Crucifixion Again, and the Meltdown of the Middle East

We might have thought that crucifixion was no longer being practiced in the world. And we might have thought the Arab Spring was a good thing. Wrong on both counts. For quite some time the Muslim rulers in the Sudan have been crucifying Christians and others who would not submit. And what we now have in the Middle East is a Christian Winter for many.

Indeed, crucifixion now seems to be raising its ugly head elsewhere in the Muslim world. For example, it appears to be occurring in Egypt – a nation which was supposed to see freedom flourish and human rights emerge because of the Arab Spring.

But it seems to be all one big nightmare for everyone except the Muslim hotheads. Indeed, any opposition to the new Muslim Brotherhood-led regime is being met with horrendous violence. Here is how Raymond Ibrahim covers this horrific story:

“Last week in Egypt, when Muslim Brotherhood supporters terrorized the secular media, several Arabic websites—including Arab News, Al Khabar News, Dostor Watany, and Egypt Now—reported that people were being ‘crucified.’ The relevant excerpt follows in translation:

“A Sky News Arabic correspondent in Cairo confirmed that protestors belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood crucified those opposing Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi naked on trees in front of the presidential palace while abusing others. Likewise, Muslim Brotherhood supporters locked the doors of the media production facilities of 6-October [a major media region in Cairo], where they proceeded to attack several popular journalists.”

He continues, “Far from condemning these terrorists, Al Azhar, Egypt’s most authoritative Islamic institution, has just issued a fatwa calling for more violence and oppression, saying that ‘fighting participants in anti-Muslim Brotherhood demonstrations planned for 24 August is a religious obligation.’

“Most of the aforementioned Arabic sites point out that these attacks are part of the Muslim Brotherhood’s campaign to intimidate and thus censor Egypt’s secular media from exposing the group’s Islamist agenda, which Youm 7, On TV, and Okasha do daily.”

He concludes: “In reality, there is little reason to doubt this crucifixion story. Militant Muslims crucifying their opponents is a regular feature of the Islamic world—recent cases coming from the Ivory Coast, where two Christian brothers were crucified, similarly by supporters of a Muslim president who ousted a Christian; Indonesia, where Islamic separatists crucified a fellow Muslim for being a military informant; and in Iraq, where Muslim militants crucified Christian children.

“Moreover, those alleged to have been crucified in Egypt certainly fit the Koran’s description of who deserves to be crucified. According to Allah, ‘The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His messenger and strive to make mischief in the land is only this: that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off…’ (Koran 5:33)….

“In short, under the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, the bottle has been uncorked and the Islamic Genie set loose. Expect much worse to come.” Yes quite so. Commentator Caroline Glick offers more depressing information about just how bad things are getting in Egypt:

“On Sunday, new President Mohamed Morsy completed Egypt’s transformation into an Islamist state. In the space of one week, Morsy sacked the commanders of the Egyptian military and replaced them with Muslim Brotherhood loyalists, and fired all the editors of the state-owned media and replaced them with Muslim Brotherhood loyalists.

“He also implemented a policy of intimidation, censorship and closure of independently owned media organizations that dare to publish criticism of him. Morsy revoked the military’s constitutional role in setting the foreign and military policies of Egypt. But he maintained the junta’s court-backed decision to disband the parliament. In so doing, Morsy gave himself full control over the writing of Egypt’s new constitution.

“As former ambassador to Egypt Zvi Mazel wrote Tuesday in The Jerusalem Post, Morsy’s moves mean that he ‘now holds dictatorial powers surpassing by far those of erstwhile president Hosni Mubarak.’ In other words, Morsy’s actions have transformed Egypt from a military dictatorship into an Islamist dictatorship.”

Israel rightly has much to fear from all this: “Morsy intends to remilitarize Sinai and so render the Egyptian military a clear and present threat to Israel’s security. Indeed, according to Haaretz, Egypt has already breached the peace accord and deployed forces and heavy weaponry to Sinai without Israeli permission.

“The rapidity of Morsy’s moves has surprised most observers. But more surprising than his moves is the US response to his moves. Obama administrations officials have behaved as though nothing has happened, or even as though Morsy’s moves are positive developments….

“Morsy’s Islamism, like Mao’s Communism, is inherently hostile to the US and its allies and interests in the Middle East. Consequently, Morsy’s strategic repositioning of Egypt as an Islamist country means that Egypt – which has served as the anchor of the US alliance system in the Arab world for 30 years – is setting aside its alliance with the US and looking toward reassuming the role of regional bully.

“Egypt is on the fast track to reinstating its war against Israel and threatening international shipping in the Suez Canal. And as an Islamist state, Egypt will certainly seek to export its Islamic revolution to other countries. No doubt fear of this prospect is what prompted Saudi Arabia to begin showering Egypt with billions of dollars in aid.

“It should be recalled that the Saudis so feared the rise of a Muslim Brotherhood-ruled Egypt that in February 2011, when US President Barack Obama was publicly ordering then-president Hosni Mubarak to abdicate power immediately, Saudi leaders were beseeching him to defy Obama. They promised Mubarak unlimited financial support for Egypt if he agreed to cling to power.

“The US’s astounding sanguinity in the face of Morsy’s completion of the Islamization of Egypt is an illustration of everything that is wrong and dangerous about US Middle East policy today.”

The implications of all this are enormous: “The reason Israel and the US are allies is that Israel is the US’s first line of defense in the region. If regional events weren’t moving so quickly, the question of who lost Egypt would probably have had its moment in the spotlight in Washington.

“But as is clear from the US’s denial of the significance of Morsy’s rapid completion of Egypt’s Islamic transformation; its blindness to the dangers of Syrian chemical and biological weapons; and its complacency toward Iran’s nuclear weapons program, by the time the US foreign policy establishment realizes it lost Egypt, the question it will be asking is not who lost Egypt. It will be asking who lost the Middle East.”

We are facing the prospect of a major Middle East meltdown. The resumption of crucifixion is but one ominous token of what lies ahead.

http://www.investigativeproject.org/3711/muslim-brotherhood-crucifies-opponents-attacks

http://townhall.com/columnists/carolineglick/2012/08/19/who_lost_egypt

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