Egyptian protests continue, Gamal Mubarak flees to UK

It is being reported that Gamal Mubarak,Hosni Mubarak's heir apparent, has fled to England by private jet with nearly one hundred pieces of luggage. There are unconfirmed reports that Egyptian first lady Suzanne Mubarak was spotted at London Heathrow by airport workers. If these reports turn out to be true, it could spell doom for the 83 year old President. More than 100,000 protesters took to the streets in Cairo and other Egyptian cities Tuesday to demonstrate against the thirty year rule of Hosni Mubarak. Protesters are using Twitter and Facebook to organize demonstrations, but some are reporting the social networks as being blocked to some degree.

If Egypt follows the same path as Tunisia and the Mubarak government is overthrown, it could create more chaos for that region of the world. The Muslim Brotherhood movement in Egypt could rise to power in the vacuum created by a toppled government. The Muslim Brotherhood's stated goal is to instill the Quran and Sunnah (Sharia Law) as the sole reference point for Muslim life in Egypt. The Hamas terrorist organization grew out of the Muslim Brotherhood. Beginning in the late 1960s, Hamas's founder and spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, preached and did charitable work in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, both of which were occupied by Israel following the 1967 Six-Day War.

In 1973, Yassin established al-Mujamma' al-Islami (the Islamic Center) to coordinate the Muslim Brotherhood's political activities in Gaza. Yassin founded Hamas as the Muslim Brotherhood's local political arm in December 1987, following the eruption of the first intifada, a Palestinian uprising against Israeli control of the West Bank and Gaza. Hamas published its official charter in 1988, moving decidedly away from the Muslim Brotherhood's ethos of nonviolence. What this would mean for Egyptian/Israeli relations remains to be seen.

I have written Dr. Tawfik Hamid to get his thoughts on the current crisis and I will report his analytic thinking once I get a response. For those of you that aren't familiar with Dr. Hamid, Mr. Hamid is an Islamic thinker and reformer, and one time Islamic extremist from Egypt. He was a member of a terrorist Islamic organization JI with Dr. Ayman Al-Zawaherri who became later on the second in command of Al-Qaeda. Some twenty-five years ago, he recognized the threat of Radical Islam and the need for a reformation based upon modern peaceful interpretations of classical Islamic core texts.

***UPDATE***

Just heard back from Dr. Hamid. He theorizes the Egyptian military establishment will sacrifice President Mubarak so as to look like heroes to the masses. He goes on to state the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated the government and the police, but the public has lost respect for them for boycotting the current protests. Dr. Hamid ends his email with this prediction: "The Military regimen will regain control of the country but I do not think that Mubarak or his son (especially after his escape to London) will be part in the coming election of Egypt."

Stay tuned for further developments!

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