Muslim Brotherhood victory in Egypt a clarion call against passivity in the Middle East
Statement
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Muslim Brotherhood victory in Egypt a clarion call against passivity in the Middle East
U.S. needs a Liberty Doctrine to guide the awakening in the region
PHOENIX (June 25, 2012) – M. Zuhdi Jasser president and founder of The American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) and author of “A Battle for the Soul of Islam: An American Muslim Patriot’s Fight for His Faith released the following statement regarding the Muslim Brotherhood’s victory in the Egyptian presidential race:
“The victory of Mohammad Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt’s presidential race validates the fears that many had of the revolutions that swept through the Middle East over the past 16 months. Though the Egyptian Military is proclaiming control of much of the power structure in the country, the reality is that the freedom that the people of Egypt had gone to the streets to attain will once again be kept from their grasp. And the security that the West desperately needs from the region will remain elusive and unattainable.
This outcome while predictable did not have to be a foregone conclusion. The people of Egypt are hungry for freedom. With the right guidance and efforts to develop the country’s political infrastructure the people could have shown that they no longer need to be shackled to the binary choice of either the Secular Fascism of Mubarak’s political apparatus or the theocratic rule offered by the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood. There is a third option that is based in liberty and universal freedom.
The Brotherhood’s victory needs to serve as a clarion call for the United States and the West that the passive laissez faire approach to diplomacy in the region will result in countries with governments that are diametrically opposed to western freedom.
This chaos is in many ways a direct result of the unwillingness of the Obama Administration to engage in a proactive manner. As the U.S. heads into the heart of the presidential political season, an Obama Doctrine is nowhere to be found. So the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Ennahda in Tunisia and the Islamists in Libya are able to commandeer a new Middle-East with no ideological battle against the freedom that the people really want.
We need to help advocate for a third pathway of liberty, freedom, and free markets in emerging democracies. Islamists need to be challenged, engaged, and defeated in the marketplace of ideas. We need to advocate a new Liberty Doctrine in the region with assets on the ground that can build political infrastructure by developing secular, liberty minded leaders that do exist in Muslim nations but are lost in the chaos and control of old powers.
The awakening of January 2011 was a sign of a new thirst for freedom from the Egyptian masses. Though they came from a free ballot box, the final candidates in the end were a sign of the old autocrats, the old apparatus and not of the new. There was simply not enough time for anything tangible, new, and truly free to take hold. The U.S. is now rightly seen by many as contributing if anything through silence and negligence if not through outright facilitation to the ascent of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The ballot box is only the first step in a long journey towards universal freedom and liberal democracy. They will not arrive at that destination without the old autocrats in the region being actively defeated. Only the U.S. and the free world can give liberals in the region a remote chance at winning.”
About the American Islamic Foundation for Democracy
The American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable organization. AIFD’s mission advocates for the preservation of the founding principles of the United States Constitution, liberty and freedom, through the separation of mosque and state. For more information on AIFD, please visit our website at http://www.aifdemocracy.org/.
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