Repeating Mid East History

28 years ago I was invited to lunch with Hosni Mubarak, the then new president of Egypt. I was head of the international division of a NYC bank at the time. Mubarak struck me as a very bright, capable, tough man.

Mubarak’s predecessor, Anwar Sadat, had recently been assassinated by military officers. Wikipedia is careful not to mention that these officers were members of the Muslim Brotherhood, you know the ones President Obama wants in the Egyptian government.

US National Intelligence Director, James Clapper, said the Brotherhood “eschewed (avoided) violence and were “largely secular.” If anyone in the Obama administration listened to the Muslim Brotherhood’s leaders, they would have noticed that they seek the creation of an Islamic Caliphate (absolute dictatorship) and worldwide imposition of Sharia law. Such staggering ignorance in the Obama administration appears more and more commonplace.

My knowledge of Islam began during graduate school when I ‘dated’ a Muslim girl who explained the culture, had me read the Qur’an (Koran) and told me I would have to convert before I could ever meet her family. She was risking her life to go out with me. The Qur’an allows for honor killings of women who date or marry outside their faith.

When Mubarak assumed the presidential duties after the assassination of Sadat, my job was to assess the political, social, and economic viability of Egypt under Mubarak so that we could decide whether or not to lend money for the economic development of Egypt. The NY Times’ William Safire said Mubarak was an interim president and would be gone within six months.

Joseph Sisco, a former CIA and State Department official and chief negotiator for years in the Middle East told me that Mubarak was extremely capable and had been running Egypt for the seven years he had been vice president before Sadat’s murder. Guess who knew what he was talking about?

There is a reason that virtually all Muslim countries have dictatorships like Egypt. The religion is one of intolerance and war. Christian and Jews are not allowed to have equal status in any Muslim country.  Egypt’s millions of Coptic Christians now fear for their lives.

Mubarak, for all his shortcomings, had one of the least oppressive governments in the Mid East. He was also largely responsible for the peace treaty with Israel. He managed to keep Muslim fundamentalists from taking over the most populous country in the region. He was our ally and an asset to the US National Security.

President Obama, V.P. Biden, and Secretary of State Clinton, with their contradictory statements and pressing Egypt to cancel their emergency laws during an emergency have demonstrated they are less competent than President Carter who pulled the rug out from another less than perfect ally, the Shah of Iran. We all are paying for that huge blunder withthe reemergence of Islamic fundamentalism and terrorist activity. We may be witnessing an even bigger blunder in Egypt encouraged by President Obama.

James F. Davis is the president of Accuracy in Academia.