Byzantine Trickery

Byzantine History
Year 922

Symeon of Bulgaria sent an embassy via Zahumlje - the state of his ally Michael - to the Fatimids of North Africa
While awaiting the return of this mission he refused to treat with the Byzantines or to answer Nicholas's letters
In addition, he took Adrianople again and carried off a great number of captives
The Fatimids accepted Symeon's proposal but on the way home the envoys were captured by the Byzantines and imprisoned them and then quickly sent their own embassy to North Africa to outbid Symeon
                                                (526)



This is not what the Church was established to promote or to carry out.  Jesus established His Church to advance the Kingdom of God and NOT any human religious kingdom that lied, cheated or stole from others.  God's Kingdom is at war with Satan and this war is over your personal life, NOT physical property.




DLB

Muslim Beliefs

Denmark History
Muslim Beliefs
2005 8 June


A large thorn in the side of Denmark'simams is the Minister of Immigration and Integration, Rikke Hvilshoj
She makes no bones bout the new policy toward immigration and then paid a price for her show of backbone
The leading radical imam in Denmark, Ahmed Abdel Rahman AbuLaban demanded that the Danish government pay blood money to the family of a Muslim who was murdered in a suburb of Copenhagen, stating that the family's thirst for revenge could be thwarted for money
When Hvilshoj dismissed his demand, he argued that in Muslim culture the payment of retribution money was common, to which Hvilshoj replied that what is done in a Muslim country is not necessarily what is done in Denmark
The Muslim reply came soon after: her house was torched while she, her husband and children slept
All managed to escape unharmed, but she and her family were moved to a secret location and she and other ministers were assigned bodyguards for the first time - in a country where such murderous violence was once so scarce
                                                           (257)

This should speak volumes as to what is now transpiring within our country.  Think about what this pattern will do to the population if allowed to continue to present its birthing.  The country has been blooded and it is the responsibility of the Church to recognize that through her comatose state it has produced this type of activity.  The Kingdom of God is not being advanced here, only the kingdom of Satan is; wake up Church, your time is almost over!

Denominationalism

The Association of the Hungarian Political Exiles conveyed special sentiments of appreciation to Judge Johnes of Wales
The Welsh had been particularly enthusiastic for the Hungarian cause
The Welsh's non conformist ministers interpreted the Hungarians as Protestant Magyars struggling against Roman Catholic Austrians
                                      (237)

We Will Restore the Caliphate

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

MEMRI: Mufti of Jordan-Based Palestinian Liberation Army To West: We Will Restore the Caliphate; You Will Pay the Jizya Or We Will Bring the Sword to Your Necks

MEMRI: Mufti of Jordan-Based Palestinian Liberation Army To West: We Will Restore the Caliphate; You Will Pay the 'Jizya' Or 'We Will Bring the Sword to Your Necks' Special Dispatch |4372|December 20, 2011 Palestinian Media Studies Project Sheikh Nader Al-Tamimi, Mufti of Jordan-Based Palestinian Liberation Army, To West: We Will Restore the Caliphate, You Will Pay the 'Jizya' – Or 'We Will Bring the Sword to Your Necks'; In October 2000 On Al-Jazeera, Called For Biological Warfare Against U.S., and Said: All Muslims 'Must Attack Common Enemy, America Is Against Us All... I Issue a Religious Ruling Now, and I Am a Mufti'; I Support Strike Against America 'In the Heart Of Their Land' In video footage posted December 15, 2011 on the Internet, Sheikh Nader Tamimi, mufti of the Jordan-based Palestine Liberation Army, stated "The Americans and Zionists will end up in the garbage bin of history" and added, addressing the West: "Either you pay the jizya poll tax, or else we will bring the sword to your necks" (to view this clip on MEMRI TV, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/3238.htm), Previously, in October 2000, Sheikh Al-Tamimi stated, in a discussion on Al-Jazeera, that "two people in a small room in the center of the U.S. can invent a biological weapon and explode it" there. He stated that he "supported" blowing up the "oppressing countries – like the U.S. and the West" and added that "all the Muslim people must attack the common enemy; America is against us all" and that the Islamic world needs "10 million bin Ladens" (to view this clip on the MEMRI Facebook page, visit http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=691136754339&saved) For more from the MEMRI Palestinian Media Studies Project, visit http://www.memri.org/palestinianmediastudies. The following are excerpts from his recent address and from his 2000 discussion on Al-Jazeera: The Internet, December 15, 2011 'Either You Pay The Jizya, Or Else We Will Bring the Sword to Your Necks' Sheikh Al-Tamimi: "In the Levant, we are involved in a fierce battle, and we will bring about a change in Syria and in the Levant in its entirety. The infidels divided the Levant into four states, and we will reunite them into a single state. The Safavid enterprise that led to Iran occupying Iraq, along with the Americans and the Zionists, will end in the garbage bin of history. The Caliphate in the path of the Prophet will return. […] "We await the caliph who will address the leaders of the U.S. and Europe and say: From the Emir of the Believers from Jerusalem…" Crowd: "Allah Akbar." Al-Tamimi: "To the rulers of the West, this is the religion of Allah. Either you pay the jizya poll tax, or else we will bring the sword to your necks…" Crowd: "Allah Akbar." Crowd member: "Say: 'Allah Akbar.'" Crowd: "Allah Akbar." […] Crowd member: "The people wants the restoration of the Caliphate." Al-Tamimi along with crowd: "The people wants the restoration of the Caliphate. The people wants the restoration of the Caliphate." From the MEMRI TV Archives: Al-Jazeera TV, October 20, 2000 "Two People in a Small Room In the Center of the U.S. Can Invent a Biological Weapon And Explode It In the U.S." Sheikh Al-Tamimi: "With regard to the balance of power, they talk all the time, I want to tell you that if you want, two people in a small room in the center of the U.S. can invent a biological weapon and explode it in the U.S. as the American secretary of defense himself said, not me. "They caught a group that wanted to blow up Washington. They found one with a [cigarette] pack, and when the Secretary of Defense spoke, he said: 'Half of this box – the cigarette pack in his pocket – could kill half of Washington.' He said that two [people] could manufacture it in a small laboratory. "Therefore, the U.S. does not have monopoly on this weapon. Besides, nuclear (weapons) exist today in Pakistan, which is our [strategic] depth. Today, we have countries that manufacture…" "If They Continue Oppressing, By Allah, People Will Rise Up Against Them and Blow Up Their Oppressing Countries – Like the U.S. and the West... Yes, I Support It Being Done" Tamimi: "In other words, it is already no one's monopoly, and their countries can be blown up; if they continue oppressing, by Allah, people will rise up against them and blow up their oppressing countries – like the U.S. and the West – and therefore there is no point in saying things like we must submit and be defeated and that there is no balance of power. The purpose of such talks is for us to continue to be submissive. "Now Israel hopes that the Intifada will stop, because it motivated the feelings of people who can die a martyr's death anywhere they may be. What is America doing? It fears for its fleets and men…" Program host: "You mean you support attacking… That is, you said before that they will be struck in the heart of their land. Do you support such a strike?" Al-Tamimi: "It is not me who said it. It is the American Secretary of Defense himself who said it. He said that two people could do it. I wouldn't do it. Yes, I support it being done. Yes.” Host: "Do you support for example, striking… We heard not long ago that one of the commanders of Jihad in Yemen blew up…" "All the Muslim People Must Attack the Common Enemy; America Is Against Us All... I Issue a Religious Ruling Now, And I Am a Mufti" The Islamic World Needs "10 Million Bin Ladens" Al-Tamimi: "My brother, our God said, 'Kill them where you find them and take them out from where they look you out.' All the Muslim people must attack the common enemy. America is against us all. America must realize this. I issue a religious ruling now, and I am a mufti. "I say: The clerics have decided, in consensus, that when the enemy conquers Muslim land, or takes a Muslim prisoner, the Jihad becomes a personal commandment for every Muslim man and woman, to the point where it is permitted for a woman to leave her home [to wage Jihad] without her husband's permission, and for a child without his father's permission. Everyone joins in the battle. "Now the people of Palestine are not capable [of doing this] alone, and therefore every Muslim on the face of the earth, if he does not fight the Jihad, let us see what happens to him according to Islamic law: His fate is that he will not enter Paradise, because the text states absolutely, as Allah said, 'Do you reckon that you will enter Paradise while Allah has not yet caused to be known those of you who fight the Jihad.' "Oh my brothers, from Jakarta to Tangier, listen: By Allah, if you do not wage Jihad in accordance with your abilities, you will not enter Paradise even if you fast and pray. Anyone who finds an enemy target anywhere must strike at it, he must strike at it everywhere, so that the enemy will sense that there is a nation, not just demonstrations." Host: "That is, do you want to say, as some claim, that the Islamic world needs a million bin Ladens?" Al-Tamimi: "And 10 million bin Ladens…" Host: "Ah, we need bin Ladens." "What Did Bin Laden Do? He Said: 'I Will Strike The West... I Will Strike the Jews'... This Is A Religious Ruling, So What Is There For Me To Talk About? Anyone Capable Of Doing So Must Strike" Al-Tamimi: "What did bin Laden do? He said: 'I will strike the West that occupies my country. I will strike at the Jews.' Has he become a terrorist?! I don't know the man, but I have heard him. He lives as that journalist from [the London daily] Al-Quds [Al-Arabi], brother Abd Al-Bari 'Atwan, said: 'I traveled to him and he lives in a cave, although he has millions and maybe a billion.' He says 'I want to fight the Jihad for the sake of Allah.' This must burst forth from the nation, and not from the (rulers) palaces and corruption.” Host: "In brief, you are saying there must be a strike at American interests everywhere?" Al-Tamimi: "This is a religious ruling, so what is there for me to talk about? Anyone capable of doing so must strike at the target. He must strike at it – otherwise everybody will sin." Please remember the environment before printing. For assistance, please contact MEMRI at memri@memri.org. The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) is an independent, non-profit organization that translates and analyzes the media of the Middle East. Copies of articles and documents cited, as well as background information, are available on request. MEMRI holds copyrights on all translations. Materials may only be used with proper attribution.

Cyber Warfare

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Sunday, December 18, 2011

Iran embarking on ambitious $1b. cyber-warfare program

Iran embarking on ambitious $1b. cyber-warfare program By YAAKOV KATZ The Jerusalem Post 12/18/2011 04:02 http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=249864 Program seeks to boost Tehran's offensive, defensive capabilities; fearing cyber attacks, IDF recently established its own cyber task force, division within C4I Directorate. Tehran has embarked on an ambitious plan to boost its offensive and defensive cyber-warfare capabilities and is investing $1 billion in developing new technology and hiring new computer experts. Iran has been the victim of a number of cyber attacks in recent years, some attributed to Israel. The most famous attack was by a virus called Stuxnet which is believed, at its prime, to have destroyed 1,000 centrifuges at the Natanz fuel enrichment facility by sabotaging their motors. Iran recently confirmed that a new virus called Duqu had been detected in its computer systems, although the extent of the damage is unknown. While Stuxnet was aimed at crippling industrial control systems and may have destroyed some of the centrifuges Iran uses to enrich uranium, experts say Duqu appeared designed to gather data to make it easier to launch future cyber attacks. Last week, the Spanish-language TV network Univision aired a documentary which included secret footage of Iranian and Venezuelan diplomats being briefed on planned cyber attacks against the United States. The documentary claimed that the diplomats, based in Mexico, were involved in planning cyber attacks against US targets, including nuclear power plants. Fearing cyber attacks, the Israeli government recently established a cyber task force that will be responsible for improving Israeli defenses and coordinating the development of new software and capabilities between local defense and hi-tech companies. The IDF has also drafted a multi-year plan that is supposed to lead to a major boost in military capabilities over the coming five years. “We are not where we want to be when it comes to our defenses,” a senior Israeli official said recently. The IDF recently organized the units that deal with cyber-warfare, establishing offensive capabilities and operations within Military Intelligence’s Unit 8200 and defensive operations within a new division within the C4I Directorate. The new division within the C4I Directorate is run by a colonel who took up his post over the summer. The officer is the former commander of Matzov, the unit that is responsible for protecting the IDF networks and a Hebrew acronym for “Center for Encryption and Information Security.” Matzov writes the codes that encrypt IDF, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and Mossad networks, as well as mainframes in national corporations, such as the Israel Electrical Corp., Mekorot, the national water company, and Bezeq. Chairman of the Israel Electric Corporation Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yiftach Ron- Tal recently warned that Israel was not adequately prepared to defend and confront the threat it faces to its military and civilian infrastructure. “Israel is under a threat and we could already have experienced a silent infiltration that will be activated when the enemy wants,” Ron-Tal said. “We need to be prepared for the possibility that critical infrastructure will be paralyzed.”

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Iran embarking on ambitious $1b. cyber-warfare program

Iran embarking on ambitious $1b. cyber-warfare program By YAAKOV KATZ The Jerusalem Post 12/18/2011 04:02 http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=249864 Program seeks to boost Tehran's offensive, defensive capabilities; fearing cyber attacks, IDF recently established its own cyber task force, division within C4I Directorate. Tehran has embarked on an ambitious plan to boost its offensive and defensive cyber-warfare capabilities and is investing $1 billion in developing new technology and hiring new computer experts. Iran has been the victim of a number of cyber attacks in recent years, some attributed to Israel. The most famous attack was by a virus called Stuxnet which is believed, at its prime, to have destroyed 1,000 centrifuges at the Natanz fuel enrichment facility by sabotaging their motors. Iran recently confirmed that a new virus called Duqu had been detected in its computer systems, although the extent of the damage is unknown. While Stuxnet was aimed at crippling industrial control systems and may have destroyed some of the centrifuges Iran uses to enrich uranium, experts say Duqu appeared designed to gather data to make it easier to launch future cyber attacks. Last week, the Spanish-language TV network Univision aired a documentary which included secret footage of Iranian and Venezuelan diplomats being briefed on planned cyber attacks against the United States. The documentary claimed that the diplomats, based in Mexico, were involved in planning cyber attacks against US targets, including nuclear power plants. Fearing cyber attacks, the Israeli government recently established a cyber task force that will be responsible for improving Israeli defenses and coordinating the development of new software and capabilities between local defense and hi-tech companies. The IDF has also drafted a multi-year plan that is supposed to lead to a major boost in military capabilities over the coming five years. “We are not where we want to be when it comes to our defenses,” a senior Israeli official said recently. The IDF recently organized the units that deal with cyber-warfare, establishing offensive capabilities and operations within Military Intelligence’s Unit 8200 and defensive operations within a new division within the C4I Directorate. The new division within the C4I Directorate is run by a colonel who took up his post over the summer. The officer is the former commander of Matzov, the unit that is responsible for protecting the IDF networks and a Hebrew acronym for “Center for Encryption and Information Security.” Matzov writes the codes that encrypt IDF, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and Mossad networks, as well as mainframes in national corporations, such as the Israel Electrical Corp., Mekorot, the national water company, and Bezeq. Chairman of the Israel Electric Corporation Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yiftach Ron- Tal recently warned that Israel was not adequately prepared to defend and confront the threat it faces to its military and civilian infrastructure. “Israel is under a threat and we could already have experienced a silent infiltration that will be activated when the enemy wants,” Ron-Tal said. “We need to be prepared for the possibility that critical infrastructure will be paralyzed.”

Hamas Fatah Meet

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Saturday, December 17, 2011

Hamas, Fatah officials to meet in Cairo Sunday

Hamas, Fatah officials to meet in Cairo Published today (updated) 17/12/2011 15:30 http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=445673 GAZA CITY (Ma’an) – Two delegations representing Hamas and Fatah are scheduled to meet in Cairo on Sunday to evaluate what has been achieved on the ground since the heads of both parties met a month ago. Fatah leader president Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas chief Khalid Mashaal met a month earlier in the Egyptian capital, declaring that the meeting had brought them together and eliminated any differences. Fatah lawmaker Faisal Abu Shahla said Abbas and Mashaal were planning to hold another meeting in the future, but he did not provide any details about when or where it would be held. On Dec. 20, other Palestinian factions will meet in Cairo, and two days later PLO members will also hold a meeting, Abu Shahla said. Meanwhile, a meeting between the various smaller factions were being held at the offices of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine leader Rabah Muhanna in Gaza City, a Ma'an correspondent reported. 'Last chance' Palestinian political groups have called the upcoming meetings in Cairo the last chance for implementation of a reconciliation deal between Fatah and Hamas, which was signed in May. Seven months later, the factions say nothing has moved on the ground to implement the terms of the deal that would end four years of divided government in Gaza and the West Bank. Factions heading to Cairo on Monday stressed that this could be the last opportunity for the deal to end the division and set the path to national elections. The delegations in Cairo are funding their own expenses for the first time, begging the question of whether Egypt's sponsorship of the talks could founder if they drag on further. Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas leader and head of the government in Gaza, says one of the biggest sticking points has been the issue of political prisoners who remain in Palestinian prisons in the West Bank. Speaking this week at the inauguration of a new school in Gaza City, Haniyeh stressed "the need to take practical steps to prove the sincerity of intentions and depart from" empty rhetoric. He added that Hamas was awaiting the outcome of the meetings in Cairo.

Hamas, Fatah officials to meet in Cairo
Published today (updated) 17/12/2011 15:30
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=445673

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) – Two delegations representing Hamas and Fatah are
scheduled to meet in Cairo on Sunday to evaluate what has been achieved on
the ground since the heads of both parties met a month ago.

Fatah leader president Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas chief Khalid Mashaal met a
month earlier in the Egyptian capital, declaring that the meeting had
brought them together and eliminated any differences.

Fatah lawmaker Faisal Abu Shahla said Abbas and Mashaal were planning to
hold another meeting in the future, but he did not provide any details about
when or where it would be held.

On Dec. 20, other Palestinian factions will meet in Cairo, and two days
later PLO members will also hold a meeting, Abu Shahla said.

Meanwhile, a meeting between the various smaller factions were being held at
the offices of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine leader Rabah
Muhanna in Gaza City, a Ma'an correspondent reported.

'Last chance'

Palestinian political groups have called the upcoming meetings in Cairo the
last chance for implementation of a reconciliation deal between Fatah and
Hamas, which was signed in May.

Seven months later, the factions say nothing has moved on the ground to
implement the terms of the deal that would end four years of divided
government in Gaza and the West Bank.

Factions heading to Cairo on Monday stressed that this could be the last
opportunity for the deal to end the division and set the path to national
elections.

The delegations in Cairo are funding their own expenses for the first time,
begging the question of whether Egypt's sponsorship of the talks could
founder if they drag on further.

Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas leader and head of the government in Gaza, says one of
the biggest sticking points has been the issue of political prisoners who
remain in Palestinian prisons in the West Bank.

Speaking this week at the inauguration of a new school in Gaza City, Haniyeh
stressed "the need to take practical steps to prove the sincerity of
intentions and depart from" empty rhetoric.

He added that Hamas was awaiting the outcome of the meetings in Cairo.

Boosters insisted the Egyptian revolution would yield a liberal democracy. Islamists’ electoral success vindicates the pessimists.


By Amr Bargisi and Samuel Tadros|


December 9, 2011 7:00 AM


When the Egyptian revolution came, we stayed home.

We are young, liberal Egyptian activists who have dedicated our lives to bettering our country. But from the moment in January the crowds took over Tahrir Square calling for President Hosni Mubarak’s ouster, we urged observers, particularly Western idealists already hailing the triumph of the new Egypt, to be cautious. We reminded them of Edmund Burke’s truism: Bringing down a tyrant is far, far easier than forming a free government.

It would be difficult to form such a government, we reasoned, in a society where the elite, with near unanimity, had just explained a series shark attacks in the Sinai as part of a Mossad-coordinated ploy to damage tourism. A free government must be based on universal rights, not least the right to freedom of conscience for all its citizens, and yet a Pew poll from December 2010 showed that 84 percent of the sampled Egyptian Muslims endorsed the death penalty as the appropriate punishment for Muslim apostates. For an entire country to change in one month, we argued throughout February, you need nothing short of magic.

Pessimists, naysayers, wet blankets, Mubarak cronies, apologists for the regime—we were called all these names, despite the fact that we’ve spent our adult lives within the opposition. Here was a new generation armed with iPhones and Twitter accounts that would ensure the success of liberal democracy in the region’s largest state, the enthusiasts promised. When Mubarak finally bowed to the pressure of the protesters in the streets, commentators wrote fairy-tale endings to the Egypt story, rushing off to cover the next blossoming flower of the Arab Spring. In the months that followed, no matter how far the Egyptian economy plummeted, how badly the security situation on the border with Israel deteriorated, or how many were killed in criminal, sectarian, or political violence, the narrative was maintained: Though painful, these were the necessary labor pangs of democracy.

Last week, the moment of truth finally came—or so we hope—with the results of the first phase of parliamentary elections. The Islamist parties won big: 40 percent of the electorate voted for the Muslim Brotherhood, and another 25 percent went for the Salafists, hard-line Islamists. Though forced by law to nominate at least one woman on their party lists, the Salafists had the photos of their female candidates replaced by a pictures of flowers in campaign ads, because they believe a woman’s face should not be shown publicly. The closest runner-up was the self-styled “liberal” Egyptian Bloc, which got 15 percent of the vote only because it secured the support of the Coptic minority. (The bloc’s founder is a famous Christian businessman.) The Islamist parties will likely win even bigger in the next two phases of the election, scheduled to take place in the coming few weeks, because these votes will be held almost entirely in the countryside, where political Islam dominates. (The first phase also included urban districts, where non-Islamists perform better.)

***

For us, nothing is more painful than being correct. Our vindication comes at the price of our country’s potential collapse into Islamist totalitarianism, or, even worse, total chaos. We desperately need a combination of sobriety, urgency, and prudence to prevent that from happening.
We must begin by deconstructing the Tahrir mythology. Namely: The Mubarak regime was pure evil; that it was brought down by “liberal” nonviolent activists; and that the Islamists had nothing to do with the revolution and emerged—suddenly—only to hijack it.

The Mubarak regime was no liberal democracy, but it also wasn’t the Gulag. It was an aging authoritarian regime that had opted for a path of economic reform when Ahmed Nazif took over as prime minister in 2004, but miserably failed to cope with the changes economic reform had on the political level. Moderately freer markets meant more media, which meant that while the political repression and corruption of the regime were less heinous than in the past, they were getting more exposure than ever. This, along with Mubarak’s senility and nepotism, created an ever-increasing sense of outrage among Egypt’s growing middle class.

While living standards were improving substantially, Egyptians not only had higher expectations of the government, but they also were falling prey to an obsessed belief that corruption is the root of all evil. Corruption has always been present in the modern Egyptian state, as anyone who has read Tawfik El Hakim’s 1932 novel The Diary of a Prosecutor Among Peasants knows. But with the help of many of the country’s journalists, this obsession was translated into outright hostility to free-market policies. Terms like “businessman” or “privatization” became almost libelous. This marked the rise of a Jacobin discourse on “social justice” (adala Igtima’iya), creating a lot of buzz around labor movements and Occupy Wall Street-type leftist groups. It escaped Western observers that in a country with the lowest price of bread in the world—the result of enormous government subsidies—the loudest chant in Tahrir Square was “Bread, Freedom, Social Justice.”

The early Tahrir Square crowd was comprised of leftists and various other groups that were in it for different reasons. Consider, for example, the fanatic soccer fans known as the Ultras. Known for engaging in fights with security forces after every Egyptian soccer game, the Ultras would not waste a chance to get back at the police in a much less controlled environment than the Stadium. At Tahrir, they had a major role in attacking the police and destroying the police stations. In the revolution’s aftermath, the Ultras led the mob in the rampage of the Israeli Embassy.

Other than the fact that a few dozen human-rights activists were present in Tahrir, there was nothing remotely liberal about the uprising. But that didn’t stop Western journalists from applying the term: Every Egyptian male without a beard was a John Stuart Mill, every female without a veil a Mary Wollstonecraft. Suddenly, Trotskyites were liberals, and hooligans nonviolent protesters.

The idea that there were no Islamists involved in the revolution is pure nonsense. The Muslim Brotherhood officially declared its decision to join the protests on Jan. 23, and its members were instrumental in the success of the revolution in the subsequent days and weeks. What’s more, over the past decade Islamist groups, particularly the Salafists, have been taking advantage of Egypt’s increasing media and Internet freedom to further influence the political discussion. Wondering where the all these Salafists came from? Go to YouTube, type in any possible Arabic term, from financial investment to marriage counseling, and see the sheer number of results that show a Salafist leader preaching, most often in a clip from the religious satellite channel. The message is always the same: A return to a purer form of Islam guarantees salvation in this life and the next.

These two tendencies—the Jacobin and the Islamist—are not mutually exclusive in Egypt. The average Egyptian easily bought into both arguments, believing that the reason for all their ills was the Mubarak regime’s economic program, and that the only solution was a return to the golden age of Islam. Though institutionally immunized against Islamism through a strict system of surveillance, the military completely internalized the popular anti-capitalist discourse, hence its ultimate decision to offer its services to the revolutionaries, abandoning Mubarak in his time of need.

Into that mix comes anti-Semitism. Egyptian anti-Semitism is not simply a form of bigotry: It is the glue binding the otherwise incoherent ideological blend, the common denominator among disparate parties. The Zionist conspiracy theory was not merely a diversion applied by the Mubarak regime, as some suggest. It is a well-established social belief in Egypt, even among self-proclaimed liberals. Consider, for example, Yehya El-Gamal, a leading expert on constitutional law and chairman of the Democratic Front Party who was appointed deputy prime minister after the revolution. Though a staunch opponent of the Islamists, El-Gamal told Al-Ahram, the leading state-owned newspaper, that “Israel and the U.S. are behind flaming the sectarian conflict in Egypt” in the wake of the deadly clashes between Coptic demonstrators and military forces last October.

***

These facts, though hard to swallow, were clear well before the revolution. This is why, when we joined the Egyptian Union of Liberal Youth in 2009, we decided to focus our energy on a long-term program to build a genuine liberal movement from scratch. We realized early on that activism without serious, concrete ideas capable of winning the hearts and minds of our fellow Egyptians would be meaningless. Thus, we designed a platform of legal, economic, and social programs tackling all aspects of life in Egypt, from taxes to anti-Semitism. Our plan comprises research, lobbying, campaigning, and an effort to translate the great books of Western classical liberalism into Arabic. If Egypt was going to have any hope of becoming a liberal democracy, we had to face—and battle—the destructive totalitarian ideals that have taken hold of Egyptian society.

To begin a serious discussion on what can be done in our country, Egyptians must acknowledge that the Tahrir uprising was no liberal revolution. Western observers must realize that this is not a stark morality play, but political decision-making between alternatives that are all bad. As the government borders on bankruptcy and the security situation deteriorates (the natural-gas pipe line to Israel and Jordan was bombed nine times since February), the first priority should be defending the very existence of the Egyptian state, now solely represented by the military. This is certainly an awkward position for advocates of limited government, as we are. But if the military falls, nothing will stand between the Egyptians and absolute anarchy.

Western policy-makers and Egyptians who care about the country’s future should not push too hard for a total face-off between the military and the Islamists, which may develop into a civil war, nor should they seek to weaken the military to the extent that it is totally subdued by the Islamists. Finally, as the Islamists try to transform the legal and economic infrastructure of the country to their benefit, true liberals must be prepared to tackle them on every move, with detailed and convincing programs, not merely rhetorical speeches and empty polemics on talk shows. Islamism offers a coherent worldview; if liberalism cannot rise up to the same level, it will always be doomed to fail.

The gravest danger is for us to fall prey to complacency and believe that an Islamist government will either moderate or fail to deliver, and that the Egyptians will vote for someone else in the next elections. The very possibility of next elections is dependent on our capacity to avoid the total anarchy scenario. And the Islamists are not going to moderate. No matter how pragmatic the Muslim Brotherhood is, they will face a constant challenge by Salafists from the right to adhere a strict standard of religious purity. If the Islamists, now hugely popular, do fail to deliver, genuine liberals must be at the ready to offer voters a clear alternative. The Mubarak regime was remarkably successful in steering the economy in its latter years, but its inability to justify its existence politically led to its demise. There is no reason why the exact opposite—a failing economy but successful politics—cannot come to the service of the Islamists.