Egypt's neighbors watch rise of Muslim Brotherhood's Mursi

British Broadcasting Corporation News ^ | 26 June 2012 | Last updated at 04:08 ET | Magdi Abdelhadi, Middle East analyst

[Olog-hai]

Egypt's neighbors may well be wondering what changes the new presidency may mean for the country's foreign policy.

For the time being, they need not worry—foreign policy remains firmly in the hands of the ruling military council, SCAF.

The contours of Egypt's new political system may not emerge before the end of the year. Even then, the new government will still be very busy putting its own house in order.

The Muslim Brotherhood are shrewd pragmatists and they are fully aware that Egypt has enough internal problems of its own.

So it is unlikely there will be any noticeable change to its foreign relations for some time to come, unless forced by some unforeseen conflict—which cannot be ruled out given the level of volatility in the region.

But from the moment Hosni Mubarak was overthrown, many of Egypt's neighbors have watched with varying degrees of alarm the Muslim Brother(hood)s' rise to power.

For the Israelis in particular an Islamist in the presidential palace in Cairo is their worst nightmare.

The Muslim Brotherhood—the organization of which president-elect Mohammed Mursi was a member throughout his adult life before resigning in order to assume the presidency—has made no secret of its hatred of Israel.

Like all other Islamists and even many secular nationalists for that matter, the Muslim Brotherhood has been vehemently opposed to Egypt's peace with Israel, only reluctantly growing to accept it out of sheer pragmatic self-interest.

Without that, it would have been near impossible for the ruling military generals to have allowed them anywhere near the seat of government. …

[Olog-hai]

More Islamist propaganda out of the BBC. They will indeed rue the day . . . the Muslim Brotherhood are your enemies too, fools . . .

[nascarnation]

Hey the boy’s a USC Trojan.

Two of his kids are anchor babies.

Heck they probably voted absentee for Baraq in 08.

[Haddit]

He was an assistant professor at California State University Northridge.

[RoseofTexas]

To those foolish Egyptians who voted for the radical evil muslim brotherhood dictator let me give you a quick history lesson on how this evil blood thirsty bastards have treated national treasures in the past.

The Parthenon in Athens was converted into a Mosque, as an ultimate humiliation of the Greeks. Athens was defeated by the Ottomans in 1456 and they converted the Parthenon into a mosque and,destroying anything offensive in the temple according to Islamic law.

"Regional Sentiment in Medieval Islamic Egypt," published in the University of London's Bulletin Of The School Of Oriental And African Studies (BSOAS), vol.43 (1980) p.55-66, states that according to Makrizi, Rashidi and other medieval Arab scholars, the face of the Sphinx was vandalized in 1378 A.D. by Mohammed Sa'im al-Dahr, a "fanatical sufi of the oldest and most highly respected sufi convent of Cairo." The nose and ears are mentioned specifically as having been damaged at this time. Because only the head was sticking out of the sandy dune at that time the sufi regarded the head evil and offensive to Ismalic law and ordered the destruction of the sphinx head but were only able to remove the nose completely.

KABUL 2001 - Ignoring an international outcry, Afghanistan's puritanical Taliban Islamic militia began demolishing statues across the country on Thursday, including two towering ancient stone Buddhas. An edict announced Monday by the militia's supreme leader, Mulla Mohammad Omar, calling for the destruction of all statues in line with "Islamic" laws, has caused shock around the world.

Kiss your national monuments goodbye...you folks have just about killed your golden goose!