Posted on 01/25/2016 8:09:30 PM PST by nickcarraway
This might be a not so subtle message to the ISIS bunch that they better not mess with Egyptian statues.
King Rootin Tootin
Yes they did: "Malice In The Palace."
VERNON DENT: I am Hasen Bin Sober!
SHEMP: I had a few too many myself last night!
*******
SHEMP :"Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum, I'm the evil spirit that guards the Rootin-Tootin diamond, Giveittame 'lest evil befall you!'
EMIR OF SCHMOW: "Yessir-Yessir!"
SHEMP: "The spirit commands you to stand on your head in that lily pond until further notice!"
;-)
ISIS would have a big problem trying crap with Egypt.
You might think so, given the relative size and the power of the conservative military—but remember Egypt voted in their native Muslim Brotherhood during the so-called Arab Spring. They are in the midst of a Islamic counter-reformation of their own. Somewhere on the internet is an interesting series of pictures of graduating classes from Cairo University over a long period of time. It is interesting to see a progressive transformation from a largely secular group of young people to more current graduating seniors where the few women are in Islamic dress.
Furthermore, the unrest in terms of bombs and attacks on tourists can continue for a long time since they have a built in Muslim Brotherhood constituency. The attack on tourists a few years ago severely hurt the tourist industry.
What could save Egypt is the ordinary people who are proud of their ancient heritage and would not support destroying all those statues and hieroglyphs.
Egypt just barely wound up with Morsi, allegedly after politicla pressure by the Obama regime. His removal was, as you may recall, spectacularly popular, with public demonstrations far exceeding his prior pro-jihadist astroturf.
If I recall correctly, the Egyptian government was quite upset when ISIL oriented terrorists killed a group of Copitic Christian men working in Libya. I was surprised since the Coptics have not always been treated well by Egypt.
The question up for debate wasn’t where the majority of votes are—or were-within the Islamic community.
The question was whether ISIS could cause trouble in Egypt. My take is that there are plenty of home grown jihadis who are willing to die for their faith in Egypt, including those who will be willing to destroy the ancient glories of the Pharaohs. I don’t that precludes the fact that the majority of Egyptians may want to maintain them.
Aren’t there some who are already causing trouble down in Sinai. It was fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood members, hidden among the military, that assassinated Anwar Sadat.
There's trouble, there are troublemakers, no question, but nothing that the army and regime can't handle. The Sinai is still considered a non-Egyptian province, as it was in ancient times, and the jokers doing the terror and killing don't consider themselves Egyptian for the most part. They are financed and armed from outside the country (iow, the Iranians) and cover is at a premium in much of the waterless hellhole that is most of the Sinai, so the terrorists operate in or near the various seafront resorts. They can't really run for it, because there's really nowhere to run.
Hey, those d***ed Libyans can't kill Egyptian Copts, that's our job! ;') Unlike his predecessor(s), al-Sisi has been very friendly to the Copts since he removed Iran's turd, Morsi, from power. It should also be noted that there's affiliation between the Sinai jihadists and a faction or two in Libya.
In the era of asymmetric warfare, you can’t ignore the growing fundamentalist threat across all the Muslim world.
They get to pick the time and the targets while the army comes in to clean up and kill off the crazies afterward—but that doesn’t stop the initial terror event.
Egypt needs to stop posting guards -- they are nothing but targets, and that's bad for morale. They need help from an ally with expertise in drones, and go relentlessly on the attack. Setting up ambushes and remotely monitored traps, and monitoring electronic comm in the Sinai (because they're probably riddled with terrorist informants, who can then be identified and killed) is also important. But again, ultimately, the regime can handle the threat, not least because even among the jackass bro'hood supporters, most don't want to see the violent overthrow of the Egyptian gov't, or terrorist acts in the streets of Egyptian cities.
The thing I’m most worried about is if these jackasses decide to follow the Quran’s strictures against representations of the human form and destroy some irreplaceable statue or frieze because they are ‘pagan’ as they and the Taliban have done elsewhere.
Remember the Bhuddas of Bamiyan are now just rubble as is the temple in Ephesus. Damn hooligans!
There’s an old rumor that somewhere in Afghanistan is a reclining buddha (statue of course) a significant fraction of a mile long, which is kinda big. It seems as if something that size would be difficult to miss, so much so that everyone would know someone who’d either seen it or had heard where it was located.
I’ve seen an article or tv documentary on it somewhere. There’s an archeologist who thinks he may have located it, buried many years ago by worshipers who may have wanted to protect it from that era’s Muslims.
He thinks it appears today as a ridge line in the landscape. You might find it with a google search on buried reclining Bhudda.
My first attempt to find it yielded squat. Here something:
Archaeologists Find Giant ‘Sleeping’ Buddha In Afghanistan
By Ron Synovitz
September 09, 2008
http://www.rferl.org/content/Archeologists_Find_Giant_Sleeping_Buddha_In_Afghanistan_/1197572.html
[snip] More than seven years after the Taliban destroyed the two giant Buddha statues at Bamiyan, an Afghan-led archaeological team has uncovered the remains of a third giant Buddha nearby. The remains of the 19-meter-long reclining Buddha statue were discovered this summer within the foundations of an ancient Buddhist temple less than 2 kilometers from the niches where Bamiyan’s two giant Buddha statues once stood. The chief archaeologist, professor Zemaryali Tarzi, has spent years searching there for a 300-meter-long sleeping Buddha described in the journal of Xuanzang, a Chinese pilgrim who traveled to central Afghanistan around 630 A.D. [/snip]
Search for the Third Buddha of Bamiyan
By Shelly Barclay
May 12, 2012
http://www.historicmysteries.com/search-for-the-third-buddha-of-bamiyan/
[snip] The idea of a third Buddha of Bamiyan is not a modern one. In about 630 CE, Xuanzang of China visited Bamiyan and wrote of both Buddhas, describing them as we know them and saying they were adorned with gold and gems. He also described a third Buddha, which was a reclining Buddha. This third Buddha, were it standing, would have reportedly stood somewhere around 1,000 feet. The reclining Buddha uncovered in Bamiyan Valley in 2008 was a mere 62 feet in length. Xuanzang could have grossly exaggerated the dimensions of the third Buddha. However, it seems odd that he would bother, given the dimensions of the known the Buddhas. It also seems odd that he would recollect a 62-foot Buddha as 4 times larger than one that is nearly 200-feet tall! [/snip]
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