Sunni Islamists Hate Too Many People for their Own Good

By Barry Rubin

The problem is that the list is getting longer. Back in May, when the Muslim Brotherhood government was expected to be in power forever, for example, an Egyptian imam, Muhammad al-Zughbi, had the following sets of people he wanted to wipe out. He called on Allah to protect Egypt from:

--”Manipulators and the corrupt.’’ In other words from the usual ruling riff-raff who defied social justice.

--”From the criminal traitors,” anyone who is a non-Islamist ruler.

--“The criminal rafidites [Shiites]. In fact for these fellow Muslims we hear intended to:

-- Destroy Bashar [al-Assad, Syria’s ruler] the Shiite Iranians, Hizballah, that infidel, Hassan Nasrallah [leader of Hizballah]. Inflict cancer and pain upon him [I can tell you personally that’s no joke], and the Shiites of Iraq. That’s tens of millions of people.

Oh Allah, their children and infants are slaughtered with knives in front of their fathers and their mothers. Have mercy upon the infants and the children. Girls, women, and mothers were raped by the rafidite Shiites.

Oh Allah, have mercy upon them! The rafidite Shiites slaughtered them in their homes, in front of their families. Have mercy upon the children and upon the girls who were raped. Have mercy upon the Sunnis. Have mercy! We do not plead with presidents, ministers, kings, or princes.”

--Then, of course, “destroy the accursed Jews” and “kill them all,” that’s another dozen million. Note though a conflict: “turn their children into orphans and their wives into widows.” The problem though is that if all are killed our .;/. children will not remain as orphans but will be dead, too. Also if all adults are dead, their wives won’t be around to be widows.

--“Oh Allah, destroy the Arab rulers. Bring dark hours upon them, and demonstrate the wonders of Your might upon them. Oh Allah, abandon them, just as they abandoned Syria. Oh Allah, destroy them and put them to shame for the whole world to see.”

All of them? Wasn’t Mursi an “Arab ruler?” No! He and other Sunni Islamists are Islamic rulers. Everyone else should be overthrown. The Arab rulers as such deserve no loyalty or support.

Now tell me if this is the set-up for a massacre:

”Oh Allah, support the Sunnis in Syria. Everybody ganged up against them, and deceivers deceived them. Oh Allah, the rulers of the Arabs and the Muslims united against them. They are hypocrites, along with the accursed U.S.A., for the benefit of Israel. Oh Allah, the rafidite Shiites from Iran, from Hizballah, and from Iraq came to them, slaughtered their sons, and humiliated their women.”

Note some points. The Sunni Islamists must believe that the United States against them. America can never be helping the Brotherhood because America is evil and satanic. If the United States does help the Brotherhood and Islamists it must only be seeking to help coopt them, to make them traitors. Thus, the United States is thus evil and should be punished.

But notice the same point applies to others. Al-Qaida killed a senior commander of the Free Syrian Army. Why did they do it, so as to “divide” the rebels? Because they do want to divide the rebels. They wish to sabotage any chance that the West will aid the rebels who, despite their common opposition to the Syrian regime, are enemies over future power.

Why then might help from the U.S. government for the Brotherhood to rule Egypt or Tunisia or Syria, be welcomed? The United States must be blamed. Wait until after the Obama Administration helps the Syrian rebels into power and then have them blame the Americans for allegedly helping keep in power the Assad regime.

But as for the Brotherhood it has an enemies list much too long. The West, the Shias, the Jews, the “Arabs,” the Christians, and Egypt’s army, plus more. A clever revolutionary movement builds alliances; a foolish one just makes enemies.

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Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest book, Israel: An Introduction, has just been published by Yale University Press. Other recent books include The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley), and The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan). The website of the GLORIA Center and of his blog, Rubin Reports. His original articles are published at PJMedia.