Beyond the Cusp

September 1, 2016

Colonial Expansions Resumed

 

The greatest colonial force in the history of humankind is again on the march. This colonial system has expanded reaching beyond the size if not scope of the great European empires of France, Spain, Portugal, England and the rest. This expansionary force has reached beyond the scope of all systems with the exception of Communism and is now ascending as Communism collapses in Europe and Russia. This expansive colonial force is, of course, Islam. Islam is not actually a religion as much as a weaponized political force wrapped in the shroud of an all-consuming religion. Islam is perfectly named and correctly translated to English meaning “Surrender.” That is exactly what Islam requires and Sharia is the force used to demand the complete turning over of one’s existence to Islam. All free will is surrendered. All curiosity is surrendered. All of one’s society and way of life is surrendered. Islam demands that it be granted all power over every act one will be permitted from the moment Islam assumed full influence in an area. Islam empowers the cult of personality placing the most successful Imam as Caliph, and the greatest Imam is that which has conquered the largest number of minds into blind obedience into every interpretation given of the Quran.

 

Inside the Quran is the secret magic of Islam and Sharia. The Quran contains verses placed in order not chronologically, not by importance of highest to lowest or lowest to highest, but from shortest to longest. The Quran is assembled in a manner which lends to its being memorized starting at the earliest of ages. Thus Islamic education takes over the entirety of the education system into which it plants memorized verses. It is then the privilege of the Imam to exemplify and amplify by their teaching those verses which are dominant and those which are of lesser standing. This too lends itself to a means of conquest. Islam can be all things to all peoples simply by expressing certain verses as superceding all other verses. This lends perfectly to the use of Taqiyya which is using deceit to gain advantage and for the sole implementation of Sharia. The implication of Sharia is the ultimate goal of Islam as once Sharia has been imposed on a society, Islam will inevitably become the sole religion and further, only the manner of Islam practiced by the main body will result in the only permitted form of Islam. In the world today that would mean that Sunni Islam is dominant. Even this realization still leads to an eventual conflict between the main proponents of Sunni Islam, Wahhabi Islam or the Muslim Brotherhood Islam.

 

Reading the Quran one will inevitable discover that there are verses which are contradictory where there are a set which preach acceptance and peaceful coexistence and still others which dictate conquest and submitting any native population forcing conversion or death choices and still others which direct exactly how one is to live one’s life. There are the obvious religious teachings such as prayer five times each day, observing Ramadan fasting, giving of alms, making of the Haj to Mecca in one’s lifetime and the acceptance of Allah and Muhammad as Allah’s messenger on Earth as the final revelation. These five laws are called the “Five Pillars of Islam” pictured below. Additionally the Quran teaches what foods are acceptable as Halal and numerous other requirements of Islam. Beyond these basics are the two sets of verses which are obvious in their differences.

 

Five Pillars of Islam

 

The two obviously contradictory verses within the Quran are the Mecca versus preaching peace, acceptance, pluralism, respect for other religions and even recognizing the Promised Lands as belonging to the Jewish people. Then there are the verses demanding conquest, subjugations and the eventual complete absorption of a society by force if required which were recorded in Medina. An introductory explanation can be found here. Suffice it to say these different and opposing verses are implemented such that Islam slowly builds until reaching a critical point at which it conquers. Islam has attempted to conquer Europe at a minimum twice, once from the west and once from the east.

 

The western offensive was eventually halted in the Battle of Tours where the Frankish forces commanded by Charles Martel who was also known as Martellus (“The Hammer”), who defeated the Muslims of the Umayyad Caliphate advancing out from Spain in October 732. The Battle of Tours was known to Islam as the Battle of the Palace of the Martyrs (Arabic: معركة بلاط الشهداء‎‎, transliterated as ma’arakat Balâṭ ash-Shuhadâ). This turned back the Islamic armies who were later driven from Spain starting with the Spanish reconquest and the imposition of the Inquisition to cleanse the Spanish of any remnants of unbelievers, mostly Muslims and Jews. This was a cleansing by the Church to reestablish their dominance after recovering from Islamic conquest.

 

The conquest from the east was turned back at Vienna in the breaking of the Siege of Vienna on September 11 through 12, 1683. This battle pitched the Ottomans against the Holy Roman Empire and was subsequent to the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and its being renamed Istanbul to erase its history in Christianity and Roman, Greek, Persian and even earlier civilizations and empires going back originally in the first known empire of the Hittites. The breaking of the Siege of Vienna was largely accomplished by the addition of the Polish forces to those of the Holy Roman armies and the commander, the King of Poland leading the troops himself, King John III Sobieski. The battle was depicted by an anonymous British artist shown below. This was the high watermark of the Ottoman Empire’s thrusts into Europe. The Ottoman Empire was finally defeated as a result of World War I leading to the Sykes-Picot Treaty, Treaty of Versailles, and the Treaty of Sèvre which codified the San Remo conference and the Mandate System subsequently recognized by the United Nations in Article 80 of the Charter.

 

Siege of Vienna Depicted by an Anonymous British Artist

Siege of Vienna Depicted by an Anonymous British Artist

 

Islam originated in the Arabian Peninsula by the Prophet Muhammad starting around 611 to 625 in Mecca and finally truly established in Medina around 629 establishing it in both cities until his death in 632. This led to the Rashidun Caliphs who ruled and expanded Islam from 632 through 661 and were succeeded by the Umayyad Caliphs ruling from 661 through 750 and expanding Islam further taking it into Spain finally halted by Charles Martel in 732 as noted above. A map depicting these early advances can be seen below. The early expansion would continue to include subsequent conquest of Constantinople and under the Ottomans conquer up to Vienna where they were stopped and repulsed by the Holy Roman Empire aided by the support of the Polish Army and the combined troops commanded by King John III Sobieski of Poland, also as noted above.

 

Islamic Expansion

Islamic Expansion

 

Islam in the Middle East and much of North Africa is currently engaged in a great political upheaval which will likely spell the end of the Sykes-Picot Treaty’s borders and set up of states to be replaced either by tribal boundaries or possibly a unified Islam likely broken into two camps, the Sunni and the Shiite. The Shiites will most definitely be under the control either directly or indirectly by Iran and will include Yemen, western Syria and potentially central Syria, Lebanon and Southern Iraq. The Sunni Islamic camp will include as separate but potentially allied Egypt and Saudi Arabia with each under strong leadership and the partnership always slightly tentative between these two. Saudi Arabia and Egypt may include Turkey though Egypt and Turkey are currently at odds over loyalty or opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood. Jordan will remain a lesser player probably seeking shelter under Egypt or Saudi Arabia if not both. Jordan also has a delicate balance with the Muslim Brotherhood with their allowed a presence but not overtly ruling the country. Then there are the Kurdish forces which have been showing signs of joining the radical jihadi forces but on their terms. This will depend on the Kurdish forces currently engaged by Turkey surviving the Turkish offensive bent on wiping them out as a viable fighting force. This has led to some friction between Turkey and the United States who was serendipitously supplying the Kurds with bombing support and some logistics and planning. The one obvious challenge to all Sunni forces is the Islamic State which has terrorist bands in the Sinai Peninsula and Libya as well as their main body centered in southern Syria and into central Iraq. The Islamic State is currently opposed by all state actors who are refusing to grant the Islamic State leader al-Baghdadi who is a self-proclaimed Caliph and insisting that the Islamic State is the new Caliphate, something which remains to be seen.

 

The advance guard of the Islamist forces are currently infiltrating the Western nations as a part of the “refugee” crisis which has Europe, the United States, Canada and Australia allowing increased immigration with minimal if any checks on any Middle Eastern or North African claiming to be refugees from any of the wars currently embroiling much of the area. These refugees include Syrians, Afghanis, Iraqis, Iranians, Yemenis, Libyans, Algerians and others from as far as the Horn of Africa to Morocco back across to Pakistan. Imbedded within the refugee population are teams of Islamists, both Sunni and Shiite largely from Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Hezballah on the Shiite side and Islamic State, Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaeda and smaller groups on the Sunni side. All these planted groups plus unknown numbers of Muslims who are being excited by the signs of a resurgent Islam are taking on themselves the mantle of jihad and attacking in what are call “Lone Wolf” attacks. The violence and lawlessness which has come along with the predominantly male fighting age single unaccompanied men has led to some second thoughts across Europe. Sweden is paying undocumented Middle Eastern refugees money to leave and presumably return to their national origins in the Middle East, or at least appear to be heading in that direction. Some Eastern European nations simply refused to allow any refugees to permanently remain within their borders with some places the military at the train stations forcing the refugees to continue on to Germany, France, Britain or anywhere but “here”. Russia has pretty much been bypassed as a nation for the refugees. The biggest scandal has been the entire Islamic world refusal to accommodate resettling any of the millions of refugees. Turkey and Jordan have been stymied by the hordes crossing from Syria and Iraq simply to escape the wars in those nations. Quietly Israel has provided aid to Jordan in the form of additional water and electricity to assist the refugee situation. Whatever additional aid has been provided is uncertain.

 

On another front the Islamic State is serious about their becoming the next Caliphate and is fighting against Saudi Arabia and Egypt as well as throughout the remainder of northern Africa. Further, terror groups including Boko Haram in Nigeria and neighboring nations and some groups formerly tied with al-Qaeda also have sworn allegiance to the Islamic State. The main problems with these forces have been in the Sinai Peninsula and have been aided as possible by Hamas in Gaza. This has made for a strange cooperative effort by Egypt and Israel in sharing intelligence and closing all borders over land and sea by both nations to prevent military and dual use items from being used by Hamas as much as they are capable. Hamas has stolen, re-appropriated if you insist, the building provisions such as bricks and cement and concrete for their tunnel construction to infiltrate into Israel or the Sinai. This has had the strange effect of a world demanding that more building provisions be sent into Gaza despite the known misuse. Apparently building tunnels with humanitarian aid is just fine with much of the world providing those tunnels are used to murder Israelis. So nice to be appreciated in this manner, we bet!

Meanwhile, the numbers and severity of crimes, many of which could be termed as Jihadic or terrorist attack, have been exploding across Europe with concentrations in Germany, France, and the Scandinavian nations, the places which took in the largest share of Muslim refugees or had large Islamic populations to begin with. One systemic problem has been the radicalization of the younger indigenous Muslims by the instigators planted within the refugee populations. By all appearances, what had been considered to be the peaceful Muslims, the good Muslims if you will, only need be aroused and pushed, perhaps threatened to join jihad or else and they appear to respond, at least a percentage. There will be those who will rightfully point out that the problems are caused by a minority, anywhere from negligible (obviously the low estimate) to as high as one in five or even in four but not quite three, or so we hope. Still, twenty percent of three or four million refugees is still well over half a million persons and add in the “Lone Wolves” and you are likely approaching a potential of three-quarters of a million threatening social cohesion which had been low to begin with. Seven-hundred-fifty-thousand jihadists will overwhelm European and western society’s ability to cope with such a threat.

 

These are just the initial wave as the refugees are still pouring into eastern Europe heading northward and westward aiming for Germany, France, Britain, the Scandinavian countries; anywhere that a strong social basket is deployed giving what amounts to a guaranteed wage for all persons reaching and registering with the government no questions asked. The problems in Germany alone appear to be sufficient that Chancellor Angela Merkel appears to be on her way out of office come the next elections no matter what the future holds, as the people are furiously upset with her open borders policies. Should Donald Trump win in the United States, his election will in part be all about closing the borders, all the borders including those currently used by the State Department to import as many Islamic refugees as humanly possible. The most interesting and important item is that very few of the refugees are Christians or Yazidis, people truly under threat just remaining in the Middle East and North Africa. It is as if these refugees are not desirable and the few who manage to arrive in Europe are often murdered in the camps by the other refugees. One would think that the Christians would identify themselves as such to the Europeans and they would be separated out but maybe the European powers that be are not interested in importing devout Christians, Christians who have resisted unknowable hardship that Western Christians have never faced. Western European Christians face a different threat, indifference and a strong societal urge for hedonism. We know from past empires failing that when the public turns as a whole to hedonism as their life’s theme the society will die within two generations at most, often in one generation. Perhaps these two symptoms go together one causing the other. Hedonistic society not reproducing as that would curtail the fun and thus requiring immigrants to replace the children they refuse to have of their own and then they wonder what happened when the new refugee brought morality closes all the doors and brings their fun ride to its undeniable terminal end. Perhaps this is the Requiem for Europe and Christianity in the Western world, or at least in Europe. Requiem for Europe, somebody should write a song with this title, it would be appropriate to salute the death of a society.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

August 23, 2016

Philippine President Duterte Against the World

 

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte took office on June 30, 2016, elected partially on his promise to bring an end to the drug trade which was destroying his nation and the people’s nation. He has gone directly to work on this promise but now is facing threats from the United Nations as well as the United States State Department. Just yesterday we were giving the United States Department of State credit and now we face the great let down as they join the United Nations Human Rights experts all of whom are denigrating the efforts of President Duterte in freeing his people from the ravages of the illegal drug trade. His efforts to clean the Philippines of this scourge has run into a difficulty which the United Nations Human Rights experts and United States Department of State as they protest the deaths of five-hundred drug suspects have who have been killed in gun battles with police. If this number shocks you, then we might ask a simple question. What part of the statement distresses one? Is it the fact that gun battles have broken out between suspected drug criminals? Is it that these suspected drug traffickers were killed extra-judicially without being found guilty by a trial in a court of law? Was it the number of drug suspects killed is so high at five-hundred? Was it something we may have missed in our quick summary? Perhaps we should slow down in the rush to judgement and place this number into perspective of the accomplishments Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in his eight weeks in office first and then discuss these introduction statements in context.

 

Yes, five-hundred were killed in gun battles in eight weeks, a total of nine suspected drug criminals each day. We agree that such is a bit shocking but what is even more shocking are the success numbers of efforts thus far which place all in sharp contrast. Thus far over four-thousand-four-hundred drug suspects have been arrested and are awaiting trial. That is a large number of arrests and that is not even the slightest bit of the success. Between those arrested and those who chose to resist arrest and died in violent gun battles approach five-thousand drug suspects out of action, that is nothing compared to this final statistic. There have been an astonishing almost six-hundred-thousand drug suspects and related operatives who have turned themselves over to authorities simply surrendering. This astounding and likely unexpected success has resulted in overcrowding in Philippine jails which were never expected to hold such numbers. We believe that Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte will find some alternative by which these suspects will be housed at military bases or other emergency facilities and many will likely be processed, then charged, followed by some very reasonable bails being set and the least offenders freed on their own recognizance and told they will be notified of their court date which they will be expected to present themselves or face additional and likely more serious charges of disobeying the courts. Meanwhile, after taking in the scope of the problem, is there any doubt that those who decided their odds were better in a shoot-out than a trial were actually the most guilty and the highest ranking drug lords and their security forces, the central core of what was obviously an enormous problem in the Philippines which President Duterte has delivered on a dangerous and difficult promise and done so spectacularly.

 

The one important and further ramification of the United Nations and United States State Department charges of human rights abuses and extra-judicial executions prompting threats to charge President Duterte with crimes against humanity and potentially genocidal practices are as ridiculous and they are familiar to us here. President Duterte had gone after and looking like having cleaned-up some dangerous and hard-core criminal enterprises which likely were costing the Philippine population numerous lives and making for a society where lawlessness was posing a threat and difficulty for those desiring to live in peace and security. Such a drug problem had to result in challenges to the authority of the government and pose serious threats to the Philippine citizens, especially those trying to be law abiding. Further, such a criminal enterprise must have been a huge drain on the economy and further made life difficult for the average law abiding citizens with lives threatened by such lawlessness in a similar manner as faced in Israel from terrorism and President Duterte and his government was threatened with the exact same threats as Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Israeli governance is threatened with as Israel fights terrorism. Even spookier was that the charges emanated from the United Nations human rights experts and the United States Department of State, the identical entities which make Israelis fighting terrorism appear to be a criminal enterprise against innocent terrorists just as the Philippine fight was criminalized as they brought innocent drug lords to justice.

 

The difference was the reaction from the Philippine President when compared to the passive and almost acquiescing apologetic Israeli reactions. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte took on his detractors from the United States and United Nations head-on and bluntly called them out. He challenged the United States on their fatal and very public shootings of black men in the recent past challenging to know how what he was doing was any different than these shootings by the police in the cities of the United States. He also brought up the viral picture of the five-year-old Syrian boy, Omran Daqneesh, which has gone viral online (see montage below). He stressed the lack of any progress and the lack of evidence that the people of Syria were being relieved of the heavy toll from the civil conflicts encompassing every corner and area of Syria where numerous disparate groups are warring each against the others with there being at least four distinct groups, Russia, Bashar Assad, Hezballah, Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps, Sunni Fighters, Islamic State and the Kurdish Militias for starters plus who knows who else. The big threat was that perhaps the Philippines would be better served separating from the United Nations as their efforts in Syria, Darfur, Libya and formerly in Rwanda, Central African Republic and the myriad of other trouble spots past and present which the United Nations had proved less than effective and in many cases where United Nations troops caused more problems than they relieved including running food for sex scandals in numerous places and their inability to enforce any order and being basically nonfunctional. President Duterte challenged the United Nations threatening to set up a group of nations initially with suggesting China and African nations to form a new international body. Perhaps Israel should assist with the formation of an actual international group of like-minded nations as a replacement for the United Nations though simply making agreements with select nations on a one-by-one nature and forge alliances more directly.

 

Five Year Old Syrian Omran Daqneesh sitting in Ambulance in Aleppo Syria After Being Pulled from Beneath Rubble of Collapsed Building from Bombing Attack

Five Year Old Syrian Omran Daqneesh
sitting in Ambulance in Aleppo Syria
After Being Pulled from Beneath Rubble of
Collapsed Building from Bombing Attack

 

Those who have followed or had direct experience with the United Nations and/or the United States State Department realize how much these sanctimonious organizations have rules of their own and definitions which they adjust to fit their preferred targets. Both organizations would rather target democratic states as their accommodations are often of a higher level of comfort and these targets are far more sensitive and less likely to shoot first and ask questions rarely. These organizations would prefer Israel to Gaza, Syria or most other areas in the Middle East. They would prefer to inspect Egypt from Alexandria or Cairo than the Sinai Peninsula or anywhere in Libya or the Sudan. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Gulf States are preferable to Yemen and almost anywhere is preferable to northern Nigeria where Boko Haram works their horrors. Europe is preferable to anywhere in the Third World.

 

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte

 

Their field inspections are more tailored to five star hotels than actual trouble spots. Their hypocrisy is only out done by their padded expense accounts’ and even that is a close race. They both avoid making accusation about police states such as China, Turkey, Myanmar or Turkey outside the main cities and even those are losing their luster. With the fine beaches and five star resorts in the Philippines and Israel, it is no wonder these two organizations have redundant subgroups all but assigned to giving first class air fare, placing these inspection bodies with reservations along the Tel Aviv beaches or the gorgeous resorts all along the northern Philippine Islands and Manilla. It is difficult to take almost anything either the United Nations or United States State Department accuse certain nation of being guilty of when these adjudications are more attuned to vacation season than actual criminal activities. What a world we reside in and we owe President Duterte a tip of our hats for making such needful accusations against the two grandest fraudulent hypocritical organizations on the planet.

 

Beyond the Cusp 

 

June 4, 2016

Weeds in the MENA Garden Conclusions

 

Here is a link. We covered the political upheavals, terror threats, alignments, backing of destabilizing forces and general conditions for all the countries from Western Sahara and Morocco to Iraq and Iran. This article will try to look at the reasons and future mostly dealing with the Middle East after a brief summary on North Africa. For reference here is a map of the area we will cover which adds Turkey to our considerations as they had a few mentions previously.

 

(MENA) Middle East and North Africa Including Turkey and Iran With North Central Africa

(MENA)
Middle East and North Africa
Including Turkey and Iran
With North Central Africa

 

The first step to understanding the area is to determine which nations are playing the controlling interests and what the status of the remaining nations have especially their ties to the controlling players (We can think of this as a game of RISK where only the MENA nations get to play). The players who are vying for the position of leader of the Arab and Muslim world do include one non-nation player which we should cover initially including naming some of their aliases. That force is the Muslim Brotherhood which never actually uses their real name when interacting. In Egypt their political influence is through the Freedom and Justice Party (Arabic: حزب الحرية والعدالة‎). Egypt’s former President Mohamed Morsi was a Freedom and Justice Party member and they still hold a plurality though not an outright majority of the Egyptian Parliament. Currently the Freedom and Justice Party holds 47.2 per cent of all seats in the country’s lower house of Parliament, while allied Islamist parties al Nour Party holds 24.7 and al Wasat Party holds 2.0 per cent, respectively. This gives the Islamists in the lower house of parliament a total of just under 74 percent, a solid majority and a limit on President Sisi’s ability to govern and accomplish all he would prefer to implement. In Turkey the closest alignment with the Muslim Brotherhood, though unofficial, is the ruling Justice and Development Party headed by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The relationship has its moments and President Erdoğan did support United States President Obama’s demand that President Morsi be released and returned to the Presidency of Egypt as its duly elected leader after the military coup. This demand continued even after the new elections were held and died a slow and thankfully quiet death and the rise of Sisi from commander of the military to the newly elected President of Egypt (more on this further when we talk about Egypt’s role in the MENA Garden). In Syria, before everything hit the fan and a civil war with more sides than can be easily defined, the Muslim Brotherhood was most closely aligned with the Islamic Socialist Front (more in depth discussion of Syrian Civil War will follow). There is even a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood closely aligned with the situation in Israel which is Hamas. In Iraq the Islamic Party is the largest Sunni political party and would have to be considered the closest link with the Muslim Brotherhood though they are not in a position of any real power as we will see. In Iran the relations with the Muslim Brotherhood are another case of strange bedfellows but in Saudi Arabia, which would pretty much include the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations though they can be less trident that are the Saudis who support the Wahabbist strain of Islam, the Muslim Brotherhood is considered as a terrorist group. Through the rest of North Africa the Muslim Brotherhood supports Sunni groups but has little interaction since al-Qaeda aligned Boko Haram swore allegiance with the Islamic State. Some have seen the rise of Islamic State as a challenge to the Muslim Brotherhood within the Islamist communities. The main influences which we will cover in greater detail are the Islamic State, Turkey, Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the Syrian War and Russian concerns in Syria.

 

The oldest force in the area would be Egypt if one were to count the Pharos but that civilization was a completely separate civilization, but we need an excuse to start somewhere. Egypt has the advantage of population as the most populous of the MENA nations. Egypt is also the home of the most respected school for Islamic thought, Al-Azhar University, located with Al-Azhar Mosque in Islamic Cairo and is the oldest degree-granting university. As far as Sunni Islamic thought and interpretation, Al-Azhar is the most prestigious university. It is the central thought center for all Sunni thought and interpretation. Al-Azhar sets the dogma and interpretations used in Quranic thought in all of Sunni Islam which includes near eighty percent of all who follow the prophet Mohammad. This is important as it was during a speech President Sisi gave at Al-Azhar University to a gathering of the entire faculty where he made a request, which has some weight as Sisi is the President of Egypt, the former General of the Armies and very popular with the population which elected him in what could be referred to as a landslide. He has made some moves as best as his position has allowed and without smashing too many toes and defeated every challenge from the Muslim Brotherhood, no small feat. The demand, or request if one is to be polite, was for the Al-Azhar University faculty and Imams throughout all Islam to work within the Quran and adjust the supremacist view of Islam and instead alter the chosen Sura from the Quran and use more of the Sura from the original Mecca writings and allow for them to supercede their contrary Medina version of the Quran. (For an introduction to the two separate versions of the Quran and many quality links throughout the comments may we suggest our article and the comments of Which Quran, Mecca or Medina? The difference between the two writings are so stark that there have been rumors that they were dictated by different people rather than the idea that Mohammad had a different set of circumstances when writing the two versions.) President Sisi did this not just once but in two separate speeches to the Imams of Al-Azhar University. Reforming Islam such that it is made such that it can coexist with other faiths and separates from politics completely and become simply a religion of approaching two billion adherents. President Sisi is also using his position to advance the idea of a unified Islam such that the Sunni and Shiite as well as the lesser sects coexist in a similar manner as the many different Christian groups exist in the world today without open warfare or denouncing of one another.

 

President al-Sisi initially Took his Jihad to al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt, Where on December 28, 2014 al-Sisi Delivered his Speech Insisting that Islam Was in Need of a Climactic Reformation if not a Transformation Redefining Jihad from External Violence To the Ongoing Internal Purification In the Eternal Search for Perfection

President al-Sisi initially Took his Jihad to al-Azhar University, Cairo,
Egypt, Where on December 28, 2014 al-Sisi Delivered his Speech
Insisting that Islam Was in Need of a Climactic Reformation if not a
Transformation Redefining Jihad from External Violence To the
Ongoing Internal Purification In the Eternal Search for Perfection

 

The next most influential Sunni nation would have to be Saudi Arabia with its oil wealth. In many ways Saudi Arabia and Egypt work together to defend Sunni Islam with their main threat currently being Iran. The third nation in the Sunni hierarchy is Turkey which is at odds with Egypt as Turkey largely supports the Muslim Brotherhood and called for the return of Morsi to the Presidency after Sisi and the military had removed him presumably at the behest of the people. Turkish President Erdoğan joined President Obama and the two were close for a period as they both stood in support of the Muslim Brotherhood. General Sisi rejected their demands and called for resumption of elected governance and arranged for general election to fill the now vacant office of President and for a new Parliament. Sisi had resigned his post leading the military before running which would have resulted in his being unemployed. The Egyptian Freedom and Justice Party, which is the Muslim Brotherhood representative in Egyptian politics, was included in the elections but Sisi had won the admiration of the Egyptian people and has delivered on his promise to be a reformer. This was proven with his speeches calling for rejection of the supremacy and spread of Islam by the sword rejecting the Muslim Brotherhood calling such calls for world conquest dangerous and injurious to Islam and predicted that such actions would only bring destruction down on the Islamic world. This position is not shared by the Wahabbists in Saudi Arabia or by Erdoğan and definitely rejected by the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood was founded by a core group who believed that Islam needed to return to its golden age by imposing the strictest possible and most extreme interpretations of the Quran and Islam which they claimed was during the supremacist periods of conquest and that only by returning to the spread of Islam by any means necessary would Islam return to greatness. President Sisi sees only destruction of Islam if such a policy were to be implemented in today’s world. As for which position is correct we would vote let’s not test both and see which proves superior as the destruction and potential end of human civilization should a full blown all-out war between the Muslim world and the rest of the world be fought neither side would win and only utter destruction would be the end result. Such a war would eventually result in the use of the most extreme weapons at human disposal which would bring on a catastrophic conflagration destroying both sides. As the WOPR computer stated at the end of the movie “War Games” after testing every scenario of thermonuclear war, “A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?”

 

War Games WOPR Computer

War Games WOPR Computer

 

 

 

 

What remains is Iran which can best be examined by explaining the war in Syria which includes the war in Iraq and the war in Yemen, all of which have an Iranian component as does the governance in Lebanon and the terror war against Israel. This will be quite a long explanation and will be best covered in our next article tomorrow, stay tuned.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

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