Middle East Focus: On GZ Mosque: Arab Mouthpiece Joins Tea Party, Wilders, Gingrich, ADL……….

Arabia Deserta

On GZ Mosque: Arab Mouthpiece Joins Tea Party, Wilders, Gingrich, ADL……….

Walking on water

“It's shameful that an inmate in Egypt's Tora prison was only one of a few to have issued a statement condemning the construction of the ‘Ground Zero’ mosque, whilst others, who have been released from prison, have contented themselves with observing the damage caused to Islam, at the hands of Muslims in New York. Dr. Fadl, the founder and leader of the Egyptian Jihad group, courageously stated that he was against the construction of a mosque in that particular location, for it would be a target for civil unrest, would hurt the feelings of the 3000 victims’ families, and would stir up hatred against Muslims……… As for other leaders, religious and intellectual institutions, and various Muslim elites, they all preferred to remain silent. This allowed advocates of the Ground Zero mosque project to fabricate lies, and claim that Muslims worldwide would be furious if the mosque was built elsewhere, which is certainly not true......” Manager and Editor of Manager and Editor of Alarabiya and Asharq Alawsat

This editorial by Abdulrahman al-Rashid is significant. He was chief editor of Asharq Alawsat (owned by Prince Salman Bin Abdulaziz and headed by his son) and still is involved in it (he wrote this one for it). He is also the general manager of Alarabiya (owned by royal in-laws). What he writes here is the public view the ‘leaders’ want conveyed.

Perhaps they want the American public, wtf part of it reads this stuff (next to 0%), to understand that. Except that he is playing the Tea Party game: the GZ project is not a Saudi project nor an Egyptian one. It is an American project not affected by the opinion of some fundamentalist Salafi group in Egypt. This may be just another way to attack that other fundamentalist group, the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt. (The Middle East is full of fundamentalists of all stripes, mostly Muslim, but also some Christian and Jewish).

I tell you, Salafis are in the sweet spot with the Arab oligarchies, have been there for some years now. The secret is that Salafis do not really believe in anything called an electoral process: they believe in the rule of a pious (albeit stealing and despotic) ruler. They are an ideal match, except for the embarrassing baggage of those other Salafis, the ones lurking in Waziristan.
Cheers
mhg

m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com