What’s Arabic for ‘Reichstag Fire’?

August 17, 2012 By 11 Comments

The question of course is what happens now. In all likelihood what little resistance existed to a Muslim Brotherhood state in Egypt is now broken. With SCAF member Abdel Fatah El-Sisi, formerly head of military intelligence taking over as defense minister, and several other key commanders (including the head of the Egyptian 3rd Army based at Suez) taking plum positions in the new hierarchy, it will become increasingly easy to find collaborators within the army structure willing to side with the Muslim Brotherhood.  That means moving forward the M.B. will be able to replace those who participated in or benefited from this bloodless coup, if they should later on resist orders.

For students of revolutionary movements in general, and analysts in the Brotherhood in particular, there ought to have been no surprise here. The only actor in the Egyptian theater which possessed a conspiratorial organization, swiftly and purposefully acting on orders from its leadership was the Muslim Brotherhood.  In heady times of revolution and counter-revolution, such parties are always likely to rise to the top of the pile.

Whether the Brotherhood sparked the events in the Sinai to provide justification to carry out their coup, as the Nazis lit the Reichstag fire to justify their actions, or whether they simply responded to unfolding events with precise and aggressive action is ultimately irrelevant – the outcome, regardless of the excuse, was preordained.  The Egyptian army, the “most secular and pro-western institution in Egypt,” which is the refrain we have heard repeated ad nauseam, has failed to serve as the bulwark to Brotherhood power that we were promised.

Indeed, if there is one silver lining to the weekend’s events in Egypt, it is that policymakers can perhaps finally outgrow their belief in the fictional security blanket of a secular, pro-Western Egyptian military preventing the creation of an Islamist Egypt, and finally move on with the dealing with the world as it really is, one in which Islamism is in a dangerous ascendance across the region.

Kyle Shideler is the Director of Research at the Endowment for Middle East Truth (emetonline.org).

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About

Kyle Shideler is the Director of Research and Communications at the Endowment for Middle East Truth (emetonline.org). He is a contributing author of “Saudi Arabia and the Global Islamic Terrorist Network: America and the West’s Fatal Embrace”.

Comments

  1. Roger says:
    August 17, 2012 at 10:03 am

    The religion of peace.

    The fact they say that (with a straight face) explains how far they can be trusted.

    Reply
    • HPD says:
      August 17, 2012 at 9:42 pm

      Religion of Peace is a great new website..

      Reply
      • Roger says:
        August 19, 2012 at 12:20 pm

        Does it have sponsors for things that any moderate muslim might need?
        Car bombs, korans with spaces to write in for those in gitmo and other prisons. How to reload with the infidel shooting back, and of course guides on al taqiyya?

        Reply
  2. HPD says:
    August 17, 2012 at 9:41 pm

    The Reichatag fire was a NAZI tactic to garner nationalistic support for a wider war effort. The Islamists are NOTHING if not re-incarnated Nazis, so this copy-cat action, fit them like a glove…

    Reply
  3. SCREW SOCIALISM says:
    August 18, 2012 at 2:49 pm

    Kyle Schideler AKBAR!!!

    Reply
  4. Tanstaafl jw says:
    August 19, 2012 at 1:19 pm

    Slipping into darkness
    Pretty soon you're going to pay

    Reply
  5. Stephen_Brady says:
    August 20, 2012 at 12:25 am

    The Egyptian army, the “most secular and pro-western institution in Egypt,” which is the refrain we have heard repeated ad nauseam, has failed to serve as the bulwark to Brotherhood power that we were promised.

    You mean that Muslims would lie to us? Shocking …

    Reply

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