Inherit the Wind has well-lanced the previous pustules posing as Comments from Mr “call me Roy”.. Sadly, a rational response will not affect the poison that fuels his emotive factoids overflowing with prejudice and horror-looming fear; but worry not: one knows what to call him.

The Die-Hard wannabe’s back, telling us that the founder of Muslim Brotherhood founded it as he admired Hitler…in 1928.

Oops.

In 1928, Hitler was in the process of rebuilding the NSDAP from obscurity.  With his jailing in 1924, by 1925, Hitler was nothing more than a footnote (that’s not alliterative—it’s how he was described in political analyses of the day).  His meteoric rise to power didn’t take off until 1930-32.

It is doubtful that an Egyptian religious leader would have heard of a minor racist fringe politician in Northern Europe in 1928.  No Internet. Radio was limited. No TV.  Just newspapers.

What does it mean when a mob of men, numbering anywhere from 50 to 200, stone a female child to death — as happened in October of 2008 in Somalia? That poor soul was not only a 13-year-old child, she had also just been raped. Indeed, that was her sole “ crime ” and the reason for her torture-execution. She was forced into a hole and buried nearly up to her neck. She took a long time to die and kept crying out for her life. In addition to the 50 active stoners, 1000 more men cheered them on.
What does this tell us?
First, that barbarians are mainly cowards who do not view themselves as responsible for their actions. Everyone is the murderer and therefore, no one is the murderer. The group both absorbs and atones for any possible guilt or hesitation that even one individual might have felt. However, as we shall see, there is also another way of looking at this.
For a culture presumably so concerned with “honor,” so consumed with concepts of responsibility towards the family, clan, or “ummah” (Muslim people), those who stone a living being to death utterly shrink from any individual responsibility for carrying out their bloody deeds. Entire families become conspirators in an honor killing; village and religious councils collaborate to issue a death sentence; Muslim men sexually harass women in the streets (of Egypt) — and in large mosque-inflamed mobs (in Algeria).
This tells us something else that is important. The need for a mob is, in a sense, proof that the individuals who compose it are all being held hostage to the will of the psychopathic criminals who rule them. Oppose them, and you yourself might be stoned to death. Hostage-mobs also share the “guilt,” or rather, their leaders’ point of view. The leaders cannot be held accountable for their actions either — everyone did it.
Stoning is practiced in contemporary Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, and Nigeria. In 2006, a poll conducted in “moderate” Indonesia found that 50% of Muslims there supported stoning in cases of adultery, however it is defined. Adultery might include: a married woman who is raped by a stranger, or a woman promised in marriage to one man but who chooses another. This is precisely what happened in the recent case in Afghanistan.
The Grand Torturer Khomeini brought stoning back to Iran. Uneducated mullahs in the provinces rather liked it. They also liked drugs, drug trafficking, forcing girls into prostitution and then jailing or hanging them for it; temporary “marriages”; forced veiling, etc. Although stoning is now under legal review in Iran, to date, eight men and three women await stoning execution.
In Iran, one woman, accused of adultery, was sentenced to be lashed 99 times — and then sentenced to be stoned to death. Due to an international campaign and due to the hard work of Iranian dissidents, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani’s sentence was delayed. But she was lashed 99 times and her teenage son was forced to witness her helplessness, humiliation, and torture — and, in a sense, forced to both share these emotions, second-hand with his mother. Her son’s presence before her nakedness was meant to shame them both and challenged him to become a very hard man as a way of avoiding an eventual nervous breakdown.
I am not sure whether there is any connection, but think about this. When Muslims go on pilgrimage to Mecca, part of their three day ritual includes stoning “The Devil.” Large groups literally throw stones at giant concrete pillars. This suggests that stoning is a Muslim religious ritual, not a tribal custom. Therefore, stoning a living human being is not only an act of human sacrifice — it is a classic religious ritual meant to glorify the stoners’ God.
A little like jihad if you ask me.

Historically, the Muslim Brotherhood was, “founded in 1928 by the Egyptian schoolteacher/activist Hasan al-Banna (a devout admirer of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis), the Muslim Brotherhood (MB)—a Sunni entity—is one of the oldest, largest and most influential Islamist organizations in the world.”
Throughout its history, the Muslim Brotherhood has been involved in various acts of violent jihad. For example, in December 1948, a Brotherhood member assassinated Egyptian Prime Minister Mahmud Fahmi Nuqrashi. In 1954, Muslim Brotherhood member Abdul Munim Abdul Rauf tried to assassinate President Nasser. The Brotherhood’s mission statement, which is permanently posted on its official Arabic-language website, defines the Brotherhood as a Muslim community (jama’ah) that preaches for and demands the rule of Allah’s law (tahkim shar’ allah).
Many others have noted this as well. The Muslim Brotherhood appears to be co-opting the non-violent protest of demonstrators in Cairo. Though originally not highly involved, the Muslim Brotherhood now seems to see an opportunity to emerge as a major player as Egypt’s national leadership changes. As Rosenberg notes, the current American presidential administration will be put to the test to decide how to negotiate with the new potential leaders of Egypt’s government with the Muslim Brotherhood in the mix.
Simply put, if the Muslim Brotherhood is now claiming to be a non-violent participant in the reform government of Egypt, it will be a major break from its past tradition of jihadic acts of violence. Of significance to Western supporters of the Egyptian protest, it is important to note that democratic, free elections and religious freedom would not necessarily both follow from a change in Egyptian national leadership.
As many have learned from the War in Iraq, democratic elections in prominently Muslim nations can even lead to increased religious persecution among Christians or other non-Muslim religious groups. While we as Christians may support democracy in Egypt, we must be careful not to equate democracy with Christian liberty. In fact, if the Muslim Brotherhood takes a leadership role, some form of sharia law (law based on the teachings of the Qur’an) will be expected. Unfortunately, sharia law is the standard in eight of the top ten nations where Christians are most persecuted.

WILLIAM GIVES LOGICAL SUGGESTIONS THAT WOULD WORK..BUT SMALL MINDS NEED A GROUP
THINK TO FEEL SECURE..AND ARE NOT GOING TO STEP OUT OF THEIR LEMMING
PATH…CONFORMITY RUNS WASHINGTON ON BOTH SIDES OF THE AISLE..THAT’S HOW THEY GET
ELECTED..ITS CALLED RULING BY THE BUNCH..

Regarding Ortiz’s comment that “nations around Israel are constantly trying to destroy it”—Jews as a minority have been persecuted in many countries for centuries, for various “reasons.”
  Centuries of persecution have caused people to have a “persecution complex” more kindly called
“hypersensitivity.” It is probably going to take centuries of non-persecution to reduce and eliminate that fear of being persecuted.
  Persecution is evil and sows seeds of persistent evil.  First, stop it.  Eventually it will disppear if it is not fed on fears.
  Footnote:  Sadly, being persecuted causes persecuted people to justify the persecution of others.  (Example: Israel’s ongoing persecution of the Palestinians, as well as on-going Arab-Christian problems particularly since the Crusades but not limited to the Crusades.)
  Persecution is not limited to Christians, Muslims or Jews, (though they seem to exhibit more than their share of it.) It is a worldwide human problem involving fear of differences and desire to dominate. Women have been “persecuted” by men for centuries, and many still believe it’s “inevitable.”
  Various “color lines” are used as groundless reasons for persecution. It’s all one huge human sickness, like war.
  People are gradually healing each other.  Do your part, beginning right in your own neighborhood—Orange County, Cairo, Timbuctoo—wherever.

Seconding the sentiments of MeHere, gerard,  and BigB’s grandmother, I’d add only that Mr Pfaff’s essay, and his writings in general, being informed by a knowledge of history and a perspective beyond the Potomac (or even the Seine),  is a viewpoint utterly lacking in the self-admiring Beltway, that nest of pseudo-experts providing bad advice to order at the drop of a palm crossed by the usual fees.  Anyone telling embunkered Administrations what they would rather not hear is snubbed and/or sidelined, pronto.
By the way, Aaron Ortiz should not ascribe a non-existent naiveté to the advice he endorses, nor an imaginary effort by Israel’s neighbours “constantly to destroy it”. Come now,really, which constantly aggressive neighbours do you see in the mirror???

I recommend two books :

America’s Nazi Secret by John Loftus

A Mosque in Munich (...) by Ian Johnson

These authors have internet sites.

The first book gives lot of information about the OPC and Frank Wisner Sr (father of Frank Wisner Jr).

The following memo is very interesting :

http://www.scribd.com/doc/47963038/America-s-Nazi-Secret-Loftus-OPC-CIA

The second one mentions Frank Wisner Sr and describes the introduction of islamism in Occident.

And by the way, two words express my advice:  Butt out!  The U.S. “should” not interfere in the political, religious, moral, cultural affairs of any other nation—ever—except to JOIN WITH OTHERS for the sake of impartial intervention on the side of peace and mercy, and even then, refrain from dictating or trying to beg, buy or steal “special relationship” influence that amounts to unilateral domination.
  It’s called “non-interference”—not the same as isolationism, which implies not giving a damn.

Superb article by William Pfaff!

It’s hard to add any other comment except to say that we must keep looking for
signs of intelligent life among our government and voting population.

We need to accept what ever governments the people in those nations decide to try, whether they are friendly to us, or not. If they want to have a fruitful relationship with us, so be it. If they choose to break ties with us and look backward instead of forward, then we should part without animosity (we already have enough conservative morons longing to return us to 1920)

Life is too short to have to deal with assholes. And that phrase goes both ways. I was told by my grandmother that, while it is not nesessarily fair, you are judged by the people you choose to covort with. (somoza, pinochet, duarte, amin, dyan, the shah, and yes Bin laden too)

The author’s advice for Israel is good. Yet, it assumes that Israel is the only
agressor, and that the nations around it are not trying constantly to destroy it.

One thing you forgot—Stop selling high-powered weaponry to all and sundry. Declare for a “season of peace” and behave accordingly.  Get our military out of the region and convert the Military/Industrial Coomplex into Environmental Industries, Inc.