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PrintFebruary 1, 2011
Opinion survey casts dark cloud over future U.S.-Egypt relations
By now Barack Hussein Obama’s Muslim outreach agenda should be paying handsome dividends. After eight years of George W. Bush, the Islamic world was delighted at the prospect of a new pro-Muslim regime in Washington, however something seems to have gone terribly wrong.
The Washington Examiner reveals some disturbing results from the 2010 Pew Research Center Global Attitudes Project survey on the role of Islam in politics and society. With the uncertainty surrounding the future of Egypt the survey results have taken on a new significance, “among other discoveries, the Pew researchers found that 84 percent of Egyptians favor the death penalty for people who leave the Muslim religion.” This does not bode well for Egypt’s besieged Christian community, or future relations with Israel or the United States.
The Pew survey found wide streams of opinion in Egypt that seem at the very least inhospitable to democracy. When asked which side they would take in a struggle between “groups who want to modernize the country [and] Islamic fundamentalists,” 59 percent of Egyptians picked the fundamentalists, while 27 percent picked the modernizers. In a country in which the army will likely play a deciding role in selecting the next political leadership, just 32 percent believe in civilian control of the military. And a majority, 54 percent, support making segregation of men and women in the workplace the law throughout Egypt.There’s more. When asked whether suicide bombing can ever be justified, 54 percent said yes (although most believe such occasions are “rare”) Eighty-two percent supported stoning for those who commit adultery.
Mr. Obama, Mrs. Clinton and the rest of the administration may not have read the Pew survey yet, after all look how long it took before anyone in the Obama administration read Arizona’s 10 page immigration enforcement bill which they were all blasting with impunity and grossly misrepresenting before their allies in the MSM. After two years with Obama at the helm, giving speeches and belching platitudes about the Muslim world one would think that there would be a vast improvement in public opinion about the United States.
Whatever comes next, it will likely have an anti-American flavor. The Pew 2010 report found that 82 percent of Egyptians hold an unfavorable view of the United States. That’s higher than in Pakistan, higher than in Jordan, higher than 18 other nations Pew surveyed. And it is higher than the 72 percent of Egyptians who have an unfavorable view of al Qaeda.Egyptian opinion of the United States improved briefly in 2009, when Barack Obama became president, but it fell significantly in 2010. Muslim opinion of Obama, who made outreach to Muslims a top priority and traveled to Cairo in June 2009 to address the Islamic world has also dropped.
As Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton face one international dilemma after another, their collective ineptitude shines like a beacon to guide the enemies of America into a new age of global chaos. Loyal and trusted American allies around the globe don’t know what to expect from the Obama regime, these are dangerous times for us all.
February 1, 2010
