 408 are in the Shelters.

While some of them may be in hotels, it's obvious the majority of them are staying with family and friends.

Just when I'm about ready to become a dedicated misanthrope, you people go and do something like this.

Cheers!

Z said...

Can you update on how you and Mrs SF are doing with the fires? Prayers going up!
xx

Silverfiddle said...

@ Finntann: Just when I'm about ready to become a dedicated misanthrope, you people go and do something like this.

Yes indeed. This is the most conservative part of Colorado. With all us greedy hatemongers, you wouldn't expect over 31,000 people to be put up for free by others, would you?

Z: We are out of the way of the fire, thank God. Just lots of smoke.

Z said...

I thought it sounded more dire to you a day or two ago; am very relieved to hear this.
A friend emailed from Colorado Springs and said the air quality is "horrific"....

FreeThinke said...

"Striking it down completely could have set a precedent that government does not have the power to tax us in this way, setting the stage for the destruction of Social Security and Medicare, which are funded by mandatory taxation."


And wouldn't THAT have been just JIM DANDY and GINGER PEACHY!

All TRUE Conservatives have been dying to get rid of these hugely expensive impositions on the American Taxpayer since they frst came in in the 1930's.

~ FreeThinke

MathewK said...

That's islam for you, it's incompatible with democracy, freedom and liberty. Anyone who tells you that when muslims come to the west, they won't agitate for the same thing here is either nuts or is working for them.