Al-Qaida Chief: Egypt Coup Shows Democracy Corrupt

[Purveyor]

Al-Qaida's leader said Egypt's military coup that ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi provides proof that Islamic rule cannot be established through democracy, and urged the Islamist leader's followers to abandon the ballot box in favor of armed resistance.

In a 15-minute audio message posted online late Friday, Ayman al-Zawahri also lashed out at the Egyptian military, the country's secular and liberal elites as well as the Coptic Christian minority, accusing them of conspiring against Morsi solely because he was an Islamist.

Egypt's army ousted Morsi, the country's first democratically elected leader, on July 3 after days of mass protests demanding the president's removal. The coup has divided the nation into rival camps, with an array of liberal and secular Egyptians supporting the military's move and Morsi's supporters and Islamist allies rejecting it.

"We have to admit first that legitimacy does not mean elections and democracy, but legitimacy is the Shariah (Islamic law)... which is above all the constitutions and laws," al-Zawahri said in comments addressed to Morsi's supporters.

He condemned the Brotherhood for having "tried its best to satisfy America and the secularists" by relinquishing "jihad," usually invoked by al-Qaida to mean armed struggle. He also noted that Morsi's government was overthrown despite its acceptance of Egypt's landmark peace treaty with Israel and security agreements with the United States _ both of which Islamic militants sharply oppose.

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http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/world/middle-east/al-qaida-chief-egypt-coup-shows-democracy-corrupt/article_16b8649e-ad6d-5410-9099-edcd56cb2f10.html

[AgingAmerican]

1. It's the Quaedas!!

Run for them thar hills!! They're jibber jabberin!!

[Igel]

2. C'mon.

The correct plural is "Qawa'id."

One qa'ida.

Five qawa'id. (Which, by the way, starts to also mean something like "grammar".)

Aren't Arabic broken plurals fun?

Later we can talk diminutives. So there's a city in Iraq called "Kut" (which means "canton&quot . If you want to say "little Kut" you have "Kuwait". Ah, templatic morphology ... Pretty rare among the world's languages.

[AgingAmerican]

3. Ever listen to Stephanie Miller?

She used to make fun of Bushes phony 'terror alerts' that way.

[Igel]

4. You know, I think the counterrevolution was a mistake.

No big defender of the MB here, and there's an argument that democratic principles mean participating by all segments of the society and acceptance, in some meaningful way, of the results of free and fair elections. Even if you really don't like the results.

I understand the argument that "democracy" means, for some people, "even if I lose, I really do have to rule the roost." That's not democracy, that's moderation--and it's not like the MB and Egyptian "liberals" have a lock on that kind of confusion.

Still ...

Most of what was protested was economic obstructionism by non-MB actors.

The politics that were protested were, by and large, prospective. Very few laws had been passed. The overwhelming oppression was, well, non-existent. There were quotes from MB leaders but not Morsi. There were things that Morsi did that had little effect on Egypt per se--I mean, even supporting jihad in Syria was putting him on the same anti-Assad side as Egyptian liberals, with the quirk that Syrian liberals might find them in the same boat as the Egyptian one if the Islamists in Syria are too successful.

Even the law restricting the funding and some organizing of civil society components, one of the implicit reasons for some protestors, was fairly moderate (and not unchangeable) compared to what Mubarak had and what the liberals are doing.

Instead of giving the MB rope to hang Morsi and stand back, Morsi didn't hang himself in the first year. Instead, people acted mostly on fear. The Constitution says X and we "know" that will be interpreted in a certain way and that will be soul-crushingly horrible. The MB wants this and that means that this law will certainly happen and it will be horrible. So all the "bad things" pointed to against the MB many of the MB followers would say don't really exist. Instead, the protest was against them for being them. Exclusionary. And if you're excluded for what you are and not what you do, that's just prejudice and leads to really bad blood between groups.

[mick063]

5. He has a point

Democracy can be corrupted, but I'm not even slightly convinced that he has a better alternative.

Don't get me wrong, I once swore an oath to defend our constitution. I believe in the document very much. Just not the same way that the current Supreme Court interprets it.

Hopefully, our system is flexible enough to correct our ills. I am concerned that we have crossed the threshold where it is not. This leads to strengthening AL Qaeda's argument against us although it does nothing to support any argument for their "vision". It won't change our minds, but it will change the minds of those they consider reachable.

I believe this is exactly what our corporate owned government hopes for. An excuse to rob our working class to fund a perpetual war with no "exit strategy".