Should the West believe Egypt's new president?

June 27, 2012
Cal Thomas
Examiner Columnist
The Washington Examiner
http://washingtonexaminer.com/should-the-west-believe-egypts-new-president/article/2500765

Throughout America's history, there have been people who denied threats from
our enemies. During the Revolutionary War, significant numbers sided with
the British monarchy. Enablers in politics, the media and even religion
helped communism remain in power for seven decades in the Soviet Union.
German Nazis also had their U.S. apologists.

The presidential election in Egypt, won by the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed
Morsi, challenges contemporary deniers and enablers who refuse to
acknowledge the threat advancing Islamism poses to Israel and the West.
Enough Egyptians voted for Morsi to allow Islamists to achieve greater
political power than at any time since the Brotherhood's 1928 founding.

Morsi, who was educated in America, mouths the words the West wants to hear.
He speaks of being president of "all Egyptians," promising to honor all
international agreements made by the Hosni Mubarak regime.

A cleric, Safwat Higazi, introduced Morsi at a May 1 campaign rally and
stated the Brotherhood's objective: "Our capital shall be Jerusalem, Allah
willing." That seems to signal the real direction in which Morsi could take
his country. It is certainly in line with Muslim Brotherhood thinking.

After more than three years of pandering and apologizing to the Islamic
world, the Obama administration has produced a tree bearing rotten fruit.
The White House congratulated Morsi on his victory. What else could it do?
It won't admit error or acknowledge that the Arab Spring is starting to
resemble a Siberian winter.

Iran continues its nuclear weapons program and threatens to wipe the
"Zionist entity" off the map. Russian President Vladimir Putin visits Israel
and urges Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to attack Iran, to
which Russia has been providing nuclear technology. Should Egypt again
become hostile to the Jewish state (the recent terror attacks from the Sinai
border area are a sign that 32 years of stability there could unravel),
Israel may be in greater peril than at any time in its modern history.

Sixteen months ago, the Brotherhood declared itself uninterested in the
Egyptian presidency, vowing not to run a candidate. Add that to the long
list of lies and empty promises that numerous Arab and Islamic leaders have
peddled to the West.

Columnist Max Boot seemingly buys into the fantasies of the apologists,
enablers and deniers. In a Commentary magazine article titled "Let the
Brotherhood Rule in Egypt," Boot writes, "As long as a Brotherhood
government must face voters in the future, popular sentiment will act as a
check on its illiberal tendencies."

Many dictators have been elected once.

"Regardless," Boot added, "it is a tragedy that the will of the Egyptian
people, who plainly long for Western-style democracy and not an
Iranian-style theocracy or a sclerotic police state, is being thwarted."

Really? The Egyptian parliamentary election confirmed polling that indicates
60 percent of Egyptians favor complete adoption of Shariah law. Shariah does
not require that future elections be held. Those polls also show an
overwhelming majority of Egyptians want a religious government, stoning as a
form of punishment, and limits on women and Christians in office.

The New York Times' David Kirkpatrick is not fooled by false promises. In an
April 23 story, he wrote, "[Morsi] has argued for barring women and
non-Muslims from Egypt's presidency on the basis of [Shariah] law. He has
called for a council of Muslim scholars to advise Parliament. He has a track
record of inflammatory statements about Israel, calling its citizens
'killers and vampires.' "

The Muslim Brotherhood knows how Westerners think. It is playing us for
fools. If we believe what has happened in Egypt and the upheavals in the
rest of the Mideast will lead to democracy, human rights, equal rights for
women and religious minorities, and freedom of speech and press, then we are
fools.
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Examiner Columnist Cal Thomas is nationally syndicated by Tribune Media.