What happens when a demagogue who feeds on fear like a body
snatcher feeds on the flesh of his catches, loses the means by which to strike
fear in the hearts of potential victims? The answer is that he goes to the City
of Dread and
works to put the population under suspended animation to give himself the time
to develop new means by which to strike fear in the hearts of potential victims
so that he may gorge on them again.
This is what Reuel Marc Gerecht does with the article he
published in the Wall Street Journal on July 25, 2013 under the title: “Egypt's
Islamists Will Rise Again” and the subtitle: “The common view is that their
'moment' has passed. What if it's just getting started?” America and the “West”
as he calls it are the grounds where the self-declared leaders of the Jews find
bodies to snatch and devour after injecting fear into their hearts.
For these leaders to succeed, they must have something they
can use as a weapon with which to strike fear in the hearts of potential
victims. They had such weapons throughout history – from the Romans of Masada
to the Christians of the Inquisition to the Aryans of Auschwitz to the White
Supremacists of America to the Islamists of their imagination. When the latter
turned out to be more pussycats than wild cats, Gerecht started to put in
suspended animation, potential victims where he will keep them till he finds a
way to make the Islamists look menacing again. And the article he published is
the anesthetic by which he puts potential victims to sleep.
Look how he does that. He starts by telling the readers to
forget what they saw unfold in the streets and squares of Egypt because
what counts is that “The Westernization of the Egyptian poor has been in
retreat for more than 40 years.” So you ask: What has that got to do with
saving the world from the Islamists? And he responds: “The vast slums of Cairo – are hothouses for
Islamism.” And you ask again: So what? And he responds: “This is not Facebook
Cairo.” So? “So the slums [is where] imams and popular preachers are
influential. The faith, fused to politics matters among the poor and the lower
middle class.”
Still puzzled, you want to know what the imams can do with
the poor and destitute of the Cairo slums that
no one was able to do with the poor and destitute of the Mumbai slums, the Rio de Janeiro slums, the Soweto slums and what have you. Wow! What a
good question! And he has a long answer for it: “In these precincts the army,
security service and police are viewed with suspicion and hostility.” So what?
“So the newfound love affair between the army and the secular liberals will not
diminish the skepticism the devout have for army officers and their
associates.”
But how will this make the poor and destitute of the Cairo slums menace the
world? Wow! What a second good question! And he has a second long answer for
it: “Mr. Morsi didn't handle his short term in office well … Many of his
problems will now be confronted by the army-appointed government … An economic
judgment day is coming and the secular crowd will [not] do any better than
Morsi.”
But for the third time, how will this make the poor and
destitute of the Cairo
slums menace the world? Wow! What a good question! And he has a long answer for
it: “Economic revitalization in Egypt
won't happen unless the poor accept the pain that will come with shrinking the
country's subsidies.” What does that mean? It means “Socialism has been a
hard-to-kick drug for Egypt .”
Is it European style Socialism; the sort that is creeping in America
according to the Hard Right? “Oh no.” Why not? “Because Capitalism has probably
got firmer roots among devout Muslims, where Islamic law teaches a certain
respect for private property.”
I am now so confused, Reuel – or is it Marc? – that I must
ask you this question: Are you trying to say that America must now adopt Sharia Law
because Islamic law teaches respect for private property that the European (is
that Western?) style Socialism is rejecting?
And that, my friend, is where the guy remains mum, which is
the equivalent of saying “no comment,” which means he consents by his silence.
Did the man see some kind of light on his way to the City of
Dread , decided to
convert to another religion and go live in a slum among the poor? We may have a
miracle on our hands.
Don't forget to write home when you get there, Gerecht. At least a
postcard.