EGYPT UNREST MIRRORS IRAN - BEWARE OF MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD

We are seeing history repeat itself as Egypt is exploding as the move to oust tyrannical President Hosni Mubarak enters its second week of protests. Egypt has long been an ally of The United States and the strongest of all the Arab states with a military second to none in the Middle East. As news continues to come out of the country the unrest is being labeled as a people move seeking freedom and democracy from a tyrant, but in reality it is not.

Let's look back to 1979 and the Iranian Revolution which ousted the similarly tyrannical Shah of Iran Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. The protests against the Shah began with students just as they have in Egypt. The complaints were similar in the fact that the people of Iran had grown angry at the tyrannical direction the Shah had taken the country and his inhuman means in doing so. Those who opposed the Shah just as those who oppose Mubarak ended up in prison and were tortured or killed.

As the protests became larger a faction led by exiled Ayatollah Khomeini an Islamic extremist began to move in, was very organized as opposed to other factions participating in the protests and the people began reaching out to the Ayatollah for leadership in his Paris exile. The Shah just as Mubarak promised to allow more freedom for the people, eliminating his government and replacing it with new blood just as Mubarak has and just as in Egypt this did not satisfy the protesters.

Jimmy Carter who was President at the time backed away from his former support of the Shah which weakened his power hold on the country as the military sided with the people. The Shah fled leaving a vacuum and the radical Khomeini moved in to fill that vacuum because his faction was the best organized although the smallest in number of the millions who were protesting. He promised freedom for the people which lasted about a month then the Islamic crackdown began transforming Iran into the radical Islamic regime we know today. The regimes first show of force was the taking of American hostages which lasted more than 400 days and assisted in the demise of the Presidency of Jimmy Carter.

Mubarak is following a similar path as the Shah did in 1979. He has eliminated his government replacing it with new blood to the dissatisfaction of the people who continue to protest and whose numbers continue to grow. He has promised more freedom, again to the dissatisfaction of the people. They want Mubarak gone period and like the Shah he is hanging on to power. The military just as it did in Iran is siding with the people.

There are many factions associated with the protests but the most organized is a radical group that calls themselves the Muslim Brotherhood. This group has been around since 1928 and claim to be nonviolent but their history proves otherwise. They are responsible for the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat as a punishment for his making peace with Israel. They have unsuccessfully made several attempts to assassinate Mubarak.

They are a very out spoken enemy of Israel and call for the destruction of the Jewish State just as Iran and Syria have. The Brotherhood gave birth to Al Qaeda as Both Osama bin Laden and his Lt. Ayman al Zawahiri both started in the Muslim Brotherhood. While the radical organization is not as terrorist oriented as Al Qaeda their ultimate goal is the same, the take over of the world forming an Islamic power to eliminate the Infidel from existence and any means which achieves this goal is acceptable.

This is the group that many in the media have praised as the answer to the unrest in Egypt. In fact only Fox News is telling of the radical associations of the Brotherhood and its ties with Al Qaeda and the assassination of Sadat. This is not a peaceful non radical political group as is being portrayed but a violent Islamic radical organization that has been seeking the take over of Egypt and other Arab states for years.

They are assisting in protests in Yemen, Tunisia, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. In fact news has just come in that the King of Jordan just as Mubarak did in Egypt has dissolved his government in response to protests and is appointing new leadership. The Muslim Brotherhood is on the move throughout the Middle East and if the most powerful Arab State, Egypt falls it could cause a domino affect changing the entire Middle East to an Islamic controlled region with Iran at its head.

Egypt can still transition into an more democracy oriented government if the military can hold the vacuum and Mubarak resigns quickly. They will need time to organize free elections with the void filled by the current VP and a non Islamic government. Obama cannot follow the path that Carter did with the Shah of Iran and pull his support from Mubaraks current government and side with the protests lest he cause a vacuum to exist as Mubarak falls and the Muslim Brotherhood takes control because they have the only organization capable to do so in the factions protesting.

The void must be filled with a non Islamic government supported by The United States and backed by the military protecting from an Islamic take over until free elections can be completed and a newly elected government in place. This cannot be allowed to go the way of Iran and fall into the hands of radical Islam. The entire Middle East is at stake and as Egypt goes so goes the region.

Ken Taylor