Muslim Brotherhood students at Al Azhar university held a protest yesterday after the suspension of a number of MB students who took part in an unofficial student union elections. The government here maintains tight control over student elections to prevent the MB from winning these elections and that forced MB students to conduct student union elections parallel to the official ones.
The above sounds normal. The students were protesting against the suspension of their colleagues. But what happened in this Al Azhar university was not normal at all.
Around 50 students all dressed in militia-style black outfits and masks paraded in front of the university's main building. What they wore and the march they held resembled that of militias such as Hamas, Hezbullah, and Mahdi Army. The only difference is that the former hold armed parades, the MB students just showed off their karate and kung fu skills. Uffff, thank God for gun control in Egypt!
The MB tried to distance itself from what the students did. They said that the students acted on their own without resorting back to the organization's leadership. MB top leader Mehdi Akef said the march was part of a "sketch" by the students aimed at displaying their karate skills.
The was not enough to prevent the police from storming the university dorms and arresting hundreds of Al Azhar MB students. The MB's number three was also apprehended. The government owned media seized this incident to attack the MB and raise the alarm against a possible return of the "MB militias". A cartoon showing pics of the masked students appeared in today's paper. The caption above read: "this is not Egypt."
The MB formed its own armed wing to fight the newly established state of Israel. They carried out a number of political assasinations and they were accused of trying to assassinate Gamal Abdul Nasser in 1954 The military wing and the MB itself were crushed by Nasser afterward. When President Anwar Sadat forged an alliance with the MB against the leftists, he allowed them to restart their political activities only after "renouncing violence".
What the students did should be very troubling to anyone. However, the government, on the other hand, is still required to do a very simple thing: quit messing up student elections!
See more pics here.
I personally haven’t read the government press’s take on this one, only that of the columnists of the independent Almasry alyom. So it’s not accurate to describe this as a campaign directed by the government.
And the comment on the cartoon you describe is right: this is isn’t Egypt.
Comment by seneferu — December 14, 2006 @ 10:00 pm
idiots!
Comment by AF — December 14, 2006 @ 10:31 pm
“However, the government, on the other hand, is still required to do a very simple thing: quit messing up student elections!”
Therein lies the problem. If the government doesn’t intervene then all of Egypt’s Universities/Trade Synidicates/Clubs will go to the Islamists.
Then what?
Comment by Egypeter — December 14, 2006 @ 10:48 pm
Sadly inevitable. Islamonazis will be Islamonazis.
Comment by The Raccoon — December 14, 2006 @ 11:21 pm
The gov’t messing with student elections or not… This does not give the right to these people to do what they did… Their intention was a friggin’ display of power. Doesn’t anyone see the connotation of the masks and the marching? and the “samedoon” written on the masks, I saw videos of this thing and they had the Lebanese resistance (Hizbullah) song “samedoon” playing in the background. This means that they’re threatening with taking up violence. We all know several fundamental Islamic groups have military-type training camps inside Egypt. I was horrified when I saw the videos that I almost cried. I’m sorry but I do not sympathize with them getting arrested in any way. And Mahdi Akef’s statement about this having nothing to do with the MB’s is pure and concentrated BULLSHIT! (excuse my language) The government messes up all elections not just student and syndicates’ elections, and we can revolt and speak up, but not spread fear, its enough the gov’t spreads fear! We can’t have this in Egypt! this is way too much! No one is saying what the gov’t does in terms of fraud in elections and corruption is ok, but we can’t have 200 university students bluntly declare their willingness to take up suicide bombing! Some MB’s are moderate, some are corrupt and use religion to manipulate pple for personal gain, and some are fundies who’d like to see Egypt turn into Afghanistan or Iran. So from this blog I announce my refusal, I say no to this, to them, to those who want to Talibanize Egypt, Who will say no? WHO WILL JOIN ME?
Comment by Isis - The Egyptian Liberal — December 15, 2006 @ 12:59 am
You really believe they don’t have access to guns because of some laws?
Criminals never have trouble locating guns, especially if they have jihadi connections. In Europe they come through the Balkans. In Egypt… Pick a direction.
Comment by Chip — December 15, 2006 @ 2:14 am
There was one photo in which many demonstrators held Korans in the air in unison. They reminded me of China’s Red Guards demonstrating during the 1960s Cultural Revolution, when they would typically brandish copies of Mao’s “little Red Book” in unison.
Comment by Joanne — December 15, 2006 @ 2:19 am
I’M SCARED… REALLY!!
Comment by Isis — December 15, 2006 @ 2:28 am
You should be Isis! I am too and I don’t even live in Egypt.
The Ikhwan are no joke. They have some seriously evil intentions in store for Egypt. Just ask them.
And of course, since they’re ordained by the Almighty to do His work on earth anyone who dares stand against them is labeled an apostate or Infidel or Zionist or Coptic or American or Crusader - take your choice. Personally, I’m 3 or 4 of the above.
Comment by Egypeter — December 15, 2006 @ 4:11 am
Are there any good guys in positions of power in Egypt or the Middle East that we in America can back? From this side of the ocean the Egyptian government looks like a bunch of violent goons badly in need of reform. The reformists appear to be all Islamists who are just a different brand of violent goons. Where is the faction of sensible people?
Comment by Tantor — December 15, 2006 @ 5:07 am
Oh MY God…This is scary! This is a mosiba..
HARAM! what the hell is wrong with these people! They are slandering Islam. I’m Adding a link to your post on my blog
Comment by Modern Pharaoh — December 15, 2006 @ 5:56 am
It reminds me of Hamas, after all they had a start as a MB in Palestine and they still have links with ikhwan.
I wonder, do MB in Egypt is slowly going the route taken by Hamas?
Comment by ella — December 15, 2006 @ 6:09 am
Send all them fuckers to Iraq. I’m serious. Nobody even needs to ask them if they want to go, they volunteered for the insurgency when they put on those masks. MB is Sunni, right? The US is not planning on intervening on behalf of the Sunnis in Iraq, so they need all the help they can get. Let them show their karate skills to the shia death squads. They may even do some good. And your problems will be solved. What’s a one way bus ticket across Jordan cost, anyway? Can’t be much. What good is Iraq if you can’t send your suicidal idiots there to die, anyway? It’s what everyone else does.
Comment by Craig — December 15, 2006 @ 7:15 am
What? No jumping through the dreaded rings of fire?
Seriously folks, these people are scary.
Comment by Urban Infidel — December 15, 2006 @ 11:52 am
Between Mubarak, the MB, and a sane opposition that’s too busy tearing itself apart and/or being torn apart by Mubarak, Egypt’s future doesn’t look too promising.
As for gun control, Egypt is a central vein for gun running in this region. The MB has guns, it’s just smart enough not to show them… yet.
Comment by Roman Kalik — December 15, 2006 @ 12:23 pm
BP the chickens are coming home to roost in Egypt !
Comment by Paul — December 15, 2006 @ 1:16 pm
So did their martial arts skills do them any good when the cops showed up? I didn’t think so.
I have been wondering how long the Marmaduke could keep Egypt on the sidelines in this war. So far, so good.
Of topic; Krauthammer asked a good question the other day.
If there was an earthquake tommorrow and Israel slid into the sea, how many of the Arab worlds numerous problems would be solved?
“An oppressive government is more to be feared than a tiger.”
- Confucius
Comment by da 12th anon — December 15, 2006 @ 2:27 pm
If the government wants to do anything right, it should put away all the MBs in prison..
Protesting is ok, but when you do it in Militia and Terrorist clothing is a very different thing.
Comment by Rave — December 15, 2006 @ 2:58 pm
I am having trouble posting comments on Egyptian blogs from here in the US. Anyone else having this problem?
Comment by Urban Infidel — December 15, 2006 @ 3:33 pm
Good question (10) Tantor; I think that at this juncture in Egypt’s modern history, the dye having been cast long ago with the emergence and ever-present Muslim Brotherhood, it is very hard for any democrat/liberal to gain a foothold on the political scene. Any movement that does not fit the MB’s agenda, and for that matter is seen as a threat to the Mubarak mafia, is immediately under the gun and suppressed. The recent disintegration of the remains of the only `somewhat` believable opposition speaks volumes about the absolute polarization at street level.
Like everyone here, I am afraid that the politics of intimidation have penetrated all levels of society, and that students would ‘costume`themselves in identical garb as Hamas, sends a very strong message that the time to roll over or play nice is well past. While one can sigh with relief that there is gun control in Egypt, it should be pointed out that a very pissed-off fraction of the 778,887,000 Egyptians can certainly bring chaos to the state. Very frightening!
Comment by Northern shewolf — December 15, 2006 @ 4:43 pm
Why is it that I get the impression that these people enjoy death more than life? Could it have anything to do with life in a culture which regulates everything you eat and drink, everything you do in bed and with whom, etc…?
A few days ago, the Somalian Taliban-like authorities announced that anyone who does not pray five times a day will be beheaded. Fun country to live in isn’t?
I see a similar regime in Lebanon and Egypt in a few years or months.
Can Islam reform itself? Not a chance because the religion seems to be firmly grounded on medieval practices and attitudes that not only resist change but fight it with the violence of a death-cult.
To those who claim that Christianity went through similar process, I say look at the past. Even in the dark age of Medieval Europe, people drank booze, they had active sex life (including outside marriage), they criticized religions and laughed the authorities. I don’t see this sense of humour in Islam. Everything is dead serious and I mean dead like DEAD END!
Comment by andré — December 15, 2006 @ 5:00 pm
Andre,
If you drum it into people’s heads that death is a garden of delights awaiting them, while their daily reality is poverty, illness, lack of education, sanitation, no human rights etc…, then it is totally reasonable to them to long for it, as well as have a total disregard for life: theirs as well as others.
I am with you totally in your very accurate historical sketches of Early Christian and Medieval European people’s lives. Of course we had extremist agendas popping up here and there ie: inquisition, crusades, religious wars, etc…, this also applies to this day and age ie: some consider extreme certain Evangelical mouvements, Mormonism with its plural wives conceit, Jehovah`s Witnesses and their joyless approach to life`s meaningful moments, etc… but all in all, very milquetoast cakewalks in comparaison to what is fermenting in the Muslim world today.
Comment by Northern shewolf — December 15, 2006 @ 6:15 pm
There’s something very important/interesting I’d like to point out here - religion has nothing to do with this… this is purely political.
Comment by ISIS — December 15, 2006 @ 6:43 pm
If Israel were to disappear tomorrow the Arabs would have to find a new scapegoat to blame their problems on !
Comment by Paul — December 15, 2006 @ 6:52 pm
Dear Isis,
Believe me! we all know this, however it cannot be denied that it is the mosque that has harnesed the frustrations and discontent of the streets. I have myself pointed out many times in this very blogspot that piety IS NOT what is motivating people towards extremism, rather it is the fact that people perceived the mosque and the MB as the only institutions that care about them, hence they will embrace whatever is required of them by these twin agendas; things like the hijab as well as jihad….
Comment by Northern shewolf — December 15, 2006 @ 6:55 pm
The Muslim Brotherhood ideology is based on the notion that the Muslim community has been extinct for a few centuries because followers have reverted to Godless ignorance. It must therefore be re-conquered for Islam. To achieve this lofty goal, the MB demands complete adherence to Sharia as sacred law and as a complete way of life. It also demands advoidance of Western and non-Islamic evil and corruption (including socialism and nationalism), constant vigilance against Western and Jewish conspiracies agains the one true faith. If this does not make it a religious movement what does else does it take Isis?
Comment by andré — December 15, 2006 @ 7:20 pm
I think nothing is wrong if somebody follows their own religion. However when violence and the use of terror is used by anybody it is wrong.
BP do you or anybody else really feel it is “Islam” that is a threat? Or do you feel a group of people who might belong to any religion, are a threat?
Comment by Muslim Unity — December 15, 2006 @ 7:55 pm
This piece by Joan Smith (The Independent, November 12, 2006 may answer the above question:
The most striking thing about Dhiren Barot, the Muslim convert who was jailed for 40 years last week, is the pleasure he seems to have taken in contemplating the deaths of thousands of innocent people. Barot’s terror plots were on a huge scale, rivalling the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and included one to bomb a Tube train under the Thames. He fantasised about burning and drowning his fellow citizens, creating carnage on a scale even more horrific than the 7/7 bombings.
What these lurid dreams of destruction tell us about extreme Islam - Barot was described as an “associate” of al-Qai’da - is that it’s a death cult. Such things are not uncommon and they’ve swept across Asia in recent years: the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, hard-Left hunger strikers in Turkish gaols, suicide-bombers in Israel, Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan. All these fanatics would argue that death is a means, not an end, but I’m not convinced.
Take the example closest to hand - the radicalised Muslims in this country whom the head of MI5, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, warned about last week: their behaviour appears at first glance to be political, in the sense of being a response to the Government’s actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. But we live in a democracy, not a dictatorship, and millions of us oppose the war in Iraq without plotting to dismember our fellow citizens. The 1,600 individuals whom Manningham-Buller identified as under surveillance by the security service don’t have to plant bombs or kill themselves to make their point - and does anyone really believe they’d return to normal life if British troops were brought home from Iraq? Or if Israel withdrew, as it so clearly should, behind its 1967 borders?
People who make such arguments need a reality check.
Radicalised young Muslims display most of the signs of belonging to a cult, which recruits clandestinely and romanticises the idea of violent death. The recruiters set out to separate impressionable people from the wider community, stoking a sense of grievance and victimhood which hasn’t much to do with the objective circumstances of their lives; they are brainwashed with images of death and destruction, desensitised to the consequences until some are capable of committing the atrocities we saw last year.
It’s a huge mistake to think of Islamism as a coherent political programme. Its aims, which include the return of the medieval caliphate or Muslim empire, and the introduction of sharia (Islamic law), are neither reasonable nor realisable. I’m not even convinced it’s what al-Qai’da is truly seeking to achieve; there’s always been something of the ham actor about Osama bin Laden, and it’s much easier to sit in a cave and enjoy the mayhem you’ve unleashed than to engage in serious political debate. The leaders of al-Qai’da seem to have a great deal in common with recent cult leaders such as Jim Jones, founder of the People’s Temple, who persuaded more than 900 of his followers to commit “revolutionary suicide” in Jonestown, Guyana, in 1978.
This type of man is in love with violence and power for their own sake. Bin Laden and his right-hand man, Ayman al-Zawahiri, are seldom photographed without guns, symbols of the gruesome death they threaten us with, and yet there is a tendency to treat their followers as if they were rational people. The sooner we come to realise that they’re brainwashed young men who get off on psychopathic fantasies of extreme violence, the sooner we will understand how to recognise and defuse them.
Comment by Anonymous — December 16, 2006 @ 12:39 am
BP do you or anybody else really feel it is “Islam” that is a threat? Or do you feel a group of people who might belong to any religion, are a threat?
Look at these photos Mr. 28:
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=21891_Death_Cult_Parade_in_Jakarta&only
If the group of people in the above photographs are Seventh Day Adventists, I will eat my hat….
Comment by andré — December 16, 2006 @ 12:48 am
“The sooner we come to realise that they’re brainwashed young men who get off on psychopathic fantasies of extreme violence, the sooner we will understand how to recognise and defuse them.”
Evidence please! You cannot defuse them, they have to be killed. All the pop psychology in the world won’t change that.
Plus I question the validity of the term ‘psychopathic’.
Main Entry: 1psy·cho·path·ic
Pronunciation: “sI-k&-’pa-thik
Function: adjective
: of, relating to, or characterized by psychopathy or antisocial personality disorder
- psy·cho·path·i·cal·ly /-thi-k(&-)lE/ adverb
How can murder be anti-social in a society that condones and promotes it? It may be anti-social in Western Civilizatio, but this is Islamic civilization we are speaking to. An Islamic psychologist could consider you a psychopath for being unwilling to commit murder.
After all, there are still Soviet dididents in gulags for predicting the fall of the Soviet Union. They were judged ‘insane’ and locked up in Siberian work camps.
“Work will set you free”.
So to say that these people are nutjobs is true by western standards might be true, a good talking to is not going to change their mind. A 9mm thru the cranium will.
Let me point out that Huntington was correct when he said that it wasn’t superior culture or human rights or better education that made Western civilization dominant. It was the Europeans superior military skills and willingnesss to slaughter everyone that created Western Civilization. The West has forgotten that, but the 3rd world hasn’t.
“It is better to have a known enemy than a forced ally”
- Napoleon Bonaparte
Comment by da 12th anon — December 16, 2006 @ 1:57 am
Isis: “There’s something very important/interesting I’d like to point out here - religion has nothing to do with this… this is purely political.”
Haven’t you heard, Isis: There is no division between religion and politics in Islam. Masked Muslim thugs marching in the streets is the result.
Tantor
Comment by Anonymous — December 16, 2006 @ 7:28 am
what other mainstream student movements exist in egypt?
we hear so much about MB but the news surely ignores more moderate groups.. we should hear more about them..
wishing us all peace..
lirun
telaviv
Comment by lirun — December 16, 2006 @ 8:54 am
Andre- Mr. 30,
Do they speak for the entire religion of Islam? If I claim to be a follower of Christ, and burn pictures of Muslims to I speak for all Chrisitans or for the Faith?
I don’t mean to have a fight or anything, I just feel we are all humans and equal.
Comment by Muslim Unity — December 16, 2006 @ 9:12 am
These pic’s look foreboding and remind me of pre-revolution days of Khomeini who fooled an entire nation.
Comment by Serendip — December 16, 2006 @ 1:15 pm
Turns out that Alexander Litvinenko,the ex-russian spy that was poisoned by radiation,was also a Muslim convert with ties to Al Queda. Worse,the polonium-210 that killed him is used as a trigger in nuclear suitcases…..and not for assasinations.
THAT’s spooky imo.
Comment by Maury — December 16, 2006 @ 1:20 pm
Yuck…this is always a dangerous sign, it reminds me of the 500 students demonstration that formed the nucleus of Mahdi’s Army in Sadr City back in 2003 - look where are we now, it’s a very dangerous notion.
Comment by Konfused Kid — December 16, 2006 @ 2:13 pm
I am not sure what is worse: those fucked up students or the egyptian police
Comment by Suzanne — December 16, 2006 @ 2:19 pm
@36, where did you get that info from? Litvinenko converted to islam on his hospital bed knowing he would die.
Comment by Suzanne — December 16, 2006 @ 2:26 pm
@33, but the not moderate ones shout harder.
Comment by Suzanne — December 16, 2006 @ 2:41 pm
@34
No, because the Pope speaks for catholics and protestants have their own authorities. You speak only for yourself not for all christians.
Muslims do not have central authorities but choose the clerics who speaks for them.
So if you say you are cleric speaking for all muslims and give examples from hadiths/Quran which back your action, who am I to disbelieve you?
Comment by ella — December 16, 2006 @ 6:27 pm
Suzan
Litvinienko might not have been connected at Al Qaeda, but he was definitely connected to chechen terrorists. He hated Putin (said Putin was pedophile) as well as FSB/KGB.
As for his conversion:
“Two days before his death Litvinenko, a disenchanted Russian Orthodox Christian, informed his father that he had converted to Islam: the actual conversion happened at a point during his sickness but before he knew he was going to die.”
Comment by ella — December 16, 2006 @ 6:43 pm
Being a critic towards Putin concerning Chechenya, does not make you an ally to Chechen terrorist.
These are tough accusations. Where is this info coming from?
Comment by Suzanne — December 16, 2006 @ 6:49 pm
Do they speak for the entire religion of Islam? If I claim to be a follower of Christ, and burn pictures of Muslims to I speak for all Chrisitans or for the Faith? (Muslim Unity)
Give me contemporary evidence that there are Christian people on the streets wearing hoods over their faces and calling for the destruction of the Muslim World and we’re talking. By the way, the Crusades as a pretext for condemnation of christians don’t work “no more” not for me anyway.
Comment by andré — December 16, 2006 @ 6:58 pm
#34 Muslim Unity
How many angels dance on the head of a pin?
Thi is the kind of question you seem to pose…
Comment by Northern shewolf — December 16, 2006 @ 8:29 pm
[...] More at The Big Pharaoh: MB Militia? [...]
Pingback by NoisyRoom.net » Blog Archive » Muslim Brotherhood at Al-Azhar University — December 17, 2006 @ 2:36 am
Suzan
The fragment I quoted is from Wikipedia.
The other info…..just read his bio in wikipedia and comments on his life, chechen sites included.
Comment by ella — December 17, 2006 @ 4:20 am
Muslim Unity: “Do they speak for the entire religion of Islam? If I claim to be a follower of Christ, and burn pictures of Muslims to I speak for all Chrisitans or for the Faith? I don’t mean to have a fight or anything, I just feel we are all humans and equal.”
That’s not what Mohammed and the Koran and Sharia say. They say Muslims are superior to non-Muslims, that non-Muslims are decidedly inferior. Should Christians burn pictures of Muslims they are acting contrary to the example of Jesus. However, when Muslims burn pictures of Christians, they are following the example of Mohammed.
If the majority of Muslims truly believed that all humans were equal, they would not be perpetrating a world wide war on non-Muslims. We would not need elaborate security at every airport in the world to stop Muslims from killing non-Muslims in the air.
Islam is the problem. The MB is a symptom of the problem.
Comment by Anonymous — December 17, 2006 @ 9:24 pm
Awesome, man
Comment by Abi — February 3, 2007 @ 10:48 am
I am an apostate from Islam - a murtad. Under Sharia, the penalty for leaving Islam is death.
I pray that God blesses Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and allows his regime to rule until the day of judgement.
Down to the Muslim Brotherhood!
Yes to the National Democrats!
Comment by MENJ — April 30, 2007 @ 1:24 pm