By Col. (ret.) Dr. Jacques Neriah, JCPA
While some 90 percent of Egyptians are Sunni Muslims, the number of Shia in Egypt has been estimated at up to 2.2 million, including “Twelvers” and Ismailis. A Shiite dynasty, the Fatimids, conquered Egypt in 969 and ruled the country for 200 years.
The new Muslim Brotherhood President of Egypt, Mohammad Morsi, is reported to have said that the Shia are more dangerous to Islam than the Jews, while former Muslim Brotherhood leader and presidential candidate Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh warned during the campaign that Shiism must not be allowed to enter Egypt.
At its core, the Muslim Brotherhood’s basic ideological doctrine is pan-Islamic and religiously inclusive, seeking to downplay religious differences between Sunnism and Shiism. However, the Brotherhood’s initial enthusiasm for the Iranian revolution soon soured, as it was increasingly perceived as a Persian nationalist and distinctly Shiite revolution.
This perception became widespread in Sunni Arab societies after Iran attempted to export its revolution to Gulf Arab states, and after it formed an alliance with the Syrian regime, which was engaged in an open clash with the Brotherhood’s Syrian branch.
President Morsi, as his predecessors before him, has adopted a confrontational policy toward the Shiite minority and he will not tolerate any affiliation with Iran.
Col. (ret.) Dr. Jacques Neriah, a special analyst for the Middle East at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, was formerly foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and deputy head for assessment of Israeli Military Intelligence.
Morsi decision to take over Jerusalem places him automatically in the fanatic club.
Mossad should begin selected terminations of religious and political leaders in Egypt where the blame can be directed against Shia and Copt minorities. Fostering majority repression and civil war will totally destabilize Egypt and the more they kill each other the better it is for us.
Muslims and Arabs killing each other is nothing new. Since 1948 Muslim and Arabs have offed over 11 million Arabs and Muslim. Only 250 million more to make a perfect ending.