Israel Matzav: Obama administration abandoned secular forces in Egypt, backed Muslim Brotherhood

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Obama administration abandoned secular forces in Egypt, backed Muslim Brotherhood

Michael Meunier is the President of Al Haya Party in Egypt. He is the founder of the U.S. Copts Association and a democracy, human rights and religious freedom activist. He claims that the Obama administration has systematically ignored the secular parties and the Copts in Egypt, creating the impression (which may be correct) that they actually wanted the Muslim Brotherhood to take power.

A stream of meetings, as well as public and private contacts, followed between current U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson and Brotherhood members since her arrival in Egypt shortly after the revolution. The ambassador seemed to favor the Brotherhood and the hard line Salafis over the rest of the secular players in Egypt.

In fact, she has turned down requests for meetings from heads of political parties and other secular politicians, myself included, who oppose the Brotherhood.

Other U.S. officials such as Deputy Secretary of State William Burns and Sen. John Kerry made the pilgrimage to MB headquarters and made sure to meet with their shadowy influential leader, Khairat El-Shater, at times even publicly praising him Kerry did. Those visits were made during a time where no political group had emerged as a leader in post-revolution Egypt.

The MB used these high-level meetings to tell the Egyptian people that the U.S. is supporting them and does not object to their rule. Many of us reached out to U.S. officials at the State Department and complained that the U.S. policy regarding the MB was putting the secular forces in Egypt at a disadvantage because it seemed to be propping the MB, but our concerns were dismissed.

We warned of the MB's desire to impose Sharia law once in power and the grim effect it would have on the rights of the millions of Christians and moderate Muslims, and on women and children, yet all of our warnings were dismissed. It seems that a policy decision was made to bring the MB to power in Egypt at all costs, and it happened.

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Through this all, President Obama's position amounts to, "This is an internal matter and we leave to the Egyptian people to sort out!!"

What the Brotherhood is doing in Egypt is holding a gun to the head of its opposition trying to pass a constitution that so far failed to garner a greater support among Egyptians.

Once that becomes the law of the land, the race is on to turn Egypt into another theocracy headed by an Islamist fascist regime that soon after will threaten the security of the free world. At the heart of it is the Obama administration and its failed foreign policy, and what I see as the desire to destroy moderate Egypt and turn it over to the fanatic elements of the society, creating a monster that will turn on its creator.

Read the whole thing. Last week, I heard second hand that some of the Egyptians who were imprisoned in 2011 and 2012 by the Morsi government had sought meetings with US officials and assistance from them... to no avail. I am still trying to confirm this with the first-hand source.

I shudder to think what the Middle East might look like after four more years of Obama.

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Egyptian democracy, Egyptian Revolution, Mohammed Morsy, Muslim Brotherhood