Hosni Mubarak was not an ideal leader. He was immersed in corruption, nepotism and repression, but he did put Egypt in the Western orbit against Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and Iran’s Khomeini.
He signed a thirty-year peace pact with Israel. He also, survived six assassination plots, fought Hamas and was the only Arab leader, except for Jordan’s King Hussein, to attend the funeral of Yitzhak Rabin in Jerusalem.
This historical legacy already looks like a relic of the Egyptian past. The polls estimate that the Muslim Brotherhood is able to conquer thirty percent of the popular vote. Maybe forty percent. Anonymous members of the Brotherhood who spoke to the Egyptian daily Al Ahram said that the group will advance Islamization by using Article 2 of the Constitution, that says that “Islamic Sharia is the source of legislation”.
The political head of the Brotherhood’s party, “Freedom and Justice”, is an ultra conservative named Saad Katatni. Few remember him saying that “the Muslim Brotherhood will take a stand against television programs during Ramadan”. When in 2008, the Egyptian parliament banned female genital mutilation, Katatni attacked Mubarak, saying that “nothing in Islam forbids this circumcision”.
It’s his moment now, after the fall of the “Pharaoph”.
Another Brotherhood leader sits on the committee that is reforming the Constitution. He is Sobhi Saleh, known for supporting Taliban positions, such as the demand to ban kissing in public spaces. He also argued in favor of a lower age of marriage, in line with Islam: down from eighteen to fifteen years.
Another gain of the Brotherhood was the return of the imam Qaradawi after decades of exile. His last sermon in Egypt had been given after Sadat’s assassination. Qaradawi was expelled by Mubarak and found refuge in Qatar, where he launched anti-semitic and anti-western fatwas.
The Brotherhood is now campaining to replace Egypt’s current clerical hierarchy with its own people. A general amnesty was just approved by the Egyptian army for hundreds of terrorists and islamists. There are members of Islamic Jihad that will benefit, that is members of the terrorist movement of al Qaeda’s number two, Ayman al Zawahiri. Their peak was the assassination of Sadat in 1981.
Zawahiri’s brother, Mohammed, was just released from prison. They were pardoned, as were two former members of the group that killed Sadat, welcomed as “heroes” by the Egyptian society. The historic leader of Gamaa al Islamiya, Sheikh Aboul Seoud, is also out, after serving twenty-five years in prison. His group killed fifty-eight tourists in Luxor - Swiss, Japanese, British and Germans – slaughtering them in the Theban temples and the tombs of the pharaohs.
A number of Hamas militants were also released. The Interior Ministry has also released former members of the Takfir wal-Hijra. They killed Mohammed al-Zahab, then Minister of Religious Heritage. He was shot in the left eye, the scarring reserved for “traitors”.
All the secular forces in Cairo are asking for a review of or a break in the relations with Israel and the United States. One of the main contenders for the presidency, Mohammed El Baradei, says that Israel is the biggest threat in the Middle East. “Israel signed a peace treaty with Mubarak, not with Egypt”, said the Nobel Peace Prize winner, who played a large role in appeasing and covering up the Iranian nuclear program.
Leftist Karama leader, Hamdeen Sabahi, proclaims the end of the “American-Israeli domination over Egypt”. The “moderate islamist” Tariq al Bishri chairs the abovementioned committee to reform the Egyptian constitution. Praising the founder of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Bishri said that, against Israel, “all forms of resistance must be deployed, including violent resistance”.
The largest leftist party, Tagammu, claims “anti-Zionist principles” and opposes “normalization with Israel”. The Nasserist Party wants to “solve the Palestinian issue through the expulsion of the occupying forces from all Arab lands” and opposes the “normalization of relations with Israel”. Kefaya’s leader, George Ishak, said that “the Camp David agreement is only ink on paper”. The April 6 Movement also asks for the cancellation of the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt. The Democratic Front plans to “resist Israeli expansionism and support the Palestinian cause”.
Amr Moussa will be likely the next Egyptian president. His name is immortalized in one of the most popular Arab songs: “I love Amr Moussa and hate Israel”.
Osama bin Laden once said: “When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature they will like the strong horse”. In Egypt the strongest horse is now the one full of resentment and hatred. Its face is covered by darkness.