CRASH: Egypt...And The Mid-East...On The Knife's Edge

As the rest of the world waits in anticipation, Egypt is playing out the events that will shape its future...and the future of the Mid-East...for perhaps a generation.

The $64,000 question is this: what will the Egyptian populace turn toward; modernity or Islamism?  How the Egyptian people treat the Muslim Brotherhood will tell the tale.

According to the available metrics, the picture is not bright (h/t Michael Totten)--

In Egypt, 30 percent like Hizballah (66 percent don’t). 49 percent are favorable toward Hamas (48 percent are negative); and 20 percent smile (72 percent frown) at al-Qaida. Roughly speaking, one-fifth of Egyptians applaud the most extreme Islamist terrorist group, while around one-third back revolutionary Islamists abroad. This doesn’t tell us what proportion of Egyptians want an Islamist government at home, but it is an indicator.

In Egypt, 82 percent want stoning for those who commit adultery; 77 percent would like to see whippings and hands cut off for robbery; and 84 percent favor the death penalty for any Muslim who changes his religion.

Asked if they supported “modernizers” or “Islamists” only 27 percent said modernizers while 59 percent said Islamists:

Is this meaningless? Last December 20 I wrote that these “horrifying figures in Egypt…one day might be cited to explain an Islamist revolution there….What this analysis also shows is that a future Islamist revolution in Egypt and Jordan is quite possible.

The Muslim Brotherhood is one...if not the prime...mover in the radicalization of Islam.  They are active, militant, and utterly committed to a vision of Islamism that allows for no place in the world for Western culture.

Under Mubark, they were outlawed in Egypt, which by no means suggests they were not a presence that shaped Egyptian life.  It is believed by people who study Egypt that the MB numbers its Egyptian followers in the millions.

Barack Hussain Obama has floated the lie that he essentially "counseled" Mubarak on human rights.  That is a dirty joke, in these circumstances. 

What this means for Israel is apparent.  It will either have a neighbor more interested in life, or one more committed to the cult of death that is Islamism.